asman

Tags:

Gwen Stefani

Dubai World Cup

https://ift.tt/2CJMwCU March 31, 2019 at 03:28PM

Author:

Sat, 2019-03-30 23:46

The Mastermind by Evan Ratliff is a non-fiction true crime book that focuses on the rise of Paul Calder Le Roux.

It is the incredible true story of the decade-long quest to bring down Le Roux — the creator of a frighteningly powerful internet-enabled cartel who merged the ruthlessness of a drug lord with the technological savvy of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur.

Award-winning investigative journalist Ratliff spent four years piecing together this intricate puzzle, chasing LeRoux’s empire and his shadowy henchmen around the world, conducting hundreds of interviews and uncovering thousands of documents. The result is a riveting, unprecedented account of a crime boss built by and for the digital age.

“A top-notch story which Ratliff has taken really good care of. True crime does not get any better than this,” a reviewer commented in goodreads.com.

“Le Roux was a drug lord of international consequence. He was unique in that he was a techie, his specialty being encrypting software to enable the purchase of legal pharmaceuticals over the internet.”

Main category:

Tags:

What We Are Reading Today: Thin Blue Lie by Matt StroudWhat We Are Reading Today: Bending Toward JusticeWhat We Are Reading Today: A Lot of People Are SayingWhat We Are Reading Today: Rights as Weapons by Clifford Bob https://ift.tt/2uykiGH March 30, 2019 at 09:49PM

What We Are Reading Today: Thin Blue Lie by Matt Stroud

1:01 م Lifestyle No comments

Author:

Fri, 2019-03-29 20:55

Matt Stroud, the author of Thin Blue Lie, is an investigative reporter with a focus on companies that do business with police departments and prisons.

Norm Stamper, former Seattle police chief, said in a review that Stroud has “given us the definitive case against ‘high-tech’ policing.”

Stamper added: “While Stroud does not discount the potential good that can come from sophisticated technologies, he also recognizes that these technologies may not represent ‘progress’ at all.”

The former police chief said: “Technological development does not make U-turns, but by heeding the wisdom contained in Stroud’s analysis, activists, lawmakers, and police officials can make sure the road forward is lit by the bright lights of transparency and protected by strong legislative and policy guardrails.”

Adam Winkler said in a review published in The New York Times: “Although innovative tools can help solve crimes, police departments often embrace new technologies without adequate testing. The result is that ‘fixes’ can aggravate the very problems they were designed to remedy.”

Main category:

Tags:

What We Are Reading Today: Bending Toward JusticeWhat We Are Reading Today: A Lot of People Are Saying https://ift.tt/2TKlm4e March 29, 2019 at 07:05PM

Where We Are Going Today: Pulse Fitness Studio in Jeddah

1:04 م Lifestyle No comments

Thu, 2019-03-28 22:22

Pulse, a fitness concept studio in Jeddah, offers coaching and exercise classes for women in an environment that encourages an inclusive, social, community experience.

Led by an all-female group of certified trainers, its mission is to empower women of all fitness levels. Children are also encouraged to join and learn about physical fitness and a healthy lifestyle.

Members can take a variety of classes at their own pace in the comfortable, relaxing and friendly environment. Along with common classes, Pulse has developed its own innovative workouts, including “Levitate,” which uses a silk hammock to mimic the experience of flying through a combination of Pilates, yoga, barre, strength and dance. It is one of more than 25 classes, all of which can be booked online.

Flexible packages offer access to all trainers, who will help you get your body in shape and understand its mechanics and nutritional needs.

Pulse Studio is on the second floor west, U-Shape Center, Saud Al-Faisal Street, Al-Rawdah.

Main category:

Saudi Arabia

Tags:

Saudi Arabia

Where We Are Going Today

Where We Are Going Today: Al-Hakawati Restaurant & CafeWhere We Are Going Today: Skin KSA https://ift.tt/2HYdw4T March 28, 2019 at 08:42PM

What We Are Reading Today: Bending Toward Justice

1:03 م Lifestyle No comments

Thu, 2019-03-28 21:03

Bending Toward Justice is a dramatic and compulsively readable account of a key moment in America’s struggle for equality, related by an author who played a major role in these events.

A distinguished work of legal and personal history, the book is destined to take its place as a canonical civil rights history.

The book provides an inside look at how author Doug Jones, a former US attorney from Birmingham, and his role model, the former Alabama attorney general Bill Baxley, sent to prison three Birmingham Klansmen who murdered four black girls by dynamiting their church on Sept. 15, 1963.

The four children, aged 11 to 14 — Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Morris Wesley — died instantly in a women’s restroom where they were preparing for Sunday school.

Without Jones and Baxley, both white men born in Alabama and educated in the state’s law schools, the murders of the children killed on that “bloody Sunday” would have gone forever unpunished.

