Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Tri-Fold Phone With Up to 10.2-Inch OLED Screen Goes Global: Price, Features
Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Tri-Fold Phone With Up to 10.2-Inch OLED Screen Goes Global: Price, Features
Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design was launched in select global markets on Tuesday. The triple-folding smartphone is the first of its kind from the company. It was initially unveiled in China in September 2024. The handset offers a large 10.2-inch screen when fully unfolded. It sports a 50-megapixel triple rear camera unit including a 12-megapixel periscope telephoto shooter. The phone is claimed to offer an IPX8 rating for water resistance. The company has not yet confirmed an India launch of the handset.
Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design Price
Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design’s price in the UAE is set at AED 12,999 (roughly Rs. 3,07,800) for the sole 16GB + 1TB RAM and storage configuration. It is currently available for purchase via the official website. Deliveries of the handset are said to begin on February 25. The phone is offered in ****** and red colour options.
Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design Specifications, Features
The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design sports a 10.2-inch (3,184×2,232 pixels) flexible LTPO OLED display which becomes a 7.9-inch (2,048×2,232 pixels) screen when folded once, and a 6.4-inch screen (1,008×2,232 pixels) when folded a second time. The screen supports up to 90Hz refresh rate, up to 240Hz touch sampling rate, 1,440Hz PWM dimming rate, and 382ppi pixel density.
Huawei has yet to confirm the chipset details of the global version of the Mate XT Ultimate Design. The ******** variant is said to be powered by an in-house Kirin 9010 SoC. The phone is available globally with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of onboard storage. It runs on EMUI 14.2 out-of-the-box.
For optics, the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design carries a 50-megapixel main sensor with optical image stabilisation (OIS) and a variable aperture between f/1.2 and f/4.0, alongside a 12-megapixel ultrawide shooter with an f/2.2 aperture and another 12-megapixel periscope telephoto camera with 5.5x optical zoom, 50x digital zoom, OIS and an f/3.4 aperture at the back. The front camera has an 8-megapixel sensor with an f/2.2 aperture for selfies and video calls.
The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate Design packs a 5,600mAh battery with support for 66W wired and 50W wireless charging. Connectivity options include 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, GPS, NFC, and a USB 3.1 Type-C port. The handset is claimed to offer an IPX8 rating for water resistance and has a side-mounted fingerprint sensor for security. It weighs 298g and measures 156.7x219x3.6mm in size when fully unfolded.
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DeepSeek sending data to TikTok parent company: S Korea
DeepSeek sending data to TikTok parent company: S Korea
China’s artificial intelligence app DeepSeek has sent South Korean user data to ByteDance, the ********-owned parent company of TikTok, Seoul’s authorities say.
It’s the first time a national regulator has confirmed the potential leak of user data from DeepSeek to a third party and comes a day after South Korea banned the use of the app citing security concerns.
The South Korean Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) confirmed the warnings of some computer security experts, who flagged the possible transfer of personal data by DeepSeek to other entities without users consent.
“We have confirmed DeepSeek communicating with ByteDance,” a PIPC spokesperson told news agency Yonhap.
The spokesman noted the regulator needed to verify what kind of data was transferred to TikTok’s owner and on what scale.
South Korean law requires app operators to obtain explicit consent from users to transfer their data to third parties.
On Monday, South Korea’s data protection regulator announced the suspension of DeepSeek downloads until improvements were made in accordance with the nation’s personal information protection laws.
The move comes after the PIPC issued an official warning about the ******** AI model advising against its use with local government ministries and agencies blocked it.
The warning came after the PIPC sent a query to DeepSeek requesting detailed information about its data collection policy.
The commission said it planned to seek co-operation from ******** authorities on the matter via official diplomatic channels.
Previously, local companies such as South Korean automaker Hyundai had already restricted their employees’ access to DeepSeek, also over possible data leaks.
Several South Korean ministries, including the ministries of finance, foreign affairs, national defence and trade, industry and energy have blocked access to the app.
South Korea’s interior ministry recommended that ministries and the 17 regional governments be cautious about the use of DeepSeek in light of what it considers to be a non-transparent data storage process.
Aside from the ban, South Korean authorities recommended that users who already had DeepSeek installed on their devices or who used it online to be cautious about the invasion of personal information.
DeepSeek sent shockwaves through the AI industry last month with its cost-effective free chatbot due to its rapid progress in rivalling US-based OpenAI’s ChatGPT with far fewer resources.
DeepSeek gained unprecedented popularity in mobile app stores across the globe, dethroning ChatGPT in certain regions, including the US.
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Energy Transfer Expects to Deliver Another Big Growth Spurt Starting in 2026
Energy Transfer Expects to Deliver Another Big Growth Spurt Starting in 2026
Energy Transfer (NYSE: ET) is coming off a record-breaking year. The master limited partnership (MLP) set volume records across several product categories last year. That helped fuel a 13% increase in its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), which hit a record $15.5 billion. The company also reported record distributable cash flow of $8.4 billion, up 10% from the prior year.
Acquisitions were the main fuel driving last year’s record, notably its $7.1 billion merger with fellow MLP Crestwood Equity Partners in November 2023. While it will continue to get an acquisition-driven boost this year from its WTG Midstream deal, which closed last July, its EBITDA growth rate will moderate a bit next year to about 5%.
However, it expects to deliver another growth spurt starting in 2026, fueled by a surge in organic expansion projects. Here’s a look at what the MLP has coming down the pipeline.
Energy Transfer invested $3 billion into organic expansion projects last year. Those investments will help supply some incremental income this year as those capital projects enter commercial service. For example, the company recently completed two small expansions to its Orla East and Grey Wolf natural gas processing plants. Meanwhile, it is upgrading two more plants, which it expects to complete in the first quarter of this year. The MLP is also building the Badger processing plant, which should enter commercial service by the middle of this year.
“Given our wealth of opportunities,” said co-CEO Tom Long on the fourth-quarter conference call, “we expect to spend approximately $5 billion in 2025.” He noted, “Some of these projects are expected online later this year.” However, “With the majority of these projects expected online in 2026… we expect the majority of earnings growth from these projects to significantly ramp up in 2026 and 2027.”
The biggest single project is the Hugh Brinson Pipeline. The company approved the first phase of the natural gas pipeline project last December, and it expects to complete that phase by the end of next year. It’s still working toward approving Phase 2, which would increase the project’s total cost to $2.7 billion.
The MLP is also investing about $1.1 billion this year across several natural gas liquids (NGL) expansion projects, including the Nederland Flexport expansion, Frac IX, Marcus Hook optimization, Lone Star Express optimization, Sabina 2 NGL pipeline, and storage upgrades at Mont Belvieu and Spindletop. The company expects to finish the initial phases of Nederland by the middle of the year and the next phase in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, Frac IX, Lonestar, and Sabina 2 all have in-service dates throughout 2026. The company is also investing $1.2 billion into Permian Basin processing plant expansions, which include those mentioned earlier and Red Lake IV and Mustang Draw, with respective in-service dates of the third quarter of 2025 and the first half of 2026.
Story Continues
Energy Transfer is in an excellent position to enhance its already robust growth prospects for 2026 and beyond. One factor fueling that view is the expected surge in natural gas demand to meet the growing power needs of AI data centers.
The MLP recently signed its first gas supply contract with a data center. That project would supply gas to a data center developed by CloudBurst in Texas, pending a final investment decision by CloudBurst’s customer. It could be the first of many such projects. Co-CEO Tom Long noted on the call that the company has “now received requests for potential connections to approximately 62 power plants that we do not currently serve in 13 states and up to 15 plants that we already serve today.” He added, “We have now received requests from over 70 prospective data centers in 12 states.”
On top of that, Long commented that the company “continue to make progress toward full commercialization” of its long-delayed Lake Charles LNG project, “which we believe and many of our customers believe is the most compelling LNG project on the Gulf Coast.” It signed a 20-year deal with Chevron in December, putting it one more step closer to approval. That project is one of several potential expansion opportunities it currently has under development.
