Malaysian cinema with universal themes are striking a chord with audiences worldwide, helping local films break through international boundaries.
Moviegoers in China have enthusiastically praised five high-calibre Malaysian productions featured at the China-Malaysia Film Festival 2026, held alongside the 12th Xingtan Cultural Season.
Officiated by National Film Development Corporation (Finas) chairperson Hans Isaac, the festival was co-organised by Alpha Unit Films & Distribution Sdn Bhd and China Film Industry Group Limited, with support from Finas.
According to Bernama, the featured line-up included A Mighty Adventure, Ah Beng Vs Liang Po Po, Babah, Abah Says Uncle Mike, and The Last Dive (also known as Takdir Terakhir).
These five films span multiple languages and storytelling formats:
A Mighty Adventure: Silent/No dialogue. It relies entirely on CG animation, visual storytelling, and a universal musical score.
Ah Beng Vs Liang Po Po: Mandarin (with some Cantonese).
Babah: Malay.
Abah Saya Uncle Mike: Primarily Malay (with some multi-lingual interactions, reflecting the real-life Chinese father raising Malay children).
The Last Dive: Primarily Malay/English.
Dr Wendy Wong, executive director of Produksi Seni 2020, noted that the response to The Last Dive exceeded all expectations.
"Chinese film fans appreciate our productions because they tackle pressing global issues. In fact, many praised our films as being on a par with Hollywood", she shared.
Meanwhile, Nadia Mohd Nadzri, producer of Babah (produced by Nads Media Entertainment Sdn Bhd), emphasised that the film's focus on family values holds timeless appeal across East Asia.
Ryan Lim, managing director of Alpha Unit, said that the team's primary hurdle was selecting titles that would genuinely resonate with a Chinese audience.
"It was crucial to pick the right mix of films. We held extensive discussions with our partners in China to ensure the line-up hit the right mark", Lim confided.
"We hope to bring even more high-quality Malaysian films to China soon, and after such a successful start, we are very optimistic about future collaborations".
Film scores and themes don’t come much more iconic than Ennio Morricone’s "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", a soundtrack so legendary that even those unfortunate few who have never seen the Clint Eastwood film are still well aware of its main theme, and the whistling that goes along with it.
A theme so perfect in evoking images of Wild West shoot-outs, duels, and lonely cowboys riding through the canyons that you could be forgiven for imagining Billy the Kid himself whistling along while rustling cattle in the Old West, Morricone’s work on the film helped to define his career among the most prolific composers in the history of film. In fact, the film’s score was unique for the time in that it directly helped to influence the rhythm of the narrative itself, rather than the other way around.
Although it is Morricone’s genius that shines through on the soundtrack, and its iconic main theme in particular, the Italian composer did not work entirely in isolation.
If there is one part of that theme that sticks in the mind of the audience, it is the coyote-esque howling and the accompanying whistling, capturing the quiet stoicism and Wild West surroundings of Clint Eastwood’s ‘Man With No Name’. However, it wasn’t Morricone (right) who was responsible for that whistling.
Nor, in fact, was the whistling the result of some obscure session performer whose namelessness rivals Eastwood’s. Instead, the composer recruited his childhood friend from back in Rome, Alessandro Alessandroni, and he was the one who gave the main theme its warbling guitar riff and, of course, the whistling.
Alessandroni (right), in addition to being a friend of Morricone’s, was a composer in his own right, although his work never quite reached the same notoriety as the latter. Looking across the films that he provided music for in his own right, none are afforded the same popularity nor the longevity of Morricone’s finest, with most being obscure Italian films like "Lady Frankenstein", "Seven Hours of Violence", and the 1978 nunsploitation film "Killer Nun".
It is fair to say, then, that the bulk of Alessandroni’s works was far more obscure than his work with Morricone in 1966, at least outside of Italy and the presumably niche appreciators of nunsploitation films. As such, his name is often omitted from the conversation when it comes to cinema’s most important composers, which is rather unjust.
Not only did he aid in the creation of Morricone’s score, not just for "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", but on the entirety of the Dollars trilogy, too. Even if the extent of his life’s work was just whistling on the main theme from that Clint Eastwood classic, though, the importance of that score should have been enough to cement his name in the history of film.
