   
CEO Picks - The best that international journalism has to offer!
 S65Persona Developer Raises Worker Pay As Game Dev Layoffs Continue Worldwide   Layoffs have dominated games industry headlines in 2023, and they seem unlikely to stop any time soon. While employment in the games industry has always been precarious, this devastating past year may give the impression more than ever that game development at a large scale simply can’t be sustainable. But in the midst of all the pink slips, at least one developer has something positive to share for once.Atlus announced that it’s raising annual salaries for all of its employees and contractors by 15 percent starting next April, Game Developer reports. Along with that raise, it’s also increasing starting pay by roughly $2,000 and implementing employee bonuses based on the company’s profits. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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S1How Canva Made Easy Graphic Design a Billion-Dollar Tech Tool  Since it began 10 years ago, Canva has grown into one of the world's most valuable private software companies. The company says it has roughly 150 million users and that more than 200 new designs are made every second. So how does the Australian design firm plan to make the next decade just as successful? In this episode of Future Ready, CEO Melanie Perkins tells Bloomberg's Emily Chang how prioritizing consumer and employee experience in addition to artificial intelligence will play key roles.
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S43 Strategies for Making Better, More Informed Decisions  As humans, we tend to interpret information in a way that confirms our existing beliefs and serves our own self-interest. In situations that lack clarity, we often make assumptions that serve to bolster our egos and self-esteem. We selectively interpret information to support our own position, and overlook or dismiss information that contradicts our views. This is known as the self-serving bias, and it can lead to suboptimal decision-making or even contribute to conflict, as we become more entrenched in our own positions and less willing to consider alternative perspectives. The author offers three strategies to help you combat this bias: 1) Consider the source of the information you’re relying on; 2) Think counterfactually about previous decisions you’ve made; and 3) Seek out information that challenges your assumptions.
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S5Good Leadership Is About Asking Good Questions  Especially when they find themselves in the midst of crisis and uncertainty, leaders should ask powerful and inspiring questions. Asking questions well can put you on the path to solving intractable problems and will also help you connect with others and, counterintuitively, to earn their trust. Those questions should be big in scope: What new opportunities have emerged that we don’t want to miss? How might we use new technologies to change our business model? And you should involve others in answering those questions —employees, stakeholders, and even customers. Doing so can not only help you generate better answers, it can also help you to change your organization’s culture.
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S6Webinar: Balancing Change and Continuity During a Transformation  Our special report on innovation systems will help leaders guide teams that rely on virtual collaboration, explores the potential of new developments, and provides insights on how to manage customer-led innovation.Our special report on innovation systems will help leaders guide teams that rely on virtual collaboration, explores the potential of new developments, and provides insights on how to manage customer-led innovation.As digital transformation work unfolds, many companies find cultural barriers insurmountable. Why? Because leaders often fail to strike the right balance between continuity and change, creating cultural chaos that stalls progress.
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S7'Shrinkflation' isn't a trend - it's a permanent hit to your wallet  If you've noticed you're getting less while your bill at the till stays the same, it's not just you.'Shrinkflation' – reducing a product's size or quantity while keeping its price stable – is rampant. As the global economy grapples with issues including rising raw material costs, supply chain backlogs and higher post-pandemic labourer wages, consumers are bearing the brunt of spiking production expenses.
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S8UAW auto strike: Why US Automotive CEOs make more than global competition  At 23:59 on 14 Sept, roughly 13,000 workers at three of the largest automakers in the US went on strike. After eight weeks of unsuccessful negotiations among the United Auto Workers union (UAW) and the companies – General Motors (GM), Ford and Stellantis – workers walked off the job when contracts expired. Thousands more workers have since joined the strike in 38 locations across 20 states, and President Biden is expected to show support by walking the picket line this week.At the top of the UAW's demands is a 40% pay increase across four years (that number was lowered to 36% a few days after the strike began, after ongoing negotiations). Union president Shawn Fain has made the canyon-like gap between CEO and worker pay the foremost banner of the strike.
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S9Wendell Pierce on black resilience in America  An expert storyteller, actor Wendell Pierce uses language to infuse emotion, insight and even levity into the most sensitive subjects. At New Orleans' National WWII Museum, Pierce joins journalist and author Katty Kay on the premiere of her unscripted new series.Pierce, the renowned, Juilliard School-educated actor, shot to popularity for his on-screen roles in The Wire and Suits, and on-stage in Death of a Salesman. Alongside sharing the secrets behind the emotive acting style that's earned him a slew of creative accolades, Pierce also shares a unique lesson about race and resilience in America.