Securing these projects would enhance and extend Energy Transfer’s growth outlook. They’d give the MLP even more fuel to continue increasing its high-yielding distribution, which currently sits at 6.5%. The midstream giant currently expects to grow that payout at a 3% to 5% annual rate. It could potentially accelerate its growth rate once it completes its current expansion wave.
Energy Transfer enjoyed an acquisition-driven growth spurt last year. While its latest acquisition will help fuel more growth this year, it expects organic expansion projects to power its next growth spurt in 2026 and beyond. Because it has several projects already under construction and more in development, the MLP should have plenty of power to continue increasing its high-yielding distribution in the coming years. That combination of growth and income should enable it to produce robust total returns.
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Energy Transfer Expects to Deliver Another Big Growth Spurt Starting in 2026 was originally published by The Motley Fool
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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 Leak Suggests Screen, Hinge Improvements; May Get Same Battery as Predecessor
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 Leak Suggests Screen, Hinge Improvements; May Get Same Battery as Predecessor
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 is still a few months away, but that hasn’t stopped leaks from surfacing online. Most recently, a tipster has shared a new bunch of information about the book-style foldable phone on the ******** social media website giving us an idea about its specifications. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is said to offer a new hinge, enhanced main camera, and better water and dust resistance. The battery capacity of the phone is likely to remain the same as last year’s Galaxy Z Fold 6.
Tipster Setsuna Digital on Weibo claimed that Samsung will add some notable improvements across different aspects of the Galaxy Z Fold 7. It is said to feature an improved hinge, main camera and screen than its predecessor. The next-generation Galaxy foldable phone is tipped to get internal structure improvements.
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is said to pack an enhanced under-screen camera and water and dust resistance. The battery capacity of the phone is claimed to “remain the same” which means that it could carry the same 4,400mAh battery as the Galaxy Z Fold 6. It is expected to offer the same charging speed as the older foldable phones.
Galaxy Z Fold 7 Price, Specifications (Leaked)
Samsung is believed to pack a Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy SoC in the Galaxy Z Fold 7. It is tipped to be available in 256GB, 512GB and 1TB storage options with support for 12GB of RAM.
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is rumoured to carry the same price as the preceding Galaxy Z Fold 6. We can expect the device to start at Rs. 1,64,999 for the base 12GB + 256GB configuration. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is expected to go official in July alongside the Galaxy Z Flip 7 at Samsung’s second Galaxy Unpacked event of the year.
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Baidu’s Revenue Slides After ******** AI Rivalry Heats Up – Yahoo Finance
Baidu’s Revenue Slides After ******** AI Rivalry Heats Up – Yahoo Finance
Baidu’s Revenue Slides After ******** AI Rivalry Heats Up Yahoo FinanceBaidu Shares’ Gaping Underperformance in Focus as Results Loom BloombergBaidu’s AI Breakthrough: Cloud Revenue Surges While Core Business Navigates Headwinds in Q4 StockTitanChina’s Baidu reports fourth-quarter revenue above estimates Reuters
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Lady Jane MacRae – the Scottish piper playing for the King on VE Day
Lady Jane MacRae – the Scottish piper playing for the King on VE Day
David Wallace Lockhart
BBC Scotland News
BBC
Lady Jane MacRae will be playing for the King at this year’s VE Day commemorations
Meet Lady Jane MacRae.
She has a PhD in maths, is a former concert pianist and has an impressive golf handicap of just seven.
With all those strings to her bow, you might be surprised to hear that in 2020 she decided to take up another hobby – the bagpipes.
Fast forward four and a half years and the grandmother of four, who describes herself as a “jack of all trades, master of none”, will be playing for the King at this year’s VE Day (Victory in Europe) commemorations.
She’ll take on a key ceremonial role in the event marking 80 years since the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.
Lady MacRae will be playing a song that’s been composed specifically for this event, named Celebratum.
She’ll provide the soundtrack as a flame is put to the Lamp Light of Peace, representing an end to the darkness of war.
And I’m treated to a rendition of the song by the River Dee, after arriving at her 150-acre Aberdeenshire estate.
Lady Jane gives a rendition of Celebratum at her estate in Aberdeenshire
But after a while, with her playing fingers getting cold in the February chill, it’s inside for a swift tour of Lady MacRae’s stately home (which she calls her castle) before a chat in the Grand Hall.
Conversation turns to the big day on the 8th of May. She concedes that she’ll be “shaking in my boots” when she’s playing to the audience – including the monarch.
So how does a maths teacher (who’s still working) find the time to learn the bagpipes?
Lady MacRae explains that someone once told her that they didn’t think she’d be able to master the instrument. “That was a red rag to a bull” she explains.
“If someone says I can’t do something, then I do it.”
This may have started out as a mission to prove a doubter wrong, but Lady MacRae admits that she’s now “hooked” on the pipes. She regularly gets up at 5am to practice.
Luckily, here in rural Aberdeenshire, she doesn’t have any neighbours to upset with early-morning sessions.
She insists that it’s never too late to pick up a new skill, telling me “anyone can do anything that they want, they just have to set their mind to it”.
Both her parents served in World War Two, so there’s a personal element to being asked to perform at the 80th commemoration of VE Day.
This is likely to be the last significant event featuring veterans from the conflict – the Ministry of Defence estimates anyone who fought will now be at least 98 years old.
Lady MacRae believes these commemorations are about more than simply acknowledging the past. She worries that younger generations aren’t aware of the lessons of World War Two.
“We’ve got to keep talking about it”, she says, expressing concern that all-out European war feels like a worrying prospect once again.
And so she takes that message with her in the evenings when she’s teaching her bagpipe class at the Banchory Royal British Legion Club.
That’s right. She’s only been playing four years but is now already teaching others.
Lady Jane has now mastered the pipes so well she is teaching others how to play
I sat in on a session where she was walking pupils aged between seven and 82 through the playing of Celebratum.
But before the practice session on the chanter (a small part of the bagpipe) Lady MacRae explained the significance of VE Day.
High-profile official events to mark the occasion may become rarer as time goes on, but she insists that it’s a date that must continue to be acknowledged.
The official road to 2025’s commemoration starts today, and this offers Lady MacRae plenty of opportunity for practice.
She’ll be playing Celebratum at Crathes Castle in Aberdeenshire to kick off an 80-day countdown to the main event.
There will be piping sessions across Scotland every day until 8 May as part of this process. The Banchory Pipe Band – who she teaches – will be playing in the town centre at one of these events.
Once the main commemoration at St Paul’s Cathedral is out of the way, you’d be forgiven for thinking Lady MacRae might take a well-earned rest.
But no, she’s got her sights set on a new challenge. Learning the harp.
How hard can it be?
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Seen those complaints online about having to sign in to your Microsoft account to use Windows 11’s Notepad app? It’s all a load of hot air
Seen those complaints online about having to sign in to your Microsoft account to use Windows 11’s Notepad app? It’s all a load of hot air
Some Windows 11 users got the impression Notepad now requires logging into your Microsoft account
This isn’t true, but the app just got a new AI feature that does require such a sign-in
There’s still a fair bit of anger about Microsoft adding more and more capabilities to Notepad when it’s designed to be a streamlined text editor
Is the idea of Windows 11 users now having to sign in to use the Notepad app a new scheme concocted by Microsoft to annoy folks? Fortunately, this very much isn’t the case, even though many people have jumped to this conclusion.
Sign in with a Microsoft Account for Notepad?! pic.twitter.com/VfZVM44EC0February 16, 2025
The prospect was raised by BobPony who (along with other denizens of X) pointed out that after the recent update for the Notepad app, it was now asking them to sign in to their Microsoft account.
This immediately attracted a considerable amount of anger, because the whole concept of Notepad is that it’s a super-streamlined text editor you can quickly fire up and use. So, not only is this a stumbling block running against the fundamental design of Notepad in that respect, but some folks don’t have or want a Microsoft account either.
While this is indeed happening to some Windows 11 users, the reason for this is explained in the text accompanying the pop-up requesting login, which states: “Sign in with your Microsoft account to use Rewrite and its features in Notepad.”
The Notepad update has brought in the ability to use Rewrite, which is a Copilot feature that gets the AI to redraft any selected text (an ability seen in testing with Windows 11 late last year).
