'Contraceptives are widely available'

An animal rescue charity has successfully evacuated two lionesses from a war-affected part of Ukraine, and one has just been filmed taking her first steps into a new, calmer world. Yuna the lioness had never even felt grass beneath her paws—having been raised in captivity in a small concrete enclosure. She had been traumatized long […] The post Lion Rescued in Ukraine from a Tiny Cage Tentatively Walks on Grass for First Time–WATCH appeared first on Good News Network.

Movies & TV Arcane Heartbreak Between Sisters Is the Power Behind Arcane By Aamir Mehar | Published on September 5, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share Two sisters walk through red smoke, along a bridge strewn with rubble and bodies. The older, pink-haired sister (Vi) is wide-eyed, quiet, and horrified. The little blue-haired sister (Powder) covers her eyes and sings as if to distract herself, but once Vi stops walking, she cannot resist peeking up at her through her hand, and then uncovers her eyes completely, looking around. Powder edges nearer to Vi as they both regard the chaos around them. Vi squeezes Powder’s hand, but when she sees the body of their mother amidst the smoke, Vi falls to her knees. Powder clutches her. This opening scene to Arcane (a Hugo nominated animated show from 2021, based on the video game League of Legends) used to be completely different. During the development, the original opening was intended to focus on the main antagonist of the series rather than the sisters. A writer on the team named Amanda Overton argued that it should be replaced with the one described above, however, and when you watch the series it’s clear that she was correct in her decision. Arcane is about many things—inequality, corruption, the joy and danger of progress—but the core is the dynamic between Vi and Powder, a dynamic suffused with love, longing, and regret. This is conjured through emotionally powerful, character-driven writing from figures such as Overton, refined voice acting from the cast, and an astonishingly accomplished handling of art and animation by the French studio Fortiche. Arcane is split into three acts. In the first act, Vi (Hailee Steinfeld) and Powder (played by Mia Sinclair Jenness at this point) are older than in the opening scene, but are still both children. They live under the care of Vander (JB Blanc), a burly, comforting peacekeeper, in the undercity of Zaun. They have a little group of fellow troublemakers; Mylo (Yuri Lowenthal), Claggor (Roger Craig Smith), and Ekko (Miles Brown in this act), the last of whom they call “Little Man.” Vi, who is a reckless but charismatic leader, ropes them all into a robbery of an apartment in the wealthy area of Piltover, but things spiral from there into chaos. We see, again and again, that Powder is clearly too young, inexperienced, and frankly unlucky to keep up with the others; she almost falls from a rooftop before they reach the apartment, she loses most of their loot on the way back, comes within a few seconds of alerting the authorities to their presence while they hide, and her attempts to create weapons fail. While the others look up to Vi, Powder is bullied by Mylo for her constant bumbling. We are also shown how much Vi cares for Powder; she defends her from Mylo’s bullying, and tries to encourage her. There’s a lovely moment where she strokes Powder’s cheek and Powder looks up at her warmly. “What makes you different makes you strong,” Vi tells her, a line that becomes unfortunately resonant later. By the end of the first act, Vander has been captured by Silco (Jason Spisak), an old ally but now an enemy and the aforementioned antagonist of the show. Vi leads the others to try and rescue him, but decides to leave Powder behind, telling her that she can’t face the idea of losing her. (You have to wonder if she is also worried, despite how she defends her, about Powder’s bad luck.) Powder’s reaction to this, when they leave her alone, is depicted in a disturbing and memorable manner; she screams and sobs, slapping her own head, her body and face contorting with her frustration and anxiety. She refuses to be left alone and crushed by her own inadequacy, so she follows Vi and the others. What follows are, for me, the darkest and most harrowing scenes in the show; Powder’s attempt to help results in the deaths of Vander, Mylo, and Claggor. The scene where Powder finds Vi over Vander’s body is heartbreaking. At first, before she realizes what has happened, she is proud as she thinks she has at last been of some use to them, but once she sees the look on Vi’s face and the devastation around her, she crumbles into a kind of panic and shock. (Steinfeld also captures so much quiet horror in Vi’s delivery of “You did this?”) The art and animation is particularly good here, as we see Powder’s intensely human expression in response, her eyes flicking around, sobs starting to jolt her body; it manages to capture a very specific emotion where one begins to realize that something awful has occurred, that it’s their fault, and that the one they care about knows it. The reason all of this works so effectively is because of the set-up provided by most