Tom Hanks World War II naval thriller Greyhound has navigated turbulent skies and dealt with derailments before finally parking its wheels on Apple TV+. As is the case with many planned theatrical films in 2020, the movie rocketed past a couple release dates due to shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing Sony to settle for a streaming release. Thats something its high-profile all-American star who famously endured a bout with the virus in March along with his wife, Rita Hanks lamented due to its big-screen audio-visual ambition. But maybe itll still be worth a watch on our smallish screens.

The Gist: TOO MANY SUBTITLES: TIMES, DATES, PLACES, ETC. Ill simplify: After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, forcing America into WWII, the U.S. Navy began assisting Britain in its conflict with Nazi Germany. Feb., 1942: Capt. Krause (Hanks) finally gets an opportunity to commandeer his own destroyer, the Greyhound, which will traverse the North Atlantic, running point on a convoy of 37 ships stocked with troops and supplies. The journey includes a harrowing two-day stretch in the middle of the ocean thats too far out from either side for air support. They call this maritime no-mans-land the Black Pit yipes because its the perfect place for wolfpacks of German U-boats, or submarines, to pick off ships with torpedoes.

So our captain has his work cut out for him. Two months earlier, which would be after Pearl Harbor: Prior to his departure, he meets to exchange Christmas gifts with his lady, Evelyn (Elisabeth Shue). He gives her a star ornament. She gives him monogrammed slippers. He says they should get married. She says shed rather wait until after the war, the implication being, she doesnt want to be a widow too soon. Grim. But they arent spring chickens. They know what theyre dealing with. These are handsome people, but they wear reality on their faces.

Back to the high seas: Kearse says bye-bye to the airplanes and keeps heading due east. A few beats later, the radar pings. U-boat. Bearing down. Orders are barked. Grease pencils scribble across glass. Switches are flipped. Knobs are twisted. Someone please fetch the captains sheepskin coat. Sonar? Sonar. Coordinates are passed on. Comms are commd. Maneuvers become evasive. Guns are fired. They got em. The mates cheer. But the captain just looks sad. Souls, lost. Will he finally eat something? He pauses to pray over a slab of ham and a cup of coffee. A silent moment. Its just begun. There are more Nazis in this pack. And theres still an hour of movie left.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Greyhound features a decent fraction of the Hanks performance in Captain Phillips and the hemmed-in qualities of a sturdy submarine thriller a la U-571 or The Hunt for Red October.

Performance Worth Watching: If youre not watching Tom Hanks in a Tom Hanks movie, then it probably has Streep, Denzel or DiCaprio in it.

Memorable Dialogue: Tom Hanks-as-a-Navy-captain is always, always polite, even when dictating a message to a flunky about his intent to blast a Nazi sub to hell:

Kearse: Ill escort to comm convoy, well run it down.

Flunky: Ill escort to comm convoy, well run it down.

Kearse: Wait, wait well run it down thank you.

Flunky: Well run it down thank you. Aye aye, sir.

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: My dad would love Greyhound. Hey Dad, you should watch it. Its a tight, exciting war movie, and Tom Hanks is in it. Im sorry its only on Apple TV+.

I picture Hanks banging out the screenplay on a vintage typewriter clack clack clack ding! KACHUNK so he can chatter procedural dialogue that might be dead-eye accurate or Hollywood hooey who but a seaman can tell but is nonetheless convincing. The relatively brief pauses between torpedoes and orders pertaining to starboard rudders or whatever allow him to develop Kearse as a man of great duty, faith and honor, a man willing to do what he must, but never exalting in the loss of life, even when its faceless fascist stooges taunting him over radio transmissions. His men respect him so much, they immediately apologize when they curse.

In his captains hat, sheepskin jacket and monogrammed slippers, Kearse is a good man, and Hanks, who has played Capt. Sully, Capt. Phillips, Capt. Miller and Mr. Rogers, is good at playing good men.

In the midst of a long, dark night of death and destruction, Schneider guides the camera up, over the melee, above the clouds to the electric-green waves of aurora borealis. Is this the puppeteer hand of Kearses god hovering overhead, or a profound but cold display of unfeeling beauty? Interpret away. Perhaps its destiny at work, and destiny in movies like Greyhound is so often just.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Greyhound ultimately is Minor Tom Hanks, but he still lends a modicum of depth to a gripping adventure.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Greyhound on Apple TV+

See the rest here:

Stream It Or Skip It: 'Greyhound' on Apple TV+, an Old-Fashioned Tom Hanks World War II Thriller - Decider

For Mick Baron, the giant kelp forests of Tasmania were a playground, a school and a church. The former marine biologist runs a scuba-diving center on the Australian islands east coast, and rhapsodizes about the wonders of the seaweeds dense habitats. Diving in kelp is one of the most amazing underwater experiences you can have, the 65-year-old says, likening it to flying through the canopy of a terrestrial rain forest. You wont find a single empty patch in a kelp forest From the sponge gardens on the seafloor all the way up to the leaves on the surface, its packed with life.

Or rather, it was. In late 2015, a marine heat wave hit eastern Australia, wiping out a third of the Great Barrier Reef, and the kelp forests Baron had been exploring for most of his life. We were diving in a nice thick forest in December, says Baron. By end of March, it looked like an asphalt driveway. Recurring heat waves have prevented kelp and coral from recovering; marine temperatures on Australias east coast are on average 2C higher than a century ago, an increase scientists attribute to rising greenhouse-gas emissions. The ocean is deceptively fragile, says Baron. Two degrees doesnt sound like much, but not many species can handle that kind of temperature change.

Baron, a gregarious, bearded and perennially sunburned Australian, introduced generations of divers to Tasmanias kelp cathedrals. His own grandchildren, he says, will have to learn about them from his YouTube videos. Nearly 95% of eastern Tasmanias kelp forests are gone, a preview of what is to come for the ocean as a whole. Tasmanias kelp forests are the poster child for what climate change means for our oceans, he says. What is happening here is what will happen everywhere else in a decade or two.

Human beings owe their life to the sea. Four in 10 humans rely on the ocean for food. Marine life produces 70% of our oxygen; 90% of global goods travel via shipping lanes. We turn to the sea for solaceocean-based tourism in the U.S. alone is worth $124 billion a yearand medical advancement. An enzyme used for COVID-19 testing was originally sourced from bacteria found in the oceans hydro-thermal vents. The ocean also acts as a giant planetary air conditioner. Over the past century, the ocean has absorbed 93% of the heat trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse-gas emissions. If all that heat hadnt been taken up by the ocean, wed all be living in Death Valley conditions by now, says marine-conservation biologist Callum Roberts at the U.K.s University of York.

But we humans have also been squeezing life out of the sea. Increased CO levels in the atmosphere have made the ocean more acidic, threatening food chains. Warming waters are not only killing sea life, they are also changing currents and affecting global weather patterns. Meanwhile we dump 8 million tons of waste into the ocean a year, in addition to agricultural and industrial runoff that poisons coastal areas. At the rate we are harvesting fish, by 2050 there will likely be more plastic than fish in the oceans. A 2019 report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that without profound economic and institutional transformations, there would be irreversible damage to oceans and sea ice.

This was supposed to be the year those transformations began. A series of international policy meetings in 2020 was meant to set global targets for managing fish populations, restoring biodiversity and controlling pollution. As it did with so much this year, the coronavirus pandemic put those talks on hold. Nonetheless, environmentalists, scientists, policymakers and ocean advocates are working desperately to keep the momentum going, aware that this might be the last, best chance they have to reverse the tide. Whats the phrase? Never let a good crisis go to waste? As we restart the economy, this is the chance to reset our goals for a healthy ocean, says Carlos M. Duarte, a Spanish marine biologist at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia. We have a very narrow window of opportunity where we can actually still be effective. Twenty years from now, it will be too late.

Vibrant coral off the coast of Papua New Guinea, which is noted for its extraordinary biodiversity of coral reefs.

Courtesy of Chris LeidyAssouline

Duarte and Roberts have co-written a sweeping new study published in the journal Nature that offers a blueprint for how the ocean might be restored within a generation. The proposed measures would cost billions of dollars a year, but the return on investment would be 10 times as high in increased biodiversity, fish stocks, jobs and tourism revenue, says Roberts. We have seen over and over again that given a chance, ocean life can come back. We just have to be willing to give it time to heal.

