Local LA theaters bring puppets and movies to families for respite from fires

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

The carpeted floor of the main theater at Vidiots is drizzled with popcorn as dozens of children and their families crowd around a puppet show. Show tunes blast over the speaker as a puppet named Yellow Cat (who is, indeed, a yellow cat) prances and twirls across the floor.

Vidiots is a historic theater in northeast Los Angeles, a few miles from where fires are still burning in the Altadena and Pasadena neighborhoods. Vidiots joined forces with the Bob Baker Marionette Theater nearby to give families and parents a way to take their minds off the devastation.

Ryan Kellman / NPR

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NPRDiego Montoya shows off a marionette puppet.

“The show was planned as a way to give families some relief, an opportunity to do something that’s fun and silly. To sit back and get away from the chaos of the world right now,” says Yellow Cat’s puppet master, Diego Montoya. Vidiots also screened movies and gave out pajamas and coloring books. Many of the families at the free event earlier this week are victims of the fire in one way or another — some have lost homes, others have children who have lost schools.

Three-year-old Leo Bane is one of the spectators of the puppet show. Part of his school burned down in the Eaton Fire, so this event is a welcome distraction for Leo and his mother, Tania Verafield.

“I think this is the only two hours I haven’t been constantly checking my phone and trying to get updates and I feel just some relief at watching my son giggle [as he watches] these amazing puppets,” says Verafield.

Ryan Kellman / NPR

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NPRIris Wong (left) sits with her mothe, Tina Yen, and Tania Verafield holds her son, Leo Bane, as they watch the show.

Schools in the Pasadena and Altadena areas are largely closed as the fires continue to burn. The YMCA and local government are offering child care, but slots are filling up fast, and it’s falling on many families to look after their young ones. Many told me they’re relying on each other to get through this time.

“People don’t know LA. It’s an amazing community,” says Ursula Knudsen. Both of her children lost their school campuses to the fire, and her younger daughter saw her school in flames as she evacuated with her father. Their home was also severely damaged.

“It’s not like Altadena needed a tragedy to come together as a community. That’s what’s wild. It’s only showing up 100 times more than it already was,” Knudsen says.

Ryan Kellman / NPR

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NPRBuster Balloon shows off a puppet to children at the Vidiots theater.

Coming to this free event with puppets, movies, and even a 6-foot-tall roving giraffe mascot has brought a moment of relief for Knudsen and her friend, Kate Mallor, whose children’s schools were also severely damaged by the fire. “It’s been so beautiful to see other moms here and to see our classmates and be able to hug,” says Mallor.

The puppet show in the main theater draws to a close with a grand finale. Yellow Cat is dancing to Barbra Streisand’s “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” and that’s no coincidence, says Montoya, the puppeteer.

“It’s got a great message, you know, ‘Don’t rain on my parade, I’m going to have fun no matter what,'” Montoya says. “‘I’m going to do what brings me joy.'”

Ryan Kellman / NPR

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NPRPeople walk by the exterior of Vidiots, which has a sign that says, “Here for you LA.”

The California Newsroom is following the extreme weather from across the region. Click through to LAist’s coverage for the latest.
Copyright 2025 NPR

Business : Business Interruption Remains Top Concern For Business Risks In Malaysia In 2025 – Allianz

Business News

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 16 (Bernama) — Business interruption remains the top concern for business risks in Malaysia this year, alongside fire and explosion, as well as changes in legislation and regulation, according to the Allianz Risk Barometer 2025 report.

In a statement today, Allianz group’s corporate insurer, Allianz Commercial, said that business interruption retains its top spot in Malaysia, reflecting the severe supply chain disruptions experienced during and after the pandemic.

“For example, last year, Malaysia Airlines reduced its scheduled flight capacity by 20 per cent to mitigate the post-pandemic challenges of returning to normalcy in air travel due to new aircraft delivery delays and a global spare parts shortage that impacted their current fleet maintenance,” it said.

