Zachary Horwitz ran a five-year scam that defrauded wealthy investors of at least $227m by claiming to be in licensing deals with Netflix and HBOIt’s a tale about a Hollywood grifter that reads like an outlandish movie script. But this real-life story has left Tinseltown asking how an unknown, peripheral player could have scammed millions from so many out-of-town investors hoping to cash in on the boom of streaming platforms such as Netflix and HBO.Last week, Zachary Horwitz, a B-movie actor with a taste for the high life, pleaded guilty to a single count of felony securities fraud, carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. But behind the dry legalese of his plea, something more – though not necessarily new – was learned about the hunger for content and profit in the enduring global capital of the movie business. Continue reading...
Joe Biden’s wavering over what to do about China’s ambitions are fuelling its president’s dangerous swaggeringChinese president Xi Jinping’s menacing declaration that reunification with Taiwan is a “historical task [that] must be fulfilled and definitely will be fulfilled” came at the end of a fraught week. Provocative sorties by Chinese combat aircraft inside the island’s air defence zone are at record levels. Defiant statements by Taiwan’s leaders “to do whatever it takes” to repel invasion have acquired a new intensity. The US and regional countries are uneasy. Is war coming?Most analysts think not, not yet at least. Unlike previous verbal broadsides, Xi’s speech in the Great Hall of the People avoided an overt threat of force to defeat those he calls “independence separatists”. The People’s Liberation Army navy is building amphibious assaults ships and landing craft needed for an invasion. Chiu Kuo-cheng, Taiwan’s defence minister, predicts Beijing will be ready to attack by 2025. Continue reading...
Interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, says negotiations should begin for migration treaty between UK and EUThe French interior minister has called for the start of negotiations for a migration treaty between the European Union and Britain.Gérald Darmanin also urged the British government to “uphold its promise” to finance the clampdown against migrants who gather on the northern French coast seeking to cross into England. Continue reading...
The prime minister has enjoyed huge support during the pandemic – but the country’s new course may force unpopular trade-offsThis week, New Zealand’s locked down cities woke to a brave new world of lifted restrictions: state-sanctioned picnics in parks, the prospect of reopening schools, a chance to reunite with friends and family. Infusing the visions of grass-stained blankets and beach-side beers, however, is a strong dose of Covid anxiety. Cases continue to circulate in the community, and the country’s long-held commitment to elimination is being been cast off.As New Zealand steps into the unknown with its Covid approach, so does its prime minister, Jacinda Ardern. Having brought the country through the pandemic largely unscathed so far, she was richly rewarded with political popularity and trust. Now, the prime minister faces the difficult task of guiding it through a new era of Covid suppression – and it could be the most significant political challenge she has faced yet. Continue reading...
Men say ‘just brilliant’ that the actor helped publicise charity walk in memory of their daughtersDaniel Craig has donated £10,000 to a fundraising challenge by three fathers who lost their daughters to suicide.Andy Airey, Mike Palmer and Tim Owen are undertaking a 300-mile walk in memory of their daughters Sophie, Beth and Emily. The Three Dads Walking trek will see them travel by foot between their homes in Cumbria, Greater Manchester and Norfolk respectively to raise money for the national suicide prevention charity Papyrus.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org. Continue reading...
When the state fell, Ypi went from party Pioneer to traitor - in this extract from her acclaimed memoir she reveals the trauma of discovering the truth about her family and her country• Read an interview with Lea YpiEvery year on 1 May, portraits of Stalin were carried by the workers through the streets of Tirana to celebrate socialism and the advance towards communism. On Workers’ Day, TV programmes started earlier: you could follow the parade, then watch a puppet show, then a children’s film, then head out for a walk wearing new clothes, buy ice-cream and, finally, have a picture taken by the only photographer in town, who usually stood by the fountain near the Palace of Culture.The first of May 1990, the last May Day we ever celebrated, was the happiest. Or perhaps it just seems that way. Objectively, it could not have been the happiest. The queues for basic necessities were getting longer and the shelves in the shops looked increasingly empty. But I did not mind. Now that I was growing up I was no longer fussy about eating cheap feta cheese or old jam rather than honey. “First comes morality, then comes food,” my grandmother cheerfully said, and I had learned to agree. Continue reading...
