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☆ HBO's 'The Idol' sees viewership dip as it delivers 'the worst sex scene in history'
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Nathan Mcalone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Episode two of HBO's "The Idol" brought in 800,000 viewers, per Variety. British GQ declared that episode two included "the worst sex scene in history." The second episode of HBO's controversial new series "The Idol" brought in 800,000 viewers across HBO and Max on Sunday, a 12% decrease compared to its premiere, according to Variety. British GQ declared that in Sunday's episode two, the series delivered "the worst sex scene in history." Discovery told Variety that "The Idol" had scored higher viewership in Latin America and Europe than "The White Lotus" and "Winning Time" had in the same amount of time.

Persons: Sam Levinson, Lily, Rose Depp, Abel, we're, Lucy Ford, Tesfaye, Depp, Levinson Organizations: British GQ, HBO, Max, Variety, Rotten, Warner Bros . Discovery, Stone Locations: British, FlixPatrol, America, Scandinavia, Central Europe, Western Europe, Europe

☆ HBO's controversial 'The Idol' starring The Weeknd has divided the world, according to new data about its global popularity
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Nathan Mcalone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

It's a hit in Scandinavia and Latin America, but hasn't performed as well in the US, per data from FlixPatrol. HBO's "The Idol" was divisive before it even debuted on June 4, and its popularity around the world has also been uneven, according to new data. But the controversies started for "The Idol" well before the reviews started rolling in. A bombshell story from Rolling Stone in March said the show had gone "wildly, disgustingly off the rails," according to interviews with 13 sources. Tesfaye called the Rolling Stone article "ridiculous" in an interview with Vanity Fair shortly after its publication.

Persons: hasn't, Sam Levinson, Lily, Rose Depp, Abel, Max, Variety's Peter Debruge, Gyarkye, Stone, Levinson, Tesfaye, Depp Organizations: Rotten, HBO, Netflix, Stone, Cannes Film Locations: Scandinavia, Latin America, FlixPatrol, America, Central Europe, Western Europe, Sweden, Hungary, Denmark, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia

☆ Bombing of herders highlights deadly air attacks by Nigerian military
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +19 min

The letter said the Nigerian Air Force is committed to human rights and “further deliberations” on the issue, according to the report. “The absence of details raises the question of whether the air force carried out the air strike based on mere suspicion,” Human Rights Watch said. The U.S. State Department and the Pentagon had no immediate comment about the airstrike or the U.S. relationship with the Nigerian Air Force. Before now, neither the Nigerian government nor the military had provided any public explanation for what happened on Jan. 24. ACLED data show Nigerian Air Force strikes continued to claim the lives of noncombatants, inside and outside the northeast.

Persons: Ibrahim Muazu, “, ACLED, D.D, Pwajok, ”, Sara Jacobs, herdsmen, Oladayo Amao, Amao, “ miscreants, Muhammadu Buhari, Bola Tinubu, Jan, Muazu, Lamido, Nigeria’s, Sanusi, Buhari, Rand Paul, Cory Booker, Rex Tillerson, Lai Mohammed, Jacobs, Jim Risch, Chris Smith, Antony Blinken, Biden, Risch, brazenly “, ” Abubakar Bello Rukubi, ” “, Yemi Osinbajo, cc’d, Samuel Ortom, herder, ” Muazu, Humeyra Pamuk, Daphne Psaledakis, Idrees Ali, Jarrett Renshaw, David Lewis, Reade Levinson, Simon Newman, Catherine Tai Design, Eve Watling, Julie Marquis, Alexandra Zavis Organizations: herder, Reuters, Air Force, Nigerian Air Force, Human Rights Watch, Air, Rights Watch, Ministry of Defence, Nigerian Air, House Foreign Affairs, ” Reuters, ACLED, Planet Labs PBC, U.S . State Department, Pentagon, ”, Muazu, Congress, San Frontieres, Republican, Punch, UK, Nigeria –, Systems, U.S, Super, International, Development, Rights Initiative, Benue State Livestock Guards, Human Rights, Daily Trust, Nigeria’s Locations: Nigerian, Nasarawa, Akwanaja, United States, U.S, Nigeria, California, Kano, Rann, Cameroonian, Zamfara, “, Benue, ” Benue, London, Makurdi, Naka, Washington, Philadelphia

