All posts tagged: international

Crew welcomed into International Space Station to replace astronauts stranded for nine months | US News

Crew welcomed into International Space Station to replace astronauts stranded for nine months | US News

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A crew has entered the International Space Station (ISS) to replace the astronauts who were stranded there for nine months. A SpaceX capsule delivered four astronauts on Sunday on a mission to allow Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams – who have been on the ISS since June 2024 – to return home. The Dragon craft, with the Crew-10 astronauts inside, docked with the orbiting laboratory at 4.04am UK time, around 29 hours after it had been launched on the top of the Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Image: Butch Wilmore (back row centre) and Suni Williams (back row right) celebrate with the rest of the astronauts replacing them on the International Space Station. Image: The replacement crew, including Russia’s Kirill Peskov (centre), were welcomed on board the International Space Station (ISS). Pic: NASA NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, both military pilots, along with Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Russia’s Kirill Peskov, both former airline pilots, will spend the next six months at the space station. Their mission will allow four …

Far-Right Greek Politician vandalized ‘Sacrilegious’ Artworks – Atheist Alliance International

Far-Right Greek Politician vandalized ‘Sacrilegious’ Artworks – Atheist Alliance International

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Greek authorities arrested and then released Nikos Papadopoulos, a far-right MP with the Niki (:Victory) party, after he vandalized artworks in Athens’s National Gallery. Papadopoulos previously said in parliament that one of the Greek paintings was offensive to Orthodox Christianity, the predominant religion in Greece, asserting that it insulted the Virgin Mary and Christ.The Culture Ministry responded that it acts “with the aim of protecting the country’s cultural and artistic heritage in general” and that it “never engages in acts of censorship”. After the attack, Papadopoulos’s lawyer has alleged that the politician was “unlawfully detained and, to heap insult on injury, that “they will take legal action against the National Gallery”!According to Papadopoulos: “I took down four icons, four blasphemous icons, and in two of those … the glass pane broke, nothing else”. He said works at the exhibition “insult the Virgin Mary, St George … the archangels that we in our homes were taught to worship and respect.” Angelos Papadimitriou, a member of the Board of Directors of the National Gallery who was an eyewitness …

Korean Singer Wheesung Dead at 43 

Korean Singer Wheesung Dead at 43 

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Popular K-pop singer and songwriter Choi Whee-sung, better known by his stage name Wheesung, was found dead in his home in Seoul, South Korea Monday night, according to local police.  The cause of death has not yet been determined. Seoul police said a substantial amount of time had passed before his body was discovered, and there were no signs of foul play at the scene.  The artist’s agency, Tajoy Entertainment, issued a statement Monday night saying, “The artist Wheesung has left us. He was found in cardiac arrest at his residence and was later pronounced dead.” The company said that its fellow artists and staff were “in deep sorrow.” Known for his powerful vocals and emotional ballads, Wheesung debuted in 2002 with the hit r&b album Like a Movie. His fame rose over the years that followed as he worked across genres, blending r&b, pop and hip-hop. But his career took a devastating hit in 2021 when he was convicted of regular, unprescribed use of the powerful anesthetic propofol. He received a one-year prison sentence, …

LMI International Analyzes Another Painting to Backup Van Gogh Claims

LMI International Analyzes Another Painting to Backup Van Gogh Claims

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New York-based art research firm LMI International has come out fighting following backlash it faced last month after claiming a painting titled Elimar bought at a Minnesota garage sale for $50 was a long-lost work by Vincent van Gogh. After spending $30,000 on high-tech analysis, the company dated it to 1889 and said it’s worth $15 million. However, several van Gogh specialists have argued that the work was painted by a little-known 20th-century Danish artist called Henning Elimar, who died in 1989. They include Wouter van der Veen, a scholar specializing in the Dutch Post-Impressionist art who previously worked for Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum. He said the text “Elimar” in the bottom right-hand corner of Elimar is not its title (as LMI believes) but the artist’s signature. But LMI has now doubled down, by buying and analyzing what it claims is one of only two surviving works by the late Danish artist, titled Bridge and Stream, in a bid to prove he did not also paint Elimar. “Throughout the years-long research process of studying the …

Vice and ITV Ink Distribution Deal as Freddie Flintoff Makes TV Return

Vice and ITV Ink Distribution Deal as Freddie Flintoff Makes TV Return

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Vice Studios, the studio arm of the Vice Media portfolio business, has selected ITV Studios as its exclusive global distribution partner. The deal, confirmed during a session at the London TV Screenings on Wednesday, will see ITV Studios add nearly 2,000 hours of VICE content to its catalog, as well as represent future projects in the VICE Studios’ pipeline. It means ITV Studios adds a large catalog of popular scripted and non-scripted content, including docu-style investigative shows, to its portfolio alongside established drama, natural history and true crime television. VICE content includes the Dark Side of the Ring franchise, United Gangs of America and Vice on HBO. The partnership will also spotlight future VICE Studios-produced content, including new scripted series from VICE’s U.K. production hub — producer of Sky’s popular Gangs of London series. ITV Studios’ recently launched label Zoo 55 will exploit VICE’s catalog and brands in the digital space and FAST channels across social media, as well as connected TV platforms, the companies added. Previously announced shows from ITV this year include the …

