Jin from BTS shared how band member Vcheered him up on his birthday. Jin celebrated his 28th birthday on December 4 and he held a special Naver V Live broadcast to celebrate the occasion with fans. At the start of the broadcast, Jin said that he had received a text message from V just before going live so he called his band member for a short chat.
During their phone conversation, Jin mysteriously told V, “Wow, you’re really the best”. He then asked if he could tell the fans the “moving story” of what V had done for him. Although V protested, Jin declared, “No, but I need to tell this story. Thank you, thank you.”
After hanging up, Jin explained, “Our Taehyung [V’s given name] is so incredibly kind. Last night, work wrapped up late, so I was really tired and needed to sleep. But just in case, I stayed up until 1 in the morning, thinking that people might send me birthday wishes [at midnight]. So just in case, I stayed up until 1 a.m.”
BTS’s V cheered Jin up for his birthday. Picture: Instagram
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“I saw my friends receiving tons of messages on their birthdays,” he continued, “so I was anticipating [receiving a lot] as well. But I got six messages. I got messages from my mom, my older brother, two BTS members including J-Hope, a childhood friend, and an employee from our company. That was it. I waited until 1 a.m., but I didn’t get many messages, which made me really sad. It made me think, ‘I must not have lived my life properly.’”
“But when I woke up this morning,” Jin went on, “I had received about 10 messages. So I [changed my mind] and thought, ‘I did live my life properly after all.’”
Jin then revealed, “Right before I went to sleep at 1 a.m., I told the other BTS members, ‘Wow, I waited until 1 in the morning, but no one sent me any messages.’ So Taehyung contacted his friends and told them, ‘It’s Seokjin [Jin]’s birthday today, so I’d appreciate it if you could film a short video message wishing him a happy birthday.’”
Jin shared that thanks to V’s efforts, he had received birthday wishes from his celebrity friends including actor Park Seo Joon.
“So some of the people Taehyung hangs out with, like [Park] Seo Joon, sent me video messages,” said Jin. “There were many of them, about seven or eight, and I wish I could name all of them now—but there were a couple of people I didn’t recognize, and I don’t want to be rude, so I can’t list them all.”
“At any rate, many of V’s friends including Park Seo Joon sent me video messages, so that I wouldn’t feel insecure—to show me how many people were thinking of me and celebrating my birthday,” he continued. “They all said, ‘Happy Birthday, Seokjin,’ and it was so touching. I was really moved by V, and I was so grateful to him for having organized it.”
“Even just now,” he added, “he told me over the phone that he had gathered more video messages for me and said, ‘See, hyung, you’re someone who is so loved by many.’”
Clasping his hands together in an adorable display of gratitude, Jin concluded his story by telling V, “Thank you!” /TISG
Article From & Read More ( BTS's Jin shares moving story of how V got Park Seo Joon and other friends to cheer him up on his birthday - The Independent )
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JEUMONT, France: Since the COVID-19 outbreak, French care home resident Colette Dupas's contact with her daughters has been limited to talking via video call, or through a window.
Now the 97-year-old has been able to feel their touch, thanks to an inflatable tunnel and two plastic sleeves.
A bubble room installed to visit residents in the garden of the Fondation Shadet Vercoustre retirement home in Bourbourg. (Photo: Reuters)
The "hug bubble" allows care home residents, isolated from the outside world to protect them from the virus, to hold hands and embrace visiting relatives, because at all times they are separated by a hermetically-sealed plastic film.
Dupas ran a bakery in Boussois, 6km from the nursing home, until her retirement. Her family still run the business.
When meeting her daughters on Friday (Dec 4), Dupas entered through one end of the tunnel. She stood in front of the plastic sheet and put her arms through two plastic sleeves stitched into the film at shoulder height.
A contact bubble allows seniors to hug their loved ones in France. (Photo: Reuters)
Her daughters, Marie-Paule Dronsart and Marie-Joseph Marchant, approached from the other side. Each of them put one arm through a sleeve. They patted their mother's shoulders and stroked her white hair.
Before leaving, they took turns to kiss their mother on the cheek through the plastic.