☆ For Some, the Only Reason to Watch ‘The Idol’ Is for Blackpink’s Jennie
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Wilson Wong | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Not the main character Jocelyn, the show’s aspiring idol played by Lily-Rose Depp, but Dyanne, one of Jocelyn’s backup dancers portrayed by Jennie Kim, better known as Jennie of the K-pop girl group Blackpink. Blackpink — which consists of Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa and Rosé — has become one of the most globally recognized K-pop acts in recent years. Though Jennie isn’t the only member of the group to try her hand at acting, she may have its most high-profile role. On the internet, clips abound praising Jennie in her acting debut. In one widely circulated scene, Dyanne, eyes half-lidded, lips parted and hair perfectly tousled, shows Jocelyn how to do the choreography for her new single.

Persons: Sam Levinson, ”, Amy Seimetz, Rolling Stone, Jocelyn, Lily, Rose Depp, Jennie Kim, Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa, Rosé —, Jennie isn’t Organizations: HBO, Idol, Cannes Film

☆ Can HBO’s ‘The Idol’ Bring Back ’80s Sleaze?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Steven Kurutz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The first episode begins with the pop star Jocelyn, played by Lily-Rose Depp, baring her breasts during a photo shoot as a team of handlers, crew members and an ineffectual intimacy coordinator look on. There will be no flannel PJs for Joss; a pair of wake-up scenes make it clear to viewers that she sleeps in a thong. It isn’t only the show’s gratuitous nudity that harks back to Mr. Lyne and company, but the overall look and mood, which recall a louche glamour from the time of boxy Armani suits and cocaine nights. A main setting is a $70 million mansion in Bel Air that looks like something out of Mr. De Palma’s “Scarface” but is in fact Mr. Tesfaye’s real-life home. A number of young viewers have said they find sex scenes embarrassing, but Mr. Levinson, who created the HBO drama “Euphoria,” and his fellow producers have made no secret of their desire to pay homage to the heyday of Cinemax (when it had the nickname Skinemax).

Persons: Jocelyn, Lily, Rose Depp, baring, Mr, Tesfaye, Joss, Lyne, De Palma’s, ”, Tesfaye’s, Levinson, Elizabeth Berkley, Longworth Organizations: Royce, HBO, Cinemax, Risky, ”, American Cinematheque Locations: Bel Air, Los Angeles

☆ Opinion | ‘The Idol’ Is the First Big TV Show of the Backlash Era
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Michelle Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

To write about “The Idol” at all is to fall into a bit of a trap, because the show desperately wants to be a scandal. Sam Levinson, who created the show with Tesfaye and ended up directing it, pronounced himself delighted by the Rolling Stone report. HBO also leaned into the controversy, marketing “The Idol” as the “sleaziest love story” in Hollywood. Jocelyn, after all, doesn’t really resemble any current female pop stars. The stars who’ve been open about their mental health challenges, including Selena Gomez and SZA, certainly don’t sexualize those struggles.

Persons: Rolling Stone, ”, Amy Seimetz, Seimetz, Abel Tesfaye, Tesfaye, Sam Levinson, ‘, ’ ”, Rose Depp, Jocelyn, she’s, Jane Adams, chides, Tedros, ” Jocelyn, erotically asphyxiating, Megan Thee, who’ve, Selena Gomez, SZA Organizations: Rolling, Cannes, HBO, Tesfaye Locations: Hollywood, America

☆ ‘The Idol’ Series Premiere Recap: Does it Live Up (or Down) to the Hype?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Esther Zuckerman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Season 1, Episode 1: ‘Pop Tarts & Rat Tales’In the background of an early scene in the new HBO series “The Idol” you can hear Fiona Apple’s 1990s hit “Criminal.” The pop star heroine of the series, Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp), is posing for her album cover. Areolas are not allowed per the nudity rider — a detail that neither Jocelyn nor her team seem to care about. As Apple’s track plays, two of the members of Jocelyn’s entourage describe her alternately as Brigitte Bardot and Sharon Tate — the latter reference, to the actress and Manson murder victim, is meant to make you shudder. Still, the use of “Criminal” stood out to me among the onslaught of cultural references Sam Levinson throws at the audience. (Levinson, who created the series with Tesfaye and Reza Fahim, wrote and directed Sunday’s premiere.)