Tom Hanks’s new film Here is a stilted, manipulative disaster

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreRobert Zemeckis’s ambitions make sense. They’re admirable, even. From Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) to Forrest Gump (1994), his career has repeatedly sought to discover how technology can be used to tell old stories in an entirely new fashion. But the quest backfires – and increasingly so in his run of uncanny valleys this century, among them The Polar Express (2004) and Pinocchio (2022) – when there’s a failure to ask how said technology informs the story being told, beyond simply allowing it to exist. In more simple terms, to quote a film by Zemeckis’s mentor Steven Spielberg: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.”Here fits the bill perfectly. It’s bold in theory, a struggle to sit through in practice. The film is adapted from Richard McGuire’s 2014 graphic novel, in which panels are layered over each other in order to depict an anonymous living room corner across time, as we become silent observers through decades and centuries of mundane incidents. It renders individual existence as small but precious.Zemeckis replicates those panels-within-panels as a way to transition between scenes but without the graphic beauty of McGuire’s drawings. He may slingshot between eras – dinosaurs, the Lenni Lenape people pre-colonisation, the American Revolutionary War – yet we’re largely watching snippets from 20th- and 21st-century life play out in a static wide shot. For the most part, we’re stuck with the same family: Al Young (Paul Bettany), returning from the frontlines of the Second World War, his wife Rose (Kelly Reilly), their eldest son Richard (Tom Hanks), and his wife Margaret (Robin Wright), who first moves in after she becomes pregnant at the age of 18.It’s an idea that’s fresher in the realm of cinema, yet fairly routine in the world of museums and theme parks. And because we’re so physically detached from these actors’ expressions, performances are locked in broad, theatrical mode: every line is terribly well-pronounced, and limbs fly about in exaggerated gestures. Wright and Hanks, in particular, often have to fight against the forces of generative AI, used to create a kind of “digital makeup” to age them both up and down – applied to the footage not in post-production but in real-time, on set. It renders them both dead-eyed and waxy.Here is seemingly intended by Zemeckis as a homage or companion piece to Forrest Gump. He wrote the script with its screenwriter, Eric Roth; has reunited its stars Hanks and Wright; and applied that same naive, sickly sweet optimism, in which America’s little dreamers are given the weight of the mythic. We meet the previous owners of the house: suffragette Pauline (Michelle Dockery) warning her husband John (Gwilym Lee) against those newfangled flying machines, and inventor Leo (David Fynn) with his adoring pin-up bride Stella (Ophelia Lovibond). But their lives are all primarily driven by the forces of dramatic irony. Not a single character or emotion feels genuinely human.Uncanny valley: Robin Wright and Tom Hanks in ‘Here’

Tom Hanks’s new film Here is a stilted, manipulative disaster

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreRobert Zemeckis’s ambitions make sense. They’re admirable, even. From Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) to Forrest Gump (1994), his career has repeatedly sought to discover how technology can be used to tell old stories in an entirely new fashion. But the quest backfires – and increasingly so in his run of uncanny valleys this century, among them The Polar Express (2004) and Pinocchio (2022) – when there’s a failure to ask how said technology informs the story being told, beyond simply allowing it to exist. In more simple terms, to quote a film by Zemeckis’s mentor Steven Spielberg: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.”Here fits the bill perfectly. It’s bold in theory, a struggle to sit through in practice. The film is adapted from Richard McGuire’s 2014 graphic novel, in which panels are layered over each other in order to depict an anonymous living room corner across time, as we become silent observers through decades and centuries of mundane incidents. It renders individual existence as small but precious.Zemeckis replicates those panels-within-panels as a way to transition between scenes but without the graphic beauty of McGuire’s drawings. He may slingshot between eras – dinosaurs, the Lenni Lenape people pre-colonisation, the American Revolutionary War – yet we’re largely watching snippets from 20th- and 21st-century life play out in a static wide shot. For the most part, we’re stuck with the same family: Al Young (Paul Bettany), returning from the frontlines of the Second World War, his wife Rose (Kelly Reilly), their eldest son Richard (Tom Hanks), and his wife Margaret (Robin Wright), who first moves in after she becomes pregnant at the age of 18.It’s an idea that’s fresher in the realm of cinema, yet fairly routine in the world of museums and theme parks. And because we’re so physically detached from these actors’ expressions, performances are locked in broad, theatrical mode: every line is terribly well-pronounced, and limbs fly about in exaggerated gestures. Wright and Hanks, in particular, often have to fight against the forces of generative AI, used to create a kind of “digital makeup” to age them both up and down – applied to the footage not in post-production but in real-time, on set. It renders them both dead-eyed and waxy.Here is seemingly intended by Zemeckis as a homage or companion piece to Forrest Gump. He wrote the script with its screenwriter, Eric Roth; has reunited its stars Hanks and Wright; and applied that same naive, sickly sweet optimism, in which America’s little dreamers are given the weight of the mythic. We meet the previous owners of the house: suffragette Pauline (Michelle Dockery) warning her husband John (Gwilym Lee) against those newfangled flying machines, and inventor Leo (David Fynn) with his adoring pin-up bride Stella (Ophelia Lovibond). But their lives are all primarily driven by the forces of dramatic irony. Not a single character or emotion feels genuinely human.Uncanny valley: Robin Wright and Tom Hanks in ‘Here’