Main category:

Tags:

What We Are Reading Today: A Lot of People Are SayingWhat We Are Reading Today: Rights as Weapons by Clifford BobWhat We Are Reading Today: Gateway State by Sarah Miller-DavenportWhat We Are Reading Today: The Chief by Joan Biskupic https://ift.tt/2uuWMud March 28, 2019 at 07:06PM

Singapore defends UN bid for street food honor

7:02 ص Lifestyle No comments

Author:

AFP

ID:

1553759604488715400

Thu, 2019-03-28 07:51

SINGAPORE: Singapore on Thursday defended nominating its street food for UN recognition as a bid to “safeguard” local culture after the move sparked a cross-border culinary clash with Malaysia.
The city-state is home to many open-air food courts where vendors, known as “hawkers,” serve dishes such as chicken and rice, noodles and satays at relatively cheap prices.
Singapore announced last year it would nominate its hawker culture to be designated as intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO, and if successful it will join items such as traditional Japanese cuisine and Belgian beer on the list.
But the move sparked anger in Malaysia — while the country’s street food is similar to that in Singapore, Malaysians claim it is generally far superior.
Announcing Singapore’s nomination had been officially submitted this week, senior National Heritage Board official Yeo Kirk Siang insisted the bid was not meant to show the city’s street food was “better” than that of other countries.
“It’s not about countries trying to prove that their cultural practices are better, unique, or that it originated from the country,” he told a press conference.
“What the nomination is about is whether the cultural practice is valued by the community within that country... and whether they are committed to safeguarding these practices within their countries.”
Officials also hope the bid will encourage the younger generation to get more involved in the street food business.
The news that Singapore was moving forward with the nomination raised hackles in Malaysia, however, with one Facebook user writing: “When Singapore realized it has no culture that is singularly its own, it will claim what’s others.”
Singapore and Malaysia have had a testy relationship since a stormy union in the 1960s but tempers really boil over when it comes to food — where particular dishes come from, and who makes the best versions, is often the subject of heated debate.
The outcome of Singapore’s bid is due at the end of 2020.

The city-state is home to many open-air food courts where vendors, known as ‘hawkers,’ serve dishes at relatively cheap prices. (AFP)

Main category:

Tags:

Ageing Singapore: 90-year old noodle vendor helps keep foodie culture aliveDiversity doesn’t get any wider than in https://ift.tt/2THDlIy March 28, 2019 at 09:18AM

Get your ‘moves like Jagger’ ready: Maroon 5 back in Dubai

1:06 ص Lifestyle No comments

Thu, 2019-03-28 09:34

DUBAI: American pop-rock band Maroon 5, responsible for radio hits “Girls like you” and “This love,” is performing in Dubai this year, although exact details of the upcoming concert has yet to be announced.

The band, led by its front man Adam Levine, is currently on a 60-date world tour that started in South America. It is not confirmed when the band is heading to Dubai, but numerous reports indicate it might likely happen late this year, after the hitmakers close off their European tour in June.

Local reports also said the concert might take place at a new indoor venue in the emirates, Dubai Arena, which could accommodate 17,000 guests.

Eager fans can register online to get more updates about the hotly tipped concert.

The Grammy-winning band visited Dubai in 2011, and performed at the World Trade Center.

Maroon 5 was in Dubai in 2011. (File/AFP)

Main category:

Tags:

Hyundai, Maroon 5 team up for Marley tributeDubai Opera head lauds local art scene as BBC Proms wraps up https://ift.tt/2CBVphJ March 28, 2019 at 07:43AM

Southern Asians unaware of deadly health risks from polluted air

1:06 ص Lifestyle No comments

Author:

Reuters

ID:

1553753535938569800

Thu, 2019-03-28 06:00

KUALA LUMPUR: Most people in South and Southeast Asia do not know about the diverse causes and long-term health risks of air pollution, a problem that kills 1.5 million people in those regions each year, researchers warned on Thursday.
A study by Vital Strategies, a public health advisory group, analyzed more than half a million news articles and social media posts on air pollution in 11 countries across southern Asia between 2015 and 2018.
“We see a lot of air pollution content in relation to the environment, climate change or deforestation, but not a lot that links it to health,” said Aanchal Mehta, the report’s lead author.
Air pollution kills about 7 million people prematurely each year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), with 1.5 million of those deaths in South and Southeast Asia.
Nine out of 10 people breathe polluted air, according to the WHO, a problem that affects more cities in Asia than anywhere else in the world.
The health impact of air pollution is linked to strokes, lung cancer and heart disease — and is now equal to the effects of smoking tobacco, health experts say.
As well as news articles, the Vital Strategies researchers analyzed social media posts, blogs and online forums.
The study found that the public debate on air pollution largely focused on vehicle emissions, which resulted in policymakers looking only at one cause of the problem.
But in much of South and Southeast Asia, those emissions are not the biggest or only source of air pollution, said Mehta.
Other major causes, which vary from country to country, include coal power plants, construction, festival fireworks, forest clearing, and burning of crops, firewood and waste.
Most of the news and social media posts highlighted the more immediate effects of air pollution, like itchy eyes and coughing, rather than the risks from chronic exposure.
“This points to the fact that people don’t attribute or understand that air pollution has longer-term health impacts,” Singapore-based Mehta told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Emotionally-charged content, such as on children’s health, gained the most engagement, which could help in the development of strategies to tackle air pollution, researchers noted.
More government awareness campaigns were needed on the chronic risks linked to air pollution, Mehta said.
“There is a dire need to look at long-term, practical and effective solutions to the issue of air pollution,” Oswar Mungkasa, Jakarta’s deputy governor for spatial planning and environment, said in a statement on the report.

