A Russian-flagged crude oil tanker targeted by US sanctions is heading to Malaysia, shipping data showed on Monday, amid growing international scrutiny on businesses linked to Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine.
The Linda, named in a US Treasury document detailing sanctions against Russia, was in the Indian Ocean and was expected to arrive at Sungai Linggi port in Malacca on Sunday, according to data from ship tracking website MarineTraffic…
Which law enforcement agency was doing the most to tackle the threat of Chinese money laundering? Who was the best person to talk to at that agency? Which prosecutors had brought the best cases? Who had done the most robust research on the volume of Chinese-owned money in the UK, and what assets did that money tend to buy? Which politicians were most alert to the question, and how did they organise themselves?
When I do research in the United States, I am consistently amazed by the willingness of officials to sit down with me, trust me and talk through their work and share access to documents. American journalists complain about their working conditions, just like everyone does everywhere, but for me doing research into financial crime in the US is as heady an experience as letting a child loose in a Lego shop. Andrew, however, was discovering that the pleasant surprise sadly does not work in the opposite direction. I think he had been hoping that I would share a few contacts and it’s possible that he had been concerned I would refuse to open my address book to him, but it seemed not to have occurred to him that I would have no address book to open; that essentially the people he was looking for would not exist.
There was no concerted law enforcement effort against Chinese money laundering, I told him, so there was no investigator who could talk to him about it. There have been essentially no prosecutions so none for him to look into, and there is almost no research into where the money has been going, how it’s been getting there, or indeed how much of it there is.
But where was the equivalent of the FBI’s International Corruption Squad? Who was doing the work of the Kleptocracy Team at the Department of Justice? What about Homeland Security Investigations; did Britain have something like them? Were prosecutors building cases, in a British version of the Southern District of New York? Was bringing down a big Chinese money-laundering ring the kind of case that would make someone’s career? Which parliamentary commissions were probing this? Surely, someone was?
As he talked, I began to see the situation through his eyes, which gave me a perspective I’d never had before. The problem was that he could keep trying different passwords until the rocks rotted away, but it wouldn’t help: there was no cave of treasures for him to open. If he wanted to find out how much Chinese money was entering the UK, who was moving it and what it was buying, he was going to have to start from scratch and do all the work himself. Andrew had come to London to discover how Britain was fighting illicit finance, but he was discovering that this was not happening at all. Quite the reverse, in fact.
It is of course not just Britain which helps kleptocrats and criminals to launder money. The shadow financial system used by Chinese criminals is transnational by its nature. It transcends any one jurisdiction, and derives its power and resilience from the fact it does not rely on any one place: if one jurisdiction becomes hostile, money effortlessly relocates to somewhere that isn’t. And the system grows all the time, as lawyers, accountants and others persuade politicians to give them access to the kind of fees they can generate by moving money around. You can find it as much in Dubai, Sydney, Lichtenstein and Curaçao, as you can in Switzerland or New York. But you find it most of all in London.
In a court filing, MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki claimed that whistleblower Lalitha Kunaratnam could not be regarded as an investigative reporter because she lacked credibility and was untrustworthy.
He made the allegation in his reply to her statement of defence against his defamation suit with regard to her articles on his share ownership in public-listed companies.
Azam (above) is suing Lalitha over…
Harry Potter is one of the film sagas most valued by fans and has been growing since the release of The Philosopher’s Stone, the first movie released and based on the books by J. K. Rowling.
For the 20th anniversary, the production has decided to celebrate this date with a competition that will test the knowledge of the fans.
In Episode 1, the two Houses that fought were Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Three rounds of trivia were played, generated from a video board that featured clips from the movies, quotes, parts of the books, and other media that are part of the fan franchise.
Even some Harry Potter celebrities asked questions.
The rounds have a variety of unexpected elements that create exciting challenges for even the most knowledgeable Harry Potter players.
Every winning house will advance to the final.
The losing house will go to a wild card round. That means that, wherever the fans qualify, they can compete for the prize.
Recall that the competition involves four groups of fans within the four well-known Hogwarts houses: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff.
The battle for the House Cup Championship will begin on November 28, 2021 at 8 P.M/E.T. The first episode of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses will air on both TBS and Cartoon Network as part of its ACME Night.
New episodes of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses will air weekly on Sundays at 8 P.M/E.T. Here is a schedule for the pilot season of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses.
