Marvel returns to Comic-Con with hotly anticipated panel about its post-’Deadpool & Wolverine’ plans

After Marvel skipped out on the convention last year due to the Hollywood strikes, which prevented writers and actors from speaking on panels. (Getty Images)
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Updated 27 July 2024
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Marvel returns to Comic-Con with hotly anticipated panel about its post-’Deadpool & Wolverine’ plans

  • After Marvel skipped out on the convention last year due to the Hollywood strikes, which prevented writers and actors from speaking on panels

SAN DIEGO: Marvel Studios is returning to San Diego Comic-Con for its iconic Saturday night panel, which is expected to feature big announcements and surprise guests.
After Marvel skipped the convention last year due to the Hollywood strikes, which prevented writers and actors from speaking on panels, anticipation for its session in Comic-Con’s famed Hall H is palpable among fans.
The studio is expected to announce news teasing their upcoming titles in its “Phase 5” plan and beyond, with Marvel President Kevin Feige as the only confirmed speaker. He will be joined by several special guests, who may include stars of upcoming Marvel titles like “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Thunderbolts(asterisk)” and “The Fantastic Four.”
Fans are speculating that Marvel will confirm cast members and show clips or trailers for upcoming films and Disney+ series.
Marvel already took over Hall H on Thursday with an electric panel celebrating “Deadpool & Wolverine,” in which the audience was treated to a full screening and surprise guests joining stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman on stage.
The mounting enthusiasm for the film at Comic-Con was reflected across the country as the fans rushed to see it in theaters, securing the film as the new record holder for the Thursday preview for an R-rated movie. The comic book film sold an estimated $38.5 million worth of movie tickets from preview screenings Thursday.
The “Deadpool & Wolverine” success woke up a sleepy year for Marvel and assuaged worries about its box-office underperformance in late 2023. The superhero factory hit a record low in November with the launch of “The Marvels,” which opened with just $47 million.
Prior to the studio’s latest opening, which is on track to break more records, the idea of “superhero fatigue” became a popular talking point in the film world.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” and Thursday’s packed panel have dampened discussion of audience apathy for comic book movies.


Carpe diem: the Costa Rican women turning fish into fashion

Updated 03 October 2024
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Carpe diem: the Costa Rican women turning fish into fashion

  • On a beach in Costa Rica, as fishermen land the day’s catch, two women are hard at work on a slimy sea bass skin, rubbing, scraping, washing and tanning the hide to turn it into leather

COSTA DE PAJAROS: On a beach in Costa Rica, as fishermen land the day’s catch, two women are hard at work on a slimy sea bass skin, rubbing, scraping, washing and tanning the hide to turn it into leather.
Two years ago, both Mauren Castro, 41, and Marta Sosa, 70, were stay-at-home mums dependent on their fishermen husbands to provide for their families of four and six, respectively.
Today, they are part of the all-female Piel Marina (Marine Skin) cooperative, which turns fish skins that used to be discarded at sea into sustainable fashion.
For generations, fishing was the economic mainstay in Costa de Pajaros, a village situated about 62 miles (100 kilometers) west of the capital San Jose.
But fishermen say that regulations aimed at making stocks more sustainable, which this year included a complete ban on fishing between May and July, have made it harder to live off the sea.
Enter the NGO MarViva, which helped train 15 women to establish themselves as seafront tanners two years ago.
The women were skeptical at first about the sartorial possibilities of fish skins.
“We said ‘how can a skin, which is something that gets smelly, which is waste, be the raw material for women to be able to get ahead’“? Castro, 41, told AFP.
But over time they honed their trade and are helping supplementing their families’ meagre incomes.
Wearing blue rubber gloves and white t-shirts bearing the words Piel Marina, Sosa and Castro show how a skin rescued from a filleted sea bass can become a pair of earrings, a necklace or even a handbag.
First they rub the skin gently between their fingers to remove the scales and any remaining flesh.
“Then we take it and wash it with soap, as if we were washing clothes. Then we dye it with glycerin and alcohol and natural dye, and then we dry it,” Sosa explained.
The dyeing process takes four days, with another four needed for the leather to dry in the sun to produce a fabric that is soft and pliable but strong.
Crucially, it no longer smells of fish and has the advantage of being waterproof.
The women are not only tanners, but have also become jewelry designers who sell colorful earrings and necklaces on Instagram and Facebook.
A pair of earrings in the shape of a butterfly costs the equivalent of about seven dollars.
The women also sell some of the leather to small-scale textile producers in Puntarenas, the main port on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast.


