Increase Your Profit Potential With Margin Trading | Promoted Bitcoin News – Bitcoin News

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Spot trading is a popular way for investors to access the crypto market in a straightforward manner. Its mainly fiat-to-crypto trading, as well as crypto-to-crypto trading. Its simple, you get a crypto wallet, you buy a token with fiat currencies, and then once the price has increased, you sell the asset and make a profit.

Well, imagine you dont have enough for the trade youre looking towards leveraging. With margin trading, the trading platform allows you to open a position that is larger than the balance of your account. Essentially, this allows people, or traders to access an amount of funds to increase their order, which then effectively means they boost the gain from a profitable trade. In essence, youll be maximizing your potential gains, allowing you to open a larger position than you would normally allow within your account.

With margin trading, youre effectively boosting your gains from market swings, opening up your trading horizons, and letting you, the trader, explore new trading opportunities and strategies. This then allows you to use leverage for the short, or long term gains on a variety of cryptocurrencies, giving you a bigger earning potential compared to spot trades.

Lets all assume that the price of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is equal to USDT1000 and a trader thinks, and feels that it will rise in the future. However, the trader only has USDT100. The amount the trader has wont limit him from amplifying his potential gains with margin trading. The trader can use the maximum 10x leverage provided by Bitcoin.com Exchange to open a USDT1000 long position (traders USDT100 was multiplied to 10). Now lets assume that during the next few hours the price of Bitcoin Cash rocketed by 10% to USDT1000. The trader decides to close this profitable position and realizes a positive Profit & Loss of nearly USDT100 (you need to take into account the fees and paid Interest Rate Check out the Fee Page). If the trader opened this position without the leverage he or she will only see USDT10 gain, because the positions value would be equal to the traders balance of USDT100.

Bitcoin.com Exchange provides one of the leading Margin Trading platforms in the industry, giving users the opportunity to trade borrowed assets. This means that clients now can open Long and Short positions on a variety of cryptocurrencies by up to 10x leverage. Those who use Margin Trading can amplify their potential profit depending on the selected leverage for 29 markets as seen below:

Enjoy up to 10x leverage on: BCH/USDT, BTC/USDT, ETH/USDT, XRP/USDT, ETH/BTC, BCH/BTC, XRP/BTC, TRX/USDT, LTC/USDT, EOS/USDT,XMR/USDT, ETC/USDT, ADA/USDT, TRX/BTC, LTC/BTC, ETC/BTC, ADA/BTC,XMR/BTC, EOS/BTC.

Up to 5x leverage on: ZEC/USDT, DASH/USDT, VET/USDT, DOGE/ USDT XLM/USDT, ZEC/BTC, DASH/BTC, XLM/BTC, DOGE/ BTC, VET/BTC.

So what are you waiting for? Take advantage of added leverage to boost your potential gains today, with Bitcoin.com Exchange.

Please consider that margin trading has several risks due to cryptocurrency price volatility and product complexity. We advise you to exercise carefulness and attention. Bitcoin.com provides high liquidity, 24/7 multilingual support, and dozens of trading pairs complemented by high security, but we are not responsible for your financial losses during trading activities.

This is a sponsored post. Learn more on how to reach our audience here. Read disclaimer below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Increase Your Profit Potential With Margin Trading | Promoted Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

The Crypto Daily – The Movers and Shakers – August 26th, 2020 – FX Empire

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A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning intraday high $11,778.0 before hitting reverse.

Falling short of the first major resistance level at $11,875, Bitcoin slid to a late afternoon intraday low $11,137.0.

Bitcoin fell through the days major support levels before a brief recovery to $11,400 levels.

The late recovery saw Bitcoin move back through the third major support level at $11,256 to reduce the deficit on the day.

The near-term bullish trend remained intact, supported by the latest move through to $12,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend.

Across the rest of the majors, it was a bearish day for the majors on Tuesday.

Cardanos ADA (-8.99%), EOS (-7.77%), and Trons TRX (-8.54%) led the way down.

Bitcoin Cash SV (-6.04%), Ethereum (-6.02%), and Tezos (-6.54%) werent far behind.

Binance Coin (-5.22%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (-4.74%), Litecoin (-5.91%), Moneros XMR (-5.75%), Ripples XRP (-4.22%), and Stellars Lumen (-5.58%) also struggled on the day.

In the current week, the crypto total market rose to a Monday high $360.52bn before falling to a Tuesday low $331.45bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $341.48bn.

Bitcoins dominance fell to a Monday low 60.62% before rising to a Tuesday high 64.08%. At the time of writing, Bitcoins dominance stood at 61.34%.

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The Crypto Daily - The Movers and Shakers - August 26th, 2020 - FX Empire

The Crypto Daily Movers and Shakers August 24th, 2020 – FX Empire

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It was a mixed start to the day. Bitcoin rose to an early morning high $11,709.0 before hitting reverse.

Falling short of the first major resistance level at $11,787, Bitcoin slid to a late morning intraday low $11,538.0.

Steering clear of the first major support level at $11,465, Bitcoin struck a late intraday high $11,736.

Falling short of the first major resistance level at $11,787, Bitcoin fell back to $11,650 levels before finding support.

The near-term bullish trend remained intact, supported by the latest move through to $12,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend.

Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day for the majors on Sunday.

Litecoin and Stellars Lumen rose by 0.53% and by 0.60% to buck the trend on the day.

It was a bearish day for the rest of the majors.

Cardanos ADA (-3.17%), Moneros XMR (-3.73%) and Trons TRX (-3.52%) led the way down.

Binance Coin (-1.71%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (-1.12%), Bitcoin Cash SV (-1.57%), EOS (-1.36%), Ethereum (-1.23%), and Tezos (-1.85%) also struggled.

Ripples XRP (-0.42%) saw modest losses on the day.

For the week, it was a bearish for the majors, however.

Tezos (-17.18%), EOS (-14.44%), Trons TRX (-13.82%), Bitcoin Cash SV (-13.10%), Cardanos ADA (-12.59%), and Stellars Lumen (-10.86%) led the way down.

Binance Coin (-7.18%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (-6.49%), Ethereum (-9.92%), Litecoin (-5.22%), and Ripples XRP (-6.52%) also struggled.

Moneros XMR fell by just 0.22%, however.

In the week, the crypto total market rose to a Monday high $384.00bn before sliding to a Saturday low $338.58bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $349.94bn.

Bitcoins dominance fell to a Monday low 59.97% before rising to a Wednesday high 62.00%. At the time of writing, Bitcoins dominance stood at 61.41%.

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The Crypto Daily Movers and Shakers August 24th, 2020 - FX Empire

Holding on to cash will not help now, stay invested in assets: Anthony Pompliano – Economic Times

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Co-founder & Partner, Morgan Creek Digital, talks about the irrational exuberance in global markets, gold as an investment asset and emerging markets.

What are you making of this exuberant mood that we are seeing across markets?The Federal Reserve in the United States and other central banks around the world have essentially stepped in. When the global health crisis hit, everyone was ordered to stay at home and that slowed down the velocity of money. When that slowed down, the government basically went into their toolbox and used the 2008-2009 playbook and intervened in markets. They had two emergency rate cuts in the US and they pumped trillions of dollars of liquidity through quantitative easing.

When you do that, you essentially create an environment where you systematically weaken the dollar and you juice asset prices. So what we saw in March was that during the liquidity crisis, equities were down 30%, Bitcoins were up 50% in a day, gold was down 12% to 15% and bonds were falling.

As soon as the government stepped in with the quantitative easing and juicing the markets, everything kind of immediately turned back and went up aggressively. So now, you have got stocks at all-time highs; you have got gold up 20-25%; you have Bitcoin up about 70% on the year. I think we have just flooded the market with cheap capital and of course asset prices are going to rise from there. So, you have a complete dislocation between the economic reality and the asset prices in the market today.

How should investors navigate these times? In your point of view, what is the best strategy?The key things to understand are one patience is always really valuable in these situations. Sometimes the best thing to do is to do nothing. If you panicked during the liquidity crisis and you sold equities during that 30% drop, you basically missed out on the recovery and got shaken out of the market. Now at the same time, people need to understand structurally what is occurring here. Around the world, trillions of dollars are being injected into these economies and as we know from history, that is going to weaken the currencies.

There is the likelihood that we are going to see inflation but you are also hearing rhetoric from a lot of people in the Federal Reserve today who are saying maybe we need to overshoot the 2% inflation target, maybe we should not do anything until we hit 2.5% or higher in those official CPI metrics.

I think that people just have to understand that structure and realise that holding a bunch of cash is actually going to have your wealth stolen from you because you really lose purchasing power and instead you should actually be investing in assets. The way the system is structured is it rewards investors and punishes savers. That is what we are seeing starting to play out here and it is likely to get more aggressive in the coming months and years.

The FAANG stocks have definitely taken leadership in the US market. Tech stocks like Airbnb are planning IPOs. What do you make of this overall tech move?What you are starting to see is that companies have stayed private much longer and that was because tons of venture capital was available in the private markets. But what you have seen over the last couple of weeks and even a couple of months is that whenever you get these raging bull markets, companies want to race to get to the public markets and there is inflated valuations.They can basically go out and get capital in their balance sheet. What is interesting with Airbnb is that the company actually got hit pretty hard by the pandemic. We were just not travelling. But they are still going to try to get out into the public markets because it is so compelling to do that given the environment right now. So, you are seeing a lot of these companies do that, whether it is through traditional IPOs, SPACs or direct listings. If the markets are going to give these inflated valuations, of course there is a financial incentive for people to get to the public markets and that is what we are seeing them try to do.

We have also seen quite a bull move in Bitcoin as well, the acceptability of which is improving. While things are not quite clear and approvals are not entirely in place, would you bet on this?Any time that you have got an asset that has scarce supply, people are going to be interested because as we know if the supply is capped and demand increases, of course the price goes up. The technology itself is just superior to other things in the market. There is no other digital decentralised currency that can be used anywhere in the world in the way that Bitcoin can be used and people are very interested in that.

Lastly, comes the macro environment, the inflation that I talked about. People forgot that gold went down 30% over the summer of 2008 during that liquidity crisis and then once the government stepped in with quantitative easing it went up over 200% in US dollar value and ended up hitting an all time high in 2011.

