Latest news with #Blame
Irish Examiner
20-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Twomey and Lee enjoy treble success in Cork
Paddy Twomey and Billy Lee dominated proceedings on last night's card in Mallow, recording a near 6-1 treble, achieved with varying degrees of complexity. Rogue Legend set the ball rolling and did so with the least drama. In fact, the grey son of Havana Grey, was prominent throughout and won the Irish EBF Median Sires Series Maiden with plenty to spare. It was a nice step up on his promising debut here two weeks ago. Said Lee: 'He travelled easily today, and everything was nice and comfortable and straightforward, which I thought it would be the last day, but he was very raw. When I let him go, he was inclined to go left again, but I let him go to the rail and he straightened up and won within himself. You'd like to think there's a bit more to come from him.' No Alibi doubled up for Twomey and Lee by winning the Signal Mutual Maiden, but the Blame filly first had to come out on top in a photo finish and then had to survive a stewards' enquiry. She got on top over a furlong out but hung left under pressure. She and early leader Stella Alpina came close together just before the line but the rider of the runner-up didn't have to stop riding and, despite the distance being a nose, the right decision was made to have no alteration to the result. The treble came in the most dramatic fashion as Royal Entry, as is her wont, dwelt in stalls and conceded considerable ground to all bar one of her rivals. She was some 20 lengths behind racing into the first turn but aided by the field going a furious gallop at that point. Lee made up ground at the right time of the race and given she has prodigious talent, the filly was able to pick up again to see off the well backed but disappointing Tswalu. A competitive five-furlong race was second up and Red Evolution, trained by Michael O'Callaghan and ridden by Jamie Powell, shaded the verdict from favourite Jorge Alvares. At the end of a furiously run race, only a short head separated them, but Red Evolution, who cost €300,000 at the breeze-up sale in 2024, did just enough to Hightimeyouwon has been a superb horse for all connections, and when he stepped back onto the turf for the Blackwater Apprentice Handicap, the Stephen Thorne-trained nine-year-old put an eleventh career victory on his card. Winner of three of his last four on the all-weather, he made the most of his lower turf mark to win this one with quite a bit in hand. 'First runner, first winner here,' said Thorne. 'We deliberately gave him a nice break as he was on the go all winter. He ran particularly well, and he has now won four of his last five starts. He won a very good handicap for the winter, and a couple of claiming races as well. He's a good, solid, fun horse, and we knew he was nicely handicapped coming back onto the turf – he has a 10lb lower rating – so we were keen to use that to our advantage.' Nezeeh came through strongly to win the Buy Tickets Online At Handicap with real authority. On paper, it wasn't a strong race, and the ex-Godolphin horse, whose only previous win came on debut in August 2023, had his fair share of supporters from 16-1 down to 8-1. Always to the fore, the Denis Hogan-trained and Joey Sheridan-ridden gelding took over inside the final furlong and raced away to win in the style of one who can follow up. With 36 runs and just one previous win, Together Aclaim was a difficult one to pinpoint as a likely winner of the finale, the Racing Again June 13 Handicap, but the six-year-old produced a stylish performance under Keithen Kennedy. The 25-1 chance missed the kick, though not in the same style as earlier winner Royal Entry. The John McConnell-trained horse made steady progress through the race and, despite a huge field in front of him, he flew up the far side to get on top deep inside the final furlong. The gamble of the race was Warrior Lord, and he was a shade unlucky and will make amends before long.
