LOS ANGELES — Amid Scarlett Johansson’s lawsuit against Disney alleging violation of her “Black Widow” contract that stipulated an exclusive theatrical release, the company’s chief executive officer Bob Chapek has defended its hybrid film-release model, saying the decision for distribution is made on a “film-by-film” basis. Chapek spoke about the dual releases of films in movie theaters and on Disney+ during an earnings call on Aug. 12. “We value flexibility in being able to make last-minute calls,” he said. Chapek, who did not mention Johansson or “Black Widow” by name, said: “Certainly when we planned, we didn’t anticipate the resurgence of Covid.”…
Author: zenger.news
NEW DELHI — The coverage of childhood immunization programs declined globally in 2020, and India was no exception. However, the country prioritized its childhood immunization program by giving it an “essential service” designation. “As a result, India achieved an all-time high of 99 percent reported coverage with DPT3 [diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis] vaccine in the first quarter of 2021,” Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, World Health Organization South-East Asia Region, said on Aug. 13. “For a program that caters to 30 million pregnant women and the world’s largest birth cohort of 26 million, this is unprecedented and commendable. Globally DTP3 is a proxy indicator for immunization…
GURUGRAM, India — The Delhi High Court has restrained streaming a documentary titled “A Big Little Murder” or any of its abridged versions by Netflix and other platforms. The documentary is based on a high-profile killing of a seven-year-old boy at a school in Gurugram, in the National Capital Region southwest of New Delhi. The boy was found with injuries on the neck outside a washroom at the school on Sept. 8, 2017. He later succumbed to his wounds. A bus conductor was initially charged for the murder but was found innocent later. The case is still on, and an unnamed 16-year-old…
NEW DELHI — Scheduled domestic flights in India will now operate with an increased capacity of 72.5 percent, up from the 65 percent limit due to Covid-19, starting Aug. 13. And, airfares will cost 12.5 percent more, as per the aviation ministry. With the threat of Covid-19 receding in the country, for now, the aviation sector is opening up after suffering heavy losses. “Domestic scheduled airlines have been given the all-clear to operate flights with up to 72.5 percent of total capacity,” as per an order issued by the Ministry of Civil Aviation on Aug. 12. The last revision in guidelines came…
An AI (artificial intelligence) prototype that helps medics treat wounded soldiers on the battlefield has been created by students from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland in collaboration with a graduate team at the Czech Technical University. NATO is supporting the new technology. The battlefield Digital Triage Assistant (DTA) system was tested by the Czech military during a training exercise in an unspecified part of the Czech Republic on Aug. 13. The device is strapped to soldiers to gather data on injuries and providing medics with live updates on their health status. Eventually, that data will also be relayed to an…
TÉNÈS, Algeria — Smail Merni, a 27-year-old from the small coastal town of Tenes, west Algeria, always dreamt of searching for work in Europe. On the evening of May 26, he realized his dream—albeit illegally. “We were 12 people, including two women and a nine-year-old child, when we took a small makeshift boat we had bought to cross the sea from the coast of Tenes to Chlef to go to Spain,” Smail told Zenger News. Smail said unemployment in Algeria, particularly worsened by the political crisis that gripped the country for more than two years, drove him and his friends to…
NEW YORK — Rajesh Shrestha from Nepal’s capital Kathmandu was on his motorbike when the ground underneath him started to shake. Shrestha, who was 41 at that time, stopped and jumped off. He was caught in the second most devastating earthquake to hit Nepal on May 12, 2015. “Everyone had stopped what they were doing,” he told Zenger News. Shrestha and his family had already lost their home, belongings, and business in the first earthquake that occurred less than three weeks before. For the next few months, the city trembled from more than 100 aftershocks. Kathmandu—Shrestha’s home and the city of temples…
From dishwashers to cooks, the restaurant industry is facing a new challenge: lack of staff. When COVID-19 forced restaurants to close, “many workers saw the opportunity to maintain an income working in construction or food production, which did not stop,” said Pablo César Reyes, a chef at Navy Pier’s Offshore Rooftop & Bar in Chicago. Reyes said an employee shortage affects all industries, but restaurants are particularly hard hit. Despite offering all sorts of incentives, they have not been able to fill their vacancies. (Job vacancies in the accommodations and food services sector in May increased to 1.25 million, according to…
A woman suffered a bite from a large predatory fish found in an ornamental pond in an Israeli shopping center over the weekend. The 3.3-foot long alligator gar, which can grow up to double the size, is among the largest freshwater fish in North America. Adult gars are generally 4 to 6 feet long and weigh 100 to 160 pounds, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It is illegal to import the fish in Israel. The fish was removed after it attacked the woman, who had placed her hand in the water. Her injuries were described as minor.…
A Russian pastry chef has whipped up a sizable online following, thanks to her intricately shaped and beautifully decorated cakes — though many are only aesthetically appreciated, not savored. Polina Filimonova better known to her 1.3 million Instagram followers as Pauline Cake, is making Netizen fans with her cake-baking skills — and gaining added publicity for her online school. The 23-year-old influencer from the southwestern Siberian town of Berdsk founded her pastry school when she was 19 to showcase her online master class. Her focus is the beauty of the confection rather than the taste. Some of her cakes take…