It is true, of course, that Morricone could quite easily have hired somebody else to provide whistling and guitar-playing for the theme, but there is also the possibility that, without the influence of his childhood comrade, the theme might be devoid of those elements altogether, and the entire world of film scores would be much worse off as a result.
Let's clear the air: cartoons aren't real! Most of the time, anyway!
And, sometimes, the coyote catches the road runner.
In the classic “Looney Tunes” cartoons featuring the Road Runner and Wile E Coyote, which first appeared in 1949, the coyote is foiled again and again in his efforts to catch the puckish bird in the deserts of the American Southwest.
But a photographer in theChatsworth Nature Preserve in Los Angeles on Saturday captured a real-life image of something you would never see in that cartoon: a coyote who successfully nabbed a road runner, instead of falling from a cliff, getting hit by a train or having an anvil land on him.
The snapper, Alexander deBarros (right), took the photo while out with a survey team from the San Fernando Valley Audubon Society for a monthly check of the ecosystem at the preserve, a 1,325-acre space in northwestern Los Angeles. (The photograph was reported by the Los Angeles TV news station KTLA).
There is no indication that this coyote effected thecapture through the use of an Acme jet-propelled pogo-stick, Acme rocket-powered roller skates or Acme dehydrated boulders (“Just add water!”).
Also, there were no reports of the road runner saying, “Beep, beep”.
While the image proved that coyotes do sometimes come out on top against road runners, it’s not a common occurrence.
“It is considered very rare for a coyote to catch a road runner”, said Scott El Henke, a professor at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University, Kingsville. Road runners can run about 20 miles an hour and are agile, he asserted.
“Physically they can outrun a coyote”, he added, and they “can fly up into tree branches to escape attacks”.
DeBarrossaid in an interview that he initially thought the prey might be a ground squirrel.
“When we confirmed that it was, in fact, a road runner in that coyote’s mouth, we freaked out a little bit”, he intoned. He claimed in 17 years of birding, it was the first time he had seen the cartoon antagonists together.
When DeBarros spotted the coyote, it already had the road runner in its mouth. He did not see any chase or kill.
Dr. Henke said this particular road runner might have been caught because it was distracted hunting its own prey, or perhaps it had been hit by a vehicle and was scavenged by the coyote.
Scavenged? Maybe Wile E didn’t catch the road runner after all.
Another coyote expert, Stanley D Gehrt, a professor of wildlife ecology at Ohio State University, agreed that the scavenger theory could be true.
“But I have learned to never underestimate coyotes”, he said. “They can do anything, even catch a road runner”.
[FYI, the species found in the American Southwest and depicted in the cartoons is the Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus)].
In an odd coincidence, DeBarros’s father, Brian Mainolfi, is an animator who worked with Chuck Jones, a creator of the coyote-road runner cartoons, on the 1994 cartoon “Chariots of Fur”.
Jones, who died in 2002, once said he got the idea for the coyote character from a travel book by a classic novelist.
“I first got interested in the coyote as an animal while perusing Mark Twain’s ‘Roughing It’ at the age of 7”, he said in a 1989 interview with The New York Times. “I thought of it as a sort of dissolute collie. And actually, that’s just about what a coyote is! No one saw it more clearly than Mark Twain”.
The cartoon has been back on the radar since the American release on August 28th of the movie “Coyote vs. Acme”, in which the coyote sues the Acme Corporation for its defective products.
(It is fictional).
The feature is dong exceptionally well. It earned a spectacular 95% 'Certified Fresh' score on Rotten Tomatoes and an A CinemaScore from audiences.
But did you know that it has an intriguing back story?
After years of headlines mourning its potential deletion, the theatrical run of "Coyote vs. Acme" has turned the film into one of Hollywood's ultimate underdog success stories.
Independent distributor Ketchup Entertainment acquired the worldwide rights for roughly $50 million, stepping in to rescue the live-action/animated hybrid after Warner Bros. Discovery initially chose to shelve it for a $30 million tax write-off in late 2023.
A crudely animated, homemade movie about a baby cow has become China's most unlikely box-office smash, generating merchandise and memes and a national conversation about the joyful rejection of slick marketing and artificial intelligence by a younger generation.
Made on a shoestring budget and with hand-drawn posters and a reported cost in the thousands of dollars, "The Bull Comes", or 牛来 (pronounced Niú lái) – released on August 05, 2026 – grossed the equivalent of more than $4 million as of Thursday.