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S10The Crown season 6 review: A 'clumsy, predictable' end to the Royal Family drama  In its sixth and final season, The Crown doesn't waste a second in getting to its most obvious, looming event. The first episode starts with a man walking his dog on a narrow street, and as soon as we spot the Eiffel Tower, we know what's coming. A black car speeds into a tunnel, followed by more cars and motorcycles, and the sound of a deadly crash. All the while we never leave the dog walker, who takes out his phone to call for help. That scene, with a trajectory so familiar we can fill in the blanks, points to what's weakest about this new season. Instead of righting the near-disaster of last season, it leans into its flaws, including the miscasting of the earthy Dominic West as Prince Charles and the endless, unenlightening reconstructions of the real images and videos that have become part of the culture, recognisable around the world even to viewers too young to remember the 1990s or Diana's death first-hand.But this season's best moments so far, glimmering through here and there, affirm what has always been the show's most successful, tantalising and satisfying element: the imagined scenes. Starting with Princess Elizabeth in 1947, the series has played off reality while dramatising what the Royal Family might have said and done. There has always been a gap between the series' popularity and some public hand-wringing about those imaginative leaps. Last season the biggest controversy centred on the idea that Charles had asked Prime Minister John Major to help him nudge the Queen toward abdication, an encounter the real Major called "a barrel-load of nonsense".
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S11Radicals and Rogues: These subversive 1910s women made New York cool - but were written out of history  New York is undoubtedly one of the most culturally vibrant cities in the world. But it wasn't always so. In Radicals and Rogues: The women who made New York modern, the writer and researcher Lottie Whalen reveals that its transformation in the early decades of the 20th Century was largely thanks to a bold, taboo-busting cohort of women who pushed boundaries both creatively and socially. As artists, writers, salon hosts and patrons they passionately embraced new forms of living, loving and creating.They "were harnessing a restless energy sweeping across both the US and Europe in the early 20th Century," Whalen tells BBC Culture. Everyone from trade unionists to anarchists were agitating for more rights and looking for new ways of living. "Women in particular didn't want to live the same lives as their mothers… they wanted to be active participants in all aspects of life," she says.
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S12Twenty years after section 28 repeal, lessons still need to be learned from UK's homophobic law  November 18 2023 marks the 20 year anniversary of the repeal of section 28 in England and Wales. This law silenced any discussion of lesbian and gay matters in schools, and was law for 15 years between 1988 and 2003. It stated that local authorities: “shall not … promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”.I was a teacher for every year of section 28. And I and other LGBTQ+ teachers feared we would lose our jobs if we were outed in our school workplaces.
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S13FDA's latest warnings about eye drop contamination put consumers on edge - a team of infectious disease experts explain the risks  The Food and Drug Administration issued a warning in late October 2023 urging consumers to avoid purchasing and to immediately stop using 26 over-the-counter eye drop products because of risk of eye infection that could result in partial vision loss or even blindness. More products were soon added to the list, and a few others have been voluntarily recalled. No cases of eye infection from the products have been reported as of mid-November 2023. It’s just the latest in a series of warnings and recalls related to bacterial or fungal contamination of these products.The Conversation spoke with assistant professor of infectious diseases Alexander Sundermann and Daria Van Tyne, an assistant professor of medicine – both from the University of Pittsburgh – to explain how such contamination can occur and what consumers can do to protect themselves.
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S14'From the river to the sea' - a Palestinian historian explores the meaning and intent of scrutinized slogan  What does the call “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” mean to Palestinians who say it? And why do they keep using the slogan despite the controversy that surrounds its use?As both a scholar of Palestinian history and someone from the Palestinian diaspora, I have observed the decades-old phrase gain new life – and scrutiny – in the massive pro-Palestinian marches in the U.S. and around the world that have occurred during the Israeli bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
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S15S16S17No, you're not that good at detecting fake videos - 2 misinformation experts explain why and how you can develop the power to resist these deceptions  Someone tracking the conflict raging in the Middle East could have seen the following two videos on social media. The first shows a little boy hovering over his father’s dead body, whimpering in Arabic, “Don’t leave me.” The second purports to show a pregnant woman with her stomach slashed open and claims to document the testimony of a paramedic who handled victims’ bodies after Hamas’ attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.Even though these videos come from different sides of the Israel-Hamas war, what they share far exceeds what separates them. Because both videos, though real, have nothing to do with the events they claim to represent. The clip of the boy is from Syria in 2016; the one of the woman is from Mexico in 2018.