A revitalized ocean would not only feed a growing population but could also strengthen our fight against climate change. Coastal habitats such as mangroves and salt marshes are extraordinary carbon sinks, sequestering as much CO per acre as 16 acres of pristine Amazonian rain forest. New developments in offshore wind-farm technology can provide an inexhaustible supply of green energy, while mineral deposits on the seafloor, if mined sustainably, offer the raw ingredients for the batteries to store it. Its time to stop thinking of the ocean as a victim of climate change and start thinking of it as a powerful part of the solution, says Jane Lubchenco, a marine ecologist who served as head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) under President Barack Obama.

When the coronavirus pandemic forced the global economy into a state of suspended animation, carbon emissions slowed, shipping idled, and fisheries closed. The ocean was allowed a moment to breathe. The pause was short-lived, of course, and the economic cost potentially catastrophic. But, like the once unimaginable sight of blue skies over industrial areas, it offered a reminder that change is within our grasp. The coronavirus crisis has shown us when there is a threat to the global population, there is a willingness to act collectively to limit that threat, says Roberts. The tough lessons of COVID-19 may yet translate into a stronger understanding of the inter-connectedness of our personal and planetary healthand a demand for action.

The stakes for ocean health have never been higher. The dying kelp and disappearing coral reefs should be sounding an urgent alarm, says Christopher Trisos, a senior researcher at the African Climate and Development Initiative at the University of Cape Town who focuses on the inter-section of climate change, biodiversity and human well-being. Bio-diversity loss from climate change looks like a trickle right now, but it could become a flood very quickly, he says. Even greater catastrophic multi-species die-offs could begin within the decade, Trisos predicts, starting with tropical oceans and spreading to tropical forests and temperate ecosystems by the 2050s.

Coastal nations would be first and hardest hit, with devastating consequences for the billions of people who depend on these ecosystems for their livelihoods and nutrition. We fish on coral reefs. We depend on ecotourism. We rely on healthy [kelp] forests for carbon storage and water filtration, Trisos says. If there is a sudden collapse of these ecosystems in a single decade, we could lose these services. Income is at risk. Food security is at risk.

But there are ways of preserving the ecosystems many nations depend upon. Spanish-American marine ecologist and conservationist Enric Sala has spent the past 12 years surveying and documenting the oceans last wilderness areas as a National Geographic explorer in residence. Through his Pristine Seas project, he has rallied governments to set aside 5.7 million sq km of coastline and ocean as marine parks where fishing, dumping, mining and other destructive industries are prohibited. The results, he says, have been astonishing. Even over a short time frame, he has watched depleted fish populations grow sixfold, kelp flourish and coral reefs bloom. Given the chance, he says, the ocean has an extraordinary ability to regenerate. I have seen miracles on the water. The ocean is sending us a very clear message: if you just give me some space, look what I can do.

A sea turtle surveys the reefs surrounding the Gili Islands inIndonesia.

Courtesy of Chris LeidyAssouline

So far, says Sala, only 2.5% of the ocean enjoys the full protection it needs to do so. He has backed a global call to set aside a third of the ocean in similarly protected areas by 2030. These marine protected areas arent just about turning back the clock. They are a bulwark against future stresses, a kind of immunity booster for the sea that enables it to deal with threats like acidification and plastic pollution. Not only is it necessary from a perspective of trying to undo some of the harm that we have done to the ocean over time, says Roberts, but its absolutely vital that we give it the resilience it needs to cope with whats coming down the pike.

Not many fishermen, or fishing nations for that matter, are likely to embrace the idea of fencing off a third of the worlds oceans. But the industry is on the brink of fishing itself out of business. The U.N.s Food and Agriculture Organization, which monitors the state of global fish stocks, rates 33% of species as overfished, and an additional 60% as fished to their full potential. Yet the FAO also estimates that a growing global human population, slated to hit 10 billion by 2050, will require 70% more food than the planet can currently provide. The ocean can help make up the shortfall, if fish stocks are managed better now, says Lubchenco, the former head of NOAA, who is now a professor of marine biology at Oregon State University. Counter-intuitively, that means the more fish in protected areas, the better off we will be in the long run.

For those who fish, says Sala, marine protected areas act a little like a savings account where fish can be set aside to grow and reproduce like compound interest. The larger your principal, the larger the returns. The more fish in the reserve, the greater the reproductive output. And the only way to get the large principal is to have fully protected areas. When that bounty spills out of the sanctuaries, which it often does, the fish are fair game for industry. Its like living on interest.

The fishing industry, at least in some areas, is starting to come around. Given the speed at which marine species and habitats are declining, theres a growing consensus that this requires an urgent and a globally coordinated response in improved ocean management, says Runa Haug Khoury, director for sustainability at Norways Aker BioMarine, the largest krill-fishing company in the world. For responsible fishery players, marine protected areas are not an enemy, they are a helping hand.

Effectively roping off one-third of the worlds oceans will require an unprecedented level of global cooperation. Many countries, including the U.S. and the U.K., have committed to expand protections in their own territorial waters. But these pledges, even while being one of the biggest conservation efforts in history, cover a combined total of less than 10% of ocean areas. The higher goal can be reached only by establishing protected areas in the high seas, which are open to all nations and will require a broad consensus. Negotiations to forge a U.N. treaty for the oceans had been scheduled for March 2020 but were postponed because of the coronavirus.

Protecting areas of the high seas, which account for 60% of the oceans, wont be an easy undertaking. For proof, you need only look south to the seas surrounding Antarctica, home to some of the most rare, vulnerable and critical eco-systems in the world. Cold-water currents spiraling away from the continent push the regions nutrient-rich waters across the planet, pumping life into coastal fisheries even north of the equator.

About half the worlds shallow coral reefs, like the one below in Papua New Guinea, have already vanished.

Courtesy of Chris LeidyAssouline

Rising temperatures threaten this precarious environment. In January, a team of scientists with New Yorks Stony Brook University conducted a census of chinstrap penguins on the rocky islands and rugged shores of the Antarctic peninsula, braving pounding surf, howling winds and piles of knee-deep guano to count nesting birds by hand. These birds feed exclusively on krill, the tiny shrimp-like creatures that form the backbone of the entire ocean food chain, and their condition gives a picture of the overall health of the region. They are the canaries in the Southern Oceans coal mine, and they are starting to disappear.

The researchers found that most colonies they surveyed had declined over the past 50 years, some by half and others up to 77%. This big of a drop means that there is something broken in the Southern Ocean, said ornithologist Noah Strycker, as he paused to watch a pair of fluffy gray chicks waddle through his survey site on Snow Island. Climate change is potentially driving shifts in krill populations, and then thats rippling its way up the food web and affecting the penguins.

The continent of Antarctica is protected from exploitation by international agreement, but the waters around it are not. The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), a body made up of 25 countries and the European Union, committed in 2009 to establish a network of nine large-scale marine protected areas around the continent. The one in the Ross Sea, twice the area of Texas, is the largest such region in the world.

Yet a decade later, only this and one other have been implemented. Three others, proposed by the E.U., Argentina, Chile and Australia, have been blocked by Russia and China, which are intent on expanding their regional fishing operations. China doesnt want restriction on access to resources anywhere, says Rodolfo Werner, an Argentine conservationist who has served as an adviser to CCAMLRs scientific committee for the past 17 years. Setting up a [marine protected area] in Antarctica sets a precedent that could be replicated elsewhere on the high seas, and [China sees] that as a threat to [its] sovereignty.

The coronavirus pandemic has only elevated geopolitical tensions, especially between the U.S. and China. But environmental activists point to the fact that the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, which defines and protects the continent as a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science, was signed by 12 countries including the U.S. and the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.

Roberts, whose paper for Nature calls for 30% of the worlds oceans to be kept aside to recover from overfishing and exploitation, believes that the pandemic might yet clarify minds. If theres a lesson from the coronavirus crisis, its that global problems need global solutions, he says. Hopefully the outliers will be more open to that message in the coming years, moving toward greater international cooperation and agreement when it comes to the things that are vital to our existence here on earth.

A redfish navigates through a colony of seapen near Raja Ampat, Indonesia.

