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☆ Morgan Spurlock, Documentarian Known for ‘Super Size Me,’ Dies at 53
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-24 | by ( Remy Tumin | More About Remy Tumin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Morgan Spurlock, a documentary filmmaker best known for the Oscar-nominated 2004 film “Super Size Me,” which followed him as he ate nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days, died on Thursday. His brother Craig Spurlock confirmed the death in a statement to The Associated Press, and said the cause was complications from cancer. The statement did not say where he died. In “Super Size Me,” Mr. Spurlock tested the broadly held idea that fast food is unhealthy by gorging on McDonald’s Super Size meals, hamburgers, fries, soda and more for weeks, as he steadily gained weight. The film, which grossed more than $22 million on a $65,000 budget, contributed to a sweeping backlash against the fast food industry.

Persons: Morgan Spurlock, Oscar, Craig Spurlock, Mr, Spurlock Organizations: Associated Press

☆ 'Baby Reindeer' viewers watched a stalking drama — then hunted down 'the real Martha Scott.' A psychologist explains why true crime turns us into armchair detectives.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-09 | by ( Eammon Jacobs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

A psychologist told Business Insider why true crime turns viewers into armchair detectives. True crime blurs the line between real life and fictionRichard Gadd as Donny Dunn in "Baby Reindeer." AdvertisementThat's further complicated by some true crime audiences thinking they are helping to bring about justice by becoming armchair detectives. AdvertisementIn a piece published by The Guardian, titled "Why do women love true crime so much?" Ed Miller/NetflixThis raises the question of whether streaming services and TV networks are doing enough to protect those involved in true crime content.

Persons: —, Donny Dunn, Richard Gadd, Martha, Gadd, Martha Scott, He's, Piers Morgan, Fiona Harvey —, TikTok sleuths, Sean Foley, Foley, — sean foley, @SeanFoleyJ, Nicola Bulley, Andrew Snowden, Ed Miller, Ruth Tully, Tully, Nancy Jo Sales, influencers, Jessica Gunning, " Gadd, Benjamin King, it's, King, Errol Lindsay, Jeffrey Dahmer's, Jeffrey Dahmer, Rita Isbell, Netflix should've Organizations: Service, Rotten, Google, Netflix, Daily Mail, Police, Lancashire's Police, The Guardian, European, Research, Business Locations: British

☆ Even Cookie Monster is complaining about the US economy now
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Bryan Mena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Washington, DC CNN —Cookie Monster has taken a stance on a very real and controversial trend in the US economy — and he hates it. Me cookies are getting smaller,” Cookie Monster wrote. “Household paper products, like toilet paper and paper towels, are 34.9 percent more expensive per unit than they were in January 2019. The latest Consumer Price Index showed that inflation didn’t ease in January as much as Wall Street was expecting. Americans’ attitudes toward the economy have improved recently, thanks to slowing inflation, according to consumer surveys, but remain below levels seen before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Persons: “, “ Guess, Democratic Sen, Bob Casey, It’s, Sherrod Brown, Cookie, ”, Joe Biden, Biden, shrinkflation, ” Biden, Casey, Jerome Powell, Powell Organizations: DC CNN, Democratic, Labor Department, Research, of, Federal Trade Commission, Fed Locations: Washington, Ohio

☆ Opinion | The Ogre Gorging on America
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-27 | by ( Maureen Dowd | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

If you can imagine the lobby bar of the Manchester Marriott as an Anglo-Saxon mead hall, I can explain how it felt to cover the New Hampshire primary. I will need the help of the late Seamus Heaney, who described what it was like to be quaffing in Heorot Hall while Grendel lurked and swooped through the frost-stiffened north. In his lyrical translation of “Beowulf,” Heaney described Grendel as “the terror-monger,” the “captain of evil” and “the dread of the land.”He wrote that the fiend “ruled in defiance of right” and was “malignant by nature, he never showed remorse.”

Persons: Seamus Heaney, Grendel lurked, ” Heaney, Grendel, ” Organizations: Manchester Marriott Locations: Hampshire, Heorot

☆ Putin and Xi’s strengthening bond has a weakness
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-17 | by ( Lisa Jucca | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The $190 billion two-way trade relationship is up 29% since 2021, and has roughly doubled since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. A warm meeting between Putin and Xi will reaffirm China’s intention to carry on this robust business. Yet Russia’s lack of viable trade avenues makes its leader look more like a vassal than a peer to the Chinese president. Follow @LJucca on XCONTEXT NEWSRussian President Vladimir Putin is attending the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on Oct. 17-18 where he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping. China and Russia declared a "no limits" partnership in February 2022 during a previous Putin visit to Beijing, just days before Moscow troops launched an invasion of Ukraine.

