World Television Day

LONDON: The world is a small place, as they say. The acclaimed Syrian-American journalist and former CNN broadcaster, Hala Gorani, was in Haiti, reporting on an earthquake that obliterated the capital city of Port-au-Prince in 2010. Looters had emerged, and the situation grew dangerous as gunshots were heard. With her film crew, Gorani found herself in a food shop, where its owner spoke with a familiar accent. In the unlikeliest of situations, amid fear and destruction, a brief yet friendly connection was developed: It turned out that the owner was from Syria too. “I would have never guessed you were Syrian. You don’t even look Arab,” he told the blonde and blue-eyed Gorani. She never saw him again, but that…

Edinburgh’s small (mostly independent) shops are the best place to buy souvenirs or gifts. You can pick up a ready-to-wear kilt, peruse heaving delicatessens and pungent cheesemongers for picnic supplies, or taste test unusual shortbread flavours (lemon and poppy seed, perhaps?) for family and friends back home. Below we cover the best shopping in Edinburgh, while for further trip planning inspiration, see our guides to the city’s best hotels, restaurants and cafes, pubs and bars, nightlife, things to do, things to do for free, plus how to spend a weekend in Edinburgh. Enter Hawico to find stacks of cashmere sweaters and scarves in a rainbow of desirable colours. There are 49 shades to choose from, but if you cannot find…

VA Lt. Gov. Smacks Down Dems for Melting Down Over ‘Misgendering’ of State Senator Townhall Video Without a doubt, the “Palestinian Cause” has “jumped the shark.” Jumping the shark is a term that comes from the old television show Happy Days. It is defined in the Urban Dictionary as “The beginning of the end. Something is said to have “jumped the shark” when it has reached its peak and begun a downhill slide to mediocrity or oblivion.” Not that the Palestinian Cause ever really had a peak. It was mostly imaginary thinking to begin with. But ever since the October 7th massacre by the Hamas terror group, led by the elected government of the Palestinian quasi-state in Gaza, where Israeli,…

(Adnkronos) – HAIKOU, CHINA – Media OutReach Newswire – 26 February 2024 – On 23rd February, the Hainan Free Trade Port, located in the south of China, officially launched the global selection of “Hainan Tourism and Cultural Excellence TOP10”. The initiative aims to showcase the excellence of Hainan’s tourism and share the story of China’s holiday paradise with a global audience. Hainan’s visa-free entry expanded to 59 countries at the beginning of this month. The policy has drawn global attention as it opens opportunities for business and trade, visit, family visit, medical care, conference and exhibition, and sports competition in addition to tourism. Launched by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports of Hainan Province, this initiative will…

BEIJING — Bathed in enchanting moonlight, sculptures of the Temple of Heaven and Notre Dame Cathedral are attracting tourists from home and abroad in a celebration of ice and snow in the northern reaches of China. Those brave enough to bear the frigid temperatures are participating in a cultural dialogue and exchange between China and France in the “ice city” of Harbin, Heilongjiang province. Hailing the scenery as remarkable, Lyazid Benhami, vice-president of the Paris Association of French-Chinese Friendship, said he didn’t expect to see the Notre Dame Cathedral’s beauty in the form of an ice sculpture on social media. Tourism in Harbin is booming, bringing much-needed economic impetus to the region. More than 3 million visitors flocked to Harbin…

Ammon News – China’s travel activity and spending jumped above pre-pandemic levels during the Lunar New year holiday, in a sign that consumption was improving in the world’s second-largest economy. Some 474 million domestic trips were made during the eight-day festival, a 34.3% jump from a year earlier, according to data released by the country’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Sunday. Tourists spent nearly 632.7 billion yuan ($87.95 billion) on domestic holiday trips, a 47.3% year-over-year jump, data showed. State broadcaster China Central Television said citing the ministry that domestic trips represented a 19% rise over the same period in 2019 while spending rose 7.7%. The strong data comes at a time when policymakers in China have been scrambling…

Beijing: Chinese travel and spending during the Lunar New Year holiday exceeded levels from before the pandemic, adding to signs that consumption in the world’s second-largest economy is improving. Some 474 million tourist trips were made around the country during the festival, which began Feb 10 and concluded Saturday. That’s up 19% from the comparable period in 2019, state broadcaster China Central Television reported, citing data from the Culture and Tourism Ministry. Total tourism spending for the holiday climbed nearly 8% from that year on a comparable basis, to 633 billion yuan. China’s economy is searching for momentum this year as activity is challenged by a property slump, weak confidence and persistent deflationary pressures. As the nation’s most important holiday,…