Courtesy of Chris LeidyAssouline

An international agreement to protect the oceans would be a huge stepbut it is only one tool, and an expensive one. No amount of protection can block pollution or plastic debris, or reduce temperatures. Establishing marine protected areas is like taking an aspirin for brain cancer, says Camilo Mora, a reef-ecology scientist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. You think its working because the headache goes away, but the tumor is still growing. Unless we cut greenhouse-gas emissions, the threat remains.

The key to reducing emissions may also lie within the oceans, according to Lubchenco, who has been studying the impact of global warming on ocean ecology for decades. In 2009, she memorably demonstrated to the U.S. Congress the dangers of increasing ocean acidification by submerging chalk, representing the calcium carbonate component of most sea creatures shells, into solutions of water, water mixed with vinegar, and pure vinegar. In plain water, nothing happened. In the half-and-half solution it started to break down. In vinegar, it dissolved within minutes. She is still using solutions to make a point, having recently co-authored a study that calls itself a to-do list for reducing emissions currently produced through human use of the ocean. The shipping industry can be decarbonized through the use of hybrid battery technology. If offshore wind power could be harnessed from floating platforms in the deep sea as well as from fixed turbines in shallow water, as new prototypes promise, the industry could supply the equivalent of 11 times todays global demand for electricity, according to the International Energy Agency. Wetlands, mangroves and seagrass meadows are important carbon sinks, she says, and should be protected and restored.

Most vital would be changing the human diet. If sustainable aquaculture and mariculture methods (farming seaweed for consumption by both humans and livestock) were implemented, the ocean could supply six times more food than it does today, Lubchenco says, representing two-thirds of the animal protein that the FAO estimates will be needed to feed the global population in 2050. Because cattle in particular are so carbon intensive [the beef industry accounts for 6% of global emissions], switching from meat to sustainably farmed fish would make a significant impact.

Added all together, the papers authors conclude, the ocean could provide as much as one-fifth of the carbon-emission reductions needed to limit global warming to 1.5C by the end of the century. Thats just a very specific example of how the ocean has been out of sight, out of mind, and whoa, here, look, there is huge potential we hadnt been paying attention to, Lubchenco says.

Marine protected areas offer shelter to animals like this humpback whale near the eastern Solomon Islands.

Courtesy of Chris LeidyAssouline

But the balance between sustainable use and conservation of the oceans is delicate, and sometimes fraught with complications. Deep-sea mining in the Pacific Ocean, for example, could yield massive increases in cobalt, nickel, copper and other materials essential to meet the demand for clean-energy technologies and batteries. The U.N.s International Seabed Authority is expected this year to codify environmental-protection codes before allocating permits for the extraction of so-called polymetallic nodules. But environmentalists and marine biologists are calling for a moratorium on permits until more research has been done on these deposits and their role in the ecosystem. The mining industry is asking them to look at the bigger picture. There is a single deposit on the seafloor that can provide the minerals we need for a clean-energy transition, which will slow ocean acidificationthe biggest negative contribution to ocean health, says Kris Van Nijen, managing director of Belgium-based Global Sea Mineral Resources, one of the companies vying for a permit. Yes, it is an extractive industry, and yes, it is going to come with some impacts, but solutions to combat climate change will not fall from the sky. Its all about trade-offs.

The trade-offs work in both directions. If the ocean is to also become humanitys partner in combatting the twin challenges of climate change and a growing population, the era of limitless exploitation must come to an endand soon. The ocean does not live on a human timescale. Actions taken now will take decades to bear fruit, yet if nothing is done, the repercussions will be swift. This year, the pandemic forced a pause in the negotiations that were to decide the oceans fate. It also offers an opportunity to consider what the ocean means to us.

For far too long we have viewed the ocean, with its incomprehensible vastness, as a source of infinite bounty and too big to fail. Then, when the oceanrobbed of its fish, sickened by plastic and poisoned by pollutionstarted to decline, the problem seemed too big to fix. But ours is an ocean planet, and without it we wont survive. The truth may be dawning that the ocean, as Lubchenco puts it, is too big to ignore. With reporting by MADELINE ROACHE/LONDON

The accompanying photographs by Chris Leidy appear in the recently published book The Coral Triangle (Assouline)

Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.

Contact us at editors@time.com.

Originally posted here:

Why We Need to Focus on Saving the Oceans This Year - TIME

Denia Marina is a true jewel in the towns crown offering something for everyone.

AFTER months of closure due to the coronavirus crisis, the marina is back in business, with all safety measures in place and is already buzzing with activity.

With incredible views of the Mediterranean and Denia castle, the recreational and tourist marina is not just a boat, syperyacht and water sport haven, it also boasts an array of fantastic restaurants, tapas bars and shops.

The water sports centre, managed by Club Nutico and the Denia Marina, is renowned for its comprehensive programme of summer activities, from kids camps with English-speaking teachers, surfing and paddle surfing lessons to Hawaiian canoe classes and full moon paddle yoga.

And with a temperate climate all year round, the harbour is well protected from any high seas.

Offering an enviable range of services to both visitors and vessels, the marina is a maritime link between the Spanish peninsula and the Balearic Islands, just 45km from Ibiza.

It has also organised and hosted Denia Boat Show since 2007, a trade event featuring exhibitors from leading boat manufacturers worldwide, presenting the latest products on the market.

There are actually four marinas inside the port of Denia. While three are dedicated to smaller yachts and boats, Port Denia Superyacht Marina, is specifically dedicated to superyachts and located in the town centre, opposite the shipyard.

The sheer number of yachts berthed in Denia creates a busy, fun ambience all year round, where locals, yachties and expats alike mix in the numerous places to be seen.

Go here to see the original:

Denia Marina a jewel in the towns crown - Euro Weekly News

The most conspicuous expulsion of water in Waterworld is not the urine Kevin Costners gilled warrior guzzles during what is, incredibly, the films opening scene. Its the jaunty, taunting flume he spits directly at Entertainment Weekly readers from the cover of the magazines most recent issue prior to release. Instead of a cute rebuke to the tsunami of toxic press swirling around the film throughout every stage of its productionnot to mention the literal tsunami that at one point sank its floating setthe image seemed aimed at potential viewers. Costner appeared to be daring them not to go see the movie he had banked his entire reputation on.

It was a dare only too many were willing to take. Just not as many as one might think.

Although Waterworld, which turns 25 on July 28, is often referred to as one of cinemas most notorious flops, that description isnt even close to accurate. Not only is Waterworld not a historic flop, its not a flop at all.

It is, however, the movie that changed the meaning of what is and isnt a flop, and in doing so set the stage for a film era where perception is everything.

Not that Waterworld isnt notorious.

Its one of those movies where the story behind the movie is vastly more dramatic and entertaining than the movie itself, and thus superior. Then-unknown costar Jack Black once described the script as like a wetRoad Warrior, which is more accurate than he may have realized.

The idea for what became Waterworld was conceived in 1986 when schlock-jockey Roger Cormans production company sought to produce a Mad Max ripoff in its own eminently imitable style. Aspiring young director Peter Rader had a chance to pitch on the project, and decided to distinguish his film from the burgeoning pack of Mad Max ripoffs by setting it on water. Cormans crew laughed Rader out of the buildingwhy, a film like that would require a budget of at least $5 million!but he wrote the screenplay anyway.

It was a sci-fi epic with a sociopolitical undercurrent. The film would be set in the year 2500, long after global warming had melted the polar ice caps, turning the whole planet into some kind of Aquaworld, where dry land is but a myth sold by dirt merchants. A mysterious young girl has what may be a map to that mythical dry land tattooed on her back, and a mutated fish-man must guard her from a floating fleet of sea-bikers. High-seas adventure ensues.

Rader sold his screenplay in 1989, at which point it bounced around Hollywood for a few years until Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves duo Kevin Costner and director Kevin Reynolds separately expressed interest. The two creatives, who had a major falling out during post-production on Prince of Thieves, begrudgingly agreed to re-team, and rounded out their film with the extremely 1995 casting of Basic Instincts Jeanne Tripplehorn, a Speed-resurgent Dennis Hopper, and future Napoleon Dynamite costar Tina Majorino.

In the summer of 1993, a crew of 500-plus people began building Waterworlds sets, kicking off what designer Dennis Gassner later called 18 months of hell.