So not only do the Federal Reserve have 2008-2009 playbook at the top of their head, but investors also remember that and so when you see this kind of economic chaos, the government steps in and everyone immediately thinks asset prices are going to pump and they start running for inflation hedge assets. That is why you see gold up 20-25%. What you are really watching is investors fear of inflation is almost more important than the actual inflation itself ever occurring. They are going to look for those inflation hedge assets.

"Bitcoin is riskier and therefore you get paid for that risk in terms of the potential returns. Gold is more conservative and even though you are going to get a lower return than you will on Bitcoin, it is still going to do well"

Anthony Pompliano

Bitcoin has got a very small market cap compared to gold and other assets and so of course it is going to be more volatile and I think we are seeing that play out.

What are your views on gold? How are you viewing the rally now that even Buffett is joining the party and buying gold mining stocks?I think that the thesis for gold has remained the same which is essentially that anytime that there is a lot of quantitative easing, people are going to seek out sound money principles and so both gold and Bitcoin have that sound money principles.

Where gold and Bitcoin investors kind of diverge in thought process is how to allocate to those applications of sound money principles. Like gold investors would say, gold has been around for 5,000 plus years. It is very conservative in terms of risk and so you are going to get a return. It is up 20-25% more than stocks this year. But what you are not going to get is the explosive growth that something like Bitcoin can provide.

Bitcoin is riskier and therefore you get paid for that risk in terms of the potential returns. Gold is more conservative and even though you are going to get a lower return than you will on Bitcoin, it is still going to do well because the macro environment just simply incentivises people to go protect their wealth and so whether it is gold or gold stocks, there is a lot of people looking around saying I need to somehow get inflation hedge and gold is the place that you will find a lot of capital flow into.ET Now: What would you advise all the self learning investors, the budding new traders who are emerging during the lockdown?Anthony Pompliano: People that are successful in life generally are intellectually curious and they want to improve and that improvement can be in anything from how to get better at finance and investing to perfecting a physical skill to a whole bunch of different things, But ultimately what it comes down to is that intellectual curiosity and discipline to invest in yourself and there is the financial investments you can make, but ultimately those investments are going to pay off the greatest dividends.

Right now, a lot of people are sitting at home during the quarantine period and they have access to the internet and they can use a plethora of different platforms and services to not one only educate themselves but actually come out with new skills. Some of those skills will be tangentially related to what they already did and maybe make them better at the job that they were already doing.

Some will empower people to transition from one job to another. The thing that people should be paying attention to is if you want to improve, if you have that intellectual curiosity everything is available on the internet and right now provides a great opportunity to go spend the time to do it so hopefully people take advantage of it.

You talked about how of course we have been seeing this gush of liquidity. But when it comes to emerging markets (EMs) versus developed markets (DMs), how is this really going to play out?I do not want to comment too much on the difference there but what I will say is we know two things for sure. One is that innovation leads to returns and in fast growing developing markets, there tends to be a lot of innovation and it is innovation that drives returns. The second thing is that most investors realise the benefits of investing behind demographics and so it is pretty easy to see these macros trends playing out. When you look at the demographics, there are many emerging markets around the world which have very compelling demographic growth.

Take a country like Nigeria. It is going to be one of the most populous places in the world and they will continue to grow at a very fast clip and have a young population for a long period of time. India obviously has a massive market and a young population. There is a lot of internet penetration going on and so you are basically onboarding an entire generation of a population in a country. That is going to lead to a lot of value creation and also value capture for the companies. Emerging markets are an obvious place for people to look in terms of innovation and internet value capture.

How do you see the quality of recovery play out globally?Somebody would argue that the recovery has already happened. It structured all time highs, all these assets have gone up. My personal perspective is that there is a big dislocation between the stock prices and therefore economic realities on the ground. In the United States, 50 plus million people lost their jobs, there is still 10% plus unemployment. There are millions of businesses that will go out of business. There is probably another stimulus package on the way.

It is very obvious that the economic reality on the ground is still carnage. A lot of people are being hurt very badly. Because there has been so much liquidity pumped into the market, that has led to the asset prices increasing. The real question people should be asking is not just one where asset prices recover because that pretty much has already happened. It is when the economic reality will improve and that is a much harder question to answer. You cannot just kind of decimate the small business landscape for example and hope that all those businesses will come back immediately.

In the United States, between 15% and 25% small businesses are going go out of business through this period and it is going to end up being a pretty horrific scene. But America and other places around the world are incredibly resilient. The entrepreneurs are some of the best problem solvers and we are just giving them resources to get out of the crisis and the entrepreneurs will bring back all these economies faster than we can hope.

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Holding on to cash will not help now, stay invested in assets: Anthony Pompliano - Economic Times

Dash Nigeria Takes Digital Currency Education Campaign to Regulators and Key Institutions | Interview – Bitcoin News

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With sophisticated fraud schemes seemingly overwhelming the African crypto market, there is a growing need for players in the space to help fight this scourge. Some are responding through increased educational campaigns, which they hope will not only turn the tide against scammers but will also attract masses to cryptocurrencies.

News.Bitcoin.com has reported in the past how one Nigerian fintech entity chose a popular reality television show to market bitcoin. Using the popular television show may have helped to bring the crypto into the limelight. However, more still needs to be done if ordinary people are to become fully knowledgeable about digital currencies.

In this report, we zero in on one influencer who has chosen a different path to crypto educationa book that explains digital currencies in simple terms. Nathaniel Luz is the author of the book titled: Digital is the Cash and is the leader for Dash in Nigeria since 2017.

An award-winning libertarian, Luz says he decided to write the book after observing the yawning knowledge gap that still exists in the crypto space. According to him, current African crypto literature seems too focused on equipping readers with trading basics and tactics.

Not enough is being done to educate people about the very basics of digital currencies and why they are needed digital currencies in the first place. The limited knowledge gained from such learning material is not enough to hasten adoption cryptocurrencies. According to Luz, these are some of the factors that prompted him to think about writing the book.

Published in 2019, the book seeks to help Africans as well as non-Africans readers to understand the Dash cryptocurrency without burdening them with unfamiliar terms. Since publishing, the book has been distributed to regulators, universities, and many more mainstream institutions in Nigeria.

Commenting on the feedback he is getting, Luz expressed satisfaction with what he is seeing so far.

Its been amazing. The (positive) feedback from the regulators, educational institutions, and organizations has been overwhelming. This campaign allows us to reach out to thousands of people in a way theyre familiar with Hardcopy books.

The organizations targeted as part of the Dash Nigerias Digital Cash Awareness Drive include Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) as well as the Abuja Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Chartered Institute of Bankers Nigeria, which also received copies of the book, is one of the organizations that has given thumps up to Luz and his team. In a letter addressed to Luz, the institute said of the book: the publication will serve as excellent reference material for the Insititute and for users of its library.

Similarly, a library official at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in Nigeria, commends Luz for his efforts in trying to demystify digital currencies. The book is indeed a rich package of information that will give all readers an easy understanding of the new digital cash system, said the official.

The English language book is also available in French, Spanish, and German. According to Luz the book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License, so anyone can reproduce it as long as its not for commercial purposes.

Meanwhile, the Leader of Dash in Nigeria says his organization has also partnered with the 125 member Fintech Association of Nigeria whose community cuts across various sectors of the economy including financial services solutions providers and banks.

Another partnership has been created with Campus BCAT, a crypto educational movement sweeping through tertiary institutions in Nigeria since 2019. According to Luz, Campus BCAT has committed to donating 1,000 copies to universities and student tech/ finance clubs across 30 tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

The campaign has also gone beyond Nigerian borders as similar educational outreaches in Cameroon, South Africa, and Kenya also ongoing.

Besides the book, Dash Nigeria also produces educational videos in addition to its academy.

In the meantime, while espousing his libertarian ideals, Luz explains why cryptocurrencies trump fiat currencies like the Niara, which was devalued recently.

These (currency devaluation) are the problems crypto came to solve. Crypto was born out of the libertarian ideology of people having total control over their money. A P2P uncensored, borderless, permissionless system of value transfer that relies on no central authority for validation.

Luz is also of the opinion that most cryptocurrencies have deviated from these core libertarian values with space now dominated by chants of bull and moon.

Still, he emphasizes his vision saying we are not here primarily for bull and moon, we are here to secure the financial power of individuals.

According to Luz, Dash is one cryptocurrency that has remained true to these values. He says it is faster and cheaper to send remittances or make payments with Dash.

What do you think of this idea to publish a booking explaining the digital currency? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Dash Nigeria Takes Digital Currency Education Campaign to Regulators and Key Institutions | Interview - Bitcoin News

INX Limited Announces Effectiveness of Security Token IPO | Press release Bitcoin News – Bitcoin News

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Increase Your Profit Potential With Margin Trading

Spot trading is a popular way for investors to access the crypto market in a straightforward manner. Its mainly fiat-to-crypto trading, as well as crypto-to-crypto trading. Its simple, you get a crypto wallet, you buy a token with fiat currencies, ... read more.

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INX Limited Announces Effectiveness of Security Token IPO | Press release Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

Letter to the Editor: UTOPIA, THE DREAM OF SOCIALISTS – Valley Roadrunner

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By admin | on August 27, 2020

Editor, Roadrunner:

I love how our new lefty starts his rant by imagining a Utopian Society! Thats the dream of progressives, otherwise known as socialists. Yep, big government will fix it all, and we will sing kumbaya.

Leaning Left neglects to mention that our federal government already runs THREE single-payer systems: Medicare, the Veterans Health Administration and the Indian Health Service each of which is loaded with fraud, waste and corruption. Why would anyone want to turn over all of our medicine to these incompetent bureaucrats?

Rather than point out all the illogical statements in the column, I will mention the proper way to correct the finest medicine in the world: American medicine.

1. Get the consumer involved in the cost. When someone else pays, who cares how much it costs? Head to the hospital for a runny nose! We need Major medical insurance to cover serious illnesses etc, and a health savings account to take care of routine health care. End of the year, you dont spend it, you get to keep it, say, in your IRA. Heart attack? Insurance. Sniffles? Cmon. Empower individuals to control their costs.

2. Force all medical service providers to make PUBLIC their inclusive prices for ALL procedures. Transparency! Posting prices will force hospitals to become more competitive by becoming more efficient.

3. Remove regulations and policy obstacles that discourage choice and competition, and create a wide variety of plans and insurers to compete for my business. Allow me to choose a plan and my doctors, like I was promised. I dont need a plan that includes abortion and contraception since I am still male. Reform Medicaid and modernize Medicare.

