Latest news with #TheLordoftheRings
Time Out
5 hours ago
- Business
- Time Out
Sydney Airport will auction off more than 2,000 unclaimed valuables from just $10
In 2024, Sydney Airport welcomed 41.4 million passengers. In the first three months of 2025 alone, 10.4 million people passed through the airport's three terminals. With so many travellers passing through, it's no wonder that Sydney Airport's lost property bank is overflowing with valuables. Behind the scenes at the airport, there's a team of people working to reunite travellers with their lost treasures, with more than 7,000 items successfully returned last year alone. But not every lost lamb finds its shepherd, and the team are always left with a heap of unclaimed items. So, every year, the airport auctions off the items that haven't been claimed – to raise money for charity – and this year's auction is going live real soon. More than 2,000 unclaimed items are going to be auctioned off online, with bidding starting at just $10. Proceeds will help provide families facing cost-of-living pressures with free swimming lessons and water safety programs through the Inner West Council Aquatics team. So what sorts of treasures are in store? There are 250 laptops up for grabs, 250 pieces of jewellery and watches, 80 handbags, 60 Kindles and three surfboards, to start with. Some of the more unusual items include a violin and The Lord of the Rings book collection. From Tuesday, June 10, the online auction will start accepting bids on the first round of items. The auction times and categories for this year's auction are below: Tech and Gaming | Tuesday 10 June | 11am Jewellery and Watches | Wednesday 11 June | 11am Clothing and Shoes | Thursday 12 June | 11am Sunglasses, Scarves and Accessories | Thursday 12 June | 2pm Beauty, Alcohol, Home | Friday 13 June | 11am Since 2013, Sydney Airport's lost property auctions have raised $1.9 million for charitable and community organisations. As mentioned, this year's auction will support swimming lessons for children. The initiative will be kicked off by an initial $100,000 in funding from the airport, who hope to raise a further $200,000 from the 2025 Lost Property Auction – the equivalent of 8,000 free swimming lessons. The five catalogues have gone live online today, so you can have a good browse before bidding goes live next week. You'll need to register to bid, so make sure you've registered and checked out your top picks before the sale goes live. You can learn more over here.
7NEWS
8 hours ago
- 7NEWS
Sydney Airport's lost property auction includes tech gadgets, perfume, surfboards and Lego sets
Thousands of items have been left behind by travellers passing through Sydney Airport this year. From duty-free booze and frequently forgotten items like laptops and cameras, to more bizarre items such an electric keyboard and The Lord of the Rings book collection — all are up for auction, with bidding to start at $10. In the last year, travellers lost about 7000 items in the airport, and while about 5000 of those items were reunited with their owners, a huge collection was sent to Theodore Bruce Auctioneers for auction. The jewellery category is worth exploring for any travellers who have lost sentimental pieces — a number of the lost gold and diamond-studded rings are engraved with names, dates and initials. Bidding is currently open, and is set to close next week. The annual auction supports a different charity each year, with this year's funds going towards free swimming lessons and water safety programs in Sydney. For every $25 raised, a child will get access to a swimming lesson. 'Swimming is a vital life skill, but our research shows nearly half of Year 6 students in Australia can't swim 50m, and one in 10 children aged five to 14 have never had a swimming lesson,' Royal Life Saving Society Health Promotions Manager Louise Smalley said. Theodore Bruce Auctioneers Director Casi Prischl said the airport auction was one of their most-loved events. 'People from all over Australia log in to bid, not just for the bargains, but because it supports something meaningful,' Prischl said. Sydney Airport is also donating $100,000 to kick-start the initiative, which equates to 4000 free swimming lessons 'to children who might otherwise miss out', the airport said. 'In addition to swimming lessons for children, future programs aim to include adult learn to swim and water safety programs as well as broader community-based water safety and recreation programs.' 