Latest news with #Napoleon
The Hindu
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Brad Pitt's ‘F1' races past $500 million mark, becomes Apple Studios' biggest box office hit
After just over a month in theaters, F1 — the Formula One-themed drama starring Brad Pitt — has crossed $509 million at the global box office, making it one of the most successful original films of the last decade. Directed by Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick), the film is now poised to challenge Pitt's all-time highest-grossing film, World War Z ($531 million). F1 has earned $165 million domestically and $344 million from international markets. With a reported production budget of $300 million — a figure Kosinski has disputed — the film stands as Apple Studios' most profitable theatrical venture to date. It has outperformed the studio's previous releases, including Napoleon ($223 million) and Killers of the Flower Moon ($158 million). The film opened in late June with a $146 million global debut and has maintained momentum despite strong summer competition. Its premium screen rollout and strong overseas response, especially in racing-obsessed markets, helped drive box office success. F1 has been granted an additional theatrical run in China, likely pushing its total even higher in the coming weeks. This is only the second time Pitt has crossed the $500 million threshold in his career, a notable milestone given his selective approach to large-scale franchise films. F1 now ranks among his top five highest-grossing titles. Also starring Kerry Condon, Damson Idris, and Javier Bardem, discussions about a sequel are reportedly underway, and rumors of a crossover with Tom Cruise's Days of Thunder have begun circulating.
Scottish Sun
4 days ago
- Scottish Sun
Tiny Italian island set to be ‘turned into oasis' to escape hoards of tourists
Plus, Expedia's top 10 holiday islands across the globe ISLE GO Tiny Italian island set to be 'turned into oasis' to escape hoards of tourists Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A TINY Italian island could be turned into an 'oasis' for locals to be able to find somewhere quieter, away from holidaymakers. A group of local activists have raised around €460,000 (£401,000) in funds to win the lease for Poveglia - a tiny uninhabited island just off of Venice. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 5 Poveglia is a tiny unhabited island just off of Venice Credit: Alamy 5 And a local group of activists are hoping to transform it into an urban oasis Credit: Alamy The activist group Poveglia per Tutti (Poveglia for Everyone) will take over the island next month and intend to turn the island into a small haven. This includes regenerating the northern part of the island "transforming it into a lagoon urban park open to citizens and respectful of the ecosystem and the landscape elements that characterise the lagoon", the University of Verona said, according to The Times. However, there will be some challenges in transforming the island, as it currently has no electrical or water supply. And there is also no pier with access for boats either. One of the main parts of the island is the kitchen garden, which used to grow a variety of peaches, but has now been left to run wild. One of the founders of Poveglia for Everyone, Patrizia Veclani, told The Times: "Nature has reclaimed it. But with the advice of botanists we are considering what appropriate plants can be reinstated." She added that it is important that the island is returning to the city, "rather than becoming the umpteenth luxury hotel". The group will pay just over €1,000 (£871) a year for the island on a six-year lease. The island itself is split by two canals and according to National Geographic, over 1,000 people died on the island over the centuries and were buried in plague pits. Later, it was turned into a mental hospital that eventually closed in 1968 - with the island being vacant since. 7 TOURIST DESTINATIONS - EVERGREEN LISTICLE Few buildings remain on the island, and even fewer fully intact. A church still stands, as does the hospital, asylum, a bell-tower, housing and some administrative buildings. The bell-tower is the most visible and dates back to the 12th century. It used to belong to the church of San Vitale - which was demolished under Napoleon's orders in 1806. The tower was then re-used as a lighthouse. As a result of this extensive history, the island is often featured on paranormal shows as well. The island was then first put up for lease over a decade ago when the Italian state auctioned a 99-year lease of Poveglia. 