DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) is in talks with The Sovereign Wealth Fund of Egypt (TSFE) about the deal, said two sources with knowledge of the matter, who declined to be named. The fund is considering acquiring a stake of up to 30% in the hotels, the sources said, without naming them. Relations between Egypt and Qatar soured in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings that toppled former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia has led efforts to rebuild ties with Qatar and, along with Egypt, re-established diplomatic relations in 2021. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in Baghdad in August 2021 for the first time since ending the dispute.

Persons: Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abdel Fattah El Sisi, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, St Regis Saadiyat, Egypt's TSFE, Agatha Christie's, Hosni Mubarak, Abdel Fattah al, Sisi, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, Hadeel El, Andrew Mills, Patrick Werr, Louise Heavens, Mark Potter, Kirsten Donovan Organizations: Abu, Abu Dhabi Executive Council, St Regis, United, United Arab Emirates, Read, Qatar Investment Authority, Sovereign Wealth Fund of Egypt, Regional, Qatar, Thomson Locations: Abu Dhabi, Egypt, Qatar, United Arab, DUBAI, Harrods, London, Aswan, Saudi Arabia, Thani, Baghdad, Ukraine, Hadeel El Sayegh, Dubai, Doha, Cairo

☆ Train review: What it’s like to ride the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Chris Dwyer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

That's according to Matthieu Ollier, manager of the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, who said the train's Grand Suites cost 24,000 euros ($25,850) for a one-night trip from Venice to London. A train steward on the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. The ensuite bathroom in the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express' Budapest Suite. The bar car on board the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. Source: Venice Simplon-Orient-Express

Persons: Matthieu Ollier, Willy Wonka's, Chris Dwyer, Ollier, John Travolta, Angelina Jolie, Kate Winslet, Wes Anderson, Agatha Christie's, Christie, Champagne —, Austria's Brenner, Chef Jean Imbert, Jean Imbert, —, serenaded Organizations: Orient, Express, Orient Express, Athénée, Venice Locations: Venice, London, Belmond, United States, Paris, Bucharest, Munich, Istanbul, —, Budapest, Murano, Tsar, Austria's, Switzerland, France

☆ English island that inspired Agatha Christie is up for sale, along with its luxury Art Deco hotel
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Lianne Kolirin | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

London CNN —A tiny island that inspired legendary crime novelist Agatha Christie has gone up for sale, complete with its own Art Deco hotel and helipad. Burgh Island, located just off the coast of Britain’s south-westerly county of Devon, is on the market for “offers in excess of £15m” ($18.9 million), according to real estate agent Knight Frank. Each room at the hotel is named after a notable guest, including "Agatha's beach house." Burgh Island HotelOver the years, Burgh has been a popular escape for the rich and famous. In 1927, it was sold to film producer Archibald Nettlefold, who went on to build a more substantial hotel in the Art Deco style fashionable at the time.

☆ Two strangers met on the River Nile. They’ve been married for 25 years
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Francesca Street | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +22 min

Since meeting as colleagues on a Nile tour boat, Christina, from the UK, and Wahid, from Egypt, had spent every moment they could together. Christina KandilOn her first night in Egypt, Christina introduced herself to the Kimo’s crew. On her second evening in Egypt, Christina found herself sitting next to Wahid outside one of the Kimo’s cabins. “And then Christina came, and I fell for her.”At first, Wahid didn’t tell Christina about this very recent ex-girlfriend. It’s now over 25 years since Christina and Wahid fell in love as twentysomethings on the River Nile.

☆ Spielberg, Who Regrets Cutting ‘E.T.’ Guns, Says Don’t Revise Old Works
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Marc Tracy | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Steven Spielberg, one of Hollywood’s most powerful filmmakers, has weighed in on a cultural debate about whether to change books, films and television shows to make them more palatable to contemporary sensibilities, calling such revisions “censorship.”Most of the discussion in recent weeks has been about publishers’ excising references to the race and physical appearance of characters in the work of deceased authors like Roald Dahl, Agatha Christie and Ursula K. Le Guin. But film and television directors, including Spielberg, have also made revisions to published work. Spielberg said in 2011 that he regretted replacing the guns that federal agents carried with walkie-talkies in the 20th anniversary edition of “E.T.,” and he later brought the guns back for its 30th anniversary release. The director went even further on Tuesday at a forum sponsored by Time magazine, condemning all such alterations to artwork. “No film should be revised based on the lenses we now are either voluntarily or being forced to peer through,” he said, adding that all movies were “a signpost of where we were when we made them and what the world was like.”

