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☆ ‘Renfield’ Review: Nicolas Cage Dons the Count’s Cape
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Amy Nicholson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

In an era prone to pop psychology, here lies “Renfield” on the therapist’s couch. Now, Renfield ( Nicholas Hoult ) is a co-dependent in a toxic relationship with a narcissist—that’s his master, Dracula. Not to be outdone, the vampire ( Nicolas Cage ) weaponizes the lingo of martyrdom as sharpened in feuds on “The Real Housewives.” “I’m the real victim here!” he snarls. Renfield joins a support group, brandishes a self-help book like a protective crucifix and, during a makeover montage, swaps his gothic rags for khakis. Do we believe for one second that a mass murderer would frame an inspirational poster that reads “YOLO”?

☆ 'Renfield': Nic Cage's Dracula had an unusual inspiration, says Nicholas Hoult
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Thomas Page | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Think Dracula and the cape, the fangs and bloodlust come to mind. Nic Cage thought Dracula and saw Anne Bancroft in “The Graduate.”That’s according to Nicholas Hoult, who plays the titular servant to Dracula in “Renfield,” a new take on Bram Stoker’s characters. “I don’t think it gets more iconic than Nic Cage playing Dracula,” Hoult told CNN. Dracula is a character that requires an actor to go big or go home – and with good reason. “Nic Cage describes this idea of love in exile, and Dracula being someone who’s in extreme pain, because he has to watch everyone that he loves die,” said Hoult.

Bill Clark | CQ-Roll Call Group | Getty ImagesAn embarrassing leak of highly classified Pentagon documents has endangered intelligence methods, exposed American strategy and undermined trust among U.S. allies, former defense department officials and intelligence experts tell CNBC. America's control over its most valuable secrets has been thrust into question amid the fallout from the most damaging intelligence leak since Edward Snowden's breach more than a decade ago. 'Devastating' for American alliesThe major security breach also contained intelligence gathering on American allies, including South Korea and Israel. "Our allies can't trust us … That's why the Middle East, they're talking to the Chinese. one American defense industry executive told CNBC, speaking anonymously due to professional restrictions.

☆ ‘Renfield’ Review: Dracula, Worst Boss Ever
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Manohla Dargis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Count Dracula has been dead for so long and gone through so many iterations — exotic, satanic, romantic — that it’s almost surprising there’s any juice left in the thirsty old boy. Yet here he is again, resurrected by a glorious, vamping Nicolas Cage, swinging a cape, baring his fangs and stealing his every scene. He’s basically toast, and our guy, the Count’s unhappy servant, Renfield (a Nicholas Hoult type, relatable, smooth, good-looking) — after years of groveling and scarfing bugs — has had it. After a century of pop-culture celebrity and box-office success there’s no need: He is what he is, a vampire. He’s also, unsurprisingly given the job’s grisly requirements, a terrible boss, which the movie uses to economically establish how the long-suffering Renfield joins the support group.

☆ From swimming pools to gardening, the rich's privileged lifestyles are driving urban water crises, study says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Anmar Frangoul | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Published in the Nature Sustainability journal this week, the peer-reviewed research looked at the South African city of Cape Town, which has experienced severe drought in recent years. For the study, researchers split Cape Town's urban population into five social groupings and then modeled water consumption. "Informal dwellers and lower-income households constitute together 61.5% of Cape Town's population but consume a mere 27.3% of the city's water." "Specifically, privileged water consumption is unsustainable because in the short term, it disproportionally uses the water available for the entire urban population." Longer term, the report described what it called privileged consumption as constituting an environmental threat to the status of local water sources.

☆ Lunar startup ispace's shares untraded in Tokyo debut amid glut of buy orders
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches the Hakuto-R Mission 1 from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Dec. 11, 2022 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Shares of lunar transportation start-up ispace went untraded in their market debut in Tokyo early on Wednesday, as bids overwhelmed offers. Shares of ispace were bid at 436 yen as of the morning break on the Tokyo exchange's growth market, 72% above their IPO price of 254 yen. The stock has an upper price limit of 585 yen, according to the exchange. In December, its Hakuto-R Mission 1 lunar lander was launched aboard a SpaceX rocket that took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying two robotic rovers.