Persons: Vladimir Putin’s, Xi Jinping, Brent, Putin, Xi, Vladimir Putin, Una Galani, Thomas Shum Organizations: Reuters, People’s, Reuters Graphics, Bank of France, Centre for Research, Energy, Clean, HK, Forum, Soviet Union, Thomson Locations: HONG KONG, Beijing, Ukraine, People’s Republic, Crimea, Reuters Graphics Moscow, Russia, Europe, U.S, Republic, China, Hague, Moscow

☆ Biryani on plate and boundary length on mind for Pakistan's Babar
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-04 | by ( Amlan Chakraborty | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Babar's men were accorded a warm welcome in Hyderabad in what is their first tour of India since the T20 World Cup in 2016. Babar and his team mates were surprised by the support they received since landing in Hyderabad, where they played both their warm-up matches. They will launch their bid for a second 50-overs World Cup title at the same southern Indian city against the Netherlands on Friday. Babar's concerns are understandable considering Pakistan's bowling lost considerable sting after speedster Naseem Shah was ruled out of the World Cup with a shoulder injury. "It's more or less the same team playing the last three years together, and I think bowling remains our strength," added Babar.

Persons: Babar Azam's, Babar, It's, Hyderabad's, Shadab Khan, gorging, biryani, speedster Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Amlan Chakraborty, Christian Radnedge Organizations: Thomson Locations: AHMEDABAD, India, Hyderabad, Pakistan, Indian, Netherlands, Ahmedabad

On Sunday, Evergrande reported losses of 33 billion yuan ($4.53 billion) for the first half of the year, versus a 66.4 billion yuan loss in the same period a year earlier. The Chinese property sector’s worsening debt crisis poses a significant challenge for President Xi Jinping and his policy makers, with the country’s economy already reeling from weaker domestic and overseas demand. China’s State Council Information Office, which handles media queries on behalf of the government, declined to comment on the property market and Evergrande’s fate. He sold the first complex the following year for 80 million yuan, according to Evergrande’s website. The committee investigated the matter after banks seized 13.4 billion yuan ($1.84 billion)of deposits held by the property-services unit in 2021.

Persons: Aly, Hui Ka Yan, Hui, Evergrande, Suppliers haven’t, ”, Anne Stevenson, Yang, Evergrande’s, Xi Jinping, Reuters wasn’t, Kelly Richmond Pope, ” Hui, “ Evergrande, Stevenson, Engen Tham, Julie Zhu, Clare Jim, Cassell Bryan Organizations: China Evergrande Group, REUTERS, Rights, China Evergrande, HK, Reuters, Suppliers, J Capital Research, Information Office, Political, Conference, Guangzhou Evergrande, soccer’s, Hong, Forbes, HengTen Networks, Management, Chicago’s DePaul University, Evergrande, Financial, Communist Party, “, China, Shanghai, Cassell, Low, Thomson Locations: China, Shenzhen, Guangdong province, Rights SHANGHAI, HONG KONG, United States, U.S, China’s, Henan province, Beijing, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Evergrande, HengTen, Evergrande’s Hong Kong, Shanghai

☆ Mom takes son to Churchill, Canada, for a week of education no school can match
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-26 | by ( Terry Ward | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +14 min

We were in Churchill, a town of roughly 900 people nicknamed the “Polar Bear Capital of the World,” in Canada’s Manitoba province. A male polar bear rests during a Tundra Buggy ride into the Churchill Wildlife Management Area in August. People have to learn to co-exist with polar bears in Churchill, where some of them stay waiting for sea ice to refreeze. Hudson Bay polar bears are among the most vulnerable on Earth because of loss of sea ice, with their numbers in sharp decline. They arrive as soon as the sea ice breaks up to feast on small fish called capelin that spawn here.