"It has brought comfort," said Stephanie Loiseau, a nursing assistant at the care home in Jeumont, near the border with Belgium.
A contact bubble allows seniors to hug their loved ones in France. (Photo: Reuters)
Before the bubble was installed at the home, she added, "residents would see their relatives through a window or through a camera and they were really missing having real contact".
Once Dupas and her daughters left the bubble, a care home worker disinfected the plastic, ready for the next encounter: Fabienne Dewille meeting her mother, Raymonde Loire.
Dewille used the plastic sleeves to grip her mother's hands. "It feels good to be able to meet like this, doesn't it?" she said to her mother.
Top US government officials issued stark warnings about China on Thursday, with the head of Washington’s intelligence community calling China America’s “greatest threat” and the Pentagon’s top general saying that the US must boost its technological prowess to defend against Beijing’s efforts to “dominate” US military forces.“I am entrusted with access to more intelligence than any member of the US government other than the president,” Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, said in an opinion piece published by The Wall Street Journal, a rare public warning from his office.“The People’s Republic of China poses the greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom worldwide since World War II.Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China.“Beijing intends to dominate the US and the rest of the planet economically, militarily and technologically,” Ratcliffe added. “Many of China’s major public initiatives and prominent companies offer only a layer of camouflage to the activities of the Chinese Communist Party.”Using similar language at the US Naval Institute‘s online Defense Forum to characterise the military threat that China poses, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley said the country “would like to not only match us but exceed us, dominate us, be able to beat us in armed conflict by mid-century”.Ratcliffe cited cases of industrial espionage and referenced alleged payments that the Chinese government made to Charles Lieber, the indicted former chairman of Harvard University’s chemistry department, as evidence of a wide-ranging effort to “rob, replicate and replace” American companies, resulting in damages equivalent to as much as US$500 billion a year.The comments by America’s top intelligence official come as US courts work through dozens of indictments that the Justice Department has brought against Chinese researchers in the country in addition to Lieber.John Demers, chief of the US Justice Department’s National Security Division, said in a discussion hosted by the Aspen Institute think tank on Wednesday that more than 1,000 Chinese researchers have left the US amid his department’s initiative to uncover espionage emanating from Beijing. ‘See you in four years’: Trump openly floats idea of 2024 White House runIn another case involving Harvard this week, a Chinese researcher accused of trying to smuggle 21 vials of cancer cells taken from a Boston hospital agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge and will be permitted to return to China.Ratcliffe, who will likely be replaced next month by President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, said that he has personally warned Washington’s allies that the usage of telecommunications equipment by Huawei Technologies Co. and other Chinese 5G equipment makers give Beijing “opportunities to collect intelligence”.The Chinese government’s intelligence functionaries “use their access to tech firms such as Huawei to enable malicious activities, including the introduction of vulnerabilities into software and equipment”, Ratcliffe said, adding that usage of Chinese 5G systems “will severely limit America’s ability to share vital intelligence”.Under new rules issued by the US Commerce Department in August that build on similar restrictions issued earlier this year, any company that sells Huawei products made anywhere with US technology will require a licence.Asked about national security concerns on Tuesday in an annual China conference organised by the South China Morning Post, Donald Morrissey, Huawei’s vice-president of government relations denied that the company would violate the laws of the countries in which its customers operate. Two years on, Huawei still fighting for survival as CFO extradition ongoingChina’s national security law “does not reach out to Huawei’s customers in Europe or the United States or anywhere else”, Morrisey said. “If that were to happen, and be detected … it would destroy a basically US$122 billion company overnight”.On the diplomatic front, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this year ordered senior Chinese diplomats based in the US to seek his department’s permission before meeting with local government officials or visiting American university campuses.A representative of Beijing’s embassy in Washington called Ratcliffe’s comments “fact-distorting” and part of US government attempts to contain China.Ratcliffe “is well aware that it is the US government and relevant companies that have been for a long time mounting a large-scale, organized and indiscriminate cyber theft, surveillance and attack,” the representative said. “It is nothing secret that no one deserves the title of Empire of Hacking and Spying better than the US.”Milley said the US military must embrace robotics and artificial intelligence more fully, and boost its naval fleet to more than 500 vessels by 2045, from around 300 currently.At least one quarter of these vessels should be unmanned, robotic ships, and as many as 90 submarines, he said.More from South China Morning Post: * US bill to audit or delist Chinese companies unlikely to have significant impact on funding avenues, analysts say * US lawmakers urged to put ‘reciprocity’ at heart of China relationship * ‘We’re a Pacific power’: Joe Biden faces pressure to hold hard line of defence against China * China tightens export rules for sensitive tech, boosts power to retaliate against foreign sanctionsThis article US intelligence head says China is America’s ‘greatest threat’ in rare public warning first appeared on South China Morning PostFor the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2020.