☆ House GOP's attempt to shut down Alvin Bragg is unlikely to save Trump but could serve despots in training, say oversight experts
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Warren Rojas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Donald Trump's formal arraignment in Manhattan criminal court sent House Republicans into a tizzy. Stretton wondered about House Republicans' attempt to defang state prosecutors they consider to be political persecutors. "It's hard to say what overstepping bounds are any more," Davis told Insider. "When you defend somebody before you've even seen the indictment, you're kind of hitching your wagon to all the investigations," Goldberg told Insider. He also warned that spotlight-chasing House Republicans risk drowning in unfinished business at the end of the term by floating new Biden-focused inquiries "every couple of weeks."

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☆ Uganda’s anti-gay bill is the latest and worst to target LGBTQ Africans
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Aditi Bhandari | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +14 min

Same-sex activity in Africa is punishable by … Map of the 32 African countries where same-sex activity is illegal. Same-sex activity in Africa … Map of the 22 African countries where same-sex activity is legal. In 1993, Guinea-Bissau became the first African country to legalise LGBTQ activity when it adopted a new Penal Code that didn’t include any laws criminalising it. Country Constitutional protection Broad protections Employment Hate crime Incitement Marriage or civil union Adoption Angola No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Botswana No No Yes No No No No Cape Verde No No Yes Yes No No No Gabon No No No No No No No Guinea-Bissau No No No No No No No Lesotho No No No No No No No Mozambique No No Yes No No No No Sao Tome and Principe No No Yes Yes No No No Seychelles No No Yes No No No No South Africa Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes YesNote: Broad protections include laws protecting against discrimination in at least 3 of 4 categories: the provision of goods and services, housing, healthcare and education. Namibia and Mauritius criminalise same-sex activity, but around 35% of respondents said they would dislike having a gay neighbour.

☆ South Africa revokes 'state of disaster' declared over power crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Kopano Gumbi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The state of disaster gave the government additional powers to respond to the crisis, including by permitting emergency procurement procedures with fewer bureaucratic delays and less oversight. The newly appointed electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said some crisis measures would remain in place. "The state is withdrawing the national state of disaster in response to OUTA's legal action challenging its rationality," said OUTA, a non-profit organisation that focuses on fighting government corruption and tax abuses. REUTERS/Esa AlexanderOUTA said the disaster regulations would have enabled corruption and that the crisis could be managed using existing laws. President Cyril Ramaphosa invoked disaster regulations on Feb. 9 to fight a paralysing power crisis that has included daily rolling power cuts by Eskom.

☆ Is global warming helping loggerhead turtles colonise the Med?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Borja Suarez | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Borja SuarezTALIARTE, Spain, April 5 (Reuters) - Growing numbers of loggerhead sea turtles are nesting and laying eggs on western Mediterranean beaches in what some scientists suggest could be a case of climate change causing habitat expansion of a threatened species. Along with the warming sea water, another factor probably benefiting the world's largest hard-shelled turtle, which is considered a vulnerable species, are protection programmes in countries like Spain and Cape Verde. The group rescues injured turtles in Spain's Canary Islands and studies their population in Cape Verde, the eastern Atlantic's main reproduction area. Their size and hard shell generally protect them from predators, but fishnets, ship rotors and pollution have become significant threats. Reporting by Borja Suarez, writing by Inti Landauro, editing by Andrei Khalip and Andrew CawthorneOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

PRETORIA/CAPE TOWN, March 31 (Reuters) - South Africans took to the streets of Pretoria and Cape Town on Friday to protest against a Ugandan law passed last week that makes it a criminal offence to be openly LGBTQ. Singing and waving flags, demonstrators called on Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni, not to sign it. "Queer people don't owe anyone anything, but we also deserve to live just like everyone else. You can't strip all our rights. Reporting by Catherine Schenck and Esa Alexander, Writing by Rachel Savage Editing by Giles ElgoodOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ These are the 10 top cities Americans are looking to move to, according to a report — and of them 5 are in Florida
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Florida dominates the list of US cities that Americans want to relocate to, according to Redfin. Four other Florida cities, including Tampa and Orlando, made the top ten. Miami was the most popular destination for Americans looking at property listings in a different metro area to where they currently lived, the report said. Four other Florida cities – Tampa, Orlando, Cape Coral, and North Port-Sarasota – also made it to the top ten. The top ten destinations for Americans looking to relocate outside their metro area, according to Redfin, are:Miami, Florida Phoenix, Arizona Las Vegas, Nevada Sacramento, California Tampa, Florida Orlando, Florida Cape Coral, Florida, Dallas, Texas North Port-Sarasota, Florida Houston, TexasSome people, however, are bucking the trend by moving out of the Sunshine State.

