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Disney’s “Strange World,” an animated adventure about a family of legendary explorers, is having trouble discovering a great deal of treasure. The well-reviewed film grossed a disappointing $800,000 in Tuesday previews, which likely means that initial estimates that “Strange World” would pull in between $30 million to $40 million over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday may prove to be overly optimistic. That all comes with important caveats. Animated fare doesn’t usually do explosive business in previews, with families usually seeking out earlier showings. That said, “Strange World’s” Tuesday preview number is less than the $1.5 million that Disney’s “Encanto” generated in...

BROOK PARK, Ohio – An East Cleveland woman, 36, was arrested, then released, at about 1 p.m. Nov. 15 after she threatened to kill the owner of Direct Detail on West 137th Street. The woman had taken her car to Direct Detail for repairs and was unhappy with the result. The business owner said he didn’t allow the woman to enter the building because, while standing in the doorway, she threatened to grab her gun and shoot him in the head. The woman also threatened to damage vehicles parked on the property. Two Direct Detail employees corroborated the manager’s story....

During a Twitter DM interview by Kelsey Piper of Vox with FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried last week, something remarkable happened.Bankman-Fried ditched his annoyingly sanctimonious "monk-like" mask and revealed his true self: a greedy cynic who is laughing at the world, including the gullible media, for believing his phony "effective altruism" shtick as you can see in the section of the interview below.

Massive 'national crusade' mobilisation could happen as soon as New Year 'He will most certainly leave before 2024' if not the New Year Rumours suggest Sergei Kiriyenko, 60, his authoritarian deputy chief of staff and an ex-PM, could replace Putin, while others focus on Dmitry Patrushev, agriculture minister, and son of the president's hardline chief security apparatchik Nikolay Patrushev, who would be power behind the new ruler. Speculation is swirling in Russia that Vladimir Putin will soon demand a massive new mobilisation drive in a desperate effort to halt calamitous defeats to Ukraine. It's also been predicted that such a...

Congress can end the war in Ukraine and win a Nobel Peace Prize by enacting a statute withdrawing the United States from NATO — transforming it from a mighty offensive oak into a tiny acorn unalarming to Russia. As early as 1798, Congress nullified a defense treaty with France by statute. A congressional end to United States participation in NATO would be no constitutional novelty. At the very latest, NATO became obsolete in 1991 when its raison d’etre — the Soviet Empire — dissolved. By remaining in NATO and spearheading its expansion to Russia’s borders with 30 members, the United...

CNN — The results of this month’s election point toward a 2024 presidential contest that will likely be decided by a tiny sliver of voters in a rapidly shrinking list of swing states realistically within reach for either party. With only a few exceptions, this year’s results showed each side further consolidating its hold over the states that already lean in its direction. And in 2024 that will likely leave control of the White House in the hands of a very small number of states that are themselves divided almost exactly in half between the parties – a list that...

The war in Ukraine is nine months old. It broke out in a world dominated by a self-assured West, led by a bruised but confident USA. That world no longer exists. What has emerged is a sea change in global political power, alongside a slow-motion economic disaster which is still rippling through the West like an earthquake. Where once there was certainty, now there is doubt. Former allies and satellites such as Saudi Arabia and Argentina are realigning with the Chinese/Russian bloc known as BRICS, which is expanding beyond its founder members of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa...

A Monterey Bay whale-watching company has documented the first-ever newborn humpback calf found off the Monterey coast. Monterey Bay Whale Watch Company was hosting a whale-watching tour on Nov. 4 when they noticed something unusual in the water. A drone flight by Evan Brodsky, the crew's resident cinematographer, captured the moment: A newborn humpback whale calf alongside its mother, something that had never been documented in Monterey Bay. University of California, Santa Cruz professor Ari Friedlaender has been studying the underwater behavior of marine mammals for more than 25 years and he said that the sighting of this calf is...

Roughly a quarter of Americans believe President Joe Biden should run for office again in 2024, a Politico survey released this week found. The survey asked respondents, “Do you believe Joe Biden should run for president in the 2024 election?” Overall, just over a quarter, 28 percent, said he should run for office, and of those, only 15 percent said he “definitely” should do so. Most, 65 percent, do not believe he should run, and of those, 46 percent said he “definitely” should not. Further, the survey found 56 percent disapproving of the president. He failed to garner positive approval...

California state parks have announced prescribed burns for Wilder Ranch State Park starting Nov.25 through Sunday, Dec. 3, depending on conditions. Some trails will be closed temporarily for public safety, including portions of the Eucalyptus Loop, Old Cabin and Long Meadow Trail. According to park officials, the burn will be for vegetation management, hazardous fuel load reduction, wildlife habitat improvement and other ecological benefits. Officials say the prescribed burn will enhance the health of the forest by removing duff, leaf litter and fuel buildup and restore essential nutrients to the soil and reduce the chance of wildfires. The burns will...

