Akshay Kumar worked in multiple movies in 2024. But sadly, none of them succeeded in creating a positive impact on the box office. Looking at his filmography, some opined that the reason behind his films not working was because they came out as repetitive. Reacting to this, actor Ram Kapoor stated that it’s easy for somebody to see from the outside. Read on!
An aerial drone photo taken on Jan. 7 shows tourists visiting an ice and snow park by the Daheihe River in Hohhot, north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Li Zhipeng)This photo taken on Jan. 7, 2025 shows an ice and snow park by the Daheihe River in Hohhot, north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Li Zhipeng)Tourists visit an ice and snow park by the Daheihe River in Hohhot, north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Jan. 7, 2025. (Xinhua/Li Zhipeng)This photo taken on Jan. 7, 2025 shows an ice and snow park by the Daheihe River in Hohhot, north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Li Zhipeng)An aerial drone photo taken on Jan. 7 shows tourists visiting an ice and snow park by the Daheihe River in Hohhot, north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Li Zhipeng)An aerial drone photo taken on Jan. 7 shows tourists visiting a labyrinth at an ice and snow park by the Daheihe River in Hohhot, north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Li Zhipeng)
Conversion of building spaces for commercial purposes sparks legal action in Bapuji Layout following complaintsThe conversion of basements in high-rise buildings into shops has been increasing in the city. Many buildings have basements being repurposed for business purposes. Utilising basements for parking vehicles would prevent cars from being parked on the roads, reducing traffic jams and minimising inconvenience to pedestrians.The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) authorities have been working to clear basements that are being used for purposes other than their intended use, such as vehicle parking. The latest incident is the conversion of the basement of a building at Bapuji Layout, near Vijayanagar. The BBMP authorities issued a notice to Shubhakaran MR for converting the basement of a building into a study centre. The notice was issued to Shubhakaran based on complaints from neighbours. The BBMP authorities directed Shubhakaran to close the study centre but the latter filed a writ petition in the High Court against the impugned order passed by the BBMP.
Millions of Americans under cold temperature alerts as winter storm travels south – CBS News
One of the most striking things about Shahnaz Habib’s Airplane Mode (Westland) was its subtitle, “A Passive-Aggressive History of Travel.” Was, because now the copies online sport different subtitles. There is “An Irreverent History of Travel”, which brings to mind Anthony Bourdain’s World Travel: An Irreverent Guide (more on the rockstar chef later), and ‘Travels in the Ruins of Tourism’.Much in Habib’s stream of consciousness style, one wonders at the subtitle change. Was passive-aggressive too esoteric or too belligerent? Was ‘irreverent’ more accessible or SEO friendly, and ‘ruins of tourism’ suitably grim for all the mournful Malleshs and Mollies of the internet?
Habib’s book, like all gripping, glorious books, is simultaneously intensely personal and interstellar. There are her travels including landing in Istanbul, diffident and lonely, made even more so by Megan who she meets in Hagia Sophia, which was a museum in 2007. Megan, a young white backpacker, who wanted to ‘do’ Turkey in a week, has already ‘done’ Topkapi Palace, the Grand Bazaar, and the boat ride across the Bosphorus in the two days she has been in Istanbul.Megan’s industry makes Habib feel even more inadequate as she wanders about the bazaars. “I want to be curious and intrepid; instead I am confused and lonely,” she writes. Through her personal travels, Habib looks at the history of travel, of ‘militourism’, where soldiers go to pretty paradises including Goa to let off steam, and the effect of colonialism, Euro-centric ideals and capitalism on travel.Wrong-coloured passport
Habib’s decision to go to Paris with her husband before the birth of their child, has her delving into the history of passports and ‘passportism’, and how the wrong coloured passport is as much a deterrent to travel as the wrong skin colour. So while her husband, a white American, needed nothing for his visa application to Paris, Habib needed a host of documents, that Indians travelling are unfortunately familiar with including a letter from her employer, bank statements, letter of invitation and an application fee of 60 Euros.The Paris trip also has Habib revealing the Marshall Plan to prop up Paris, brought to its knees post World War II, by selling Paris to middleclass Americans. The recipe of “infrastructure and advertising” has succeeded from the 1950s till date — what is Emily in Paris but another hard sell of the City of Lights, a title, which Habib wryly comments was hard won by the French government who kept the Notre Dame and Place de la Concorde lit up despite post-War electricity shortages.While in Istanbul, Habib’s muses about guide books from the venerable Baedeker Guides published from the 1830s to the Lonely Planet books, which started off as counter-cultural keys to unlocking the secrets of a space and morphed into the behemoth it is now. The irony of Baedeker dying of overwork while writing books on leisure travel is not lost on Habib.Top-down view
Guide books take the top-down view of travel, telling what you need to see to understand or in Megan’s word, ‘do’ a country. There is a snobbery attached to carrying guide books, which Habib highlights with an example from E. M. Forster’s A Room with a View. If Eleanor had not taken away Lucy’s Baedeker, Habib muses, might she not have had an adventure that did not end in marriage?While one might not want to be caught dead with a guide book, (if you are that kind of cool traveller), what about one written by the ultimate cool traveller, Anthony Bourdain, who Habib hastens to admit she is far from.
