> Five more police officers are alleged to have placed bets on the timing of the general election, the Metropolitan Police has said. > > The force said it had been passed information about the officers by the Gambling Commission after Rishi Sunak's close protection officer was arrested last week over alleged bets on a July election. > > The Conservatives' election campaign has been plunged into crisis over the issue, with two Tory candidates and two party officials currently being investigated by the watchdog.

> A car has crashed into the gates of Rishi Sunak's official country residence, police have confirmed. > > The incident took place on Tuesday shortly after midday, when the white Volkswagen Scirocco hit the barriers at the entrance to Chequers - the grace and favour manor house in Buckinghamshire which prime ministers are allowed to use while in office. > > Rishi Sunak was not at the property at the time. > > Thames Valley Police said the driver, who was a 44-year-old man from the county, had been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and drink driving, and was the only person in the car. > > A spokesperson also said he had "suffered serious injuries" and had been taken to hospital, "where he remains". > > They added: "While we are still in the very early stages of our investigation, there is currently no evidence to suggest there was any intention to harm anyone."

> David Tennant has been embroiled in a war of words with U.K. Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch just days after he was honored at the British LGBT Awards. > > Tennant, who picked up the Celebrity Ally award at the ceremony, gave an acceptance speech in which he said how important Pride was to his family, saying “we have skin in the game.” During his speech he also mentioned the U.K. Minister for Women and Equalities, Kemi Badenoch, who has said she would exclude trans women from single sex spaces. > > “I suppose if I’m honest I’m a little depressed by the fact that acknowledging that everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it as long as they’re not hurting anyone else should merit any kind of special or award or special mention because it’s common sense, isn’t it?” Tennant said in his speech. “It’s human decency. We shouldn’t live in a world where that is worth remarking on. However until we wake up and Kemi Badenoch doesn’t exist anymore — I don’t wish ill of her, I just wish her to shut up — whilst we do live in this world I am honoured to receive this.” > > After the video went viral on X, formerly known as Twitter, Badenoch responded on the platform, saying: “A rich, lefty, white male celebrity so blinded by ideology he can’t see the optics of attacking the only Black woman in government by calling publicly for my existence to end. Tennant is one of Labour’s celebrity supporters. This is an early example of what life will be like if they win….Do not let the bigots and bullies win”

> Four men have been arrested at Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's constituency home in North Yorkshire on suspicion of aggravated trespass. > > North Yorkshire Police said the group were stopped within a minute of entering the grounds at 12.40pm, before being escorted off the property. > > The men, aged 52, from London, 43, from Bolton, 21, from Manchester, and 20, from Chichester, remain in custody for questioning. > > It is not clear if Mr Sunak or his family were home at the time. > > The manor house in the village of Kirby Sigston, near Northallerton, was previously subject to a protest from four Greenpeace activists in August last year.

> Residents in a town in Cornwall have received a letter from Royal Mail apologising for late mail - explaining that its delivery workers were being hampered by dive-bombing seagulls. > > Royal Mail said those living in the affected zone in Liskeard could choose to wait until the birds were not aggressively protecting their young, or nominate a new address. > > One Liskeard resident described it as "deadly" to go outside when the birds were nesting.

> The United States Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning letter to a company that appears to sell products containing human fecal matter without approval from the agency. > > In March, the FDA wrote to Human Microbes, a company advertising itself as "the world's largest, highest quality stool donor bank" for fecal microbiota therapy transplants, after reviewing its website a month prior. > > This type of therapy should only be used in the context of an authorized clinical trial, or to treat patients with recurrent Clostridium difficile, also known as C. difficile, a bacteria that causes diarrhea and intestinal conditions, like colon inflammation, the agency said. > > Per Human Microbes' website, the therapy yields "promising results in clinical trials" to treat other conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and mental health disorders like depression and anxiety, among others.