There is no way to overstate how troubled a production Waterworld ended up, as voraciously reported by the entertainment press. Much has been said about the budgetwhich started off at $100 million, and topped out at a then-record $175 millionas well as the marathon shooting schedule, which started at 96 days and ballooned to 166. But really, the production encompassed every flavor of the disaster rainbow. Nearly everyone suffered frequent seasickness, or some other malady. At one point, medics were treating 40 or 50 cast- and crew-members per day. Majorino, only ten years old at the time, got stung by jellyfish so often that Costner nicknamed her jellyfish candy. (He didnt come up with any cute nicknames, however, for his stunt double, who nearly died from an embolism after surfacing too quickly from a deep-sea dive.)

Hurricane season weather around the Hawaiian location eventually sank a $5 million floating set, while local vendors reportedly price-gouged much of the equipment. Finally, over the course of this horrendous process, Costner endured both a divorce from his wife of 16 years, and a second falling out with director Reynolds, who left the project during the editing stage. By that time, the press had already dubbed the film Fishtar and Kevins Gate, references to earlier bombs, Ishtar and Heavens Gate, the latter of which was long thought to have bankrupted an entire movie studio.

Waterworld hadnt even come out yet, but already a narrative coalesced around its inevitable failure. Schadenfreude consumed the general moviegoing public. Unlike the historic bombs Waterworld was nicknamed after, the films slow journey to the big screen was like a public shame-parade. It was the popcorn-worthy event the film itself wanted to be. Everyday folks who didnt read trade mags like Variety observed the protracted spectacle the way they had O.J.s white Bronco chase the previous summer. They couldnt look away from the predestined trainwreck-to-be.

It was at this point, just before the release date, that Costner appeared on the cover of Entertainment Weekly spitting water at anyone who dared doubt his faith in the project.

But Costner seemed to know something that very few others did: Waterworld was no failure.

The reviews landed on the upper register of mixed, with even the positive ones expressing shock. (Moderately successful, raved the Los Angeles Times. Waterworld is a pretty damn good summer movie. There, Ive said it, Newsweek confessed.) Watching it now, divorced from the contextual circus of expectations, its an ambitious, high-octane romp loaded with impressive stunts involving flaming jet-skis. Every meticulously reported dollar is visible on the screen. Things get a little pompous and meandering at times, but overall: not so bad.

Its box-office haul wasnt so bad, either.

Although Bill Washington, the head of Universal at the time, estimates that bad publicity wiped at least $50 million from Waterworlds theatrical take, it still made $88 million in the United States, with a worldwide total gross of $265 million. Its a disappointing figure, considering the storied budget, but not as disastrous as the rubbernecking public anticipated. Between TV rights, home video sales, and three themed attractions at Universal Studiosall of which are still running in 2020it eventually even turned a profit.

[Photo: Universal/Getty Images]None of that seems to matter. The movie still went down in cinema legend fulfilling its destiny as a hubristic cautionary tale. A year and a half after its release, in January 1997, The Simpsons immortalized Waterworld as a video game that costs 40 quarters to play, and then once the user starts playing, immediately costs another 40 quarters.

Defying reality, Waterworld had stuck the narrative landing and become a joke. Why?

One of the reasons is that the standards for box-office success back then were different. Worldwide gross was expected to boost a movies success, not account for it entirely. As media outlets were sharpening their knives before Waterworlds release, People Magazine scoffed that the movie would have to make $265 million worldwide in order to break evenexactly the amount it ended up making. It was considered almost a cheat at the time, an inflated total.

For better or worse, factoring that global box office into projections has now become a critical factor of filmmaking. A movie like last years Fast & Furious Presents Hobbs & Shaw can bring in $173 million in the U.S. on a $200 million budget, and still become a huge hit because its worldwide total is over four times as much as the domestic. (As a side note, adjusted for inflation, Waterworlds domestic gross would be nearly the same as Hobbs & Shaws.)

More importantly for Waterworlds reputation, it arrived at the demarcating moment when the world entered the information age.

How much do you remember about 1995? Heres a primer, if you werent there. Creep by TLC was booming from every Jeep speaker. The first Pixar movie, Toy Story, bowed in theaters, competing with Pierce Brosnans first appearance as James Bond, in Goldeneye. On TV, Seinfeld aired its infamous Soup Nazi episode and Drew Barrymore flashed David Letterman. And in the digital world, Javascript was invented, Match.com went live as a free beta offering, the first pro sports game streamed online (the Mariners vs. the Yankees), and Newsweek ran a feature on why the internet would not drastically alter the future.

Of course, the internet was already in the process of drastically altering the future. In 1994, while Waterworld was still in preproduction, the interstellar teleportation saga, Stargate, became the first movie to have a dedicated promotional website. Casual movie fans were just starting to seek out information online, the first phase of their metamorphosis into armchair box-office analysts. Waterworld was likely the ground floor for many metatextual movie nerds who, two years earlier, might have had to be Entertainment Weekly subscribers to follow the ordeal of Last Action Hero (another famously troubled production.)

Our perception is fueled by the increased availability and accessibility of information on movies, a group of academics wrote in The Social Science of Cinema. The web offers weekly and sometimes even daily box-office figures; blockbusters make it to the first page of newspapers; and moviegoers pay attention not only to directors, stars, and awards, but also to box-office results.

The year after Waterworld underperformed in theaters, Aint It Cool News, the Drudge Report of movie blogs, ushered in an era where troubled production scuttlebutt could go viral. (In 1997, AICN founder Harry Knowles posted unflattering, spy-procured set pics from Starship Troopers.) Pretty soon, the comment section of movie blogs became something that could make studio executives sweat.

Waterworld arrived right at the precipice of audiences beginning to play a bigger role in cementing the narrative around a movies success or failureand it may have been their first victim.

Not many people remember it now, but Titanic almost followed suit.

During the long, soggy road to Titanics release in December of 1997, the film was frequently compared with Waterworld. Both projects involved tons of water. Each saw its budget soar, becoming the most expensive movie ever in its time. Cast and crew injuries plagued both sets. And both became Hollywood gossip-magnets.

Aside from all the surface resemblances to Waterworld, movie insiders seemed to be rooting for Titanic to fail so that it would complete the irresistible narrative of a movie about a famous disaster itself becoming a famous disaster.

James Cameron refused to let that happen.

He was aware of how a powerful meta-narrative of bad buzz could swallow up a movie, and figured out an end run around it. He delayed the release of Titanic from July to December.

I pitched the concept that the best way to deal with the negative press was to take a step back. To move away from the crescendo of ridicule and let them fall on their face, Cameron told The Hollywood Reportera few years ago. They could only sustain the negative story so long. By December it would have long ago run its course, and theyd have to come up with something new to make ink. That something might just be the fact that the film was actually good, and worth all the drama of production.

Obviously, Camerons plan worked. Titanic went on to become the most successful movie of all time, for a while, and now barely anyone remembers that at one point several members of the crew fell ill from eating chowder spiked with PCP.

The narrative around Waterworld, however, came to define that film, full stop, erasing its moderate success from cinema history. The dawning information age then empowered audiences and created an environment where the perception of a films success is everything. Justice League, for instance, made well over double its exorbitant $300 million dollar budget in 2017, but let much of it audience down so thoroughly that it will likely always be remembered as an embarrassing flop.

In the next phase of cinema, as more and more films debut on streaming platforms, and box office numbers less often serve as bellwethers, audience perception stands to became an even bigger factor in defining a films success.

Ultimately, though, being saddled with a narrative like Waterworlds isnt the worst fate that can befall a film, even if it seems in retrospect like cinematic malpractice. At least the movie has posterity, a memorable legacy.

Kevin Costners plodding followup, The Postman, simply flopped so hard that nobody remembers it at all.

Read more from the original source:

25 years ago, 'Waterworld' forever changed how we think about hits and flops - Fast Company

(Wednesday Market Open) The major indices have tried up. Theyve tried down. And today it looks like theyre going to try opening flat.

Its been one of those weeks where direction is hard to define. Mondays rally turned into Tuesdays selloff, ending a five-day win streak for the S&P 500 Index (SPX). This kind of choppy, directionless, low-volume action could continue throughout the next few days as investors await the start of earnings season next week.