Nine out of 10 people breathe polluted air, according to the WHO, a problem that affects more cities in Asia than anywhere else in the world. (AFP)

Main category:

Tags:

WHO says air pollution kills 600,000 children every yearIndia dominates list of world's most polluted cities https://ift.tt/2V15onU March 28, 2019 at 07:20AM

What We Are Reading Today: A Lot of People Are Saying

7:06 م Lifestyle No comments

Wed, 2019-03-27 23:38

Authors: Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum

Conspiracy theories are as old as politics. But conspiracists today have introduced something new—conspiracy without theory. And the new conspiracism has moved from the fringes to the heart of government with the election of Donald Trump.

In “A Lot of People Are Saying,” Russell Muirhead and Nancy Rosenblum show how the new conspiracism differs from classic conspiracy theory, why so few officials speak truth to conspiracy, and what needs to be done to resist it, says a review on the Princeton University Press website.

Classic conspiracy theory insists that things are not what they seem and gathers evidence to tease out secret machinations. The new conspiracism is different. There is no demand for evidence and no dots revealed to form a pattern.

The new conspiracism targets democratic foundations—political parties and knowledge-producing institutions.

Filled with vivid examples, the book diagnoses a defining and disorienting feature of today’s politics and offers a guide to responding to the threat.

Main category:

Tags:

Books

What We Are Reading Today: Rights as Weapons by Clifford BobWhat We Are Reading Today: Chaucer: A European Life by Marion Turner https://ift.tt/2TZqiHw March 27, 2019 at 09:45PM

Danny DeVito talks reuniting with Tim Burton for ‘Dumbo’

7:01 ص Lifestyle No comments

Wed, 2019-03-27 13:39

DUBAI: Danny DeVito has played lowlifes, criminals and scoundrels over the past 40 years, but he’s done so with such joy that he’s become perhaps one of the most beloved actors alive today.

In Disney’s “Dumbo,” DeVito plays Max Medici, the head of a travelling circus that discovers one of its young elephants can fly with its oversized ears. The film, a live-action remake of the classic animation, marks his fifth collaboration with director Tim Burton, and his third with Michael Keaton. The three last worked together in 1992’s iconic “Batman Returns,” with Keaton as Batman and DeVito as the villainous yet sympathetic Penguin. Here, DeVito and Keaton’s roles are reversed.

“By the way, he’s the bad guy in this movie and I’m the good guy!” DeVito exclaimed to Arab News.

Having the three of them back together was one of DeVito’s favorite parts of the experience.

“It was great as soon as we walked onto the set of Dumbo. Tim and I talked about doing Dumbo a year or two ago, and a while later he said that Michael Keaton was going to play the other part. I said,’ oh my god! This is really wonderful!’ I love Michael, we really get along, and it’s really completing the circle for us to work together again. We have a good time together,” says DeVito.

The original “Dumbo,” released in 1941 and watched by every generation since, was a scant 63 minutes long. The new film, at double that length, adds new facets to the story, exploring the human characters that are a part of Dumbo’s circus.

“I think it breathes now. We get all the great things from the wonderful Disney animated movie and you take all of those values of xenophobia, separation of mom and baby, and all the things we emotionally tune in with as living, caring sapiens. You bring that to Tim Burton, and he moves that into the 21st century,” said DeVito.

“Dumbo” is famously one of the most downbeat of the classic children’s films. Though many films today shy away from its wealth of emotion, the new film is not afraid to hold its audience in the film’s most heart-wrenching moments, something that DeVito feels was necessary.

“In my opinion, you need the yin and the yang. In order to have the explosion of satisfaction, the release of Dumbo and how Dumbo conquers all his fears with the help of his friends, the help of the kids, and the help of Medici, you have to have the other side of it,” DeVito said.

One of the benefits of having Dumbo be such a sad film is that it awakened the public to the plight of circus animals and the issue of animal rights, a conversation that the new Dumbo takes even further.

“We deal with animal rights in a big way in Dumbo. We all know that they should not be in cages and on display in the 21stcentury. We have to embrace the fact that the planet needs help, and in order to have the habitats of all the animals and creatures on the earth so that they can live in their own space,” DeVito noted.

Showing Dumbo’s struggle, however, is what also makes the film ultimate optimism so potent.

“When we resolve that in the movie, it’s much brighter — you walk into the sunlight, and everything is the way it should be. The movie is a great vehicle for the exploration of the real natural feelings. It holds the mirror up to life. With the artistry of Tim Burton, you get that added ‘umph’.”