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S18Fewer U.S. college students are studying a foreign language - and that spells trouble for national security  When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, on Oct. 4, 1957, it did more than spark fears about America’s ability to compete technologically. It also raised concerns that the U.S. had a shortage of Russian speakers capable of monitoring Soviet scientific and military activities. More than six decades later, a new Modern Language Association report is raising concerns about America’s foreign language capabilities anew. The report shows that the study of languages other than English at the university level experienced an unprecedented drop of 16.6% between 2016 and 2021.
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S19S20Pluto: Netflix's anime masterpiece explores how robots 'feel' when humans exploit them  There have been many TV shows and films inspired by the dual fear and excitement surrounding advances in artificial intelligence (AI). But not many exhibit such masterful craft and profound humanity as the new Netflix anime miniseries, Pluto. Pluto is adapted from a manga series of the same title (2003-2009), created by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki. The manga version – considered a comic masterpiece for its beautiful art and sophisticated storyline – incorporated fundamental elements from Osamu Tezuka’s celebrated manga series Astro Boy (1952-1968), including the beloved android adolescent who was the titular character.
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S21Jurassic Park: why we're still struggling to realise it 30 years on  Jurassic Park is arguably the ultimate Hollywood blockbuster. Aside from the appeal of human-chomping dinosaurs, tense action sequences and ground-breaking cinematography, its release in 1993 was a movies-meet-science milestone.As global audiences were soaking up the gory action, the premise of the movie - extracting DNA from fossil insects preserved in amber to resurrect dinosaurs - was given the credibility of publication by several high-profile studies on fossil amber. The authors recovered ancient DNA from amber, and even revived amber-hosted bacteria. The world seemed primed for a real-life Jurassic Park.
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S22Myanmar's military junta appears to be in terminal decline  Myint Swe, the acting president of Mynamar’s military government, has warned that the country “will be split into various parts” after his armed forces suffered huge territorial losses to resistance fighters recently. His response was to call on Mynamar’s people to support his military forces, a call that is likely, based on previous experience, to fall mainly on deaf ears.Far from sharing the military government’s fears of shrinking territorial control, it’s likely that most among Myanmar’s 55 million people will celebrate the army’s territorial losses. Junta misreads like this are not new – after they seized power in February 2021, the coup leaders indicated surprise when the coup met with widespread outrage and sustained public protest and resistance.
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S23China: why there has been a sudden 'surge' of antisemitism in the People's Republic  During the conflict between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, many nations have tried to maintain a neutral stance by not explicitly supporting either side. But despite attempts at balanced commentaries at the top of business and politics, there has been evidence of rising antisemitism in many countries. One of these has been China.This has come as a surprise. Since 2010, China’s political and economic ties with Israel have grown substantially. This includes a dramatic increase in Chinese tourism to Israel, academic links and investment in Israeli science and technology from large Chinese companies such as Baidu, Alibaba and Ping An.
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S24Can ketchup really be used as a sports supplement, as a new advert suggests?  In the world of endurance sports, how athletes fuel themselves can be the difference between success and struggle. Traditionally, athletes have relied on specialised energy gels for a quick and easily digestible source of carbohydrates during extended workouts. But now a surprising contender has emerged: Heinz ketchup packets, thanks to a new ad featuring runners using them as their supplement of choice.Taste is a crucial factor when choosing supplements, especially during strenuous endurance efforts. Traditional sports foods offer various flavours to cater to athletes’ palates. Heinz ketchup packets bring a familiar tangy taste, but the savoury nature of ketchup might not appeal to everyone during a workout. Personal preference matters, as an unpalatable choice could lead to digestive issues and detract from an athlete’s true potential.
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S25Six ways the upcoming autumn statement could affect your personal finances  The UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt will have limited room for manoeuvre when he makes his autumn statement about the government’s financial plans on November 22. The government is committed to supporting the Bank of England’s current strategy for reducing inflation, which involves using rate hikes to slow down economic activity. This means Hunt can’t take any steps that would immediately boost spending by people, businesses or the government, such as across-the-board income tax cuts. But he is likely to focus on extending tax breaks for business investment aimed at stimulating economic growth over time.
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S26New Beatles and Rolling Stones music owes much of its success to the psychology of nostalgia  Throughout the 1960s, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles were engaged in a friendly rivalry. Despite being amicable in person, they were in competition for record sales, cultural influence and aesthetic credibility.Despite their enormous popularity, however, not even the most ardent fans of either band would have expected that such a competition would still be going on more than 50 years later. And yet, the Stones recently reached number one on the UK album charts with their album Hackney Diamonds, and the Beatles have done the same on the singles charts.