'Inner West Aquatics will roll out the program to its community in the coming months.' The items up for auction and when to bid The items up for auction are separated into five different categories, with auctioneers bringing down the hammer at a different time for each. For lost property in the technology and gaming category, bidding closes at 11am next Monday. For the jewellery and watches category, bidding closes at 11am next Tuesday. For the clothing and shoes category, bidding closes at 11am next Wednesday. Bidding also closes at 2pm that day for the sunglasses, bags and accessories category. For beauty, alcohol, and home category, bidding closes at 11am next Thursday. Laser tag sets, sleep apnea machines, mahjon and backgammon sets, breast milk pumps, a footy signed by the 2020 Sydney Swans AFL team, and a large stainless steel time capsule, are among some of the items on offer in the last, largely miscellaneous category. Here is an idea of the quantity of items up for grabs: 250 laptops 200 earbuds/headphones 60 Kindles 100 pairs of sunglasses 250 pieces of jewellery & watches 250 pieces of clothing 80 handbags & wallets 50 cameras 50 bottles of perfume 40 gaming consoles 40 hair dryers & straighteners 30 plush toys, including a giant 90cm teddy bear 10 boxed Lego sets four bikes three surfboards two sets of golf clubs a vacuum cleaner a frying pan and an air fryer a coffee machine two pairs of binoculars The Lord of the Rings book collection Violin Electric keyboard 'It's worth noting that checked baggage is managed by individual airlines and is not included in the auction. Travellers looking for lost baggage should contact their airline directly,' Sydney Airport said. Any items up for auction that are not sold will be donated to charity or put up in the 2026 airport auction.
Atlantic
21 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Atlantic
Five Movies Worth a Repeat Watch
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Welcome back to The Daily's Sunday culture edition. Not all movies are meant to be watched twice. Some leave a glancing effect; others emanate so much intensity that the idea of sitting through them again feels unbearable. But then there are those films that draw you back in, even after you've seen it all before. So we asked The Atlantic 's writers and editors: What's a movie you can watch over and over again? Raising Arizona (available to rent on Prime Video) I've probably seen Raising Arizona, the Coen brothers' 1987 classic with Holly Hunter and a 22-year-old Nicholas Cage, a half dozen times over the years. But I've watched the opening sequence many, many more times than that. It's a whole movie-within-the-movie, building up to the title shot with Cage's deadpan narration, rapid-cut scenes, and a jaunty musical bed that goes from whistling and humming to weird ululating. The screenwriting has some all-time great lines ('I tried to stand up and fly straight, but it wasn't easy with that sumbitch Reagan in the White House,' says Cage, with wild hair, aviators, and a 12-gauge shotgun, preparing to stick up a convenience store). The other day, I made my 12-year-old watch it for the first time. When Cage says to his chatty prison bunkmate, incredulously, 'You ate sand?!' my son nearly fell on the floor. A true marker of timelessness. — Nick Miroff, staff writer White Christmas (streaming on Prime Video) It makes me miserable to contemplate how many people have never once seen the 1954 film White Christmas, let alone given it 10 to 20 percent of their attention while focusing on other activities, which is the ideal way to view it. Then again, the film's surprising obscurity is its hidden ace: From the moment you press 'Play' on White Christmas, no one who glances at the screen will be able to predict or even comprehend any aspect of the Technicolor encephalitic fever dream exploding before them unless they have previously seen White Christmas. In any given frame, a viewer might be confronted with a horde of people cavorting inside a giant purple void, waggling tambourines adorned with women's faces; the bombed-out smoldering remains of 1944 Europe; or the virtuoso dancer Vera-Ellen, in head-to-heel chartreuse, executing pirouettes at faster-than-heartbeat speeds (for no defined reason). Muted, it makes for terrific social lubricant at a party—there's something