of the first three episodes. We know how much Powder has failed, how her incompetence haunts her, and how caring and protective Vi is over her. This moment where their relationship snaps revolves entirely around all those qualities coming to a head in a chilling moment. We feel how unfair it is for Powder, who brought about chaos through her good intentions, while we also feel Vi’s sadness and pain, because we have been watching both characters going through hell. (We are with Vi’s perspective when waking up to the death all around her, and we also were shown Powder’s anguish at being left alone and feeling helpless.) Now Arcane forces us to watch them together in their worst moment, where their bond breaks. Vi does some crucial things here in regard to the development of the characters and the plot; furious and hurting, she strikes her sister and says she is indeed a ‘jinx’ as Mylo claimed, and then she walks away from Powder. Jenness is absolutely powerful here in the way she captures Powder’s emotions, with the stammering and pleading and sobbing and shouts as Vi leaves. Vi tries to return afterward, but she’s dragged away and arrested. Powder is left in the clutches of Silco. The perspective switching is once again helping to enhance the emotions here, as the audience sees Vi trying to return and failing, but Powder doesn’t. As far as she knows, Vi has completely abandoned her. The next time Vi and Powder meet, it’s six years later. Powder (now a murderous teenager going by the name of Jinx, voiced by an older actor than before, Ella Purnell) is shocked to learn that her sister is back. In reality, Vi has only just recently been broken out of prison by a disobedient Enforcer named Caitlyn (Katie Leung). Powder lights up an old signal flare that Vi gave her (a flare that Vi promised would summon her in a scene that took place years beforehand). In a painful touch, we see the anguished faces of Mylo and Claggor fused into Powder as she sets off the flare. The art and animation tells us they’ll always be part of her shame and fear. Vi makes good on her promise, and she turns up. It’s hard to describe just how charged this moment is for the audience unless you have seen the episodes preceding it. It’s a reunion after their last bitter time together years beforehand. It’s a chance for Vi to save Powder from the vicious path she is on. It’s Powder getting closure that she never thought she would have. The moment where you hear Vi call out Powder’s name, and the slow, disbelieving turn Powder makes is perfect to convey just how much the moment means to the latter. Vi rushes up to her and hugs her, and Powder’s response is devastating: “Are you real?” For Powder, who is plagued by a phantom of Mylo that speaks to her and appears to taunt her, she wonders if this reunion is simply too good to be true. Purnell brings a real pathos to this when you hear Powder’s voice cracking and sorrowful as she warns her sister that she’s changed. When they hug, it’s a beautiful moment of reconciliation. It doesn’t last, mainly due to Powder’s paranoia and fear once Caitlyn arrives. Caitlyn becomes an intriguing embodiment of Powder’s deep fear and insecurity concerning Vi, a fear helped by Sevika (Amirah Vann), Silco’s associate, suggesting that Vi has “replaced” Powder with Caitlyn. It’s not true of course, but it’s certainly the case that Vi and Caitlyn form a bond during their time together, one that Vi no longer has with anyone else at this point. Powder’s fear of being replaced and abandoned is what disrupts their reunion, and is critical again in the next encounter between them, when they meet on the bridge to Piltover. Powder sees Vi and Caitlyn embrace, which seems to spark off some kind of dark thought within. “It’s just a goodbye hug,” she spits out to her inner tormenter, and then pauses in response to something else we don’t get to hear. “She wouldn’t do that. Not again.” The implication is that Vi’s bond with Caitlyn is a threat to Powder’s own sibling relationship with Vi. It’s not based on any real logic, but it’s not supposed to be; just as when she was younger, much of Powder’s perspective is skewed by fear and a deep self-doubt, and this is still there in the midst of what appears to be severe mental illness. What really provokes her is when she sees Vi running back when Caitlyn is in danger, and then the way Vi supports her, holding her up after she is wounded. Once again, the art and animation does a lot of the work to convey Powder’s paranoia and anger. Her expression of alarm at the sight of Vi and Caitlyn together (accompanied by a small exhalation of disdain) is memorable enough in its verisimilitude, but then we see how Caitlyn transforms into an actual smiling demon from Powder’s perspective. Caitlyn has become her antagonist. The final encounter between Vi and Powder in the final episode of the season is framed as a kind of trial which will determine if Powder can get back to her old self, or if she is now Jinx going forward. It’s no surprise that Arcane chooses the darker and less idealistic path, with Powder instinctively killing Silco, her father figure, when he aims a gun at Vi, and then deciding to embrace her current self