The 11 best gay sex scenes of the decade (so far), from Fellow Travelers to Queer

Travel

The industry’s sanitised, sexless era has finally fizzled out.
The 2010s witnessed a sharp decline in erotic mainstream filmmaking as a result of increasing scrutiny from the internet (and sometimes, those within the industry) over whether sex scenes are necessary in driving the plot forward. Although billion dollar franchises didn’t hesitate to gratuitously flaunt actor’s ripped bodies – for example, Chris [insert any last name here, honestly] in [again, insert any superhero film] – general raunchiness took somewhat of a hiatus.
Now, TV and film is horny again! 2023 smashers such as Oscar-nominated dramas Poor Things and Oppenheimer and, of course, Emerald Fennell’s bathtub thriller Saltburn heavily contributed to the industry’s increasing acceptance towards on-screen raunchiness.
And, from an LGBTQIA+ perspective, the sex is better than ever. For a while, straight-washing intimate scenes between two queer characters was the norm. This past year, however, has seen the community engage in blow-jobs, rimming, anal, armpit-licking, toe-sucking and – this one’s important – levitation. The accuracy… wow.
Here, we’re celebrating the 11 best GBQ male sex scenes of the decade (so far) in television and film.
All of Us Strangers (Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott)

Paul Mescal telling Andrew Scott that he’s been “thinking about sucking” his “cock” is the queer art that Megami was saying we need to “protect” on RuPaul’s Drag Race. Give Megami her flowers! In Andrew Haigh’s fantasy romance All of Us Strangers, Adam, a screenwriter, falls for his cheeky and mysterious neighbour Harry at the same time as he discovers his long-dead parents seemingly alive and well in his childhood home. (A rather eventful week for one person, eh.) Scott and Mescal’s chemistry is indisputable, particularly in their first intimate scene. With the two actors passionately caressing each other’s thighs before Harry performs fellatio (we’re using classy words, for now) on Adam, it’s steamy as hell, while also perfectly capturing the awkwardness and excitement of a first sexual encounter. Nude and sex scenes can often be gratuitous, but here, the sex is instrumental in depicting the blossoming romance between two rather lonely people. The Academy Awards are such a flop for snubbing this film.
Bros (Billy Eichner and Luke Macfarlane)

Whether you liked Bros or not, you can’t deny it delivers a rather accurate (and hilarious) depiction of how adventurous and kinky gay sex can be, especially with Luke Macfarlane and Billy Eichner’s dom-sub bedroom romp. After play-fighting leads to a smooch in a public park, Aaron (Macfarlane) and Bobby (Eichner) relocate their horniness to the former’s apartment, where he forces Eichner’s sardonic podcaster to lick his biceps before crushing his head and feeding him poppers. Penetrative sex is followed by a rather sweet conversation in which Aaron confides in Bobby about his dreams to be a chocolatier. That bit’s not important, but we liked it. For [insert really long time here], gay sex on-screen has been portrayed as somewhat similar to what the straights do – very false! – so it’s a breath of fresh air to see an intimate queer scene that’s not just kissing-missionary-cuddles.
Fellow Travelers (Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey)