Could overseas markets provide inspiration, the way they did earlier this week? Mayne not. The picture looks a bit cloudy with European stock indices in the red and Asian indices, other than Japan, glowing a nice shade of green.

Shanghai stocks are on a pretty amazing run, up almost 8% so far this week. Theres good things coming out of there, but remember, were behind them now. As they talk of coming out of the virus situation, the U.S. just had its biggest day of cases. At some point, the hope is that the U.S. can follow in Chinas direction as far as caseloads.

Crude continues to hang in there, holding $40 a barrel. Meanwhile, gold got back in the saddle today and topped $1,800 an ounce. Thats not too far from a nine-year high and might reinforce the fact that many investors remain worried about the global economy.

Though Wednesday begins with less than a bang and Tuesday ended with a whimper, its hard to give up on the week considering how resilient major indices have been. A lot could depend on the mega-cap $1 trillion behemoths in the coming days, as companies like Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Amazon (AMZN) all have so much influence on the market.

Keep in mind, though, that the mega-caps can sometimes mislead. The largest stocks by capitalization are generally way ahead of the rest of the market as far as 2020 performance, meaning the major indices can get distorted by the heavyweights.

Despite all the negative sentiment lingering from Tuesday, remember what we said earlier this week: The market remains very reliant on the latest headline. Yesterday, the bad news from United (UAL) might have been enough to put an arrow through the indices. Today, who knows what headlines might pop up and possibly send things in another direction.

In the old days, a bad travel day was one where you missed a connecting flight or got stuck in a middle seat for six hours.

In these COVID-19 times, however, a bad travel day is one like Tuesday. Boeing (BA) shares crumbled, weighing on the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DJI), and the airlines took a blow from UAL warning of lower bookings and employee furloughs. Shares of UAL tumbled nearly 8%, and other airlines also got hammered.

When you look at tens of thousands of employees possibly being furloughed, theres no way to spin it as good news. Just a few weeks ago, airlines were talking about adding more flights and bookings picking up. What might be hurting the airlines now are these 14-day quarantines being put in place by some cities and states. People dont want to travel if it means they might face being stuck in a hotel room or in someones house for 14 days once they arrive.

The challenge around these different rules in different states faced by the airlines is just part of a larger challenge for anyone trying to grasp the state of the entire U.S. economy. Each state has its own set of qualifications and facts on the ground, so to speak. If business picks up in four or five states, does that mean anything for the rest of the country?

Probably not, because for every state that starts to get back on its feet, another state goes the opposite way. And many, if not most, states, are losing the tourist element they depend on so much every summer. How many visitors are going to, say, Alaska, this year? With the cruise industry in dry dock, its fair to say probably not many.

Speaking of cruises, that was another sector facing turbulent waters Tuesday. Carnival (CCL) and Royal Caribbean (RCL) shares both ran aground as the cruise industry continues to face delays getting back to the high seas. This is a sector that saw some buying interest in June, but at least on Tuesday a lot of investors seemed less prone to embracing risk.

You could also see that risk aversion in the performance of the bond market Tuesday, where yields finished near their lows after plunging about five basis points on the day for the 10-year Treasury. Its now been a month since that little yield rally we saw in early June that took the 10-year yield up to 0.9%, and it seems like a long time ago. The way the bond market rallied heavily into its close Tuesday is actually a bit worrisome, because it could hint at more risk aversion heading into today.

Another worrisome thing was seeing longer-term yields decline more than shorter-term ones on Tuesday. This kind of action means the yield curve got flatter, typically a sign of economic slowdown. However, one day isnt a trend.

Major indices, like bond yields, finished Tuesday near their lows for the session as cyclical sectors saw the worst of it, meaning theres a weak tone heading into Wednesday. Theres some sentiment that Mondays buying got overdone, especially when the S&P 500 Index (SPX) started getting in sight of its post-pandemic highs above 3200. The slip below 3150 at the close Tuesday was technically a weak way to finish, and sets up a possible test of more support around 3130 today if selling continues.

As if there werent already enough on investors minds, an old nemesis re-emerged in the headlines today: Brexit. Yep, that hasnt gone away. European newspapers reported today that the United Kingdom wont make a trade deal with the European Union if the EU isnt willing to compromise, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reportedly told German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday. In other words, its the threat of a no-deal Brexit rearing its head again.

Then there was some sad news from the corporate world as Brooks Brothers filed for bankruptcy more than 200 years after being founded. Its a victim of coronavirus and casual Fridays, media reports said.

Transports Diverge: One interesting thing noted on CNBC yesterday is that even though airline stocks have been getting pounded, other transport stocks havent done that badly lately. FedEx (FDX) and JB Hunt Transportation Services (JBHT)both members of the Dow Jones Transportation Average ($DJT)actually gained on Tuesday.

What could this dichotomy tell us? Maybe that people arent taking flights to Alaska, but still are ordering enough goods to keep the delivery companies busy. Stronger demand for transportation services could speak to decent consumer demand, and one company that might have some insight is Bed, Bath & Beyond (BBBY), which is scheduled to report earnings this afternoon.

Also consider keeping an eye out tomorrow morning for earnings from Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), as well as the closely watched initial weekly unemployment claims that come out early Thursday. Analysts expect initial claims to total 1.35 million, down from 1.43 million the prior week, according to research firm Briefing.com. Any improvement in this leading indicator could put a tailwind behind the market, while an uptick in claims might form a headwind. Stay tuned.

Guessing Game: Its that time when prognosticators put out their best guesses on how the biggest companies performed in the latest quarter. FactSet last week pegged the Q2 earnings decline for S&P 500 firms at a dramatic 43.8%, with all 11 sectors seen slipping year-over-year. Thats pretty terrible, but not as bad as Q4 2008 when earnings plummeted 69%. What makes it a little tough for analysts this time around is the lack of guidance from so many companies due to coronavirus concerns. Only 49 S&P 500 companies have issued guidance so far, down from the 106 normally seen by this date, FactSet said.

The worst sector performers in Q2 could be Energy, Consumer Discretionary, Industrials, and Financials, FactSet said. Those sectors correspond to some extent with the businesses hit worst by shutdowns during coronavirus. Research firm CFRA is even more pessimistic about overall earnings prospects, putting average losses for the S&P 500 at 45.7%. It sees the same worst three but thinks Real Estate will shove aside Financials to be the fourth on the list no one wants to be on.

Remember that these estimates get updated constantly as earnings season advances and companies (maybe) deliver some guidance. So, its extra important to keep an eye on the numbers in coming weeks. Well continue providing updates here.

Investors See Resilience: One possible lesson to take away from the June TDAmeritrade Investor Movement Index (IMXSM) is that the market remains resilient because many investors still believe in this economy. Since a 6% pounding on June 11 that wiped out $1.6 trillion in value, the SPX was up 6% through Monday. Consumer Discretionary and Info Tech shares topped the scorecard, jumping at least 9%.

Looking over the IMX data, it appears the June dip was met with buying, not with fear. Retail investors tracked by the IMX seem to believe domestically things will start to return. Domestic travel and the domestic economy have a chance to start to return to more normal levels. Thats the hope, anyway. Its still playing out day by day, with plenty of chances for more hiccups as the virus doesnt appear to be going anywhere. Will these enthusiastic investors reap more rewards in coming weeks from jumping back in, and will future dips get met with more buying? The jury is still out. The IMX is TDAmeritrades proprietary, behavior-based index, aggregating Main Street investor positions and activity to measure what investors actually were doing and how they were positioned in the markets.

Good Trading,JJ@TDAJJKinahan

Check out all of our upcoming Webcasts or watch any of our hundreds of archived videos, covering everything from market commentary to portfolio planning basics to trading strategies for active investors. You can also deepen your investing know-how with our free online immersive courses. No matter your experience level, theres something for everybody.

Looking to stay on top of the markets? Check out the TDAmeritrade Network, live programming which brings you market news and helps you hone your trading knowledge. And for the days hottest happenings, delivered right to your inbox, you can now subscribe to the daily Market Minute newsletter here.

TDAmeritrade Network is brought to you by TDAmeritrade Media Productions Company. TDAmeritrade Media Productions Company and TDAmeritrade, Inc. are separate but affiliated subsidiaries of TDAmeritrade Holding Corporation. TDAmeritrade Media Productions Company is not a financial adviser, registered investment advisor, or broker-dealer.