as Jinx. “I thought maybe you could love me like you used to. Even though I’m…different. But you’ve changed too. So here’s to the new us.” It’s Overton, once again, who thought up this last piece of dialogue from Jinx, and it’s a powerful way of coming full circle from the opening scene that she argued for; starting with the bond between the two and ending with the bittersweet reflection on that bond and how it has changed. The symmetry doesn’t end there. At the end of every act in the show, we are given a crucial moment between Vi and Powder, all of which I have gone through above; the first, the end of episode three (The Base Violence Necessary for Change), is the one where their relationship breaks, the second, the end of episode six (When These Walls Come Tumbling Down), is where they reunite and then are separated again, and the final one is the end of episode nine (The Monster You Created), where it is Powder who leaves Vi for the very first time. The name of the song that plays to end the series is What Could Have Been (performed by Sting feat Ray Chen), and that’s certainly the same thing we are asked to contemplate about the relationship between Vi and Jinx. Something that makes this relationship between Vi and Powder even more powerful is actually found in an official music video for the series, “Enemy” by Imagine Dragons and JID. There are scenes in this that I argue should actually be in the show itself. One of my favorites is a short segment where Powder (as her very young, act one self) sits at the bar and seems to be recalling a moment when Vi demonstrated unarmed combat moves to all the kids. Vi dances back and forth, throwing fast and polished jabs, hooks, and straight punches. We see Powder and Ekko watching carefully, and then, when everyone else has left, trying to emulate Vi in an endearingly awkward manner. Powder swings drunkenly and adds in a kick, while Ekko ends up falling over when trying to dart backwards. Afterwards, the animation lingers on Powder’s perspective. We see Vi in the midst of teaching them, her hands up as she bounces; she meets Powder’s eyes for a second and smiles. Powder recalls this and smiles to herself in response. There’s a connection there, and a warmth between the two girls. The scene helps solidify the foundation of affection between them, making the breaking apart moment in the series more effective. Later in the video there is also a haunting scene where the young Powder is helplessly slamming her hands against a wall made up of her older face as Jinx, instantly conveying the sadness of her dark persona overwhelming her old self. Why does Powder go by the name Jinx after she is separated from Vi? Why choose the name that Mylo tormented her with, the name that Vi spat at her in their darkest moment? I can’t help but think of something Tyrion Lannister notes in George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones: “Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.” It certainly feels like Silco takes this angle, arguing that she needs to let go of Powder and embrace Jinx. Powder herself, however, feels like she never really overcomes her guilt at what she has done. Jinx might be her armor, but it’s also her self-imposed punishment. One of the co-creators of the show, Christian Linke, said the following in a documentary about the creation of Arcane: “For Vi and for Jinx, the simple question is, can you ever forgive a monster? How far are you willing to go for your sibling? Is there a line where you just can’t go [over] for your sibling and you just have to say, “sorry, this is where I have to leave you”?” (Arcane: Bridging the Rift | Part 5 – We Gave It Our Best Shot) Vi’s answer to this throughout all of season one is that there isn’t a line. Powder is still in there, beating against that wall of Jinx’s face, and Vi is determined to bring her out. From Powder’s perspective, however, things are a little more complex; while she blames Vi for “creating” Jinx, she chooses, at the end, to embrace this persona and attacks Piltover. While I assume Linke was talking about Vi forgiving Powder in the quote above, I think that Powder is in fact the one who has that moment of “sorry, this is where I have to leave you.” It’s a sad, dark ending, and thus one befitting the season—and the relationship between Vi and Powder—as a whole. Season two, which airs in November, is in a tricky place. Where do you take this sibling dynamic from here, in a way that feels as natural and powerful as it did in the first season? The teaser trailer indicates that Vi has now moved towards seeing her sister as Jinx; someone that has to be fought and stopped. I don’t want to read too much into trailer material, which can be very misleading, but I’m a little nervous that the fighting might overwhelm the emphasis on the emotional complexity and tenderness in their dynamic. As long as Arcane remembers that fascinating mix at the core of Vi and Jinx’s relationship—a broken sibling bond, the bitterness and guilt of their split, the longing and pain and love—then I’ll be fascinated to see how it concludes.[end-mark] The post Heartbreak Between Sisters Is the Power Behind <i>Arcane</i> appeared first on Reactor.