Bourdain, chef, television host and writer extraordinaire has travelled the world and eaten everything. The book, put together by his long-time assistant, Laurie Woolever, is a look at the world “through Tony’s eyes” in Woolever’s words. Guide books and guided tours tell you what to see and not see and also how to feel and negate the subjective to a certain extent. Then you have personal views of the world, where a raindrop on a leaf in Mongolia could move one to tears or have another throw a hissy fit.
Travelling through books
Habib writes of her father who prefers to travel through books, which brings to mind the decision to visit Uzbekistan after reading of Emperor Babur’s homesickness for pomegranates from Ferghana in Raiders from the North by Alex Rutherford. Istanbul also brings to mind Agatha Christie who is supposed to have written Murder on the Orient Express at Pera Palace, a claim debunked as urban legend in Charles King’s remarkably thrilling history, Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul.Rather than Christie’s novels set in Baghdad, Mesopotamia or Egypt, or her charming account of accompanying her archaeologist husband on digs in Iraq and Syria in Come, Tell Me How You Live, Habib chooses Absent in the Spring, a non crime book by Christie writing as Mary Westmacott to talk of the queen of crime’s attitude towards the Other. Habib’s thoughts on the invisible Indians serving in hotels far away from home are fascinating — I.S. Johar played the manager on The Karnak in the 1978 version of Death on the Nile and there was also Gaurau (Raza Jaffrey) as Carrie’s personal butler in Sex and the City 2. Travel cannot be isolated, the traveller and the travellee come together, giving and taking from each other just like Habib draws a line from Charles Baudelaire’s posh Flâneur to the Malayalam equivalent of ‘vayanokkal.’ Published – January 08, 2025 08:30 am IST
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It turns out that Jennifer Lopez’s film isn’t unstoppable.
The Los Angeles premiere of her Ben Affleck-produced film “Unstoppable” was canceled on Tuesday due to the raging fire and wind activity burning through the city.
The event was supposed to be held at the DGA Theater but was abruptly called off in the eleventh hour.
Jennifer Lopez’s “Unstoppable” premiere in Los Angeles has been canceled. Amazon MGM Studios via Getty Images
“In light of today’s safety concerns around heightened wind activity and fire outbreaks in Los Angeles,” a rep for the movie’s distributor, Amazon MGM Studios, told People.
“As much as we were looking forward to celebrating this wonderful and inspiring film with you, safety is our first priority,” the statement continued. “Thank you for your understanding and please stay safe.”
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Heavy smoke from a brush fire in the Pacific Palisades rises over the Pacific Coast Highway. AP
The fast-moving wildfire is threatening homes in the coastal neighborhood amid intense Santa Ana Winds and dry conditions in Los Angeles. Getty Images
The Los Angeles National Weather Service warned local residents on Monday of a “life-threatening” windstorm set to impact Southern California, adding significant fire danger comes with it.
The blaze threatening the Pacific Palisades area was initially reported around 10:30 a.m. PT on Tuesday after winds began ripping through L.A.
The cause of the inferno is under investigation, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, as Governor Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency.
Firefighters run as a brush fire burns in Pacific Palisades, California. AFP via Getty Images
Evacuation orders have been put in place as officials warn those in the area to “evacuate now.” Parts of Malibu are also allegedly under an evacuation order.
As of 3:30 p.m. PT, the Palisades fire had burned 1,262 acres, including several homes, and had zero containment, according to CalFire, with more than 250 firefighters responding to the ongoing emergency.
Actor James Woods, 77, is among those who have evacuated their homes in the wake of the blaze.