5 The only remaining buildings on the island include the church and hositpal Credit: Alamy 5 The group of activities will pay just over €1,000 a year for the lease Credit: Getty The island was to remain as state property, to raise revenue and the hope was that the buyer would transform the hospital into a luxury hotel. At the time, the highest bid came from Italian businessman Luigi Brugnaro for €513,000 (£447,000). Initially, the businessman planned to invest €20million (£17.4million) in a restoration plan but the lease did not go ahead as his project did not meet all the conditions for the island. Whilst Brugnaro decided to fight the cancellation of the lease, he eventually dropped this and all intentions for developing the island when he became Mayor of Venice. Then in 2015, Poveglia for Everyone emerged and hoped to raise €25-30million (£21.8-£26.1million) to develop the island to include a public park, a marina, a restaurant, a hostel and a study centre. Around 30million people visit Venice each year and a €5 (£4.36) charge was introduced last year to deter visitors. Cruise ships were also banned in 2021, and now dock on the mainland at Marghera or at Ravenna. Expedia's top 10 holiday islands across the globe HERE are 10 top islands to consider for your next getaway, according to Expedia's 'Hot List'. Paros, Greece: A Greek paradise praised for its beautiful beaches, traditional villages, and buzzing nightlife, also offering delicious seafood and party boats. Sardinia, Italy: This large Italian island boasts a rugged coastline, charming hilltop villages, and over 1,000 miles of beaches, including Spiaggia di Piscinas, nicknamed 'Little Sahara of Italy'. Aruba, Caribbean: Known as 'One Happy Island', Aruba is celebrated for its white sand beaches, including Flamingo Beach where you can see pink flamingos, and is considered one of the safest islands in the Caribbean. Koh Samui, Thailand: Thailand's second-largest island offers incredible beaches, impressive temples, and vibrant nightlife, gaining further popularity from the TV series White Lotus. Jersey, UK: This Channel Island is experiencing a rising interest, particularly among British travelers. Crete, Greece: A popular Greek island with a growing appeal to visitors. Malta: This Mediterranean island nation is seeing increased interest from travelers. Madeira, Portugal: This Portuguese island is a rising star on the travel scene, particularly for Brits. Naxos, Greece: Part of the Cyclades Islands, close to Paros, and a destination worth exploring. Milos, Greece: Another beautiful island in the Cyclades chain, known for its unique landscapes. There is also an Italian town set to be the new Amalfi thanks to new British Airways flights. Plus, the little-known Italian town dubbed the 'city of ice cream' has sandy beach and £15 UK flights.
6 days ago
- Politics
France's new prison rules for kingpins spotlight possible Macron successor
PARIS -- They are France 's most dangerous drug kingpins, according to the country's justice minister — prison inmates so wealthy and powerful that even behind bars, they can continue to order assassinations, run narco-trafficking operations and launder money. Flexing his powers as minister in charge of the French penal system, Gérald Darmanin's solution to the problem is contentious. He is moving 100 inmates — men he describes as 'France's biggest criminals' — into an austere maximum security penitentiary in the country's north that critics say has echoes of tough U.S. prisons. The move is also possibly vote-catching for Darmanin, who has joined a growing field of possible successors to President Emmanuel Macron after the next election, less than two years away. In the newly reinforced Vendin-le-Vieil prison, the selected inmates will be locked in individual cells for 23 hours on most days. Largely cut off from the world, Darmanin argues they will no longer be able to fuel drug-related violence, which has become a political issue ahead of the 2027 presidential election. 'We are here to guarantee that they don't speak to the outside, that they don't continue their trafficking outside, that they don't corrupt prison officers, magistrates, police officers and gendarmes," Darmanin said on primetime evening television after the first 17 inmates were transferred this week to Vendin-le-Vieil from other, less secure facilities. France has had a long history of both notorious prisons (the Bastille) and prisoners — both real (Napoleon) and fictional ("The Count of Monte Cristo"). Still, Vendin-le-Vieil's lock-up conditions are exceptional, similar to the ultra-secure 'Supermax' prison in the United States and Italy's tough 'carcere duro' incarceration rules for Mafia members. Vendin-le-Vieil already houses some of France's most infamous prisoners — including Salah Abdeslam, lone survivor of a team of Islamic State extremists that terrorized Paris in 2015, killing 130 people in gun and bomb attacks. To make way for the specially selected 100 inmates — some already convicted, others in pre-trial detention — many other Vendin-le-Vieil inmates were moved out. The newcomers will be grouped together in the prison's new 'Section for Combatting Organized Crime,' with reinforced security and regulations, and equipped with systems to block mobile phone signals and drones. Among those on the list for Vendin-le-Vieil is Mohamed Amra, nicknamed 'The Fly," who staged an escape last year that killed two guards and then fled to Romania before he was captured and returned to France. The newcomers will have just one hour a day in a prison exercise yard, in groups of no more than five. The rest of the time, they will mostly be confined to individual cells fitted with holes so prison guards can handcuff them before moving them and with ratchet systems so inmates can't yank the doors open or shut when they have to be unlocked. They will be guarded by 250 wardens — elsewhere, the ratio is usually 20 guards to 100 inmates, Darmanin told French broadcaster TF1. Instead of unlimited calls with family members from prison phones, they will be limited to a maximum of two hours, twice a week — a restriction that Darmanin says will make monitoring their conversations easier. Prison visiting rooms have also been equipped with security glass dividers, to prevent physical contact between inmates and visitors. Darmanin says this will prevent mobile phones and other contraband from being smuggled in. The new Vendin-le-Vieil inmates also won't have the rights accorded in other prisons of intimate time with partners and family members. Darmanin said the conditions will be 'extremely hard" but are necessary because France risks 'tipping into narco-banditry' in the absence of tough decisions. Critics say Darmanin is taking a gamble by grouping together so many inmates he describes as dangerous. 