As everyone knows, GAY TIMES is extremely passionate about advancing the rights of those within the toe-sucker community, and thankfully, Fellow Travelers brought the rather marginalised act to mainstream attention last year. Paramount’s period drama chronicles the volatile romance between two men over the course of four decades; from the Vietnam War protests of the 60s to the AIDS crisis of the 80s. Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey’s names were plastered over headlines as a result of their plethora of intimate sex scenes (we are also guilty of this), which was embraced by showrunner Ron Nyswaner. He told us: “If people are talking about Fellow Travelers, that’s all I care about.” The most iconic sequence occurs within 20 minutes of the first episode, with the sub-dom dynamic of their respective characters Hawkins Fuller and Tim Laughlin on full display as Bailey devours Bomer’s foot. We repeat: devours. This is the gay sex representation we need and deserve. Rights for toe-suckers, now!
It’s A Sin (Olly Alexander and various)

As well as receiving praise for its poignant depiction of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, award-worthy performances and for bringing a significant part of LGBTQIA+ history to a mainstream audience, It’s A Sin was lauded for its portrayal of queer desire. While the drama heavily illustrates how society demonised gay sex during this era, the first episode boasts a rare portrayal of queer sexual liberation when Olly Alexander‘s free-spirit Richie Tozer is seen hooking up with various men in a now-iconic montage.
Interview with the Vampire (Sam Reid and Jacob Anderson)

The limp-wrist elements of Anne Rice’s iconic gothic horror novel Interview with the Vampire were finally embraced on-screen with AMC’s acclaimed series, as opposed to the disappointingly sanitised 1994 film with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. Told from the perspective of Louis (Jacob Anderson), the series sees the bloodsucker recount his past life and toxic relationship with his sire and lover, Lestat (Sam Reid). In the first episode, the duo have a threesome with a sex worker called Ms. Lily, before fobbing her off to levitate in the air while Lestat sinks his fangs into Louis’ neck – butt naked, we should add.

Hotel SLO and SLO Film Center offer the perfect pairing with Indies + Eats

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

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What’s better than dinner and a movie? How about a culinary-related movie with a gourmet three-course prix fixe dinner curated to the film? The SLO Film Center at the Palm Theatre in partnership with Hotel SLO’s amazing steak house, Ox + Anchor, presents Indies + Eats, where the theater will screen a food-related film on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and either before or after, you go next door to the restaurant for an amazing meal created by Chef Ryan Fancher ($78 per meal, with $10 from each dinner supporting the SLO Film Center). Tickets are available online at thepalmtheatre.com, and dinner reservations are recommended at oxandanchor.com.

click to enlarge

Photo Courtesy Of Neon

This week’s film, on Jan. 16, 18, and 19, is Alexander Payne’s brilliantly funny independent smash hit Sideways (2004), about two middle-aged men—Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Jack (Thomas Haden Church)—who embark on a week-long road trip through California’s wine country.

On Jan. 23, 25, and 26, the Palm screens the incredible documentary The Biggest Little Farm (2018), about John and Molly Chester’s work to create a sustainable 200-acre farm outside of Los Angeles. Inspiring and informative!