The latest doomsday film is set to be filled with action and adventure as two astronauts and a conspiracy theorist work together to attempt to avert the Moon crashing into Earth. Shot in Montreal, the film is one of the most expensive independently-produced films of all time and it will be released in early February. Here’s what we know so far about ‘Moonfall’.
A year after filming concluded, ‘Moonfall’ will be released on February 4, 2022.
Production was set to begin in March 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic delayed filming and, subsequently the release date by seven months.
A trailer was released by Lionsgate, who are responsible for the film’s distribution, in September 2021. This was followed by a longer action-packed teaser trailer in November 2021, which can be viewed below.
It opens with a narration from an old man remembering the first moon landing in 1969. He claims that Apollo 11 lost contact with the Earth, and that the expedition is not real. The man thinks there is a lot more to discover about the Moon and ends with a message stating that this will be the Earth’s sixth extinction.
The cast for ‘Moonfall’ is very impressive, with Halle Berry starring in the film as NASA executive Jo Fowler. Patrick Wilson appears as Brian Harper, a former NASA astronaut whose last mission didn’t end well.
Here are the main characters:
In ‘Moonfall’, a mysterious force knocks the Moon from its orbit around Earth and sends it on a collision course with life as we know it.
With just weeks before the impact and the world on the brink of annihilation, NASA executive and former astronaut Jo Fowler is convinced she knows how to save the planet. But, only an astronaut from her past, Brian Harper, and a conspiracy theorist, K.C. Houseman, believe her.
These unlikely heroes will mount an impossible last-ditch mission into space, leaving behind everyone they love, only to find that they may have prepared for the wrong mission.
An incredibly unbiased take of the state furthest from my own.
For February Break, I was fortunate enough to accept an opportunity to visit Los Angeles. I had not been since I was around ten-years-old, having spent time with extended family in Long Beach. I’ve seen photos of myself in Disneyland and Legoland (with much longer hair and questionable fashionable choices) but have very vague memories of the Golden State.
My girlfriend, Julia, and I weighed our costs and benefits of missing three more days of school following the break and ultimately elected to take a true vacation (with a little business at the end…). After flying coast-to-coast Saturday night, we took a Lyft for about an hour from the Los Angeles International Airport to Universal City. As folks who grew up entirely in New York, the first thing we noticed was how flat Los Angeles was. Skyscrapers are staples of our eastern cities: looking up in New York we see our Empire State Building, our Freedom Tower and hundreds of storied buildings.
In Los Angeles, you look up and become blinded by the sun (I also forgot to bring sunglasses and was forced to buy some overpriced ones at the hotel, so maybe that one is on me). I might also have made a wisecrack joke at 1 a.m. (still mentally 4 a.m. Eastern Standard Time) about how those earthquakes must really be something if the Californians are so afraid to climb to the heavens. Our driver countered with the story of watching the floor shake after their 2019 quake. I backed off from the natural disaster gags from then on.
We spent our first day at the Griffith Observatory, hiking, learning about space and waiting for the fabled sunset over the Hollywood Sign. If Ithaca is gorges, then Los Angeles is hilly. We walked for miles across the dusted paths to different peaks and valleys, looking at lovely vistas across the city. Julia tolerated my obsession with Space for the hours we spent in the observatory, and eventually, we watched the Griffith sunset.
After reminiscing on our Slope sunsets, we ended the day with the most iconic meal for $10 in California: In-n-Out Burger. I watched Julia order like a pro with all the animal-style, protein-style type of gibberish before I ordered my shake, and we debated the age-old question: In-n-Out vs. Shake Shack. I must admit upfront, I order my burgers and shakes very plainly; I enjoy a plain burger with salty fries to dip in my chocolate shake. Julia contended that when ordering the “proper way,” In-n-Out beats Shake Shack. On the plain battleground, however, Shake Shack won out. I still hold that Shake Shack remains the king of the high-end fast-food clash. Lyfting home, we finished our first day with a nice tan, full stomachs and a nice hotel room overlooking the smokestacks of the building.
For day two, we walked to Universal Studios and bought the fast passes with aims to complete the whole park in the singular day we allocated. From the “Kung Fu Panda” attraction to the “Jurassic Park” one, we rode each ride and had enough time to go on the Studio Tour as well. Between fried chicken in The Simpsons’ Springfield and butterbeer in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, we indulged in the specialties offered before settling down for a nice dinner on Universal’s City Walk. We went to bed again with more burns than tan, still full stomachs, and our glorious smokestack view.