Original post:

Hurry Up and Wait: Market Struggles for Direction as Caseloads Rise and Earnings Loom - The Ticker Tape

(This story was first published in the Times of India on July 10, 2020)NEW DELHI: On February 15, 2012, Italian marines aboard the oil tanker Enrica Lexie opened fire at an Indian fishing boat 20 nautical miles off the southern Kerala coast. They had mistaken it for a pirate skiff and their gunfire killed two of the 10 fishermen on board. More than eight years later, it has emerged that there was a 14-year-old boy, too, on that boat, according to his family.

Prijin A never recovered from the trauma of that incident and never received any compensation because, officially, he was never on the boat. He finally took his own life on July 2, 2019, a little more than seven years since he saw his friends die.

The Enrica Lexie incident attracted international attention, briefly sparked a diplomatic stand-off between India and Italy, and saw protracted litigation till the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague on July 2 this year removed the case from Indias jurisdiction but also ruled that the surviving fishermens families be compensated adequately by Italy.

Prijin was the sole breadwinner for his family. On July 6, his mother and seven sisters wrote to the Centre demanding that Prijins posthumous rights as a minor be protected as per international child rights law and the Indian Constitution, and that Rs 100 crore compensation be obtained from Italy.

Italy gfx

After the high-seas shooting at around 4.30pm, Enrica Lexie allegedly tried to speed away and the St Anthony turned back for Neendakara. Mid-sea, Prijin was shifted to another fishing boat as its captain Fredy John Bosco, originally from Prijins native village in Kanyakumari, feared that he would be hauled up for child labour.

As the matter moved to the courts, Fredy often visited Prijin and his family, convincing them to keep Prijins presence on the boat a secret and assuring them that he was doing everything to get them justice and proper compensation.

The familys plea accessed by TOI to the Centre, moved through advocate Yash Thomas Munnally, claims that for a long time, due to the trauma of the firing incident, Prijin was afraid to venture out to sea, or to even do minor fishing-related jobs. He became visibly disturbed, was unable to sleep and suffered from nightmares, the plea said.

The seemingly endless wait for compensation also pushed Prijin into a deep depression and his mental condition worsened, his relatives claim. He took his life on July 2, 2019. His mother and sisters have now alleged that a fair investigation was not carried out and that Prijin was denied hs rights as a minor as per international child rights law and the IndianConstitution.

Citing the $2.6-million compensation deal following a collision between the USS Greeneville and Ehime Maru in 2001, his relatives are seeking a total compensation of Rs 100 crore (around $13.35 million). Rs 70 crore is being demanded as damages for mental, physical and emotional suffering, and Rs 30 crore for wrongful violence, loss of livelihood and violation of child rights.

Link:

14-year-old was on boat when Italian marines shot 2 dead - Ahmedabad Mirror

Lamborghini isnt stranger to life on the fast lane, but its finally extending its need for speed beyond the tarmac to take over the seas too.

The collaborative effort between two of Italys finest exports, Automobili Lamborghini and The Italian Sea Groups Tecnomar brand, will see a 63-foot limited edition yacht thats essentially a supercar on water.

Named the Tecnomar for Lamborghini 63 after 1963 the year Lamborghini was founded the boat lives up to its supercar namesake for being capable of reaching speeds of up to 111kph, which is considered blistering for a motorboat that size.

Lamborghinis extensive archives meant that the 63 had plenty to be inspired by, but ultimately two of its most futuristic cars were selected: The Sin FKP 37, Lamborghinis first hybrid supercar to use supercapacitor technologies, and the Terzo Millennio, a self-healing fully-electric concept. Both cars are equally out-of-this-world, and their sharp angular lines have been applied to the yachts hull and hard-top for aerodynamics and performance even the bow sports the same Y-shaped front lights as both cars. As a little easter egg for fans, Lamborghini also incorporated subtle references to the Miura and Countach.

High-performance materials were also key, and the result is a yacht that weighs a mere 24 tonnes, thanks to the car manufacturers expertise on speed and lightweight components such as carbon fibre. Even so, it wasnt a walk in the park for both marques. Engineering for the high seas follow a different set of rules, so employing the design language of a car was a challenge that had to be overcome.

Of course, the bragging rights of owning a Raging Bull-badged superyacht could only be topped by the fact that it matches your Aventador or Huracan. Lamborghinis Ad Personam programme will be available here to ensure that the same colours and materials of your car will be applied to the yacht. Two interior layouts will be available too depending on the clients needs.

The driving experience extends to the automotive-style pilot cabin, which sees all navigation and monitoring systems fully integrated with carbon fibre and carbon skin. Even the captain gets a racy drivers seat at the steering wheel, complete with the same Start/Stop button, only this time it fires up twin 2,000hp MAN V12 diesel engines instead of naturally-aspirated 6.5-litre V12s.

Priced at 3 million (approx. HK$26 million), only 63 (duh) of these will be made, and the first of the limited edition series will launch early next year. Head to Lamborghini online to learn more.

This article was first published on Lifestyle Asia Singapore.

Read the original here:

Lamborghinis new HK$26 million luxury yacht is the supercar of the seas - Lifestyle Asia

So many urgent issues are undermining Greece-Turkey relations today its almost a surprise these two neighbours with a history of conflict are not already at war.

On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan finalised the conversion of Istanbuls iconic Hagia Sophia from a museum back into a mosque, a week after Greeces Foreign Ministry denounced such a move as unacceptable and a breach of the structures UNESCO World Heritage status.

Built as a cathedral in the 6th century by Byzantine Emperor Justinian, Hagia Sophia holds a special place in the hearts of many Orthodox Christians, particularly in Greece, which sees itself as the heir of the Greek-speaking Byzantines of Constantinople. Greek officials described the reversion as an "open provocation to the civilised world" and said the nationalism displayed by Erdoan... takes his country back six centuries.

Underscoring Turkeys continued claims on a number of Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar on Wednesday told the BBC that, despite the Lausanne Treaty barring any militarisation of 23 Aegean islands, Greece maintained a military presence on 16 of them.

Turkeys military and political elites completely disregard that Greece is not just about the mainland, Nikos Michailidis, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri-St Louis, told Ahval in a podcast. We have thousands of islands and this is something they dont want to see, dont want to accept.

Last week, the Greek air force intercepted Turkish jets and engaged them in mock dogfights after Turkish fighter planes committed 50 violations of Greek airspace over the Aegean in a single day, according to the Greek Reporter.

Cyprus has been a major source of Turkish-Greek tensions since at least 1974, when Turkish forces invaded the waterlocked nation in an effort to head off a coup plot from Athens. The island has since been divided between the EU-recognised Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognised only by Turkey. Since early 2019, Turkey has launched six natural gas drilling operations in waters claimed by Cyprus and has said it plans more.

On Wednesday, the United States announced that Cypriot soldiers would be able to take part in a major U.S. military training programme a possible first step toward ending the U.S. arms embargo on Cyprus. Turkey quickly criticised the move.

Turkey has been bullying Greece, said Michailidis. It has been bullying Cyprus. Its still occupying Cyprus and they dont want to negotiate a solution based on international law.

On Thursday, the European parliament debated Turkeys negative role in the Eastern Mediterranean and Libya, where Ankara has been backing the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA). That support has increased in recent months in part because Ankara signed a maritime borders deal with the GNA late last year that essentially erased the island of Crete, which lies between the coasts of Libya and Turkey, off the map.

This week, Turkey reserved a vast area of the Eastern Mediterranean between Libya and Crete for naval exercises. Ankara has said it plans to begin drilling soon off the Libyan coast and possibly near Crete.

The Greek government does hope that they wont dare to go and continue their drilling off the coast of Crete, said Michailidis. This would create serious complications that might end up in a military confrontation.

Athens has warned that any drilling in its continental shelf will spark a heated response, and moved to strengthen ties with regional ally Israel. The two signed several defence agreements this month, outlining greater collaboration in weapons and training.

Their alliance is also about energy. In January, Greece, Israel and Cyprus signed a deal to build a 1,900-km undersea pipeline to carry natural gas from the Eastern Mediterraneans gas fields to Europe.