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S27There are too few toilets in Africa and it's a public health hazard - how to fix the problem  Imagine you are miles from the nearest restroom, and nature’s call is urgent – a situation that might raise a mild panic during a hike or at a music festival. Now, picture that same scenario, not as a one-off inconvenience, but as a daily reality. This is the case for about half a billion people globally. In African countries, the issue of open defecation often goes unaddressed by society and policymakers despite its negative impact on health, economic development, dignity and the environment.
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S28Nkoli: The Vogue Opera - the making of a musical about a queer liberation activist in South Africa  The history of South Africa’s struggle against apartheid (separatist white minority rule) is taught only through the broadest of brushstrokes in the country’s schools. So might music be a way to bring the story of one anti-apartheid activist alive for a new generation? And when that activist is a Black gay man, Simon Nkoli (1957-1998), how do you reclaim his story from the stereotypes all of those labels potentially carry?We’d be at the Skyline; Simon would have a dance, have fun – and also be an Aids activist, talking to people about condoms.
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S29Development aid cuts will hit fragile countries hard, could fuel violent conflict  Fragile and least developed countries have had their development assistance cut drastically, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. For instance, net official development assistance to sub-Saharan African countries has shrunk by 7.8% compared to 2021. And development aid for peace and conflict prevention has declined to its lowest in 15 years. These cuts will hit fragile countries hard. Fragile countries make up 24% of the world’s population and account for 73% of the world’s extreme poor. The list includes Mali, Lebanon, Somalia, Syria and Iraq.
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S30Climate change and farming: economists warn more needs to be done to adapt in sub-Saharan Africa  Sub-Saharan African countries strongly rely on the agricultural and forestry sectors. Agriculture contributes up to 60% of some countries’ gross domestic product. But the sector is highly vulnerable to climate change because it relies heavily on climatic factors. This vulnerability is particularly marked in the region because of its slow rate of technological advancement.As agricultural economists we carried out a review of the literature on the climate change challenge for agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. We explored the distribution of various climatic factors (like rainfall, temperature and extreme weather events) across the region, and their impact on agriculture. We also investigated what rural farmers were doing to respond to climate change.
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S31Palestine was never a 'land without a people'  Modern settlers to Palestine viewed the desert as something they needed to “make bloom.” But it already was, thanks to the long history of Palestinian agricultural systems.As violence continues to erupt in Gaza, and more than 200 hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 remain missing, many of us are seeking to better understand the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has been raging for decades.
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S32How colonialist depictions of Palestinians feed western ideas of eastern 'barbarism'  Like so many other Palestinians, my friend Abeer Salah (not her real name) lives in exile. For Salah, home is Baqa’a refugee camp 20 kilometres north of Jordan’s capital of Amman. But she has family and friends trapped in Gaza. Since the horrific Hamas attacks of Oct. 7 and Israel’s catastrophic military action in Gaza, she has been watching the news and social media closely. Recently, Salah shared a video clip of Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, holding up a brick to show how “terrorist” Palestinians throw them at soldiers and settlers. The clip, recorded last year, has been circulating again.
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S33AI: how it hands power to machines to transform the way we view the world  There are signs of AI everywhere, it’s behind everything from customer service chatbots to the personalised ads we receive when browsing online. However, we remain largely unaware of the hidden algorithms doing the heavy legwork behind the scenes.Too heavy a human reliance on technology can reduce creative and critical thinking. AI has already led to job displacements and unemployment. And, while the warnings that it could lead to human extinction shouldn’t be taken at face value, we can’t afford to completely dismiss them either.
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S34Rwanda plan: Rishi Sunak has insisted on pushing ahead - here's where he could take it next  The UK supreme court has ruled against the government’s plan to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing. But this isn’t the end of the story – a version of the plan is likely to resurface in some form. The initial reactions from the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and his new home secretary, James Cleverly, shed light on where the government plans to take this next.After months of legal challenges, the UK supreme court ruled that the Rwanda plan was unlawful. The ruling was not about the concept of off-shoring the asylum process to another country. Rather, it found that Rwanda in particular is not currently a “safe country” in which to do this. The court found that people sent to Rwanda would be at risk of ill-treatment and forcible return to the countries they had fled in search of protection.