☆ Name Above the Movie Title? How About in It?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Leah Greenblatt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

With “Pinocchio” and the 2022 Netflix horror-anthology series “Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities,” the director joins a long line of auteurs, from Alfred Hitchcock to Tim Burton, whose presence not merely above the title but in it serves as a stylistic marker, even when it’s not strictly their hand guiding the material. (The horror godhead Wes Craven habitually did the same; see “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare.”) Few, though, can claim to be the one-man industry that is Tyler Perry, who retains full ownership of the projects produced under his personal shingle at his stand-alone studio in Atlanta. The multihyphenate creator has famously put‌‌ his signature on several movie and television titles released under its umbrella — including “Tyler Perry’s A Madea Homecoming,” the most recent iteration of the reliably raucous comedies that he also writes and stars in as a salty, well-cushioned matriarch of a certain age. While Madea is Perry’s wholesale creation, indubitably linked to the man who wears her wig onscreen, certain intellectual properties with roots that reach back centuries have tilted their brims instead toward a more literal (and literary) acknowledgment of the source. Neither he nor Christie is officially billed in the title.

☆ Opinion | Removing Offensive Language From Classic Books
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

While there may be an argument for expurgated versions of some books for young children, adult readers should face squarely our literature as it is — flaws and all. Al McKeeSan FranciscoTo the Editor:Efforts by literary executors, editors and school systems to sanitize the writing of past generations is nothing new. Notoriously, the 19th-century Bowdler editions of Shakespeare scrubbed away all unsettling sexual content. Victorian translations of classical texts scrubbed away all references to homosexuality, creating an illusion of heteronormativity where it never existed. Late 20th-century library shelves were purged of books that expressed racist, antisemitic and eugenic beliefs, creating a comfortable delusion that such opinions were rare.

The lawsuit tackles a business at Google that is responsible for 80 percent of its revenue. The Justice Department asked the court to compel Google to break up its ad technology business. Eight states joined the department in Tuesday's lawsuit, including Google's home state of California. The lawsuit says "Google has thwarted meaningful competition and deterred innovation in the digital advertising industry." In addition to its well-known search, which is free, Google makes revenue through its interlocking ad tech businesses, which connect advertisers with newspapers, websites and other firms looking to host them.

REUTERS/Benoit TessierWASHINGTON, Jan 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google on Tuesday over allegations that the company abused its dominance of the digital advertising business. "Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful means to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies," the government said in its antitrust complaint. The Justice Department asked the court to compel Google to divest its Google Ad manager suite, including its ad exchange AdX. The lawsuit is the second federal antitrust complaint filed against Google, alleging violations of antitrust law in how the company acquires or maintains its dominance. The Justice Department lawsuit filed against Google in 2020 focuses on its monopoly in search and is scheduled to go to trial in September.

☆ 'Glass Onion' director Rian Johnson jokes that Netflix secretly funded Twitter's takeover as his fictional idiot billionaire draws comparisons with Elon Musk
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

"Glass Onion" director Rian Johnson joked that Netflix might have funded the Twitter takeover. Johnson said this wasn't intentional, saying the character reflected general tech billionaire foibles. I hope there isn't some secret marketing department at Netflix that's funding this Twitter takeover," Johnson said. Johnson told Wired that Norton's character was originally based on an amalgamation of tech billionaire personalities. Asked if he would ever write a sequel about the downfall of Twitter, Johnson responded: "Didn't I just do that?"

☆ More women are traveling alone. The hospitality industry is meeting demand with offerings like 'Alonemoons' — no partner required.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Mark Ellwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

When she started traveling alone, she said, the trend was less common and locals were often surprised to see her without a companion. The Solo Female Travelers Club, a 190,000-member social network and tour operator, surveys 5,000 women annually on their habits and opinions. A Gili Lankanfushi representative told Insider six women traveling alone had booked the package in the past 18 months. "I think it's a wonderful, life-affirming experience to be a woman traveling solo and experience the nurturing care you can get from strangers. Meg Jerrard, a cofounder of the Solo Female Travelers Club, recently started a consulting division of her company to help guide other businesses as they reevaluate their offerings and staff in light of growing demand from solo female travelers.

☆ ‘Agatha Christie’s Hjerson’ Review: A Character’s Character Comes to Life
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

‘Agatha Christie’s Hjerson” is one more indication that the venerated Christie was the gift to crime fiction that will never stop giving. The novelist never wrote a Hjerson book, but Ariadne Oliver did and Oliver—novelist, confidante of Hercule Poirot , apple-munching avatar of the author—was a Christie creation herself. It’s an audacious thing to conjure up a mystery series about a character created by a character created by a writer who has been gone for 46 years. But in terms of plots, twists and mortality rates, Christie and “Hjerson” couldn’t be closer, never mind their three or four degrees of separation. When Klara bravely takes a stand and says, “We’re better than this,” she’s told no, we’re not and she’s welcome to clean out her desk.