Last but not least is migration and refugees. London-based research group Forensics Architecture concluded this week that it was highly probable that Mohammed al-Arab, a 22-year-old from Aleppo, was killed by Greek soldiers in March. He was among thousands of migrants seeking to enter Greece after Turkey followed through on Erdoans threat to open the gates for refugees, possibly repeating the crisis of 2015-2016, when some 2 million migrants entered Europe.

Athens has rejected accusations of using live fire, and many have accused Turkey of weaponising refugees to pressure Europe into providing greater funding for the 3.5 million refugees already in Turkey, or to come to Turkeys aid in Syrias Idlib province, where some 2 million displaced people are living in ad hoc camps along the Turkish border.

Greece and the European Union are now facing calls to investigate al-Arabs death amid fears of increased Greek aggressions along the border. Deutsche Welle and Belllingcat reported in May that Greek police had been forcibly deporting asylum-seekers back into Turkey, as Turkey had reportedly done with Syrians last year. There have also been several reports that Greek security forces have pushed migrant boats back toward Turkey and sent migrants back across the Aegean on windowless inflatable rafts.

You have this ongoing paranoia within Greek politics about having to face a second wave like in 2015, Alexander Clarkson, a lecturer on European studies at Kings College London, told Ahval in a podcast.

He said that more nationalist, authoritarian elements within the Greek police and security services had come to the fore, and European officials had done little to change their methods.

The EU didnt just tacitly back the use of maximum force against potential refugee entrances, they actually even praised it to a certain extent, said Clarkson.

Michailidis, the anthropology expert, saw Athens doing its best in a difficult situation for which it shouldered little responsibility, unlike Turkey, which had played a role in the Syrian civil war since its early days and more recently mounted several military offensives into northern Syria.

The Greek government has been trying for years to convince our European counterparts that we need to find a solution, we need to help these people, said Michailidis. But Greece cannot do it by itself... We need to find a solution with Turkey and the European Union.

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer might agree. On Tuesday he said it was shameful that the EU had yet to solve the migration issue five years after the start of the 2015-2016 refugee crisis.

We cannot leave Italy, Malta, Greece or Spain alone to deal with this issue, Seehofer said, explaining that most EU countries had declined to accept new arrivals as part of a new initiative. Very many member states refuse to get involved.

At least until September, when the European Commission is expected to present its migration reform proposal, Greece will remain exposed to the whims of the Turkish government. Turkeys Foreign Minister Mevlt Cavuolu on Monday said Turkey could no longer hold back those who wanted to leave for Europe.

On Thursday, the largest political group in European Parliament, the European Peoples Party (EPP), urged the EU and member states to vigorously defend Cyprus and Greece against Turkish aggression by deploying naval forces or levying sanctions.

In a tweet, EPP chairman Manfred Weber described Turkeys actions as unacceptable. Vangelis Meimarakis, head of the EPPs Greek delegation, said Erdoan had crossed the line, and if he continues to challenge Europe there will be a single and immediate response.

Clarkson said the time had come for Turkey to take advantage of its gains and begin talks. In the end, the East Med dispute will have to be negotiated, he said.

This week, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that since their June 26 phone call he felt comfortable picking up the phone to speak to Erdoan. But does his counterpart feel the same way?

Clarkson wondered if Erdoan might wait too long, until Turkeys economic crisis undermined its strong negotiating position or Ankaras high seas activities provoked an armed response.

Is Turkey willing to sit down and use the kind of advantages its build up to then follow a pathway through to some negotiated settlement, which will require compromises, will require approaching Athens and Nicosia? he said.

See original here:

Turkeys negotiating window with Greece, EU may be closing - Ahval

Discerning UN speak is an art form. When Chinese President Xi Jinping first articulated the notion of the community of shared future of mankind, also translated as community of common destiny, at the UN in 2015, it appeared vague. Not many paid attention.

Things have changed since. At the 19th CPC National Congress in 2017, building a community with a shared future for mankind was enshrined as a core concept and basic policy guiding Chinese diplomacy. The goal of Chinas flagship Belt and Road Initiative is described as moving closer towards a community of shared future for mankind. Xis foreign policy speech compilation is titled On building a community of shared future for mankind.

Its not only Chinese spokespersons who articulate it. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres made a glowing reference that called for development cooperation to contribute to building a community of shared future for mankind. Taking the cue, UN agencies sprinkle it in their documentation.

Chinese sponsored UN General Assembly resolutions inevitably carry references. One in the 73rd session in 2018 even called for a community of shared future for humankind in cyberspace. Individual countries, at times, oppose such efforts. Recent reports mention objections to a Chinese phrase delaying the UNs 75th anniversary declaration.

Chinese scholars trace the terms lineage to the tianxia (all under heaven) system. Its said to build on Deng Xiaopings peace and development thesis, Jiang Zemins new security concept and Hu Jintaos call for a harmonious world. According to Liu Ming, a Chinese scholar, building a community with a shared future for humankind will bring five changes to international relations: developing a new model for major power competition, shifting security concerns to non-traditional threats, promoting win-win economic cooperation instead of trade and technological competition, integrating non-Western practices and governance with the Western system of universal values, and managing economic development in a way that ensures ecological balance.

Couched in lofty principles of sovereign equality and mutual respect first elucidated in the India-China Panchsheel Agreement of 1954 it stresses complementarity with win-win outcomes rather than competition and promotes tolerance for political and cultural differences.

The emphasis is on continuity of existing international institutions rather than demand for redistribution of power. Need for changes to the structural arrangement inherited from the World War II era is downplayed. The focus is on issues with broad appeal sustainable development, countering non-traditional security threats, epidemics and pandemics, drug trafficking, money laundering, human trafficking and collaboration in frontier domains like high seas, polar regions, outer space and cyberspace.

Beyond generalities, it reflects the belief that Chinas capacities and desire to play a global role have grown and need to be accommodated in global governance. But, its tempered with the realisation that China cannot recast the current order. Hence, the effort is to foster Chinas integration in the existing order as a great power with leadership status. The subtext beneath the benign sounding concept is, at a minimum, sidestepping the universal values and core principles that hold up the existing world order and may stall Chinas rise.

As Joseph Nye explained, soft power is dependent on an attractive vision of the future. Chinas concept aims to be alluring. Some find it appealing. Yet, Chinas assertiveness has aroused global concerns. Chinas strained, even confrontational, relations because of historical, security, territorial and maritime issues dim the attractiveness of the precept. Unsettled sovereignty issues have a disconcerting way of undermining other aspirations. This is happening with China too.

Beyond a blueprint, replacing a withering order requires a game plan for change. China has not yet unveiled any game plan for implementing reform. Maybe, deliberately so. In the long game, even as China enhances its status, it feels others may be worn down or distracted from exercising leadership or at a minimum adjust to non-confrontational ways of competition. Biding time in plain sight and without hiding may well be the game plan.

On our part, we need to deploy those with expertise in deciphering Chinas intent and those with strategic insights to assess this offering. We need to determine whether Chinas community of shared future is the global future that India wants in full, part or not at all. We need the guardrails of grand strategy to guide our specific choices of cooperation, competition and confrontation.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

Go here to see the original:

Beijing likes to talk about community of shared future of mankind. What exactly does it mean? - The Times of India Blog

In its long history, Magic: The Gathering has explored many fantasy tropes and invented a few new ones. Everything from magical schools to treasure-hoarding dragons, Gothic horror, dwarves and all-metal worlds have been covered in this game, and it's a remarkable universe. But anything is open to parody, and Wizards of the Coast is making sure to not take Magic too seriously.

RELATED: MTG: 10 New Cards From Core Set 2021 That Are Perfect For Janklords

Four Un-sets have been released, all of them geared toward irreverent and creative gameplay that would be incompatible with the regular, "black-border" cards. These cards feature wacky art, silly names, pop culture references and off-beat mechanics that make for a truly unique gameplay experience. The Un-cards involve everything from rolling dice to saying certain words or names for an effect, and everything in between. Let's check out the ten funniest Un-cards out there.

Most likely, players end up singing this card's name in their head when they read it, recalling that classic children's song. This is a blue enchantment from Unhinged that cares a great deal about the names of all permanents you control.

Un-cards often care about gameplay aspects that the regular game cannot, such as the letters in card names, physical manipulation of cards, contents of the illustration, artist name and more. Now I Know My ABC's can lead to a quick victory if a player has some off-beat letters in their card names. Any Q's or X's out there?