WASHINGTON — A reporter asked President Joe Biden if he thought Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “doing enough” as the president returned to the White House on Monday. Biden answered, “No.”  Biden added that he was pushing as “hard as we can for a deal” for a ceasefire in Gaza that would bring home hostages.  The bodies of six of those hostages were found murdered in a tunnel in Gaza over the weekend, including Israeli-American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23.  Once again, the pressure is on Bibi, and hence on Biden to lean on Bibi — and not Hamas, the terrorist group that killed 1,200 on Oct. 7 and abducted some 251 hostages.  Methinks the very focus of the White House press corps about what Biden will do to force a ceasefire deal lets Hamas off the hook.  Ditto the massive protests in Tel Aviv against Netanyahu.  American billionaire Bill Ackman, whose criticism of university diversity, equity and inclusion policies helped spur the resignation of academic biggies, including Harvard President Claudine Gay, had strong words of advice for activists who took to Israeli streets to protest Netanyahu.  “By protesting Israel’s leadership one day after Hamas executed an American and five Israelis in cold blood, the protesters are rewarding Hamas for their barbaric acts and blaming their leadership for the loss. This is a very bad message to send to terrorists,” Ackman posted on X.  Ackman cautioned, “I fear it will only embolden the enemy to execute more heinous acts.”  During a press event, Netanyahu warned of the consequences of protests and calls for further concessions after the brutal execution of the six hostages.  “What message does this send Hamas?” the prime minister asked. “It says kill more hostages — murder more hostages, you’ll get more concessions.”  Netanyahu was especially critical of the consequences of giving Hamas a win for an international and domestic pressure campaign.  The PM spoke with authority when he said that some critics wrongheadedly claim the Jewish state can leave the Philadelphi Corridor and then return later. “It is not easy to do such a thing,” Netanyahu offered. “It’s not a question of military tactics as it is a question of the great diplomatic pressure that the entire world will use on us. If we leave — we will not go back.”  At Tuesday’s White House press briefing, Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre why Biden is “harder on Benjamin Netanyahu than he is on the terrorist leader of Hamas.”  The president, KJP countered, has been “very clear about Hamas leaders and what they have done.” But when she referred to the killings as “a heinous murder,” it was as if she had been searching for the right sound bite. No fire.  Netanyahu used his press event to apologize to the families of the six victims. “I am asking for your forgiveness that we did not manage to bring them back still alive. We were close, but we did not achieve it.”  On Monday, Rachel Goldberg-Polin and her husband, Jon, buried their son, Hersh.  “Finally, my sweet boy, finally finally finally finally you’re free,” the grieving mother declared at her son’s funeral. She wore a ripped shirt with the number 332 for the number of days since the Oct. 7 hostages were taken.  She had already told her son, “Now I no longer have to worry about you. I know you are no longer in danger.”  COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post 6 Hostages Murdered. Put Heat on Hamas, Not Netanyahu.  appeared first on The Daily Signal.