Daily Mirror
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Huge singer's VE Day 80 performance sparks confusion amongst viewers
Viewers who tuned in for the BBC VE Day 80 concert were left baffled after singer John Newman took to the stage to perform in front of veterans and the Royal Family A huge singer sparked confusion amongst viewers during the VE Day 80 concert on Thursday. Hitmaker John Newman, known for tracks including Love Me Again, Come and Get It and Blame joined the line-up alongside Calum Scott, Tom Walker, Fleur East, Keala Settle and The Darkness. The singer took to the stage at London's Horseguards Parade for a special concert to mark the 80th anniversary of victory in Europe, when the Germans surrendered after their brutal attacks across the continent, marking the end of the Second World War in 1945. The event on Thursday night was the finale of the dozens to mark the historic event. Famous faces from across the entertainment industry, including Strictly Come Dancing stars and soap actors, joined forces for the remarkable event, which was attended by veterans, King Charles, Queen Camilla, Prince William, Princess Kate, Sophie, Countess of Edinburgh, Prince Edward and Sir Keir Stamer and his wife, Lady Victoria. While John has recently taken a hiatus from music, with his last studio album being released ten years ago, many viewers were left baffled following his performance. Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, one viewer said: "WTF was that John Newman on VE80?" "What a row from John Newman," said a second. Meanwhile, a third went on to ask: "Watching the VE 80 celebrations on tv, who is John Newman?" But one fan was left baffled by the decision to have John and The Darkness on the bill for the event. However, some viewers went on to praise John's performance. One fan said: "That was certainly interesting by John Newman, I did actually like the slightly different version of the song." "Wasn't expecting to like this concert but am really enjoying it. Yes, even John Newman #VEDay80," said a second. A third viewer typed: "Kings speech followed by John Newman, not the bingo card I had in mind but flip its brilliant." During the concert, there were also special words from Dame Joan Collins, Dame Mary Berry, Dame Sheila Hancock while Brian Cox also read out Sir Winston Churchill's monumental wartime speech. At the start of the broadcast, Roman Kemp was backstage as he chatted about the show and introduced Zoe Ball. She teased that she would be arriving with special 'props' and said she was excited to be hosting such a special concert. "The atmosphere has been so joyous. I am telling everyone at home, you will cry tonight. The veterans will be telling their story. It means the world - it's utterly terrifying," Zoe said of her hosting role. The Prince and Princess of Wales were the first to arrive, where they greeted veterans who had joined them in the Royal Box. A fanfare was then played as King Charles and Queen Camilla arrived, where they spoke with veterans and evacuees. Zoe then arrived on a sidecar with a Union Jack helmet, as she addressed the crowds. "Good evening and welcome to the VE Day 80. I am thrilled to be with you all here. Together, we can remember a very special day. We have transformed Horse Guards Parade into a special concert venue," she said, "Glorious sea of red, white and blue."
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Taylor Swift ex Calvin Harris expecting first baby with wife Vick Hope
Taylor Swift's ex, Scottish DJ Calvin Harris, is expecting his first child with wife, TV and radio presenter Vick Hope. The BBC Radio 1 presenter's baby bump was visible while she and Jamie Laing chatted with Florence Pugh Monday during the actors' press tour for Marvel's 'Thunderbolts*.' Hope, 35, shared an Instagram carousel Wednesday, that began with her bump front and center, and also included stills from the Pugh chat. 'Lots going on lately,' Hope wrote above the first image, posting it to her Instagram Story. Though the 41-year-old 'Blame' DJ, real name Adam Wiles, reportedly failed to secure a date with Hope in 2007, they ultimately got together following his 2016 split from Swift. Harris and Hope tied the knot in September 2023. The love story between Harris and Swift — who collaborated together on the Rihanna song, 'This Is What You Came For' — lasted from March 2015 to May 2016. Harris at the time tweeted, 'The only truth here is that a relationship came to an end & what remains is a huge amount of love and respect,' a since-deleted post initially retweeted by the Grammy-winning pop superstar. It was that May when Swift met her next lover: Tom Hiddleston, with whom she shared a now-infamous fling throughout summer 2016.