The 2025 International Booker Prizes Nominations Announced

The 2025 International Booker Prizes Nominations Announced

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This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. The 2025 International Booker Prizes Nominations Announced This is the most prestigious prize for literature translated into English, and an out-and-out goldmine for book lovers like me who spend most of their time traipsing Anglophonia. Of these, I have only heard of Solenoid. I like to pick a few of these to try (or at least pick up and look at and think about trying). Early contenders for me: Reservoir Bitches, Under the Eye of the Big Bird, and There’s a Monster Behind the Door. Wonder Boys at 30 A very warm appreciation of both the movie and film of Michael Chabon’s Wonder Boys, from a literary citizen of Pittsburgh itself. I agree with Simon that both incarnations of Wonder Boys are underappreciated and have a lot to offer readers and writers alike. This is pre-Iron Man Downey …

Isabella Rossellini Narrates Doc ‘Unanimal’ on Animals (Film Trailer)

Isabella Rossellini Narrates Doc ‘Unanimal’ on Animals (Film Trailer)

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“Imagine that you are a jellyfish,” says the voice of Oscar nominee Isabella Rossellini at the start of a trailer for Unanimal, a new documentary by directors Tuva Björk and Sally Jacobson, which The Hollywood Reporter can exclusively reveal. In the movie, Rossellini’s voice leads viewers through “a self-reflecting journey into the complex relationship between humans and other animals.” The film will world premiere in the Next:Wave Competition lineup of CPH:DOX, the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival. With humor and curiosity, the doc looks to “uncover animals’ astounding adaptations to our urban, modern lives” and invite the audience to think about “our shared presence in a world dominated by man,” according to a synopsis. It moves “from the living conditions of inner city rats and pigeons to absurd spectacles by which we are surrounded under hypercapitalism: three goldfish being sold for the price of one, monkeys negotiating a deal on coca cola with the zookeepers and horses being transported across the globe on jumbo jets.” One key question explored is what we can learn about …

International Investigations into Psychic Claims

International Investigations into Psychic Claims

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In the Spring 1978 issue of Skeptical Inquirer, James Randi wrote a Special Report, “Tests and Investigations of Three ‘Psychics.’” And here we are, nearly half a century later, with zero evidence of any psychic powers. Some might argue we have made little progress eroding the public’s trust in psychics, and certainly we have had little impact on their ability to make money. Yet we have no alternative; how much worse would it be if we didn’t try? In two separate talks, longtime paranormal investigators Chris French and Richard Saunders shared stories about their long history of investigating psychics.  Chris French: Testing Claims With his new book, The Science of Weird Shit, having just been published, it was wonderful to see Chris French at CSICon 2024. His presentation was a series of stories in his long history of investigating the paranormal. My favorite story involved the testing of Derek Ogilvie, the mind reader for babies (I kid you not). For the investigation, Ogilvie was presented with six youngsters under thirty months old (with an adult …

Disney Sets Cast for Show on Killing of Jean Charles de Menezes

Disney Sets Cast for Show on Killing of Jean Charles de Menezes

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Conleth Hill (Game of Thrones), Russell Tovey (Years and Years) and Emily Mortimer (Paddington in Peru) have joined the cast of Disney+ four-part U.K. drama Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. Written and executive produced by Jeff Pope (Philomena, Stan and Ollie), the series is produced by Etta Pictures, Pope’s production label, which is part of ITV Studios, in association with Kwadjo Dajan’s KDJ Productions. Jean Charles de Menezes’ parents and other relatives are serving as consultants for the series. The show focuses on the events surrounding the tragic killing of innocent Brazilian de Menezes after he was mistaken for a terrorist by London police in 2005. Told from multiple perspectives of those involved, it examines how memory — both accurate and distorted — can be turned into fact and shape our understanding of the truth. Newcomer Edison Alcaide plays Jean Charles de Menezes. Hill is Sir Ian Blair, the then-Metropolitan Police Commissioner. Russell Tovey plays one of Blair’s deputy assistant commissioners, Brian Paddick, alongside Max Beesley portraying assistant commissioner Andy Hayman, leading …

Stigmata of Disbelief – Atheist Alliance International

Stigmata of Disbelief – Atheist Alliance International

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Humanists International’s worldwide survey of discrimination and persecution the Freedom of Thought Report, continuously ranks Turkey as having “systemic discrimination” where disbelief often leads to cultural alienation. In time, situations of discrimination that create and maintain atmospheres of cultural ills for freedom of belief and expression, lead to individual and cultural harm. Stigmatization of disbelief is not solely an escalating Turkish issue. According to the American Atheists and the Freedom of Thought surveys from the 2020s, the hegemonic culture in the United States demonizes disbelief. The right to have or not to have a religion is a basic human right. Ensuring disbelievers have the same and equal rights with all the citizens of the world – with or without a particular religious inclination – would require globalized legal and cultural structures. Accepting and respecting all beliefs, including non-belief, is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Disbelief, i.e. atheist and  non-religious inclination, is targeted for persecution in various nations, the most severe cases involving the death penalty. Discrimination in general is an issue of …