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Former President Donald Trump raised about $130 million in August, his campaign announced Wednesday night. Trump’s fundraising numbers are down slightly from the nearly $140 million the former president brought in during July, when his campaign initiated a fundraising push days after he was shot by a failed assassin on July 13. Rival Kamala Harris’ campaign has not released its August fundraising figures, but it likely eclipsed Trump’s as Harris campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon released a memo on Aug. 25, in which she claimed the vice president had raised $540 million since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, including $82 million during the week of the Democratic National Convention. “With Republicans united and a growing number of independents and disaffected Democrats crossing partisan lines, the Trump-Vance campaign has momentum for the final stretch of the race,” Trump campaign senior adviser Brian Hughes said in the news release announcing the fundraising numbers. “These fundraising numbers from August are a reflection of that movement and will propel President Trump’s America First movement back to the White House so we can undo the terrible failures of Harris and Biden.” Contrary to the Trump campaign’s enthusiasm, GOP leaders are raising the alarm behind closed doors and publicly about how a large financial disparity has emerged between the two parties. Liberals have commanding ad-spending leads in almost all competitive Senate races and the Congressional Leadership Fund, the primary super PAC aimed at electing Republicans to the House, is $70 million behind its Democratic counterpart in ad spending, according to Politico. “The only thing preventing us from having a great night in November is the massive financial disparity our party currently faces,” National Republican Senatorial Committee Executive Director Jason Thielman previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We are on a trajectory to win the majority, but unless something changes drastically in the next six weeks, we will lose winnable seats.” Statewide Republican parties in a number of states with close legislative elections in November, such as Arizona and Wisconsin, have also been outraised and outspent by their Democratic counterparts. Before Democrats replaced Biden with Harris, the Trump campaign had overcome his Democratic rival’s cash advantage, Politico reported. The Trump campaign claims to have had $295 million in cash on hand at the end of August. The average donation to Trump was $56, with 98% of donations being under $200, according to the campaign. Trump is no stranger to fighting campaigns at a financial disadvantage, defeating Hillary Clinton in 2016 despite only having half as much money, and narrowly losing to Biden in 2020 despite a 3-to-1 cash disadvantage heading into the final month of the election. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation The post Trump Campaign Says It Raised $130 Million in August appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Canada wants to expand the scope of the World Health Organization, WHO’s global pandemic agreement (treaty) by adding more censorship measures. The initiative is to add social media “misinformation” (and censorship thereof) to the discussion of the draft treaty. In anticipation of the “next pandemic,” Canada also wants more attention to be paid to what it considers diversity, equity, and inclusion. The treaty’s purpose is to give WHO an active role in directing how the United Nation’s 193 member countries deal with pandemics or other health crises. However, the negotiators failed to agree on the text of the document by the May deadline this year. At the end of the same month, there was a new version of the pandemic agreement draft that softened the tone of some of the censorship provisions but gave WHO more surveillance powers. Before the latest version was published, what are referred to as “partners and stakeholders” in Canada wanted to add measures such as holding social media platforms “accountable for the content they host” (depending on what type of “accountability” the authors of the proposals had in mind, it’s unclear how this would be acceptable, for example, to the US, given its Section 230). More ideas coming out of Canada include burdening the same entities with accountability “for the impact of their algorithms” – all this in the context of the “threat of misinformation.” More “threats” that are predictably cited these days in certain quarters include “AI”, and when it comes to surveillance, the treaty should provide for “inclusive practices,” the Canadian proposal says. “Comprehensive prevention strategies, inclusive surveillance practices, and addressing challenges for marginalized communities are essential for effective pandemic prevention,” the conclusions from the meetings held in January and February 2024 in several cities specify. Canada’s Liberal government has chosen not to stick its neck out by openly pushing for such measures, and is very careful to note that in a report, but it’s clear enough how the system works: “partners” and “stakeholders” are said to be behind the proposals – and they work with the Office of International Affairs for the Health Portfolio, a government entity. The Office had brought together over 100 people from indigenous groups, universities, civil society, public and private sectors, as well as territorial and provincial governments. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Expanding WHO’s Role: Canadian Stakeholders Eye “Misinformation” Control appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

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