As Tom’s Hardware, which noticed the above post on X, points out, this dialog prompt only appears for those who are clicking the Rewrite button in Notepad.
Also, if you do see this dialog, and don’t want to sign in as requested, you can simply close it. You won’t be able to use the Rewrite feature, though, unless you do sign in to your Microsoft account.
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(Image credit: Microsoft)
Analysis: Notepad going in the wrong direction?
In many ways, then, this is a storm in a teacup scenario – but there is an underlying reason why people might be easily angered here. Firstly, there’s been a broader push to cajole folks to sign up for a Microsoft account, including a bunch of ‘suggestions’ infiltrating Windows 11 in various bits of the interface.
So, anything like this is going to annoy some users, guaranteed, even though Microsoft notes that a sign-in is necessary to use the Rewrite capability due to “AI safety and security purposes” (pertaining to any requests you make).
Secondly, again looking at this incident (or lack of an incident is a better way to describe it, perhaps) from a wider perspective, it’s another pushback against Notepad getting beefed up. As mentioned above, the whole idea of Notepad is that it’s a barebones and lightweight text editor, and yet Microsoft has kept on adding extra trimmings since the launch of Windows 11.
That includes the likes of dark mode, multi-step undo, and spellchecking plus autocorrect, and now we have the mentioned AI rewriting feature in Notepad. And no, of course, you don’t have to use any of these elements, but the worry is, they’re still hanging around in the background and possibly bloating Notepad more so that it isn’t quite as peppy and responsive as it once was. (Although Microsoft has, at least, recently tweaked the app to load a bit faster).
That’s why you can see some of those replying to the post on X are urging anyone who’s fed up with this new path WordPad appears to be on to consider Notepad++ instead. Indeed, I’d throw in the top recommendation from our list of the best text editors too, namely Sublime Text.
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Paceman Wood targets Australia in 2025 Ashes down under
Paceman Wood targets Australia in 2025 Ashes down under
Mark Wood is a double World Cup winner who took the wicket that sealed England’s last Ashes triumph, but the fast bowler is craving even more “bucket list” items in a whirlwind next 12 months.
England will seek to regain the urn for the first time since 2015 next winter, but before the Australia trip is a home Test series against India while their Champions Trophy campaign starts on Saturday.
Wood is expected to have an important role in all three pursuits and while he is aware of his body’s limitations after several injury setbacks throughout his career, he wants to add to his medals haul.
The 35-year-old told the PA news agency: “I’m getting a bit older now and in the back of your mind, you’re always thinking ‘when will it be it?’ I just want to play as much as I can, for long as I can.
“I’m not going to play every game, that’s a given, because my body doesn’t allow me to do that, but I’d love to play that Test series against India and win it.
“And the ultimate for any England cricketer is to try and win in Australia. They would definitely be bucket list things. Go to the Champions Trophy, as well, you want to try to be involved in all of it.”
England head into their Champions Trophy opener against Australia in Lahore this weekend with five of their 2019 World Cup winners, including Wood, who was part of the T20 equivalent triumph in 2022.
But their white-ball fortunes have nosedived in the last 18 months and being clean swept by India 3-0 last week means Jos Buttler’s side have lost 16 of their past 23 ODIs.
While Wood insisted he “wouldn’t look for excuses.”
“I try and pride myself on training in the freezing depths of the north-east when you think no-one else is training and you’re running on the streets or the treadmill.
“I might not be as good as some of the other guys but I make sure I work hard on all those little one per centers, I’m one of the fittest people and I can give everything to the team that way.
“If I didn’t do that behind scenes, I’d probably regret it. I’m a professional cricketer, we’re not playing club cricket here, we’re playing international cricket.
“You have to be an international sportsman, have pride for yourself, pride for your team, pride for your family. I’m being paid by England, it’s my job. If this is what I do then I’m all in with it.”
Wood’s express pace has not dipped on his comeback, exceeding 95mph on unhelpful surfaces in India, and he will be at the head of England’s half-a-dozen quick options, including Jofra Archer, in Pakistan.
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Kremlin says joining the EU is Ukraine’s sovereign right
Kremlin says joining the EU is Ukraine’s sovereign right
MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it was Ukraine’s sovereign right to decide whether it wanted to join the European Union and that Moscow did not intend to dictate to Kyiv how it should approach the question.
Asked if Ukraine could one day join the European Union, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “This is the sovereign right of any country.”
“We are talking about integration and economic integration processes. And here, of course, no one can dictate anything to any country, and we are not going to do that,” Peskov said.
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Peskov added, though, that Russia’s position was different when it came to Ukraine joining military alliances.
“There is a completely different position, of course, on security-related issues related to defence or military alliances,” Peskov said.
(Reporting by Anastasia Lyrchikova; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Kevin Liffey)
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With ‘Paper Doll,’ Dylan Mulvaney Wrote the Book on Girlhood. Now What?
With ‘Paper Doll,’ Dylan Mulvaney Wrote the Book on Girlhood. Now What?
It was early February, and Dylan Mulvaney was floating on the high seas — somewhere in the Caribbean, perhaps near St. Martin — on a cruise ship filled with nearly 5,000 gay men. Ms. Mulvaney, the 28-year-old performer, trans video diarist and cultural lighting rod at the center of an infamous Bud Light boycott in 2023, reported with a bright voice and wide smile that she was one of about “three women total” on the ship.
She was there to perform musical comedy for the cruisers; four cast members from the onboard production of “Mamma Mia!” served as her backup dancers. In a video interview from her cabin, Ms. Mulvaney identified the “one central question” that has lately been her North Star: “Does this decision help me become a Broadway diva?”
Ms. Mulvaney was playing a chipper missionary in the national tour of “Book of *******” in early 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic brought all theater to a halt. She redirected her boundless energy to making videos on TikTok, often adding melody to her intimate straight-to-the-camera addresses.
Her subject matter was varied at first: “Bridgerton” riffs, theater world fodder, a series interviewing animals at the San Diego Zoo. But in isolation, she began acknowledging some personal truths she had known since she was 4. In March of 2022, she recorded the first video in “100 Days of Girlhood,” a series of confessional TikTok check-ins about the beginning of her transition. The likes and comments rolled in. Ms. Mulvaney writes about the shock of jumping to a million followers in under a month. By 2023, she would have over 10 million.
Her online persona, as a friend describes it in Ms. Mulvaney’s forthcoming memoir, “Paper Doll: Notes From a Late Bloomer,” was a “very palatable” trans Ellen DeGeneres. “Ellen was one of my greatest role models — she made gay people seem not only normal but fun and relatable,” Ms. Mulvaney writes. But for her book, Ms. Mulvaney showed a bawdier side. (Hookups are recounted, sometimes in detail.) Some of her fans, she said, will probably find this book “a little raunchier than expected.”
At half past noon on the second day of the cruise, she hadn’t eaten yet, so she ordered Diet Coke and French fries. She wore white oval sunglasses as if they were a headband, a prim cardigan with gold buttons, pink Juicy sweatpants and, she said, a spritz of Baccarat Rouge. “This is the duality of my ’fits,” she said. “You’re either going to get Y2K Paris Hilton or you’re getting Audrey Hepburn.”
After two years of being a blonde, Ms. Mulvaney dyed her hair back to brown the week before setting sail. She had some reservations about what she described as “a big pivot.”
“I’m about to go promote this book now as a brunette, which at first I thought was a huge problem,” she said. Ever conscious of her image after three years as an influencer, Ms. Mulvaney was hesitant to modify her personal brand so close to the book’s release. Ultimately, she decided the change was a perfect bookend for the distinct ******* of her life that the memoir covers.
“It feels like a character in this romance novel that’s a part of me, but isn’t all of me,” she said.
Around 2022, with Ms. Mulvaney’s fame on the ascent, her agents asked her for a list of “dream brands” she would want to promote. Ms. Mulvaney had her answer ready: “Tiffany’s and beer.” She didn’t care what beer; Ms. Mulvaney loves all beer. She loves it particularly, she writes in her memoir, because “it seems so contradictory to my overall aesthetic and I love to surprise people.”