dazzling to remark upon nearly every second if conversation lags. Don't concern yourself with the plot; the film's writers did not. — Caity Weaver, staff writer The Lord of the Rings franchise (streaming on Max) I suppose my answer is less of a love letter to a movie than it is one to my family. My husband is the movie buff in our family—I'll rarely be caught rewatching movies. But his undying loyalty to the Lord of the Rings franchise means we've watched the trilogy together multiple times, more than once in an 11-plus-hour binge. (Yeah … it's the extended editions, every time.) The movies are a genuinely gorgeous feat of storytelling, bested only by the books; fantasy and action sequences aside, they spotlight friendship, loyalty, and the dueling motivations of pride, duty, and greed. And for our family, at least, they'll be a regular feature—I'm pretty sure it was implicit in our wedding vows that we'd indoctrinate our kids into the LOTR lore—which means that the films are about carving out time for one another as well. — Katherine J. Wu, staff writer All Your Faces (available to rent on Google Play and Apple TV) I've watched the French film All Your Faces three times in the past eight months. The movie isn't a documentary, but it's based on real restorative-justice programs in France that were introduced about a decade ago. Why did I repeatedly return to a film about an idiosyncratic feature of a foreign country's criminal-justice system? There's something about the encounter between victim and perpetrator, and the instability and unpredictability of these interactions, that surprised me each time I watched it. Equally intense was the tenderness between the instructors and the programs' participants, most evident between the characters played by Adèle Exarchopoulos and Élodie Bouchez. But it's Miou-Miou, playing an elderly victim of petty street crime, who delivers the most haunting line in the movie: 'I don't understand the violence.' A mantra for our time. — Isaac Stanley-Becker, staff writer Little Women (streaming on Hulu) Little Women first came to me as a comfort movie. Based on Louisa May Alcott's 1868 novel, Greta Gerwig's 2019 film adaptation features not so much plot as simply vibes: a familiar tale of four sisters and their childhood friend, scenes of a snowy Christmas morning perfect for the holidays. But with each subsequent encounter during my lonely postgraduate months in a new city, I began to appreciate the little rebellions that make Gerwig's Little Women so special. The story is full of moments of seeing: Professor Bhaer turns around to watch Jo watching a play, Laurie gazes into the Marches' windows, and we, as viewers, feel seen by Jo's boyish brashness. But Gerwig also chooses to focus on Jo's many anxieties. Early in the film, Jo uncharacteristically dismisses her own writing ('Those are just stories,' she says. Just!); later, her monologue reveals a vulnerable desire for companionship (But I'm so lonely!). Gerwig honors the story's essence, but her version is not a granular retelling; rather, it serves as a homage to the art of writing itself—and women's mundane, humble stories, which Jo and Alcott are desperate to tell. The Week Ahead Ballerina, an action movie in the John Wick franchise starring Ana de Armas as an assassin bent on avenging her father's death (in theaters Friday) Season 3 of Ginny & Georgia, a comedy-drama series about a single mom and two kids trying to settle down in a new town (premieres Thursday on Netflix) The Haves and the Have-Yachts, a book by the journalist Evan Osnos featuring dispatches on the ultrarich (out Tuesday) Essay Diddy's Defenders Diddy—whose legal name is Sean Combs—has pleaded not guilty to the charges he faces of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. Many Americans have taken to the comment sections to offer their full-throated belief in his innocence. Despite the video evidence of domestic violence, the photos of Combs's guns with serial numbers removed, and the multiple witnesses testifying that Combs threatened to kill them, this group insists that Diddy's biggest sin is nothing more than being a hypermasculine celebrity with 'libertine' sexual tastes. More in Culture Catch Up on The Atlantic Photo Album Take a look at the beauty of the North. These photographs are by Olivier Morin, who captures remarkable images of the natural world, largely focusing on northern climates.