> Shira Inbar and Julia Dufossé have been learning a lot about carpets recently. Not just any carpets, Electra-Dye carpets; a type of wacky flooring, usually covered in swirls or planets, that populated movie theatres and multiplexes of the 1990s and early 2000s. “One of the things that really cracked me up is learning that these patterns were designed to camouflage spilled drinks, popcorn kernels, cookie crumbs and general movie theater grime,” says Shira. “A lot of these carpets are still available today! Although they are mostly marketed as decor for home theaters,” says Julia. > > These two don’t just happen to be studying for an upcoming upholstery history pop quiz, this wealth of knowledge came from designing and illustrating Dream Theater, issue 25 of the A24 zine. This edition explores the heyday of the multiplex, which if you’ve taken a wander down the more ‘liminal’ side of TikTok or Instagram recently, you’ll know is having something of a resurgence, in videos showing abandoned concession stands, etc. (Before the zine, Foster Kamer explored this history over on the A24 site, inspired by tweets like this.) > > “The design of that era was so singular – and each theater was so different – that there was so much for us to dive into,” says Shira. What particularly interested Shira, and became a major focus in the brief from A24, was the extravagance of multiplex design. “[That] culture of excess is so prominent in architecture and design in these spaces, during that time,” the designer says. On the other hand, both Shira and Julia tried to distill a contradictory sense of haziness into the design and illustration, distilling the feeling of “bored tweens” and the time-warp experience of leaving after a film: “As you emerged from the [theatre], you realised ‘oh it’s raining, it’s 6pm…’, says Julia.

A24 Zines

> Wealthy philanthropists with ties to Wall Street and Silicon Valley are unbowed by a botched climate experiment to limit the amount of sunlight hitting the earth, vowing to continue bankrolling future solar geoengineering tests as temperatures catapult upward. > > POLITICO contacted a dozen people or groups who funded a controversial program by the University of Washington to reflect sun rays by altering clouds. Those who responded indicated that it's worth pushing through the public skepticism surrounding efforts to determine how to best deploy the last-ditch global warming fix — if at all. > > ... > > The funders' comments came after two high-profile experiments were shutdown following public backlash, pointing to the challenges of conducting controversial research that could result in weather disruptions or other unintended consequences. The latest experiment was derailed earlier this month when local officials in Alameda, California, rejected a request by Washington researchers to restart a test to brighten clouds from the deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier in San Francisco Bay.

> Director Martin Scorsese’s gripping and fiery masterpiece Bringing Out the Dead celebrates its 25th anniversary this year and Paramount Home Entertainment is marking the occasion by releasing the newly remastered film for the first time ever on both 4K Ultra HD™ and Blu-ray™ on September 17, 2024. > > Bringing Out the Dead debuted on October 22, 1999 and marked the fourth collaboration between Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull). Nicolas Cage gives a riveting performance as a Manhattan paramedic barely clinging to sanity over the course of three chaotic nights. The film also stars Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, Ving Rhames, and Tom Sizemore. > > Newly remastered from the original camera negative, this exceptional new release was reviewed by Scorsese, cinematographer Robert Richardson, and editor Thelma Schoonmaker. Arriving as part of the Paramount Presents line, Bringing Out the Dead is presented in a must-own two-disc set that includes the film on 4K Ultra HD with Dolby Atmos® and on Blu-ray, along with a wealth of new bonus content, including new interviews with Scorsese, Cage, Schrader, and Richardson, plus archival on-set interviews with Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, Ving Rhames, Tom Sizemore, and Marc Anthony. The release also includes access to a Digital copy of the film. New and legacy bonus content included on the Blu-ray Disc™ is detailed below.

Tech specs at Blu-ray.com

Plot from Wikipedia:

> In 2898 AD, the desertified city of Kasi is now the only city known to exist, ruled by a totalitarian elite, led by god king Supreme Yaskin, from a hovering inverted-pyramidal-megastructure above the city, known as the "Complex". Set against the backdrop of ancient Indian Hindu mythology and a dystopian society, the story chronicles the journey spanning millennia, from the events of the Mahabharata in the year 3102 BC, the beginning of Kali Yuga, to 2898 AD. The core of the narrative revolves around the arrival of enigmatic figure of Kalki, the tenth and final avatar of the Hindu deity, Vishnu.

It is the most expensive Indian film ever made.