Two quick stories to close: My old dentist now charges $245 for a cleaning and X-rays. My new dentist charges $99 for both. (I shopped with my wallet.) A friend in Australia needs a knee replacement; 50% of her paycheck goes to taxes, but she will get a free knee replacement once she gets to the top of the waiting list-about nine months. So you progressives can keep promising Utopia. Unfortunately, theres no such place.

BILL MACEY, Valley Center

*Note: Opinions expressed by columnists and letter writers are those of the writers and not necessarily those of the newspaper.

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Letter to the Editor: UTOPIA, THE DREAM OF SOCIALISTS - Valley Roadrunner

New York Film Festival Sets Spotlight Lineup, With Hopper/Welles, Sofia Coppolas On The Rocks & More – Deadline

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The New York Film Festival, whose longer-than-usual 2020 edition will run from September 17 to October 11, has announced the lineup for its new Spotlight section.

On the Rocks, director Sofia Coppolas re-teaming for Apple and A24 with Lost in Translation star Bill Murray, will have its world premiere in the Spotlight lineup. Other titles includeHopper/Welles, a cinephiles delight featuring a 1970 conversation between Dennis Hopper and Orson Welles; American Utopia, Spike Lees filmed version of David Byrnes Broadway musical; and Pedro Almodvars The Human Voice. Tilda Swinton stars in Human Voice, which is Almodvars first English-language film.

In addition to Hopper/Welles, documentaries include All In: The Fight for Democracy, a look at voter suppression directed by Liz Garbus and Lisa Corts; and The Monopoly of Violence, from director David Dufresne, an examination of police brutality in France.

Related StoryRepublican Convention Final Night Review: Donald Trump Delivers Biden-Bashing, Very Long 70-Minute Speech On White House Lawn

The Spotlight section is described by NYFF presenter Film at Lincoln Center as a showcase of sneak previews, gala events, screenings with live elements and other special evenings.

Before COVID-19 altered the planet, programming director Dennis Lim and festival director Eugene Hernandez spent time talking with each other and the Film at Lincoln Center staff about how we might reshape and focus the New York Film Festival, Hernandez recalled in a press release. We agreed that among the annual highlights are those special, one-of-a-kind events that unveil an anticipated new film by a well-known filmmaker, dig deeper into a topic or theme with a substantive conversation, showcase something new or unexpected, and even have some fun!

The festival, always a highlight of the New York and film industry calendar in the fall, will look substantially different in its 58th year. With theaters still closed across the state, screenings will be held at drive-in locations or online and there wont be any public events. In a rare alliance formed due to the pandemic, festival organizers also have pledged to collaborate and not compete with counterparts in Toronto, Venice and Telluride.

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New York Film Festival Sets Spotlight Lineup, With Hopper/Welles, Sofia Coppolas On The Rocks & More - Deadline

Trailers of the Week: On the Rocks, Time, Utopia, and More – Rolling Stone

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All In: The Fight for Democracy

In the new documentary, Stacey Abrams examines rampant voter suppression across the United States. Referring to voter suppression as the new Jim Crowe 2.0, the documentary focuses on Abrams 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race, where voters were faced with five-hour lines, mismanagement, and gerrymandering. Abrams says in a clip, Thousands of people were told, No, and didnt have the authority to demand better. Now, the people are making demands. (September 18th)

Blackbird

Susan Sarandons character a family matriarch asks her family to behave as normally as they possibly can. Even in good times, that can be an impossible request to adhere to. But the occasion for which they are all gathered makes it even more difficult to do so. After battling ALS, Sandersons character has decided to end her life. The date has been set, and though shes made her peace with it, the rest of the family is still working on it. (September 18th)

Coastal Elites

This new HBO film is the first of its kind a socially distanced satire. Sarah Paulson,Bette Midler,Issa Rae,Kaitlyn Dever,andDan Levy all-star as the so-called coastal elites, as they go through living in isolation in either Los Angeles or New York City. Filmed remotely, the characters divulge their lives in largely confessional styled-shots. As Paulsons character suggests, Take a deep healing breath and imagine that youre not even on Twitter or Facebook or Xanax. (September 12th)

Death on the Nile

Detective Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) returns this time, to investigate a murder thats taken place during a picture-perfect Egyptian steam-boat vacation. I ask you, he says in a voiceover, have you ever loved so much, been so possessed by jealousy, that you might kill? Based on the Agatha Christie novel of the same name, the film is Branaghs follow up to Murder on the Orient Express.(October 23rd)

On the Rocks

For her latest feature, director Sofia Coppola focuses on Laura (Rashida Jones), who thinks her marriage is in a rut. Her husbands job is demanding more trips away, and shes starting to feel like a living daily planner. It isnt until her father Felix (Bill Murray) comes back to town that she starts to suspect the worst from her husband. After all, over drinks her father tells her that infidelity is part of a mans very nature: Males are forced to fight, to dominate and to impregnate the female. Felix, a womanizer himself, feels sure that he knows all the tricks Lauras husband could be pulling. Together, they set out to catch him in the act. (October)

Time

Twenty years into her husbands six-decade-long prison sentence, Fox Rich relentlessly campaigns for his release. The mother, entrepreneur, and abolitionists ongoing video diaries craft a portrait of perseverance and fierce love as she tries to keep her family intact while having to navigate through the United States prison industrial-complex system. (October 23rd)

Utopia

Set to R.E.M.s Its the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine), a group of comic book fans realize that the plots theyve read over and over are actually coming true in the real world. Dismissed as fanatic fans, their warnings are mocked. However, as a deadly pandemic takes hold, they mobilize to take action. Expect bio-warfare, a seemingly sinister corporation, and a band of unlikely heroes. (September 25th)

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Trailers of the Week: On the Rocks, Time, Utopia, and More - Rolling Stone

Finding Joy in the Everyday Mundane, Tyler Mitchell’s Photographs ‘Visualize What a Black Utopia Looks Like, or Could Look Like’ – Culture Type

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TYLER MITCHELL, Untitled, 2019. | Tyler Mitchell

ALLURING, JOYFUL, AND TIMELY, the photographs of Tyler Mitchell center the Black experiences he didnt see represented in media when he was growing up. The images Mitchell came across focused on attractive white models at leisure and at play, having fun. Shifting how Black people are traditionally seen and represented, his empowering photographs emphasize freedom and hope, pleasure and delight, Black beauty, style, and individuality.

Tyler Mitchell: I Can Make You Feel Good, a newly published exhibition catalog, explores the concept of what the photographer calls a Black utopia. The fully illustrated volume documents Mitchells first U.S. solo exhibition. Currently installed at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York, the survey, also titled I Can Make You Feel Good, presents a selection of his recent photographs, videos, and installation works.

I feel an urgency to visualize Black people as free, expressive, effortless, and sensitive, Mitchell said in the introduction to the exhibition. I aim to visualize what a Black utopia looks like or could look like. People say utopia is never achievable, but I love the possibility that photography brings. It allows me to dream and make that dream become very real.

I feel an urgency to visualize Black people as free, expressive, effortless, and sensitive. Tyler Mitchell

Mitchells pictures of Black possibility, wonder, and everyday mundane include scenes of hula hooping; a couple relaxing in a meadow; a close-up focusing on the hands of two young men in white shirtsleeves as one helps the other button his cuffs; and a beach shot, a nearly abstract composition that frames a womans sand-covered back and blue swimsuit in dramatic light and shadow. The latter image is called Untitled (Heart). Look closely, the area of sand covering her back is heart-shaped.

Tyler Mitchell: I Can Make You Feel Good, by Tyler Mitchell, curators Mirjam Kooiman and Isolde Brielmaier, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Deborah Willis (Curator-at-Large, ICP),(Prestel, 206 pages). | Published Aug. 4, 2020 UK / Aug. 25, 2020 US

The title of the artists first major monograph (and the exhibition) comes from a 1982 song by Shalamar. Contributors to the volume include Deborah Willis, chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Hans Ulrich Obrist, director of Serpentine Galleries in London, conducted an interview with Mitchell. ICP Curator-at-Large Isolde Brielmaier curated the exhibition and contextualized his work in the fully illustrated catalog.

In an essay titled, A Marvelous Mundane, Brielmaier described Mitchells Utopian images. She wrote that they exude a seemingly straightforward tranquility and blissfulness.

She continued: Throughout the history of our imaging, this sense of limitless possibility is all too unique. It is something that is rarely represented with Black people as its protagonists. So often we are seen struggling, striving, pained, defeated, and surviving. While these states of being reflect aspects of our realities and experiences, Mitchells work offers us another necessarily human dimensiona critical prospect in which to envision ourselves. His compositions are considered, complex, and multilayered, yet tightly framed and always intentional. They are comprised of very specific signs, symbols, and motifs.

Mitchells work offers us another necessarily human dimensiona critical prospect in which to envision ourselves. His compositions are considered, complex, and multilayered, yet tightly framed and always intentional. Isolde Brielmaier

Speaking to the complexity of Mitchells images, a group shot of young black shirtless men with their backs to the viewer represents community, trust, and frivolity in a natural green space. At the same time, one of his subjects is wearing a thick chain-link necklace, conjuring references to prison chain gangs and enslaved bodies.

Titled Boys of Walthamstow (2018), the photograph covers the catalog. Set in an overgrown field with a thicket of dense trees nearby, the image is easily associated with the American South, but was captured in North East London.

Mitchell recently returned to the UK capital and spoke to Christiane Amanpour of CNN about the new book (see video below). The wide-ranging conversation covered the arc of his career.

TYLER MITCHELL, Sosa with Orange Hula Hoop, 2019. | Tyler Mitchell

The Brooklyn-based photographer and filmmaker grew up outside Atlanta in Marietta, Ga., where he got his start in image-making filming skateboarding videos with his friends. Mitchell earned a BFA in film and television from NYUs Tisch School (2017), where Willis was among his instructors.

A year later, Mitchell gained widespread recognition when he was tapped to photograph Beyonc for the September 2018 cover of American Vogue. Published since 1892, the worlds most prominent fashion magazine had never hired a Black photographer to shoot a cover before. Mitchell made history at age 23.

A 2020 Gordon Parks Foundation Fellow, Mitchell talked with Amanpour about growing up middle-class in the suburbs. He identifies with the freedom and physical, intellectual, emotional, and psychological space represented in his images.