Finally on Jan. 30, Feb. 1 and 2, see the food documentary The Search for General Tso (2014), that answers the question, who was General Tso and why are we still eating his chicken? Learn the origins of this iconic sweet and spicy Chinese American food. Δ

Hotel SLO and SLO Film Center offer the perfect pairing with Indies + Eats

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

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What’s better than dinner and a movie? How about a culinary-related movie with a gourmet three-course prix fixe dinner curated to the film? The SLO Film Center at the Palm Theatre in partnership with Hotel SLO’s amazing steak house, Ox + Anchor, presents Indies + Eats, where the theater will screen a food-related film on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and either before or after, you go next door to the restaurant for an amazing meal created by Chef Ryan Fancher ($78 per meal, with $10 from each dinner supporting the SLO Film Center). Tickets are available online at thepalmtheatre.com, and dinner reservations are recommended at oxandanchor.com.

click to enlarge

Photo Courtesy Of Neon

This week’s film, on Jan. 16, 18, and 19, is Alexander Payne’s brilliantly funny independent smash hit Sideways (2004), about two middle-aged men—Miles (Paul Giamatti) and Jack (Thomas Haden Church)—who embark on a week-long road trip through California’s wine country.

On Jan. 23, 25, and 26, the Palm screens the incredible documentary The Biggest Little Farm (2018), about John and Molly Chester’s work to create a sustainable 200-acre farm outside of Los Angeles. Inspiring and informative!

Finally on Jan. 30, Feb. 1 and 2, see the food documentary The Search for General Tso (2014), that answers the question, who was General Tso and why are we still eating his chicken? Learn the origins of this iconic sweet and spicy Chinese American food. Δ

New £10 UK entry requirement ‘casts cloud’ over NI’s £2bn tourist plan

Travel

‘Peace tourism’ to play a key part in Economy Minister Conor Murphy’s vision for growth in Northern Ireland
In what could be his last big policy announcement as minister, Sinn Fein Newry and Armagh MLA Conor Murphy revealed his vision of how to increase spending by overnight visitors by two thirds from £1.2bn.He said there would be a focus on ‘peace tourism’, while vowing to reverse what he said was a historical neglect of tourism by the formerly DUP-dominated department.Mr Murphy could vacate the ministry soon to take up a position in the Seanad, as he runs in the election to the upper house of the Oireachtas at the end of this month. MLAs Deirdre Hargey and Caoimhe Archibald have been tipped as successors, with the latter potentially moving from leading the Department of Finance.Mr Murphy said peace tourism was an aspect of visitor interest which had been “underplayed and undervalued”.“Quite a lot of tourists who come here come to see the legacy of conflict here, see the history of the place,” he said.“But there has always been a sensitivity about how you promote that, and so I think we’re giving confidence to develop a way of promoting what is already here as peace tourism, in a way which is sensitive to all of the issues that flow from the conflict.”He added: “There was always a sense that the tourism sector wasn’t being properly supported by the department.“I think this helps turn that around and encourages the industry to know that we consider tourism to be critical part of our economy here and one which we want to see supported and developed in the time ahead.”He said there were already “significant” attractions with a focus on peace tourism. “You go to the Museum of Free Derry and you see the numbers going there. I have never come out of our office on the Falls Road at any time of the year that there aren’t people down at the murals and people doing those black taxi tours.”The Museum of Free Derry is an existing example of ‘peace tourism’ in NI, Economy Minister Conor Murphy has saidElectronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) was introduced last week for international visitors to the UK, requiring them to have an additional permit costing £10. It applies to international visitors coming into Northern Ireland from the Republic, despite pleas for an exemption.Mr Murphy said: “There’s no doubt that that (ETA) cast a cloud over this.“We were producing and working on this tourism strategy while we were lobbying the British Government to change their view in terms of bringing in a travel authorisation issue.“They have gone ahead with it but we will continue to lobby them to point out that it’s a bad idea for Ireland and for international tourism on the island of Ireland.“But we have a duty in the meantime to continue to support the tourism industry to try and help it grow.”And he said he would have regrets about leaving the department without seeing his ambitions for the NI economy realised, if his Seanad candidacy is successful. “Yeah, of course, if I do end up leaving the economy department I will have regrets because I very much enjoyed my time here.“But I do so in the knowledge that we have turned around the strategic direction of the department and its agencies… Whoever comes into position after me will carry on that work in the same way that I’ve carried it on.”Asked if Deirdre Hargey, who deputised for Mr Murphy during a period of ill heath last year, would be his successor, he said: “That remains to be seen.”The action plan launched in the Titanic Quarter was attended by leaders from tourism, including Tourism NI chief executive John McGrillen.He said tourism leaders would keep lobbying for an exemption to the ETA for visitors coming from the Republic but would also work to ensure it wasn’t treated as more of a barrier than necessary. “In reality, it’s quite simple, it’s quite easy to do and the core message we need to get across here is that for the sake of £10, you do not want to miss what Northern Ireland has to offer.”Other aspects of the action plan include more funding for Tourism Ireland in its drive to draw international visitors to Northern Ireland, and an aviation policy to improve international connectivity.