> Following years of languishing in development hell, Doug Liman offers an encouraging update on Edge of Tomorrow 2. Liman previously teamed with Tom Cruise for the 2014 adaptation of the Japanese novel All You Need Is Kill, in which Cruise starred as a military public affairs officer who becomes stuck in a time loop in a future in which aliens have invaded Earth and are slowly winning the war against humanity, but uses the looping to find a way to beat them. Though garnering rave reviews from critics, Edge of Tomorrow was only viewed a modest box office hit, which has partly complicated sequel plans. > > Now, during an interview with Total Film for his upcoming action-comedy The Instigators, Liman was asked about the long journey to making Edge of Tomorrow 2. Though not indicating where in the development process the sci-fi sequel might be, he did assure that Warner Bros. is "constantly" asking about when it will happen, making for an exciting update on the follow-up. Check out what Liman shared below: > >> I do think there's probably no better compliment to a movie than people wanting for there to be a sequel. Road House - there's call for a sequel. Edge of Tomorrow, there's no better compliment than Warner Bros. constantly bringing up, “Will you go and make another one of these?” > > ... > > Development on Edge of Tomorrow 2 has been a rocky road for the past decade, with various starts and stops throughout the years. Cruise, Liman and co-writer and frequent Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie have reiterated that they have the story idea ready for the sequel, which is said to be a "sequel that's a prequel". However, the writing team has changed a number of times, beginning with Snake Eyes duo Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, before Love and Monsters co-writer Matthew Robinson was brought on in 2019 to rewrite the screenplay, which was finished in October of that year. > > The biggest hurdle for Edge of Tomorrow 2 to get off the ground thus far has proven to be both the financial logistics and busy schedules of Cruise and co-star Emily Blunt in making the sequel.

> It’s easy to mock Nigel Farage: a cartoonish nationalist who’s made more comebacks than any pop star, who’s failed to win a seat in Westminster on seven different occasions, and whose urgent mission to save Britain from disaster doesn’t stop him selling bottles of “Farage gin” on the side (£40). Farage is aware of this mockery, too – and you sense a desire for revenge is partly what motivates him. As he infamously told the European parliament after the 2016 referendum, “When I came here 17 years ago … you all laughed at me – well, I have to say, you’re not laughing now, are you?” > > ... > > Even influential Conservatives – who desperately consume whatever Farage is selling, praying his followers will be included in the deal – heap insults on him. Michael Gove recently likened Farage to a clown or showman – a source of “amusement and diversion” – and called Reform UK “a giant ego trip”. David Cameron says that Farage is “trying to destroy the Conservative party” and offers only “inflammatory language and hopeless policy”, having previously called his supporters “fruitcakes and loonies and closet racists”. Farage’s friendly comments about Putin on Friday – that Nato and the EU “provoked” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – has provided fresh opportunities for them to take the moral high ground. But Conservatives never square this condescension with their capitulation to his demands. Why, despite being in power for 14 years with ever bigger majorities, have they let Farage make such a strong claim to being the most influential politician of the period? Looking back on the soap opera of British politics since 2010, it is Conservative prime ministers who make cameo appearances, and Farage who is the arch protagonist, shaping events, sealing fates, hogging the media’s attention. > > Now, as this series of Tory rule draws to a close, Farage is claiming that he wants to kill off the same Conservative party that has granted his every wish. There’s a strong sense of deja vu: in Reform, Farage is leading his third different party in four elections; immigration is again being framed as a national emergency, after a brief pause; and the “smug, complacent and snobby” Cameron, as he put it in a recent Daily Telegraph column, is again the target of Farage’s ire. > > But there is one major novelty. Farage’s party has overtaken or drawn level with the Tories in many polls. In the past, Conservatives liked to say that a vote for Farage was a vote for Labour. Farage now says, gleefully, that a vote for the Conservatives is a vote for Labour. “A Tory vote is a now wasted vote – we are now the real opposition,” he declares. Who’s laughing now? > > As ever, Conservatives are split over what to do with the former City broker. While figures such as Suella Braverman and Jacob Rees-Mogg are eager to incorporate Farage and his crowd into the Tories’ electoral coalition, others – from Cameron to Kemi Badenoch – are steadfastly opposed. The Conservatives know this conundrum well. In their quest to defeat Labour, a question recurs throughout the party’s history: how to maintain an aura of respectability, and thus keep its moderates on side, without losing voters to parties further on the right? > > ... > > The Conservatives justify these contortions by arguing that if they weren’t there to acknowledge these views, they would carry Britain to even darker places. But for the past decade, far from being a check on the far right’s power, the Conservatives have opened the door for it, allowing fringe reactionary interests to swamp Britain’s culture and politics. Leaving the European Union, tying all overseas aid to foreign policy interests, trying to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, prioritising funding for the armed forces – all these policies would be at home in a Thatcher-era National Front manifesto, and they are all now promoted by the Conservative party. The Tories might bicker over whether Farage has a place in their party, but in truth they made their peace with Faragism long ago: lax on inequality and authoritarian on immigration, with a few kind words about the NHS thrown in, sums up the Tory strategy for most of the past 50 years. > > Could Farage become leader of the Conservatives? One tempting answer is that he already has. But as this bruising phase of Tory government has taught us, things can always get worse. A Conservative party featuring Farage anywhere near its leadership would be a more reactionary mainstream force than Britain has ever seen in modern history. Is this what Farage is working towards? Does he want to destroy the Conservative party and rebuild it in his image, or simply flog a few more bottles of gin? Unless Farage thinks the Conservatives will get even fewer than Reform’s half-dozen or so expected seats, his claim to being the opposition is bluster. But Farage didn’t get where he is by understating his influence and, more worryingly, the Tories have an unhappy habit of making his outlandish fantasies come true.