In April 2023, Ms. Mulvaney posted a sponsored video for Bud Light in which she showed off a personalized can featuring her face sent to her by Bud Light — a gift celebrating a year of her documented girlhood. The video touched off what researchers at Harvard Business School called “one of the biggest boycotts in American history.” Angry protesters denounced the brand on TikTok, ultimately leading to bomb threats, a country musician banning sales of the beer on his tour and a Twitter video of Kid Rock firing at cases of Bud Light with a submachine gun.
In the month following Ms. Mulvaney’s sponsored post, Bud Light sales fell an estimated 17 percent. In the memoir, with a brave sense of humor that doesn’t gloss over fear, Ms. Mulvaney recounts fending off paparazzi, arming herself with a kitchen knife for fear of a stalker, navigating death threats and thoughts of suicide.
Seeing the debacle as just a few chapters in a book allowed Ms. Mulvaney to contextualize the fiasco as an important incident in her life, but not a defining one — something she was able to do only after using the experience as an opportunity for self-reflection. She has since repurposed the episode as fodder for cultural critique, stand-up comedy and a one-woman musical. Ms. Mulvaney loves to perform and she loves a good story — and the Bud Light controversy is a good story.
The episode, she said, “isn’t going to be in the next book if I do write another book. What’s really exciting is that I still, hopefully, have so much time in my life to show everyone else the other sides of me.”
Ms. Mulvaney’s cultural cachet during this time reached a level she hopes to never see again. She pointed to her phone’s wallpaper: a photo of Alan ******** and Kristin Chenoweth. “That’s my ideal level of success,” she said. “They are doing Broadway shows, they’re hosting, they’re performing on cruise ships, and they have a really healthy level of personal downtime and relationships and privacy.”
There’s an irony to Ms. Mulvaney’s glorification of privacy after years of courting views and sponsorships by broadcasting daily updates about her personal life. It’s a tension present within some of her content: In one TikTok video recorded at the 2023 Grammy Awards, Ms. Mulvaney approaches the trans actress Laverne Cox, whom she brightly informs was “on my 2023 vision board.”
Ms. Cox semi-faces Ms. Mulvaney and semi-faces the camera as she says: “It’s insane that you’re, like, documenting so much of your life. Make sure you keep things for yourself. Everything cannot be for the public.” Viewers can see Ms. Mulvaney’s face, in real time, trying to absorb this advice.
Alok Vaid-Menon, a comedian and poet who lives in New York and uses they/them pronouns, formed a friendship with Ms. Mulvaney after seeing her video posts and then inviting her to one of their shows. “This woman is an artist!” Vaid-Menon wrote in an email from Namibia, where they are on a comedy tour. “It became immediately clear to me that social media was only a means to an end, she belonged onstage.”
Ms. Mulvaney’s gutsy humor about thorny circumstances is a quality her friend Jonathan Van Ness, a former “****** Eye” co-host, especially loves. “She’s *******!” Mr. Van Ness said. “She’s a theater girl and very fun.”
Ms. Mulvaney, who has since moved from her West Hollywood studio into a house in Laurel Canyon, says she genuinely loves documenting the minutiae of her life. In college, she would sometimes post dozens of Snapchats a day to her hundred or so friends on the app. She still loves recording herself and often thinks of her life decisions as things to debut on a platform. (Exhibit A: her recently dyed hair.)
But the memoir ends with a declaration of intention to protect, if not necessarily her privacy, then perhaps her interiority. “I’m trying this new thing where I keep certain things to myself,” Ms. Mulvaney writes. “Little yummy womanly moments just for me.”
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When a Journey Home to Israeli-Occupied Lebanon Becomes Deadly
When a Journey Home to Israeli-Occupied Lebanon Becomes Deadly
For months after the Israel-Hezbollah war that devastated southern Lebanon, the Alawieh family would visit a hillside near their ruined home to catch whatever glimpse they could of what remained.
Their olive trees were gone. So were their goats, and the lemon and fig orchards that had taken years to bear fruit. Their house was just a pile of rubble.
Israel had agreed to a Jan. 26 deadline — two months after a cease-fire took effect — to withdraw its remaining forces from southern Lebanon. That day, Mousa Alawieh set out with his three teenage children and a cousin, eager to see what was left of their home in the border town of Aitaroun.
Mr. Alawieh, 45, a metal worker, had been displaced for more than a year and struggling to make ends meet. He had hoped to salvage whatever possessions he could from the wreckage, family members said.
But he never made it home.
As he and his family were driving through their flattened town, they encountered at least two Israeli soldiers on the road who shot multiple times at the family’s car, killing Mr. Alawieh, according to video footage verified by The New York Times and accounts from his brother and brother-in-law.
Asked about the shooting of Mr. Alawieh, the Israeli military said the matter was “under review.”
Israel had delayed its withdrawal that day, but Mr. Alawieh was unaware and believed the military had begun to pull out of Aitaroun, according to Yaacoub Alawieh, his brother.
More than 100,000 people are still displaced in Lebanon, according to the U.N. migration agency, nearly all of them from the hard-hit south, where Hezbollah has long exercised de facto control. They, along with the tens of thousands of Israelis displaced across the border, are all desperate to return home.
Mr. Alawieh’s killing was a reminder of the dangers many Lebanese still face, even with hostilities paused.
The displaced are uncertain about whether Israel will remain indefinitely in Lebanon and when they will be able to return home. Many of their towns and villages now lie in ruins, and it also unclear who will foot the mammoth bill for reconstruction.
After Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend the Jan. 26 withdrawal deadline, Israeli forces continued to occupy large portions of southern Lebanon. A new date for the withdrawal was set for Tuesday, and Israeli forces pulled out of the remaining populated towns and villages along the border.
But the Israeli military said this week that it intended to stay at a number of strategic points inside Lebanon beyond the deadline for its complete withdrawal.
Israel once occupied southern Lebanon for 18 years and with each delay in the pullout, fears of another prolonged occupation have grown.
The latest war began brewing after the surprise ******-led assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah began attacking Israeli positions in solidarity with ******, its ally.
After nearly a year of low-level clashes, Israel launched a full-scale offensive in September — assassinating many of Hezbollah’s leaders and destroying much of its weapons stockpiles. It was Lebanon’s most destructive war in decades.
Israel has issued a series of warnings to residents of southern Lebanon — including on Jan. 26 — not to return to their hometowns yet because its military forces were still deployed there. But thousands of Lebanese have defied those orders in their eagerness to go home.
Israeli forces killed at least 24 people in southern Lebanon on Jan. 26 alone, according to health ministry, and more were killed in the days that came after.
Mr. Alawieh was so excited to go home that he did not even check the news that day, his brother said, so he was under the impression that Israeli troops had begun to withdraw to the outskirts of Aitaroun.
Mousa AlawiehCredit…via Alawieh family
But as his car rounded a bend inside the town, at least two Israeli soldiers suddenly emerged in the road ahead, according to video footage filmed from inside the vehicle by Ali, Mr. Alawieh’s 15-year-old son.
Mr. Alawieh panicked and slammed his vehicle into reverse. The family raised their hands in the air. A gunshot rang out — one, two, then 20 — a salvo of bullets puncturing metal and glass and skin.
“Get down, Dad, get down!,” shouted Ali from the back seat, his sisters screaming in fear.
“No, Dad!,” shouted Ali. “Dad! Dad! Dad!”
As their father began to bleed, the Israeli soldiers ordered the children out of the car and questioned them, Mr. Alawieh’s brother said, relaying what he was told by his family members who were inside the car at the time. The soldiers then told them to walk straight ahead without looking back. They left their father behind in the car, wounded but still alive.
Rukaya Alawieh, Mr. Alawieh’s 18-year-old daughter, was injured in the shooting and it took her an hour to reach the nearest hospital to find her father help. By the time the ambulance arrived at the car, he was dead.
Like many other residents of southern Lebanon, Mr. Alawieh was affiliated with Hezbollah, according to his brother. But he was not a fighter or a full-fledged member, the brother said. Hezbollah has long operated a roster of social and humanitarian services in lieu of Lebanon’s ailing state, and Mr. Alawieh became involved in the group’s social work shortly before his death.