Watch the trailer here:

Main category:

Tags:

Dumbo

Open that door? Netflix explores choose-your-own horror, romanceJordan Peele dares everyone to look at the horrors of ‘Us’ https://ift.tt/2Ot0Vb4 March 27, 2019 at 11:55AM

Shakira defends her song against plagiarism in Spanish court

7:01 ص Lifestyle No comments

Author:

ID:

1553683122891475300

Wed, 2019-03-27 10:33

MADRID: Colombian singers Shakira and Carlos Vives have appeared in a Madrid court to answer allegations by a Cuban-born singer and producer that they plagiarized his work in their award-winning hit “La Bicicleta.”
Shakira smiled as she entered the court in downtown Madrid on Wednesday. She didn’t answer reporters’ questions.
Shakira and Vives have previously rejected the allegations by Livan Rafael Castellanos that “La Bicicleta” — which means “The Bicycle” in English — contains lyrics, rhythm and melody similar to those of his 1997 song, “Yo te quiero tanto.”
“La Bicicleta” won two of the three biggest Grammy Latino awards for 2016, including song and record of the year.
Vives told reporters he welcomed the chance to clear his name.

Colombian singers Shakira, right, and Carlos Vives, background, arrive at a Madrid court on Wednesday, March 27, 2019. (AP)

Main category:

https://ift.tt/2YtGIqb March 27, 2019 at 11:42AM

Saffron Vadher models Ramadan-ready designer collections

7:01 ص Lifestyle No comments

Wed, 2019-03-27 12:24

DUBAI: British-Indian model Saffron Vadher has appeared in a new campaign by e-tailer Net-a-Porter for its Ramadan capsule collections by 17 international designers.

The luxury ecommerce platform curated the selection of exclusive capsule collections by the like of Ralph & Russo, Jenny Packham, Naeem Khan, Carolina Herrera, Galvan and more.

“The interest in special pieces designed specifically for Ramadan alongside modest fashion in general has increased significantly over the past few years, not only in the Middle East, but globally. Our curation of 17 exclusives capsules purposely tailored to the occasion is our largest edit to date and will no doubt fulfil all our customers’ needs,” Elizabeth von der Goltz, global buying director of Net-a-Porter, said in a released statement.

Modelled by Vadher and shot by fashion photographer Alex Franco in Marrakech, the images show off an array of elegant kaftans, floaty dresses and Ramadan-ready eveningwear perfect for the inevitable litany of iftar and suhoor gatherings.

The looks were finished off with complementary jewelry by high-end labels Buccellati, Selim Mouzannar and Anissa Kermiche.

Other fashion houses set to take part include Louisa Parris, Marchesa, Marchesa Notte, Safiyaa, Talbot Runhof, Mary Katrantzou, Haider Ackermann and Etro.

Daniela Karnuts, founder of the London-based label Safiyaa, described exactly how the Ramadan capsule collection differs from the luxurious label’s other offerings.

“Our Ramadan capsule collection is a modern take on more covered silhouettes. I love to use capes and trails to accentuate the silhouette and for an elegant nuance,” she said in a released statement.

For her part, Vadher, who has walked the runways for the likes of Giambattista Valli and Hermès, posed up a storm at the poolside location in Marrakesh.

She most likely felt right at home in the array of kaftans and floor-length dresses since she seems to be particularly keen on comfortable fashion, telling Vogue India in May, “My own personal style is definitely anything comfortable.”

The model also spoke to the magazine about her multi-cultural background, saying: “I am very lucky; I get to celebrate both Christmas and Diwali because I come from two cultural backgrounds. Both are days where I can spend the whole day with my family.”

Main category:

Tags:

Luxury street fashion brand launches in DubaiModel Sofia Richie collaborates with Kuwaiti fashion label https://ift.tt/2Oqzmiw March 27, 2019 at 10:32AM

Nadine Labaki is the first Arab president of the Un Certain Regard jury at Cannes

1:06 ص Lifestyle No comments

Author:

Wed, 2019-03-27 10:49

Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki has been named as the president of the Un Certain Regard jury in Cannes — becoming the first Arab to hold the position.

The festival said Labaki had been chosen after “moving hearts and minds at the last Festival de Cannes with her Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominated ‘Capernaum,’ which won the Jury Prize.”

She succeeds Benicio Del Toro as president of the jury.

“Today, I am the president of the Un Certain Regard Jury, which just goes to show that sometimes life can be even better than your dreams,” she said in a released statement. “I can’t wait to see the films in the selection. I can’t wait to debate and discuss, to be shaken up, to find inspiration in other artists’ work.”

Nadine Labaki made headlines with her film “Capernaum.” (File/AFP)

Main category:

Tags:

Nadine Labaki

Nadine Labaki speaks out after losing out on an OscarOprah Winfrey gushes over ‘director extraordinaire’ Nadine Labaki https://ift.tt/2UX651D March 27, 2019 at 08:54AM

High Hopes: Winners of HIPA photography awards 2019

1:06 ص Lifestyle No comments

Wed, 2019-03-27 10:03

The eighth season of the Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Awards (HIPA) concluded on March 12 with a prize-giving ceremony at Dubai Opera House at which the winners were announced. The theme of this year’s awards was ‘Hope,’ but, as always, photographers could also enter the ‘General’ category (for either black-and-white or color images). There were two further categories this year as well: Aerial Photography (video) and Portfolio. Here, we present a selection of highlights from the winning entries.