Persons: we’re, I’d, Nico, Ursula, Jim Baldwin, Baldwin, Alex Cupeiro, “, Terry Ward, you’re, Terry Ward I’d, we’d, Barba, can’t, Jennifer Diment, “ Churchill, Ward, Chantal Maclean, ”, ” Maclean, ” Nico, Chantal, he’d, John Gunter, Fronters, velcroed, Indiana Jones, Joe, he’d maxed, Sandra Cook, Churchill Organizations: CNN, Polar Bears, Churchill Wildlife Management, Churchill Wildlife Management Area, Frontier North, Zodiac, Helicopters, Bear Holding, “, Churchill Locations: Churchill, Canada’s Manitoba, Florida, Hudson Bay, Hudson, Tampa, Winnipeg, Churchill’s, Svalbard, Norway, Stockholm, Oslo, Toronto, Denver, Vancouver, Washington, Ithaca, SS Ithaca

☆ Russia's economic woes have brought a flood of cash and sparked a real estate boom in the UAE
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Jennifer Sor | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Traders in the Gulf state have ramped up business in Russian oil and gold markets, the WSJ reported. Conversely, Russians are flocking to the UAE, bringing their wealth to its economy and sparking a real estate boom. That's as sanctions and trade restrictions have weighed heavily on Russia's economy, cutting it off from billions of its foreign reserves and crimping its energy trade. Russians were the third-largest group of real estate buyers in Dubai over the last quarter, the real estate firm Betterhomes told the Journal, up from the ninth-largest group in 2021. Russia's economy meanwhile is in a state of turmoil.

Persons: Betterhomes, Putin Organizations: Traders, Service, United Arab Emirates, UAE, Wall, Yale Locations: UAE, Gulf, Wall, Silicon, Russia, Ukraine, Dubai, Poland

"We now forecast a mild recession in the U.S. economy this year ... In May and June, the Fed staff projections "continued to assume" the U.S. economy would be in recession by the end of the year. Fed policymakers' projections, which are issued on a quarterly basis, never showed GDP contracting on an annual basis. 'CHUGGING ALONG'What made the difference between an in-the-moment recession that many thought was underway last year to growth that has surprised to the upside? An Atlanta Fed GDP "nowcast" puts output growth for the current July-September period at 5.0%, showing continued strong momentum.

Persons: Biden, Michael Gapen, Gapen, Jerome Powell, Powell, Sharif, We've, Sal Guatieri, Howard Schneider, Paul Simao Organizations: Federal, Bank of America, Fed, Reuters, Valley Bank, Atlanta Fed, BMO Capital Markets, Thomson Locations: U.S, California

☆ India's Russian oil buying scales new highs in May
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Nidhi Verma | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

India, the world's third biggest oil consumer and importer, buys more than 80% of its oil from overseas markets. Its refiners have been gorging on Russian oil since the West imposed sanctions over Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. India imported 801,400 bpd of Iraqi oil in May, down about 13.7% from April, while supply from Saudi fell 15% to 616,100 bpd, the data show. India's overall May oil imports rose marginally from April to 4.8 million bpd, the data showed. India's oil imports from various regionsOPEC's share of India's oil imports in May fell to a record low of 42.6% and averaged 44.3% in the first two months of this fiscal year, the data showed.

Persons: Nidhi Verma, Jason Neely Organizations: Thomson Locations: DELHI, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, India, Moscow, Ukraine, Saudi, Russia

☆ Opinion: A tail of two cities – how Parisians and New Yorkers take on rats
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( David A. Andelman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Indeed, if there’s one attribute shared by New York and Paris it’s rats. The mayor of Paris is forming a committee to look into the cohabitation of the city's citizens with its notorious population of rats. Thomas Samson/AFP/Getty ImagesNot surprisingly, there are some who believe ridding the city of rats with traps and rat poison is utterly inhumane. In contrast, Boulard with his anti-rat vengeance, sounds more like the mayor of New York than the mayor of Paris. Of course, Paris has a far longer history than New York with rats.

