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O’Romeo review – Bollywood Shakespeare takes dive into grisly mafia queens territory

After hit takes on Macbeth, Othello and Hamlet, Vishal Bhardwaj’s Romeo and Juliet adaptation sees dead-eyed lovers drag one another to gutter and grave

It must be Misbegotten Adaptations week. This Hindi gangland epic’s credentials are impeccable: director Vishal Bhardwaj previously wowed with textured, inventive variations on Macbeth (Maqbool, 2003), Othello (Omkara, 2006) and Hamlet (Haider, 2014). But rather than a straightforward modernisation of Romeo and Juliet, this latest revisits a grisly true-crime story ripped from Hussain Zaidi’s Mafia Queens of Mumbai, the book that previously inspired Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s 2022 hit, Gangubai Kathiawadi. The results align Bhardwaj with the newly lurid turn mainstream Bollywood has taken with recent smashes Animal and Dhurandhar, but it’s jarring to witness, as if Kenneth Branagh had followed his turn-of-the-90s Shakespeare successes by trying for Natural Born Killers.

For Venice (or Baz Luhrmann’s Venice Beach), Bhardwaj swaps the Mumbai underworld of the 1990s, ushering in the movies’ first morally degenerate Romeo. Shahid Kapoor’s Hussein Ustara – nicknamed Romeo – is a heavily tattooed bellower employed as a hitman for a local godfather; his Juliet (Animal’s Triptii Dimri) an aggrieved widow clutching a sizeable hitlist. These two are star-crossed: he rescues her amid a bungled assassination attempt on the lawyer smearing her late husband, earning them both powerful foes. The fish tank through which Leo glimpsed Claire Danes here abuts the bed to which this Romeo takes two escorts while his Juliet listens in. Happy Valentine’s Day, everybody.

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‘Heath Ledger knocked my tooth out jousting with a broom’: how we made A Knight’s Tale

‘The lances were made of balsa wood and filled with uncooked spaghetti – so that when they broke, there’d be an explosion of what looked like splinters’

I wrote and directed the Mel Gibson film Payback but got fired during post-production. It was my first film as director and I thought my career was over. It was during this downtime that I wrote A Knight’s Tale. I loved the idea that jousting tournaments were medieval sports, but I had never figured out what to do with it. I thought about the ideas underpinning it: a peasant who wants to be a noble was like a screenwriter wanting to be a director. It’s a guy trying to be something he has no right to be.

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Starmer vows to fast-track social media law but says under-16s ban not definite

Prime minister says action will be taken on young people’s social media access in ‘months, not years’

Keir Starmer has pledged action on young people’s access to social media in “months, not years”, while saying this did not necessarily mean a complete ban on access for under-16s.

Speaking at an event in London after the government promised to extend the crackdown to AI chatbots that place children at risk, Starmer said the issue was nuanced and that a ban was not definite, noting concerns from charities such as the NSPCC.

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Did the USA v World format revive the NBA’s struggling All-Star Game?

Critics say what was once a showpiece for the league has turned into a glorified practice session. But there are signs an updated version may have worked

Basketball Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady flashed a look of disdain when recalling last year’s NBA All-Star Game.

“The All-Star Game that we witnessed last year was not an All-Star game,” McGrady told the Guardian. “I don’t know what that was.”

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The Register

Biting the hand that feeds IT — Enterprise Technology News and Analysis

Open source registries don't have enough money to implement basic security

Free beer is great. Securing the keg costs money

fosdem 2026  Open source registries are in financial peril, a co-founder of an open source security foundation warned after inspecting their books. And it's not just the bandwidth costs that are killing them.…

The Moscow Times - Independent News From Russia

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Belgorod Sets Up Emergency Commissions as Governor Warns of No Hot Water Until April

The commissions will recalculate utility bills to ensure residents are not charged for services that were disrupted, authorities said.

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5 Times In The ‘Melania’ Documentary Where Melania Accidentally Rolls Her Face Up In A Car Window

While the controversial documentary Melania has been heavily criticized and bombarded with negative reviews, it does have some interesting moments. Here are six times in the Melania documentary where Melania accidentally rolls her face up in a car window. 

1. Before The Opening Credits Roll

In an interesting creative choice by the film’s director, we see Melania’s face being rolled up in a car window before the film’s credits even roll. Melania is shown in the back of a limousine waving to a group of fans through an open window, which she then begins to roll up while her head is still hanging well outside the limo. “How do I stop it doing that?!” she shouts to no one in particular, panicking while her lips and ears are fully rolled up in the closed window, the bunched-up skin pinched in the window looking like an elephant ear pastry flopping up and down outside the car with every bump it hits. For a film so universally panned as being an overpriced fluff piece with no real substance, it’s actually a pretty fascinating opening scene. 

2. When She’s Being Driven To Trump’s Inauguration And Her Hat Is Too Big For Her Head To Fit In The Limousine So She Drives With It Hanging Out Of The Window And Accidentally Hits The Power Window Switch

The film centers around Trump’s second inauguration, and while everyone certainly remembers the meme-able black-and-white wide-brimmed hat she wore that nearly covered her entire face, there was apparently more to the story. The hat’s huge proportions meant that Melania couldn’t fit her head inside the car that was taking her to the inauguration, so she was forced to ride to the Capitol with her head hanging out of the window like a dog. Unfortunately, she accidentally leaned on the power window switch, causing her face to be quickly crushed by the presidential limo’s bulletproof glass. Apparently, an image of the iconic hat and Melania’s face skin hanging out of the barely cracked window like a cheap Halloween mask was actually used on the first draft of the film’s movie poster, but the filmmakers decided that they didn’t want to spoil such a pivotal scene and ended up scrapping it. 