Persons: Fiona Apple’s, Jocelyn, Lily, Rose Depp, Brigitte Bardot, Sharon Tate, Manson, Britney Spears, Tedros, Abel Tesfaye, Donna Summer, ”, Sam Levinson, Levinson, Tesfaye, Reza Fahim, “ I’ve, Mark Romanek, Apple, Angelou Organizations: HBO, Apple, MTV

☆ ‘The Idol’ Creators: ‘This Is Not Going to Be for Everybody’
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Manohla Dargis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

the Weeknd) and Lily-Rose Depp, walked into the Lumière Theater at the Cannes Film Festival for the premiere of the first two episodes of their show, “The Idol,” to a standing ovation. Created by Levinson, Tesfaye and Reza Fahim, “The Idol,” which premieres on Sunday, was already a heat-seeking target by the time it played at Cannes. Levinson, Tesfaye and other “Idol” collaborators have vigorously defended the show and its creators. “The process on the set was unbelievably creative,” Azaria said at a news conference a day after the Cannes premiere, as Adams nodded along. “I’ve been on many, many a dysfunctional set, believe me,” Azaria continued.

Persons: Sam Levinson, Abel Tesfaye, Lily, Rose Depp, ”, “, Jocelyn, Depp, —, Hank Azaria, Troye Sivan, Jane Adams, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Eli Roth — Jocelyn, Tedros, Levinson, Tesfaye, Reza Fahim, Amy Seimetz, trumpeted Levinson, ” Azaria, Adams, “ I’ve Organizations: Cannes Film, Cannes, Idol, HBO, YouTube Locations: Los Angeles, Hollywood

☆ When ‘Homicide’ Hit Its Stride
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Saul Austerlitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The Dallas Cowboys demolished the Buffalo Bills, 52-17, and the broadcast was followed by the premiere of a new NBC drama, set in Baltimore, studying the work of the city’s homicide detectives. The series was called “Homicide: Life on the Street,” and it was based on a book by David Simon, then a Baltimore Sun reporter who had spent a year tagging along with the police department’s homicide squad. Post-Super Bowl premiere notwithstanding, “Homicide” was never a ratings success, but it stayed on the air for seven seasons, winning four Emmys and three Peabody Awards. The show’s fifth episode, “Three Men and Adena,” which first aired in March, was a stark, dramatic example of what made “Homicide” different from other cop shows. Pembleton and Bayliss prod, provoke and rage, but “Homicide” refuses to grant the audience the resolution they crave.

☆ ISS backs all four ValueAct director candidates in Seven & I boardroom fight
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Svea Herbst-Bayliss | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"A vote AGAINST company nominees Isaka, Goto, Yonemura, (Shinji) Wada and (Fuminao) Hachiuma is warranted." ISS said ValueAct is calling for a deliberate succession process for the CEO. On Tuesday, ISS extended support for ValueAct's campaign by endorsing all of its candidates and spelling out where the company has faltered. ValueAct and other investors had urged the company to undertake a strategic review and consider spinning off its 7-Eleven chain or selling the entire company. ISS said that ValueAct's nominees bring board experience, capital allocation and executive experience, and Levinson would add a shareholder perspective.