[1/2] Dressmaker Faieza Caswell from Mitchells Plain sews under candlelight in her workplace, on the Cape Flats due to South Africa's struggling power utility company Eskom, implementing regular power cuts - called 'load-shedding', in Cape Town, South Africa February 11, 2023. South Africa's relatively wealthy, developed economy and nearly three decades of political stability helped drive industry growth and draw in reinsurers. And they are now tightening the conditions of their agreements with insurance companies. Reinsurers are also pushing insurance companies to include so-called "named perils" in policies rather than offering blanket cover for catastrophes. Grid failure would plunge South Africa into a nationwide blackout that could last weeks.

[1/2] Starbucks workers attend a rally as they go on a one-day strike outside a store in Buffalo, New York, U.S., November 17, 2022. REUTERS/Lindsay DeDario//File PhotoNEW YORK, March 29 (Reuters) - Starbucks shareholders approved a proposal for the coffee chain to conduct an independent assessment of its labor practices as it contends with hundreds of newly unionized U.S. cafes, according to voting results filed on Wednesday. The city's public pension funds and a coalition of other shareholders, who combined hold about 2.2 million Starbucks shares, proposed the assessment. "It is clear from the vote result in the proposal that our investors share our commitment to our partners," Starbucks said in its regulatory filing disclosing the results. The Seattle-based company said it will use findings of the review to "understand how we can best support our partners."

☆ South Africa chase down record T20 target to beat Windies
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Opener Quinton de Kock hit a first T20 century as South Africa scored 259-4 after being set an imposing target of 13 runs per over to win the match. Johnson Charles had led the West Indies to 258-5, a new record T20 total at the Pretoria test venue, after they had been put into bat and amassed a formidable total. South Africa began at blistering pace in reply and by scoring 150 without loss off the first 10 overs set another T20 record. I've been looking for a T20 century for a while and to do it at my home ground was something special," said De Kock. South Africa tied the three-match T20 series with the final game at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

☆ In Ghana, Kamala Harris 'excited about the future of Africa'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

U.S. Vice President, Kamala Harris, arrives at the Kotoka International Airport as she begins her trip to Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia, in Accra, Ghana, March 26, 2023. Vice President Kamala Harris was greeted by schoolchildren, dancers and drummers as she arrived Sunday in Ghana for the start of a weeklong visit to Africa intended to deepen U.S. relationships amid global competition over the continent's future. "What an honor it is to be here in Ghana and on the continent of Africa," Harris said. Harris is the highest-profile member of President Joe Biden's administration to visit Africa this year. In the evening, they will attend a state banquet with the Ghanaian president and first lady.

☆ Windies skipper smashes his side to T20 win over South Africa
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Cricket - First Twenty20 - South Africa v West Indies - SuperSport Park Cricket Stadium, Centurion, South Africa - March 25, 2023 South Africa's Anrich Nortje and Aiden Markram after the match REUTERS/Siphiwe SibekoPRETORIA, March 25 (Reuters) - West Indies captain Rovman Powell smashed a quickfire 43 not out to propel his side to a three wicket victory over South Africa in a rain reduced Twenty20 international clash on Saturday. Powell’s knock came off only 18 balls as the West Indies reached their target of 132 with three balls to spare to go 1-0 up in the three-match series. The game was reduced to 11 overs each with South Africa scoring 131-8 and then the tourists replying with 132-7. After a two-hour delay, Powell put South Africa into bat in damp conditions and got immediate returns as key batsmen Quinton de Kock and Rilee Rossouw departed cheaply. West Indies went on the attack from the start of their innings, scoring 17 runs off their opening four balls before South Africa snagged Kyle Mayers with the next delivery.