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Tale of the Nine-Tailed is a fantasy action romance drama that stars Lee Dong Wook as the male gumiho (a mythical nine-tailed fox) Lee Yeon while Jo Bo Ah plays producer Nam Ji Ah and Kim Bum stars as Lee Yeon’s brother Lee Rang.
Spoilers ahead. In episode 14, Lee Yeon partners up with villain Imoogi (Lee Tae Ri), a serpent beast in human form to save Nam Ji Ah. The minute he forms the alliance, Kwon Hae Ryong (Uhm Hyo Seop) holds up a gun to Nam Ji Ah and the episode concludes with the sound of a gunshot. The latest stills show Lee Yeon and Nam Ji Ah praying desperately while surrounded by an air of melancholy.
The couple meet underneath the stars to share their feelings for each other as they hold on to each other. Lee Yeon and Nam Ji Ah get teary eyed as they hold their hands together to pray. It is not certain if the scene in the stills shows the current reality or a memory from the past. No one knows if Lee Yeon and Nam Ji Ah will make it through the tough times and stay together as shown in the stills.
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Lee Dong Wook plays Lee Yeon, a nine-tailed fox. Picture: Instagram
This scene was filmed back in October and the two actors did not say much as they focused on their emotions for the scene.
Even after wrapping up the scene, Lee Dong Wook and Jo Bo Ah could not stop their tears and had a hard time regaining control of their emotions.
The drama’s production team shared, “Lee Dong Wook and Jo Bo Ah are actors full of passion who continuously communicate [with us] in order to sincerely bring to life their characters Lee Yeon and Nam Ji Ah who are also known as the Yeon-Ji Ah couple.” They added, “Watch the broadcast on December 2 to find out what happens to Lee Yeon and Nam Ji Ah, whom even their actors Lee Dong Wook and Jo Bo Ah are praying for.”
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SINGAPORE - The Society of Interior Designers Singapore (SIDS) will launch an Interior Design Accreditation Programme by 2021, in a move to uphold the level of professionalism within the industry and help consumers make more informed choices before engaging designers.
This was announced by Ms Indranee Rajah, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and Second Minister for Finance and National Development, at the 4th Singapore Interior Design Awards (SIDA) on Thursday (Dec 3).
Speaking as the guest of honour at the event held at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Ms Indranee said: "This will be a significant milestone in the transformation journey to enable the accredited design professionals to collaborate and build stronger trust with the clients."
SIDS and the DesignSingapore Council started developing a Transformation Roadmap for the interior design profession in 2018, as they found that there was a growing appreciation and awareness for interior design in Singapore.
However, there was still a distinct lack of skills and certifications for those in or looking to enter the market.
Hence, the organisations highlighted a "greater need" for regulation to uphold the level of professionalism within the industry.
The accreditation programme will first seek to reduce the lack of expertise and education among those in the interior design industry.
The proposed framework could see interior designers categorised into three bands, nominally known as interior stylist (Category 3), interior designer (Category 2) and interior architect (Category 1).
The recommended prerequisite for Category 1 is a degree in interior design or architecture and at least two years of working experience.
Meanwhile, those who want to qualify for Category 3 should have at least a NITEC/Higher NITEC certification in interior styling or interior design, as well as at least a year's working experience.
With these higher barriers of entry, the programme aims to help consumers in their decision-making.