In China's daily box-office rankings, it placed immediately behind "Spider-Man: Brand New Day", a Marvel Studios sequel that reportedly cost some $225 million to produce.
"Niú lái", which tells the story of a newborn calf, his mother and a leopard cub, flopped in its first week, grossing just over $1,000, according to local media reports.
Then, with a boost from social and local media, the movie's wonky animation, awkward storytelling and discussion of its unlikely creators – an amateur animator and his supportive mother – made the movie a viral sensation.
At one recent packed screening in Beijing, bursts of laughter rang out even before the movie started!
"I can't believe the theatre is full!" one audience member shouted, triggering cheers and laughter from the crowd.
"Other than envying how much money this piece of junk has made, I have no complaints", said a popular movie blogger on Weibo, a social media platform.
The embrace of the movie has become a kind of inside joke for the young, the blogger added. "And I say – let them laugh. There aren't that many things left that we can joke about".
The DIY project tapped into a kind of rebellious mood of the moment, said Remo Zhu, a Chinese director.
"It's a mood of... don't tell me what to do, to watch or eat - I'll decide that for myself", he said. "In a packed theatre full of strangers, it becomes a genuinely interactive, immersive communal experience".
The movie tells the story of a frail and exhausted newborn calf who struggles to stand up. It is a tale of friendship, courage and loss as the herd faces danger on its journey to find greener pastures. Spoiler: It also may – or may not – be a dream.
The dialogue is slow. Action sequences are clunky. The animation is heavily pixelated.
"It's not even a movie", said one reviewer on Weibo. "To call it bad is an insult to bad movies".
Movie or not, it has become a cultural touchstone and sparked a frenzy of people trying to cash in on its unlikely appeal. There are Niú lái toys, Niú lái-masked robots, social media memes and yes, cosplays.
Companies with the word "bull" in their names also saw an increase in their share prices on Monday, drawing an unusual warning from China's central bank against meme stock investing.
"Going to the movies for a bit of fun is harmless enough, but... pinning one's hopes on the word 'bull' is not rationality – it is wishful thinking", a journal run by the People's Bank of China said on Tuesday.
Methinks, replicating this low-budget movie's success will be a struggle for aspiring animators, as it was likely a unique, one-off event.
The Far Side, created by cartoonist Gary Larson, is a legendary single-panel comic strip that ran from 1980 to 1995. Known for its surreal, dark, and offbeat humor, it famously explored everyday life through the bizarre perspectives of animals, aliens, and scientists.
In this post, he is riffing on movies, where he has brought his eccentric and absurd twist to them:
On Tuesday, California, US Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation (AB 2455), sponsored by San Francisco Assemblymember Matt Haney, to officially mark May 17 as Bruce Lee Day.
This marks the first time in state history that a Chinese American has been honored with a namesake day, celebrating the cultural and cinematic legacy of the San Francisco-born icon.
Lee's daughter, Shannon (left), who is CEO of the Bruce Lee Foundation, said the honour is a testament to her father's enduring legacy as a bridge between cultures.
"From young people who found confidence and possibility in his philosophy, to families who finally saw themselves represented on screen, to athletes who still draw on his teachings of discipline and inner strength, his reach is profound", Shannon said in a statement.
Haney, who represents the 17th Assembly District, which covers the eastern portion of San Francisco, called Lee the epitome of the best of California.
"At a time when Asian Americans were too often absent from or stereotyped on screen, Bruce Lee helped generations see themselves represented with strength and dignity", he said in a statement.
Born in 1940 to Chinese parents who were touring with an opera company, Lee was granted birthright citizenship. A few months later, the family returned to Hong Kong, where Lee became a child actor and began learning Chinese kung fu.
He moved back to the US in 1959 and enrolled at the University of Washington in Seattle two years later – but he dropped out to throw himself into practicing and teaching martial arts.
In the 1960s, Lee found work in Hollywood, most notably as Kato (right) in the TV series The Green Hornet, but studios wanted him to play racist stereotypes and paid him less than his Caucasian counterparts.
Pivoting back to Hong Kong, he quickly became a martial arts megastar, starring in box-office hits like "The Big Boss" (1971), "Fist of Fury" (1972), "The Way of the Dragon" (1972) and "Enter the Dragon" (1973)
Lee died tragically in 1973 at the age of 32 after an allergic reaction to pain medication.
More than 50 years later, his name and likeness remain as popular as ever.