November 21, 2022 Share Email 592205.jpg Credit: U.S. Military One of the keys to bringing home unidentified military remains, including POW/MIAs and the more than 81,500 soldiers unaccounted for in conflicts dating back to World War II, is using science to determine where home might be. University of Utah scientists are engaged in an effort, in support of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, to develop methods that can trace the geographic origin of remains, particularly teeth. Why teeth? Because everyone’s body, including their teeth, contains a record of where they’ve lived and traveled in the form of various stable isotopes...

Punk rock midwife Danny Fields tells Page Six that he now spends much of his time setting Iggy Pop straight on what happened in his own life. Fields was at the center of the nascent punk rock scene and variously signed, managed or acted as a publicist for key acts including Iggy and the Stooges, the MC5, the Ramones and others. SNIP “It’s like, ‘Iggy, come here, I have to talk to you. That story you’ve telling when people ask you how you met David Bowie — Iggy, that’s not what happened,” Fields said. He added, “‘Listen, what happened was...

Beijing's bandwidth to deliver is shrinking as its economic performance wanesIn Xi Jinping's official encounters with Western leaders at the Group of 20 Summit last week in Bali, the Chinese leader was accommodating, even collaborative. This made for a stark contrast with his rigid appearance last month at the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan before that. Indeed, Xi's swirling agenda of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the G-20 could be seen as a charm offensive to shift from confrontation with the West to what might be...

The first thing you notice about America’s 42nd president when he walks out on stage is how much skinnier he is today than he was 30 years ago, when he staged a shocking upset of a sitting president who only a year earlier had a 90 per cent approval rating. Bill Clinton doesn’t really walk out on stage. He sort of ambles out slowly with a huge grin on his face, surveying the audience. On this day, it immediately offers a standing ovation even before he enters from the wings. And why not? Toronto has always loved Clinton, as evidenced...

Nine months after invading Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is beginning to fracture the West. Top European officials are furious with Joe Biden’s administration and now accuse the Americans of making a fortune from the war, while EU countries suffer. “The fact is, if you look at it soberly, the country that is most profiting from this war is the U.S. because they are selling more gas and at higher prices, and because they are selling more weapons,” one senior official told POLITICO. The explosive comments — backed in public and private by officials, diplomats and ministers elsewhere — follow mounting anger...

Assurances to China contrast with call for Russian regime changeThe new export curbs U.S. President Joe Biden recently imposed on the Chinese chip industry to help slow Beijing's technological and military advances have obscured his administration's relatively conciliatory stance since taking office. Even the export curbs have been undercut by exemptions granted to major Taiwanese and South Korean companies for their chipmaking facilities in China. Chinese President Xi Jinping, meanwhile, wants Biden to live up to "Five Nos" which Beijing claims the U.S. president has committed to: No to changing China's authoritarian system; no to containing China; no to seeking...

Last year, my aunt-in-law passed away after a long battle with cancer. She had 4 relatively old (13-15 y/o) cats at the time, and unfortunately she did not have a will. She was renting at the time from friends who are now being forced to sell the house, and she had no other living family. The cats are all relatively healthy: they're all spayed/neutered, they're not declawed, and are very well socialized indoor cats. Since the house is nearby, my wife and I have been taking care of the cats: feeding, changing litter, etc (we can't bring them to our...

A U.S. official currently in Syria is calling for an “immediate de-escalation” following days of deadly airstrikes and shelling along the Syria-Turkey border A U.S. official in Syria on Friday called for an “immediate de-escalation” following days of deadly airstrikes and shelling along the Syria-Turkey border, saying the actions destabilize the region and undermine the fight against the Islamic State group. Turkey this week launched a wave of airstrikes on suspected Kurdish rebels hiding in neighboring Syria and Iraq, in retaliation for a deadly Nov. 13 bombing in Istanbul that Ankara blames on the Kurdish groups. The groups have denied...

Stepping into the world of ultra-luxury feels like entering a new realm, just like how going through the Stargate leads you to a whole new place. It's not too far of a stretch, then, to associate Qatar's newest hotel, Raffles Doha, with the military sci-fi series, especially with its unique architectural aesthetic. The country's only all-suite hotel, after all, sports an arc design that resembles the iconic ring-shaped portal, as seen from the comparison above. It's probably all just sheer coincidence, but hey, part of the fun is to find links to existing elements of geek culture. Plus, it does...

There is significant concern that Turkey’s planned ground invasion into Syria to root out the U.S.-allied Kurds could open the floodgates for the release of thousands of imprisoned Islamic State terrorists. Syrian Kurdish forces have incarcerated thousands of ISIS terrorists from more than 50 countries in prisons in northeastern Syrian. Brigadier Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon’s press secretary, said Wednesday, "Recent air strikes in Syria directly threatened the safety of U.S. personnel who are working in Syria with local partners to defeat ISIS and maintain custody of more than 10,000 ISIS detainees." Turkey recently launched air strikes targeting the Syrian...