☆ ISS backs all 4 ValueAct director candidates in Seven & I boardroom fight
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Svea Herbst-Bayliss | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"A vote AGAINST company nominees Isaka, Goto, Yonemura, (Shinji) Wada and (Fuminao) Hachiuma is warranted." ISS said ValueAct is calling for a deliberate succession process for the CEO. On Tuesday, ISS extended support for ValueAct's campaign by endorsing all of its candidates and spelling out where the company has faltered. ISS said that ValueAct's nominees bring board experience, capital allocation and executive experience, and Levinson would add a shareholder perspective. ValueAct has experience on boards at Japanese companies, having won seats at Olympus and JSR Corp.

☆ ValueAct urges ouster of Seven & i President Isaka - letter
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Svea Herbst-Bayliss | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The San Francisco-based investment firm, which owns a 4.4% stake in the convenience store operator, is ratcheting up the pressure by saying publicly that Isaka has acted in bad faith since becoming president in 2016. "It is time to find a new President for Seven & i," ValueAct wrote to Seven & i shareholders in a letter dated April 20. The letter also criticizes the board for having failed to conduct a succession review for Isaka. ValueAct said Seven & i recorded meetings with its team without its consent, violating privacy laws around the world. Seven & i did not immediately respond to a request for comment and ValueAct declined to comment beyond the contents of the letter.

☆ More women describe having forced abortions in Nigerian Army programme
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +20 min

And both lost their pregnancies after they were taken into custody by Nigerian soldiers and given unidentified pills and injections. Nigerian military leaders previously have adamantly denied the existence of the abortion programme and the deliberate killing of unarmed children. We respect every living soul.”Asked about the military’s comments on the programme, Yau replied: “This happened to me, and they are denying it. After she was put into a room with three other pregnant women, Yau said, army personnel gave her pills and more injections. Reuters was unable to determine if this tally overlapped with others cited in its December story about the abortion programme.

☆ A New Home Is Crowned Priciest Property to Ever Sell in Paradise Valley
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( E.B. Solomont | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Be the first to know about the biggest and best luxury home sales and listings by signing up for our Mansion Deals email alert. In Paradise Valley, Ariz., a home built for a car collector has closed for $23.5 million, making it the most expensive home ever sold in the affluent Arizona town, according to listing agent Joan Levinson of Realty One Group.

☆ This Isn't What Millennial Middle Age Was Supposed to Look Like - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Jessica Grose | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +25 min

Things have been difficult for her family, she says, but one thing she isn’t worried about: a midlife crisis, looming just over the horizon. One of our questions was about whether they had experienced a midlife crisis and how they would define the term. Many people said they felt they couldn’t be having a midlife crisis, because there was no bourgeois numbness to rebel against. “Who has midlife crisis money?”The traditional midlife crisis, as presented in popular culture, at least, unfolds amid suburban ennui. We just increase our Lexapro.”Was the midlife crisis ever even real?

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☆ Amazon's Zoox tests robotaxi on public road with employees as passengers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Abhirup Roy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc's (AMZN.O) self-driving vehicle unit, Zoox, said on Monday it has successfully tested a robotaxi with employees as passengers on a public road in a move to bring it closer to commercial service for the general public. Ford Motor Co (F.N) and Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) last fall announced they would shutter their Argo AI self-driving unit and focus on driver-assistance technology that provided more immediate returns. Companies still pursuing development of this technology include General Motors Co's (GM.N) Cruise unit and Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Waymo. Online retailer Amazon, which has been aggressively expanding into self-driving technology, bought Zoox for $1.3 billion in 2020. Reporting by Abhirup Roy in San Francisco Editing by Ben Klayman and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ A Russian graveyard reveals Wagner’s prisoner army
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +18 min

The resting places were adorned with simple wooden crosses and brightly coloured wreaths that bore the insignia of Russia’s Wagner Group - a feared and secretive private army. The news agency matched the names of at least 39 of the dead here and at three other nearby cemeteries to Russian court records, publicly available databases and social media accounts. He said gravediggers told him the bodies had come from the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, close to Russia’s border with Donetsk region. According to Russian court documents, Kochas and another man burst into the apartment of an acquaintance while drunk in an attempted robbery. But he refused, so he’s a fool.”A Russian graveyard reveals Wagner’s prisoner army By Felix Light and Filipp Lebedev in Tbilisi and Reade Levinson in London Photo editing: Simon Newman Graphics: Fielding Cage Art direction: Eve Watling Edited by Janet McBride

☆ I used to work on Mars rovers and now I develop self-driving cars. Here's how I made the pivot from NASA's JPL to Amazon's Zoox.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The former supervisor at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab now works at AV startup Zoox. I figured after all the startups, why not work for a big company, and what better big company than NASA? ZooxThe AV space is the next frontier of robotics. What we're trying to do here in the AV space, it's extremely multidisciplinary. You're doing perception, you're doing planning, you're doing prediction, doing simulation.