FYI, the acclaimed crime drama hit TV show "Warrior" was officially based on original notes, treatments, and writings developed by Lee in the late 1960s. His vision was a show featuring a Chinese martial artist in the Old West.
For decades, the concept went unproduced because Hollywood executives were hesitant to cast an Asian lead, but Shannon, and director Justin Lin ultimately brought his concept to life.
Dedicated fans regularly gather in locations like his ancestral hometown in Foshan, China to celebrate his birthday on November 27th.
Like the protagonist in his taboo novel, doctor-turned-author Yo Kusakabe (久坂部羊) believes chopping off elderly patients’ useless limbs could help prevent a potential collapse of super-ageing Japan’s overstressed care industry.
Now the former doctor’s extraordinary ideas are on display on the big screen, with the book’s film adaptation attracting huge controversy since its release in Japan in May.
But Haiyoshin (廃用身, Useless Body), which sees a young doctor advocate for “A-care (Amputation Care)”, has also focused attention on the struggling care sector in a country with the world’s second-oldest population.
Kusakabe (right), a former geriatric specialist from Osaka, explained to AFP the thinking behind his shocking proposition, saying removing paralysed limbs would make patients lighter and reduce the burden on caregivers in case the care industry reaches crisis point.
He sees it as a potential game changer, provided patients in the real world give consent. He argues that patients’ immobile arms and legs are impediments to caregiving: They dangle like dumbbells, get stuck in pyjamas and require more bathing.
“If you cut them off, a female carer would have less difficulty lifting a hefty male patient or suffer less back pain”, the 70-year-old said.
Kusakabe’s 2003 novel features unstinting depictions of carer shortages, overburdened family members and abused elderly patients. The topic feels even more relevant in present-day, greyer Japan, where almost one in three people are aged 65 or older.
The government estimate a shortfall of about 570,000 carers by 2040.
“Japan’s caregiving industry isn’t collapsing yet – but with (the number of) elderly people requiring care predicted to keep increasing, it is heading towards breaking point”, Kusakabe said.
In Japan, homicides by overwhelmed, desperate carers are common enough that the term “kaigo satsujin” (caregiving murders) often makes it into the news.
One investigation by public broadcaster NHK in 2016 revealed that such a tragedy took place roughly once every two weeks.
If homicides or incidents of abuse increase, Kusakabe said, “I think it’s possible that chopping off useless limbs would emerge as an option”.
Kusakabe points out his novel was deemed “unfilmable” when it first came out more than two decades ago. Now the story is finally in cinemas, reviewers online have labelled it everything from “shocking” and the year’s “most controversial film”, to “terrifying madness”.
But other critiques were more nuanced. “Some may say (the amputation) is ruthless and unethical, but honestly, I thought it had a point”, one wrote on cinema information website eiga.com.
In “Haiyoshin”, patients are also portrayed as benefitting, at least initially, from A-care.
Kusakabe recalls that some of his patients yearned to be rid of their crippled arms and legs that did nothing but throb, hinder movement and at times convulse unexpectedly.
No longer in pain, amputees in the film are shown relishing their newfound agility, tossing balloons with what remains of their bodies and deftly manoeuvring wheelchairs.
The film poses the question: What truly constitutes end-of-life dignity?
“Is it to try to put your immobile arms through sleeves with great pain, or not to suffer pain at all?“ Kusakabe asks.
“If someone desires amputation and that makes caregiving easier for their family, and the family accepts that, then I don’t think it’s anyone’s business to interfere”.
But such a “rational” pursuit of quality of life does not necessarily guide elderly care in Japan, he adds.
Feeding tubes and intravenous drips for those aged 75 or older are heavily covered by insurance and are often used to keep alive those bedridden.
Families also “simply cannot bear the thought of doing nothing” for their dying parents or spouses, oblivious to the possible suffering such treatment is causing them, Kusakabe says.
That contrasts with Scandinavian countries like Sweden and Denmark, where palliative-care best practice often dictates elderly patients not be fed if they stop eating.
“Japan blindly believes that even those clearly better off being left to die must be kept alive and that’s the absolute right thing to do” even as the toll on caregivers continues to snowball, the doctor says.
“This inability to take a bold, rational approach probably makes something as radical as A-care a poor fit for Japan after all”.
