Thousands celebrate baby hippo Moo Deng's first birthday at Thailand zoo
The Khao Kheow Open Zoo was overrun with Moo Deng's fans on the first of four days of activities marking the hippo's birthday. Children under 12 years old can enter the zoo, which is about a two hour drive from the capital Bangkok, for free throughout the extravaganza.
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Forbes
8 hours ago
- Forbes
How FotMob App Went From A Honeymoon Idea To 20 Million Monthly Users
Golden rays of sunlight warmed his face as he lounged in a beachside shack in Thailand. Christer Nordvik was on his honeymoon with his wife, Linda. It was the perfect tropical escape. But after a week, the sound of the seawaves had lost its charm, leaving Nordvik dreaming not of sunsets, but scorelines. 'I wanted to follow my local team SK Brann,' he recalls. 'But it was impossible.' It was 2004. Mobile phones were around, but the internet was patchy at best. Keeping up with live scores, especially from 5,000 miles away, was more fantasy than reality. But for Nordvik, it was a challenge he was ready to accept. After returning home to Bergen on Norway's southwestern coast, he teamed up with his brother Tommy to create the first version of FotMob – now one of the world's leading football platforms with more than 20 million monthly active users. From live scores and stats to player ratings and personalized insights, FotMob has become a go-to for fans of the world's most popular sport. A father of four, Nordvik worked part-time on the app for nine years, spending his evenings and weekends coding. During the 2010 FIFA World Cup, a shoutout from The New York Times, which called FotMob the go-to Android app for 'simple scores and stats', helped the platform welcome a flurry of new users. Three years on from that, Nordvik decided to go full-time with his venture. But it wasn't until 2022 that the app 'really took off', as the Norwegian describes. 'We went from nine million users to 15 million users,' he said. 'There were a lot of reasons for it: Apple had launched their 'Live Activities', where the lock screen widget gave you scores without having to open the app. 'We were working with Apple at the time as part of the Beta program. They launched Live Activities at the same time as the World Cup in Qatar, and FotMob went viral on TikTok as the app to use during the tournament. 'Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, tweeted that the FotMob app is amazing for the World Cup. That was kind of a 'wow' [moment].' The bootstrapped company, run by a small team of 30, has notched over 100 million downloads. From Niche To Mainstream As the English Premier League returns in the upcoming week, FotMob has big plans for the 2025-26 season. For the first time, physical data collected by Opta, such as top speed and total distance covered, is available for every Premier League player, and fans can access it freely on FotMob. 'I think those things are what people care about, but it's never been possible to find the numbers anywhere. You couldn't find who was the fastest runner in the Premier League or who's the fastest running center-back. But now you can,' Nordvik said. 'We have a huge belief that this season it will make its rounds on TikTok and Instagram. People will talk about FotMob a lot.' Nordvik says FotMob aims to strike a balance between serving the so-called football nerds and the casual fan who checks in now and then. One of the most popular metrics to emerge over the past decade is 'expected goals,' or 'xG' – a measure of how likely a shot is to result in a goal. Once considered niche, it has now become part of football conversations, both online and offline. 'We were the first app to introduce xG,' the FotMob CEO said. 'At that time, we were a bit hesitant because I always thought that xG might be over the top. 'But then, suddenly, especially in the UK and here in Norway, people started talking about the xG. Journalists spoke about it, commentators used it during live matches, and I think Jose Mourinho and a couple of other coaches, as well, in the Premier League, started quoting xG numbers in interviews. So it kind of matured a lot over time.' Women's Football Rises In The Ranks Owing to its global appeal, the Premier League is unsurprisingly the most-followed league on FotMob. But there also exists an interesting trend in some countries. Women's football is widely followed in countries such as England and Germany, two European powerhouses. The Lionesses' triumphant run at the Women's Euro 2025 was among the most-followed on FotMob. 'In July, I thought the FIFA Club World Cup would be among the most-visited matches on our app in the UK, but the two most popular matches were from the Women's Euros: England vs Spain (the final) and England vs Italy (the semifinals),' he said. Together, those two matches garnered a total of 2.3 million views. The Lionesses were the fifth-most followed team – behind England (men), Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal – in the UK. 'In the U.S., it was Vissel Kobe vs Barcelona, followed by PSG vs Real Madrid. England vs Spain in the Women's Euros was fourth on the list, and Chelsea vs PSG was down in sixth place,' he added. All Eyes On 2026 World Cup A lot of FotMob's planning these days is centered around the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be held in the United States, Mexico and Canada, featuring 48 teams for the first time. With the U.S. as its fastest-growing market, FotMob aims to tap into a new wave of fans, just as it did during the Qatar World Cup four years ago. 'We don't have concrete plans at the moment, but we are hoping to get similar physical metrics – that the Premier League has just launched – for the World Cup,' Nordvik said. 'A lot of focus is on making the same thing we made in 2022, making it perfect for a casual fan coming in – just understanding and immediately knowing how to follow the World Cup in an easy, accessible way. 'I think often the main problem is between tailoring for the casual fan and the one who wants everything. So, we at FotMob, are kind of aiming at both, like expanding to have more features for the World Cup, but also tailoring it for a casual fan coming in for the first time.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Who is the Ibiza Final Boss? Summer's biggest meme explained