Currently, the lines are blurred between what constitutes a contractor, a designer and an architect.
"Often, because of this, interior designers who specialise in home design were mistaken for renovators," said Mr Keat Ong, president of SIDS.
With a proper qualification system, consumers will hopefully be better equipped to make more informed choices before engaging designers.
A steering committee is set to be formed to oversee the system, with an eye on achieving an international recognition for Singapore's interior designers similar to that in Europe and the United States.
"We believe that the accreditation system will provide a strong and clear foundation on which the industry can build on," said Mr Ong. "It provides clarity and encourages designers to up-skill and continue their learning journey."
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With a record-breaking 83.6 million Chinese viewers for its spring 2021 collection, Dior successfully cashed at the recent annual Singles’ Day shopping festival via limited-editions and online promotions.
Dior has been trying out various digital strategies since 2015 when it became the first luxury brand to promote its offerings on WeChat Moments. And, back in 2018, Dior opened the first luxury livestream on WeChat.
Through its efforts to localize in China, the Christian Dior group recorded $21.6 billion in revenue during the first half of 2020, with 12 percent organic growth.
For LVMH, Dior is their cash cow and lab mouse, as the French fashion powerhouse is not afraid of testing the waters of the lucrative Chinese market. Though not every experiment has been a success, the forward-thinking brand is now decisively ahead in the localization game.
With a record-breaking 83.6 million Chinese viewers for its spring 2021 collection, Dior successfully cashed at the recent annual Singles’ Day shopping festival. For the first time, the brand rolled out a series of limited-edition products exclusively for the Double 11 event after announcing it on Dior’s official WeChat account on October 13. It’s the first time a top-tier luxury brand has released a capsule collection exclusively for the online shopping event.
At the same time, Dior’s parent group, LVMH, is relieving itself from outsourcing its e-commerce business to other multi-brand platforms by launching its own, called 24S. The platform, which is a one-stop shopping destination for brands like Louis Vuitton, Dior, Celine, and Givenchy, offered up to 30-percent off orders over $3,500 (23,000 yuan) as its own version of a Singles’ Day promotion. Tools like these are sure to stimulate younger buyers’ desire to buy. For example, an $840 (5,540 yuan) Dior Homme jumper is currently being marketed through a payment plan for $2.40 (15.18 yuan) per day, which is less than a daily coffee over 12 months. As such, the orders for Double 11 were so many that many companies had to ship goods from overseas markets to Mainland China.
Items from Dior’s autumn/winter 2020 collection on show at Paris Fashion Week earlier this year can now be snapped up online by Chinese shoppers. Photo: Handout
Dior has been trying out various digital strategies for years now. Back in 2015, Dior became the first luxury brand to promote its offerings on WeChat Moments. And, in 2018, Dior opened the first luxury livestream on WeChat. It was also the first luxury brand to open up an online WeChat store for a handbag. In the same year, Dior took the initiative to become the first luxury brand to test out Douyin by opening its first official account. The French luxury brand also entered into the popular video-sharing platform Bilibili to further attract millennials and Gen Zers.
Aside from actively building the brand’s social media accounts, Dior is also working on converting that traffic into sales. In June 2020, Dior launched its official Tmall store right before the Chinese online shopping carnival 6.18. However, only skincare products, cosmetics, and perfumes were available on the Tmall store. Over 335,000 fans were collected in just one month.
As a result, the Christian Dior group recorded $21.6 billion in revenue during the first half of 2020, with 12 percent organic growth. But the road to localization can be bumpy sometimes. In 2019, Dior presented a workshop at Zhejiang Gongshang University and featured a map that did not show Taiwan. Within 12 hours, a video of the episode had been viewed over 1 million times on Weibo, resulting in more than 3,000 comments, most of them negative. The incident caused outrage among young netizens who have grown increasingly sensitive to an escalating series of cultural and geographic faux pas committed by Western brands.
On the way towards localization, brands must be very careful when featuring Chinese culture in their products, or it can look like a clumsy gimmick and will soon become a trending joke on the internet. For example, before the Double 11 capsule, Dior released a new, limited edition Book Tote and Diorcamp handbags in May where consumers can choose to add personalized Chinese characters to the bag. However, the response from Chinese netizens has been less than flattering. They found the design “weird and cheap.”