Costa Rica is just the latest country to catch onto the potential of fish tanning, an age-old practice among Indigenous peoples from Alaska to Scandanavia to Asia.
While salmon skins were traditionally used by the Ainu people in Japan and the Inuit in northern Canada to make boots and clothes, and on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya they now use the local tilapia delicacy to make handbags.
Brazilian company Nova Kaeru meanwhile offers leather made from the discarded scales of the giant pirarucu fish, which is native to the Amazon.
On the Internet, fish leather bags sell for hundreds of dollars.
One of the first big-name fashion designers to get hooked on the skins was former Dior creative director John Galliano, who sported an Atlantic salmon skin jacket and fish leather bag in his 2002 collections.
For the moment, the women of the Piel Marina cooperative are glad to have a job that gets them away from domestic chores and provides them with a small income.
But they dream of the day when the leather they make by hand on the beach struts the global stage.
Castro’s eyes shine at the prospect.
“I would like it to be seen in Hollywood, in Canada or on the great catwalks in Paris!“


Climate change and harsh weather in France bring challenges to Chablis wine country

Updated 29 September 2024
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Climate change and harsh weather in France bring challenges to Chablis wine country

  • Much of France’s wine country faced one of the wettest years on record in 2024 so far amid a changing climate

LIGNORELLES: On a brisk late September morning in the heart of Chablis wine country, grape pickers haul large and heavy buckets over their shoulders, drenched in sweat as they climb the very steep slope of the Vau de Vey vineyard.
It’s the final day of the harvest at the Domaine Roland Lavantureux winery, and workers are handpicking the last of the prized Chardonnay grapes that will eventually be transformed into the bright and high-end Premier Cru that is bottled by the estate.
But wine lovers around the world may struggle to get their hands on the 2024 “millesime” — wine that comes from a single year’s harvest. It will be available in smaller quantities than usual.
Much of France’s wine country faced one of the wettest years on record in 2024 so far amid a changing climate, after years of challenges to vineyards and wine quality caused by drought and heat. At the Lavantureux estate, the picking lasted just nine days — about half the usual time — after a year of unpredictably harsh weather marked by frost, hail, record rainfall and the spread of a dangerous fungus that has left Chablis growers on edge.
“I have been working here since 2010. This is my most difficult year,” says winemaker David Lavantureux, who follows in the footsteps of his father Roland, a winemaker himself. “And all the old-timers will tell you the same thing. It’s been a very difficult year because the weather has been so unpredictable. We have not been spared a single thing.”
The ordeal began in April with the frost. Then in May, a double hailstorm pummeled the region. Then came relentless rain, right up to the harvest. According to the Burgundy wine federation, some 1,000 hectares (nearly 2,500 acres) of vines in the Chablis country were affected by the May storm. And the excess moisture allowed a destructive mildew fungus to thrive.
Disease devastates the vineyard
Once entrenched, the disease causes huge crop losses and can also affect wine quality. Together with his brother Arnaud, David fought hard to try and control mildew with various treatments, which were washed away by the rain and didn’t prove effective.
“On our estate, we’re looking at losses of 60 to 65 percent,” David Lavantureux said. “It’s going to be a low-yield year.”
The weather impact wasn’t confined to the Lavantureux estate. Wet conditions across France have wreaked havoc on many wine-growing regions this year. Mildew, combined with episodes of frost and hail, have reduced overall production. The French ministry of agriculture estimates that it will amount to 39.3 million hectoliters, below both 2023 levels (-18 percent) and the average for the past five years (-11 percent).
“It’s been a very tough year, both physically and mentally,” Arnaud says. “We’re relieved the harvest is over. I’m exhausted.”
The challenges of this year will inevitably influence the wines produced at the family winery, resulting in a 2024 vintage with distinct characteristics.
“Balances are not at all the same,” adds Arnaud. “There’s more acidity. Maturity is less optimal. But the goal is to craft the wine so that, in the end, the balance is as perfect as possible.”
Adapting to a changing climate
Located in the northern part of the Bourgogne region, the vineyards of Chablis have traditionally benefited from a favorable climate — cold winters, hot summers and annual rainfall between 650-700 millimeters (25-27 inches).
But climate change is altering those conditions, bringing unseasonably mild weather, more abundant rainfall, and recurrent spring frosts that were less common in the past.
The frost damage is particularly frustrating. A similar phenomenon hit French vineyards in recent years, leading to big financial losses. And scientists believe the damaging 2021 frost was made more likely by climate change.
“There was a period when we thought that with global warming setting in, Chablis would be safe from frost,” David Lavantureux says. “And finally, over the last 15 years, it’s come back even stronger.”
To adapt, winemakers have been adopting creative solutions. Cutting the wines later helps delay bud burst and reduce the vulnerability to late frost, while keeping a larger foliage above the fruit shields the grapes from the scorching sun in hot summers.
During frost threats, many growers use expensive methods such as lighting candles in the vineyards. They also install electric lines to warm the vines, or spray water on the buds to create a thin ice layer that ensures the blossom’s temperature remains around freezing point but doesn’t dip much lower.
Throughout the Burgundy region, anti-hail devices have also been deployed in a bid to lessen the intensity of hailstorms.
“It helps reduce risk, but it’s never 100 percent protection,” David Lavantureux says. “We saw that again this year with several hailstorms, two of which were particularly severe.”
Looking ahead
Fortunately for the Lavantureux family, two very good years in 2022 and 2023 should help mitigate the financial losses induced by the reduced 2024 harvest as international demand for Chablis remains solid, especially in the United States.
In June, the Burgundy wine association said that Chablis wine exports to the US reached 3 million bottles, generating 368 million euros ($410 million), a 19 percent increase compared to the previous year.
“We’ve put this harvest behind us,” says Arnaud Lavantureux “Now it’s time to think on the next one.”