On our last day before the business portion of the trip, we journeyed out to Santa Monica to visit the pier. Julia and I both come from Italian grandmothers who are insistent on the proper way to cook calamari, chicken parm, etc. But that calamari on the pier? Absolutely delicious. We then looked at the Pacific Ocean from a hot and shifty beach to which my East Coast preferences started to make their return. I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed cold snow hitting my skin until I laid in hot, blistering sand for a long period of time. We concluded our beach trip with ice-cold custards from the famous PierBurger and headed back to the new hotel with the usual: burns and tans, a full stomach but a new view of a parking lot.
While I’m certain everyone will be reading about the business portion of our trip in the next couple of weeks, I truly enjoyed my time in Los Angeles for the past week. This piece may have felt more like a blog post than an opinion piece, but I have three firm opinions combined with one free piece of advice. Firstly, California is worth the trip. East Coast bias most certainly remains in my veins, but visiting the sunnier side of our great nation is worth the seven-hour flight. Secondly, New York (plain) burgers, fries and shakes beat out California ones — I’m ready to die on that hill. Thirdly — and also my free piece of advice —you should take a trip with your best friend, that special someone if you can. Traveling across the country and living school-free for even a week with Julia has been one of the best times of my life. I encourage all of you to take a vacation with that amazing person, if you can, before the real world starts post-Cornell.
Patrick J. Mehler ‘23 (he/him) is a junior in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He can be reached at [email protected] The Mehl-Man Delivers runs every other Tuesday this semester.
Richard Linklater is the acclaimed director of films like Boyhood, Slacker, SubUrbia, and the Before trilogy. He seems like an unlikely choice to helm a goofy movie about a pre-teen boy who inadvertently becomes an astronaut, but that’s only one of the mysteries raised by this strange first trailer for Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood.
There’s a lot to take in here, but let’s start with the ludicrous premise that NASA has accidentally built the lunar model smaller than they intended. It’s so flawlessly ‘80s—Apollo 10 1/2 could be the perfect companion piece to the 1986 movie Space Camp, in which a well-meaning robot launches a shuttle full of kids into space—except Apollo 10 1/2 is clearly set in the ‘60s. My next big question is, why has Linklater decided to use the same rotoscopic animation as he did in his 2006 movie, A Scanner Darkly? There, the uncanniness of the visuals arguably matched the sci-fi dystopian story, but for a movie about a bunch of families leading an idyllic life in ‘60s suburbia, it’s quite off-putting to see.
Also, maybe the kid doesn’t even go into space? Here’s the official synopsis:
“Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood tells the story of the first moon landing in the summer of 1969 from two interwoven perspectives – the astronaut and mission control view of the triumphant moment, and through the eyes of a kid growing up in Houston, Texas who has intergalactic dreams of his own. Taking inspiration from Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Richard Linklater’s own life, Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood is a snapshot of American life in the 1960s that is part coming of age, part societal commentary, and part out-of-this-world adventure.”
Starring Milo Coy, Lee Eddy, Bill Wise, Natalie L’Amoreaux, Zachary Levi, and Jack Black, Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood will (blast off and then) land on Netflix on April 1. Hopefully, it’ll earn a prequel about the NASA workers who assemble the module and slowly realize with growing horror and nausea, something has gone terribly, terribly wrong.
Wondering where our RSS feed went? You can pick the new one up here.
Have a sweepy, moppy friend
The Eufy RoboVac G30 Hybrid is a great, and cheap, robot vacuum that quietly goes about its business, supports Google Assistant and Alexa, and has limited mapping functionality.
Dirty lockers with chipped paint have become a canvas for Fairmont High School’s art students. The hallways are lined with brightly painted lockers that showcase the students’ and teachers’ favorite books, movies, and music albums.
In 2020, before COVID-19 made schools move to virtual learning, Fairmont High School art teacher Steven Taylor asked students in his Advanced Placement class to brainstorm an idea for the lockers.
He started with the question: “Well, what does it look like?”
This led students to the concept of a bookshelf. The bottom shelves act as traditional reference books, while the top shelves come alive with colorful book spines. Featured texts include classics like “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Charlotte’s Web,” but also more recent favorites like “Harry Potter” and “The Hunger Games.“
After virtual learning left students feeling disconnected, this art project and others like it have provided an opportunity for self-expression and connection.