1. Grand Prize Winner

“Mother’s Hope”

Edwin Ong Wee Kee — Malaysia

The overall winner of this year’s HIPA awards was Kee’s image of a Vietnamese mother of two carrying her two babies. The woman has a speech disorder, Kee explained in his artist’s statement, but “stays strong for the sake of her children.”

“Holding a one-month-old baby behind her and a two-year-old baby in her arms, life must go on. When life gets tough, the tough get going. That’s how this mother overcomes her daily hardships. However, her life is full of hope when she is looking down at her children.”

2. ‘Hope.’ 1st Winner

“A Stormy Day”

Fanny Octavianus — Indonesia

In Octavianus’s picture from 2010, a young boy plays in a flooded street after heavy rains hit the island city of Sabang in Central Jakarta.

3. ‘Hope.’ 3rd Winner

“Bathtub Amongst The Rubble”

Wissam Nassar — Palestine

Taken in June 2015, Nassar’s winning entry shows 30-year-old Salem Saoody bathing his daughter Layan (left) and his niece Shaymaa in “the last remaining piece of his damaged home — his bathtub.” The family now live in a caravan near their destroyed house, Nassar reported.

4. Aerial Photography. 2nd Winner

“The Great Return March”

Sulaiman Hejji — Palestine

On March 30, 2018, Hejji explained, the Palestinians began “a new form of peaceful popular struggle demanding their right to return to the territories from which they were expelled in 1948. These were the largest peaceful marches on the borders between the Gaza Strip and Israel.”

5. General: Black-and-white. 1st Winner

“The Old Man And The Cat”

Aun Raza — France

Raza visited Tashkent in Uzbekistan to capture this image of an elderly resident outside of his Soviet-era apartment block. It was, Raza said, “A moment of solitude and mystery in what was once one of the mythical regions of the Silk route.”

6. General: Color. 3rd Winner

“Whirlpool”

Abdullah Alshatti — Kuwait

Alshatti’s prize-winning image captures a group of flamingos searching for food in Kuwait’s coastal area of Alsulaibekhat, which is, he explained, “rich in crustraceans and shrimp.”

7. General: Color. 2nd Winner

“An Unlikely Encounter”

Karim Iliya — USA

Iliya’s picture shows an underwater meeting between a freedriver and a baby humpback whale off the coast of Tonga. Although the baby is less than two months old, it is already bigger than a car. “This playful giant swam around us while his mother rested below,” Iliya explained. The whales were gathering strength for their long swim back to Antarctica.

8. Portfolio. 5th Winner

“The Kazakh Eagle Hunters of Mongolia”

Sarah Wouters — Netherlands

Wouters’ collection of images told the story of a group of eagle hunters living in Mongolia, who “preserve an old tradition that has been passed on from generation to generation.” Before the fall of communism, these Kazakh families were nomadic, travelling between their homeland, Russia and Mongolia, until the borders were closed. Wouters’ images were taken at the annual Eagle Hunter Festival.

Main category:

Tags:

Dubai photography competition shows off breathtaking snaps Expo 2020 Dubai photo contest for GCC youngsters https://ift.tt/2JbMy8g March 27, 2019 at 08:22AM

Film Review: Star-studded rumble in jungle packs powerful punch

1:06 ص Lifestyle No comments

Wed, 2019-03-27 08:44

CHENNAI: As rumbles in the jungle go, the latest Netflix film “Triple Frontier” packs a powerful punch.

A star-studded cast including the likes of Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac and Pedro Pascal add weight to this nail-biting action adventure with an underlying message.

Director J. C. Chandor weaves a heist story with a difference, set in an unnamed American jungle. Loyalties are tested when five former special forces operatives reunite to steal a drug lord’s fortune, unleashing a chain of unintended events.

The script, written by Chandor and Mark Boal (“The Hurt Locker”), concentrates on the escape rather than the planning of the raid. And there lies the difference, because most movies in this genre tend to focus more on the run-up to the crime rather than its aftermath.

Santiago ‘Pope’ Garcia (Isaac) is the group’s leader and when an informant gives him a lead on a wealthy drug baron operating close to the “Triple Frontier” – a border zone between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil – he recruits his old Delta Force pals for one last assignment to make them all rich.

It is an unlikely crew. Tom ‘Redfly’ Davis (Affleck), is a divorcee struggling to sell condominiums, and the others include a pilot grounded for taking drugs, and a motivational speaker. Each one is driven by greed, and though they realize the greater good in being united, circumstances on their mission test their loyalties to one another to the limit.

However, what is most remarkable is how Chandor and Boal lead their story to an extremely touching climax.

“Triple Frontier” was to have been produced by Paramount and directed by Kathryn Bigelow (whose “The Hurt Locker” and “Zero Dark Thirty” were superb). What is more, actors Tom Hanks, Will Smith, Johnny Depp, Mark Wahlberg and Mahershala Ali had all been in talks about joining the film’s cast. It is not clear why “Triple Frontier” landed with Netflix, although the production has been suitably altered to fit the small screen.

Brilliantly shot with the menacing jungles as the backdrop, “Triple Frontier” captures sequences – such as a crashing helicopter and a donkey slipping down a cliff to its death – in all their heart-pounding drama.