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez have settled their divorce. Golden Globes 2024 via Getty Images
Jennifer Lopez play’s Anthony Robles’ mother in “Unstoppable.” ©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection
“Police Academy” star Steve Guttenberg sprung into action, helping fire crews as they continue to battle the flames.
Speaking with KTLA 5, Guttenberg, 66, warned residents to “get your loved ones and get out.”
“Unstoppable” is a sports drama based on a true story that Lopez produced with her now ex-husband, Affleck, and his best buddy, Matt Damon.
They were married for 2 years before she filed for divorce. GC Images
Affleck and Matt Damon produced “Unstoppable.” Getty Images for Vanity Fair
Based on an autobiography of the same name, the film follows the story of Anthony Robles, who was born with one leg and won the 2011 college wrestling national championship.
In the flick, Lopez plays Robles’ mother.
In September, the actress shined on the “Unstoppable” red carpet for its debut premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Affleck — whom she filed for divorce from one month prior — was a no-show; however, Damon was spotted chatting with Lopez at the event.
Lopez at the movie’s TIFF premiere in Sept. Getty Images
The L.A. premiere cancellation of “Unstoppable” comes just one day after news broke that Lopez and Affleck had settled their divorce.
Each is walking away with what they individually acquired during their union and won’t pay the other spousal support, per TMZ.
They also reached an agreement on the $61 million house they bought; however, the terms are confidential, and the home is still on the market.
Lopez and Affleck were married for two years after eloping in Las Vegas in July 2022.
Adriana Paz, Edgar Ramírez, Selena Gomez, Jacques Audiard, Karla Sofía Gascón, and Zoe Saldana, winners of the Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy award for Emilia Pérez, pose in the press room during the 82nd Annual Golden Globe Awards. Photo / Getty ImagesWhile some US critics like Leonard Maltin called the film a “game-changer” and “cutting-edge” for its representation and style, others took to social media to voice their frustrations over the film’s supposed lack of respect for its themes and culture.Mexican producer Héctor Guillén took to X/Twitter with a message for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (who run the Oscars) saying that Mexico “hates” the film which he called a “racist, Eurocentric mockery”.Vox’s Kyndall Cunnigham slated the film for its “drug war stereotypes”, saying its depiction of Mexican culture was “equally regressive and lazy” because it depicted Mexico as a “violent and miserable” place and didn’t challenge any of the stereotypical narratives about the country.Much of Guillén’s criticism was around the fact the film was a predominantly French-helmed production shot in France, with “no Mexicans” in the main cast besides “the talented Adriana Paz”.AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.Another X user said French director Jacques Audiard “didn’t bother to research” Mexican culture and called the film a “racist, xenophobic mess”.Others noted that the film wasn’t even available in Mexico yet (with the official Mexican theatre release slated for January 23) and criticised Audiard for accepting the award for a Mexican film while speaking French.“It’s always cultural appropriation until the Latinos speak,” one X/Twitter user said.“You have a French production company, a French director and writers & everyone’s clapping while they accept awards in FRENCH because they don’t know Spanish … mind you Mexico is the last country Emilia Pérez came out in.”Another strong critic of the film has been the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) which opposed the film’s portrayal of trans representation, calling it “profoundly retrograde”.“Emilia Pérez recycles the trans stereotypes, tropes, and clichés of the not-so-distant past,” GLAAD said.The organisation then listed reviews from those in the LGBTQIA+ community who had shared their thoughts on the film. “If I were to harp on ‘representation’, it’s abhorrent to me within the realism of the film that Emilia does what she does. She swaps genders, refuses accountability for a lifetime of bad behaviour, and gaslights her wife and kids into spending time with her under fraudulent pretences,” Fran Tirado of them.us said. “It is an idea of transness so completely from the cis imagination.”Gascón came to the defence of the film’s portrayal of trans people in a recent interview with Vanity Fair, telling critics, “If you don’t like it, go and make your own movie. Go create the representation you want to see,” he said. “The trans experience is not the same for everybody – my trans experience is different from somebody else’s.”OFM writer and transgender woman Julie River also came to the film’s defence, calling the film “a compelling story about the trans community that never felt like it was insulting my identity”.AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.After its success at the Golden Globes, Emilia Pérez is a predicted frontrunner for the 2025 Oscar, with nominations for the awards revealed on January 17.The film hits selected NZ cinemas on January 16.Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald’s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke’s Bay Today.