The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, said on Saturday that reunification with Taiwan must happen and that it would happen peacefully, despite a week of tensions. Xi spoke at an official celebration in Beijing's Great Hall of the People that focused largely on the ruling Communist party continuing to lead China as the country rises in power and influence
The story of one of the world’s oldest carriers is told through photographs, posters and ephemera in Bruno Vandermueren’s book Aeroflot – Fly Soviet, published by FUEL Continue reading...
From Killing Eve’s assassin to Help’s broken care worker, the home-grown superstar has proved she can do anything. As she hits Hollywood, can she keep it real?Fist bump? Quick, slappy handshake? Standoffish salute? After a brief hesitation, the actor Jodie Comer abandons 18 months of professional caution around hellos, spreads wide her arms, and gathers me in for a big, swaying bear-hug. We’ve never met or spoken before. “But I’m quite a tactile person,” says Comer, who grew up in a suburb of Liverpool and whose scouse accent, which can sharpen or soften depending on the circumstances and her level of comfort, is in full, glorious evidence this afternoon.The 28-year-old has knocked off early from rehearsals for season four of TV drama Killing Eve, in which she plays a chameleonic assassin called Villanelle. She recently got back from an Italian film festival where her second proper Hollywood movie (an epic called The Last Duel) had its premiere. Her first proper Hollywood movie (a knockabout comedy called Free Guy) is still playing in cinemas, an ad for it plastered on the side of the bus I rode in to meet her today. By choosing a cafe quite close to her rented London flat, we’ve managed to confound her numerous competing obligations and come together for an actual tea and biscuit, instead of the video call that was originally planned by her diary-keepers. Continue reading...
William Friedkin peaked in 1971 with his thrilling crime drama, known for its show-stopping car chase, but elevated by so much moreThe advantage of shooting on location is that fiction films can have the texture of a documentary, preserving forever a specific time and place before it inevitably evolves or devolves or take a form that will render it unrecognizable. There are caveats that go along with it, like the details of set-dressing or camerawork that reinforce a film-maker’s specific impression – or, in the case of a film like Taxi Driver, a reflection of a single character’s twisted point of view. But the fundamental fact is that the camera is in front of real buildings and street corners and often actual residents. And when there’s a director of William Friedkin’s caliber behind it, the backdrop has a three-dimensional vividness to it.The street realism of The French Connection, perhaps the best film of Friedkin’s career, owes much to films like Gillo Pontocorvo’s The Battle of Algiers and Costa-Gavras’s Z, both fact-based political thrillers that used documentary realism to assert their own authenticity. (Friedkin had said he was particularly influenced by the latter.) That’s obviously a deceptive gambit, since none of these films are actual documentaries and deviate from history at their pleasure. But The French Connection, now 50 years old, remains one of the great New York films because it feels so much like a seedy backlot tour through a city that no longer exists. Continue reading...
It’s the first South Korean drama to top the US TV charts and its core message is ‘can I ever repay this debt?’Squid Game, a Netflix series made in Korea by Hwang Dong-hyuk, was released on 17 September and within 10 days was the platform’s highest ranking show in 90 countries. It’s the first time a Korean drama has ever been at the top of the US charts; 95% of the viewers are outside Korea, capsizing the idea that the younger generation won’t read subtitles. I managed to kid myself the other day that my 12-year-old daughter had watched so many episodes in a single session she was effectively reading a book.The premise: 456 people are catastrophically in debt, and they’re competing for untold riches in a series of feats that are sometimes whimsical, sometimes terrifying, usually both. They might have to carve round a honeycomb shape with a pin, or stay stock still while a giant robot shouts “red light” at them. Two downsides – if you lose, you get shot in the head. And there can be only one winner. Continue reading...