Perhaps a little too glossy for a plot of this kind the movie, while being loaded with messages about the shabby treatment of military veterans, is somewhat disappointing when it comes to the characterization of the men.

The film features stars like Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac and Pedro Pascal. (Netflix)

Main category:

Tags:

Film review: Unlikely romance loses its spark in soulless sojournFilm review: Put-upon mother’s journey of discovery is magical https://ift.tt/2UT8Rot March 27, 2019 at 06:51AM

Film review: Unlikely romance loses its spark in soulless sojourn

1:06 ص Lifestyle No comments

Wed, 2019-03-27 08:40

It is probably fair to say that director Ritesh Batra’s Sundance Film Festival premiere, “Photograph,” is unlikely to become one of his standout movies.
Pitted against his masterly 2013 debut work “The Lunchbox,” and his stirring “Our Souls at Night” in 2017, “Photograph” has the feel and texture of an old-world romance. It is leisurely and laid back but lacks the spirit of his earlier films.
In a way “Photograph” is similar to the Cannes premiered “The Lunchbox,” which traces the anguish of an ageing widower and a lonely, neglected young wife, whose handwritten notes, sent through Mumbai’s famously efficient lunchbox system, evoke affection as the pair build a fantasy world together.
However, “Photograph” explores a seemingly impossible relationship, this time between an upper-class educated girl and a street-corner lensman.
Mumbai and its iconic structures provide the backdrop to the unlikely story of Miloni (Sanya Malhotra) and Rafi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui).
Struggling street photographer Rafi, pressured to marry by his grandmother, convinces shy stranger Miloni to pose as his fiancée. The pair develop a connection that transforms them in ways they could not have expected.
But Batra never makes it clear why an attractive and well-to-do Miloni gravitates toward Rafi, who takes snaps of visitors around Mumbai’s famous Gateway of India monument.
Instead, Batra paints a quaint picture of an era when romance played out through stolen glances and coy touches, instead of mobile phone texts and social media.
“Photograph” tries to be subtle and soft, but fails to connect on an emotional level, leaving several questions hanging. The pace is so lethargic that the film’s 110-minute running time begins to feel like an eternity.
Malhotra (whose performance in “Dangal” was a high point) impresses with her understated mannerisms and ability to sink into the moody, melancholic character of Miloni. But Siddiqui stutters and stumbles in the face of an underwritten part, and the bond between them does not gel.
Peter Raeburn’s music is intrusive to the point of extinguishing what few traces of affectionate warmth exist in Batra’s script. In the end, “Photograph” seems a soulless sojourn.

Watch the railer here:

The pace is so lethargic that the film’s 110-minute running time begins to feel like an eternity. (Supplied)

Main category:

Tags:

film review

Film review: Put-upon mother’s journey of discovery is magicalFilm Review: ‘Badla’ sinks in a quagmire of plot imperfections https://ift.tt/2CH9avx March 27, 2019 at 06:49AM

Film review: Put-upon mother’s journey of discovery is magical

1:06 ص Lifestyle No comments

Wed, 2019-03-27 08:27

DUBAI: Children using emotional blackmail to manipulate their parents is an age-old theme, but for one mother it sparks a voyage of discovery.

Latest Netflix original “Juanita” tells the story of a hard-working mother, fed up with her deadbeat grown kids and marginal urban existence, who takes a bus trip to Montana where she reinvents herself.

Adapted from Sheila Williams’ novel “Dancing on the Edge of the Roof” and directed by Clark Johnson, this taut 90-minute drama follows Juanita (Alfre Woodard) as she rises above the mundane to transform her life.

The black mum works as a night nurse in a hospice for the ill and aged, while at home she has three adult children and a granddaughter to worry about.

Juanita’s son, Randy (Marcus Henderson), is in jail, her other son, Rashawn (Acorye’ White), is playing a cat-and-mouse game with the cops, and her daughter, Bertie (Jordan Nia Elizabeth), has little time to take care of her daughter, and pushes her mother to babysit.

To escape her oppressively boring life, Juanita fantasizes about Blair Underwood, an American television star, but when this starts to wear thin, she takes a Greyhound coach to a virtually unknown town where a meeting with uppity chef Jess Gardner (Adam Beach), sets in motion a chain of magical events.

Their first meeting is hilarious, with Juanita trying to cajole an obstinate Jess to make an American breakfast when he is bent on making it French style.

The movie has similarities with “Eat Pray Love,” where after a painful divorce Julia Roberts goes on a round-the-world trip, and “Wild” in which Reese Witherspoon takes a solo hike to recover from a personal tragedy.

But Juanita is the first film in this genre to have a black woman in the starring role, and Juanita’s rebellious streak injects novelty into the narrative.

The script, penned by Woodard’s husband Roderick M. Spencer, has patches of unevenness, but the actress deftly pilots the film through the difficult bits to dramatize some people need to embark on adventures to rediscover themselves.

Woodard brilliantly conveys Juanita’s disappointment and pain which later turns to joy and a sense of fulfilment.