Earth will have a temporary ‘mini moon’ for two months

Updated 28 September 2024
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Earth will have a temporary ‘mini moon’ for two months

  • The mini moon is actually an asteroid about the size of a school bus at 10 meters
  • When it whizzes by Earth on Sunday, it will be temporarily trapped by our planet’s gravity and orbit the globe

WASHINGTON: Earth’s moon will soon have some company — a “mini moon.”
The mini moon is actually an asteroid about the size of a school bus at 33 feet (10 meters). When it whizzes by Earth on Sunday, it will be temporarily trapped by our planet’s gravity and orbit the globe — but only for about two months.
The space rock — 2024 PT5 — was first spotted in August by astronomers at Complutense University of Madrid using a powerful telescope located in Sutherland, South Africa.
These short-lived mini moons are likely more common than we realize, said Richard Binzel, an astronomer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The last known one was detected in 2020.
“This happens with some frequency, but we rarely see them because they’re very small and very hard to detect,” he said. “Only recently has our survey capability reached the point of spotting them routinely.”
The discovery by Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos was published by the American Astronomical Society.
This one won’t be visible to the naked eye or through amateur telescopes, but it “can be observed with relatively large, research-grade telescopes,” Carlos de la Fuente Marcos said in an email.
Binzel, who was not involved in the research, said it’s not clear whether the space rock originated as an asteroid or as “a chunk of the moon that got blasted out.”
The mini moon will circle the globe for almost 57 days but won’t complete a full orbit. On Nov. 25, it will part ways with the Earth and continue its solo trajectory through the cosmos. It’s expected to pass by again in 2055.
 


Workers remove Olympic rings from Eiffel Tower — for now

Updated 27 September 2024
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Workers remove Olympic rings from Eiffel Tower — for now

PARIS: Workers removed the Olympics logo from the Eiffel Tower overnight on Friday, returning the beloved monument to its usual form — but perhaps only temporarily.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has promised to build new Olympic rings and return them to the landmark as a tribute to the hugely successful Olympic Games held in July and August.
The proposition has been criticized by descendants of the tower’s designer Gustave Eiffel, as well as conservation groups and many Parisians.
After initially suggesting the rings should be permanent, Hidalgo has proposed they remain on the city’s best-known symbol until the next Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
Workers using a crane removed the 30-ton rings from between the first and second floors of the tower during nightfall on Friday, just under four months after they were put up on June 7.
The new rings, which the International Olympic Committee is expected to pay for, would be lighter versions and less prominent, according to a deputy Paris mayor, Pierre Rabadan.
Culture Minister Rachida Dati, a longtime critic and opponent of Hidalgo, has cast doubt over the idea, saying the Socialist city leader would need to respect procedures protecting historic buildings.
Hidalgo also wants to retain the innovative cauldron placed in front of the Louvre museum as well as statues of illustrious women used during the opening ceremony.


US records suicides at highest levels in 2022 and 2023

Updated 27 September 2024
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US records suicides at highest levels in 2022 and 2023

  • Aside from a two-year drop around the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, US suicide rates have been rising for nearly 20 years
  • The overall suicide rate in 2022 and 2023 was 14.2 per 100,000, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show

NEW YORK: US suicides last year remained at about the highest level in the nation’s history, preliminary data suggests.
A little over 49,300 suicide deaths were reported in 2023, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number that could grow a little as some death investigations are wrapped up and reported.
Just under 49,500 were reported in 2022, according to final data released Thursday. The numbers are close enough that the suicide rate for the two years are the same, CDC officials said.

US suicide rates have been rising for nearly 20 years, aside from a two-year drop around the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. So “a leveling off of any increase in suicide is cautiously promising news,” said Katherine Keyes, a Columbia University public health professor who studies suicide.
Indeed, there’s reason for optimism. A 2-year-old national crisis line allows anyone in the US to dial 988 to reach mental health specialists. That and other efforts may be starting to pay off, Keyes said, but it “really remains to be seen.”
Experts caution that suicide — the nation’s 11th leading cause of death in 2022 — is complicated and that attempts can be driven by a range of factors. Contributors include higher rates of depression, limited availability of mental health services, and the availability of guns. About 55 percent of all suicide deaths in 2022 involved firearms, according to CDC data.
The CDC’s Thursday report said:
• Suicide was the second leading cause of death for people ages 10–14 and 20–34, and the third leading cause for people ages 15–19.
• Deaths continue to be more common among boys and men than girls and women. The highest suicide rate for any group — by far — was in men ages 75 and older, at about 44 suicides per 100,000 men that age.
• Among women, the highest rate was in those who were middle-aged, about 9 per 100,000. But more dramatic increases have been seen in teens and young women, with the rate for that group doubling in the last two decades.
• The overall suicide rate in 2022 and 2023 was 14.2 per 100,000. It also was that high in 2018. Before then, it hadn’t been that high since 1941.