☆ An Agatha Christie play that's been running in London's West End for 70 years is finally coming to Broadway
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Stephanie Stacey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

After 70 years in the West End, The Mousetrap will finally open in New York next year. The Mousetrap's Broadway transfer was announced on Friday to mark the play's 70th anniversary. When it first opened in London, Christie and the original producer agreed that the show would not transfer to Broadway. Spiegel said: "After the longest out-of-town try-out in history, The Mousetrap is finally ready to transfer to Broadway." In her autobiography, Christie recounts a conversation she had with Peter Saunders, the play's original producer, on its opening night in the West End.

☆ Netflix's best Thanksgiving movie is not streaming: 'Glass Onion'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Ani Bundel | Ani Bundel Is A Cultural Critic Who Has Been Writing Regularly Since Her Work Can Also Be Found At Elite Daily | Weta'S Telly Visions | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” is a bit of a clunky title. But the film itself, which only ever calls itself “Glass Onion” on screen, is a delightful trifle of a mystery movie, a laugh-out-loud comedy that deserves to be a mass market theatrical hit. Perhaps “Glass Onion” is better experienced on streaming — at least philosophically. But perhaps “Glass Onion” is better experienced on streaming — at least philosophically. That being said, “Glass Onion” is as wonderfully enjoyable as its predecessor, even though there’s little need to connect the two.

☆ ‘Glass Onion’ sharpens the ‘Knives Out’ formula in a polished Netflix sequel
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Review Brian Lowry | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Rising to the challenge of matching its successful predecessor, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” maintains the razor-sharp formula, with a setup that feels even more conspicuously like an Agatha Christie homage before an extremely clever series of twists kick in. Writer-director Rian Johnson again assembles a solid cast behind Daniel Craig, but it’s his use of language – where nary a word is wasted – that finally gives the sequel its edge. Netflix opportunistically stepped up to acquire the “Knives Out” franchise and, departing from its usual “Stroke the filmmakers’ egos” approach to theatrical distribution, will actually give the movie a wide one-week-only release before it hits the streaming service in late December. Happily, “Glass Onion” finds new layers to explore, in a way that makes the prospect of a new “Knives Out Mystery” every few years sound like a perfectly reasonable idea, wherever and however one chooses to consume it. “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” premieres November 23 in US theaters and December 23 on Netflix.

☆ Two companies have luxury trains called the 'Orient Express.' Here are the differences
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Lucy Handley | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

The "Orient Express" has been called the "king of trains" and the "train of kings." By the 1970s, the original Orient Express trains had made their last journeys, and the carriages fell into disrepair. The Orient Express 'La Dolce Vita'Accor has more plans to use the Orient Express name. A rendering of the "Orient Express La Dolce Vita," which will connect Rome to cities like Paris, Istanbul and Split. A rendering of a bedroom suite on the "Orient Express La Dolce Vita," showing the train's 1960s-style decor.

☆ ‘The Menu’ Serves Fine Dining on a Skewer
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Julia Moskin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Is the new thriller “The Menu” a parody of the state of fine dining? You’d think so: A small group of people pay astronomical sums to be isolated on an island, fed ingredients that wash up on the beach by employees who are trapped there, and subjected to the hospitality of a creative visionary who is secretly filled with rage. Yet much of this is a reality in the top tier of modern restaurants, a world that has become a fascination of popular culture. The movie is billed as “black comedy horror,” but the horror that stalks this Agatha Christie-style island is not gore; it’s gastronomy. Anyone who has ever felt trapped in a “chef’s tasting,” whether of four or 40 courses, will recognize the roller coaster of claustrophobia and euphoria, satiation and starvation that is “The Menu.”In interviews with the people who dreamed up the food in the film, the consensus was that the tropes of modern fine dining are so extreme that there’s little need to exaggerate them.

The world should mourn the loss of Angela Lansbury, a gifted actress who died this week at 96 after a career of more than seven decades. Angela Lansbury stars as mystery writer and crime solver Jessica Fletcher on the CBS television series "Murder, She Wrote" in 1990. “Murder, She Wrote,” however, featured not only a woman, but an older one at that. I remember well Lansbury’s character, with her constant bike riding and quick mind. While I’m sorry that Lansbury is no longer with us, I’m glad that the era of “Murder, She Wrote” has passed.