Nearly half of undergraduate tutorials are delivered by staff who lack proper contracts, research showsColleges at the University of Cambridge have been accused of using overworked and underpaid gig economy workers to provide the institution’s famous one-on-one tutoring system.Research by members of the University and College Union found nearly half of undergraduate tutorials, or “supervisions” as they are known, are delivered by precariously employed staff who lack proper contracts. One-third of supervisors are postgraduate students or freelancers, including those who have recently completed their PhDs. Continue reading...
Same group founded airline in 1932 before it was nationalised in 1953 and since fell into heavy debtIndia’s oldest and largest conglomerate, Tata Sons, will take over the country’s debt-laden national carrier Air India.Its winning bid of 180bn rupees ($2.4bn) beat India’s SpiceJet chief, Ajay Singh, who offered 151bn rupees. Continue reading...
Pillar of Shame to be taken down amid China-imposed crackdown, with its Danish sculptor ‘shocked’ at plan to ‘desecrate’ memorialThe University of Hong Kong has ordered the removal of a statue commemorating protesters killed in China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.The 8-metre-high (26ft) copper statue was the centrepiece of Hong Kong’s candlelit vigils on 4 June to commemorate those killed when Chinese troops backed by tanks opened fire on unarmed pro-democracy campaigners in Beijing. Continue reading...
Police have been investigating possible cases of ‘Havana Syndrome’ associated with the diplomatic mission since AugustGerman police are investigating an “alleged sonic weapon attack” against staff of the US embassy in Berlin, in the latest in a growing number of incidents of “Havana syndrome” around the world.The police statement, which said the investigation had been under way since August, was issued on Friday in response to a report in Der Spiegel, which said the inquiry into at least two cases had been opened on the basis of evidence handed over by the US embassy. Continue reading...
Discovery is one of biggest of US-bound migrants, with 90% Guatemalans and nearly 200 unaccompanied minorsPolice in northern Mexico have discovered more than 600 Central American migrants hiding in three long cargo trucks headed to the United States, in one of the biggest roundups of US-bound migrants by Mexican authorities in years.Video released by police showed officers prying off a lock from a truck’s rear door late on Thursday, and opening it to find migrants in heavy coats and hoods huddled close together on the floor, nearly all of them wearing face masks. Continue reading...
Was a royal family member once stuck in a manhole? Where is Australia’s first submarine? Test your nautical knowledge with our quick quizIt’s hard to fathom how far we’ve come since the first submarine, with greasy leather flaps, was rowed – yes, rowed! – under the murky water of the Thames. Now, hundreds of boats creep about in the ocean, armed with cruise missiles and nuclear warheads. Australia has six, ditched a plan to get 12 French ones, and now plans (well, plans to plan) to get “at least” eight from the US or the UK. These might be nuclear-powered motherships, home to fleets of drones. Or the entire idea could be sunk. Whether you’ve been adrift in Vigil or submersed in Australia’s political woes, it’s time to find out how much you know about these undersea boats. Continue reading...
Civil banning order applies to 14 locations around London after police arrest 35 climate activistsLondon’s transport network has been granted a high court injunction against Insulate Britain protesters aimed at preventing them from obstructing traffic.Transport for London (TfL) said the civil banning order, granted on Friday afternoon, applies to 14 locations around the capital including some of its busiest roads and it follows several previous injunctions against members of the group. Continue reading...
Video shows rapper C Tangana and singer Nathy Peluso grind against each other inside Toledo CathedralThe archbishop of Toledo has apologised to offended Roman Catholics after one of Spain’s most famous cathedrals was used as a location for a raunchy video that shows a couple grinding against each other in its hallowed precincts.The video for Ateo (Atheist) features the Spanish rapper C Tangana and the Argentinian singer Nathy Peluso dancing steamily in Toledo’s 13th-century cathedral, much to the fascination of onlookers, among them a priest. Continue reading...
by Martin Chulov Middle East correspondent on (#5QGRC)
Saud al-Qahtani, aide to Mohammed bin Salman, hailed as patriot on pro-government social mediaThree years after the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi royal court adviser accused of directing the murder is being quietly reintroduced by pro-government influencers as a patriotic figure who has served his country well.Social media accounts that back the Saudi leadership have in recent months been posting tributes to Saud al-Qahtani, a chief aide to crown prince and Saudi Arabia’s effective leader, Mohammed bin Salman, in a move that is seen as marking his gradual return to the seat of Saudi power. Qahtani vanished from public view in the aftermath of the gruesome killing in Istanbul that shocked the world and almost derailed his boss’s path to the throne. Continue reading...
