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FiGa Films Snags Worldwide Rights to Guatemalan Drama ‘Nosotros’ Ahead of TIFF Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)
Boutique sales agency FiGa Films has acquired worldwide sales rights to the Guatemalan drama “Nosotros” (“Us”) ahead of its world premiere in the Discovery sidebar at the 51st Toronto International Film Festival. The deal matters as another marker of Central America’s growing presence on the festival circuit, with writer-director Joaquín Ruano, making his feature debut,…
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‘We’ve always been wary of working together’: Val McDermid and Jo Sharp on writing a novel as a couple
Val McDermid, Scotland’s bestselling crime novelist, and her partner Jo Sharp, Scotland’s first female Geographer Royal, have co-written This Door of the Seas, a novella published next week that marks their first joint literary project despite having deliberately kept their work separate throughout their 13-year relationship. The book fictionalises the 1698 Darien scheme, in which…
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HBO Max Dips Toe Into Vertical Video With ‘HBO Max Shorts’
HBO Max has introduced two new AI-driven mobile features for US subscribers, most notably “HBO Max Shorts”, a vertical, scrollable feed of clips from the platform’s existing library designed to help users discover what to watch. The move follows a broader industry trend, with Netflix trialling similar formats, as streamers look to borrow the swipeable,…
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Rare Nintendo Famicombox units found in perfectly operational state in a Japanese “love hotel”
A Famicom archivist known as Orochi has discovered a working set of Nintendo’s rare Famicombox units inside a Japanese “love hotel”, with nearly every room found to have a fully functional machine installed. The find is notable because the Famicombox, a commercial-use console released in 1986, is scarce today, making the discovery of so many…
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SEN RAND PAUL: The COVID cover-up had layers. I’m peeling them back one at a time
Senator Rand Paul argues in an opinion piece that his ongoing investigation has uncovered evidence that scientists behind the influential “Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2” paper privately doubted the conclusions they publicly championed. The March 2020 paper was widely cited by fact-checkers and health officials to dismiss the COVID-19 lab-leak theory, and Paul contends newly released…
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Wearable patch vibrates when danger is nearby
Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a wearable patch that alerts users to environmental hazards, such as dangerous gases or contaminated water, through vibrations against the skin rather than a phone notification. The device aims to close the gap between exposure and awareness, since threats like toxic gas or tainted water often cannot…
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Where are the US’s safest big cities? New study released
The article’s text was unavailable because access to the page was denied. As a result, it is not possible to verify the study’s findings or summarise its claims reliably. The supplied title indicates that it concerns a new study ranking the safest large US cities, but no methodology, rankings, figures or source details were provided.…
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Teachers ruin boys’ university chances because they underestimate A-level grades, study says
A study reported by the Daily Mail claims that teachers’ predicted A-level grades are more likely to underestimate boys’ actual results than girls’, potentially damaging boys’ chances of securing university places. Since UK universities largely base offers on predicted grades, an underestimate can mean able male students are steered towards less competitive courses or institutions,…
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Children left sidelined at school up to twice as likely to become jobless and not be in education or training when turning 18, study finds
A study has found that children who are sidelined or excluded at school are up to twice as likely to end up out of work, education or training (NEET) by the age of 18. The research highlights a strong link between negative school experiences, such as exclusion or feeling marginalised, and poor long-term outcomes for…