HKFP
a day ago
- Business
- HKFP
‘Hanging halfway': In wake of Canada's immigration delay, Hongkong emigrants ponder whether to stay or return home
When Hongkonger Leonald Lee emigrated to Toronto, Canada, in July 2023, his plan was simple: find a full-time job and work there for at least one year, submit his application for permanent residence, and enrol in a master's degree programme after obtaining his PR status for much cheaper tuition. Lee, a former journalist, was off to a good start when he secured a minimum-wage job at a telecommunications company a month after his arrival. It was not the most exciting work, and his salary often arrived late. However, the 26-year-old did not mind because he had a clear goal in mind: he needed to accumulate enough work hours for his permanent residence application under the Hong Kong Pathway programme. Lee's seemingly straightforward plan took a turn earlier this year when he 'sensed something was not right.' In group chats with other Hongkongers in Canada, he found that more and more people were complaining that there had been no updates on their PR applications submitted months, or even over a year, ago. One night in March, Lee could not fall asleep and turned his mind to calculating the processing time for his application, which he filed in September last year. Using statistics reported by Hong Kong media citing Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), Lee estimated he might have to wait at least three years before his application was processed. Lee's estimation was confirmed by the IRCC soon after. On March 18, the IRCC announced there would be a years-long delay in processing permanent residence applications from Hongkongers under the lifeboat programme. The Canadian immigration authorities said that as of October 31, 80 per cent of permanent residence applications were processed within a year. But a backlog has emerged due to a high volume of applications received, and most applications are expected to be processed after 2027. 'What I thought would be a straightforward trilogy turned out to be much longer. I guess it is like The Lord of the Rings, with three thick volumes,' Lee said in Cantonese in a phone interview with HKFP. Moon Ho, a Hong Kong nurse who emigrated to Toronto in February 2023, has tried to follow up on her permanent residence application, which she submitted in September. In April, the 27-year-old spent a week trying to call the IRCC after reading guides provided by fellow Hongkongers in Canada on which lines were more likely to reach the office successfully. When she was finally put through to the office, she was told that her application had been received, but no one had 'opened her file' yet. The waiting time was 'far beyond' her expectations, Ho told HKFP, adding that she was constantly worried she might lose her job after her original permit expires in February next year. Although she can extend her permit or apply for a bridging work permit during her wait, news of other Hongkongers being rejected for unknown reasons has made her question her chances of success. 'I really love my current job in the intensive care unit, which I had to enrol in a course and take exams to get into,' she said. 'I really don't want to lose this job.' Ho's boyfriend, who moved to Toronto with her, is also waiting for his application to be processed. The architectural graduate from Hong Kong had intended to advance his career by pursuing a master's degree after gaining PR status. He is currently stuck in mid-senior jobs, as higher positions require a master's degree, but he cannot afford to pay the international student tuition fees. Confusion, frustration Lee and Ho are not the only ones pondering their future in Canada. In recent months, Hongkongers in Canada have taken to social media to express their confusion and frustration at the lack of updates on their permanent residence applications. Many provided timelines of their applications and said they had not been instructed to take the next step, like submitting biometrics. A netizen wrote on Threads in May that they felt 'very stressed and exhausted' because their work permit would expire in weeks, while their permanent residence application submitted last year had not been updated since. A renewal of the work permit was filed several months ago, but the application is still being processed, they said. The Threads user also said their grandmother's health had deteriorated, and they wanted to return to the city to see her, but they were also concerned about their status once they left Canada. It is unclear whether applicants can wait for their permanent residence applications to be processed outside Canada. The lifeboat scheme, introduced in June 2021 in response to the Beijing-imposed national security law enacted in Hong Kong in 2020, is set to expire on August 31, 2026. The lifeboat scheme offers two pathways. Stream A allows recent graduates from Canadian institutions to seek permanent residence. Stream B, on the other hand, allows Hongkongers to obtain a three-year permit to work in Canada. Those who have worked full-time in Canada for at least one year, or spent at least 1,560 hours in total undertaking part-time work, may apply for permanent residence. In June last year, advocacy group Hong Kong Watch told the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration of the Canadian parliament that around 60,000 Hongkongers had arrived in Canada three years after the temporary immigration policy was launched. Lee and Ho are among more than 40,500 Hongkongers under Stream B who had obtained a three-year permit to work in Canada as of December 31, 2024 – most of them recent postsecondary