Casey is to lead review into lax Met standards after crisis caused by Wayne Couzens scandalThe former Whitehall troubleshooter Louise Casey has been brought in by the Metropolitan police to root out misogyny and lax standards, as it battles to dig itself out of a crisis caused by its mishandling of the Wayne Couzens scandal.Lady Casey has been appointed by the Met commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, to lead the review which came after harrowing details of the rape, kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard by Couzens while a police officer, were made public. Continue reading...
Guardian readers respond to Colm Tóibín’s essay on the island’s political futureColm Tóibín’s comparison of Sinn Féin, a pro-EU, pro-immigration, centre-left party, to Ukip, an anti-EU, anti-immigration, rightwing party, is decidedly muddled, like much of his article (Colm Tóibín: will the Brexit fallout lead to a ‘united Ireland’?, 2 October). That apocalyptic anti-republican mindset (the idea that Sinn Féin in 2021 is a “spectre” and a “tide”) is widespread among older members of the Irish upper middle-class, who are often unable to rid themselves of decades of anti-republican prejudice.This was fostered by previous Irish governments that, courtesy of section 31 of the 1960 Broadcasting Authority Act, enthusiastically operated the most draconian anti-republican censorship in western Europe. Continue reading...
The designations are the latest in a crackdown on media outlets authorities in Moscow see as hostileRussia has designated the Bellingcat investigative news outlet a “foreign agent” along with nine people who work for Russian language news outlets or non-governmental organisations.The designations, which targeted one employee of the BBC’s Russian service, are the latest twist in a crackdown on media outlets that the authorities in Moscow see as hostile and foreign-backed. Continue reading...
Large number of worshippers killed or wounded during Friday prayers in blast claimed by ISKPAt least 100 worshippers have been killed or injured in a suicide bombing that targeted a packed Shia mosque in Afghanistan during Friday prayers.Responsibility for the blast, which took place in Kunduz, the capital of the province of the same name in the north-east of the country, was claimed by the Islamic State’s local affiliate, Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), which has a long history of attacking Afghanistan’s Shia minority, who make up about 15-20% of the population. Continue reading...
by Rebecca Ratcliffe south-east Asia correspondent an on (#5QGMZ)
Since she launched news site Rappler, the Philippine journalist has faced abuse from Rodrigo Duterte’s supportersMaria Ressa, the Philippine journalist and 2021 Nobel peace prize laureate, spent two decades working as an investigative reporter, foreign correspondent and CNN bureau chief before heading the news division of her country’s biggest TV news channel.But none of it prepared her for the torrent of threats, hatred and abuse she has faced from supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte since she co-founded the investigative news site Rappler with three fellow female journalists in 2012, growing it into one of the country’s most popular news outlets. Continue reading...
Rumoured for release in mid-November, record is being tipped to outdo new LPs by Ed Sheeran and ColdplayThere has been a rush to define the remaining months of 2021. It will be a winter of discontent, of supply chain disruption and potential blackouts; a post-lockdown return to dressing up and going out.It will also, undoubtedly, be the season of Adele. Continue reading...
David Fuller, 67, denies murder of Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce and his trial is expected to begin next monthA 67-year-old man has admitted responsibility for the killings of two women more than three decades ago, marking a significant development in one of the UK’s longest unsolved homicide cases.David Fuller admitted killing Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, Maidstone crown court heard on Friday. The women were subject to separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in 1987. Continue reading...