Many residents who have been able to return to their homes in southern Lebanon have often arrived back to find nothing left standing.
The extended Alawieh family lost 11 of their homes, said Marwan Qassem, Mr. Alawieh’s brother-in-law, who owned a house in Aitaroun and also ran a large family farm there, both now in ruins.
“When I saw the damage to the house, I asked myself, where do I begin?” he said.
During the war, Mr. Qassem and Mr. Alawieh spent months bouncing between temporary accommodation with their families, trying to escape Israel’s widening offensive.
First they fled the border region to an area where the airstrikes soon struck. Then they headed for the capital, Beirut, but that was bombed too. It was a seemingly endless loop, searching for safety, but never quite safe.
Today, his family is in limbo, still unable to return home and consumed with grief over their losses. Forced to lay their father to rest away from the family cemetery in Aitaroun, the children have struggled to process what happened, Mr. Qassem said.
Ali’s cheeky laugh has given way to reticence. And Rukaya, his elder sister who scrambled to find help after their father was shot, is traumatized.
“Sometimes she is silent,” Mr. Qassem said. “Sometimes she cries.”
Arijeta Lajka and Myra Noveck contributed reporting.
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This 7.6% Dividend Is the Ultimate ‘Sleeper’ Play on the Tariff Panic
This 7.6% Dividend Is the Ultimate ‘Sleeper’ Play on the Tariff Panic
Bonds (and bond proxies) are hated right now. That’s our shot at big dividends—because mainstream investors’ thinking here is totally backward.
We’re going to pounce, and use this opportunity to grab ourselves a huge 7.6% payout sporting an unusual “discount in disguise.”
Tariffs: Don’t Believe the Hype
The reason for this opportunity comes back to tariffs—which I admit, dear reader, I’ve heard so much about that I’m starting to dream about them at night!
The badly flawed logic most people are applying to tariffs is this: Tariffs will drive up prices, adding to an inflation rate that, according to last week’s report, hit 3% year over year, up from 2.9% the month before and a mere 2.4% in October (and was ahead of expectations, to boot).
Here’s where that logic goes off the rails, though. We’ve been talking tariffs pretty much non-stop since November when then-President-Elect Trump called for 25% duties on ********* and ******** imports concerning border security.
Those have been put on ice for now. But are still very much alive.
Then there are 25% tariffs on and from all countries, announced on Super Bowl Sunday and set to come in on March 12. And finally, we have the so-called “reciprocal tariffs” announced last Thursday (details are apparently forthcoming).
One thing we can be sure of is this will be an ongoing thing with Trump, who has been talking about tariffs since 1989 when he advocated for a 15% to 20% tariff on imports from Japan because of unfair trade practices.
But here’s where things get interesting: If the common “wisdom” on tariffs were true, we’d expect the (the benchmark for most consumer and business loans) to soar, right?
Well, it initially popped up on last week’s hot CPI number. Then it did what it’s done over and over for the last few years: It “hit its head” on a new recent peak and dropped. It remains below the 5% level, where it’****** the most resistance.
Bond Market Knows the Truth About Tariffs
If the bond market were worried about tariffs spiking inflation, you’d expect the 10-year rate to break out. Instead, the opposite has happened.
That’s because, contrary to popular belief that these levies are inflationary, a recent study shows otherwise. The Centre for Economic Policy Research found that tariffs do not boost inflation because rising prices depend on a hot economy—and a trade war brings in the opposite since tariffs are a short-term headwind on growth.
The Financial Times recently reached a similar conclusion. Yes, tariffs compress company margins due to upward wage pressure and higher costs. But these are typically absorbed by the firms—and their shareholders!
All of this sets up a buy window for us in bonds (and bond proxies)!
Today we’re dipping into our Contrarian Income Report portfolio’s bucket of utilities, specifically a CEF—with a 7.6% yield in this case: the Cohen & Steers Infrastructure Fund (NYSE:).
You don’t have to squint hard to see that when the 10-year yield pops, it’s a great time to buy this fund. And with last week’s “bounce-and-plunge” in said yield, we’ve got another good opportunity to get in—especially if, as I expect, the 10-year yield falls more than expected on a slowing economy:
Bond Proxy UTF Is a Smart “Rinse-and-Repeat” Trade on the 10-Year
UTF is my “go-to” ticker for utility stocks. As mentioned, it pays 7.6% and gives us instant exposure to 256 strong utility names, including American Tower (NYSE:), the Southern Company (NYSE:) and Duke Energy (NYSE:). About 34% of its portfolio is in electric utilities. It also holds 16% in corporate bonds (another part of the reason for the correlation with the 10-year Treasury yield) and 11% in pipelines.
Sometimes we’re fortunate enough to be able to buy UTF at a discount to its net asset value (NAV, or the value of its underlying portfolio). Today, it trades near par. We’ll take UTF anytime it’s near par (or below) because its NAV will gain as rates decline.
Disclosure: Brett Owens and Michael Foster are contrarian income investors who look for undervalued stocks/funds across the U.S. markets. Click here to learn how to profit from their strategies in the latest report, “7 Great Dividend Growth Stocks for a Secure Retirement.”
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Riot Grrrl Rebellion With Supernatural Cues
Riot Grrrl Rebellion With Supernatural Cues
The narratively profuse mystery game Lost Records: Bloom and Rage is like living in a Bikini Kill song followed by a Phoebe Bridgers ballad. The four main characters who form the title band, Bloom and Rage, are strong together — even as teenagers, even when one describes herself as meek. Through the highs of anger and the depths of sadness, they search for deeper meaning through self-discovery as they come of age. It’s freeing. It’s feminist. It’s powerful.
But the rebellious grit, augmented by the game’s mature themes, does more than amplify an energetic liberalism during this 1995 ******* of revelation. Everywhere the girls go in tiny Velvet Cove, Mich., they rock.
Autumn, a spirited young woman of color, sings duets loudly with Nora, a gothy Joan Jett type who likes to push friends’ buttons. Music plays an important part throughout Bloom, the first of the game’s two episodes. (Rage is scheduled to be released in April.) The D.I.Y. riot grrrl essence here is inspiring, especially for those who lived through the time.
And yet, there’s a serene, attractive innocence when suburban boredom turns to goblincore-inspired escape. After Swann, the red-haired central character, is called “****” by bullies, she turns to filming everything with a video camera. (There’s no idealized perfection here, a good, honest thing; every teen has zits, even Swann.) She explores a lurid forest. She sits at the water’s muddy edge among the mushrooms, frogs and dragonflies, the height of Zen peacefulness. You can’t help but appreciate her outsider essence. Even Thoreau would be jealous.
Swann and her friends yearn for more than hanging at the local ice cream stand or watching movies at the multiplex. You can hear it in their words. All they care about is one another, their fleeting summer together, holding hands and making their art. They make fun of ******* wrappers and heavy flow days because speaking truth is freeing.
Just as in the Life Is Strange series, also by the French studio Don’t Nod, the gameplay elements are light and not necessarily new. There’s the convention of placing fuses correctly in a breaker box to get power running. But the play isn’t the point, not really. It is in service of the story, which feels dramatic when it should be and, at the end, surprisingly melancholy.
The game makes mistakes regarding pop culture history. Characters cite the found-footage horror film “The Blair Witch Project,” though that movie wasn’t released until 1999. They repeatedly use the anachronistic term “bounce” (meaning “leave”). The Furbys and Tamagotchis seen in Swann’s room weren’t sold until the late ’90s.
When the details are right, though, the game approaches perfection. Troll toys sit cute and big-eyed, a Newton’s cradle clacks appealingly, and nods are made to films like “Pulp Fiction.” At the practice garage, there are homemade mix cassettes featuring groups like Hole and Belly. It’s here that Kat, an overall-wearing, occasionally furious writer, introduces “See You in Hell,” the raucous tune that will be the group’s anthem. (Unfortunately, you can’t access the song to play it again when the episode is complete.)