> Furious Frenchmen are threatening to turn the Seine into a sewer this Sunday in a bizarre protest against the eye-watering costs of Olympic preparations. > > The movement, cheekily dubbed #JeChieDansLaSeineLe23Juin (I'll poo in the Seine on June 23), has gained traction after Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo boasted she'd take a dip to prove the river's cleanliness. > > Hidalgo, however, has now back-pedalled on her pledge, conveniently citing the hastily-called French elections as reason to postpone her plunge. > > A staggering £1.2 billion has been poured into purifying the Seine for Olympic swimmers and triathletes, as the river prepares to host key events during the Games. > > ... > > With just five weeks until the Games, recent tests revealed alarming levels of two types of faecal bacteria, including E.coli, falling short of Olympic standards.

> Ipsos’ latest General Election campaign tracker, taken 14-17 June explores attitudes towards Count Binface. Findings show that 16% of the public hold favourable opinions towards him and 17% are unfavourable. > > When comparing Binface to other politicians in Britain – either today or throughout this parliament we can see that more Britons hold favourable opinions of Count Binface (16%) than Liz Truss at the time of her resignation as Prime Minister (7%). Truss’ ratings have not improved much since then. In February 2023 9% held favourable opinions of the former Prime Minister and in February this year 8% did. > > The 16% favourable towards Binface is 4 points below the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Britons aged 18-34 are more favourable towards Binface (31%) than Sunak (16%). Overall, only 22% know a great deal or fair amount about Binface. When asked whether favourable or unfavourable whilst 16% are favourable and 17% unfavourable. 28% are neutral and 4 in 10 (40%) say they don’t know.

> James Cracknell, who is standing to be a Conservative MP, has called the Tories a “shower of shit”, in a video he posted on Facebook. > > The former Olympic rower, who is the Conservative candidate for the key Labour target of Colchester, said: “Two weeks out from the Olympics, if we are competing against the Conservative party my teammates and I would be saying they are a shower of shit. > > “And if one of my teammates got caught for cheating they’d be dead to me. That abuse of trust is unforgivable.” > > ... > > Cracknell is competing to retain the seat, which had a majority of more than 9,000 under the previous MP, Will Quince, but polls indicate it is likely to be won by Labour for the first time since 1945. > > He said he was still fighting for the seat because he believed in the party’s values. “Why am I still canvassing and delivering leaflets? Because I believe the Conservative way is the best for the country. Freedom to succeed, protection of our national security and personal responsibility.”