A suburban existence is about having space. Theres a big front yard. Theres leisure and a lot of the things in the pictures that I had growing up, he told Amanpour. And those kind of experiences and kind of freedom, I started to understand as I grew up more, was luxury. Having a summer to kind of think about what I wanted to do with my life, those things are freedoms that Im kind of posturing or gesturing or suggesting all Black folks should have.

Having a summer to kind of think about what I wanted to do with my life, those things are freedoms that Im kind of posturing or gesturing or suggesting all Black folks should have. Tyler Mitchell

Amanpour said she was fascinated with his contention that photographing Black people at leisure is radical. Why is that? she asked.

Mitchell responded: Well, it has to do with denied histories. Right? And this idea that visualizing and making images and projecting those and stating that visualizing Black folks enjoying their lives is important. Right? Whats central to that in my work is that existing in public space for Black folks in America has been denied. Psychically in our minds at any moment that freedom or that enjoyment that we are having or that pleasure could be taken away or stripped away. To me, this book stands for a beacon of that. CT

The exhibition Tyler Mitchell: I Can Make You Feel Good debuted last year at Foam, the museum in Amsterdam. In New York, it opened at the International Center of Photography (ICP) on Jan. 25, 2020, coinciding with the inauguration of the museums new space, and was scheduled through May 18. A few months after the exhibition opened, ICP temporarily closed in March due to COVID-19. The museum currently remains closed and the exhibition has been extended to Dec. 31, 2020.

FIND MORE about Tyler Mitchell on his website

CNN Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour interviews photographer and filmmaker Tyler Mitchell about his new book I Can Make You Feel Good. | Video by CNN

TYLER MITCHELL, Untitled (Toni), 2019. | Tyler Mitchell

TYLER MITCHELL, Still From Idyllic Space, 2019. | Tyler Mitchell

TYLER MITCHELL, Untitled (Park Frivolity), 2019. | Tyler Mitchell

TYLER MITCHELL, Boys of Walthamstow, 2018. | Tyler Mitchell

FIND MORE Tyler Mitchell has collaborated with fashion, brands, corporations, and a variety of publications. A selection of projects includes photographing Spike Lee for Office magazine, Toyin Ojih Odutola for i-D magazine, and the student gun-reform activists from Majorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., for Teen Vogue; shooting American Vogues June 2019 cover of Zendaya, American Vogues April 2020 cover featuring a trio of models from around the world for its Beauty Without Borders issue, and GQs May 2020 cover of Kanye West; photographing the Fall/Winter 2019 campaigns for the fashion brands JW Anderson and Loewe, and directing and photographing the campaign for Copper, the unisex fragrance from Comme des Garons

BOOKSHELFTyler Mitchell is featured in The New Black Vanguard: Photography Between Art and Fashion and his work also graces the cover of the exhibition catalog. In 2015, Mitchell self-published El Paquete, documenting his experience in Cuba. The limited-edition of 200 copies is now out of print.

SUPPORT CULTURE TYPEDo you enjoy and value Culture Type? Please consider supporting its ongoing production by making a donation. Culture Type is a solo editorial project that requires countless hours and expense to research, report, write, and produce. To help sustain it, make a one-time donation or sign up for a recurring monthly contribution. It only takes a minute. Many Thanks for Your Support.

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Finding Joy in the Everyday Mundane, Tyler Mitchell's Photographs 'Visualize What a Black Utopia Looks Like, or Could Look Like' - Culture Type

Watch the trailer for Spike Lee’s Film Adaptation of David… – NYSMusic

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With Broadway shutdown until early 2021, one smash hit will be finding its way to HBO Max this fall. Spike Lees film adaptation of the acclaimedDavid Byrnes American Utopiaconcert is set for October 17. A first-look trailer was released this week.

David Byrnes American Utopia was a huge success at Broadways Hudson Theatre from October 2019 through February 2020, where the show broke theater box-office records. Prior to the COVID-19 shutdown of the music industry across the country, was planned to return for a second engagement in fall of 2020.

The one-of-a-kind film by Oscar and Emmy-winner Spike Lee was recorded during at Hudson Theatre, with Byrne joined by an ensemble of 11 musicians, singers, and dancers from around the globe. Bryne invites audiences into a joyous dreamworld where human connection, self-evolution, and social justice are paramount.

American Utopia includes both old and new songs from Byrne, including his Talking Heads and solo hits, among them Burning Down the House, Life During Wartime, This Must Be the Place, Road to Nowhere and Everybodys Coming To My House, as well as selections from the 2018 album that gave the show its title. Choreographer Annie-B Parson tapped into Brynes career-long devotion to idiosyncratic movement and quirky gestures to create a truly fresh ensemble performance.

David Byrnes American Utopia is a uniquely transformative experience and a perfect example of how entertainment can bring us together during these challenging times. Spikes brilliant direction adds a level of intimacy to this powerful performance, and were so thrilled to share this groundbreaking show with our audience.

American Utopias Broadway show had planned toreturn to Broadway starting September 18, and recently was announced to be released as a book as well.

HBO will air the special event on October 17 at 8pm, in partnership with Participant, River Road Entertainment and Warner Music Entertainment. The film is produced by David Byrnes Todomundo and Lees Forty Acres and a Mule Filmworks production companies.

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Watch the trailer for Spike Lee's Film Adaptation of David... - NYSMusic

When is the Utopia remake on Amazon Prime Video ? – RadioTimes

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Amazon Prime Videos remake ofUtopia inspired by the Channel 4 series of the same name will likely prove to be strangely timely post-lockdown viewing, given that it centres around a cult comic book that correctly predicts a pandemic.

John Cusack (Being John Malkovich) is starring in his first regular television role, alongside a roster of familiar faces, including Rainn Wilson (best known for his role asDwight in the US Office).

Read on for everything you need to know about the US remake of Utopia.

Amazon Prime Videos eight-part remake of Utopia will be available to watch from Friday 25th September.

Utopia (Amazon Prime Video) Amazon

Penned by Gone GirlsGillian Flynn, the Utopia remake follows a group of comic book readers who all bond over an underground comic book called Utopia before realising that its pages contain a more sinister truth.

According to the official synopsis, the ragtag group unearth hidden meanings cloaked within the pages of Utopia, predicting threats to humanity. They realise these are not just the makings of a conspiracy; they are very real dangers coming alive right now in their world.

The group embarks on a high-stakes adventure, bringing them face-to-face with the comics famed central character, Jessica Hyde who joins them on their mission to save the world while harbouring secrets of her own.

John Cusack plays a famousbio-technician,Dr Kevin Christie, who wants to change the world with science.

American Honey star Sasha Lane has been cast as Jessica Hyde, while The Office actor Rainn Wilson plays an underrated scientist who happens to be a world-leading expert on a deadly flu and who accidentally walks into the midst of a dark web of conspiracy.

The reboot is also set to be notably less violent than the 2013 British original, after Flynn detailed how her remake would differ in an interview with Deadline.

Im more less is more as far as violence goes, she said. Im the person who loves that moment in Rosemarys Baby where were only seeing part of the conversation whereas the whole audience is trying to look around the corner to see whats happening, or obviously Jaws. Im a big believer in that. I dont want it for a cartoon effect or for shock value. I think we as an audience are past most of that as pure shock value. I want to use violence when its effective and appropriate.

You can watch the new trailer for Utopia here.

Amazon Prime Videos remake of Utopia will be available to watch from Friday 25th September. Check out what else is on with our TV Guide

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When is the Utopia remake on Amazon Prime Video ? - RadioTimes

Why Bill & Ted Face the Music scrapped its CGI George Carlin cameo – Polygon

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The new feature film Bill & Ted Face The Music was in development for more than a decade. The third movie in a trilogy that started in 1989 with the sleeper hit Bill & Teds Excellent Adventure hits VOD and American theaters on Aug. 28, but its faced a long road to screens, and a series of studio changes and necessary revisions along the way. One of the most significant: director Dean Parisot tells Polygon that the filmmaking team had to scrap a sequence involving a computer-generated re-creation of George Carlin.

In the original Bill & Ted, teenage burnouts Bill S. Preston (Alex Winter) and Theodore Logan (Keanu Reeves) are emerging from a Circle K convenience store when theyre confronted by Rufus (Carlin), a time traveler from 2688 who tells them theyre meant to unite the world with their rock music. To help out, he introduces them to their own time-traveling selves, and sends them on a trip through time to help them pass a history class. In Bill & Ted Face The Music, the doofy duo realize theyre middle-aged musical failures who still havent written the song thats supposed to bring about world peace and a magical utopia, so they head out on a new time-traveling trip to solve the problem. Parisot says that journey was supposed to include a jump back to the Circle K, where they would ask Rufus for insight.

George Carlins death in 2008 was a limiting factor on that plan, but as of 2018, original Bill & Ted co-writer Ed Solomon was still talking up plans for a scene that used excised footage from the 1989 movie to let Winter and Reeves interact with their past selves, and with Rufus. But Parisot said the plan had to change because of the films budget and shooting schedule.

We probably could have afforded to build the Circle K set, he says, but we were using footage from the original Bill & Ted. We would have had to create a CG George Carlin, which is incredibly expensive, and very difficult to pull off in a convincing way. We didnt have the time or the money. But we had a great scene where they went back to talk to Carlin.

Parisot says the scene was intended both as a tribute to Carlin and a way to launch the quest that forms most of the movie. From a story point of view, theyre theyre trying to figure out what happens, right? he says. How do we solve this problem? Because nobody really knows the future, and they dont know whats coming. So initially, theyre going back in time to ask questions.

Ultimately, Parisot is philosophical about having to lose the sequence, which ended up being replaced with a plot device Bill and Ted wind up with a keepsake of Rufus that holds the same advice he would have given them in the cut scene. From a story perspective, it didnt change all that much, Parisot says. It was a bittersweet moment between them and Rufus. It was sweet, and I think it would have been fun but, you know, things fall by the wayside.