In Haiyoshin, the initial hype about elective amputation winds up brutally deflated by a tragedy that ultimately shatters the main character’s confidence in its efficacy.
“People tend to assume medical procedures are completely safe and they demand only the positive effect”, Kusakabe says.
The novel’s shocking twist is “my way of pushing back against those excessive expectations society has for medicine”.
A full-sized adult humanoid robot, developed by Shenzhen-based EngineAI, first joined special police and SWAT officers for a high-profile real street patrol on April 30, 2026 in the Nanshan district of Shenzhen, China.
The robot's presence on the streets attracted significant public interest. The deployment serves as a real-world showcase for how embodied AI and humanoid robotics may soon be integrated into public safety and high-traffic area operations.
The 1.73-meter-tall, 75-kilogram robot and featuring a magnesium-aluminum alloy frame, previously made public appearances – such as at the "Window of the World" theme park in December 2025 – but the April 30 event marked its deployment on actual public streets alongside armed law enforcement.
Equipped with precision sensors and onboard AI, it is capable of performing autonomous assessments, walking, running, and complex maneuvers like spinning kicks. The CEO of the company put on pads and let it spar with him – and got knocked over on the second try!
If you didn't already know, it is named T-800, the same as that of the Arnold Schwarzenegger-portrayed cyborg from the Terminator franchise. In the latter, it is famous for its metal endoskeleton covered in living human tissue.
And here's the kicker – the Chinese version costs just $25,000 and you can pre-order it on JD-dot-com. Like, right now. From your couch.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have clarified that only acting and writing for films done by humans will be considered eligible to win an Oscar.
The academy, which control the US film industry's most prestigious award, on Friday issued updated eligibility requirements that only acting "demonstrably performed by humans" and that writing "must be human-authored" in order to be nominated for an award.
In recent months, there have been notable examples of expansive use of AI tools and technology to replace or recreate human work. The actor Val Kilmer, who died in 2025, is set to be recreated with AI technology in order to be a lead role in an upcoming movie.
Last year, London, UK-based actor and comedianEline van der Velden said she had created an entirely fake AI actor to "become a global superstar".
When the union representing Hollywood writers went on strike two years ago, a key issue in the fight was film and TV studios using AI to write scripts. And Hollywood studios, actors and authors have pursued lawsuits claiming copyright infringement against a number of AI companies.
However, the academy did not issue a ban on AI use in films more broadly. Outside of acting and writing, if a filmmaker used AI tools in their work, such "tools neither help nor harm the chances of achieving a nomination", the academy wrote.
"The Academy and each branch will judge the achievement, taking into account the degree to which a human was at the heart of the creative authorship when choosing which movie to award", the group added.
Hearts achieved a 2-1 comeback victory over Rangers yesterday, extending their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership to three points with three games remaining.
In fact, they could win the league as soon as next Wednesday. If they beat Motherwell and Falkirk, and Celtic fail to beat Rangers on Saturday, the title will be going to Gorgie for the first time since 1960.
As for the Gers, their title hopes look dead in the water.
A 12-foot tall statue depicting US President Donald Trump embracing the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a Titanic-style pose has appeared on the National Mall in Washington, DC.
The gold-painted replica of Trump could be seen standing behind Epstein, arms outstretched, at the bow of a miniature model of the doomed ship, a reference to the iconic pose of Jack and Rose in the 1997 blockbuster.
A plaque at the statue’s base read: “The tragic love story between Jack and Rose was built on luxurious travel, raucous parties, and secret nude sketches. This monument honors the bond between Trump and Epstein, a friendship seemingly built on luxurious travel, raucous parties and secret nude sketches”.
The statue, which appeared March 10 and showed Trump gazing at Epstein as he held his outstretched arms, was the latest in a series of satirical statues that have appeared in Washington since October 2024, just before the presidential election. Many of the installations, including this one influenced by the movie “Titanic” and Trump’s friendship with Epstein, were created by an anonymous group of artists called The Secret Handshake.
An artist from The Secret Handshake told The New York Times that the group began brainstorming ways they could depict Trump as a king, and landed on perhaps the most memorable line in the film, when Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) shouts off the ship’s bow, “I’m the king of the world!” Add the iconic pose, which Jack replicated later in the movie with Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet), and the statue, titled “The King of the World”, was a cheeky way of drawing attention to the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files, the artist said.
The statue was permitted to be on the National Mall, which is overseen by the National Park Service, through Friday, the artist said.