☆ 'Murder, She Wrote' actress Angela Lansbury dead at age 96
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Nearly seven decades after her first film, she was awarded an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement at age 88 in November 2013. "I feel really undeserving of this gorgeous chap," Lansbury said, referring to the golden Oscar statuette she was given. "Not since the heyday of Bette Davis had there been an actress of this range and accomplishment," wrote critic David Shipman. Lansbury was born in London in 1925 and went to the United States in 1940 to avoid the war with her mother, actress Moyna McGill, who appeared in several Hollywood films. Lansbury, who lived in Los Angeles, married actor Richard Cromwell in 1945 but the union lasted less than a year.

☆ ‘See How They Run’ Review: Death on the West End
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

After “Murder on the Orient Express” raked in over $352 million at the global box office in 2017 and “Knives Out” brought in about $312 million two years later, the stuffy old parlor-murder-mystery felt like a movie genre reborn. For a moment, screenwriters put down their preferred source material (comic books) and turned their attentions to Agatha Christie novels, sales of which have spiked. Maybe everything that was once in vogue gets another chance, although you probably shouldn’t hold your breath waiting for the return of big-band music or cigarette holders.

Dar acolo unde procrastinarea este văzută ca un lucru rău, se pare că nu există spațiu de idei inovatoare. Gândirea liberăExistă multe motive pentru care o perioadă de incubație ar putea duce la perspective noi și ingenioase. O perioadă de incubație ne permite să câștigăm o oarecare distanță psihologică față de sarcina noastră, iar acest lucru ne poate ajuta să revenim la problemă cu o nouă perspectivă. După câteva minute de brainstorming, a venit timpul pentru o perioadă de incubație. Li s-a cerut să memoreze pe o perioadă scurtă de timp niște cifre.

Persons: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Cert, Mozart, francez Poincaré, Agatha Christie, Agatha, Benjamin Baird, Li, Adam Grant, Daniel Schwartz, David Robson, Georgeta Organizations: BBC, Stanford, Apple, Google, Warwick Business School, Universitatea din Locations: Republica Moldova, Marily, SUA, Universitatea din Oxford

☆ Romane de ficțiune, romance sau SF. Goodreads a lansat un ghid de 30 de lecturi pentru această vară
▼ + stars: | 2020-05-24 | by ( Onixmedia Srl | ) diez.md time to read: +5 min

O poveste despre prietenie și iertare. O poveste fictivă istorică, unde mai multe personalități se strâng să comemoreze moartea lui Jane Austen. Un roman despre o femeie care devine obsedată de o notiță găsită la întâmplare în pădure. The Year of the Witching de Alexis Henderson. Povestea e despre o lume proiectată după o pandemie care omoară 99 % dintre bărbații de pe planetă.

Persons: Emma Straub, Jennifer Weiner, Jane Austen, Natalie Jenner, Brit Bennett, Silvia Moreno, Garcia, Stephen Graham Jones, Luster, Raven, Ella Berman, Death, Riley Sager, Holt, Alex North, Alice Feeney, Lucy Foley, Agatha Christie, Devolution, Max Brooks, Lindsay Ellis, Alexis Henderson, Afterland, Lauren Beukes, Carole Stivers, John Moe, Hollywood Park, Mikel Jollet, Crawford, Molly Wizenberg, Elizabeth Acevedo, Suzanne Collins, Loveless, Alice Oseman, Emily Henry ., Meryl Wilsner, Kate Organizations: SF, Goodreads, Hollywood, Stanford Locations: New York, New England, Angeles, Hollywood

Andrei Curăraru: Cum să alegi o carte bună și să nu consumi maculaturăAndrei Curăraru, Consultant Principal la Consiliul Suprem de Securitate al Republicii Moldova, și lector la ULIM, a publicat pe blogul său o listă de sfaturi despre cum să alegi o carte bună pentru lectură. RecenziileRecenzia este o opinie informată despre cartea pe care o vei citi, care îți poate crea o imagine generală despre opera pe care o vei citi. Puteți cere opinia cuiva despre o carte, pe care ați verificat-o și din alte surse. Dacă vă plac cărțile cu citate moderne, am să vă dezamăgesc. Dacă vă plac cărțile despre căi de transformare spirituală, citiți Gabriel Garcia Marquez sau Carlos Castaneda și veți găsi motivele care au inspirat cărțile ulterioare.

Persons: Andrei, Francois, Tao, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Carlos Castaneda, Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie Organizations: Române Locations: Republicii Moldova, ULIM, Republica Moldova, Rochefoucauld

Search resuls for: "Agatha Christie"

24 mentions found