De leden van de band Nusantara Beat hebben allemaal Indonesische roots. Eerst speelden ze vooral covers, van gamelan- en krontjongmuziek, nu bouwen ze hun eigen caleidoscoop.

Haar muziek zet de trombone op een unieke manier in de schijnwerpers. Naast een eigen trombone-ensemble heeft Nabou Claerhout, frisse belofte in zowel de Nederlandse als Belgische jazzscene, haar eigen kwartet.

Wat zijn de geijkte routes naar succes in de cultuur? Welke opleidingen moet je doen? Welke prijzen moet je winnen? „Mijn belangrijkste tip is: zorg dat je te allen tijde je spelplezier behoudt.”

Tien jaar geleden selecteerde NRC ‘de 16 van 2016’, talentvolle kunstenaars voor het nieuwe culturele jaar. Waar staan ze tien jaar later? Een blik op de loopbaan van de tien Nederlandse Rijzende Sterren van dat jaar.

Het Europees Parlement wil de invoering uitstellen van het Mercosur-verdrag, waarover 25 jaar onderhandeld is. De vraag is of de Europese Commissie de beslissing van het parlement accepteert of omzeilt.

Moet Nederland het WK boycotten vanwege mede-organisator VS, of moet sport apolitiek zijn? De geschiedenis laat zien dat sport júíst politiek is, volgens sporthistoricus Jurryt van de Vooren. „Het adagium dat sport neutraal is, is best modern.”

While President Trump has always had his odd moments, the aging president’s behavior has been under even more scrutiny as rumors of dementia and Alzheimer’s treatments swirl. The latest troubling sign of his mental decline? Trump just mistook Marco Rubio for a urinal during a White House meeting. 

Yikes. This is not a good sign. 

During a gathering of business leaders in the White House earlier today, Trump abruptly lost his train of thought while in the middle of explaining that, “Gas is what our cars need to do their thing. No gas, they are dead in the street. Gotta have that gas…” He then stood up, wandered over to Marco Rubio, unzipped his suit pants, and began urinating on him. Marco struggled to keep a straight face as Trump covered him in urine while several of the executives present let out forced chuckles in an attempt to play it off as if they thought Mr. Trump was pissing all over Marco just to be funny. 

After finishing his piss, Trump said, “That’s a nice one. Isn’t this a nice one?” while looking to the baffled CEOs in attendance for a response, then pressed down on Marco’s right ear in an attempt to flush him. When his first attempt to flush Marco yielded no result, Trump grew frustrated and pressed it several more times until Marco finally caved and made a flushing sound with his mouth. “Somebody’s gotta fix this!” Trump said to a portrait of George Washington that hung on the wall as more nervous chuckles emerged from the awkward scene. 

Oof. This man is clearly experiencing some sort of major decline. 

While it’s normal for the elderly to experience moments of confusion, this is the man with the nuclear codes. If he’s mistaking his Secretary of State for a urinal today, who knows what mistakes his aging brain could make tomorrow. While this time it just resulted in a urine-covered man, more serious consequences could be on the horizon. This is definitely something to keep an eye on! 

Home Alone is one of the most beloved family comedies of all time, but would the 1990 classic have been the same film had the Wet Bandits taken care of Kevin right off the bat? Here are six ways Home Alone would have played out differently if the Wet Bandits had just immediately killed Kevin. 

1. They wouldn’t have had to worry about traps nearly as much

One of the signature elements of Home Alone is the barrage of traps and improvised weapons that Kevin employs against the Wet Bandits as he fights them off. Had the intruders just immediately shot the young boy in the face, however, most if not all of those traps would never have existed. While killing Kevin right away would have removed some of the most fun scenes in the film, it would also have made it easier to watch for those who have a phobia of traps or simply don’t enjoy watching burglars get trapped in various ways. 

2. They would have been able to rob the house much more quickly and move on to the next crime

While killing Kevin within 15 seconds of discovering him in the house (perhaps by strangulation or blunt trauma) would have removed him as the main character in the film, it would have had one pretty major benefit for the Wet Bandits: They would be able to quickly rob Kevin’s house of its valuables and move on to the next score. Honestly, with Kevin out of the way that early on in the film, viewers may have forgotten all about his murder by the time the movie ended. It could have been a completely different film!

3. A lot of the jokes would have had to come from them trying to dispose of Kevin’s body

In the version of Home Alone where the Wet Bandits don’t immediately kill Kevin, most of the film’s humorous antics come from Kevin cleverly thwarting the burglars’ robbery attempts. But if Kevin died right off the bat, the focus of the laughs would have to be moved to the Bandits’ attempts to to dissolve Kevin’s body in the bathtub with lye or dispose of it in a wood chipper. Under the expert direction of Chris Columbus this plotline could undoubtedly have been handled in a hilarious way, but it definitely would have given the film a different vibe.  

4. Kevin’s parents would have felt a lot more guilty for leaving him at home alone 

While in the version of the film we’re all familiar with Kevin’s parents feel terrible about leaving him home alone, it would have introduced a whole new level to their regret if they had come home after realizing their mistake to find Kevin’s decapitated body in their kitchen. The original edit juxtaposed scenes of the McCallister family frantically trying to get home with scenes of Kevin heroically fighting off the Wet Bandits, but the alternate version would instead juxtapose scenes of the McCallisters frantically trying to get home with shots of Kevin’s rotting corpse attracting flies. It’s really interesting to imagine how changing this one little detail could have changed the whole movie!

5. They might have had to kill Old Man Marley as well

In the real-life version of Home Alone, Kevin’s neighbor Old Man Marley is initially thought to be a creepy murderer, but he turns out to be a sweet lonely man who ends up saving Kevin from the Wet Bandits. In our alternate-reality version, he probably would have ended up being another corpse, perhaps stacked on top of Kevin’s body in the trunk of a stolen car that is later burned in the woods. It’s likely Kevin’s murder early in the film would change the story arc for more characters than just Kevin. 

6. It would have been called something like Child’s Body or Kevin’s Death

With Kevin dead immediately following his introduction, there would have been no living character to be “Home Alone,” meaning the film would have had to be titled something completely different. Some possibilities would be Child’s Body, Kevin’s Death, Nothing To Get In The Way Of Their Crimes, or even, Home Dead. But Home Alone definitely wouldn’t make any sense. Pretty wild to think how this one minor change in the plot would have made a major difference!

KYIV (ANP/AFP) - De Oekraïense president Volodymyr Zelensky is in Kyiv en niet in Davos. Dat meldt het presidentiële kantoor. President Trump suggereerde eerder in zijn toespraak op het World Economic Forum dat momenteel plaatsvindt in die Zwitserse plaats dat Zelensky "in het publiek zou kunnen zitten". Ook zei hij de Oekraïense leider later op woensdag te ontmoeten.

Zelensky koos ervoor om niet naar die bijeenkomst met vele wereldleiders af te reizen vanwege de aanhoudende problemen met nutsvoorzieningen in zijn land. Zo zitten in de regio Kyiv meer dan een miljoen inwoners zonder stroom. Slechts als de Amerikanen in Davos met concrete toezeggingen komen voor veiligheidsgaranties of economische vergezichten voor Oekraïne, wil Zelensky afreizen naar Davos.

Igor Kirillov is the highest-ranking Russian general to have been assassinated since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.