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/13760361

> > The industry is used to stories about UK cinema­going being in decline since the pandemic and younger viewers finding other ways to spend their leisure time. But a number of independent exhibitors counter that narrative based on their own experiences. While none downplay the struggles that arthouse cinema releases still face at the UK box office, many also highlight reasons for optimism. > > > > “We are seeing a flourishing of young cinephile audiences,” says Jake Garriock, director of publicity at leading UK arthouse distributor/exhibitor Curzon. > > > > David Sin, head of cinemas at the Independent Cinema Office (ICO), echoes that view. “A number of the highest-grossing films in that [arthouse] space in the post-­pandemic era have been films that are aimed at a younger audience than traditional arthouse cinema,” he says, citing titles such as Decision To Leave, Triangle Of Sadness and “a slew of British independent films like Scrapper and Saint Maud, aimed primarily at millennial and Gen Z audiences”. > > > > Sin believes UK arthouse distributors have been slanting their slates toward younger spectators, realising older audiences were initially reluctant post-Covid to come back to cinemas. Over the last two years, independent releases including Anatomy Of A Fall, La Chimera, Aftersun and The Zone Of Interest have played well with a younger demographic. More mainstream indie titles such as Saltburn and Challengers have played extremely well in university towns. > > > > “This younger audience has replaced the more traditional arthouse audience as the core supporter of independent and arthouse cinemas in the UK,” Sin suggests.

> The industry is used to stories about UK cinema­going being in decline since the pandemic and younger viewers finding other ways to spend their leisure time. But a number of independent exhibitors counter that narrative based on their own experiences. While none downplay the struggles that arthouse cinema releases still face at the UK box office, many also highlight reasons for optimism. > > “We are seeing a flourishing of young cinephile audiences,” says Jake Garriock, director of publicity at leading UK arthouse distributor/exhibitor Curzon. > > David Sin, head of cinemas at the Independent Cinema Office (ICO), echoes that view. “A number of the highest-grossing films in that [arthouse] space in the post-­pandemic era have been films that are aimed at a younger audience than traditional arthouse cinema,” he says, citing titles such as Decision To Leave, Triangle Of Sadness and “a slew of British independent films like Scrapper and Saint Maud, aimed primarily at millennial and Gen Z audiences”. > > Sin believes UK arthouse distributors have been slanting their slates toward younger spectators, realising older audiences were initially reluctant post-Covid to come back to cinemas. Over the last two years, independent releases including Anatomy Of A Fall, La Chimera, Aftersun and The Zone Of Interest have played well with a younger demographic. More mainstream indie titles such as Saltburn and Challengers have played extremely well in university towns. > > “This younger audience has replaced the more traditional arthouse audience as the core supporter of independent and arthouse cinemas in the UK,” Sin suggests.

> More than 120 Conservative MPs, including Jeremy Hunt, Liz Truss, Sajid Javid and Gillian Keegan, paid £100,000 of taxpayers’ money to the Conservatives’ in-house web design services, it can be revealed. > > The MPs used the Bluetree website service to design their websites. When billed by Bluetree, they would pay for the sites then claim back the costs from the public purse via expenses, prompting a complaint to parliament’s expenses watchdog about the practice. > > Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) has denied Bluetree is wholly owned by the party and says it is a separate organisation, but repeatedly refused to deny the party receives income from the company, saying it has “commercial arrangements with CCHQ”. > > ... > > The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) has said it would not allow websites to be funded if it was clear they were being used for party political purposes – regardless of the services offered by the company. It said if any evidence was found that rules had been broken then it would work with the MP to make amendments or repay expenses. > > Senior transparency campaigners said they were alarmed if MPs were using taxpayer funds that could end up with the Conservative party. Tom Brake, the director of Unlock Democracy, said the money should be repaid if any surveys from the website were used to give MPs information for campaigning. > > ... > > The party said Bluetree was part of a registered company separate from the Conservative party but would not say what that company was. All contact details for Bluetree on its website are directed to CCHQ and Bluetree does not have a separate Companies House registration.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/13742015

> > Speaking to Doctor Who Unleashed, Davies said: “So that’s goodbye to Millie Gibson, except it’s not! You’d have to be mad to say goodbye to talent and a character like that!” > > > > He added: “This is a pause. I genuinely felt Ruby’s story paused there. She couldn’t get all that information about her family, all that emotional overload, and run off in the TARDIS. It pauses there. She’s coming back. > > > > “A new companion is coming in, but you’ll see the three of them together. Three people in this TARDIS fighting evil. There’s good stuff to come. There are really crucial stories for Ruby to come, and her family – the story of that family hasn’t finished yet – that will all make sense when you see it. So more to come.”