New Delhi: As video streaming platforms multiply and the battle for consumer eyeballs and wallets increases, the platforms are increasingly banking on shorter subscriptions to increase their subscriber base and garner higher revenue. Media and entertainment industry experts say monthly or quarterly plans are gaining prominence from a platform perspective about two years after they began to be introduced. Factors moving this trend include cheap, bundled OTT (over-the-top or streaming) packages for ₹300-400 per month from telecom and other aggregators; plateauing D2C (direct-to-consumer) subscriptions from the OTT firms; and escalating content creation costs. For the consumer, it is a happy situation to be in considering annual plans are expensive, and not value for money if you’re locked into a platform…

PARIS (AP) – Before the Paris Olympics open and upend the French capital’s usual rhythms, retiree Pierre Schapira plans to hire a car and quit town. But with the intense Olympic security measures and traffic disruptions they’ll cause, will that even be doable? For his answer, Schapira went straight to the top – popping the question this week to chief of police Laurent Nunez himself. As he’s already done at other town hall meetings, did so again at this one, and will do at more to come, Nunez ever-so-patiently explained that Parisians are going to have to adapt to the July 26-Aug. 11 extravaganza but that it’s not going to put their lives and livelihoods on hold. “It’s not going…

PARIS (AP) — Before the Paris Olympics open and upend the French capital’s usual rhythms, retiree Pierre Schapira plans to hire a car and quit town. But with the intense Olympic security measures and traffic disruptions they’ll cause, will that even be doable? For his answer, Schapira went straight to the top — popping the question this week to chief of police Laurent Nunez himself. × Already a Subscriber? Sign in You are logged in Switch accounts As he’s already done at other town hall meetings, did so again at this one, and will do at more to come, Nunez ever-so-patiently explained that Parisians are going to have to adapt to the July 26-Aug. 11 extravaganza but that it’s not…

BEIJING: Joggers, people walking their dogs and families out for a stroll after dinner are usually a common sight along Beijing’s Liangma River. But there have been hardly any people in the area in recent days. In the Chinese capital city, public parks, buses and subway trains have also become emptier, with traffic a breeze on Beijing’s Second Ring road, which is notorious for jams on normal days. Busy Beijing, a city of 22 million people, is finally taking a breather as migrants head home for what is dubbed China’s first “real” Chinese New Year celebrations since the Covid-19 pandemic. A 30-seater cafe along Liangma River, which usually draws customers from the surrounding office and residential buildings and foreign embassies,…

Hanoi (VNA) – Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam Xiong Bo has highlighted the positive development trend with numerous outcomes of the Vietnam-China relationship in recent years and the measures to boost bilateral cooperation in various fields, in an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency on the threshold of the Year of the Dragon. Reporter: The Vietnam-China ties have gone through a 74-year development journey since the two countries officially established diplomatic relations. What are the highlights in the relations between the two countries? How do you evaluate the prospect of bilateral relations, especially after the state visit to Vietnam by Chinese General Secretary and President Xi Jinping? Ambassador Xiong Bo: The most notable highlight in the China-Vietnam relationship in recent…

SAN FRANCISCO – Apple reported a deepening slump in China during the holiday quarter, even as total iPhone sales were stronger than expected and the company returned to its first revenue growth in a year. Sales in China dropped 13 per cent to US$20.8 billion (S$27.8 billion) in the first quarter ended Dec. 30, Apple said on Feb 1. That fell far short of the US$23.5 billion predicted by analysts and was Apple’s weakest December quarter in the Asian nation since the first period of 2020. “We are not happy with the decline, but we know China is the most competitive market in the world,” chief financial officer Luca Maestri said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. Apple shares dropped…

U.K. Broadcaster Channel 4 Confirms 200 Layoffs, Reveals Plans for Becoming ‘Digital-First Public Service Streamer by 2030′ 21 hours ago The spectacular, death-defying action sequences in 2023 Bollywood hits like “Pathaan” and “Tiger 3” involve not just stunt work, but also a huge amount of visual effects (VFX). Leading Indian studio Yash Raj Films’ VFX division yFX was founded in 2016 with its first major project being Ali Abbas Zafar’s wrestling saga “Sultan,” headlined by Salman Khan and Anushka Sharma. There were more than 2,000 VFX shots in the film, including CGI virtual sets, crowd multiplication and digital prosthetics. The division is presided over by Sherry Barda whose credits include the Dhoom and Tiger franchises, “Sin City” and “Genghis Khan,”…