A mix of horror and science fiction becomes revealed when three of the band members reunite at a local dive bar 27 years after their brilliant but tragic summer together. Through snippets of reminiscences, you see that Swann leaves a cabin at midnight to videotape bizarre moths. They’re suddenly, supernaturally colorful, surrounded by a fog of luminescent hues. They lead Swann to a seemingly bottomless sinkhole that radiates a purple glow. Then, back in the present day, a shoebox-size package addressed eerily to Bloom and Rage is brought to the bar.
A “Grey’s Anatomy”-style cliffhanger is moving because it isn’t just the girls who are friends. Invested in their stories and emotions, you’ve become close to them as well. The game’s final episode promises to reveal all mysteries, perhaps violently and supernaturally. True to form, Bloom and Rage sings, “I can tell I’ll mess you up — when I see you in hell.” In riot grrrl fashion, they may indeed live their music.
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‘The best ground in the Premier League’ – Everton fans react to new stadium
‘The best ground in the Premier League’ – Everton fans react to new stadium
Everton fans react to their new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock as it opened its doors for the first time to 10,000 Toffees supporters who were successful in a ballot for an under-18s friendly against Wigan.
READ MORE: ‘It’s out of this world’ – Everton fans get first glimpse of new stadium
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How to Unlock the Padlock at the Bar in Bloom & Rage (Answered)
How to Unlock the Padlock at the Bar in Bloom & Rage (Answered)
As you explore the closing missions of Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, you’ll come across one of the game’s rare puzzles. It requires you to crack a padlock to access a blocked area behind The Blue Spruce, the bar you’re about to perform at. In this super short guide, I’ll teach you how to unlock the padlock in Bloom & Rage as quickly as possible.
Padlock Solution in Bloom & Rage
If you don’t want to go through the various options, you can take the padlock solution and go straight through the gate. You’re able to ‘try’ the padlock as soon as you find it.
To open the padlock in Bloom & Rage, just move the dial through this sequence: up, right, left, right, down.
Once you’ve done that, the padlock will pop open and you’ll be able to go and find the extension cord and power up your performance.
If you’d rather go through the options laid out before you, then you can jump straight to the payphone that’s nearby the gate. Here, you’ll be prompted to ask Kat to call Dylan to get the solution for the padlock.
As the conversation options pop up, you’ll want to tell Dylan that there’s a stray cat behind the gate, which is the most surefire way to get the code from her. From there, return to the padlock and Kat will read out the solution that I’ve given you above.
That’s how to unlock the padlock in Bloom & Rage – easy.
Bloom & Rage is light on the puzzle mechanics, and the thing you’ll be busying yourself with most is finding all the memoirs to record through your trusty camcorder. This is admittedly one of the easiest puzzles you’ll need to solve, but it’s always nice to have that solution ready to go.
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Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Tape One) review – go back to a riot grrrl summer in clever teen thriller | Games
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Tape One) review – go back to a riot grrrl summer in clever teen thriller | Games
Ten years ago, Parisian studio Don’t Nod effectively crafted a new sub-genre of narrative adventure with its teen mystery Life Is Strange. Part thriller, part relationship drama, it used music, art and relatable characters to create a touching paean to unshakeable friendship. After a series of sequels, Don’t Nod’s Montreal studio has crafted a new tale about teenage relationships, split into two episodes, or Tapes, the first of which will doubtless have fans on tenterhooks for the concluding part.
It’s 1995 and introverted teen Swann is facing a final quiet summer alone in the rural town of Velvet Cove, Michigan, before her family moves to Vancouver. But in the parking lot of the local video store, she meets fellow 16-year-olds Nora, Autumn and Kat, and the four girls bond over their boredom and frustration with small-town life. Soon, they are inseparable, spending their days hiking in the nearby forests, making camp fires, confessing their secrets – until they discover a spooky shack hidden out among the trees and decide to make it their base. Here, they form riot grrrl band Bloom & Rage, channelling their dreams, desires and fears into fantasies of fame and revenge on shitty boys and repressive parents. But when their swirling emotions seem to awaken a supernatural presence in the woods, something terrible happens and the girls swear each other to a lifelong secret.
A quiet summer, then … Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. Photograph: Don’t Nod
Now, 27 years later, the group are meeting again in a rough bar on the outskirts of town that holds special relevance to their story. Autumn has received a sinister package addressed to their band. Whatever’s in the box may well be the dreadful result of that tumultuous summer.
In a style typical of Don’t Nod, the game intercuts compelling cinematic sequences with interactive scenes, giving you control over conversations that subtly shape your relationships and the direction of the story. The narrative swaps back and forth between two timelines – the adult characters reminiscing in 2022 and their pivotal summer together in 1995 – and your actions in one affects outcomes in the other. At times, decisions you make as 43-year-old Swann at the bar are then retrofitted into her youthful experiences, creating fascinating ambiguities of causality and memory.
As much about the way we edit memories as what actually happens … Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. Photograph: Don’t Nod
Indeed, this game is as much about the way we craft and edit memories as it is about what actually happens to the girls. Swann is a keen film-maker and her 1990s camcorder is with you throughout the game; at any point you can hit the right trigger to view the world through the camcorder lens. In the main story, you’re using it to film a music video for the band, but you’re free to record whenever you want. This feature is incentivised by a bunch of themed checklists – record 10 different birds, or five ruined playground rides, or snatches of graffiti. But you can also capture your own scenes from the town and its environs, or discreetly record your friends, building themed sequences that you can then store and edit. Although the interface recalls games such as No Man’s Sky and Marvel’s Spider-Man, where filming objects is a practical gameplay component, here the camcorder is also a metaphor for recollection and nostalgia – how trustworthy are these recorded artefacts? At the same time, the player’s role as both gamer and cinematographer asks interesting questions about how we relate to the protagonists we embody in games.
It’s not the only clever trick the game plays with format and convention. The dialogue system, for example, is specifically designed to capture the energy and chaos of the excitable-group dynamic. Options and responses change depending on who you’re looking at as you talk, characters shout over each other, and comments get lost in the noise. At times, you can simply allow the dialogue options to time-out and choose not to say anything. In several wonderful moments this mechanic perfectly captures the desperate improvisational nature of teen relationships, the way a whole day can teeter on a single comment, or a fleeting moment of eye-contact.
There are times when the dialogue feels stilted and over-earnest, and the sense of authenticity gets stretched. Those who’ve played Life Is Strange will also see many parallels with that game, especially between Swann and Max Caulfield, both shy photographers using the lens as an emotional security blanket.
But like its predecessor, Lost Records wonderfully captures how, in young adulthood, seemingly insignificant moments can be charged with meaning. There’s a picnic by a lake and later a game of truth or dare that absolutely crackle with intensity. The 90s setting is also well-supported, with spot-on contemporary references, from grunge band mix tapes to video players and troll dolls – it’s fun to just pick up objects in the environment and reminisce, like wandering about some themed pop culture museum.
In the background, the mystery at the heart of the game is subtly introduced and there’s much to anticipate from the second part. Mostly though, it’s the characters and their brittle relationships that stick with you. Three days after finishing the game I’m still thinking about them, worrying about them, inhabiting that old shack with them. Unless you simply refuse to indulge in emotional young adult drama, you will be right there, too.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Tape One), is out now; £59.99
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Book Review: ‘The Echoes,’ by Evie Wyld
Book Review: ‘The Echoes,’ by Evie Wyld
THE ECHOES, by Evie Wyld
Death and its ambassadors, ghosts, are perpetually in style. Lookit: Just yesterday, in fact, several people died. Already this year, two movies on the topic have premiered: a remastering of Michael Roemer’s brilliant 1976 cinéma vérité film “Dying,” and “Presence,” Steven Soderbergh’s paranormal thriller about a ghost haunting the new home of a seemingly typical family. Both reminded me of Max, the charming ghost protagonist of “The Echoes,” Evie Wyld’s fourth novel. I’m not spoiling anything by revealing his death: Max is dead in the first sentence of the book. But he has not been allowed to move on, or even leave his London flat.