Persons: David A, Paris CNN —, David Andelman, Tony, ”, Pont, Pont Royal they’ve, I’ve, Anne Hidalgo, Geoffroy Boulard, quartiers, Boulard, Thomas Samson, PAZ, Douchka Marcovitch, Eric Adams, Ben Regenspan, Adams, Hidalgo’s Organizations: CNN, French Legion of, The New York Times, CBS News, Paris CNN, David Andelman CNN, America’s, Paris Olympics, Pont Royal, Paris’s, hyperlocal, Getty, New York Times, Twitter, Facebook Locations: France, Paris, New York, Raspail, Tuileries, AFP, Manhattan

☆ Private equity risks gorging on its secret sauce
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Liam Proud | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Investors prefer pedestrian but steady management fees over the lumpy share of fund profit that is the industry’s special sauce. Private equity firms with a public listing funnel some of the carry to employees and some to shareholders. TPG (TPG.O) last year went public with a similar strategy of paying around two-thirds of performance-related revenue to employees. Assuming the general idea is to keep overall earnings steady, then higher fee-based income for shareholders must be matched by lower cash compensation for employees. It suggests that for KKR, TPG and the rest, there is a limit to just how much of their own secret sauce employees can eat.

Persons: Steve Schwarzman, Carlyle, Blackstone’s, Schwarzman, Henry Kravis, George Roberts, EQT, Blackstone, Harvey Schwartz, Rowe Price, Thoma Bravo, Jeffrey Goldfarb, Sharon Lam, Oliver Taslic Organizations: Reuters, Blackstone, KKR, Apollo Global Management, JPMorgan, Reuters Graphics, TPG, Apollo, Reuters Graphics Reuters, Alpha, Bain Capital, Thoma, Ares Management, Thomson Locations: BlackRock

☆ For kids exploring social media, here are three steps the surgeon general wants parents to take
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Dr. Sanjay Gupta | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

CNN —As a father of three teenage girls, one of my biggest parenting challenges has been navigating smartphones and social media. Would smartphones and social media be given that same level of dire warning? I often think about social media less like tobacco and more like junk food. And you can also help them understand what’s a safe and unsafe interaction or engagement on social media. How to talk about screen timeNot sure how to start a conversation with your kids about internet and social media use?

Persons: Vivek Murthy, –, “, ”, That’s, ” Murthy, we’ve, Murthy, they’re, you’re, can’t, Dr, Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s Andrea Kane Organizations: CNN, Pew Research Center, YouTube, Big Tech, CNN Health

☆ Here's why the upcoming OPEC meeting will be a 'pivotal' moment as tensions simmer between Russia and Saudi Arabia over global oil supply
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Max Adams | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The meeting comes as Russia continues to pump cheap crude oil into the global market. Tensions have risen as cheap Russian oil drives crude below a key break-even level for Saudi Arabia. "The OPEC+ meeting on June 4 should be pivotal," investor Louis Nevallier wrote in a note on Friday. Nevallier said that he expects a "very assertive" Saudi Arabia to show up to the meeting. The report said the country's budget needs international oil prices to stay above $81 a barrel.

Persons: —, Louis Nevallier, ussia, Nevallier, there's, Brent Organizations: Service, Reuters Locations: Russia, Saudi Arabia, OPEC, Saudi, India, Riyadh, Ukraine

☆ Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Parenting in the era of ubiquitous screens and social media
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Dr. Sanjay Gupta | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +17 min

Other moves include laws that aim to tighten regulations on social media platforms in general, like those recently enacted by Arkansas and Utah. They are more likely to lie on their beds and scroll through endless social media feeds. Nowadays, she tells me, many teenagers feel an obligation to be on social media, or they will feel left behind. Lembke, who had her own struggles with problematic media use, told me, “Ten years from now, social media will not be what it is today. How to talk about screentimeNot sure how to start a conversation with your kids about internet and social media use?

☆ America’s Snacking Binge Shows No Sign of Slowing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Jesse Newman | Jaewon Kang | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

U.S. consumers are gorging on snacks, fueling boom times for cookie and candy giants while other packaged-food companies vie for bigger shares of the snack aisle. Nearly half of U.S. consumers are eating three or more snacks a day, up 8% in the past two years, according to Circana Group, a market-research firm. U.S. snack sales rose to $181 billion last year, up 11% from the year prior, the firm said.

☆ America Is Binging on Snacks, and Food Companies Are Eating It Up
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Jesse Newman | Jaewon Kang | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ The Biggest Explosion in the Cosmos Just Keeps Going
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Dennis Overbye | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Not two weeks ago, on May 3, astronomers reported observing a star that was in the process of swallowing one of its own planets. Just two days earlier, another team had described black holes that were ripping stars apart and consuming them in a process known as tidal disruption event, or T.D.E. Now an international group of astronomers reports that it is observing one of the most violent and energetic acts of cosmic cannibalism ever witnessed, perhaps the biggest explosion seen yet in the history of the universe. A study of the phenomenon appeared Friday in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Most supernovas fade after a few weeks; this one, known as AT2021lwx, kept going — and has continued to explode for three years now.