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S35Viral TikTok raises concerns about a commonly prescribed contraceptive - what you need to know  A viral TikTok video by online influencer Morgan Roos has panicked some users of a commonly prescribed injectable contraceptive called Depo-Provera. In the video, Roos said she was shocked to learn the contraceptive she had been using for ten years was only recommended for a maximum of two years. Roos said she was only told this when she switched to a female doctor. Many viewers commented that they too had been using Depo-Provera for years – some for as long as 17 years without any guidance from healthcare professionals, male or female, that they should have stopped after just two. But is there really cause for panic?
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S36Stoicism on Tiktok promises happiness - but the ancient philosophers who came up with it had something very different in mind  I don’t know about you, but my TikTok is full of influencers telling me I should be a Stoic. You might know the term “stoic” as a person who goes through hardship while maintaining a steely and calm disposition, and never complains. However, a stoic is also someone who prescribes to the philosophical school of Stoicism. Stoicism became popular in ancient Rome. Stoic TikTok exclusively draws on Roman Stoicism, mainly Epictetus (a formerly enslaved person), Seneca (a fabulously wealthy and self-aggrandizing advisor to the emperor Nero), and Marcus Aurelius (who was himself a Roman emperor).
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S37Hamas isn't the first military group to hide behind civilians as a way to wage war  The Israeli military said on Nov. 15, 2023 that it had found weapons and a Hamas command center at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, after sending troops into the medical facility. Shifa has become the epicenter of Israel’s ground invasion into Gaza, as the Israeli military says that Hamas has strategically placed its fighters and weapons in a broad tunnel system that connects to the hospital, and that Hamas is using hospital workers and patients as human shields. The U.S. says its intelligence shows that Hamas, as The New York Times wrote, “has been using hospitals in Gaza, including Al-Shifa, as command centers and ammunitions depots.” Hamas has denied the allegations.
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S38Gaza Update: as the world debates 'ceasefires' and 'pauses', Israel is silent on the 'day after'  I spent several hours on Wednesday night wrestling over how we could best cover the raid by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital. My initial plan was to get an expert in international law to write a piece about the legality of such a raid under the various conventions that set out the rules of war. Article 13 of protocols added to the Geneva Conventions in 1977, which deals with the “discontinuance of protection of civilian medical units”, sets out that in certain circumstances hospitals and other medical units can be considered military targets – if, for example, they are being used to shelter combatants or store weapons or are being used as a command and control centre.
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S39Big cats eat more monkeys in a damaged tropical forest - and this could threaten their survival  Monkeys are not usually a popular menu item for big cats. Primates are, after all, hard to catch: living in the canopies of large trees and rarely coming down to the ground. Jaguar and puma have varied diets and will normally hunt the species that are most common where they live, such as deer, peccary (a type of wild pig) and armadillo.Other studies have already found that when there is less of their usual prey around, big cats turn to alternatives. The changes in jaguar and puma diets that my colleagues and I recorded may indicate that the populations of these normal prey are shrinking, or that something in the environment has changed to make catching and eating primates easier.
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S40NZ wants more seasonal workers - but Pacific nations no longer want to be the 'outposts' that 'grow' them  The three party leaders currently negotiating to form New Zealand’s next government might have their differences, but they seem to agree on one thing: the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme needs to expand.New Zealand, like Australia, faces critical labour shortages in some sectors, with real implications for future economic performance. The RSE scheme, which has delivered thousands of crucial workers in viticulture and horticulture since it began in 2007, is the logical solution.
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S41Friday essay: Rai Gaita and the moral power of conversation  Both Juliet and Maria have an ongoing connection to Rai via their literary and academic lives.Ever since the University of Melbourne took from us Rai Gaita’s public lecture series we have been going to Rai’s house in St Kilda to talk. Not regularly, life is too much for that, whenever we can though.
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S42S43Grey Cup 2023: Canadian institution or antiquated tradition?  As football fans tune into the 110th Grey Cup on Nov. 19, there will most likely be fewer of them watching than in the past. While the Grey Cup and Canadian football were once considered significant national institutions, part of their allure appears to have faded over the years. Canadian football evolved from British rugby and has been played for over 150 years. The creation of Canadian football was a direct expression of national identity that promoted pride and patriotism, and was a way to differentiate Canada from Britain and the United States.
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S44Verdict in Nathaniel Veltman trial provides a legal roadmap on how acts of terrorism can result in first-degree murder convictions  On June 6, 2021, five members of the Afzaal family were out for an evening walk in London, Ont., when they were deliberately targeted and struck by a man driving a black pickup truck. Only the nine-year-old son survived the attack. Hours after the incident, police stated that the family was struck intentionally. The trial for the accused killer, Nathaniel Veltman, began on Sept. 5 in Windsor, Ont. The final arguments began on Nov. 14, closing the 11-week trial. On Nov. 16, after deliberating for six hours, the jury returned a verdict of guilty of four counts of first-degree murder and one account of attempted murder.