January vibes in Pattaya: Dive into crystal-clear waters, thrilling water sports, and serene island escapes for the ultimate tropical getaway. PATTAYA, Thailand – Pattaya’s sparkling waters and vibrant coastline continue to be a top draw for tourists in January, offering a refreshing escape from the winter chill in many parts of the world. The warm…
HuffPost is due to eliminate 30 editorial roles in the coming weeks, editor-in-chief Danielle C. Belton announced in a company email Tuesday.
Citing “growing challenges to our business,” the impacted staffers will be alerted “in the weeks ahead,” she wrote in a memo shared to social media by NY Times media reporter Ben Mullin.
“I write with painful news,” the memo began. “HuffPost is undergoing a substantial round of job eliminations due to ongoing and growing challenges to our business.”
Belton went on to say that she is in contact with the HuffPost Union “about how to proceed, including the possibility of offering buyout packages to some desks in the newsroom.”
She added, “I recognize that this is an upsetting way to start the year, and we will be sure to share more details as swiftly and clearly as possible, as I believe it is important to be transparent and share information as we have it. In the coming days, we will make more information available about the job eliminations and HuffPost’s plans for 2025 and beyond.”
The news came Tuesday just hours after The Washington Post said it was due to lay off roughly 100 employees.
Last May, HuffPost lamented the number of media layoffs in an article titled, Media Layoffs Mean We’re Worse Off This Election Year. At the time, the story noted the abrupt shutdowns of Vice and the The Messenger.
The New York Times first reported the news about the upcoming HuffPost layoffs.
Belton has served as editor-in-chief of HuffPost since 2021.
Alex Berenson, a reporter who became a prominent vaccine skeptic during the COVID-19 pandemic, said that a Yale University study on long COVID and post-vaccination syndrome found the virus’ spike protein in the blood of people who had been vaccinated but never infected. Berenson has a substantial history of making claims about COVID-19 and its vaccines that have later been debunked.
Berenson cited anonymous sources when reporting this but provided no official findings as the team had not yet published the alleged results as of this writing.
Based on these findings, Berenson speculated that the presence of spike proteins may suggest that the “genetic material” of the mRNA vaccines may have contaminated human DNA. However, he said that this was unlikely.
Crucially, Berenson added that even if this was true, it may have no “clinically significant consequences.”
Snopes has contacted the team at Yale for comment. If and when they respond — or if and when they publish the results — we will update this article.
In December 2024, a rumor began spreading online that a team of researchers at Yale University had found the “spike protein” of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is responsible for the COVID-19 illness, in the blood of people who had never been infected but had been vaccinated.
Social media users shared this claim and suggested it was alarming because it meant the genetic material of the vaccine had “integrated” with human DNA.
For example, on Dec. 21, 2024, one X user said (archived): “URGENT: Yale researchers have found Covid spike protein in the blood of people never infected with Covid – years after they got mRNA jabs. The spike proteins shouldn’t be there. It’s possible that vaccine genetic material has integrated with human DNA, causing long-term spike production.”
Several posts repeated the same claim, and many linked to one report on Substack, written by Alex Berenson. Berenson is a former reporter at The New York Times who has been described as a “vaccine skeptic” due to his accounts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the responses to it. According to The Atlantic, he made numerous disproved assertions during the pandemic. Likewise, fact-checking outlet PolitiFact gave a “false” rating to a claim linked to Berenson that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had said more young people had been hospitalized from the COVID-19 vaccine than the virus itself.
Berenson’s Substack report was titled: “URGENT: Yale researchers have found Covid spike protein in the blood of people never infected with Covid – years after they got mRNA jabs.”
He was referring to a 2022 study — launched by a team at Yale and led by immunobiologist Akiko Iwasaki — to track the effects of long COVID in an effort to associate symptoms to biological markers (biological molecules found in bodily fluids that indicate normal or abnormal processes, such as illness). They began by recruiting patients with self-reported long COVID symptoms and later added patients with self-reported post-vaccination syndrome (PVS) to the study. They named this study LISTEN, which stands for Listen to Immune, Symptom and Treatment Experiences Now.
Participants are invited to report on their health status and all factors that might contribute to it, including demographics, clinical history, social life and the environment. Some participants are then asked to send in blood and saliva samples. Participants are also invited to take part in video “town halls,” in which the team shares its preliminary findings. Some of these town halls are widely accessible online while others are not.
In his report, Berenson cited two anonymous sources for his claim. One of them, he said, is a participant in the study and “directly heard the reports from the Yale researchers on the conference call,” while the other is a scientist who is not part of the Yale team but is allegedly in contact with some of its members.
What Are Spike Proteins?