And he points out that the movie still includes a brief Rufus cameo. They still got to see Carlin! he says. The actor appears as a hologram, created with archival footage, and with a line of dialogue provided by animation voiceover artist Piotr Michael. It isnt exactly the emotional reunion Solomon envisioned, but it does nod to the past without kicking off the kind of uncanny-valley debates that followed other recent CGI actor re-creations, like the appearance of Peter Cushing and young Carrie Fisher in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

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Why Bill & Ted Face the Music scrapped its CGI George Carlin cameo - Polygon

Sofia Coppola’s ‘On the Rocks’ to World Premiere at NY Film Festival – Hollywood Reporter

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11:00 AM PDT 8/27/2020byHilary Lewis

The New York Film Festival has added the world premiere of Sofia Coppola's On the Rocks, which sees the filmmaker reunite with her Lost in Translation star Bill Murray in a comedy about a father-daughter duo played by Murray and Rashida Jones, to its lineup.

The A24 and Apple Original Films title joins a number of other high-profile titles in the Spotlight section at 58th annual event, presented by Film at Lincoln Center.

The section will also feature screenings of the Spike Lee-directed film version of David Byrne's American Utopia Broadway musical; the Stacey Abrams voter suppression doc All In, directed by Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortes; Pedro Almodvar's first English language film The Human Voice, adapted from a Jean Cocteau play and starring Tilda Swinton; the newly unearthed Hopper/Welles record of a poolside chat between Orson Welles and Dennis Hopper; and David Dufresne's The Monopoly of Violence, about police brutality against France's Yellow Vest movement for economic justice.

Prior to the pandemic, Dennis Lim and I spent time talking with each other and the Film at Lincoln Center staff about how we might reshape and focus the New York Film Festival, NYFF director Eugene Hernandez said in a statement. We agreed that among the annual highlights are those special, one-of-a- kind events that unveil an anticipated new film by a well-known filmmaker, dig deeper into a topic or theme with a substantive conversation, showcase something new or unexpected, and even have some fun! This is what were aiming to do with our new Spotlight section, which this year features cinemas brightest names (Spike! Pedro! Sofia! Tilda! Orson!), but also explores big topics and important ideas that our society is grappling with today: voter suppression and police brutality. Even though well gather digitally and at drive-ins this year, rather than en masse at Lincoln Center, we hope our first Spotlight section will engage, enlighten, and entertain.

The 2020 NY Film Festival is set to run from Sept. 17-Oct. 11.

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Sofia Coppola's 'On the Rocks' to World Premiere at NY Film Festival - Hollywood Reporter

LG’s New Wearable Air Purifier Is What George Jetson Would Wear in the Bad Timeline – Gizmodo UK

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LG unveiled its new PuriCare Wearable Air Purifier on Thursday, essentially putting one of LGs home air purifiers on your face. The device looks like something George Jetson might wear if he got stuck in the bad timeline with climate change-fuelled wildfires, militarised police tear-gassing peaceful protesters, and a global pandemic of respiratory illness.

LG is hailing the battery-powered device as a new category of wearable air purifier technology because it uses two H13 HEPA filters and provides the user significant protection from hazardous particles in the air. The high-tech mask even adjusts air intake based on the wearers breathing patterns.

With its Dual Fans and patented Respiratory Sensor, LGs wearable air purifier allows users to take in clean, filtered air while the Respiratory Sensor detects the cycle and volume of the wearers breath and adjusts the dual three-speed fans accordingly, LG said in a press release published overnight. The fans automatically speed up to assist air intake and slow down to reduce resistance when exhaling to make breathing effortless.

The only problem, as the Verge notes, is that the mask might not be a good choice during the coronavirus pandemic. One of the reasons that public health experts recommend masks is because it can help stop the spread of the virus by people who might not know they have the disease. Masks can protect the wearer from contracting covid-19, but LGs new mask doesnt protect people around the wearer, defeating the purpose of universal masking, especially when asymptomatic transmission is so common.

The new mask would, however, be theoretically useful during wildfire season, as thousands of acres burn and make it hazardous to breathe in places like California right now. Last summer, the wildfires in Australia were so bad that indoor smoke alarms were being set off in downtown Sydney. LGs new mask would likely be a welcome addition in a scenario like that.

How soon with this new LG mask be available and where can you buy it? That part is unclear. LGs press release says that it will be available in the fourth quarter in select markets. We dont know if that includes the U.S. at this point.

It doesnt even look like LG bothered to put a working prototype on a human being for their latest press release. The company used a stock photo model and simply photoshopped the mask on his face. This particular model appears to be a favourite for the tech crowd. In recent years hes hadin-ear headphones and has hawked private car services in Europe.

There were a lot of possible futures we were promised in the 20th century. There was the jetpack future, the flying car future, the the robot butler future. Versions of utopia were always just around the corner. But we clearly got the dystopian future filled with anti-pollution personal wear, widespread panic, and a scenario where some of Americas largest cities are struggling to survive.

Thankfully, we havent seen nuclear apocalypse and permanent underground bunkers yet, but honestly thats always on the table, given the sheer number of near-misses weve had over the past half-century.

We may as well suit up for the dystopia were living in, with catastrophe around every corner. And we cant help but wonder if the predominant fashion trend of the 2020s will be a rich vein of LG-style dystopian tech. Perhaps we should call it Immortan Jetson chic.

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LG's New Wearable Air Purifier Is What George Jetson Would Wear in the Bad Timeline - Gizmodo UK

20 Must-See Films at the 2020 Venice, Toronto, and New York Film Festivals – IndieWire

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Its an all-too-familiar refrain by now: this years festival season is going to look a little different than years past. While autumn at the movies still signals the arrival of a glut of hotly anticipated features, movies seemingly destined for awards glory, and first looks at films that have been chattered about for entire years, 2020 will always come with an asterisk.

And so does IndieWires annual look at some of the most exciting new films of the season, this year rolling out in one singular package, all the better to highlight a curated crop of the best films arriving at Venice, Toronto, and New York. With a reduced lineup this year due to some films having to pause in the middle of production, and other finished features opting to wait until 2021 to get the usual festival bells and whistles many festivals are showing significantly fewer titles, and many of the biggest titles will be screening at all three festivals.

Some festivals are not happening at all (including Telluride, which followed in Cannes footsteps and cancelled its physical edition but named the titles that would have made its ranks), while others are unfolding as carefully crafted live events (like Venice, poised to be the first major film event in months to do just that). Others, including TIFF and NYFF, are attempting to launch festivals that utilize major virtual platforms and safety-minded in-person screenings and events.

So, yes, this years festival season will look very different. One thing, however, remains the same: many thrilling new films to look forward to seeing (whenever, and however, that might be). As possible and safe, we will be covering the fall festivals, thanks to both international contributors and a cadre of U.S.-based staff who have become (perhaps too) comfortable with working from home. Ahead, IndieWire picks through the Venice (September 2 12), TIFF (September 10 20), and NYFF (September 17 October 11) slates to highlight the best of the best.

Co-directed by two China-based journalists (Weixi Chen and someone who remains anonymous for their safety) along with New York filmmaker Hao Wu (whose Peoples Republic of Desire remains one of the best documentaries about the dystopian future of live-streaming), 76 Days offers an uncensored, ground-level portrait of the COVID-19 outbreak from inside the heart of Wuhan.

Less attuned to the Chinese governments response to the virus than it is to the outbreaks devastating impact on the first people found themselves in its path, 76 Days will introduce viewers to a pregnant woman who awaits the birth of her first child, a senile grandfather who cant remember his way home, and so many others as they scramble for life amidst an unprecedented lockdown. There will be many documentaries about this ongoing epidemic, several of which will likely be released before an end to the crisis is even in sight, but few are poised to offer such a lucid and lingering view of the toll the virus has taken. DE

See-Saw Films

That Francis Lees much-hyped romantic drama looks so much like Celine Sciammas lush Portrait of a Lady on Fire all those windswept beaches, all those longing looks, all those almost handholds!! is obvious, but whats less clear is how all those similarities are actually a good thing. If twos a trend, then were already deep into the next wave of aching period-set lesbian romances, and thats a far better state of being than, oh, being deep into the next wave of things-go-boom, robots-yell-a-lot actioners that seem more likely to drive the box office bucks.

Starring Oscar winner Kate Winslet as famed British paleontologist Mary Anning (whose real-life sexuality has already been the subject of much debate, expect that to only heat up as the season winds on), the Gods Own Country filmmaker cast four-time Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan as Marys foil and eventual love interest, Charlotte Murchison. Like Portrait, the film imagines two seemingly different women thrown together by circumstance in a location that handily approximates the end of the world. What they discover goes beyond art or science, transforming into a forbidden obsession that has no place in their society (again: all those almost handholds).

The films first trailer and attendant press have played up its sexy side, while also indicating a true desire by Lee and his leading ladies to bring real intimacy to the big screen. That should always be in style. KE

The indomitable Frederick Wiseman will next apply his singular lens to city bureaucracy Bostons, no less. City Hall follows the inner workings of the Boston government, from climate change action to racial justice to housing policy and homelessness. In his statement about the film, Wiseman takes a characteristically neutral approach to his unwieldy subject, emphasizing the interconnectedness of city life and the services a city government can provide. The Boston city government is designed and strives to offer these services in a manner consistent with the Constitution and democratic norms, he writes.

Its hard to think of a better city to represent a snapshot of American governance than Boston, and Wiseman is the undisputed auteur of American institutions. With the most important election of our lifetime approaching, its the perfect time for art to help illuminate what government can actually do for people. JD

Did somebody say Idris Elba on a horse? The veteran actor will saddle up for a Philadelphia-set Western, where hell play opposite Stranger Things favorite Caleb McLoughlin. The pair star as an estranged father and son who become reunited, connecting over the world of urban horseback riding. The feature debut of Philadelphia native Ricky Staub, Concrete Cowboy is based on the novel Ghetto Cowboy, by G Neri. The story is fictional, but the riding club depicted is not the Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club is part of a long tradition of urban horseback riding in Philadelphias Black community. The stacked cast also includes Jharrel Jerome (When They See Us), Lorraine Toussaint (Selma), comedian Byron Bowers, and Method Man. JD

HBO

After the success of Springsteen on Broadway on Netflix and Hamilton on Disney+, it seems like streaming might become a kind of forever home for Broadway productions after their theatrical runs you know, the way its supposed to work for movies. But with the lights turned off on the Great White Way for at least the rest of the year due to a deadly pandemic (you may have heard about it), certain shows might be coming home ahead of schedule. In the case of American Utopia, it cant arrive on HBO Max soon enough.