Watch the trailer here:

Main category:

Tags:

Netflix to cut 2013 Canada train crash footage from ‘Bird Box’ months after outcryFilm Review: ‘Capernaum’ justifies the hype on its GCC debut https://ift.tt/2UX65yF March 27, 2019 at 06:34AM

What We Are Reading Today: Rights as Weapons by Clifford Bob

1:01 م Lifestyle No comments

Author:

Tue, 2019-03-26 21:59

Rights are usually viewed as defensive concepts representing mankind’s highest aspirations to protect the vulnerable and uplift the downtrodden. But since the Enlightenment, political combatants have also used rights belligerently, to batter despised communities, demolish existing institutions, and smash opposing ideas. Delving into a range of historical and contemporary conflicts from all areas of the globe, Rights as Weapons focuses on the underexamined ways in which the powerful wield rights as aggressive weapons against the weak.

Clifford Bob looks at how political forces use rights as rallying cries: Naturalizing novel claims as rights inherent in humanity, absolutizing them as trumps over rival interests or community concerns, universalizing them as transcultural and transhistorical, and depoliticizing them as concepts beyond debate. He shows how powerful proponents employ rights as camouflage to cover ulterior motives, as crowbars to break rival coalitions, among other issues.

As blockades to suppress subordinate groups, as spears to puncture discrete policies, and as dynamite to explode whole societies. And he demonstrates how the targets of rights campaigns repulse such assaults, using their own rights-like weapons: Denying the abuses they are accused of, constructing rival rights to protect themselves, portraying themselves as victims rather than violators, and repudiating authoritative decisions against them.

Main category:

Tags:

Books

What We Are Reading Today: Gateway State by Sarah Miller-DavenportWhat We Are Reading Today: Leadership and the Rise of Great Powers by Yan Xuetong https://ift.tt/2YoA2JW March 26, 2019 at 08:05PM

Stolen Picasso unearthed by ‘Indiana Jones of art’

12:56 ص Lifestyle No comments

Author:

AFP

ID:

1553585465802929100

Tue, 2019-03-26 06:30

THE HAGUE: A Dutch art detective dubbed the “Indiana Jones of the Art World” has struck again, finding a Picasso painting worth €25 million stolen from a Saudi sheikh’s yacht on the French Riviera in 1999.
Arthur Brand said he had handed back the 1938 masterpiece entitled “Portrait of Dora Maar,” also known as “Buste de Femme (Dora Maar)” to an insurance company earlier this month.
The discovery of the rare portrait of Maar, one of Pablo Picasso’s most influential mistresses, is the culmination of a four-year investigation into the burglary on the luxury yacht Coral Island, as she lay anchored in Antibes.
Two decades after its theft and with no clues to its whereabouts, the French police were stumped — and the portrait, which once hung in the Spanish master’s home until his death in 1973, was feared lost forever.
But after a four-year trail which led through the Dutch criminal underworld, two intermediaries turned up on Brand’s Amsterdam doorstep 10 days ago with the missing picture.
“They had the Picasso, now valued at €25 million wrapped in a sheet and black rubbish bags with them,” Brand said.
It was yet another success for Brand, who hit the headlines last year for returning a stolen 1,600-year-old mosaic to Cyprus.
He won world fame in 2015 after finding “Hitler’s Horses,” two bronze statues made by Nazi sculptor Joseph Thorak — a discovery about which he had a book out earlier this month.
The theft of the Picasso, valued at around seven million dollars at the time, baffled French police, sent the super-rich scurrying to update boat security and prompted the offer of a big reward.
In 2015, Brand first got wind that a “Picasso stolen from a ship” was doing the rounds in the Netherlands, although “at that stage I didn’t know which one exactly.”
It turned out that the painting had entered the criminal circuit, where it circled for many years “often being used as collateral, popping up in a drug deal here, four years later in an arms deal there,” said.
It took several years and a few dead ends before pinning down that it was actually the Picasso stolen from a Saudi billionaire’s yacht as the mega-cruiser was being refurbished, Brand said.
Brand put out word on the street that he was looking for “Buste de Femme (Dora Maar)” and in early March he struck gold.
“Two representatives of a Dutch businessman contacted me, saying their client had the painting. He was at his wits’ end,” said Brand.
“He thought the Picasso was part of a legitimate deal. It turns out the deal was legitimate — the method of payment was not,” Brand laughed.
Brand called the Dutch and French police — who had since closed the case — and who said they would not prosecute the current owner.
“Since the original theft, the painting must have changed hands at least 10 times,” said Brand.
Brand said he had to act quickly, otherwise the painting may have disappeared back into the underworld.
“I told the intermediaries, it’s now or never, because the painting is probably in a very bad state... We have to act as soon as we can.”
Then, just over a week ago, Brand’s doorbell rang at his modest apartment in Amsterdam, and the intermediaries were there with the painting.
After unwrapping it, “I hung the Picasso on my wall for a night, thereby making my apartment one of the most expensive in Amsterdam for a day,” Brand laughed.
The following day, a Picasso expert from New York’s Pace Gallery flew in to verify its authenticity at a high-security warehouse in Amsterdam.
Also present was retired British detective Dick Ellis, founder of Scotland Yard’s art and antiquities squad, representing an unnamed insurance company.
“There is no doubt that this is the stolen Picasso,” Ellis, who now runs a London-based art risk consultancy business, said.
Ellis is famous for recovering many stolen artworks including Edvard Munch’s “The Scream,” lifted from the National Gallery of Norway in 1994.
“It’s not only the public interest to recover stolen works of art,” he said. “You are also reducing the amount of collateral that is circling the black market and funds criminality.”
“Buste de Femme” is back in possession of the insurance company, which now had to decide the next steps, Brand and Ellis said.