Spike proteins cover the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, giving it its crown (“corona”) aspect. These spikes bind to human cells in order to infect them. The spikes themselves do not cause the illness, but they do enable it. However, spike proteins are the ones scientists used to develop the Pfizer and Moderna messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines.
The vaccines place small strands of mRNA with the genetic code for the spike proteins into the body. Those strands of mRNA penetrate certain human cells, known as dendritic cells, which begin to produce spike-like proteins, which spread throughout the body. Later, immune cells use these proteins to produce antibodies that will block the actual virus’ spike proteins from binding to people’s cells and infecting them.
How an Anti-Vaxxer’s Speculation Went Viral
The alleged finding, as outlined by Berenson, is that the team found spike proteins in the blood of vaccinated people who had never been infected by the virus. One of them had received their last jab more than 700 days prior and others had received their last jabs more than 450 days prior. This, Berenson speculated, could mean that the body itself was producing spike proteins after the genetic material “integrated” with human DNA.
However, as of this writing, the team had not published its results. Berenson reported that they were working on posting a so-called “pre-print” — an article not yet peer-reviewed.
Berenson’s speculation spread widely online among vaccine skeptics. However, he added a caveat to his report by saying that the team at Yale had brought forth no proof that the genetic material had “integrated” with the DNA. In fact, lower in his report, he said this would be “unlikely.” Further, he added that the appearance of the spike protein in participants’ samples may not have medical relevance:
To be clear, the finding does not provide definitive proof of genetic integration, or what researchers call “transfection.” For that, researchers must extract DNA from human cells and find the genetic sequences the vaccine delivers. How frequently the spike protein is appearing and whether the levels might have clinically significant consequences are also unclear.
Rather, he speculated that there may have been some “vaccine batches with more DNA contaminant” early in the distribution of new mRNA vaccines.
Snopes contacted the team at Yale via email for clarification. They declined to comment on the nature of the findings. However, they did say they would publish a preprint soon:
The research team is actively conducting a portfolio of studies focusing on post-infectious and postvaccination syndromes (PVS). As part of this work, we had shared some preliminary data on PVS with lab members and participants. This research is ongoing, and we are committed to thorough validation and rigorous analysis. Once the study is complete, we will make the findings publicly available as a preprint and submit them to a peer-reviewed journal. Until then, we prefer not to comment publicly on the details of the research at this stage. We are working diligently to advance this work and look forward to sharing the results soon.
Once they do, Snopes will update this story.
Sources
Berenson, Alex. ‘URGENT: Yale Researchers Have Found Covid Spike Protein in the Blood of People Never Infected with Covid – Years after They Got mRNA Jabs’. Unreported Truths, 19 Dec. 2024, https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/urgent-yale-researchers-have-found.’Comparing the COVID-19 Vaccines: How Are They Different?’ Yale Medicine, https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/covid-19-vaccine-comparison. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.Ecarma, Caleb. ‘An Ex-New York Times Reporter Has Become the Right’s Go-To Coronavirus Skeptic’. Vanity Fair, 10 Apr. 2020, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/ex-new-york-times-alex-berenson-coronavirus-skeptic.Frequently Asked Questions. https://medicine.yale.edu/ycci/listen-study/faq/. Accessed 3 Jan. 2025.Https://Www.Cancer.Gov/Publications/Dictionaries/Cancer-Terms/Def/Biomarker. 2 Feb. 2011, https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/biomarker.Https://Www.Cancer.Gov/Publications/Dictionaries/Cancer-Terms/Def/Dendritic-Cell. 2 Feb. 2011, https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/dendritic-cell.Kertscher, Tom. ‘More Youths Hospitalized for Vaccine than for Virus? False’. @politifact, https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/jun/30/instagram-posts/cdc-says-more-young-people-hospitalized-vaccine-co/. Accessed 27 Dec. 2024.M.Sc, Benedette Cuffari. ‘What Are Spike Proteins?’ News-Medical, 12 June 2020, https://www.news-medical.net/health/What-are-Spike-Proteins.aspx.The Yale LISTEN Study. https://medicine.yale.edu/ycci/listen-study/. Accessed 27 Dec. 2024.Thompson, Derek. ‘The Pandemic’s Wrongest Man’. The Atlantic, 1 Apr. 2021, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/pandemics-wrongest-man/618475/.What Are mRNA Vaccines and How Do They Work?: MedlinePlus Genetics. https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/therapy/mrnavaccines/. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.