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Many nicknames have been bestowed upon Cleveland over the years — “The 216,” “CLE,” “The Land,” “Forest City,” “Believeland” and even “Rock and Roll Capital of the World.” One nickname that our beloved metropolis earned over the years was “The Sixth City,” a moniker that expressed Cleveland’s status as the sixth largest in the country as of the 1910 Census — overtaking Baltimore, by the way. Cleveland has been a pioneer ever since those “Sixth City” days. Four years after that Census report, the city lit up the streets with the first-ever electric traffic signal at East 105th and Euclid Avenue. Dig a little further, you’ll find that the Greater Cleveland region has been responsible for the…

HARBIN – With China’s northeastern city of Harbin gaining prominence as a top winter destination, tourism bureaus nationwide are actively promoting local attractions and employing innovative strategies to entice visitors. Featuring unique local traditions such as distinctive dressing-up, traditional dances and delectable cuisine, these efforts aim to captivate tourists in the lead-up to the week-long Spring Festival holiday. Liu Hong, head of the culture and tourism bureau of the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Southwest China’s Sichuan province, has recently become a social media “celebrity” after a video of him strolling with a horse in a Tibetan robe and dressed as a swordsman while on a raft went viral on social media. “I would like to be a social media…

MANILA, Philippines – The fried chicken war between fast food titans Jollibee Foods Corporation and McDonald’s Philippines spilled over into a popular noontime show, with the hashtag #Jollibee trending on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, January 21. Fil-Australian actress Anne Curtis, a major Philippine influencer and a Jollibee endorser, had an embarassing moment on ABS-CBN’s It’s Showtime on Saturday, after comedian Vice Ganda, an endorser of McDonald’s, made her say the phrase “Nice, Ganda” which is used on McDonald’s Philippines’ recent fried chicken commercials. On the show, Curtis apologized for her slip and said, “Bad ‘yun sa akin. Sorry po. Pasensiya na po kayo, ‘di ko po sinasadya ‘yun.” (That’s bad for me. Sorry. Excuse me, I didn’t mean it.)…

MANILA, Philippines – After a box-office-record-setting 2023 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), will we now now see Philippine cinemas often filled with movie-goers watching local movies instead of empty seats? It’s possible, now that the formula for a successful movie – a good story, word of mouth, creative marketing, and industry support – is clear. As Noel Ferrer, spokesman for the MMFF, said in a press conference on January 9: “Ibig sabihin, may pera ‘yung mga tao, they waited for word of mouth…. So, they want better stories, better quality films.” (This means people have money for movies but they waited for word of mouth. So, they want better stories, better quality films.) But it’s not likely to happen, if…

“Staff of Laurel, Staff of Ash: Sacred Landscapes in Ancient Nature Myth” by Wooster mythologist and classicist Dianna Rhyan is a rich collection of reflections about the natural world. Rhyan’s lyrical writing brings together her observations of nature, particularly in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, with fascinating concepts of folklore. In addition to Greek and Roman mythology, Rhyan reaches back some 4,000 years to her prime resource, the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, which she summarizes in the chapter “Expedition to the Cedar Forest.” In a lament to deforestation, an ancient text calls it “profanity against the sanctuary.” Rhyan cites Homer and Heraclitus in a chapter called “The Mother of God,” which examines the sacred places that are hidden from or prohibited…

DALIAN, China (Kyodo) — The Japan-born Ultraman superhero franchise has inspired a frenzy in China some three decades after it was first broadcast there, with Chinese kids clamoring to get their hands on the latest must-have merchandise, and families visiting theme parks and staying at the world’s first Ultraman hotel. As China emerged from its stringent “zero-COVID” policy, which heavily restricted people’s movements until early 2023, Ultraman attractions were established in Dalian, Chengdu, Zhengzhou and Shanghai, with the hotel in the latter, the nation’s commercial hub, opening in January the same year. According to Tokyo-based Tsuburaya Productions Co., which produced the program that first aired on Japanese television in 1966, online distribution of the Chinese-dubbed series on various video platforms…