New £10 UK entry requirement ‘casts cloud’ over NI’s £2bn tourist plan

Travel

‘Peace tourism’ to play a key part in Economy Minister Conor Murphy’s vision for growth in Northern Ireland
In what could be his last big policy announcement as minister, Sinn Fein Newry and Armagh MLA Conor Murphy revealed his vision of how to increase spending by overnight visitors by two thirds from £1.2bn.He said there would be a focus on ‘peace tourism’, while vowing to reverse what he said was a historical neglect of tourism by the formerly DUP-dominated department.Mr Murphy could vacate the ministry soon to take up a position in the Seanad, as he runs in the election to the upper house of the Oireachtas at the end of this month. MLAs Deirdre Hargey and Caoimhe Archibald have been tipped as successors, with the latter potentially moving from leading the Department of Finance.Mr Murphy said peace tourism was an aspect of visitor interest which had been “underplayed and undervalued”.“Quite a lot of tourists who come here come to see the legacy of conflict here, see the history of the place,” he said.“But there has always been a sensitivity about how you promote that, and so I think we’re giving confidence to develop a way of promoting what is already here as peace tourism, in a way which is sensitive to all of the issues that flow from the conflict.”He added: “There was always a sense that the tourism sector wasn’t being properly supported by the department.“I think this helps turn that around and encourages the industry to know that we consider tourism to be critical part of our economy here and one which we want to see supported and developed in the time ahead.”He said there were already “significant” attractions with a focus on peace tourism. “You go to the Museum of Free Derry and you see the numbers going there. I have never come out of our office on the Falls Road at any time of the year that there aren’t people down at the murals and people doing those black taxi tours.”The Museum of Free Derry is an existing example of ‘peace tourism’ in NI, Economy Minister Conor Murphy has saidElectronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) was introduced last week for international visitors to the UK, requiring them to have an additional permit costing £10. It applies to international visitors coming into Northern Ireland from the Republic, despite pleas for an exemption.Mr Murphy said: “There’s no doubt that that (ETA) cast a cloud over this.“We were producing and working on this tourism strategy while we were lobbying the British Government to change their view in terms of bringing in a travel authorisation issue.“They have gone ahead with it but we will continue to lobby them to point out that it’s a bad idea for Ireland and for international tourism on the island of Ireland.“But we have a duty in the meantime to continue to support the tourism industry to try and help it grow.”And he said he would have regrets about leaving the department without seeing his ambitions for the NI economy realised, if his Seanad candidacy is successful. “Yeah, of course, if I do end up leaving the economy department I will have regrets because I very much enjoyed my time here.“But I do so in the knowledge that we have turned around the strategic direction of the department and its agencies… Whoever comes into position after me will carry on that work in the same way that I’ve carried it on.”Asked if Deirdre Hargey, who deputised for Mr Murphy during a period of ill heath last year, would be his successor, he said: “That remains to be seen.”The action plan launched in the Titanic Quarter was attended by leaders from tourism, including Tourism NI chief executive John McGrillen.He said tourism leaders would keep lobbying for an exemption to the ETA for visitors coming from the Republic but would also work to ensure it wasn’t treated as more of a barrier than necessary. “In reality, it’s quite simple, it’s quite easy to do and the core message we need to get across here is that for the sake of £10, you do not want to miss what Northern Ireland has to offer.”Other aspects of the action plan include more funding for Tourism Ireland in its drive to draw international visitors to Northern Ireland, and an aviation policy to improve international connectivity.