graduates. Lee said the threshold for emigrating to Canada was 'low' under the Pathway scheme, and many Hong Kong immigrants did not anticipate that the wait for PR applications would be long, as earlier batches of applicants obtained their status rather quickly when there were fewer applicants. The IRCC said in March that, with the two streams combined, it received more than 26,500 permanent residence applications as of October 31. Only more than 10,500 have been approved, while fewer than 200 applications have been refused. To accommodate the processing time, Canada offered a new work permit for Hongkongers in May last year to allow them to stay in the country while they await a decision on their applications. The permit is valid for up to three years and can be renewed. Advocacy efforts Since last year, advocacy groups and politicians have called on the Canadian government to tackle the backlog and maintain its pledge to grant permanent residence to Hongkongers. In September, Tom Kmiec, a Conservative Party MP, presented a petition to the Canadian parliament, urging the IRCC to accelerate the approval process and ensure that applications from Hongkongers would not be rejected due to the target restrictions. The petition referred to Canada's Immigration Levels Plan for 2025 to 2027 for the Humanitarian and Compassionate (H&C) and Other Category, under which the Hong Kong Pathway programme falls. Canada is seeking to reduce the annual number from 10,000 in 2025 to 6,900 in 2026. The number is expected to drop further to 4,300 in 2027. The reduced target number prompted further questions about whether Hong Kong immigrants under the lifeboat scheme would be affected. The petition, which gathered nearly 15,000 signatures, also asked Canadian authorities to automatically review permits or visas for the Hong Kong applicants who arrived in Canada via Stream A or B. Kmiec told HKFP in a video interview that the estimated backlog was over 18,300 as of December 2024. The Conservative Party MP said he received a lot of requests for assistance from Hongkongers who had issues when they tried to renew their work permits while waiting for their PR applications to be processed. Some Hongkongers received letters from the IRCC claiming that their maintained status – a legal mechanism allowing temporary residents to remain in Canada while their application to extend or change their status is being processed – would expire in five months, or when the IRCC issued a response to their PR application, whichever is earlier. Given that the waiting time has exceeded five months, some Hongkongers are concerned that they could lose their jobs if their employers refuse to continue hiring them after their maintained status expires, Kmiec said. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tom Kmiec (@tomkmiec) When Kmiec presented the issue in parliament in November, James McNamee, director general of the IRCC's Family and Social Immigration Branch, said that what was stated in the letters was an 'error' and that the authorities would 'amend' the wording. 'It's an error in the wording of that letter,' McNamee said. 'When that letter was originally created, we were within a much faster processing time… in recent months, with delays, it's taking longer. We have asked to amend that letter.' The official added that applicants may retain their status until they receive a decision from the IRCC without any limitation. Kmiec, who is also the shadow minister for immigration, refugees and citizenship, criticised the Canadian government for having 'no intentionality' behind its immigration. Many temporary measures were introduced to 'get through a particular crisis' without considering the future of immigrants, he said. Sense of belonging With around 10 months left before her work permit expires, Ho does not want the stress concerning her future in Canada to affect her daily life. She has decided to put everything to the back of her mind until September, when she will have to start preparing to extend her work permit or apply for a new one. Lee will make a decision soon. He will see his family in Hong Kong in mid-June, and he will decide whether he should stay in Canada. The chance of staying is slim, he told HKFP, given the foreseeable years-long wait, which he said made him feel like 'hanging halfway up in the air.' 'I used to see a path ahead of me, but I began to wonder what I was doing here. Compared to the first year [in Canada], the feeling of sadness is stronger,' Lee said. Reflecting on his stay in Canada for around two and a half years, Lee said it made him contemplate the meaning of freedom. While Hong Kong's political landscape in recent years was one of the reasons the former journalist chose to move abroad, he felt that the freedom he experienced in Canada was 'a bit useless.' His lack of a sense of belonging to the community in Canada was also why he lost interest in continuing to work in journalism after emigrating. 