A euphoric revue of the best songs that David Byrne has ever written during his long career as a solo artist and frontman of Talking Heads (Psycho Killer, Once in a Lifetime, Road to Nowhere, etc.), the Broadway show was a shot in the arm before people realized how badly we could need one. And lucky for us, Spike Lee was there to capture it on camera, and with a visceral immediacy that promises to let all of us share the best seat in the house. Whether Stop Making Sense is burned into your brain or you only know Byrne as the white-haired guy who cut that one album with St. Vincent, American Utopia is sure to be the brightest, warmest, danciest ray of light youll find on a screen this fall. DE

The first Indian film in Venice competition in decades (and among the first in the NYFF main slate), Chaitanya Tamhanes second feature is loaded with potential. The filmmakers sophomore effort follows Court, a gripping and austere look at his countrys broken justice system. Here, he turns to the story of a classical musical vocalist who faces personal hurdles as the modern world threatens the future of his profession.

That concept holds plenty of appeal on its own, but The Disciple is especially promising because its filmmaker has established himself as a rigid formalist whose use of cinematic language can take any number of immersive and surprising directions. Needless to say, its no surprise that avowed Court fan Alfonso Cuaron has signed on to the project as an executive producer. Tamhane is already a world-class director, and The Disciple reportedly has such delicate shot composition and editing that anyone who values the art form is likely to be impressed with the directors ability to juggle its strengths. In a strange year for festival buzz with fewer flashier English-language titles, this cinephile treat has a good shot at standing out. Bring it on. EK

Adapted from Patrick DeWitts absurdist novel of the same name and borrowing its title from an expression for leaving a party announced (a Gallic variation on the Irish goodbye), French Exit has rather fittingly been slated to end the most low-key New York Film Festival this town has ever seen. And its a New York story to the core, as this sharp and unsparing comedy-esque affair follows the misadventures of one Frances Price (Michelle Pfeiffer), a suddenly penniless widow sells everything she owns and sails to Paris with her son (Lucas Hedges) and their talking cat (Tracy Letts, duh). Friendships, reconciliations, and spiritual possessions ensue, a shrewd jumble of arch familial nonsense that director Azazel Jacobs (The Lovers, Terri) should be able to navigate as well as anyone. DE

Prolific documentarian Heidi Ewing makes her solo directorial narrative debut with a bittersweet gay romance seen through the eyes of one aspiring chefs decision to cross the border from Mexico to the United States. The drama received warm reviews out of its Sundance premiere, where it bowed earlier this year in the genre-bending and forward-looking NEXT section. Ewing wrote the screenplay with Alan Page Arriaga, and the duo tackles this American Dream story through the fertile soil of food ethnography.

The film was shot by rising Mexican cinematographer Juan Pablo Ramrez, who has racked up more than two dozen films to his name since 2010. The film was originally meant to be a vrit portrait of this epic love story, but over years of interviews, Ewing realized she had the makings of a powerful narrative. While the hybrid elements may not make for the smoothest transition, the experimental nature makes this an exciting debut. JD

American Zoetrope

Combining the gauziness of her aunt Sofias films with a nuance and sensitivity all her own, Gia Coppola did the family name proud with her 2014 debut Palo Alto, which holds up as one of this centurys best movies about being young in America. Coppolas long-awaited second feature finds her reteaming with key collaborators (like musician Dev Hynes and cinematographer Autumn Durald) for a major swing for the fences: An original film that marries the snowballing narcissism of Elia Kazans A Face in the Crowd with the ubiquitous self-love of the social media era.

Maya Hawke, in her first leading role, stars as a grieving bartender whose rant against the content-ification of the world goes viral after she meets a man named Link (Andrew Garfield). Alas, the two strangers along with a third character played by Palo Alto alum Nat Wolff can only enjoy their fame for so long before they find themselves in the crosshairs of Jason Schwartzmans corporate villain. We cant wait to see what the Mainstream looks like through Coppolas eyes. DE

Over the course of two decades behind the camera, Italian filmmaker Susanna Nicchiarelli has made complicated women her signature, moving from off-kilter coming-of-age tales like Cosmonaut to her beloved biopic Nico, 1988. Her next project appears to be a culmination of her cinematic obsessions: a fact-based drama about the life of Karl Marxs whipsmart daughter Eleanor Marx that isnt beholden to traditional biopic trappings. When the films rights sold at last year Cannes, Screen reported that Nicchiarelli would rely on the insertion of period photographs and footage, the ironic use of contemporary music, and a minimalist aesthetic for clothing and furnishing to subvert the usual genre trappings.

No matter her method of telling the story, the Romola Garai-starring film has plenty of real-life drama to pull from. Eleanor was a socialist activist with her own big ideas about how the world (and the government) should work. Despite her formidable intellect, her personal life was fraught, and she was often at the mercy of her cruel long-time partner Edward Aveling (played by Patrick Kennedy). Niccharelli has been a longtime favorite of Venice, and seems poised to take the next step in the international arena. KE

Sam Pollard is best known as an editor on some of Spike Lees most treasured films, from Mo Better Blues to Bamboozled, but hes also crafted a substantial filmography of his own with historical documentaries such as Slavery By Another Name and Sammy Davis, Jr.: Ive Gotta Be Me. He adds to that substantial oeuvre with this very timely look back on Martin Luther King, Jr.s civil rights battles and how they lead to relentless surveillance and harassment efforts by J. Edgar Hoovers intelligence agency. Its no secret that Hoovers team did everything in their power to besmirch Kings name, including wiretapping efforts that revealed his extramarital affairs and blackmail attempts that failed to dampen Kings impact.

The movie promises an engaging blend of archival footage and contemporary interviews with some of Kings surviving peers certain to resurrect conversations about ruthless efforts by the U.S. government to diminish the impact of Black progress in America. Released to the world in the wake of George Floyd protests, the subject is certain to find a receptive audience eager to dissect just how much Kings story remains relevant and inspiring to this day. EK

Mexican director Michel Francos unrelenting, tightly bottled dramas have ranged from Haneke-level horrific and effective (the cautionary after-school-special-gone-wrong After Lucia) to stiff and dull even despite a major star (Chronic with Tim Roth as an end-of-life caretaker). Returning to his native roots, Franco takes on the dystopian drama with what Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbara calls Francos most ambitious and darkest film yet, New Order.

An extremely tense first teaser suggests something is very wrong here, as a wedding is interrupted by foreboding-looking, and most certainly unwelcome, gun-toting guests. New Order is told through the eyes of the bride and the servants working for, and evidently also against, her affluent family amid a collapsing political system. RL

Amazon

Somehow, Oscar-winning actress Regina King finds the time. Lauded on screens both big and small, King has also spent the past seven years building up an enviable assortment of directing credits, including episodes of Animal Kingdom, Insecure, and This Is Us, among others, and now makes the jump to feature filmmaking with a banger of debut, which has already been picked up by Amazon in advance of its festival premieres.

One Night in Miami doesnt just have an enviable cast in front of the camera (including Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom Jr., Lance Reddick, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Michael Imperioli, and Beau Bridges), but shes picked them to lead a story about some of the biggest names to ever grace this Earth. Set on February 25, 1964 in the aftermath of Cassius Clay (Goree) defeating Sonny Liston for the title of World Heavyweight Boxing Champion at the Miami Beach Convention Center, the film unspools to follow Clay and his closest friends activist Malcolm X (Ben-Adir), singer Sam Cooke (Odom), and football star Jim Brown (Hodge) as they celebrate the momentous evening. Talk about a meeting of the minds, and with King guiding her cast through a story that sounds too fantastic to believe and too important to forget, it promises to be one of the most thrilling films of the season. KE

Thrice a Cannes Palme dOr contender for his films Jupiters Moon, White God, and Delta, Hungarian filmmaker Kornl Mundrucz returns with the English-language Pieces of a Woman. And oh what a cast! Shia LaBeouf, returning to screens just a few weeks after his miscalculated turn in David Ayers The Tax Collector, and Vanessa Kirby star as lovers who meet across a sharp class divide (shes an executive and hes a construction worker). But they soon find themselves navigating extreme loss after the death of their first child after complications with a midwife, played by Molly Parker. Ellen Burstyn co-stars as Kirbys mother in this intense movie reminiscent of 1970s American dramas. Collaborating once again with screenwriter Kata Wber, Mundrucz worked in North America for the first time with this film. RL

Canadian New Queer Cinema iconoclast Bruce LaBruce has been turning out sexy, unsettling features and photography for three decades, reveling in the underbellies of every sexual subculture under the sun, from amputee fetishism and BDSM, to zombie sexuality and gerontophilia. His latest movie is no differently subversive or more shocking, exploring the twin fetishism thats become an icky staple of gay pornography.

Closing out the Venice Days program, the 1972-set Saint-Narcisse follows a 22-year-old with a fetish forhimself. Upon discovering he has a twin brother, Dominic embarks on a strange odyssey of sexual depravity, revenge, and redemption, especially once he learns his mother didnt actually die in childbirth. Newcomer Felix-Antoine Duval plays the undeniably hunky twins. RL

Luca Guadagnino applies his lush lens to the life of legendary Italian shoe designer Salvatore Ferragamo. The filmmakers first documentary was written by the fashion journalist Dana Thomas, and charts Ferragamos life from learning shoemaking as a young child to landing in Hollywood as a shoe designer on films like The Thief of Baghdad and stars like Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn. The film is narrated by Call Me by Your Name star Michael Stuhlbarg, and includes interviews with, among other luminaries, no less than Martin Scorsese. This towering figure of Italian fashion gets the star treatment from one of Italys premier filmmakers, and the results are sure to be dripping with style. JD

Call Me by Your what now? Franois Ozons new film Summer of 85 looks to be the gay summer-of-love story to end them all. The queer romance, set in 1985, boasts a killer soundtrack including The Cure and Bananarama, gorgeous cinematography, a coastal setting, striped T-shirts, and, of course, a beautiful cast, led by French cinema favorites Flix Lefebvre, Benjamin Voisin, Philippine Velge, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Melvil Poupaud, and Isabelle Nanty. Set against the glistening backdrop of seaside Normandy, the film tracks the friendship-turned-romance between two teenage boys, whose relationship is complicated by the arrival of another new friend. Its based on the novel by Aidan Chambers. RL

Lauded Mexican filmmaker Yulene Olaizolas latest feature boasts the kind of synopsis that only gets more intriguing and hard to fathom with each subsequent word. And if it sounds unpredictable on paper, we cant wait to see how that looks on film. Per said official synopsis, the film is set in 1920, on the border between Mexico and Belize. Deep in the Mayan jungle, a lawless territory where myths abound, a group of Mexican gum workers cross paths with Agnes, a mysterious young Belizean woman. Her presence incites tension among the men, arousing their fantasies and desires. Filled with new vigor, they face their destiny, without knowing that they have woken up Xtabay, a legendary being that lurks in the heart of the jungle.