'From what I know, even when they're placed under the strictest isolation, they're so smart that they always find ways to communicate with each other," said May Sarah Vogelhut, an attorney for one of the 17 prisoners transferred this week. "It's almost more like a networking club for billionaire narco-traffickers." She and others also say the tough conditions could inflict an unacceptable toll on the prisoners' mental health. Vogelhut said her 22-year-old client was a major drug dealer in the southern French port city of Marseille and was convicted and sentenced to 25 years for torturing his victims. He is appealing his sentence. Held in isolation in another prison before his transfer to Vendin-le-Vieil, his biggest concern was the glass barrier that will prevent him from hugging his mother and touching other visitors, Vogelhut said. 'What shocks me the most in this new detention center is that the visits happen through a security glass intercom — you know, like what we French see in American movies, when the person is behind a glass and you talk through a phone,' she said. 'I find that inhumane. I mean, imagine that a guy spends 10 years there — for 10 years, he can't hug his mother?" she said. 'I think it's going to dehumanize them." First as a minister for public accounts, then as interior minister and since last December as justice minister, Darmanin has proven to be one of Macron's most loyal lieutenants. His close ties with the unpopular president, who can't run again, could work against Darmanin if he runs in 2027. But his government experience and tough-on-crime rhetoric could work in his favor with voters. Darmanin has announced plans for at least two other high-security prison units for convicted and accused drug traffickers, one of them in the overseas territory of French Guiana. Vogelhut accuses Darmanin of angling for votes and playing on "French people's fears and anxieties.'
The Age
6 days ago
- Business
- The Age
Albanese's guru talkfest won't make you richer – he's chosen the wrong people
Why isn't there a seat for the CSIRO, which has given us life-changing and productivity-enhancing inventions as Wi-Fi, solar hot water, gene shears, polymer banknotes and permanent-crease clothing? Where is the expert in AI or cancer therapy or environmental trends or agricultural science? Scott Farquhar, co-founder and former chief executive of Atlassian, will be there as the lone voice of the technological future. He'll be sitting next to three former or current state treasurers who will tell us all about the fiscal problems they face. If you were to list the most important developments that have made the world more productive, would tax reform even get a look in? (Perhaps the creation of income tax to help Britain fight Napoleon might get a mention.) The telephone, the internal combustion engine and the lightbulb are three of the most transformative pieces of technology in humanity's development. The phone allowed us to communicate quickly. The internal combustion engine enabled us to move goods and people really quickly. And the lightbulb – the creation of cheap light – meant we could work when we wanted to. Loading These three pivotal productivity enhancements weren't driven by tax reform. They were driven by ingenuity, by the circumstances faced by their creators, by the need to improve the lives of everyone. What's also important – and more than a little disheartening – is that all three came into being between 1876 and 1879. Three inventions that underpin today's society are approaching their 150th birthdays. That's why there is so much interest in AI at present. This is an invention that could utterly change our lives. As US Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook noted in a speech last week, AI is a general-purpose technology (a transformative invention like the steam engine and electricity). 'AI is poised to alter the contours of the global economy. AI is transforming the economy, including by accelerating how quickly we generate ideas and making workers more efficient,' she noted. It's ideas that make the world, the economy and productivity go round. That's not to say tax doesn't matter. If you impose huge imposts on businesses or individuals, then you distort the economy in a way that is unlikely to be productive. If you don't raise revenue, then say goodbye to roads, hospitals, a judicial system and defence networks. Governments often build incentives into the tax system for a major policy aim. That's the whole reason, for instance, that superannuation is taxed lightly and why excises on cigarettes and alcohol are so high. Loading The idea put up by the Labor-aligned McKell Institute this week, to increase the capital gains tax concession