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Co-Production Boost and Sturdy Funding System Fuel a Healthy Crop of Swiss Films at Visions du Réel
Those looking for homegrown talent and stories at the largest documentary film festival in Switzerland, Visions du Réel, will be spoiled for choice in 2025. This year's edition, which runs April 4-13, features a whopping 31 Swiss productions or co-productions, including the festival's opening film, Christian Frei's 'Blame.' Veteran Frei, the first-ever Swiss filmmaker to be nominated for an Oscar back in 2002 for 'War Photography,' stands alongside a crop of new talent in feature debuts such as Agostina Di Luciano and Leon Schwitter's 'The World Upside Down.' On the healthy crop of Swiss productions and co-productions this year, Charlotte Ducos, documentary and marketing strategies consultant at the country's national agency Swiss Films, says it is 'incredibly important to have Swiss films across the program and to have the opening film of the festival not only be Swiss but also a very expected title by a renowned filmmaker.' Ducos also emphasizes how 43% of Swiss films are currently co-productions, a testament to the importance of collaborating with their European neighbors such as Italy, Germany and Austria. Last year, Switzerland was the Country in Focus at Cannes's Marché du Film, another possible booster. More from Variety Diana Taurasi Docuseries Set at Amazon Prime Video Following WNBA Star and Olympic Gold Medalist's Life and Career (EXCLUSIVE) Sundance Award-Winning Documentary 'Zodiac Killer Project' Acquired by Music Box (EXCLUSIVE) COVID Conspiracies, RFK Jr. Discussed by Christian Frei as 'Blame' Opens Visions du Réel: 'In a World Where Nothing Is True, Everything Becomes Possible' Frei praised the support available to filmmakers in his home country, saying that he is 'deeply grateful for the subsidy system we established in Switzerland.' It was thanks to that that the director raised enough to spend the time needed on such an ambitious project as his denouncement of COVID-19 misinformation. 'I was able to do so without having to speculate on box office or commercial interest,' he highlights. Financing-wise, Switzerland offers various sources of funding at national and regional levels and from the private sector. The main avenue is the Film Investment Refund Switzerland (PICS), which primarily focuses on Swiss-international co-productions and is administered by the Federal Office of Culture. PICS refunds between 20-40% of eligible film production expenses if a project shoots for a minimum of five days in the country. With topics that range from AI's relationship with human creativity to the woes and joys of modern fatherhood, the Swiss films at this year's Visions du Réel look into the world of yesterday, today and tomorrow through classic journalistic investigations, hybrid docu-fiction, and first-person narratives to showcase the best of national talent. With such a wealth of titles, Variety has selected a handful of films to look out for, which you can find below: 'Blame,' dir. Christian Frei Frei, who made history as the first Oscar-nominated Swiss filmmaker with his searing investigation of war photography in the eponymous 2002 doc, returns to Visions du Réel with just as controversial of a proposition: a deep dive into the wave of misinformation that turned the scientists fighting the spread of SARS and subsequent COVID-19 pandemic into social pariahs. The festival's opening film, 'Blame,' poses a vital investigation into the relationship between politics, science and the media. Rise and Shine handles world sales. 'The World Upside Down,' dir. Agostina Di Luciano and Leon Schwitter This Swiss-Argentinian co-production taps into magical realism, mysticism and popular folklore to blend documentary and fiction as it follows the inhabitants of a small village nestled in the Argentine countryside. It is there that Omar, a village elder and farmer, witnesses a strange light in the sky. Curious, he embarks on an inquisitive journey alongside his grandson, just as Roxane and Lily prepare a holiday home for a family in Buenos Aires, where they make a discovery that will open a path to new forms of knowledge. Indox Films handles festival sales. 'Wider Than the Sky,' dir. Valerio Jalongo Veteran Italian filmmaker Jalongo, whose work has played widely at festivals such as Venice and Rome and who has collaborated with the likes of Brendan Gleeson and Valeria Golino, returns to Visions du Réel with a film looking at how AI interacts with human emotion and creativity. 'Wider Than the Sky' parades scientific labs and artists' studios with those working close to the intersection of AI and neuroscience to pose the question: can AI positively shape the future of humanity? 'Colostrum,' dir. Sayaka Mizuno Mizuno's 2016 mid-length documentary 'Kawasaki Keirin' won the Prix du Jury at Visions du Réel for most innovative Swiss film of all competitive sections. She returns to the festival with 'Colostrum,' a look at the relationship between a farmer in the Swiss Alps and his seasonal volunteer, a thirty-something woman from the city who is passionate about animal welfare and ecofeminism. The film zooms into the characters' differences to find their commonalities, as well as pay homage to the rhythms of traditional farming. Stranger Films Sales handles world sales. 'Dads,' dir. David Maye After screening his feature debut 'Les Grandes Traversées' at Visions du Réel in 2017, Maye is back at the festival with a close look at modern fatherhood. The film follows four fathers or fathers-to-be as they talk through expectations, fears and taboos around fatherhood, such as questions about abandonment, raising daughters, and perpetuating harmful masculine stereotypes. 'Sons of Icarus,' dir. Daniel Kemény On his third feature documentary, Kermény goes personal by sharing the story of his family: the director is European, and his brother is Cuban, with their father having left West Germany in the 1970s to escape the ghosts of fascism and finally settling in Cuba years later. In 'Sons of Icarus,' the filmmaker sets off to North America in search of his family, eventually struggling to connect with his reserved father. Through the medium of film, Kermény finds a space to mend old wounds and tell a visual story where words would fail. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week What's Coming to Disney+ in April 2025 The Best Celebrity Memoirs to Read This Year: From Chelsea Handler to Anthony Hopkins