The man behind the meme of the summer has revealed his identity. Anyone idly scrolling the internet in recent days can't fail to have stumbled across The Ibiza Final Boss – but who is the international man of mystery? Going viral with a video and nickname that has spawned an avalanche of memes might not have been on this holidaymaker's 2025 bingo card, but he has become the social media sensation of the summer – achieving what many wannabe influencers strive for in a few unguarded moments caught on camera. If you've managed to miss The Ibiza Final Boss, here's everything you need to know about him including his real identity. What is The Ibiza Final Boss? Social media has a new star for summer 2025 - The Ibiza Final Boss, a man videoed enjoying his holiday on the party island whilst sporting a very strong look. Club tickets site Zero Six West Ibiza propelled the previously-unknown Brit into the spotlight when they shared a video of the man dancing at venue 528 Ibiza. His eyecatching look included an impressively thick head of hair precisely cut into a bowl shape, a goatee shaved into poker-straight lines, a thick gold chain and veneers whiter than the Ibizan sand. Zero Six West captioned the video: "Does anyone know this absolute legend coz weve got 2 free guestlists with his name on it!" It prompted many comments on the man's choice of haircut, as one person commented: "When you got club Ibiza at 9pm but signing of the magna carta at 10." Someone else added: "Short back and battle of Hastings please mate." Former RuPaul's Drag Race contestant Victoria Scone also weighed in, admitting: "I THOUGHT IT WAS A HAT." Someone else commented: "PLAYMOBIL just launched their Ibiza range," as another commenter wrote: "Okay, so what haircut are you wanting today? I'll have the chestnut mushroom cut please, mate." Commenting on TikTok, one person wrote: "Barber : all done Him : how much do I owe you Barber : 3 shillings and a cabbage me lord," as someone else simply added: "Monastry of sound." DJ Emily Nash, whose set The Final Boss was dancing to, pointed out that her mum Sue was the woman in the pink dress behind him and even posted a photo of Kay and his friends with her on stage in the background. She wrote: "Warming stuff up for @bbcradio1 @528ibiza and Ibiza Final Boss on Friday. Thank you @bbcradio1 for having me, had such a good time." The Ibiza Final Boss clip has proved so popular that mocked-up posts of action figures and Lego sets of him have appeared, as well as videos from other social media users dressed in costume as him. Others on holiday in Ibiza have been taking selfies with him and even styling their hair the same way. The Ibiza Final Boss's identity revealed One person commenting on the clip called it early on as they wrote: "My money is on him being a Geordie." The Ibiza Final Boss was eventually tracked down, thanks to being so easily recognisable, after other tourists posed for photos with him. He grabbed his 15 minutes of fame by posting his own TikTok where he said: "I'm The Ibiza Final Boss, Jack Kay. Get to know us." Kay also posted to Instagram Stories: "Appreciate all the love and messages off everyone. I will get back to everyone quick [as] I can. It's just a lot for me to take in at the moment. I am just a normal person from Newcastle. It's crazy, stay locked in, got some big news coming." Meanwhile, a woman called Alisha Cook, said to be a debt collector from County Durham, revealed that Kay was her boyfriend. She posted a series of videos and photos of herself with Kay and wrote: "POV ya boyfriends now known as Ibiza final boss." What is a Final Boss? For the uninitiated, the term Final Boss has its origins in video games. It refers to the last and most difficult-to-beat character at the end of a game. However, the phrase is now used more widely to describe the ultimate version or example of something – and Jack Kay's look prompted people to view him as the ultimate example of a man on his holidays in Ibiza. In fact, one person was so inspired by the video that they even wrote out an entire Ibiza scenario in the comments on TikTok that began: "You haven't really been to Ibiza until you've faced him. The Final Boss. Big Jack Kay. He appears on Day 4. You're weak. You're sunburnt in strange places. "You've eaten nothing but crisps and regret for 72 hours. Your soul has left your body and is watching from the pool bar. Then he emerges from the mist. Not actual mist – vape cloud." The commenter continued on, describing an imaginary encounter with The Final Boss Ibiza and ended: "By 2pm he's on someone's shoulders, chanting for a club that's never played in La Liga. By 4pm he's doing push-ups in the smoking area to impress a hen do from Basingstoke. By 6pm… he's gone. Vanished. Like a bronzed fever dream. You check your phone. There's a new contact. Ibiza Final Boss."