In an email to The New York Times, Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, called the artists “wealthy Democrat donors” who should create statues of Democratic lawmakers who solicited money and meetings from Epstein after he was convicted of sex crimes.
Liverpool required a comeback victory if they are to keep their Champions League campaign alive as they hosted Galatasaray – who held a 1-0 advantage – on Wednesday.
What was potentially a tough task turned out very easy for the Reds as they took firm control in the return leg and scored 4-0 to give them an aggregate 4-1 win over the Turkish side.
It was a set-piece in the 25th minute which broke the deadlock, and a clever one at that. Alexis Mac Allister drilled a low outswinger to the penalty spot where Dominik Szoboszlai, the usual set-piece taker, ran in from the edge of the area to steer home left-footed his 12th of the season.
And then, Liverpool scored three goals in the space of 11 second-half minutes to put the tie to bed.
Mohamed Salah supplied a low cross for Hugo Ekitike to slot home in the fifty-first minute and just two minutes later, he hit a shot that was too much for the Galatasaray goalkeeper to handle, resulting in a goal for Ryan Gravenberch from the rebound.
Salah's turn as scorer came next when in the 62nd minute, he came inside on his left foot and whipped a beauty into the top corner for his 50th Champions League goal.
It was hard to believe that this same side struggled to score across 180 minutes against Galatasaray in Istanbul, and put in a dull display against Tottenham on the weekend.
Liverpool head into the quarter-finals to set up a reunion with defending champions Paris Saint-Germain in the last eight – and they thoroughly deserve it on this performance!
As a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I have to admit that by today's standards, their movies have been pretty lame.
Live-action TMNT movies include the original 1990s trilogy (TMNT 1990, Secret of the Ooze 1991, TMNT III 1993) featuring Jim Henson puppet suits, and the Platinum Dunes-produced reboot films (TMNT 2014, Out of the Shadows 2016) with CGI turtles.
TBH, I would love to see John Wick-style fight choreography.
Indie animator John Likens has filled the gap. His two-minute test fight scene featuring Raphael and a whole lot of camera shake is the perfect treat for any adult TMNT fan (which I expect you are, if you're reading this).
💓💓💓
This is Raphael Unleashed. The version of the TMNT I’ve always wanted to see on the big screen.
Let’s honor the iconic roots of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles while viewing it through a darker, cinematic lens. A grounded action thriller packed with chaos, conflict, and brutal martial arts, while carrying the emotional depth and high-stakes drama of a prestige series.
And since you can never tell nowadays, Likens specifies that AI was not involved at any point, which makes me root for him even more!
Please, please, Paramount Pictures, get off your butts and reach out to Likens!
Thieves dressed as Robin Hood raided a food store in Montreal, Canada on the night of February 03 and gave away the stolen goods in a protest against rising food prices.
An activist organization calling themselves the “Robins des Ruelles” (Robins of the Alleys) said roughly 60 people, some dressed in Robin Hood-style feathered caps, had entered a Rachelle Béry health food store, taken food without paying and redistributed it to “many community fridges in the city” in what it claimed was a “political act” against food inflation.
The theft follows a similar incident in December, when members of the same group flooded into a Montreal grocery store dressed as Santa Clause and his elves, stealing food and leaving some of it gift-wrapped under a nearby Christmas tree.
The cost of living is a major topic in Canada, where inflation grew 4.7% between November 2024 and 2025 – more than double the rate of overall inflation, according to CNN’s Canadian broadcast partner CBC.
“Everyday, we are working relentlessly, only to be able to buy food in those profit-driven supermarkets”, the statement from the Robins des Ruelles quotes one group member, Francis, as saying. “When having two jobs is not enough to eat, have a roof over your head and take care of your family, every means become legitimate”.
An edited video published by activist organization Les Soulèvements du Fleuve on Instagram shows the raid on the Rachelle Béry store, interspersed with the title credits for the 1938 film “The Adventures of Robin Hood”.
In the video, people wearing masks amble through the aisles, grabbing food, medicine, soap and other items. Others use spray paint to block security cameras within the store and outside. At the end of the video, one person sprays “F**k Les Profits” on a brick wall.
It’s Scottish Cup business for Celtic when they welcomed Dundee to Parkhead yesterday. The pulsating fifth round tie saw the former leaving it to the last possible moment to keep their hopes alive before going on to beat the latter 2-1.