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
COVID Conspiracies, RFK Jr. Discussed by Christian Frei as ‘Blame' Opens Visions du Réel: ‘In a World Where Nothing Is True, Everything Becomes Possible'
While keeping up with news reports in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Oscar-nominated Swiss director Christian Frei began to experience a feeling that 'those who warned us would eventually be the ones who are blamed.' This sentiment, which he calls an 'epiphany,' is at the heart of 'Blame,' which opens Swiss documentary festival Visions du Réel on Friday. 'Blame' follows three scientists who researched the origin of the SARS epidemic that first broke out in China in 2003, Linfa Wang, Zhengli Shi and Peter Daszak. The latter is the former president of EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit organization that supported various programs on global health and pandemic prevention, and, in January of this year, was entirely defunded and debarred by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services following an eight-month investigation on its 'failure to adequately monitor the activities of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).' More from Variety Firelight Media Appoints Loira Limbal as President and CEO (EXCLUSIVE) 'Gone Girls' Director Liz Garbus on Returning to the Long Island Murders and Focusing on Victims Instead of 'Damaged' Serial Killers Documentary 'Number One on the Call Sheet,' About the History of Black Hollywood, Aims to be a 'Blueprint for Generations to Come' Frei's film begins with the first SARS outbreak in 2003, chronicling how the trio of scientists would come to spend the next two decades trying to stop subsequent pandemics just to be then discredited when disinformation campaigns and fake news on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread. On the sensitivity of the subject of 'Blame,' Frei tells Variety he became 'much more comfortable' once he decided to approach it as a 'classic journalistic story.' 'I also wanted it to be told through the empathetic lens of documentary,' he adds. 'I wanted to give the subjects room so their voices would be heard but also resist simplification, which is not the easiest from a commercial point of view.' The director recognizes that resisting simplification often dampens a film's commercial chances but emphasizes he has a 'huge advantage' of not only working in a country with a healthy film funding system that allows for a director to retain creative control of their film but also being a producer, writer, and editor. 'I am 100% in control of all my features and am very grateful I'm able to do that.' On being attracted to controversial subjects such as the ethics of war photography as in his Oscar-nominated 2001 film 'War Photography' or space tourism in 2009's 'Space Tourists,' Frei says these are 'the tectonics of humanity.' 'This is where I will always go. I grew up in a middle-class family and never had any reason to embark from war zones to space, but I am drawn to these stories. What I'm proud of is that my films are getting old in a nice way. They are still timely and valid after 30 years.' When asked if 'Blame' will also retain its timeliness, the director says he believes so as the film is not only about the COVID-19 pandemic but about 'how we are all seduced by screaming narratives.' 'The more established media is becoming indistinguishable from the click-baiting internet,' he continues. 'I am trying as much as possible to tell a story that might surprise people because what they encounter are real people, not sinister guys plotting in their labs. We often don't understand what they are doing, that's true, but they are still human beings. Do they make mistakes? I'm not saying they never do, but still, we should listen to them.' 'Blame' ends with President Trump's recent appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy Jr., who authored 'Wuhan Cover-Up: How U.S. Health Officials Conspired with the Chinese Military to Hide the Origins of COVID-19,' famously spread conspiracy theories on the pandemic, including a theory that the COVID-19 virus was engineered in Wuhan and spared certain ethnic minorities. 'I was not happy at all that he was finally confirmed but was also not very surprised,' says Frei of RFK Jr.'s appointment. 'A majority in Trump's cabinet understood the dynamic that [former White House chief strategist] Steve Bannon established: uncertainty is not our enemy; it is our friend. This is an opportunity for them. I'm not saying COVID is the only reason, but could Trump have returned to the White House without it? I doubt it.' The director is also quick to point out how this mindset is not exclusive to the U.S. but is also widely spreading in Europe and across the world. 'Far-right parties in Europe are getting stronger and stronger. Is democracy in bad shape? I sometimes feel so, and I feel we need to find a way back to healthily disagreeing. This film does not offer a truth. What I am saying is: let's try to find our way back to evidence-based worldviews and debates because, in a world where nothing is true anymore, everything becomes possible.' Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week What's Coming to Disney+ in April 2025 The Best Celebrity Memoirs to Read This Year: From Chelsea Handler to Anthony Hopkins