'I think the reason why many Hongkongers wanted more freedom is that they wanted to shape the future direction of society. But when we are in a city that does not belong to us, even if we have the freedom to speak up, it is purely just talk,' he said. Push factors For many Hongkongers in Canada, the hope of becoming a permanent resident is what draws them to stay in the country. For some, however, the push factors are greater. Alex Chu, 41, returned to Hong Kong in July last year, shortly after obtaining his Canadian permanent residency. The software engineer and his wife moved to Toronto in early 2022. He told HKFP in an interview that after living there for six months, they noticed that the crime rates were high and they did not feel comfortable living in an area with legal drug injection sites and many homeless individuals. The slower pace of life in Toronto, which initially attracted Chu, also turned out to be a mismatch. While he enjoyed strolling in a park and resting on the lawn, repeating this activity almost every weekend made the Hongkonger feel it was 'too early for retirement.' Despite the difference in lifestyle, Chu still applied for permanent residence in August 2023 after completing his postgraduate diploma. What prompted him to return to Hong Kong was the IRCC's rejection of his wife's work permit renewal, stating that her work at the time could not be proven to be significant or beneficial to the Canadian economy. Chu said it was a mistake on the part of the immigration authorities, as such a requirement is not applicable to applicants under the Hong Kong Pathway programme. The couple decided to return to Hong Kong and travel to Japan briefly while their case is on appeal. This was also to ensure his wife was not staying in Canada illegally, Chu said. During their trip, Chu received updates from the IRCC indicating that the renewal denial was not a mistake. However, days later, the IRCC notified them again that the work permit renewal was 'in process,' and it was approved later. 'This experience really made me lose confidence in the Canadian immigration authorities,' he said. Criticism of the Canadian government is often unwelcome among Hong Kong immigrants, Chu said. He has seen comments online asking those who complained to be 'thankful' to Canada for offering additional permanent residence pathways to Hongkongers. 'Of course, we should not take it for granted, but it is a commercial deal. We are bringing money into Canada when we study, pay rent, pay tax and consume,' he said. Other options Pressure groups and politicians such as Kmiec continue to help Hongkongers who have difficulty extending their stay in Canada while waiting for their PR applications to be processed. Kmiec told HKFP that he has spoken with several provincial immigration ministers to find other settlement programmes for Hongkongers in Canada as alternative pathways to permanent residence. It is 'not very productive' to fight with the government on the target numbers, he said, especially with the general sentiment among the Canadian public that immigration levels should go down. He suggested that Hongkongers explore other options as a more feasible solution. Kmiec acknowledged that the Canadian government disappointed Hongkongers with the prolonged processing time. However, the politician also pointed out that the Pathway programme was meant to be a 'one-time escape' for Hongkongers involved in the 2019 protests, and people had to 'make the best decision for themselves.' 'I can't see this Pathway programme continuing on much longer, because the expectation is that those who wanted to escape had the opportunity, they just may not have the opportunity to get PR for an extended period of time until we sort out this immigration system,' he said.
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Guess the reason behind New York cabbie's claim to fame...
The Diary is now eagerly awaiting the Scottification of other notable works of fantasy. Very soon we are sure to be watching an improved movie version of C.S. Lewis's classic yarn… The Highland Cow, The Witch and the Wardrobe. And instead of hobbits travelling to the evil land of Mordor, there will be an iteration of The Lord of the Rings where a fellowship of small hairy men called the nesbitts make their way from Glasgow into the heinous kingdom of England. Of course, Scotland doesn't just specialise in fantasy fiction. We're also a dab hand at gritty realism, as you'll now discover by reading the following classic tales from our archives… Waterworks don't work A Canada-based reader visiting Scotland was on the train from Oban to Glasgow where two chaps were in a desperate hurry to get past the refreshment trolley in order to get to the toilet. 'After some shuffling and shunting,' said our reader, 'the Glesga wummin in charge of the trolley managed to let them past, interrupting her sales patter just long enough to announce to everyone in the carriage, 'Thae men – their prostates are a' gone', then carried on selling coffee and sandwiches.' Added our reader: 'I sat with my legs tight crossed until we got to Glasgow.' Foreign affairs A woman in a Glasgow coffee shop was heard telling her friend that she went to see her doctor about a back pain, and he recommended she see a chiropractor. 'I swear,' she added, 'for a few seconds I thought he was wanting to send me to Egypt.' The fame game An East Kilbride reader got into a cab in New York and noticed from the driver's licence that he was named Robert Burns. Making conversation, our reader said: 'That's a famous name you have.' 'It should be,' replied the chap, 'I've been driving a cab here for nearly 40 years.' Horsing around Will the poor folk at Tesco never catch a break? A reader told us: 'Seen leaving Lochgilphead last Saturday… the white articulated Tesco delivery truck with the additional text, graffiti-style, along the length of the trailer, hand-written in the traffic grime: 'Caution – horses in transit'.' The absolute goat A reader found herself living on the outskirts of New Orleans, and once glanced out the window and spotted a goat grazing in the garden. She chased it away, then a short while later a neighbour rung the doorbell and said: 'I know you're from a foreign country, so I thought I'd let you know that the animal in your yard this morning is called a goat, and it's relatively harmless.' Our reader thanked him kindly.