Through trial and error, Dior learned how to understand the Chinese market better. During this year’s Shanghai art week, Dior rolled out the fifth installment of its Dior Lady Art artist collaboration series alongside the art that inspired the collaborations. To amplify the project to customers of spending-power levels in China, the brand set up an afternoon tea area inside the art fair for VIPs to enjoy French pastries and a cup of cappuccino with the Dior logo in foam. At the same time, its army of local ambassadors showcased the bags for the brand’s millions of followers on social media. The seamless combination of Dior’s offline-to-online consumer journey showcased how the brand has grown over the years. As you can see, localization is a long and hard class to take, but the lessons are worth the effort.
It's a dirt road that kind of looks like a Roman numeral. In the doldrums of the Grand Theft Auto hype cycle, that alone is enough to get excited about. Here are the basics: Rockstar released a typically cryptic teaser for its next batch of GTA Online content. In it, the ever-elusive company revealed that the upcoming expansion will add a new landmass to the existing Los Santos map, possibly in the form of some offshore island. During that teaser, the coordinates "38.527,-79.6129" briefly appear on screen. Dump those numbers into Google Docs, and you'll see Middle Mountain Trail, right on the shaggy border between Virginia and West Virginia. Zoom out, and take it all in. There's a hairpin turn that, when viewed at a precise angle, seems to form a "V" and then an "I." V. I. VI.
Six.
Grand Theft Auto is a series filled to the brim with innumerable easter eggs, conspiracies, and urban legends. But this, a potential GTA 6 announcement confirmed through literal geography, seems like the most brazen by far.
Before we dive into all that, we need to cover some caveats. Would Rockstar really announce something as massive as a new Grand Theft Auto game through an arcane scavenger hunt deployed in a trailer for a seven-year-old game? It's extremely unlikely that the cosmopolitan franchise is headed to agrarian Appalachia, anyway. So why would the company choose a random Virginia township to drop a hint? Is this just a gigantic coincidence? Were those coordinates added at complete random by some video editor as some extra flavor, only for the desperate wishful thinking of the GTA fandom l to fill in the gaps?
Maybe it is intentional, as Rockstar rarely does things by accident, and it means precisely nothing.
Or maybe it is intentional, as Rockstar rarely does things by accident, and it means precisely nothing. At this point in time, the development of GTA 6 is a badly kept secret. Maybe Rockstar just wanted to mess with its fans.
None of that matters. Without concrete facts to rely on, Grand Theft Auto diehards have learned to work with scraps, and on the subreddit r/GTA6, the denizens have been piecing together the puzzle for days. "The VI is too obvious, as the 'V' is distinctly different from the very straight 'I,'" writes one user. "Upon a glance, that definitely says six in Roman numerals, it’s too cheeky to be a coincidence."
"They're not going to spoon-feed us. I would say this was the first sign of 6. It's not a coincidence at all," adds another.
The discussion goes on and on. One thread on the subreddit is already extolling the virtues of a potential rural Virginian setting for a hallowed franchise that has thus far focused on some of the most iconic, densely populated cities in America. "The Southern portions [of a hypothetical GTA 6 map] can have a Louisiana vibe," explains the author, who says he'd prefer his hypothetical Ozarkian Grand Theft Auto to be a prequel to GTA: San Andreas, and follow the adventures of CJ's father. "There can be a mission to take a train from Motor City to Vice City and you defend it from Dukes Of Hazzard KKK types."
"Oh yeah, and there will be Nixon. You gotta meet Nixon and do 'special jobs' for him," they add.
Elsewhere, you can find GTA lifers spamming the lyrics from John Denver's West Virginian classic, "Take Me Home, Country Roads." One enterprising grifter even claimed to have cracked the code. He wrote effusively about how, under analysis, the coordinates actually point to Medellin, Columbia, where Pablo Escobar thrived through the '70s and '80s. The administrators of the subreddit quickly swept in to correct the record. That poster was using a doctored screenshot equipped with coordinates that pointed to their ideal setting for a future Grand Theft Auto, like weaponized wishful thinking. "After pointing out the flaw, the OP said they were dylxlexic," says one member of the mod team, in an interview with IGN." Just another day of chronic disinformation in the rumor mill.