☆ Elephant Seals Take Power Naps During Deep Ocean Dives
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Annie Roth | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Northern elephant seals are also able to sustain themselves on about two hours’ sleep, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science. The study’s authors believe that sleeping in the deep allows the seals to power-nap without being eaten by prowling predators. Northern elephant seals, which are found along the West Coast, are champion divers that can descend to depths of 2,500 feet and stay under for about two hours. To maintain their blubbery bulk, Northern elephant seals must spend around seven months at sea each year, gorging on fish and squid. However, elephant seals sleep like us, shutting down their brains completely.

☆ Exclusive: India's Bank of Baroda stops clearing payment for above-cap Russian oil - sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Nidhi Verma | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"Bank of Baroda is extremely cautious in settling payments for Russian oil bought (at levels) above the price cap," one of the sources said. After Western sanctions on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, Indian refiners have been gorging on discounted Russian oil. Russia has replaced Iraq as the top oil supplier to India in the last few months, data from trade sources showed. It was not clear if Axis Bank had also stopped settling trades for Russian oil sold above the price cap. India does not recognise the Western price cap on Russian oil, a senior oil ministry source said last month.

☆ A major student-loan lender is putting millions of borrowers 'at serious risk of financial harm' by filing a lawsuit to end the payment pause, Biden's Education Department says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Student-loan lender SoFi asked a federal court to end the student-loan payment pause. The Education Department said the pause is legal, and the lawsuit puts borrowers "at serious risk of financial harm." On Friday, SoFi Bank and SoFi Lending Corp. — a student-loan refinancing company — sued the Education Department and asked the District Court for the District of Columbia to end Biden's latest extension of the student-loan payment pause. The White House has not yet commented on whether it will consider additional relief, such as a further payment pause extension if its relief gets struck down. It also claimed that it has suffered direct harm to its student-loan refinancing business, saying that the student-loan payment pause "has eliminated the primary benefits of student loan refinancing.

☆ 'Digital nomads' can now live in Spain with their families — if they earn enough
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( Chris Dwyer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The so-called "digital nomad" visa is open to a wide variety of remote workers and has already attracted considerable interest. U.S. Google searches for "digital nomad visa Spain" spiked by 66% in late January, according to digital marketing specialists Semrush. Fernando Angulo (pictured here in Colombia) said he's lived in many countries as a "digital nomad," including Russia, Argentina and India. Source: Zach BoyetteZach Boyette, co-founder of the digital marketing agency Galactic Fed, called Spain's digital nomad visa a "game changer." Boyette, a longtime digital nomad, said the visa allows digital nomads to "spend a longer time in Europe," he said.

☆ Debt is poor fix for Italian soccer’s malaise
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Pamela Barbaglia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Top soccer league Serie A needs cash to revamp its ailing media rights business. The division, which counts Lautaro Martínez and Paulo Dybala among its few world-class champions, made revenue of 2.5 billion euros in the 2020-2021 football season, nearly half the star-studded Premier League’s 5.5 billion euros, Deloitte data shows. Its broadcasting revenue has dropped more than 20% to about 1.1 billion euros since 2018, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters Breakingviews. Club owners would be better off entrusting independent executives to look after media rights. The Deutsche Fussball Liga, which runs Germany’s football league, is due to discuss the media rights sale at a meeting on Feb. 9.

☆ India's Russian oil binge drags down OPEC's share to lowest in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Nidhi Verma | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A model of oil barrels is seen in front of Russian and Indian flags in this illustration taken, December 9, 2022. Refiners in India, the world's third-biggest oil consumer and importer, have been gorging on Russian oil sold at a discount after some Western companies shunned buying from Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine last February. Russia remained the top oil supplier to India in December followed by Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Higher intake of Russian oil reduced India's appetite for African grades, whose share in 2022 imports declined to a 17-year low while that of Latin America plunged to the lowest in 15 years, the data show. Imports from Russia, about a fifth of India's oil imports in April-December, led to OPEC's share falling to about 61.5%, according to Reuters calculations.

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