How has Max died and why is his spirit anchored on the earthly plane? Those are the first two mysteries of “The Echoes.” Max is stumped on the first question; for the second, he has a theory — perhaps he’s stuck because he still has matters to settle with his girlfriend, Hannah. “Love is what brings about a ghost — isn’t it? The unfinished business of love.” Until Max’s death, he and Hannah lived relatively peaceably, though Hannah maintained a pesky unknowability. She never let him meet her estranged family and she never spoke much about her hometown, a tortured scratch of land in Australia’s bush country called (pointedly) the Echoes.
The novel cycles between four chapter types, always in this order: “After,” “Before,” “Then” and what we’ll in this review call “[Character].” “After” is narrated by Max’s ghost following his death; “Before” follows Hannah grappling with her own problems while Max is still alive; “Then” flashes back even further, tracking the troubled childhood that Hannah refuses to share; and “[Character]” chapters are each named for and contain the point of view of different figures from Hannah’s past.
Because the novel skips around in time, in some cases with flashbacks buried in flashbacks, its perch — the point of telling — is at first hard to pin down. For the sake of simplicity, I decided it was in the “After” chapters, when Max watches Hannah mourn.
The novel’s focus feels most assured here and, not coincidentally, it’s in these sections that the language soars. Death has afforded Max a second, albeit tardy sight, allowing him to finally appreciate Hannah (her “eyelashes with their pinch of skin at the end”), their relationship (“I recall how she would slide her fingers along from the inside of my elbow to my wrist and how it sent small eels through me”) and the facts that shaped their days (for example, their flat with its “low ceilings like it’s keeping its head down” and moths building nests under the carpets). I could have read an entire novel dedicated to Max and Hannah’s quotidian life in London — in its best and most lyrical moments, “The Echoes” documents the messy, divine business of being alive.
But the novel’s third mystery resides far from London, in the Echoes, and unfolds in the sections detailing Hannah’s childhood. Hannah’s life, we come to find, was upended by the arrival of her ne’er-do-well Uncle Tony. Slowly, the reader learns the reason for Hannah’s familial estrangement.
The titular terrain is racked with its own calamitous past, one that haunts its residents. A chapter titled “Mr. Manningtree,” told from the perspective of the landowner’s heir, documents the history of the land, where kidnapped Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were brought for “reform.” (This is historically accurate; Wyld includes an endnote attribution.) Though Mr. Manningtree grows repulsed by his family’s practices, the resulting wisdom is less revelatory than one might hope: “When his lesson was over and the girl stood he saw blood on the back of her dress and it was the first time he’d ever thought about it, but how funny to have a different-colored skin but the blood is the same.” Point of view is a gift writers bestow; in a novel with a ghost main character, I longed for more engagement with the ghosts that no doubt haunted the land.
There is a phrase often attributed to David Foster Wallace: “Every love story is a ghost story.” I thought of this while reading “The Echoes,” as Max mourns the love he failed to notice as time forges on without him. But fast-forward enough, and every story is a ghost story, because everyone in it will one day die. Though Max’s romantic afterlife seems like the heart of “The Echoes,” the novel makes the dispersal of information and the slow exposure of the characters’ secrets its engine. Thus, the story buries its revelations toward the end, forcing them to assume climactic roles. Though this produces narrative desire — we read to discover how Max died and what happened in Hannah’s childhood — I wonder if the reader would inhabit (haunt?) the characters more fully had these answers arrived earlier. Wyld’s sharp story of living doesn’t need traumatic climaxes to make its point. The time to enjoy the love we have is now.
THE ECHOES | By Evie Wyld | Knopf | 226 pp. | $28
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Unseen photos of Scott Morrison discovered in an op shop in Rockdale, Sydney
Unseen photos of Scott Morrison discovered in an op shop in Rockdale, Sydney
The unassuming photo album documented one politician’s trip to Europe in the 1990s, with handwritten captions revealing intimate details.
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FromSoftware Cannot Resist Trolling Players as Elden Ring Nightreign Survey Dangles a Bloodborne Sequel Carrot
FromSoftware Cannot Resist Trolling Players as Elden Ring Nightreign Survey Dangles a Bloodborne Sequel Carrot
FromSoftware has made a name for itself by crafting brutally challenging, wildly atmospheric worlds that keep players up at night. But recently, it’s not just the punishing difficulty that’s causing a stir, it’s the small, sneaky breadcrumbs it has been dropping about Bloodborne.
The studio has stirred the fans once again. | Image Credit: FromSoftware
And let’s be real: the studio knows exactly what it’s doing. In a recent Elden Ring Nightreign survey, it decided to stir the pot once again by casually tossing in a question about Bloodborne, a game that’s still very much a ghost in Sony’s ecosystem.
The question hinted at a potential sequel, and fans? Well, they’re already in full-on speculation mode, convinced this is no happy accident. The result? A frenzy of anticipation, and the studio got the popcorn ready.
FromSoftware’s subtle tease sends fans into an anticipation frenzy
Fans want to see the title bring back to life. | Image Credit: FromSoftware
Even without much going for it, Bloodborne is a game that continues to be beloved by its fanbase. The atmospheric design, deep lore, and brutal difficulty, something about the game has made it irreplaceable in fans’ hearts and minds.
However, since its release, Sony has kept Bloodborne locked away in the deepest dungeon possible, like a Disney princess waiting for her prince to save her. For years, fans had no sign of revival, and hope was slowly fading.
However, recent teases have stirred the gaming community back to life, particularly the survey from Elden Ring Nightreign. The survey straight-up asks the players if they’d be interested in the next installment, and fans? Well, they’re already in full-on speculation mode.
Sony clearly understands the appeal of this title and is likely playing with the player’s emotions. However, this isn’t the only tease, there have been others, like gameplay snippets at the end of an anniversary teaser, hinting that the title hasn’t been completely forgotten. At least, we hope it hasn’t.
Comment byu/StonedVolus from discussion inTwoBestFriendsPlay
Comment byu/StonedVolus from discussion inTwoBestFriendsPlay
Comment byu/StonedVolus from discussion inTwoBestFriendsPlay
While players understand this is just a survey, it felt more like a sly nod to the future of the beloved title. And with each tease, the hope grows stronger that there’s something more behind it.
Is this even a real tease?
Fans are hopeful that these teases lead to somewhere. | Image Credit: FromSoftware
So, what does this mean for Bloodborne fans? Are we about to get an official sequel or is this just another well-timed tease? The truth is, no one really knows. FromSoftware is known for its cryptic ways, and Song certainly made a habit of keeping players on edge.
That being said there has been an influx of activity surrounding Bloodborne, lately. Whether through a survey, inclusion in the anniversary video, or even some cryptic social media activity, the hints are hard to ignore.
Sony is well aware of how much attention the game still holds. This attention has only grown over the years with the success of Elden Ring and the ongoing interest in FromSoftware’s games.
For now, it seems like the company is playing a careful game, teasing its audience with a future that may or may not come to fruition. After all, when you’ve got fans this invested, why not let them stir their hopes for just a little longer?
In the end, fans will continue to hold out hope, analyzing every survey and social media post for signs of confirmation. But it’s clear the studio enjoys teasing its loyal fanbase almost as much as the games themselves.
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My Favorite Song | R&B’s New Guard
My Favorite Song | R&B’s New Guard
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My Favorite Song | R&B’s New Guard
H.E.R., Coco Jones, Victoria Monét and Muni Long pay tribute to the women singer-songwriters of the 1990s and early 2000s.