☆ Apple CEO Tim Cook requests and receives a 40% pay cut after shareholder vote
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Apple CEO Tim Cook will receive a pay cut in 2023 to $49 million in total compensation, the company said in a filing with the SEC. Cook requested the change, Apple said in the filing, following a shareholder vote on his pay package. Institutional Shareholder Services recommended that Apple shareholders vote against Cook's pay package at last year's annual meeting. The number of actual shares of Apple stock that Cook vests depends on Apple's performance versus the S&P 500. Since Cook took over as CEO in 2011, Apple stock has returned 1,212% versus 290% for the S&P 500, Apple said.

☆ Arizona Cardinals Owner Gets $5.3 Million for Paradise Valley Home Less Than Two Months After Listing
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Libertina Brandt | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Be the first to know about the biggest and best luxury home sales and listings by signing up for our Mansion Deals email alert. Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill has sold his home in Paradise Valley, Ariz., for $5.3 million, less than two months after it hit the market for $5.8 million, said listing agent Joan Levinson of Realty One Group.

Both would be setbacks for the Biden administration. In another immigration-related case, the court has yet to rule on the Biden administration’s attempt to implement its immigration enforcement priorities. For Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the administration’s top advocate at the court, arguing before such a conservative court is a constant uphill battle. The government similarly failed to convince the conservative majority not to expand gun rights in another major ruling issued that month. The Biden administration can point to some hard-fought victories.

☆ West backs Nigeria's war on extremists, and backs off on human rights
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Reuters Graphic | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +21 min

“While respect for human rights is unquestionably a high priority, we have many other equities at stake,” McCulley wrote. He said the focus on human rights had sent relations between the two countries into the “lowest ebb” in his three years there. Nigeria’s human rights record wasn’t only a moral issue – it was a legal one. Working under these laws provided “openings to incentivise and institutionalise” human rights protections within the Nigerian military, the State Department said. The pact also noted that London and Abuja had agreed on an “enhanced human rights dialogue” to ensure compliance with international rights standards.

☆ Following Griner's release, U.S. lawmakers want a "National Hostage" day
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Patricia Zengerle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Days after the release of U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner from imprisonment in Russia, Democratic and Republican U.S. lawmakers will introduce legislation on Tuesday to establish March 9 as an annual day to remember Americans detained abroad. The bill, according to text seen by Reuters, seeks to make March 9 "National Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Day," to call increased attention to Americans unjustly held abroad and add urgency to the push to bring them home. "Brittney Griner's release and unjust imprisonment has only underscored the need for Congress to continue working to safeguard the lives of wrongfully detained Americans," said Democratic Senator Chris Coons, a lead sponsor of the bill, in a statement. The measure's sponsors also include Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Representatives Haley Stevens, a Democrat, and French Hill, a Republican. The administration has been unable to secure the release of former Marine Paul Whelan, who was jailed in Russia on 2020 on spying charges.

These so-called Twitter Files were proof of “free speech suppression,” the billionaire claimed. But for supporters, the details are less important than the narrative: another battle in Musk’s grand war to protect and enable “free speech” — seemingly everywhere and anywhere. Before Musk, Twitter wisely began labeling and then removing tweets that disseminated false information about the pandemic. But it feels like Musk’s actions as head of Twitter are incorrectly being blended with his statements on free speech. Musk’s self-proclaimed defenses of free speech sound good — most Americans remain, rightly, committed to this fundamental tenet of constitutional freedom.

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