We were already sold long before the introduction of Xtabay, but that might be the films best trick (or, at least, a clever way to obscure whats really going on here), as other official materials hint that we already know Xtabay, long before he (or she?) makes himself plain. Early casting calls hinted at a film filled with mysterious fatalities and deep roots in local mythology, a thrilling combination ripe for examination. KE

Searchlight Pictures

In 2017, Chloe Zhaos poetic cowboy drama The Rider become the surprise festival hit that kept hitting, as the industry chased after a filmmaker with a keen eye for rooting complex characters in an authentic milieu. It remains to be seen how well that sensibility will manifest in Marvels Eternals, but in the meantime, shes squeezed in another project that looks very much on brand. Nomadland stars the ever-reliable Frances McDormand as a woman roaming the American West in a frayed RV, drifting through a series of odd encounters and befriending another loner (David Strathairn) who may or may be the answer to her troubles. Zhaos patient, slow-burn ability to capture the complex isolation of the American landscape is well-established, and seems poised to mesh nicely with such dependable acting talent.

An Oscar hopeful from Fox Searchlight, Nomadland is also one of the few fall titles traveling the holy trifecta of Venice, TIFF, and NYFF (it was also poised to play at the now-canceled Telluride, alas). In a normal year, this understated movie might be a hidden gem in the noisy assemblage of red carpet events, but may actually benefit from being one of the hotter tickets this time around, a festival movie that could break out in whatever form the festivals allow it to happen. EK

Gianfranco Rosis Oscar-nominated Fire at Sea was a mesmerizing window into the migrant crisis that captured its tragic ramifications in intimate detail. For his latest, he embedded himself in another perilous environment where lives are on the line on a regular basis the battlegrounds of the Middle East. Rosi apparently spent two years gathering footage on the borders between Syria, Iraq, Kurdistan, and Lebanon, amplifying the experiences of people just looking to survive another day. His subjects range from lonely fishermen to children, but dont expect some kind of talking-head tribute.

Rosis cinematic approach to the non-fiction form assures that Notturno will deliver a hyper-immersion into a haunting environment all too often understood in terms of narrow-minded Western headlines. Another awards hopeful with real potential to break out, it stands a good shot at rejuvenating conversations about the nature of conflicts across the Middle East and just how often innocent lives are caught in the crosshairs. Its also bound to put the global pandemic in the wider context it deserves: Many people are fearing for lives today, but for the subjects of Notturno, that experience is nothing new. EK

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20 Must-See Films at the 2020 Venice, Toronto, and New York Film Festivals - IndieWire

Marvel’s New X-Men Are FINALLY Working As A Team | Screen Rant – Screen Rant

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Marvel's Empyre event sees the mutant island of Krakoa invaded by the Cotati - but the X-Men are finally working as a team against them!

This article contains spoilers forX-Men #11.

TheX-Men are finally working as a team. When Charles Xavier first founded the X-Men, he established a School for Gifted Youngsters. There, he taught his students to use their powers. Oddly enough, he doesn't seem to have done a particularly good job; he was usually more fearful of seeing Omega level mutants develop their powers than he was willing to encourage them to experiment. He even used his own psychic powers to impose telepathic locks that inhibited Jean Grey's own telepathy for years.

Xavier may have had the X-Men train as a team in the Danger Room, but even teamwork doesn't appear to have been high up on his agenda. Each X-Man learned how to use their own individual powers in battle, but Xavier didn't really encourage synergies - attempts to use powers in concept. When Cyclops took over as leader of the X-Men for a time while they lived on Utopia, he immediately demonstrated his strategic genius by getting some of his mutants to work together. Now, with the world's mutants living together on the living island of Krakoa, Cyclops and his fellow Krakoan Captains have decided to get their people cooperating again.

Related:X-Men: Gambit's Secret Power Everyone Forgot About

This week'sX-Men #11 is part of Marvel's "Empyre" event, with the plant-race called the Cotati invading Krakoa. They soon learned the scale of their mistake, because Cyclops and his other Captains had come up with several ways to unite different powersets in both offensive and defensive ways. The X-Men had then used Emma Frost's telepathy to flash knowledge of all these strategies into the relevant mutants' minds, ensuring the Krakoans worked together with maximum efficiency. Apparently these are still early days, and the workshopping mostly focused on Magneto's powerset; after "Empyre," the experiment can certainly be considered successful.

Magma, for example, had located a deep vein of magma on the sea bed near Krakoa. She triggered a volcanic eruption, bringing about 20 tons of liquid iron to the surface. Iceman then intervened, using his cryokinetic powers to cool the molten metal at speed. Naturally, the almost-instantaneous cooling led to the new chunks of metal being particularly brittle, which meant they were perfect for Magneto's purposes; he was able to form them into jagged javelins, scythes, and swords, which he used to tear through the amassed army of Cotati. He then tugged a few satellites down out of space for good measure, including a few secret military ones the humans were using to monitor Krakoa that the X-Men weren't really supposed to know about in the first place.

Jonathan Hickman's X-Men run has revitalized the entire range, and this battle tactic indicates the sheer potential of the new mutant nation. The X-Men may call themselves a team, but they've always tended to operate in isolation; no longer is that the case. Consequently, they are now far greater than the sum of their parts.

More:X-Men: The Brother of COLOSSUS Returns To Marvel Comics

Wonder Woman's Toughest Fight Is Against An Evil Version of Snapchat

Tom Bacon is one of Screen Rant's staff writers, and he's frankly amused that his childhood is back - and this time it's cool. Tom's focus tends to be on the various superhero franchises, as well as Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Star Trek; he's also an avid comic book reader. Over the years, Tom has built a strong relationship with aspects of the various fan communities, and is a Moderator on some of Facebook's largest MCU and X-Men groups. Previously, he's written entertainment news and articles for Movie Pilot.A graduate of Edge Hill University in the United Kingdom, Tom is still strongly connected with his alma mater; in fact, in his spare time he's a voluntary chaplain there. He's heavily involved with his local church, and anyone who checks him out on Twitter will quickly learn that he's interested in British politics as well.

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Marvel's New X-Men Are FINALLY Working As A Team | Screen Rant - Screen Rant

Living with Children: Where we all went wrong – TribLIVE

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My profession, psychology, began demonizing traditional childrearing in the late 1960s. I was in graduate school at the time and on fire for the promise that the proper use of psychological principles could perfect the raising of children and thereby usher in the social utopia we (young boomers whose heads were enveloped in clouds of youthful idealism) thought possible, even imminent.

Children could be reasoned with. Punishment damaged self-esteem (the supposed brass ring of a good life). In the ideal family, parents and children ruled equally. Time-out which takes the all-time Parenting Boondoggle Award would correct all misbehavior. Children should be given lots of choices and allowed to express their feelings freely. Those are but a sample of the new psychological parenting narratives. Unfortunately, American parents fell en masse for this revisionism and child mental health has been in a tailspin ever since.

The propaganda boiled down to if your parents and grandparents did it, dont do it. One of the upshots of this was what I call yada-yada discipline the attempt to discipline by dialogue, through persuasive appeal to a childs inherent irrationality and self-centeredness.

Two grandparents recently shared the story of their 4-year-old male grandchild who was expressing his feelings freely by wetting his pants whenever the urge arose.

He didnt see the point of stopping whatever he was doing to use the toilet, they said.

Indeed, he didnt see the point because the point was a dull attempt on his parents part to talk him out of it. Yes, they occasionally became frustrated enough to send him to his room, which bothered him none because his room was an entertainment complex, a perfectly suitable place in which to spend a few minutes, even hours. To further demonstrate his disregard, he would often wet his pants on the way to his room, leaving tiny puddles of urine in his wake.

After several attempts, a pediatrician was unable to come up with a remedial drug. A therapist also came up empty-handed. Just prior to reaching the end of their wits, said parents read, in their local newspaper, a column written by a certain renegade psychologist that set forth a cure to spontaneous lazy boy bladder leakage disorder (SLBBLD).

From that point on, the lazy boys parents did three simple things: first, when he wet his clothes, he washed them in a bucket of soapy water; second, if he left a puddle on the floor, he wiped up the puddle and then washed the entire floor; third, when his labors were done (to his parents satisfaction) he spent the remainder of the day in the bathroom and was in bed immediately after supper.

What drugs and therapy had not moved was cured in one day. As I write, he is no longer a lazy boy. Far from it, in fact. He is a fully functioning adult who is neither beset with bathroom phobia nor haunted by nightmares of bucket monsters chasing him down labyrinthine corridors.

The moral to the story is the moral to many a parenting story these days: If your parents and grandparents did it, then (with the obvious exceptions) you should follow their example.

Some things never change, among which is common sense.

Visit family psychologist John Rosemonds website; readers may send him email; because of the volume of mail, not every question will be answered.

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Krugman: QAnon is Trump’s last, best chance – The Register-Guard

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Paul Krugman| The New York Times

Last weeks Democratic National Convention was mainly about decency about portraying Joe Biden and his party as good people who will do their best to heal a nation afflicted by a pandemic and a depression. There were plenty of dire warnings about the threat of Trumpism; there was frank acknowledgment of the toll taken by disease and unemployment; but on the whole the message was surprisingly upbeat.

This weeks Republican National Convention, by contrast, however positive its official theme, is going to be QAnon all the way.

I dont mean that there will be featured speeches claiming that Donald Trump is protecting us from an imaginary cabal of liberal pedophiles, although anything is possible. But its safe to predict that the next few days will be filled with QAnon-type warnings about terrible events that arent actually happening and evil conspiracies that dont actually exist.

That has, after all, been Trumps style since the very first day of his presidency.

New presidents traditionally use their inaugural addresses to deliver a message of hope and unity, even in dark times: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

Trump, however, offered a vision of American carnage, in particular of inner cities devastated by violent crime. His rhetoric was ugly and had clear racial overtones, but it also had another problem: it bore no relationship to reality. Trump took office in a nation whose violent crime rate had been falling for decades; our big cities were as safe as they had ever been.