That moderator, well versed in the theories of the subreddits regulars, says they aren't sure what to believe about the apparent easter egg. At first, they believed that the dusty backwoods of the rural mid-Atlantic was far too inauspicious to serve as the home for an official GTA 6 tease. It was too random, too small, too weird. But after thinking about it some more, the mod remembered that they were dealing with Rockstar, historically one of the most unpredictable studios in the industry.
"The studio could be trolling us. The fanbase over-analyzes everything, It's not hard for them to sneak those coordinates into a trailer and be assured that they'll be found."
"They've done things like this in the past," they say, considering how many aliens and UFOs are already hidden around Los Santos. "The studio could be trolling us. The fanbase over-analyzes everything, It's not hard for them to sneak those coordinates into a trailer and be assured that they'll be found."
Another frequent poster is a skeptic. He's stared at that alleged "VI" long and hard, and hasn't been able to see what everyone else is seeing. "It looks more like a reversed N or Z," he says, in an interview with IGN. "The coordinates most likely have something to do with the upcoming GTA Online DLC, which is disappointing, but expected."
That said, even the most ardent GTA doubters can't help but theorize on the side. The poster does have their own pet theory. In the future, he explains, maybe Rockstar will make a trip out to those coordinates to emboss a definitive, unambiguous Grand Theft Auto insignia for all to see. "Perhaps they are in cahoots with Google Maps and will request a satellite image update after they have changed the roads in this area," he explains. "Which would be a really neat tease for GTA VI."
All of this avoids the most likely scenario — that Rockstar just wanted to have a little fun, and the eventual announcement of the next Grand Theft Auto will materialize in a much more conventional way. My guess is that in the coming years, you will wake up, grab your phone, and find a 90-second announcement trailer already bouncing through your timeline. All of the memories of the Middle Mountain Trail will fade into memory, as the world gets the first glimpse of the game they've been waiting for. But Grand Theft Auto zealots are used to these wild goose chases. There is still a vibrant community dedicated to unraveling the mysteries that grip Mount Chilliad in Grand Theft Auto V. (For that matter, we never did find BigFoot in San Andreas.) Those legends, the clues and gestures that teeter between myth and reality, are what makes the GTA franchise so inscrutable. For as frustrating as the misdirection might be, the people on r/GTA6 live for this stuff.
"The fans love Rockstar's games and want everything out of them, but the company makes this hard to do as they put so much detail and small mysteries that evolve over time," says the frequent poster. "I think they realized that people really liked them as early as GTA Vice City, where there were conspiracies of Scarface appearing somewhere in that game. Rockstar went full blast [with their crypticness] for the last few games. With how popular they are, it leads to more outspoken theorizing communities, when others are more reserved."
The mod agrees. They tell me that this Virginia diversion will go down as just another part of the lore. With just a handful of Google Map coordinates, Rockstar is capable of setting their loyalists on fire. "It'll be a fun thing to look back on in 10 years or so," they say. By then, the subreddit will have likely moved on to the next urban legend.
Luke Winkie is a writer and former pizza maker in Brooklyn. Follow him on Twitter.
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LOS ANGELES - The Oscar-nominated star of Juno and The Umbrella Academy, formerly known as Ellen Page, on Tuesday said he was a transgender person and had changed his first name to Elliot.
“I can’t begin to express how remarkable it feels to finally love who I am enough to pursue my authentic self,” Page wrote on Instagram. “I love that I am trans. And I love that I am queer.”
Page, 33, was nominated for an Academy Award for playing a pregnant teenager in 2007 film Juno and starred in other movies including 2010 sci-fi thriller Inception. The actor currently appears in Netflix superhero series Umbrella Academy.
In the Instagram post, Page said he would use he/they pronouns.