The Dee had unleashed an unstoppable left foot shot into the top far corner in the 49th minute to stun Celtic and were seconds away from recording their first win in the East End of Glasgow in 25 years.
But on-loan Freiburg forward Junior Adamu, who had come off the bench, back heeled a Sebastian Tounekti pass into the visitors’ net in the 96th minute to force extra-time and Tounekti then netted what ultimately proved to be the winner with his low finish after a one-two with sub Luke McCowan.
What. A. Relief.
For Martin O'Neill, a three-pronged focus remains with defending champions Celtic chasing leaders Hearts in pursuit of the Scottish Premiership title and a Europa League tie with Stuttgart on the horizon as well as continued involvement in the Scottish Cup, a trophy the veteran boss won three times between 2001 and 2005.
Law enforcement has quickly embraced AI for everything from drafting police reports to facial recognition.
The results have been predictably dismal. In one particularly glaring – and unintentionally comedic – instance, the police department in Heber City, Utah in the US, were forced to explain why a police report software declared that an officer had somehow shapeshifted into a frog.
The flawed system seems to have picked up on some unrelated background chatter to devise its fantastical fairy tale ending. That's what happens when you give pattern recognition software authority without insisting it understand reality.
Police sergeant Rick Keel explained: "The body cam software and the AI report writing software picked up on the movie that was playing in the background, which happened to be 'The Princess and the Frog'", referring to Disney’s 2009 musical comedy. "That's when we learned the importance of correcting these AI-generated reports".
The department had begun testing an AI-powered software called Draft One to automatically generate police reports from body camera footage. The goal was to reduce the amount of paperwork – but considering that immense mistakes are falling through the cracks, results clearly vary. Even a simple mock traffic stop meant to demonstrate what the tool is capable of turned into a disaster. The resulting report required plenty of corrections.
Despite the drawbacks, Keel maintained that it is saving him “six to eight hours weekly now”.
“I’m not the most tech-savvy person, so it’s very user-friendly”, he added.
The software makes use of OpenAI’s GPT large language models to generate entire police reports from body camera audio. Experts quickly warned that hallucinations could fall through the cracks in these important documents.
“I am concerned that automation and the ease of the technology would cause police officers to be sort of less careful with their writing”, American University law professor Andrew Ferguson told the Associated Press last year.
Others warn that the software could further pre-existing racial and gender biases, a troubling possibility considering law enforcement’s historic role in perpetuating them long before the advent of AI. Generative AI tools have also been shown to perpetuate biases against both women and non-white people.
I'm sure we all know it's gonna happen sooner or later. British filmmaker Paul King is moving from cuddly, jam-eating bears to "cute-ugly" monsters.
A month after securing the film rights to Labubu, Sony have tapped the Paddington director to bring one of the world's biggest collectible sensations to the big screen.
[FYI, there have been three main live-action Paddington movies: Paddington(2014), Paddington 2 (2017), and Paddington in Peru (2024), forming a beloved trilogy based on Michael Bond's books].
The Hollywood Reporter revealed on Thursday that King is set to direct the feature project and will produce it alongside Department M and Wenxin She. The project is currently in early development and is still seeking a writer.
Sony are collaborating with the Chinese retailer and brand owner Pop Mart on the adaptation.
Liverpool beat ten-man Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 in a chaotic Premier League clash yesterday.
It was 0-0 at the break, marking the eleventh time in 17 league games Liverpool have failed to score in the first half this season.
Regardless, Hugo Ekitike whipped to Florian Wirtz, and Alexander Isak scored in the 56th minute. And Ekitike headed Jeremie Frimpong's deflected cross into the net ten minutes later.
Spurs were back in business in the 83rd minute as they put the ball in the back of the net through a crowded penalty box after Liverpool failed to clear. But that was the Lilywhites' only goal as the Reds hung on for dear life until the final whistle.
"A masterclass on how not to manage the final 10 minutes" was the verdict of former Liverpool footballer Jamie Redknapp on Sky Sports. Arne Slot himself admitted that it was far from ideal.
"It's unbelievable if you play against nine men that I would not be surprised if for the nine minutes of added time, they had the ball for eight and a half. That is not what you expect and maybe that tells you where we are in this season", Slot told BBC Match of the Day.
Still, the English champs edged up to fifth place on 29 points.