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S45S46S47What is LockBit, the cybercrime gang hacking some of the world's largest organisations?  While ransomware incidents have been occurring for more than 30 years, only in the last decade has the term “ransomware” appeared regularly in popular media. Ransomware is a type of malicious software that blocks access to computer systems or encrypts files until a ransom is paid.Cybercriminal gangs have adopted ransomware as a get-rich-quick scheme. Now, in the era of “ransomware as a service”, this has become a prolific and highly profitable tactic. Providing ransomware as a service means groups benefit from affiliate schemes where commission is paid for successful ransom demands.
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S48What does it mean to be asexual?  In recent years, we’ve seen a burgeoning social movement for the acceptance of asexuality. We’ve also seen more asexual characters popping up in shows such as Heartstopper and Sex Education.Asexuality refers to low or no sexual attraction. However, this does not mean all people who identify as asexual, or the shorthand “ace”, never experience sexual attraction or never have sex.
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S49S50S51Big data play a huge role in US presidential elections. Do they have the same impact here?  A key reason Barack Obama won the 2012 US presidential election was his campaign’s use of “big data” to target specific voters. His team created multiple versions of ads aimed at niche audiences, taking care to test every message. Naturally, some have worried about the potential power of these data-driven campaign techniques to manipulate voters. But have these methods taken over election campaigns in Australia?
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S52The Crown season six: an overly detailed, unimaginative soap opera - I needed a martini to get through it  The opening scene of season six of The Crown sees a man walking his dog under the light of the Eiffel Tower. It’s 1997 and a Mercedes car speeds past and ends in a horrendous crash in a Paris tunnel. The man’s dog is being recalcitrant and refusing to take its evening wee.When The Crown debuted in 2016, the quality of the story lines, acting and impressive production standards were so striking that millions of viewers discovered the addiction of bingeing a television program; episodes would be viewed on a loop and toilet breaks would be delayed.
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S53Henri Lopes, the prime minister of Congo who became a famous novelist: behind the power of his writing  “On the other bank … that is where Henri Lopes now rests,” wrote novelist and journalist Nicolas Michel in a beautiful tribute to mark the passing of the celebrated Congolese author. It’s a reference, of course, to Lopes’ 1992 novel Sur l'autre Rive (On the Other Bank). Identity is a key theme in his work, as is colonisation, its after-effects, and the politics of postcolonial Africa. The novels, driven by a quest for social justice, include meditations on women’s rights, dictatorial regimes, racism and a questioning of certain ancestral traditions. It’s not surprising they are political in nature. Lopes was a teacher turned politician who served as prime minister of Congo-Brazzaville.
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S54Siskel, Ebert, and the Secret of Criticism  Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, who went on the air together for the first time in 1975, have been off the air for a long time now. Siskel died in 1999, and Ebert bowed out in 2011, two years before his death. But, for many people, they remain the very exemplars of film criticism. Fellow-critics still admire their vigorous, wide-ranging discussions while, for the public at large, their thumbs-up/thumbs-down gimmick, which they came up with in 1982, has proved indelible. The story of their rise to fame is told in enticing detail by Matt Singer in a joint biography titled—what else?—“Opposable Thumbs.” For Singer, the critic at ScreenCrush and the current chairperson of the New York Film Critics Circle, the book is clearly a labor of love. He writes that his own aspiration to be a critic was sparked by their show, which he began watching obsessively as a middle schooler, in the early nineteen-nineties.Singer’s admirably fanatical research renders this obsession tangible. He seems to have absorbed every moment that the duo spent onscreen, whether on their own show or other people’s. (They were Johnny Carson and David Letterman regulars for years). He has combed his heroes’ writings and interviewed their colleagues, friends, family, and fellow-critics. But, more than merely gathering this material, he has thought deeply about it, and the best thing about the book is the way that it highlights some of the basic quandaries that critics confront (or avoid) daily. These fundamental conundrums of criticism involve questions about specialism, authority, personality, art, and business. And, with Siskel and Ebert, these dilemmas came into play long before the duo joined forces on television. Both Illinois natives, the two men came to their critical careers by very different paths, but they had one crucial thing in common: neither had set out to be a film critic.