Hey, I’m H.E.R. It’s your girl Victoria Monét. My name is Muni Long. Hey, y’all. It’s Coco Jones, and my favorite song is “When You Touch Me” by Brandy. And my favorite ‘90s R&B song is “Weak” by SWV. … is “At Your Best” by Aaliyah. … is “If I Ain’t Got You,” by Alicia Keys. I think Brandy has influenced my music, definitely, when it comes to the creative ad libs. (SINGING) “Really miss you, *****. And the way you touched me. I can’t hardly wait ‘til you touch me.” I’m like, that’s true, girl. That sleep, it be gone when you’re really thinking about somebody. Everything about “At Your Best—” the way she’s singing. She doesn’t really get credit for being the vocalist that she was. But that song is really hard to sing. There’s a lot of jumping between octaves. (SINGING) “You’re a positive motivating force within my life. Should you ever feel the need to wonder why.” Music is like a smell. Like, when you smell something, and it takes you right back to that day. I can hear “If I Ain’t Got You” and remember my dad kind of teaching me how to play it. (SINGING) “Some people think that the physical things define what’s within.” Every artist is always doing the work of tweaking and opening the door just a little bit more for the people who come behind them. Maybe Ella Fitzgerald paved the way for Chaka. Maybe Chaka paved the way for Whitney. Maybe Whitney paved the way for Beyoncé. I used to fall asleep to “Miseducation” and “Who is Jill Scott?” Those were my favorite albums. We were just listening to “Got ‘til It’s Gone” by Janet Jackson. “I think ‘90s, early 2000s R&B, it was such an innovative time. And I really feel like that was some of the best songwriting I’ve seen, personally. (SINGING) “And I’ve been there before, but that life’s a bore. So full of the superficial.” [LAUGHS]
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Exploring Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 in the Upcoming Crosskart Buggy in Tons of Screenshots
Exploring Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 in the Upcoming Crosskart Buggy in Tons of Screenshots
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 lets you explore its digital twin of Earth on foot, very slowly. The upcoming Project Crosskart by Got Friends is faster.
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New game release doesn’t want to overstay its welcome
New game release doesn’t want to overstay its welcome
Tom Richardson
BBC Newsbeat
Obsidian
The makers of new RPG Avowed say they want the game to “respect players’ time”
In Japan, there’s a word to describe a shelf full of books you’ve bought but never read – tsundoku.
Video gaming has its own version of this.
The backlog.
Most console or PC owners probably have one – an ever-growing collection of unfinished or even unplayed titles.
There are websites allowing players to catalogue their digital cabinets of shame, and Reddit support groups sharing tips on how to shrink them.
It’s a thing. And a symptom of a potentially ******* problem.
More games are being released than ever before, and blockbuster releases in particular have been getting longer.
Some estimates suggest that as few as 10% of those who buy a game make it to the end.
But are things starting to change?
Of the top 10 best-reviewed games since 2020, according to review aggregator Metacritic, five are estimated to take at least 60 hours to complete.
Analyst Rhys Elliott, from Midia Research says the trend towards longer games has been “an insidious creep over time”.
“Games got ******* each year, and then, over the span of 10 years it’s been an insane jump in game length.”
Rhys uses the popular Assassin’s Creed series as an example.
Earlier sequels would take about 25 to 30 hours to finish. But 2020 release Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, could take anything from 60 to 100-plus hours.
On paper, more game for your money sounds like a great deal.
But Rhys says games take longer and cost more than ever to make while the price players are charged for them hasn’t gone up as much.
Based on public data from major console makers and on PC store Steam, Rhys found that the longer a game is, the lower the number of players who finish it.
“And this suggests that the growing development timelines and budgets that are fuelling these longer games have reached a point of diminishing returns,” he says.
Rhys has previously published research arguing that companies would be better off making shorter games.
“If game developers cut the length of a game like Assassin’s Creed by 20%, most players would never notice.”
There is another option – give players a choice.
Larian Studio
Time-*****: Baldur’s Gate 3 players can expect to spend at least 70 hours with charismatic vampire Astarion
Carrie Patel is the game director of Avowed – released on Xbox and PC this week – at developer Obsidian.
The Microsoft-owned studio has a long history in the role-playing game (RPG) genre, and has been behind hits including The Outer Worlds and Fallout: New Vegas.
RPGs generally take dozens of hours to finish, but Carrie says the studio has tried to design Avowed to accommodate players who might want a shorter game.
“I’ve definitely heard a sentiment on many of our teams, and from our player base, of: ‘Oh, good! A game I can actually finish’,” she says.
Reviewers have suggested a quick playthrough of Avowed will take about 15 hours, and completing all its extra optional content will take 40 or more.
That’s in line with some of the studio’s previous titles, but with Avowed the developers have been keen to point out it’s a game that “respects player’s time”.
“We know everybody has plenty of options, plenty of things to do with their time,” says Carrie.
“So we want everything that they find in our games to feel worth their time.”
Obsidian
Avowed is set in the same universe as Obsidian’s earlier Pillars of Eternity games
Games don’t have to contain hundreds of hours of content for them to be big hits.
Some fans complained when they learned that 2023 PS5 title Spider-Man 2 – a full-priced release – could be fully completed in just under 30 hours.
But the game reviewed well and broke a sales record for Sony – a case of quality over-riding quantity.
It’s an approach that chimes with Carrie.
“I don’t think most people are looking for something just to kill a few hours,” she says.
“They want a really immersive, valuable experience.”
Analyst Rhys says this is a “smart” approach.
“If you just want to blast through it, you can go for it, and you still get the full experience.
“And I think we’ll probably see a little bit more of this kind of experimentation going forward.”
Which begs the question – why do companies make them so long in the first place?
Even with a game like Avowed, a good number of players will see only a fraction of what the game has to offer.
Carrie admits: “There’s always this little voice in the back of your head that says: ‘But what about the players who are going to skip this?’
“And so you always want to make sure that you have those exit ramps for people who are less interested in getting into the weeds.
“But I can make sure that the people who are going to look for it, who are going to engage with it are going to have the best possible time with it.”
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Huge sinkhole appears in high street causing closure
Huge sinkhole appears in high street causing closure
Bob Dale
BBC News, South East
BBC/ADRIAN HARMS
Godstone High Street has been closed after a large sinkhole opened in the road
Buildings have been evacuated and part of a high street in Surrey has been closed after a large sink hole emerged.
Police have closed Godstone High Street between Oxted Road and Bletchingley Road.
A 100m (328ft) cordon has also been put in place.
The road is likely to remain closed for an extended ******* of time, police said.
A small number of buildings have been evacuated as a precaution while the emergency services respond, they added.
BBC Radio Surrey reporter Adrian Harms said the sinkhole was at least 19m (62ft) long and about 3m (10ft) wide.
“I’ve been here for about an hour and a half,” he said, “and on a couple of occasions I’ve heard some cracking and seen the hole getting *******.
“It’s filled with water so there’s no real telling how far down it goes.”
He added: “If you think of a scene from an earthquake where the road is buckled and the pavement’s buckled, that’s exactly what it’s like here.”
BBC/ADRIAN HARMS
Emergency services said the road would likely be closed for some time
“Please avoid the area and use alternative routes,” a Surrey Highways spokesperson said.
SES Water said it was aware of a burst water main in Godstone High Street in the early hours of Tuesday morning, which was affecting water supply to homes in the area.
Teams had been deployed to carry out urgent work, an SES Water spokesperson said.
“We’re really sorry for the disruption this is causing and are doing all we can to resolve the situation as quickly as possible,” they said.
BBC/ADRIAN HARMS
Local resident Paul Whelan said the hole was only a couple of feet wide when it was first reported
Local resident Paul Whelan described how quickly the sinkhole developed, after pictures were initially posted on social media at about 23:00 GMT on Monday.
“A hole maybe a couple of feet across started up,” he told BBC Radio Surrey. “Now it’s grown quite a lot after the burst water main.
“It’s made a real mess. It’s going to take a few hours work to sort this out.”
Another neighbour, Mel Henderson, said: “The water was everywhere. It’s flooded the drains, and the ground was all flooded.”
Meanwhile, her husband said: “Even standing here for half an hour last night you could see it was getting worse, and it’s a lot ******* this morning.
“We’ve no water for the next few days I think.”
Tom Street
The sinkhole appeared late on Monday night
Neighbour Leslie Burnett said there was a system of caves below many of the houses.
“Nobody knows quite how far they go” she said, “but every so often holes appear.”
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Gary Hall Jr and Gurus ready to pull the right rein ahead of draft selection for Ultimate Driver Championship
Gary Hall Jr and Gurus ready to pull the right rein ahead of draft selection for Ultimate Driver Championship
It’s crunch time for reinsman par excellence Gary Hall Jr and the Gloucester Park Gurus ahead of the Ultimate Driver Championship at Albion Park on February 21 and 22, with the series’ draft taking place.
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Pelican News
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