On morning Anthony Walgate was found dead, police were aware of previous rape allegation against serial killerThe serial killer Stephen Port was identified as a “significant witness” and police knew of a previous male rape allegation against him within hours of the body of his first murder victim being found, an inquest has heard.Notes made by Ch Supt Andy Ewing, borough commander at Barking and Dagenham police, on the morning Anthony Walgate’s body was found, read “caller previous sex assault”, referencing an allegation found on the police national computer (PNC). Continue reading...
We shouldn’t single out football fans: the country has long since made its peace with the power of capital, whatever its originsFootball, no longer merely the national game, is England’s political theatre. The way in which the spasm of fan protest stopped the European Super League in its tracks in April, and which the prime minister erroneously claimed as his own victory, spoke to both a residual – if often dormant – public sense of justice and communitarianism, and the shamelessness of our snake-skinned political conversation. The open conflict between the England men’s team, the Conservative government and a section of the England fanbase over taking the knee at Euro 2020 was a battle over who gets to define the terms of our debate over structural racism. Now, the long anticipated sale of Newcastle United to Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund points to England’s practically and morally diminished place in the world, and the roads that have taken us there.The crown prince of Saudi Arabia is not the first politician to take an interest in Newcastle United. In the early 1990s, Tony Blair, then leader of the opposition, was busy burnishing his local credentials by declaring his fidelity to the team, decrying Andy Cole’s transfer to Manchester United in the Sun, and playing keepy-uppy with Kevin Keegan. Like Blair, Newcastle United were the coming thing. After four decades without a trophy, but now under the new ownership of Sir John Hall, both a Thatcherite property developer and an advocate for regional government and regeneration in the north-east, Keegan’s Newcastle were challenging for the Premiership title and playing fabulous football to raging full houses. In 1996 Alan Shearer arrived, on a then record transfer fee, and declared to a delirious crowd that he was still “the son of a sheet-metal worker”. One could have been forgiven for thinking that, after the hammer blows of 17 years of Thatcherism, there was hope for an English working class and regional revival.David Goldblatt is the author of The Ball is Round: A Global History of Football and The Game of Our Lives Continue reading...
Twitter trolls targeted Rupa Huq after Rafał Ziemkiewicz was prevented from entering UKThe Labour MP Rupa Huq has hit back against racist abuse she received online from supporters of the Polish rightwing journalist and ideologue Rafał Ziemkiewicz, who was prevented from entering the UK last Saturday.She said she was faced with a “concerted campaign” of hostile Twitter traffic including “‘go back to Bangladesh’ type comments” after Ziemkiewicz was told by the Home Office that his exclusion would be “conducive to the public good”. Continue reading...
Brussels to offer substantial package of proposals to improve post-Brexit arrangementsThe EU will seek to sweeten its package of proposals over the post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland by lifting a prohibition on sausages made in Britain.The EU’s Brexit commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, will table four papers on Wednesday as to how the Northern Ireland protocol can be improved. Continue reading...
Aster Healthcare pleaded guilty to corporate manslaughter after Frances Norris died in 2015 suffering from burnsThe owners of a care home where a 93-year-old woman died after being scalded in a bath have been fined £1.04m by a judge who handed suspended prison sentences to its former manager and a member of staff.Aster Healthcare had pleaded guilty to corporate manslaughter after the death of Frances Norris, a dementia patient who died in 2015 days after being placed into a bath, at a cost-cutting and “grossly negligent” nursing home. Continue reading...
Western politicians seem complacent about or complicit in the iniquity of hidden wealthIt was a classic TV doorstep. After doing the morning media round, Boris Johnson emerged from a booth and set off with his minders across the main hall of the Conservative party conference in Manchester. What was his reaction to the Pandora papers?And would the Tories be giving back the money they had taken from certain donors? Continue reading...
by Nemo Kim in Seoul and Justin McCurry in Tokyo on (#5QG9A)
Household debt is now equivalent to over 100% of GDP and has gone hand in hand with a dramatically widening income gapAfter midnight, when the crowds of revellers have gone, Choi Young-soo* crouches in a shabby alleyway in Seoul’s wealthy Gangnam district. This is the only time that the 35-year-old, a part-time food delivery rider, dare leave his tiny room at a cheap hostel he shares with about 30 other people.The rooms, he says, are “only slightly bigger than coffins”. Continue reading...