on new apartment builds (and reduce it for investors who simply buy an existing detached house), is another example of how the tax system can help. However, it's aimed at acting as an incentive for investors to build more homes – not to build those homes more productively. Apart from, perhaps, some incentives directly aimed at research and development, inventions and productivity-enhancing breakthroughs are rarely driven by the tax system. Terrible events and diseases drive change (Alexander Fleming's penicillin discovery was transformed into a useable medicine by Howard Florey and German-born Ernst Chain, but it was only World War II that made it cheap and mass-produced lifesaver). Penicillin has saved an estimated 500 million lives. In terms of productivity improvement, this single medicine has done more than any tax concession to improve our lives and our economy. Yet when you look around the cabinet table next month, don't expect to see anyone carrying out health-related research. We can hope that some of the specialists who get to sit in on certain parts of the roundtable might pique the interest of those who will ultimately have a say over what policies get supported. But I wouldn't bet on it. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Sydney Morning Herald
6 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Albanese's guru talkfest won't make you richer - he's chosen the wrong people
Why isn't there a seat for the CSIRO, which has given us life-changing and productivity-enhancing inventions as Wi-Fi, solar hot water, gene shears, polymer banknotes and permanent-crease clothing? Where is the expert in AI or cancer therapy or environmental trends or agricultural science? Scott Farquhar, co-founder and former chief executive of Atlassian, will be there as the lone voice of the technological future. He'll be sitting next to three former or current state treasurers who will tell us all about the fiscal problems they face. If you were to list the most important developments that have made the world more productive, would tax reform even get a look in? (Perhaps the creation of income tax to help Britain fight Napoleon might get a mention.) The telephone, the internal combustion engine and the lightbulb are three of the most transformative pieces of technology in humanity's development. The phone allowed us to communicate quickly. The internal combustion engine enabled us to move goods and people really quickly. And the lightbulb – the creation of cheap light – meant we could work when we wanted to. Loading These three pivotal productivity enhancements weren't driven by tax reform. They were driven by ingenuity, by the circumstances faced by their creators, by the need to improve the lives of everyone. What's also important – and more than a little disheartening – is that all three came into being between 1876 and 1879. Three inventions that underpin today's society are approaching their 150th birthdays. That's why there is so much interest in AI at present. This is an invention that could utterly change our lives. As US Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook noted in a speech last week, AI is a general-purpose technology (a transformative invention like the steam engine and electricity). 'AI is poised to alter the contours of the global economy. AI is transforming the economy, including by accelerating how quickly we generate ideas and making workers more efficient,' she noted. It's ideas that make the world, the economy and productivity go round. That's not to say tax doesn't matter. If you impose huge imposts on businesses or individuals, then you distort the economy in a way that is unlikely to be productive. If you don't raise revenue, then say goodbye to roads, hospitals, a judicial system and defence networks. Governments often build incentives into the tax system for a major policy aim. That's the whole reason, for instance, that superannuation is taxed lightly and why excises on cigarettes and alcohol are so high. Loading The idea put up by the Labor-aligned McKell Institute this week, to increase the capital gains tax concession on new apartment builds (and reduce it for investors who simply buy an existing detached house), is another example of how the tax system can help. However, it's aimed at acting as an incentive for investors to build more homes – not to build those homes more productively. Apart from, perhaps, some incentives directly aimed at research and development, inventions and productivity-enhancing breakthroughs are rarely driven by the tax system. Terrible events and diseases drive change (Alexander Fleming's penicillin discovery was transformed into a useable medicine by Howard Florey and German-born Ernst Chain, but it was only World War II that made it cheap and mass-produced lifesaver). Penicillin has saved an estimated 500 million lives. In terms of productivity improvement, this single medicine has done more than any tax concession to improve our lives and our economy. Yet when you look around the cabinet table next month, don't expect to see anyone carrying out health-related research. We can hope that some of the specialists who get to sit in on certain parts of the roundtable might pique the interest of those who will ultimately have a say over what policies get supported. But I wouldn't bet on it. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