The same pattern of attempts to panic Americans over nonexistent threats recurs throughout this administration. If you get your information from administration officials or Fox News, you probably believe that millions of immigrants in the country illegally cast fraudulent votes, even though actual voter fraud hardly ever happens; that Black Lives Matter protests, which with some exceptions have been remarkably nonviolent, have turned major cities into smoking ruins; and more.

Why this fixation on phantom menaces? There has always been a paranoid style in American politics that sees sinister conspiracies behind social and cultural change a style going all the way back to fear of Catholic immigrants in the 19th century. Those of us who remember the 1990s know that QAnon-type conspiracy theories have been out there for decades; theyve just become more visible thanks to social media and a president who attributes all his failures to the machinations of the deep state.

Beyond that, however, a lot of the focus on imaginary threats represents a defensive response from people who repeatedly demonstrated, even before the coronavirus hit, that they have no idea how to do policy, that is, to cope with real threats.

After all, America on the day Trump took office was no utopia. The overall economy was doing well, with steady job growth and falling unemployment trends that continued, with no visible break, for the next three years. But parts of the country suffered from persistent economic weakness and low employment. Homicides were low, but deaths of despair from drugs, suicide and alcohol were rising sharply.

So a president who really cared about American carnage would have had plenty to work on.

But Trump never even tried. His response, such as it was, to regional decline was a trade war that, on net, reduced manufacturing employment. The rest of his economic policy was standard Republican fare, focused on corporate tax cuts that didnt even boost business investment. His only visible response to the opioid crisis was a push to take away health insurance from millions.

Then came COVID-19 which, by the way, has already killed far more Americans than were murdered in the decade that preceded Trumps inauguration. And the administrations response, aside from the occasional promotion of quack remedies, has consisted of little but denial and insistence that the whole thing will miraculously go away.

Trump, in other words, cant devise policies that respond to the nations actual needs, nor is he willing to listen to those who can. He wont even try. And at some level both he and those around him seem aware of his basic inadequacy for the job of being president.

What he and they can do, however, is conjure up imaginary threats that play into his supporters prejudices, coupled with conspiracy theories that resonate with their fear and envy of know-it-all elites. QAnon is only the most ludicrous example of this genre, all of which portrays Trump as the hero defending us from invisible evil.

If all of this sounds crazy, thats because it is. And its almost certainly not a political tactic that can win over a majority of American voters. It might, however, scare enough people that, combined with vote suppression and the unrepresentative nature of the Electoral College, Trump can manage, barely, to hang on to power.

I dont think this desperate strategy is going to work. But its all Trump has left. The only thing he can hope for is fear itself nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror based on nothing real at all.

Paul Krugman writes for The New York Times.

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Krugman: QAnon is Trump's last, best chance - The Register-Guard

The best dramas to watch on TV this Autumn, from The Crown to Des – iNews

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UsBBC OneUs (Photo: Colin Hutton/BBC)

Tom Hollander and Saskia Reeves take on the roles of Douglas and Connie in this adaption of David Nicholls beloved 2014 novel. It follows the soon to be separated couple and their distanced son as they take one last trip as a family, inter-railing across Europe.

A spin-off from Doctor Foster, this new series from Mike Bartlett focuses on Anna (Victoria Hamilton) who now goes as Belle as she builds a new life in Manchester. Moving into a house split into four levels, she meets an intriguing cast of characters, played by the likes of Alison Steadman and Adrian Lester.

Another big name comes to the small screen as Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave, Widows) recounts the experience of Londons West Indian community throughout the 70s. Each episode tells a different story, one of which is that of Leroy Logan, a Met police officer who developed anti-racist policies for the force, who will be played by John Boyega (Star Wars).

Hugh Laurie plays a politician who finds his life both professional and personal targeted by his enemies. Timely and sharp, the four-part series written by David Hare (Collateral) explores the grey area between political duty and morality and how far one should go to achieve power.

An unlikely reunion for Fleabag and her Hot Priest, as Phoebe Waller-Bridge joins His Dark Materials as John Parrys daemon. Both are being tracked by aeronaut Lee Scoresby in the second, darker series of the Philip Pullman adaption, while Lyra continues to investigate the meaning of Dust alongside her new companion, Will.

Perhaps a triggering series for any young people vying for a place on a graduate scheme, this series set in Londons world of finance follows a group of wannabe investment bankers hoping to secure a permanent job. Expecting professionalism, they enter a world of sex, drugs and ego and must decide whether the raucous industry is really for them.

Between 1978 and 1973, serial killer Dennis Nilsen murdered at least twelve young men and boys before having sex with their corpses. David Tennant steps into his shoes for this disturbing but brilliant true crime series, focusing on the arrest and subsequent trial of the killer known as the Muswell Hill Murderer.

The so-called honour killing of Iraqi Kurdish woman Banaz Mahmod is the catalyst for this drama, with Keeley Hawes as the detective who was awarded for her investigation into the 20-year-olds disappearance. Mahmod had already told the police of her familys plan to kill her, simply because she had left her abusive husband for another man.

From the creator of Luther, we can expect murder, secrets and maybe even ghosts from this new series. Russell Tovey (Flesh and Blood) plays Nathan, a man desperate to leave a terrible secret in the past. Its all going well until an old friend shows up and sparks a chain of events that will reveal all.

Based on JG Farrells 1978 novel, this World War II drama focuses on the Webbs, a British family living in Singapore at the time of the Japanese invasion. Boasting a cast including Charles Dance and David Morrissey, the series promises to be witty, satirical and entirely watchable.

Pushed back because it was considered too rude to air before 10pm, Adult Material is a no holds barred look behind the cameras of the porn industry. Starring Hayley Squires as veteran actress Jolene Dollar, the series pits her against anti-porn activists and explores the effect of free content on the business.

A reboot of the 80s gentle drama, recounting the lives of vets living and working in the rolling hills of the Yorkshire Dales. It coincides with the 50th anniversary of the release of the novel the series is based on, written by real life vet James Herriot.

There was originally going to be an accompanying theatre piece to this series, offering viewers a chance to get involved in the drama like never before. That part will now air on Sky Arts as a livestream instead, while the series itself features Jude Law and Naomie Harris whose characters discover a mysterious island inhabited by protective outcasts.

Julia Stiles returns as Georgina Clios (now Ryland), who calls this outing the most ambitious series yet. Leaving the French Riviera behind for Italy and Argentina, Georgina has made a name for herself in the world of art restitution and is determined to leave the her less than savoury past behind. Knowing her, it wont last long.

The final series of Skys thriller follows the Worth family back to their roots in Liverpool, leaving the Canadian town of Little Big Bear forever. Unsurprisingly, theyre less than welcome in their hometown and soon find themselves the target of Merseysides most notorious and violent gang led by bulletproof king pin Michael Ryan (Ian Hart).

Nicole Kidman has once again teamed up with Big Little Lies showrunner David E Kelley for this new psychological drama about a woman whose high-profile life falls apart after the disappearance of her husband (Hugh Grant). Based on Jean Hanff Korelitzs novel You Should Have Known, the series questions whether the perfect life really exists.

Aldous Huxleys novel is modernised into a futuristic series imagining a utopian society free of hunger and violence and where people are connected via Indra, an artificial intelligence system. Those who read the original work will know all is not as it seems, and that utopia doesnt quite stretch as far as the Savage Lands.

Perhaps the most anticipated drama of the season, series four of Netflixs royal series will introduce Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher and Emma Corrin as Princess Diana. As well as the 1981 Royal Wedding, well also relive the Buckingham Palace break-in, the magnificence of Concord and the birth of Princes William and Harry.

Hilary Swank plays Commander Emma Green, the astronaut in charge an international crew embarking on a dangerous mission to Mars. Less about space and more about human connection, Emma finds herself distracted by the husband and teenage daughter she left on Earth.

The international drama set in just one police interrogation room returns with four more suspects. Guest stars are yet to be announced, but with David Tennant and Hayley Atwell cast in the first series, theyre sure to be impressive.

You may recognise the name Ratched as the cruel nurse from One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, intent on making her charges lives as difficult as possible. Sarah Paulson takes over the role from Louise Fletcher in this series led by the dark character, taking place at the very beginning of Ratcheds employment at an Oregon psychiatric hospital.

Netflixs answer to Downton Abbey? Possibly. This period drama is based on Julia Quinns bestselling series of novels, exploring the ruthless world of high society in Regency era London. Produced by Shonda Rhimes, the cast boasts Derry Girls Nicola Coughlan and none other than Dame Julie Andrews as narrator Lady Whistledown.

Henry James 1898 novel The Turning of the Screw serves as inspiration for this long-awaited follow up to horror series The Haunting of Hill House. Set in the English countryside, the story follows a nanny who moves to Bly Manor to look after a pair of orphans. Once there, the house slowly starts to reveal its spooky history and the spooky entities who still roam its halls.

Another sweary superhero show to add to the ever-popular genre, The Boys was Amazon Prime Videos runaway hit of 2019. Imagining the shows heroes as less than perfect celebrities is a welcome spin, and season two promises even more gory, bombastic action.

A remake of Channel 4s excellent 2013 mystery series, Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn tells the story of the secret deadly message hidden in the fictional series of comics known as Utopia. It comes down to a group of misfit nerds to stop the nefarious plans being carried out, finding themselves hunted by ruthless killers who have been ordered to put a stop to their investigations.

Another spin-off, this time from zombie series The Walking Dead. Taking place in Nebraska ten years after the apocalypse, the action focuses on two teenage girls who are part of the first generation to only know life alongside the undead. After a catastrophic event changes their lives forever, the pair set out on a quest which will see them leave the safety of their compound for the first time.

After eight episodes of the Star Wars series, were still no closer to discovering Baby Yodas (real name The Child) backstory. Thats the main hope for the second set of episodes, though theres also the excitement surrounding the confirmed appearance of the franchises most famous Mandalorian, Boba Fett, to look forward to.

2020 is truly shaping up to be the year of the spin-off. This offspring of crime series Power follows Tariq St. Patrick after he killed his own father in the sixth season finale. Attempting to balance university with keeping his family safe and finding a way to get his mum out of jail, Tariq is spinning a lot of plates and you can put money on the chances of him dropping one.

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The best dramas to watch on TV this Autumn, from The Crown to Des - iNews