“The truth is, despite feeling profoundly happy right now and knowing how much privilege I carry, I am also scared,” Page said. “I’m scared of the invasiveness, the hate, the ‘jokes,’ and of violence.”
“To all the trans people who deal with harassment, self-loathing, abuse and the threat of violence every day: I see you, I love you and I will do everything I can to change this world for the better,” he added.
Page received messages of support on social media.
“You are so loved and admired,” actress Lena Dunham wrote.
“So proud of our superhero! WE LOVE YOU ELLIOT! Can’t wait to see you return in season 3!” said a tweet from Netflix.
TAIPEI — Jolin Tsai ended her Kaohsiung concert with a special guest on Sunday (Nov 29) — Dee Hsu who kissed her passionately on stage before cracking a few jokes.
The 40-year-old pop diva also invited MJ116, Hebe and Wu Bai to be guests at her performances over the last two weekends at Kaohsiung Arena as part of the Ugly Beauty 2019-2020 World Tour.
In an interview after the concert, Jolin said that she felt no stress when performing with any of them.
Speaking of Dee's sudden kiss, Jolin revealed that they had talked about the kissing part during the rehearsal. 'She is more serious than I am. She was very engaged, very engaged in the performance,' Jolin said.
The tour, which started at Taipei Arena at the end of 2019, was brought to a standstill amid the Covid-19 pandemic earlier this year. It took almost a year for the singer to resume the performances.
Asked if she is worried about the undecided dates of the following concerts, Jolin said that she is not worried at all. 'I feel at ease after accomplishing this,' she remarked.
SINGAPORE - The world's fastest supercomputer Fugaku, developed by Fujitsu, is available for use by Singapore researchers under an agreement between Singapore's National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) and two Japanese entities: Riken Centre for Computational Science and Research Organisation for Information Science and Technology (Rist).
The collaboration would boost more complex and larger-scale research as well as ease the demand on Singapore's high-performance computing resources, said NSCC in a statement on Monday (Nov 30).
Currently, 11 Covid-19-related projects are using these Singapore computing resources for more than 16 million computing hours.
In Japan, Fugaku has made strides in providing solutions for the Covid-19 pandemic by speeding up the identification of potential drug candidates and developing simulations that demonstrate the spread of coronavirus in indoor settings and on trains, said Professor Satoshi Matsuoka, director of Riken and one of the architects of Fugaku.
At 442 Petaflops, Fugaku is nearly three times faster than its nearest competitor, the IBM Summit.
Petaflops is a measure of computing speed, with Peta, or one quadrillion, referring to scale or the number of calculations that can be performed in one second. Fugaku is capable of 442 quadrillion floating-point operations a second.
The collaboration is part of the memoranda of understanding between the NSCC and Riken, and earlier on, with Rist.
Singapore researchers will be "one of the first in Asia to have access to the amazing computing power of Fugaku," noted Associate Professor Tan Tin Wee, chief executive of NSCC.
Fugaku also has a variety of other uses, including weather and climate monitoring, simulations and genomics.
The collaboration may include the sharing of research data and underused high-performance computing resources in future, said Mr Eugene Low, deputy director of marketing and engagements at NCSS.
Other initiatives set out in the agreement between NCSS and Riken include joint workshops, summer schools and talent exchanges that will be open to all institutes of higher learning, research institutes and other organisations in Singapore.
"I believe the new establishment of the partnership between NSCC and Riken will promote the collaboration between Singapore and Japan, and we can work together to produce amazing outcomes on Fugaku," said Dr Hideyuki Takatsu, managing director of Rist.
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A Bangladeshi worker who was allegedly assaulted by his former employer, retired actor-director Ng Aik Leong, told a court on Monday (Nov 30) that he lived in fear while working for Ng, as the latter often blew up at him over work.
Ng, 59, stands accused of voluntarily causing hurt to Mr Jahidul, who goes by one name, over a Dec 11, 2018 incident where he used a metal scraper to hit Mr Jahidul on the abdomen and head.
On Monday, in a continuation of the trial that began on July 27, Mr Jahidul testified that Ng had frequently yelled at and threatened him, even challenging him to fights.