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Cambodian Auteur Rithy Panh Chats About His Super 8 Plans and Whether Cinema Can Save Us
Cinema can 'preserve history, influence mindsets and provide a space for reflection and escape,' Cambodian auteur Rithy Panh (Graves Without a Name, Exile, Meeting With Pol Pot, Everything Will Be OK) said when he was unveiled as the surprise jury president of this year's 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival. The longtime documentary chronicler is best known for his work about the 1970s Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia, which saw his parents, siblings and extended family perish of starvation and forced labor. Panh escaped to Thailand and then to France, where he discovered filmmaking. More from The Hollywood Reporter Willem Dafoe to Receive Honorary Heart of Sarajevo at Sarajevo Film Festival Park Chan-wook's 'No Other Choice,' Starring Lee Byung-hun, to Open Busan Film Festival 'The Seasons' Is an "Archaeological Film" Uncovering Tales and "Shared History" (Exclusive Trailer) In 2013, his The Missing Picture saw Panh debuting the aesthetic mixing clay figurines, archival footage and first-person narration that became his trademark. The movie ended up winning the Un Certain Regard award at the Cannes Film Festival and earning an Oscar nomination in the best international feature film category. Panh is 'one of contemporary cinema's most courageous and consistent defenders of artistic freedom and an indefatigable champion of the power of historical truth,' Locarno said when revealing his appointment as jury head. 'Since 1994, his feature films have been acclaimed around the world, giving voice to those whose lives were destroyed through horrifying state violence.' Giona A. Nazzaro, artistic director of the Locarno festival, lauded Panh as 'an authoritative witness of our time,' adding: 'His passionate search for truth, his anti-dogmatic approach, and his genuine commitment, as well as his capacity to move freely between the numerous forms of present-day filmmaking were the crucial elements that prompted us, spontaneously and enthusiastically, to offer him the task of President of the Jury of the Concorso Internazionale at the 78th Locarno Film Festival. Before taking on his jury duty at the Locarno festival, which kicks off Wednesday, Aug. 6, and runs though Aug. 16, Panh talked to THR about his past and current work, the impact of social media and AI, the importance of the theatrical experience and why he wants to pick up a Super 8 camera are you working on right now? Any new film in the works, maybe? I start reading now and searching for information, maybe looking back at the list of ideas to see what idea is now possible to work on. I am also working with some young artists on a photography exhibition in November. And I'm reading the latest version of the book I wrote with Christophe Bataille [The Elimination: A Survivor of the Khmer Rouge Confronts His Past and the Commandant of the Killing Fields], which takes time. Do you expect your next film will be similar to your latest, , and a continuation of your past work or quite different, like , in which animals enslave humans in a takedown of totalitarianism, surveillance and excessive capitalism? I don't know. That one was different, talking about capitalism, the environment, etc. I have always mixed things up between work on the Khmer Rouge and also other work. But it was a choice that I put more time on the Khmer Rouge work. But now it's maybe the last 10 years or 15 years of my life. I don't want to be that director who still shoots at 100 years. That's really crazy. Maybe I wish to enjoy cinema more now. I'm teaching, too. You learn a lot when you are in contact with young film directors. I try to discover them and have an exchange with them. Now, how people produce, how the new generation does things is different and how they observe the world. And at the same time, I like teaching my students with classic films, because they discover things. The idea is that we can be free with cinema, and we can bring people with us. You mentioned freedom. You have long seemed free from genre restrictions, mixing documentary and fictional elements and the like. Can you talk a bit about that? It's amazing. When I made The Missing Picture, the film got nominated for the foreign-language film Oscar, not for documentary. But still, people used to call me the guy who makes documentaries. But it's not really true, because I