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S55The Left Comes for Biden on Israel  At a moment of almost unrelenting bad news—of war in the Middle East and Europe and violence-tinged political rancor at home—somehow, the first thing I managed to see on Thursday morning was an unexpected bit of geopolitical cheer: the Chinese leader Xi Jinping had signalled his willingness to have China send new giant pandas to the United States, to replace the beloved aging bears that were driven away from the National Zoo in a sad convoy of FedEx trucks last week and put on an airplane for a flight back to their ancestral home. Xi, who was in San Francisco for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and to meet with President Joe Biden for their first face-to-face session in a year, had announced at a dinner with business leaders on Wednesday that he was prepared to deploy a new set of furry “envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American people.” He also leaned hard into comforting clichés of the not-so-distant past, reassuring the executives in attendance—some of whom had paid forty thousand dollars a table to dine with him—that China is no adversary and, in fact, still hopes to be “a partner and friend of the United States.” The return of panda diplomacy might have been the most concrete sign yet that war is neither imminent nor inevitable between the world’s two leading powers. At least that’s something.Biden’s meeting with Xi was a cordial enough session; the most substantive deliverables to come out of it were a modest promise to resume some military-to-military contact that had been cut off about a year earlier and a plan to work together to curb the supply of the deadly drug fentanyl to the United States. But a truer reflection of the current state of affairs between the two countries came in the President’s solo press conference afterward. Biden had finished his largely pro-forma remarks about what he called America’s responsible competition with China and was headed out of the room when he stopped to answer a reporter’s shouted question: Did he still think the Chinese leader was a “dictator”?
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S56Algorithm Recommendations Since Having Kids  You listened to the Blippi song “Monster Trucks” 1,237 times, and Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” 248 times. We think you’ll like the playlist we curated exclusively for you, titled “Existential Crisis,” which includes songs like “Do You Realize??” by the Flaming Lips and “Shake My Sillies Out” by Raffi.We noticed that you ordered paper towels, duct tape, and adult-size Crocs on the same day you ordered a six-pack of full-face superhero masks. First of all, thank you for not shopping locally for these items, which were also available within two blocks of your home, and instead funding Jeff Bezos’s impending nuptials, which will take place on twenty mega-yachts off the coast of Saint-Tropez. Based on your purchases, it appears that you may be planning some sort of heist or kidnapping. We recommend adding Clorox bleach, disposable medical gloves, and trash bags to your next order. Save five per cent by subscribing to receive monthly deliveries of these items.
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S575 Years Ago, Johnny Depp Made an Epic Flop -- And Killed a Famous Franchise  Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is one of the oddest blockbusters ever made. Based on a fictional textbook, and guided by the creative vision of “the Harry Potter movies made a lot of money and we would like that to continue,” it tried to be both a free-wheeling adventure and the Wizarding World’s Phantom Menace.A spinoff, a prequel, and a test of whether the Potter franchise could survive beyond the bounds of Hogwarts Castle, Beasts mostly works. Its Gilded Age New York setting puts the magical world in an intriguing new light, and there are enough cute critters, charming characters, and moments of sheer spectacle to paper over a meandering plot. It made good money, and won critics over to a Potter-verse expansion. So why was the Beasts franchise just put on ice? The series has apparently ended with 2022’s The Secrets of Dumbledore, but the answer goes back five years.
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S5815 Years Ago, Nintendo Made a Video Game Flop -- And Breathed New Life Into a Beloved Franchise  The third Animal Crossing game is often forgotten, but it brought new life to the franchise.Today, Animal Crossing needs no introduction. The charming sim franchise, which places you in a pleasant village populated by anthropomorphic animal neighbors, is the ultimate cozy game. While not as flashy as Mario or Zelda, the series delivered its most recent entry, New Horizons, just when fans needed a distraction most, in March 2020. But that game wouldn’t have been quite as good if it wasn’t for the most underrated Animal Crossing adventure.
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S59S60Pokimane Reveals Why She's Selling Cookies -- And Why She'll Never Join Kick  Imane Anys, who goes by Pokimane on across the internet, rose to fame playing trending games like League of Legends and Fortnite on Twitch for an audience of over 9 million followers and counting. Now, she tells Inverse she’s making her “biggest” career move yet: cookies.Internet influencers hawking their own food products is nothing new. Mr. Beast sells burgers, Emma Chamberlain has her coffee label, and Twitch streamer Amouranth’s infamous beer is brewed using her own vaginal yeast. (When I bring up the beer, Anys replies bluntly, “Oh god.”) And now, there’s Myna Snacks, a new venture from Pokimane.