This is a card that experienced players can feel a little smug about. Reminder text is essential for new players, and it also helps any player remember how new mechanics work. After all, most sets involve at least one brand-new mechanic.

Duh is cheap removal for any creature that reminds a player of any effect they already know. If you are facing a creature with flying, and that card thinks you don't know how flying works, Duh can help you prove otherwise.

Elves are sometimes solitary hunters, but more often, they form entire hunting parties or guilds where they can work as a team. It's a strong tribe, and Elvish House Party shows how Elves like to celebrate a hard-won battle.

RELATED: 10 Best New Commanders In Magic: The Gathering Jumpstart

It's costly, but depending on the time of day, this card can swell up to an incredible 12/12 for just 4GG. Be careful, though, since this creature is pretty modest in the early afternoon hours. Evening games are much better for this party.

Even in real expansions and core sets, Goblins are the funniest creatures of all, and their flavor text is almost like Un-card flavor text. In this case, the Goblins formed an elite team, and they're defensive about their name.

This 2/2 Goblin Warrior is just waiting for you to say its name, and if your opponent is too slow to swat the table with their hand, it gets a +1/+1 counter, once per turn. If this Goblin gets big enough, your opponent's creatures will be the ones to get swatted next.

This game has been around since 1993, and some players are old enough to have been there since the very start. In those days, mechanics such as cumulative upkeep, landwalk and rampage were the order of the day.

RELATED: Magic: The Gathering - The Top 10 New Commanders From Ikoria, Ranked

Now they're relics, but Old Fogey remembers the classic era and brought it all back, from the border design to the use of "Summon" and the font of its very name. This Dinosaur is huge, a 7/7 for just GG, but cumulative upkeep and echo are going to cost a bit more. Watch out for that.

Were some Unhinged cards undercosted at the expense of a tricky ability? Question Elemental certainly was; isn't a 3/4 flying Elemental for 2UU Just a little too powerful for 2004? Wizards seems to think so, right?

Are you ready to rethink all of your speech in a casual game of Magic so you can keep control of Question Elemental? And did you notice that even its flavor text not only matches the question format, but is an appropriate reaction to this silly card?

Red is the color of haste, and red decks, as a rule, are quick and try to win quickly or not at all. That's been true from the start, and some red cards can even play spells from the library's top for extra speed. But this Slug can do more.

RELATED: Top 10 Strongest New Cards From Commander 2020

A 3/1 for haste is fairly mundane, but this Slug can attack an entire turn early at no cost. Of course, you'd better be ready to pay its mana cost or else lose the game. It's much like the Pact cards from the Time Spiral block, but with a lot more flair.

Clearly, this Insect is done with praying and is ready to demolish any and all challengers. A 6/6 for 5GG is run of the mill by now, but Slaying Mantis boasts the "fight" mechanic, and does it in a truly unique way.

The player tosses this card from a sufficient height, then watches to see which creatures it touches. Slaying Mantis will fight anything and everything it touches, which as the potential to remove two or more creatures... or the Mantis might end up fighting someone too tough, like an Elzrazi. It's a risk that must be taken.

More than a few standing armies have been present in the game's lore, from the samurai on Kamigawa to the Abzan clan on Tarkir to the Boros Legion of Ravnica. But this army is literally standing, and the player will soon join in.

A 2/4 for 2WW isn't very impressive, but if you actually stand up, this army will gain vigilance. Even better is the flavor text, which is packing not one, but two puns about chairs and being bored. Standing guard isn't terribly thrilling anywhere in the Multiverse.

This infamous tongue twister has arrived in Magic as an artifact creature, and it's packing a cumulative upkeep on top of that. A 3/3 for just {3} is quite efficient, but then the upkeeps start, and those tongues will get twisted sooner or later.

If you're a champ at tongue twisters, Toy Boat will stick around for awhile, but if you end up saying "boy tote" or "yoi tobe," for example, this Toy Boat will sail away forever. Just look at that face; it's like Thomas the Tank Engine, but on the high seas.

NEXT: Magic Arena: 10 Monsters Besides Godzilla That The Game Should Add

Next 10 Of The Best Racing Games On The N64

Link:

Magic: The Gathering - 10 Funniest Joke Cards In The Game - TheGamer

The N3 near Hilton was covered in hail

KZN Emergency Medical Services (EMS) has warned motorists to exercise extreme caution when travelling on the roads this wet weekend.

While the Zululand region is experiencing some rain and strong winds, areas closer to Durban earlier today (Saturday) experienced hail and severe thunderstorms.

ALSO READ: WATCH: Speedy city engineers restore water feed

The KZN Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) earlier this week placed disaster management teams throughout the province on high alert ahead of the heavy weather as forecast by the South African Weather Services (SAWS).

The NSRI has also warned residents of coastal regions to be aware of rough seas and high swells, which could catch anglers, boaters, paddlers and coastal hikers off guard.

0357727286

0357727286

0357727286

The bad weather is expected to last into next week and there is yet another cold front off the coast of Cape Town, being monitored by SAWS.

There is a concern that the lulls being experienced in between these cold fronts may give a false impression of improving conditions, said NSRI spokesperson, Craig Lambinon.

Localised flooding, storm surges, gale-force winds and high seas are some of the winter weather phenomena currently being experienced from these cold fronts.

The NSRI is appealing to boaters, paddlers, beach-goers, surfers, coastal hikers and anglers to be cautious around the coastline and to follow SAWS forecasts.

HAVE YOUR SAY

Like ourFacebook pageand follow us onTwitter.

For news straight to your phone invite us:

WhatsApp 060 784 2695

Instagramzululand_observer

More:

WATCH: Cold front brings hail to parts of KZN - Zululand Observer

It will be another day of cold conditions, strong winds and heavy rains on Friday, the South African Weather Service says.

Warnings:

- Heavy rain leading to flooding is expected over the western and south-western parts of the Western Cape from the afternoon.

- Extremely high fire danger conditions are expected over the eastern interior of the Northern Cape, northern interior of the Eastern Cape and western parts of the North West as well as the western and southern parts of the Free State.

- "Disruptive" snowfall is expected over the western mountains of the Western Cape and south-western high ground of the Northern Cape from the afternoon.

- High seas with waves from 6m to 8m are expected between Alexander Bay and Cape Point.

Watches:

- Strong to gale force north-westerly winds are expected in places over the interior of the Eastern Cape.

The weather in your region:

Gauteng will be partly cloudy and cool.

The expected UVB sunburn index is low.

Mpumalanga will have morning fog patches over the Highveld, otherwise fine and cool, but warm in the Lowveld, becoming partly cloudy from the afternoon.

Limpopo will be partly cloudy and warm.

The North-Westwill be partly cloudy in the east, otherwise fine and cool.

Free State will be partly cloudy and cool.

The Northern Cape will be fine in the north otherwise partly cloudy and cool, but cloudy in the west and the south with isolated to scattered showers. It will be very cold over the south-western high ground with possible disruptive snowfalls on the mountain from the afternoon.

The wind along the coast will be strong to gale northerly to north-westerly.

The Western Cape will be cloudy and cold with isolated to scattered showers and rain, but widespread in the south-west where heavy rain and possible localised flooding can be expected. Disruptive snowfall is possible over the western mountains in the afternoon but light snowfall in the eastern mountains by evening.

The wind along the coast will be strong to gale force north-westerly but moderate to fresh northerly to north-easterly in the east.

The expected UVB sunburn index is low.

The western half of the Eastern Cape will be cool in the south-west, otherwise partly cloudy and warm with strong winds over the interior, becoming cloudy from the west with isolated showers in the afternoon. Light snowfall can be expected over the high mountains overnight.

The wind along the coast will be light westerly early morning, otherwise light to moderate easterly.

The eastern half of the Eastern Cape will be partly cloudy and warm with strong winds in places over the interior.

The wind along the coast will be light westerly, becoming moderate north-easterly from mid-morning, but south-westerly, west of East London in the evening.

It will be fine and warm, but cool in the west of KwaZulu-Natal. The wind along the coast will be moderate to fresh north-easterly.

The expected UVB sunburn index is moderate.

The forecast for 10 July.

- Compiled by Kerushun Pillay

Visit link:

Friday's weather: More heavy rains, strong winds heading into the weekend - News24