am not thinking too much about whether something is fiction, documentary or more. It's just my vision of the images and how to tell a story with images. Now, people make films [or series] for social networks that are three minutes [long], exactly the time between two stations on the subway. I'm very interested by this kind of new narration, but it's so stupid. It's three minutes and always the same story. It's cinema influencers and not cinema. For me, it's good to to go to festivals sometimes to have a meeting with cinema and wait for something that can make me cry or make me laugh or make me sad, whatever — but something that moves me. How do you approach the role of jury president in Locarno? I'm a little bit afraid of festivals. Why? Because you have to judge things. I don't want to say this one is better than that one. I'd create a prize for everyone. I'm a filmmaker, so I respect you a lot when you shoot a short [or feature]. It's so hard to make a film. I don't know if I didn't sleep well at night, maybe I cannot follow one film. We have a few people on the jury, and maybe someone will have to explain the story of a film to me. And if one film comes from another continent, how can I fully understand all of it? The strongest films are universal. You can understand because you fear something. There is this humanity, dignity, freedom. Your work has often explored trauma, especially historical trauma. How do you see cinema helping people confront and work through trauma?Probably, the cinema work will be harder now because there are fakes with AI, so artists will need to be very cautious about where and how we research. With trauma, of course, culture in general can do something, because it can gather people around to talk about a painful event or something like this. Cinema also brings you a moment to breathe, happiness, you can dream, you can love. We are so under pressure everywhere, with daily life, work, all that's happening, amplified by social media. And we need something to breathe. We need space. We need to watch and hear. We need physical sensation. A close-up must be a close-up on the big screen. It's not the same on your TV screen. But can cinema repair the world or can it save the world? No, we cannot save the world. We need to save ourselves. You are a role model for various filmmakers. Do you have any cinema role models, or anybody who you feel influenced your work a lot? Many, many, many. I knew the cinema when I was very young, because my neighbor was a filmmaker. But I was a child, so I was not prepared to make films. When I went to cinema school here in France, I knew nothing about cinema history. But they gave us an ID card so that we could go watch films for free. So I spent a lot of time in theaters to discover film, and they also had a videotape library. I watched Andrei Tarkovsky and started watching a lot of Russian cinema. I also love the great work of [Kenji] Mizoguchi, [Akira] Kurosawa and, of course, [Ingmar] Bergman and [Aki] Kaurismäki and [Krzysztof] Kieś maybe the best one for me is [the late low-budget French filmmaker] Chris Marker. Maybe not in terms of filmmaking, but when I have difficulty with shooting or editing, I think: 'Hi, Chris, can you help me?' And I hear him: 'Don't worry. Go test! Don't worry. Be free. Don't respect the script. Change the pace of the sequence.' I never met him, but he is very strong for me, like a saint of cinema. Saint Marker. Is there anything else you would like to mention? Images and sound are very complex. When cameras can come into every hand, it's good in one way because everybody can record pictures. But also, images can become more and more banal. I have a project. I want to go back to Super 8. As a very young filmmaker, I made a Super 8 movie. And I want to go back to Super 8. But it's very expensive — 100 euros ($118) for [a film roll of] three minutes. It's interesting because you cannot shoot like when you use your phone. You need to think a little bit. I have bought a camera now. So I will try one or two cartridges to see what happens. I would like to find again my first love or maybe the same sensation. I would like to find something more innocent, more elegant, more poetic. And I realized I shot too much with the digital camera, so I want to go back to something more basic. Best of The Hollywood Reporter The 25 Best U.S. Film Schools in 2025 The 40 Greatest Needle Drops in Film History The 40 Best Films About the Immigrant Experience Solve the daily Crossword