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S6110 Years Ago, The Best Sci-Fi Trilogy of the Century Redefined Its Legendary Director  Ten years after its release, Wright views the third Cornetto Trilogy film as his most personal.Edgar Wright still stands by the controversial ending of The World’s End. A decade after the release of his final Cornetto Trilogy installment, the director says he never considered any other alternative ending to his body-snatcher sci-fi, which ends with the world crumbling into an apocalyptic nightmare.
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S62'Fantastic Four' Casting News May Confirm A Concerning Star Wars Theory  Disney’s two biggest franchises will have to share a superstar, and it may not be 50/50 custody.Casting developments are always a frantic process. On Wednesday afternoon, noted leaker DanielRPK reported that director Matt Shakman’s much-anticipated MCU movie, Fantastic Four, was in talks with The Mandalorian and The Last of Us’ Pedro Pascal to play Mr. Fantastic, aka Reed Richards. Soon after, SlashFilm said the deal was done.
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S63Thanos Is Coming Back to the MCU -- But Not In the Way You Think  It’s been four years since Marvel’s Cinematic Universe had a truly formidable villain to rally against. The absence of an antagonist like Thanos isn’t 100% responsible for the franchise’s lack of focus, but there’s a reason why fans can’t stop talking about the Mad Titan... or speculating about his return.Marvel itself has teased Thanos’ comeback here and there, but nothing has been confirmed for live-action. But Thanos has actually been active elsewhere in the MCU; he’s had a few cameos in the animated (and technically canon) series, What If...?, which is set to return for a second season in late December. Its latest trailer teases some all-new adventures, but it might also revisit a few classic Avengers moments. A trip down memory lane inevitably calls for another appearance from Thanos, and What If...? Season 2 doesn’t look like it will disappoint.
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S64This Wild In-Car Projector Is Basically a Full-On Movie Theater  In-car tech is getting more wild by the day. For proof, look no further than Hisense, which is teasing its futuristic laser projector, called the AR Heads-Up Display.Not only does it project an augmented reality HUD onto your windshield, but its multi-directional design means you can also project a movie on the sides of your car at the same time.
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S66The Latest 'Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League' Footage Makes a Smart Pivot  Rocksteady Studios has been radio silent concerning Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League since the game was delayed (again) till 2024 this April. That ended this week with the release of the first episode of what the studio is calling Suicide Squad Insider, a behind-the-scenes look into the game’s development. The game has faced plenty of criticism for its focus on live service over its long development cycle, which the new video hopes to combat by highlighting a heavy focus on story and a connection to the beloved Arkham trilogy. Things could be looking up for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.With the latest footage from Suicide Squad Insider 01, it looks like Rocksteady is trying to put its best foot forward and assure players that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will be more than just another forgettable live service looter-shooter.
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S67Xbox Game Pass Just Quietly Released the Best Farm Sim of 2023  Flavor is science. Our tastes are rooted inside thousands of microchemical reactions occurring at near-light speed within our brains. The effects are cumulative. Eat a bunch of stinky cheese and it can be hard for a new flavor to cut through. This is why foodies swear by palate cleansers. Bland, sometimes effervescent food and drink designed to wipe the slate clean and rest your bewildered senses so that you can savor something new.Gaming is no different. In a year like this one, chock full of GOTY-caliber experiences, it's important to give your brain a break. Don’t jump straight from Super Mario Wonder to Alan Wake 2. Get a little cozy first.
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S68A CRISPR Gene Therapy Was Just Approved In The UK -- That's a Really Big Deal For Medicine  Casgevy is the world’s first gene-editing therapy for sickle cell anemia and beta thalassemia. In the ever-evolving realm of modern medicine, the once-distant dream of conquering disease through genetics has now inched closer to reality. On Thursday, the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which is its version of the FDA, approved Casgevy, the world’s first gene-editing therapy for sickle cell anemia and beta thalassemia for people aged 12 and over.
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S69Why Is the Martian Sky Glowing Green Right Now? Here's the Eerie Answer  Someday in the future, the first astronauts to explore the north and south poles of Mars may trek across the dusty ice by the eerie green light of oxygen atoms high in the Martian atmosphere.The European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter recently spotted the atmosphere around Mars’s southern pole glowing an eerie green during the long polar night. The green glow is thanks to oxygen atoms recombining high above the Martian surface, releasing energy in the process. University of Liege planetary scientist Jean-Claude Gerard and his colleagues published their findings in the journal Nature Astronomy.
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