☆ Relativity's debut rocket launch proves durability, fails in space
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) - Relativity Space's 3D-printed rocket lifted off for the first time on Wednesday, passing a key milestone to demonstrate the vehicle's in-flight strength before its second stage failed upon reaching space, a company live stream showed. The California-based company's 110-foot tall Terran 1 rocket, which is 85% made of 3D-printed parts, lifted off on its debut flight around 11:25 p.m. EDT (0325 GMT on Thursday) from a launchpad at Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Base. Upon reaching space, the rocket's second stage engine appeared to briefly ignite but failed to achieve thrust, ultimately failing to reach orbit. "While we didn't make it all the way today, we gathered enough data to show that flying 3D-printed rockets is possible," Relativity Test Program Manager Arwa Tizani Kelly said on the company's live video stream. Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Jamie FreedOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Relativity's first 3D-printed rocket launches successfully but fails to reach orbit
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Relativity Space, a 3D-printing specialist, launched the inaugural flight of its Terran 1 rocket late on Wednesday night, which successfully met some mission objectives before failing to reach orbit. Terran 1 lifted off from LC-16, a launchpad at the U.S. Space Force's facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and flew for about three minutes. Relativity launch director Clay Walker confirmed that there was an "anomaly" with the upper stage. While many space companies utilize 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, Relativity has effectively gone all-in on the strategy. The Long Beach, California-based venture aims to create rockets from raw materials in as few as 60 days.

☆ Factbox: Legal hurdles faced by LGBT+ people in Africa
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Africa accounts for nearly half of the countries worldwide where homosexuality is outlawed, according to the review, which was last updated in December 2020. - Life imprisonment is the maximum penalty for same-sex relations in Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, while jail terms of up to 14 years are possible in Gambia, Kenya and Malawi. - Broad protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation exists in three countries: Angola, Mauritius and South Africa. - South Africa is the only African country where gay marriage is legal and where the constitution protects against discrimination based on sexual orientation. However, South Africa has high rates of rape and homophobic crime.

☆ Relativity Space's 3D-printed rocket delivers stunning night launch but fails to reach orbit
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Startup Relativity Space sent what it’s calling the “world’s first 3D-printed rocket” toward space on Wednesday, vaulting it into the upper reaches of the atmosphere. Relativity Space's Terran 1 rocket is seen during its third launch attempt of a mission called "GLHF" (Good Luck, Have Fun), from Launch Complex 16 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on March 22, 2023. The company said computers automatically aborted the launch attempt because of a detected software issue. Still, the Terran 1 rocket that failed its first launch attempt on Wednesday may not end up being the company’s showcase product. But those deals are “overwhelmingly for our larger reusable rocket Terran R,” Ellis noted.

☆ South African authorities arrest 87 ahead of anti-government protest
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

JOHANNESBURG, March 20 (Reuters) - South African security forces said on Monday that 87 people had been arrested in the last 12 hours across the country over public violence ahead of planned protests by the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party. The EFF has called for a national shutdown to protest crippling power cuts and demand the resignation of President Cyril Ramaphosa. The party's main constituency are the poor and working class Black South Africans who feel left out of the country's prosperity since the governing African National Congress (ANC) ended white minority rule in 1994. Parliament said in a statement on Sunday that the South African military would deploy 3,474 troops for a month until April 17 to prevent and combat crime in cooperation with the police. "Law enforcement officers are on high alert and will continue to prevent and combat any acts of criminality," NatJOINTS said.

☆ South Africa's EFF marches to demand president's resignation
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/5] Members of the political party, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), gather at Church Square after calling for a "National Shutdown" and demanding resignation of President Cyril Ramaphosa in Pretoria, South Africa March 20, 2023. REUTERS/Alet PretoriusJOHANNESBURG, March 20 (Reuters) - Thousands marched through the streets of South Africa's cities on Monday to demand that President Cyril Ramaphosa resign, as security forces guarded malls and roads to prevent violence and looting. The Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, whose supporters are mainly poor and working class Black South Africans who feel marginalised since the governing African National Congress (ANC) ended white minority rule in 1994, had called for a national shutdown. South African security forces said on Monday that 87 people had been arrested in the last 12 hours over public violence ahead of planned protests. Parliament said in a statement on Sunday that the South African military would deploy 3,474 troops for a month until April 17 to prevent and combat crime in cooperation with the police.

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