Riverside restaurant owner Titiporn Jutimanon was convinced a bout of flooding in Thailand could be the end of a business already struggling from the pandemic. But with the rising tide of the Chao Phraya River this week came an unexpected opportunity. Instead of closing for the floods, Titiporn’s eatery is making waves in Thailand, staying open for customers who are revelling in shin-deep dining, and the thrill of avoiding the rush of water set off as boats go by
This week, horror everywhere: a failing eyesight fail, Roblox violence and a killer batBefore you can even get to the story, the numbers are staggering: there are 78,000 teachers in the New York City public school system, employed across 1,800 schools and with an annual operating budget of $38bn (£28bn). The substitute teaching pool is 9,000 people strong, beyond which there are a further 5,000 substitute teaching assistants who as of this morning, said the mayor’s office, were ready to step in should the Covid vaccine mandate for teachers lead to gaps in the system. Continue reading...
Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage shook the world – and spiked divorce rates. Could the remake, with Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac, be even more controversial? Its director Hagai Levi bares all
Australia will offer vaccine booster doses to severely immunocompromised people after a recommendation from the regulatorSeverely immunocompromised Australians will be able to get Covid-19 vaccine boosters from Monday, after Australia’s vaccine regulatory body approved the jab for the vulnerable section of the community.In advice released on Friday, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Atagi) recommended the third vaccine dose for all people aged above 12 who either have conditions that severely weaken their immune defences, as well as patients receiving cancer treatment and other therapies. Continue reading...
The road below was lined with tanks rolling out. Troops flooded the streets. The roof started shakingThe third of October 1993 was a beautiful day in Moscow. The sky was blue, the streets were busy and the air was chilly. I was a US paralegal living my best 23-year-old life, with a head full of dreams and a job at an international law firm.I grew up in New Jersey, then rural Pennsylvania. At university I did politics and Russian studies, and took a class in US and Soviet relations. I was fascinated by these two countries at odds. Continue reading...
Broadcaster ZDF targets international sales and will dub eight-part series for domestic audience⁸It topped Germany’s list of bestselling novels for eight months, and to great local excitement Frank Schätzing’s science-fiction page-turner Der Schwarm is being turned into an eight-part drama series for the German public service broadcaster ZDF. Continue reading...
by Josh Taylor (now) and Caitlin Cassidy and Mostafa on (#5QFJJ)
So, today is the final Friday under (this) lockdown in NSW, with the state due to emerge from stay-at-home orders on Monday.But you’d be forgiven for losing track of what you can and can’t do once lockdown is lifted, considering the changes made and many, many annoucements. Continue reading...
Raids by the security forces leave at least one man dead, as official observers decry ‘inhumane’ detention conditionsMore than 5,000 refugees and migrants have been arrested by the Libyan authorities in the past week with some allegedly subjected to severe physical and sexual violence, before being held in increasingly “inhumane conditions” in detention centres in Tripoli.Many of those arrested escaped wars or dictatorships across Africa, and have already undergone years of detention. They were intercepted at sea trying to reach Europe by the EU-supported Libyan coastguard. Continue reading...
As Covid hit, thousands of Filipinos were left trapped in the capital without work. Many ended up on the street and are still waiting to rebuild their livesLike so many others before her, Michelle Sicat, a 28-year-old single mother from the province of Nueva Ecija, had come to Metro Manila to get a job to support her family. She left her daughter with her parents so she could work as a shop assistant in one of the city’s busiest commercial districts. Sicat’s sacrifice was one that many Filipinos from rural areas have to make.Despite missing home, Sicat was happy to have a job. But then the Covid-19 pandemic struck. The Philippine government placed the entire island of Luzon – where the Metro Manila region is located – under the strictest level of lockdown. The restrictions forced most businesses to close. Most people were ordered to stay at home.For many living on the streets, there is no shelter from the elements Continue reading...
World news | The Guardian