Mr Jahidul, 34, said he was performing some cleaning works at the Singapore Islamic Hub under Ng's supervision, when Ng grew incensed after finding out the worker had used a rope shorter than what he wanted.
According to Mr Jahidul, Ng threw a plastic pail and wooden plank at him. Mr Jahidul said the pail hit him on the back, and he climbed down from the ladder he was on as he was frightened.
Ng, who is better known as Huang Yiliang, then allegedly assaulted him with a metal scraper in the abdomen and on the head, resulting in bruising on Mr Jahidul's scalp and some abrasion. The two had a small tussle over the scraper, said Mr Jahidul.
When he walked out to call the police, Ng told him to return to their work space so he could beat him up. Ng said he could not do it outside as there were closed-circuit television cameras there, said Mr Jahidul.
Mr Jahidul also produced audio clips in court, recorded before the incident, of an enraged Ng yelling Hokkien and English vulgarities at him. The two had lived together in Ng's home.
In one of the recordings played out in court, Ng was heard belittling Mr Jahidul's upbringing, noting that he came from a poor village and did not know how to work.
Mr Jahidul said Ng was angry over an incident where Mr Jahidul had been charged an extra 50 cents for some work tools at a shop purportedly owned by Ng's friend.
"Boss is a very dangerous people (person). Boss can kill you, understand?" Ng told Mr Jahidul in one of the audio clips.
Ng was also heard challenging Mr Jahidul to a fight, telling him to "sign" something for a "one-to-one" fight.
"I don't even dare to answer him, I'm always frightened of him," Mr Jahidul told the court.
In another recording, Ng called Mr Jahidul names over an issue with their work clothes, and Mr Jahidul told him to "send me back".
"He took the old pants and threw it in my face.... That's why I told him to send me back to Bangladesh, send me back home," said Mr Jahidul.
In cross-examination, Ng, who represented himself, claimed that Mr Jahidul had plotted to set him up. He said he treated Mr Jahidul as a friend and had faked his punches with him.
Ng also claimed that Mr Jahidul thanked him for being a mentor, and had asked to be "hit" so he could "learn and progress".
Ng charged that Mr Jahidul acted dumb with him at least once a day on purpose, in order to aggravate him.
"Obviously, you are making use of police resources to terminate the (work) contract with me," said Ng in court, addressing Mr Jahidul.
Mr Jahidul denied all of Ng's assertions.
Addressing Ng, he said: "I called the police to save my life because you hit me."
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The former celebrity couple had an adorable exchange over Instagram during Thanksgiving which led to hopes of a reunion. The 51-year-old actress posted some cute photos of herself and her holiday date, who came in the form of her new puppy, Lord Chesterfield.
Jennifer captioned the post with a short yet simple message, “We’re grateful” together with praying hands and a heart emoji. Justin, 49 was one of the first people to react to Jennifer’s post, leaving the same emojis and the addition of hands applauding. Jennifer’s eagle-eyed fans were quick to notice the exchange, commenting, “I love you guys” and “he’s sending her hearts!”.
Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston remained as friends even after the divorce. Picture: YouTube
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Fans commended the pair for remaining friends despite the demise of their marriage with a number of fans hoping that they will reconcile. This is not the first time the duo have supported one another. Jennifer was nominated for an Emmy earlier this year for her role in The Morning Show and when the actress shared her good news on social media, Justin leapt at the chance to back her and wrote: “Woot woot!”
Besides Justin, Jennifer has been keeping in touch with another ex-husband, Brad Pitt. During a Fast Times at Ridgemont High virtual table read, Jennifer and Brad had a red-hot reunion. The duo got into character and at one point Jennifer even called her ex-husband, “sexy.”
The Along Came Polly actress didn’t hold back when she acted out a scene from the 1982 cult teen movie. “Hi Brad,” she said seductively.
“You know how cute I always thought you were. You’re so sexy. Will you come to me.”
Brad and Jennifer were joined by fellow A-lilsters, including Julia Roberts, John Legend and Morgan Freeman, who all watched on giggling at the interaction which has to be seen to be believed! /TISG
