Vicky Bowman was taken into custody along with her husband, Myanmar national Htein Lin, on Wednesday night, according to local media outlets and a person in Yangon with knowledge of the situation.
Myanmar’s military government has not announced the detentions. However, local news outlets The Irrawaddy and Myanmar Now and the international news agency Reuters all reported Bowman could be charged under the country’s Immigration Act.
The Irrawaddy reported Bowman and Htein Lin are being held in Yangon’s Insein Prison.
A UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson said on Thursday the British government is “concerned” by the arrest of a “British woman” in Myanmar.
“We are in contact with the local authorities and are providing consular assistance,” the spokesperson said.
Bowman served as the UK’s top diplomat in Myanmar from 2002 to 2006 and has since remained in the country as the founder of the non-government organisation Myanmar Center for Responsible Business.
On Wednesday the UK announced a fresh round of sanctions targeting businesses linked to Myanmar’s junta, which took power in a bloody coup in February 2021.
On Thursday the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said the measures were being taken “to target the military’s access to arms and revenue.”
Among the firms on the sanctions list are the Star Sapphire Group of Companies, International Gateways Group of Companies and Sky One Construction Company.
The UK government highlighted that the sanctions were being taken exactly five years after a series of brutal attacks carried out by the Myanmar military on Rohingya communities living in the country’s Rakhine state.
The Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim group in Myanmar’s majority Buddhist state, have suffered decades of persecution.
The UK government also announced its intention to intervene in a legal case that will determine whether Myanmar breached its obligations under the United Nations’ Genocide Convention regarding the military’s acts against the Rohingya in 2016 and 2017.
“Our decision to intervene in The Gambia v. Myanmar case and a further round of sanctions sends a strong signal of our continued support to seek accountability for the atrocities in 2017 and also restrict the military junta’s access to finance and the supply of arms,” UK Minister for Asia Amanda Milling said.
Milling reiterated the UK’s condemnation of “the Myanmar Armed Forces’ horrific campaign of ethnic cleansing” five years on from the campaign’s launch.
Zoom Video Communications‘ (ZM 2.82%) growth rate hasn’t stabilized yet. The company, which saw its annual sales soar in earlier phases of the pandemic, recently announced surprisingly weak revenue trends heading into the second half of 2022.
Management said in a conference call with Wall Street pros following the release of its fiscal 2023 second-quarter earnings (for the quarter ending July 31) that Zoom is “not immune to the global downturn” that is pressuring its consumer-focused segment. Yet the company is doubling down on its enterprise division as the key growth avenue.
Let’s look at whether Zoom’s stock is still attractive, given the cloudy short-term outlook.
Sales trends are mixed
Zoom’s sales in Q2 rose 8% year over year to $1.1 billion, making it the company’s fifth straight quarter of booking over $1 billion in global revenue. For context, the tech specialist achieved just $600 million in sales over the entire 2020 fiscal year (which ended Jan. 31, 2020).
Still, the latest sales trends were a disappointment and were below management’s late-May forecast. Zoom saw more strength among large clients, but the pullback in the small-account segment surprised executives. The company blamed macroeconomic issues, including slowing economic growth in key markets around Europe.
“We recognize that the revenue results are disappointing,” chief financial officer Kelly Steckelberg told analysts. Zoom’s 27% boost in enterprise clients was dragged down by declining demand among smaller customers.
No need to panic
That enterprise success means Zoom is still likely to expand sales this fiscal year, even though revenue will now come in at about $4.4 billion, up 7%, compared to the $4.5 billion executives had predicted three months ago. Sales expanded 55% in the previous full fiscal year, and it’s impressive that the company can continue growing on top of that prior surge.
Zoom’s financial strength is another good reason to stick with the stock. The software-as-a-service approach is helping it generate plenty of cash. Operating profit margin is still solidly positive, too, even though it has declined in the past year.
Zoom is sitting on nearly $6 billion of cash today, which it can deploy toward innovations on its communication platform, marketing, or additional growth-focused acquisitions. Management signaled that it is focused on protecting earnings power today even as sales growth slows. It affirmed its full-year profitability outlook despite pressures like shifts in foreign exchange rates and slowing economic growth.
The rebound prospects
Zoom’s growth avenues seem more limited today. The company is projecting a decline of between 7% and 8% in its online business even as its enterprise segment expands by over 20%.
These metrics don’t change the broader bullish thesis that has Zoom growing toward $10 billion in annual sales over time as more business moves toward remote and hybrid work. It might be jarring for shareholders to see its fiscal 2023 outlook decline to below a 10% increase compared to over 50% last year.
But Zoom’s expansion strategy is working well on the enterprise side, and its finances give management lots of flexibility to attack the most attractive growth niches. The company’s strong cash flow could lay the groundwork for faster growth in the next several years.
The key factors influencing that expansion rate, besides macroeconomic trends, will be Zoom’s improvements to its platform and the new services it launches. The company needs steady success here if it hopes to return to its prior growth-stock status.
Chongqing reported 40 Covid-19 infections Wednesday, bringing the total to 146 cases since mid-August.
Authorities ordered more than 10 million people in the city’s central urban districts to undergo mandatory Covid tests on Wednesday, when the highest temperature in Chongqing soared past 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).
More than 3,800 temporary testing sites were set up across the central districts. Photos on Chinese social media show residents forming long lines at the sites, with some passing out in the intense heat.
One widely circulated video shows a street packed with hundreds of people apparently waiting in line for Covid tests, most wearing face masks and some fanning themselves to relieve the heat. In the background, plumes of smoke from wildfires rise above the pale-orange skyline.
“It’s 43 degrees, the people of Chongqing are already stretched to the limit,” a resident said on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform.
To ensure residents in the central districts comply with the testing mandate, authorities turned the health codes on everyone’s mobile phones to orange. The codes will turn green only after they complete the Covid tests.
A green code is a prerequisite for going about daily life in China, where freedom of movement is dictated by a color-code system imposed by the government to control the spread of the virus.
Residents who have not been tested will not be allowed to attend gatherings, meetings or business activities, nor can they enter crowded, enclosed public spaces, according to authorities.
Chongqing resident Zeng Meng, 42, said a message on his health code app told him to take a Covid test around midnight on Wednesday.
“Forcing more than 10 million people to do Covid tests in such high temperatures is deplorable,” he said. “This is neither scientific, reasonable, nor legal.”
Zeng said people started lining up for tests at his residential compound in the small hours of Wednesday, but he refused to take one. On Thursday, he was barred from entering a supermarket because of an orange code on his health app, he said.
“Excessive anti-Covid measures have caused us great inconvenience. Many of my friends resent being forced to do Covid tests,” he said.
Raging wildfires and power cuts
The testing came as thousands of emergency responders were battling to contain fast-spreading wildfires, which have swept forests and mountains around the city in recent days. The blazes are visible at night from parts of the downtown area.
On social media, residents in downtown Chongqing complained of smelling smoke inside their apartments, while others posted pictures of burning embers from the fires reaching their balconies.
Since August 18, wildfires have broken out in multiple outlying districts, local authorities said. The municipality is home to more than 32 million people.
The wildfires are another knock-on effect of a crippling heat wave — China’s worst since 1961 — that has swept through southwestern, central and eastern parts of the country in recent weeks, with temperatures crossing 40 degrees Celsius in more than 100 cities.
China’s heat wave has also brought surging demand for air-conditioning and reductions in hydropower capacity due to droughts that have hit the country’s commercially critical Yangtze River and connected waterways.
This week, Sichuan province, neighboring Chongqing, extended temporary power outages at factories in 19 of the region’s 21 cities. The power cuts will run until at least Thursday, in a move the local government said will ensure residential power supplies. Last week, the province’s capital Chengdu began dimming lights in subway stations to save electricity.
The power crunch has dealt a devastating blow to farmers, who have seen crops and livestock wither and die in scorched fields and sweltering sheds.
On Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, the owner of a chicken farm in Sichuan posted a video that shows piles of dead poultry lying on the ground.
“I watch them die,” the owner said through tears. “The temperature was so high yesterday, yet they cut off the power.”
On Tuesday, Chinese authorities including the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and Meteorological Administration jointly issued an emergency notice, requiring local authorities to reduce the impact of drought and high temperatures on the country’s autumn grain production.
Local authorities were told to “release early warning information, expand drought-resistant water sources, and guide the development of cloud seeding.”
The Meteorological Administration said Tuesday it had dispatched a high-performance aircraft to Chongqing to help conduct cloud seeding, according to state-run CCTV.
Weather authorities in Chongqing said the aircraft would coordinate with 107 anti-aircraft guns and 96 rockets on the ground to accurately create precipitation, CCTV reported.
Former HBO Max executives say the streaming service has been left with few people of color to oversee its diverse slate of programming as Warner Bros. Discovery continues its ongoing corporate reshuffling.
The platform reportedly laid off close to 70 people this month. That includes the entire teams overseeing unscripted, kids and family, and international content, according to two former HBO Max execs who asked not to be named.
Those three divisions, responsible for buying shows from production companies and creators and working closely with them during production, are now completely gone.
One former employee says as many as 13 people of color previously in charge of developing shows like The Gordita Chronicles and the Spanish-language docuseries Menudo: Forever Young have been let go, likely influencing the types of shows and movies that are greenlit moving forward. Among those laid off are Jen Kim, an Asian woman who served as the senior vice president of the international team, and Kaela Barnes, a Black woman who worked under Kim.
“I don’t think anyone knows just how white the staff is,” one former executive told The Daily Beast.
Former HBO Max staffers say there are barely any non-white people left in the upper ranks of content, with one naming Joey Chavez, an executive vice president of drama, as one of the few people of color still there. Because HBO Max and the original HBO channel operate somewhat independently, one former executive conceded that “there may be one Black woman on the HBO side. Maybe.”
The layoffs have “amplified the lack of diversity at HBO,” another former executive told The Daily Beast. “HBO is the most homogenous part of this umbrella. Instead of trying to figure out how to integrate some of the [Max] executives into HBO, they just made this sweeping cut of three divisions: kids, family, and international. A lot of Black and brown people lost their jobs.”
Ever since parent company Warner Bros. merged with Discovery earlier this year, employees at Warner have grappled with the changing values of the newly created company. Discovery CEO David Zaslav was charged with helping Warner crawl out of a $50 billion hole. He came in like a wrecking ball, tearing up CNN’s $300 million streaming service CNN+ and vowing to pull the Warner-owned news channel away from “advocacy” journalism.
More changes have come in the past couple of weeks.
Earlier this month, it was announced that Batgirl, the $90 million film planned for HBO Max starring Afro-Latina actress Leslie Grace, would be shelved completely in favor of a tax write-off. Over the weekend, CNN media correspondent and host Brian Stelter, a frequent target of right-wing criticism, was fired from the network.
Former Warner employees believe these changes are just as much about business as they are about reshaping the ideological perception of Warner properties. It all points to the same end, they say: A rejection of left-wing or highly diverse content in favor of more homogenous, Middle America-friendly fare. The lack of diversity in content staff might just make that goal easier.
“HBO is the most homogenous part of this umbrella. Instead of trying to figure out how to integrate some of the [Max] executives into HBO, they just made this sweeping cut of three divisions: kids, family, and international. A lot of Black and brown people lost their jobs.”
In a statement to The Daily Beast, HBO highlighted shows like Euphoria, Rap Sh!t, A Black Lady Sketch Show and Los Espookys, all of which are led by diverse characters.
“HBO and HBO Max have always shown a commitment to diverse programming and storytellers, and always will,” the company said.
An internal graphic comparing the audiences of Discovery+ and HBO Max showed a stark demographic difference between the two streamers. Where HBO Max is popular with diverse groups, single people, and drivers of hybrid cars, Discovery+ is popular with white, married people who drive SUVs, minivans, and “traveling buses.” HBO Max viewers are on TikTok and Instagram, while Discovery+ viewers use social media platforms Facebook and Twitter, with the added caveat, “if any.” HBO Max viewers have no kids. Discovery+ viewers are either “empty nesters” or have grandchildren. Discovery may be trying to pull HBO into its orbit as it focuses on what it does best.
HBO Max’s reality offerings presented an obvious sticking point for the new bosses. Where Discovery properties like TLC and HGTV send camera crews out to film what they can find, HBO Max’s offerings are more carefully crafted. They’re sometimes buoyed by stars like Selena Gomez or Steph Curry, who have the power to command big paychecks, and they’re noticeably sleeker, with smoother edits and more complicated camera set-ups adding to their budgets.
One former exec describes Discovery+ as a “more general audience platform that doesn’t have the specificity that HBO Max was tailored to. I think Discovery is just a very ‘all’ audience, [they] don’t wanna make things that are political, topical, alienate Middle America—more Chip and Joanna,” they said, referring to the home renovation show Fixer Upper: Welcome Home hosted by Chip and Joanna Gaines.
“If David Zaslav had his wish, he would just program Chip and Joanna all day long,” the executive said. “There was just a massive, ‘We don’t need you. You’re not offering the things we’re focused on.’”
The change in perspective could also partly explain why so many titles have recently disappeared from HBO Max’s platform. Our sources agree that the removals are mostly related to money. The company can claim a tax break for the costs associated with certain shows as long as it promises to stop profiting off them, which means taking them down altogether.
“They’re canceling a lens of perspective that I don’t think exists when you look at Discovery-branded shows,” one former staffer said.
Speaking of the company’s plans to combine HBO Max and Discovery+ into one giant streaming service in the near future, the laid-off exec said: “Don’t be surprised if there’s a new name for the platform.”
Overall, there’s a sense that HBO Max’s executives of color were just another casualty in the company’s quest to get itself out of debt, content quality be damned.
“In terms of people seeing themselves reflected, whether it’s ethnic or LGBTQ, when you have people who are diverse, the lens with which they evaluate [content] factors in things that I think my white colleagues just don’t think about,” one former executive said.
“It’s deep,” said another. “What are they going to do with this disproportionate amount of people of color that were let go? They need to replace them in some capacity. Or do they not care? That’s what we’ve been told, that they just don’t care.”
“I love my family. We are amicably and privately addressing these personal issues,” Stallone said in a statement to CNN.
Flavin filed her petition in Palm Beach County, Florida on Friday, “for dissolution of marriage and other relief,” according to People. The two wed in 1997.
“While we will no longer be married, I will always cherish the more than 30-year relationship that we shared, and I know we are both committed to our beautiful daughters,” Flavin told the publication. “I ask for privacy for our family as we amicably move forward.”
The two recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. They share three daughters together, Scarlet, 20, Sistine, 24, and Sophia, 25.
Dark energy illustration. Credit: Visualization by Frank Summers, Space Telescope Science Institute. Simulation by Martin White, UC Berkeley and Lars Hernquist, Harvard University
Could one of the biggest puzzles in astrophysics be solved by reworking Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity? Not yet, according to a new study co-authored by
A new study marks the latest effort to determine whether this is all simply a misunderstanding: that expectations for how gravity works at the scale of the entire universe are flawed or incomplete. This potential misunderstanding might help researchers explain dark energy. However, the study – one of the most precise tests yet of Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity at cosmic scales – finds that the current understanding still appears to be correct. The study was from the international Dark Energy Survey, using the Victor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope in Chile.
The results, authored by a group of scientists that includes some from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (
This image – the first released from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope – shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723. Some of the galaxies appear smeared or stretched due to a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. This effect can help scientists map the presence of dark matter in the universe. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
More than a century ago, Albert Einstein developed his Theory of General Relativity to describe gravity. Thus far it has accurately predicted everything from the orbit of Mercury to the existence of black holes. But some scientists have argued that if this theory can’t explain dark energy, then maybe they need to modify some of its equations or add new components.
To find out if that’s the case, members of the Dark Energy Survey looked for evidence that gravity’s strength has varied throughout the universe’s history or over cosmic distances. A positive finding would indicate that Einstein’s theory is incomplete, which might help explain the universe’s accelerating expansion. They also examined data from other telescopes in addition to Blanco, including the ESA (European Space Agency) Planck satellite, and reached the same conclusion.
Einstein’s theory still works, according to the study. So no there’s no explanation for dark energy yet. However, this research will feed into two upcoming missions: ESA’s Euclid mission, slated for launch no earlier than 2023, which has contributions from NASA; and NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, targeted for launch no later than May 2027. Both telescopes will search for changes in the strength of gravity over time or distance.
Blurred Vision
How do scientists know what happened in the universe’s past? By looking at distant objects. A light-year is a measure of the distance light can travel in a year (about 6 trillion miles, or about 9.5 trillion kilometers). That means an object one light-year away appears to us as it was one year ago, when the light first left the object. And galaxies billions of light-years away appear to us as they did billions of years ago. The new study looked at galaxies stretching back about 5 billion years in the past. Euclid will peer 8 billion years into the past, and Roman will look back 11 billion years.
The galaxies themselves don’t reveal the strength of gravity, but how they look when viewed from Earth does. Most matter in our universe is dark matter, which does not emit, reflect, or otherwise interact with light. While physicists don’t know what it’s made of, they know it’s there, because its gravity gives it away: Large reservoirs of dark matter in our universe warp space itself. As light travels through space, it encounters these portions of warped space, causing images of distant galaxies to appear curved or smeared. This was on display in one of first images released from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
This video explains the phenomenon called gravitational lensing, which can cause images of galaxies to appear warped or smeared. This distortion is caused by gravity, and scientists can use the effect to detect dark matter, which does not emit or reflect light. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Dark Energy Survey scientists search galaxy images for more subtle distortions due to dark matter bending space, an effect called weak gravitational lensing. The strength of gravity determines the size and distribution of dark matter structures, and the size and distribution, in turn, determine how warped those galaxies appear to us. That’s how images can reveal the strength of gravity at different distances from Earth and distant times throughout the universe’s history. The group has now measured the shapes of over 100 million galaxies, and so far, the observations match what’s predicted by Einstein’s theory.
“There is still room to challenge Einstein’s theory of gravity, as measurements get more and more precise,” said study co-author Agnès Ferté, who conducted the research as a postdoctoral researcher at JPL. “But we still have so much to do before we’re ready for Euclid and Roman. So it’s essential we continue to collaborate with scientists around the world on this problem as we’ve done with the Dark Energy Survey.”
Reference: “Dark Energy Survey Year 3 Results: Constraints on extensions to ΛCDM with weak lensing and galaxy clustering” by DES Collaboration: T. M. C. Abbott, M. Aguena, A. Alarcon, O. Alves, A. Amon, J. Annis, S. Avila, D. Bacon, E. Baxter, K. Bechtol, M. R. Becker, G. M. Bernstein, S. Birrer, J. Blazek, S. Bocquet, A. Brandao-Souza, S. L. Bridle, D. Brooks, D. L. Burke, H. Camacho, A. Campos, A. Carnero Rosell, M. Carrasco Kind, J. Carretero, F. J. Castander, R. Cawthon, C. Chang, A. Chen, R. Chen, A. Choi, C. Conselice, J. Cordero, M. Costanzi, M. Crocce, L. N. da Costa, M. E. S. Pereira, C. Davis, T. M. Davis, J. DeRose, S. Desai, E. Di Valentino, H. T. Diehl, S. Dodelson, P. Doel, C. Doux, A. Drlica-Wagner, K. Eckert, T. F. Eifler, F. Elsner, J. Elvin-Poole, S. Everett, X. Fang, A. Farahi, I. Ferrero, A. Ferté, B. Flaugher, P. Fosalba, D. Friedel, O. Friedrich, J. Frieman, J. García-Bellido, M. Gatti, L. Giani, T. Giannantonio, G. Giannini, D. Gruen, R. A. Gruendl, J. Gschwend, G. Gutierrez, N. Hamaus, I. Harrison, W. G. Hartley, K. Herner, S. R. Hinton, D. L. Hollowood, K. Honscheid, H. Huang, E. M. Huff, D. Huterer, B. Jain, D. J. James, M. Jarvis, N. Jeffrey, T. Jeltema, A. Kovacs, E. Krause, K. Kuehn, N. Kuropatkin, O. Lahav, S. Lee, P.-F. Leget, P. Lemos, C. D. Leonard, A. R. Liddle, M. Lima, H. Lin, N. MacCrann, J. L. Marshall, J. McCullough , J. Mena-Fernández, F. Menanteau, R. Miquel, V. Miranda, J. J. Mohr, J. Muir, J. Myles, S. Nadathur, A. Navarro-Alsina, R. C. Nichol, R. L. C. Ogando, Y. Omori, A. Palmese, S. Pandey, Y. Park, M. Paterno, F. Paz-Chinchón, W. J. Percival, A. Pieres, A. A. Plazas Malagón, A. Porredon, J. Prat, M. Raveri, M. Rodriguez-Monroy, P. Rogozenski, R. P. Rollins, A. K. Romer, A. Roodman, R. Rosenfeld, A. J. Ross, E. S. Rykoff, S. Samuroff, C. Sánchez, E. Sanchez, J. Sanchez, D. Sanchez Cid, V. Scarpine, D. Scolnic, L. F. Secco, I. Sevilla-Noarbe, E. Sheldon, T. Shin, M. Smith, M. Soares-Santos, E. Suchyta, M. Tabbutt, G. Tarle, D. Thomas, C. To, A. Troja, M. A. Troxel, I. Tutusaus, T. N. Varga, M. Vincenzi, A. R. Walker, N. Weaverdyck, R. H. Wechsler, J. Weller, B. Yanny, B. Yin, Y. Zhang and J. Zuntz, 12 July 2022, Astrophysics > Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics. arXiv:2207.05766
The creators behind HBO Max’s Batgirl say they were so stunned by the streamer’s decision to scrap the movie that they tried to log onto the server and record their work on a cellphone before their access was quickly revoked.
Directing duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah recounted how they learned the “shocking” and “painful” news in a video posted to their individual Instagram accounts Wednesday afternoon.
The movie was one of two upcoming feature-length projects that were sacrificed as the newly merged Warner Bros. Discovery undergoes a vast corporate restructuring. By canceling and shelving the film, the conglomerate is able to write it off as a loss and lower its tax burden while it focuses on its sky-high debt.
In an interview for the YouTube channel SKRIPT posted on Monday, the directors said Warner execs assured them “it was not a talent problem from our part or the actress, or even the quality of the movie.”
The abrupt cancellation disappointed fans who were eagerly awaiting another entry in the DC Extended Universe. Shot entirely in Glasgow, to the chagrin of some local businesses, the film was also expected to serve as a star vehicle for singer Leslie Grace, who appeared in the pandemic-delayed musical In the Heights to positive reviews.
“I didn’t even realize that was a possibility,” El Arbi says of HBO Max’s decision. “It was as if we were [making] movie history right there.”
As previously reported, the directors—who were born in Belgium—were in Morocco for El Arbi’s wedding at the time. In Wednesday’s video, Fallah stops to acknowledge the terrible timing: “Congratulations, bro,” he tells his creative partner.
“I didn’t even realize that was a possibility. It was as if we were [making] movie history right there.”
When they got the call, Fallah was in Tetouan visiting his grandparents’ grave, while Fallah was an hour away in Tangier, enjoying his on-site honeymoon with his wife.
“Thank God that my beautiful superhero wife was there with me to support me through this time,” El Arbi says.
The duo were still putting the finishing touches on the superhero flick, they revealed, adding that they were missing all the visual effects and hadn’t yet completed the necessary re-shoots. With both of them out of the country for what was supposed to be a celebration, they tried to get ahold of all their footage before the studio locked them out of the remote server that held their movie.
“I called, right away, Martin Walsh, the editor, and said, ‘Yo, you gotta pack up that shit, you know, backup—copy the movie,” El Arbi says.
Bilal adds: “Then Adil called me and said, ‘Yo, yo, shoot it on your phone!’ So I went on the server and everything was blocked.”
El Arbi quickly apologized for his unsuccessful attempt at “piracy.”
“That was not the right thing to do, but I was panicking, you know,” he says.
When the axing first became public, a source close to the directors told The Daily Beast that it was all due to money. The film was conceived as a direct-to-streaming movie, meaning that the production was far less flashy, though not that much less expensive, than that of a theatrical film. It’s a strategy that Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav finds very little justification for, considering that putting movies online draws significantly less revenue than putting them on the big screen. That’s a problem, because Zaslav is charged with lowering Warner’s $50 billion debt, a priority that has led to massive layoffs at HBO Max and the outright removal of many shows from the platform as it pursues more tax write-downs and the slashing of residuals.
“It’s the final fuck you to Jason Kilar. This is not about art, it’s about financial engineering,” a source told The Daily Beast earlier this month. “It’s not a $90 million movie, it’s $60 to $70 million,” he added, disputing the reports about the movie’s total cost. “It was built as a small movie for the streamer. To do it theatrically, they’d have to spend another $40 million in special effects and making it bigger, and even more money in marketing and distribution.”
Grace, for her part, addressed the cancellation in an Instagram post on Aug. 3.
“On the heels of the recent news about our movie ‘Batgirl,’ I am proud of the love, hard work and intention all of our incredible cast and tireless crew put into this film over 7 months in Scotland,” she wrote. “To every Batgirl fan – THANK YOU for the love and belief, allowing me to take on the cape and become, as Babs said best, ‘my own damn hero!’”
A few industry insiders will be lucky enough to get a sneak peek of the Batgirl cut at secret “funeral screenings” on the Warner Bros. lot this week, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The Cowboys may have lost one of their best players for a significant period of time.
Cowboys left tackle Tyron Smith suffered a torn left hamstring in Wednesday’s practice and could miss multiple months of the 2022 season, according to ESPN.
Smith went down during practice with what first appeared to be a knee injury, and when tests showed no damage to Smith’s ACL, it seemed to be good news.
But additional testing found that Smith’s hamstring is torn, and now he’s set for more testing on Thursday to determine the severity of the hamstring tear.
Without Smith, the Cowboys are missing a big part of their offensive line. Rookie first-round draft pick Tyler Smith played left tackle in college and might be called upon to do it now for the Cowboys, but prior to Tyron Smith’s injury, the Cowboys wanted Tyler Smith to play guard as a rookie. Josh Ball, a 2021 fourth-round pick who didn’t play at all as a rookie, and Matt Waletzko, a 2022 fifth-round pick, would be other options to replace Smith at left tackle.
The Cowboys selected Tyron Smith in the first round of the 2011 draft, and he’s been in Dallas longer than any other player on the roster. When healthy he has been among the best offensive linemen in the NFL.
In this photo illustration a PlayStation 5 logo seen displayed on a smartphone.
Mateusz Slodkowski | SOPA Images | LightRocket via Getty Images
Sony on Thursday raised the recommended retail price of its PlayStation 5 games console in several international markets citing the global economic environment, including high inflation.
The Japanese gaming giant said that the price hikes are effective immediately except in Japan where they will begin on Sep. 15.
Sony is not raising the price of the PS5 in the U.S.
“The global economic environment is a challenge that many of you around the world are no doubt experiencing,” Sony said in a blog post. “We’re seeing high global inflation rates, as well as adverse currency trends, impacting consumers and creating pressure on many industries.”
The company said that “based on these challenging economic conditions,” it has decided to raise the price of its flagship console.
These are the hikes and new prices for the PS5:
Europe: 50 euro ($50) increase to 549.99 euros for the disc version and 449.99 euros for the digital version
UK: £30 increase to £479.99 for the disc version and £399.99 for the digital model
Japan: 5000 yen increase to 54,980 yen for the disc version and 44,980 yen for the digital model
China: 400 yuan increase to 4,299 yuan for the disc version and 3,499 yuan for the digital model
Australia: 50 Australian dollar increase to 799.95 Australian dollars for the disc version and 649.95 Australian dollars for the digital model
Mexico: 1,000 Mexican pesos increased to 14,999 Mexican pesos for the disc version and 12,499 Mexican pesos for the digital model
Canada: 20 Canadian dollars increase to 649.99 Canadian dollars for the disc version and 519.99 Canadian dollars for the digital model
Sony’s price hike comes amid a slump for gaming companies including Nintendo and Microsoft, which saw their sales slide in the second quarter as the pandemic-induced boom begins to wear off.
Sales at Sony’s gaming unit declined 2% year-on-year in the June quarter while operating profit plunged nearly 37%. The Japanese giant also cut its full-year profit forecast for its gaming division.
Sony is also contending with continued supply chain issues that make it difficult to make enough PS5 consoles to meet demand. There has been a notable shortage of PS5s globally.
Rival Xbox, which is made by Microsoft, has not yet announced any price hikes.
Given the fact “that the PS5 has been severely supply constrained since launch, with many consumers unable to buy Sony’s latest console, and the fact that Microsoft has shown no indication yet of increasing its Xbox Series pricing, there is no doubt that this price increase will have been a hard decision to make,” Piers Harding-Rolls, research director at Ampere Analysis, wrote in a note on Thursday.
“However, with inflation and price increases being felt through the component supply chain, much of that priced in US dollars, alongside continued high costs in distribution, Sony has now had to pass on some of those cost increases to try and maintain its hardware profitability targets.”
Ampere Analysis estimates that Sony had sold 21 million PS5s worldwide compared to Microsoft’s Xbox Series consoles at 13.8 million.
Harding-Rolls said that he does not expect this to put off gamers wanting to buy a PlayStation 5 given demand remains high.
“While we believe there will be disappointment for some consumers that have been trying to buy a PS5 without success, or that were saving to buy the console just in time for the price to increase, the high pent up demand for Sony’s device means that this price increase of around 10% across most markets will have minimal impact on sales of the console,” he said.
“We expect Sony’s sales forecast for the PS5 to remain unchanged.”
Statins should be doled out for life, a study suggests.
Patients who suddenly stop taking the cholesterol-busting drugs face losing most of the protection they give to the heart.
This is because the main benefits of the cheap pills aren’t seen until later in life, scientists say.
Around 8million Britons and 32million Americans take statins every day, in order to cut their risk of heart complications due to high blood pressure.
But up to half of patients are thought to stop taking the drug due to suspected side effects, which can include muscle pain, digestive problems and headaches.
Dr Runguo Wu, lead author from Queen Mary University of London, said: ‘Stopping treatment, unless advised by a doctor, does not appear to be a wise choice.’
Around 8million Britons and 32 Americans take the cholesterol-busting pills every day, in order to cut their risk of heart attacks and strokes. But up to half of patients are thought to stop taking the drug due to suspected side effects, which can include muscle pain, digestive problems and headaches. Now, researchers have found that ditching the drugs could reduce the lifetime protection they offer against cardiovascular problems because the drugs give most benefit in later life
WHAT ARE STATINS?
Statins are a group of medicines that can help lower levels of ‘bad cholesterol’ in the blood.
Having too much of this type of cholesterol — called low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol — can lead to the thickening of the arteries and cardiovascular disease.
Statins work by stopping the liver from producing as much LDL.
Previous studies have found that the drug will prevent one heart attack or stroke for every 50 people taking it over five years.
The drug comes as a tablet that is taken once a day.
Most people have to take them for life, as stopping will cause their cholesterol to return to a high level within weeks.
Some people experience side effects from the medication, including diarrhoea, a headache or nausea.
People are usually told to make lifestyle changes in a bid to lower their cholesterol — such as improving diet and exercise habits, limiting alcohol consumption and stopping smoking — before being prescribed statins.
Statins are a group of drugs that stop the liver producing ‘bad’ cholesterol, known as low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.
Over time, its build-up can lead to hardened and narrowed arteries and heart disease — one of the world’s leading causes of death.
People are currently prescribed statins if they have been diagnosed with the disease, or have a family history of it.
The tablets, which cost just 20p a pill and proven to be life-savers, are taken once a day.
Patients who stop taking them can see their cholesterol shoot back up within weeks.
However, lots of people stop taking them, or use them irregularly because of worries about side effects.
The researchers examined how their effectiveness dropped when patients came off the drugs.
They used data on 118,000 participants included in international statin trials and half a million included in the UK Biobank — a database of medical and genetic records.
They created a mathematical model which calculated the annual risk of heart attack and strokes for each participant.
Experts attempted to calculate what would happen if participants stopped taking a daily dose at 80, compared to those who took them for life.
At the same time, they compared delaying the use of statins by five years.
The benefits were measured in quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) — the extra years of life lived in perfect health.
The findings, set to be presented at European Society of Cardiology Congress in Barcelona on Saturday, show that most of the QALYs due to statins accrued in later life.
Patients who stopped taking the drug when they hit their 80s ‘erased a large share of the potential benefit’.
People in their fifties with low cardiovascular risk who stop taking the drug at 80 lose three-quarters of the QALYs they would have had if they kept taking the drug.
And those who are at high cardiovascular risk and stop their daily statins tablet at 80 lose a third of their extra healthy years that the drug provides.
Those who had low cardiovascular risk and delayed taking statins by five years lost just two per cent of the drug’s benefit.
But those at high risk who put off starting them lost seven per cent of the benefit.
Dr Wu said: ‘This is because people at higher cardiovascular risk start to accrue benefit early on and have more to lose by delaying statin therapy than those at low risk.’
He called for people in their 40s with a high likelihood of developing cardiovascular disease and people of all ages with existing heart disease to consider taking statins immediately.
Many doctors say the potential side effects of statins are overblown and supporters, including health watchdog NICE, say the pills should be prescribed more widely to prevent thousands of early deaths.
However, others worry about the potential long-term harms.
The drugs have been linked to diabetes and memory loss.
And scores are uneasy with what they describe as the ‘overmedicalisation’ of the middle-aged, which sees statins doled out ‘just in case’ patients have heart problems in later life.