Taylor said not only has the project allowed students to be creative, but it has also stirred up conversations.
“Some of them said, ‘What’s this book about?’ or ‘What is this like?’” he said. “We tried to cross that gap between stuff I thought was important and stuff they would think is important.”
From there, Taylor and his students were inspired to do more on their corner of campus.
The previous art teacher at the school drew several large squares on a wall in the classroom. After completing their first set of lockers, Taylor and his students began to brainstorm how these squares could be transformed into an art project. They decided on a “character select” look, similar to what is seen in video games like Mario Kart.
Taylor said choosing this subject led to an art lesson he never anticipated.
“We started doing anime and cartoon characters. You have to learn Van Gogh, you have to learn from the past, but the art these kids see today is that and they all want to draw that,” Taylor said.
Exploring different kinds of art allowed the students at Fairmont High School to have a sense of solidarity with their school.
Because of COVID-19, several of the seniors in his classes didn’t get to finish their projects, so they returned to the school over the summer to complete their pieces.
“The seniors that were in the middle of squares and doing other things actually came back. I had two or three that came back during summer school,” Taylor said. “They were graduating and going into college, but they felt strongly about finishing.”
Others called back and asked how the project was going, if squares and lockers were completed, and asked what books and characters were being added to the project. For Taylor, this made it all worthwhile.
“So it’s just like a big interesting school beautification thing, and then I try to synergize that with all my classes. It started off with something very little, and now it’s gotten really big,” Taylor said.
Taylor’s class isn’t alone in its endeavor to beautify the school. Krista Rachels joined the Fairmont High School faculty in 2019 when it absorbed South Robeson High School.
Rachels saw the impact of these large projects and began to incorporate them into her classroom. She recently joined up with the theater teacher to create lockers designed to look like playbills.
Rachels said these projects allow students to feel connected to Fairmont High School, something she said is especially important since the school absorption and the start of the pandemic.
“We have seen so many social and emotional changes with these students,” Rachels said.
When the schools merged, Rachel said there was tension between students from the different schools. She thinks that being able to come and be a part of an art program like this has allowed some of that tension to dissipate.
Taylor and Rachels’ art classes contribute all across campus. Rachels’ class paints the football field, while students in Taylor’s class design posters for clubs and athletic teams. Art students at Fairmont High School have also painted murals in other teachers’ classrooms when asked.
The art teachers say students from each grade find ownership and a sense of pride in their school and artwork. Now, these projects have turned into something teachers and students across campus look forward to seeing progress on and are excited to incorporate into their classrooms.
“My favorite thing about the art projects that we’ve done here is the expression that we’re able to show,” said Fairmont High School senior Katlyn Tyler. “Every student has a different art style and characters that they love. They are able to show things that they enjoy and I think that’s something that’s really unique here.”
For Taylor, these huge projects are a way to spotlight some of the more shy students in his classes.
“One of my goals is to give kids a platform,” Taylor said. “So it’s that kind of vehicle for them to be seen and also to find a safe space to do that.”
Cheyenne McNeill is a regional reporter for EdNC.
You’d be forgiven for assuming that a movie co-starring Daisy Edgar-Jones (the star of the sex-scene heavy “Normal People”) and Sebastian Stan (a man who doesn’t own a shirt) would be a hot-blooded romance.
But “Fresh,” which premiered in the “Midnight” section of the Sundance Film Festival Thursday and hits Hulu March 4, will more likely make you hurl than send you racing for a cold shower.
The title doesn’t describe the movie very well. “Fresh” is a familiar and somewhat successful horror film in the socially conscious mold of “Get Out.”
There are shocks and suspense. When the twist — which will not be revealed here — arrived, I let out a loud expletive. That’s the most thrilling (and disgusting) moment of the director Mimi Cave’s movie. A couple scenes after made me almost lose my lunch. And then the next hour comes off like a cool-down exercise.
Noah (Edgar-Jones) is a typical twenty-something who hates modern dating, and the way carefully crafted Tinder profiles can obscure that somebody is actually a jackass or a perv. So, imagine her happy surprise when an attractive man named Steve (Stan) chats her up in the supermarket produce aisle. Soon they’re on a date at a restaurant and making small talk.
“Where are you from?,” he asks.
“The East Coast,” she replies.
There are many such annoyingly vague exchanges in Lauryn Kahn’s script. Noah is cagey, fine, but it is wholly unbelievable that Steve wouldn’t ask a follow-up question — “Wherein?” — considering that the East Coast includes both Savannah and Manhattan.
She also says she has no siblings, her dad is dead and she doesn’t know where her mom is. After only two dates, Steve wants to take this totally unattached woman on a weekend trip to a surprise location. There are more red flags here than the Soviet Union.
The pair hops in the car, and in the case of Noah, would be better off driving over a cliff.
Her experience is excruciating, and I suspect that some viewers — lured in by an outwardly appealing horror flick on Hulu — will turn it off once they discover what this freak is really up to.
The movie shares a director of photography, Pawel Pogorzelski, with “Hereditary” and “Midsommar.” His sense of style and foreboding color palate is here, only put to use in a much less artful film.
Edgar-Jones, I’m happy to report, is just as vulnerable and witty when handed a campy thriller with sub-par writing as she is on the sublime miniseries “Normal People,” which netted her a Golden Globe nomination in 2021. Even at her worst-off, we believe she’s capable of changing her situation. And Stan gets to give his charm a demented spin that harks back to Christian Bale in “American Psycho.” Only much yuckier.
However, as nauseating as it is, “Fresh” is very well-worn. If you’ve seen “Get Out” and “Promising Young Woman,” which this is basically a mashup of, “Fresh” will leave you craving something meatier.
Patrick Wilson in Moonfall Centropolis / R.Bajo
All I wanted was to not be bludgeoned over the head with subtext. If I have to sit through one more not-so-subtle reframing of climate change or the pandemic as a different kind of disaster, I think I would scream. My neighbours can thank Roland Emmerich, then, for the relative peace while I watched Moonfall, give or take the bombastic sci-fi sound effects and occasional bursts of laughter.
Moonfall is vintage Emmerich, with notes of his 1996 film Independence Day, themes reminiscent of the 2014 film Interstellar and a few scenes that are very Star Wars. The famous Star Wars line “that’s no moon” would have fitted in perfectly. In fact, Moonfall is littered with references to science fiction both recent and classic.
John Bradley (Game of Thrones) has his star turn as K.C. Houseman, a conspiracy theorist-turned-hero who spots before anyone else that the moon seems to be falling towards Earth. Halle Berry and Patrick Wilson are also compelling as a NASA executive and a disgraced former astronaut, respectively. Donald Sutherland is fascinating and a little haunting as the keeper of NASA’s darkest secrets. If all these roles sound familiar to you, it is because this is classic sci-fi: every character is archetypical, and every sci-fi buzzword is present and accounted for.
That isn’t to say the film is predictable, and it certainly isn’t boring. It starts slow, but when it gets going it is packed with action, incredible special effects, spooky tentacles emerging from a lunar crater and the catchy line: “Save the moon, save Earth.” Somehow, despite the camp subject matter, the film succeeds in taking itself fairly seriously.
The science in Moonfall is largely plausible, although it is, of course, exaggerated for effect. It must be said, because this is a science publication, that the moon is in fact slowly receding from Earth and it would be nigh-on impossible to drag it closer. If it were coming closer at the rate portrayed in the film, Earth would almost certainly be destroyed – and most of what our heroes in the film attempt to do would be impossible for practical and geopolitical reasons. In fact, after the events of the movie the planet would almost certainly be uninhabitable.
There are a few irritations for those of us who follow real science. Some characters in the movie make arguments for space-related conspiracy theories that may at first glance seem almost convincing. But in real life, scientists are extraordinarily bad at keeping quiet about exciting discoveries. NASA is portrayed in an inexplicably negative light, while Elon Musk and his companies are mentioned with eye-rolling regularity to the point that it starts to feel like product placement.
But none of that matters when you are watching the moon rise over the horizon, so close to Earth that it is mowing down skyscrapers and dragging the sea into the sky. Thinking about plausibility feels like a waste of time when you could, instead, think about how the filmmakers animated some of the more impressive scenes.
Overall, Moonfall is good old-fashioned fun, an apocalypse movie that didn’t feel the need to remind us that we are living through apocalyptic times. If you have enjoyed any of the major space films of the past few decades and any of the Fast and the Furious movies, you will like it. The premise is pleasingly outlandish while mostly remaining believable, as is the plot. It has moments of humour, stretches of gripping action, gorgeous views and plenty of heart. I highly recommend it.