3. When Melania Is Discussing How Proud She Is Of Barron While A Car Window Slowly Rolls Up On Her Face And Twists Her Head A Full 90 Degrees

While the film offers little substance about Trump and Melania’s only child together, Melania does make it clear she is proud of her son. A pride which, apparently, is capable of distracting her from the fact her face is being crushed by the window of a car while speaking about him. After Melania’s skull finally overwhelms the car window’s motor and stops it from rolling up any farther, Melania says through her bunched-up cheeks with her head at a perfect right angle from her neck, “My son’s name is Barron.” It’s an interesting scene which offers a perspective on motherhood rarely seen in film. 

4. When She Is Riding In The Hearse Carrying Jimmy Carter’s Body During His Funeral Procession For Some Reason And Intentionally Rolls Her Face Up In The Hearse Window So She Doesn’t Inhale His Ghost 

While most of the times Melania rolls her face up in a car window in Melania are accidental, there is one instance where she does it intentionally. During a scene covering the Trumps’ attendance of Jimmy Carter’s funeral service in Washington, Melania finds herself riding along with Carter’s casket in the hearse driving him to his final resting place for an unexplained reason. Melania glances back at the casket stowed in the back of the hearse with fear, rolls down her window, and then immediately rolls it back up leaving only her lips and nose outside. She explains via narration that, “I don’t want to breathe in the ghost so I do this.” Knowing a bit about Melania’s superstitions and the lengths she’ll go to avoid inhaling ghosts actually helps humanize the First Lady who is often criticized for appearing cold and robotic. 

5. When She’s On A Video Call With French First Lady Brigitte Macron Discussing Cyberbullying And Accidentally Rolls Her Face Up In Her Car Window And Blames It On Cyberbullying 

Much of the film focuses on the First Lady’s attempts to help children, and at one point she consults with French First Lady Brigitte Macron and takes notes on France’s initiatives to combat cyberbullying. Unfortunately, as Macron is explaining that France has banned all social media for children under 11, Melania begins holding down her car’s power window switch and the car’s glass takes hold of most of Melania’s facial skin. The French First Lady watches helplessly while screaming, “Let go! Let go of the window button!” but in the panic the translators facilitating the call accidentally tell Melania to, “Push it harder! Push the window button harder!” resulting in Melania’s entire face temporarily being separated from her skull. After 15 minutes of struggling, Melania is finally able to pull her facial skin back over her skull and finish the call. Apparently unaware that the French First Lady was witness to the entire thing, Melania explains, “Sorry I was gone. I was just victim of a cyberbullying.” Say what you will about Melania being nothing more than a legal bribe by Amazon to President Trump, but there are at least a few scenes here that are nothing like anything you’ve seen before. 

Wel.nl

Minder lezen, Meer weten.

NBC: lokale agenten ingezet voor ICE met omstreden taskforcemodel

WASHINGTON (ANP) - Sinds het aantreden van Donald Trump als president is het aantal lokale politieafdelingen dat agenten levert aan immigratiedienst ICE sterk gestegen. Terwijl dit er onder Biden nog maar 135 waren, waren het er eind januari 1168, analyseerde NBC News.

Trumps regering heeft daarvoor een controversieel 'taskforce'-model nieuw leven ingeblazen. Met dit model kunnen lokale agenten worden ingezet voor ICE. Zo kunnen ze mensen arresteren als er vermoedens zijn dat iemand illegaal in het land verblijft. Tegelijkertijd moeten ze ook hun normale werkzaamheden blijven doen.

Het 'taskforce'-model werd in 2012 door de regering van Obama stopgezet, deels vanwege beschuldigingen van etnische profilering door lokale agenten. Maar de regering-Trump hervatte het programma vorig jaar met nieuwe financieringen. ICE belooft deelnemende diensten tienduizenden dollars voor uitrustingen, voertuigen en salarisuitbetalingen. Politiediensten uit 39 staten maken gebruik van het programma, vooral in Florida en Texas zijn er veel deelnemers, schrijft NBC. Onduidelijk is hoeveel agenten met ICE samenwerken.

Om immigratie tegen te gaan heeft Trump in zijn eerste jaar federale politiediensten als ICE naar meerdere steden gestuurd. Er is veel protest tegen het optreden van die diensten, zeker nadat in januari twee mensen werden doodgeschoten in Minneapolis. De kritiek richt zich nu nog voornamelijk op federale overheidsdiensten. Door de toenemende samenwerking kan de kritiek in de toekomst zich wel eens verplaatsen naar de lokale politieafdelingen, vermoedt NBC.


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Sport met alleen maar winnaars is dodelijk saai, het zijn juist de tegenslagen die sport van kleur voorzien

Kritiek op Prabowo’s steun aan Trumps vredesplan voor Gaza: ‘Indonesië is uitgenodigd om Israëlische misdaden te verbloemen’

Dat Indonesië mee wil doen aan Trumps vredesplan voor Gaza, wekt veel kritiek in het grootste moslimland ter wereld. De regering van de autoritaire president Prabowo probeert er gunstiger handelstarieven mee te krijgen.