Dutch art detective Arthur Brand has been dubbed the ‘Indiana Jones of the Art World’. (AFP)

Main category:

Tags:

Portrait of Dora Maar

But is it art? Pranksters plant missing ‘Picasso’ in RomaniaRare Picasso self-portrait expected to fetch $70 million https://ift.tt/2FzpxuC March 26, 2019 at 08:45AM

Art collection of fugitive Indian billionaire to be auctioned

12:56 ص Lifestyle No comments

Author:

Reuters

ID:

1553577005552771900

Tue, 2019-03-26 04:36

MUMBAI: Indian tax authorities are hoping for a windfall with the auction on Tuesday of rare oil paintings that were once part of fugitive billionaire jeweler Nirav Modi’s collection and have been seized by the government.
Auctioneers say the sale is the first of its kind in a country where tax authorities have usually auctioned property, gold and luxury items, but not art.
After a court order allowing the auction to take place, tax authorities, who are pursuing Modi over the country’s largest bank fraud, appointed professional auction house Saffronart.
The sale in Mumbai of some 68 works is expected to fetch anywhere between $4.4 million and $7.3 million (300 million and 500 million rupees).
“Until a few years ago, the tax authorities really didn’t know the value of art,” said Farah Siddiqui, an art adviser who is advising clients eyeing Modi’s collection.
The 48-year-old Modi, whose diamonds have sparkled on Hollywood stars, is one of the primary accused in a $2 billion loan fraud at state-run Punjab National Bank. Modi denies the charges and believes they are politically motivated.
The auction comes just weeks before a national election and as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces pressure to bring back Nirav Modi (no relation), who fled the country last year and has been residing in the United Kingdom.
He was arrested last week by British authorities and remanded in custody after he appeared before a London court. India asked Britain last August to extradite Modi.
The auction includes works by Raja Ravi Varma, a 19th century painter considered among India’s finest, and V.S. Gaitonde, a modern artist known for his abstract and often monochromatic paintings.
“We believe that the collection’s intrinsic value will garner a positive response from collectors,” said Saffronart Chief Executive Dinesh Vazirani.
India Law Alliance, a law firm representing the company controlled by Modi that owns the artwork, said it was challenging the court order that allowed the auction. The case will be heard by the Bombay High Court on Wednesday, a lawyer at the firm told Reuters.
Vijay Aggarwal, a lawyer for Modi, declined to comment.

A journalist takes photos of artworks once part of fugitive billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi’s collection ahead of their auction at a gallery in Mumbai. (Reuters)

Francis Newton Souza’s “Cityscape”, left, and “Portrait of Suruchi Chand” during a media preview at the Saffron art gallery in Mumbai on Monday, March 25, 2019. (AFP)

A staff member checks the frame of Raja Ravi Varma’s, “The Maharaja of Travancore and his younger brother welcoming Richard Temple-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, Governor-General of Madras (1875-80), on his official visit to Trivandram in 1880”, during a media preview at the Saffron art gallery in Mumbai on Monday, March 25, 2019. (AFP)

Main category:

Tags:

Indian jeweler Nirav Modi arrested in London: British policeInterpol seeks arrest of Indian billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi https://ift.tt/2FBON4N March 26, 2019 at 06:22AM

What We Are Reading Today: Leadership and the Rise of Great Powers by Yan Xuetong

7:01 م Lifestyle No comments

Author:

Mon, 2019-03-25 23:16

While work in international relations has closely examined the decline of great powers, not much attention has been paid to the question of their rise. The upward trajectory of China is a particularly puzzling case. How has it grown increasingly important in the world arena while lagging behind the US and its allies across certain sectors?

Borrowing ideas of political determinism from ancient Chinese philosophers, Leadership and the Rise of Great Powers explains China’s expanding influence by presenting a moral-realist theory that attributes the rise and fall of nations to political leadership. Yan Xuetong shows that the stronger a rising state’s political leadership, the more likely it is to displace a prevailing state in the international system.

Yan defines political leadership through the lens of morality, specifically the ability of a government to fulfill its domestic responsibility and maintain international strategic credibility. Examining leadership at the personal, national, and international levels.

Yan shows how rising states like China transform the international order by reshaping power distribution and norms. Yan also considers the reasons for America’s diminishing international stature even as its economy, education system, military, political institutions, and technology hold steady. The polarization of China and the US will not result in another Cold War scenario, but their mutual distrust will ultimately drive the world center from Europe to East Asia.

Main category:

Tags: