CCTV shows the moments before Bhim Kohli was fatally attacked
An elderly man who was racially abused before being fatally attacked had told police he witnessed an assault on another Asian man yards from his home two weeks earlier, the BBC has found.
Bhim Kohli had been walking his dog in a park in Leicestershire in September when he was punched and kicked by a 14-year-old boy while a girl, 12, filmed the attack.
The BBC has learnt that Mr Kohli spoke to officers in August after he saw two white boys aged 12 and 13 racially abuse a man and throw a large rock at him near the same park where the 80-year-old encountered his own attackers.
Leicestershire Police said “organisational learning” to improve logging anti-social behaviour had been identified.
Mr Kohli died the day after the “intense attack” against him in Franklin Park, Braunstone Town near Leicester, for which the boy and girl, now aged 15 and 13 respectively, were both convicted of manslaughter. They are due to be sentenced on Thursday.
Another eyewitness to the attack in August, Linda Haigh, said she warned police about racially motivated problems in the area before Mr Kohli died, and believes he would still be alive had they taken her more seriously.
Supplied
Bhim Kohli was walking his dog Rocky on the day of the fatal attack
The victim, who wishes to remain anonymous, was walking to Franklin Park on 17 August when he was targeted by the two boys, who were not involved in Mr Kohli’s death.
He told the BBC: “One of the boys started picking up stones and throwing them at me… and then the same boy picked up a quite a large rock from the front garden of one of the houses there, and tried to throw it at me.”
The man, aged in his 40s, said they shouted at him to “go back to your village”.
“It was a throwback to back to the 80s, when it was quite commonplace to be racially abused,” he said.
“I was shocked that this kind of behaviour was still around society.
“I’ve not been in that situation for a long time, maybe 40 years.”
A rock was thrown at the man by two children
It was when one of the boys picked up a wooden fence post and tried to hit the man with it that others – including Mr Kohli and his daughter Susan, and their neighbour Ms Haigh – intervened, according to the man.
He said he was shocked by the “kind of behaviour from such a young age group”.
“The racist language, the violence used as well… they were trying to physically hurt me,” he added.
“The anger, but more just the vitriol of the whole thing.”
Police were called but the pair were not arrested until three days after the death of Mr Kohli, according to the man.
He believes a greater police presence in the area following the assault could have prevented the attack on Mr Kohli two weeks later.
“They should have really looked at putting more presence there, more officers, maybe mobile police cars driving around,” he said.
“They could have deterred them. It’s obviously very tragic.”
The man was targeted as he made his way into this entrance of Franklin Park in August
During the trial of Mr Kohli’s killers, the court was told about an occasion “a week or two” before his death when the girl convicted of his manslaughter was present while other children threw apples at him.
The jury was also shown a video she had filmed on her phone of another Asian man having a water balloon thrown at him and being racially abused.
The BBC has also been told it was reported to police that in July Mr Kohli had stones thrown at him, was spat at and had been racially abused by a group of children after he told them to get off his neighbour’s garage roof.
Ch Supt Jonathan Starbuck, of Leicestershire Police, said: “Prior to Mr Kohli’s death, police were aware of two reports of anti-social behaviour involving youths in the Franklin Park area which were being investigated.
“Partnership work in the area following Mr Kohli’s death did identify further incidents which had not been reported.”
He added an investigation conducted by the force, reviewed by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, did not identify any “misconduct or missed opportunities which could have prevented Mr Kohli’s death”.
The attacks have left the victim of the August assault fearful for his safety and that of his elderly parents, who also live in the area.
His father, like Mr Kohli, likes to go for a walk, but since being targeted, he tells him not to, especially in the dark, he told the BBC.
“Even my nephews… you worry about them as well because you just don’t know. It’s just become more violent,” he said.
The two boys involved in the August assault appeared in youth court in Leicester in December charged with racially or religiously aggravated common assault.
They admitted the offences but were later dealt with out of court by way of a deferred youth caution following a referral to the youth justice panel for an out-of-court disposal.
The process aims to divert young people away from the criminal justice system where possible, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
Linda Haigh says she feels let down by police and more could have been done
Ms Haigh, who was friends with Mr Kohli for more than 20 years, told the BBC she called police when she saw the two boys involved in the August assault pick up the boulder from outside her neighbour’s house and throw it at the man.
She said she was aware of similar attacks by young people happening last summer in Braunstone Town and told police it needed to be “nipped in the bud”.
“I don’t think it was taken serious enough,” she said.
“I think they should have acted on it. I feel that we’ve been totally let down.”
Ch Supt Starbuck said: “We continue to monitor the area of Franklin Park and have engaged with the community through a local survey, drop-in centres, engagement with local schools, youth work and proactive policing patrols.”
Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
Following its recent premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, “The Phoenician Scheme,” the new film by Wes Anderson, opens in Los Angeles this weekend. Each new Anderson picture still feels like something of an event, simply because it is so fun to see what he is up to this time, what idiosyncratic subset of the world will he explore and make his own.
Personally, I have been taken with how densely packed his last few films have become. “The French Dispatch” and “Asteroid City” had a layered approach to storytelling that took some time to fully unpack. So it is likely “The Phoenician Scheme” has yet to reveal itself, in need of some extended unraveling of its energetic story of an ambitious 1950s international businessman, Anatole “Zsa-zsa” Korda (Benicio del Toro, who we spoke to for our summer preview), and his estranged daughter, Liesl (Mia Threapleton), on an a series of business deals. The cast, typical for Anderson, is packed, also including Michael Cera, Scarlett Johansson, Jeffrey Wright, Mathieu Amalric, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Richard Aoyade, Riz Ahmed, Charlotte Gainsbourg and many more. (Never fear, Willem Dafoe and Bill Murray are in there somewhere.)
Mia Threapleton and Benicio del Toro in the movie “The Phoenician Scheme.”
(TPS Productions / Focus Features)
In a review of the film, Amy Nicholson wrote, “Lately, Anderson has been on a tear of using his perfectionist aesthetic to defend the act of ambition itself — to honor artisans who create masterpieces in a world of philistines. The only thing he loves more than a carved credenza (and here, they’re decorated with hieroglyphics) is the craftsperson who made it and the aesthete who bought it, instead of settling for something disposable. I was never a fan of Anderson’s until ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ clicked him into focus. It was hard to believe he knew what he was talking about when his earlier movies tried to sell us on love between human beings. But a hotelier’s love of his linens? That I’ll buy.”
Amy added, “It’s not that you have to believe that there is a force out there more powerful than Zsa-zsa, or heck, even money itself. But if that doesn’t move you, at least Anderson deserves reverence for negotiating how to get all these A-list talents to act in his movie for peanuts. He’s managed to build yet another dazzler, a shrine to his own ambition and craft. And while it sometimes feels a bit drafty in the corners, the accomplishment itself is plenty.”
‘Bleak Week’ goes worldwide
Thomas Jane in an image from the black-and-white director’s cut of Frank Darabont’s 2007 horror movie “The Mist,” coming to “Bleak Week.”
(MGM)
The fourth edition of the American Cinematheque’s “Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair” program begins Sunday with screenings at all three of its local venues through Saturday, June 7. Having already expanded to the Paris Theatre in New York last year, “Bleak Week” is now spreading to several more cities and venues: the Hollywood Theatre in Portland, Ore.; the Music Box Theatre in Chicago; the Texas Theatre in Dallas; Trylon Cinema in Minneapolis; Coolidge Corner Theatre in Boston; and the Prince Charles Cinema in London.
“We look to expand our never-ending film festival whenever possible,” said Grant Moninger, artistic director of the American Cinematheque, via email, of the program’s ongoing expansion.
This year’s series will open with a 35mm screening of Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 “Ikiru” at the Egyptian Theatre introduced by Bill Hader. French filmmaker Claire Denis will be present for screenings of a handful of her titles, including a 35mm presentation of 2001’s “Trouble Every Day” with a Q&A moderated by Barry Jenkins.
Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold will be present for a tribute, including films they have made together and Corbet’s separate acting work. To be screened: Michael Haneke’s “Funny Games,” Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia,” Fastvold’s “The World to Come” and Corbet’s “The Childhood of a Leader” and “Vox Lux.”
Other “Bleak Week” highlights include John Hillcoat’s 2005 “The Proposition” with a Q&A with the filmmaker and cast, Michael Curtiz’s 1950 “The Breaking Point” in 35mm and Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1943 “Day of Wrath” screened from a nitrate print.
What may once have seemed a slightly cracked idea has grown into one of the Cinematheque’s signature programs. And there is no end in sight.
“After year one, which had 33 films, we had the worry that maybe we would have no titles left for next year — if there even was a second edition,” said Chris LeMaire, senior film programmer, via email. “But each time we start programming the next ‘Bleak Week,’ there seem to be endless possibilities.”
“Our lineup this year in L.A. has 55 films and we probably cut another 50 titles from our initial list,” added LeMaire. “Across all the venues, ‘Bleak Week’ includes over 100 titles this year, from all corners of the world and all eras of cinema history, from as early as 1919 to 2025. We’re never going to run out because many of the greatest films deal with the human condition, which naturally leads to some difficult truths.”
Brad Pitt in the movie “Moneyball.”
(Sony Pictures)
Alan Arkin’s 1971 “Little Murders” will screen in 35mm with a Q&A with star Elliott Gould moderated by screenwriter Larry Karaszewski. A screening of the black-and-white director’s cut of 2007’s “The Mist” will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Frank Darabont and actor Thomas Jane. Filmmaker Costa-Gavras and producer Michèle Ray-Gavras will be present for a double-bill of 1982’s “Missing” and 1970’s “The Confession.” Actor Gabriel Byrne will be at a 35th anniversary screening of Joel and Ethan Coen’s 1990 “Miller’s Crossing.”
I will be moderating a Q&A with Gus Van Sant following a screening of “Last Days.” There will also be the U.S. premiere of a 4K restoration of “Christiane F.” and the West Coast premieres of 4K restorations of “Withnail and I,” “Forbidden Games,” “The Sweet Hereafter” and “Happiness.” (A Q&A for “Happiness” will feature performers Lara Flynn Boyle and Camryn Manheim, moderated by Vera Drew.)
Where downbeat entries like Mark Romanek’s “Never Let Me Go,” Ryan Coogler’s “Fruitvale Station,” Narcisco Ibáñez Serrador’s “Who Can Kill A Child?” or Elem Klimov’s “Come and See” more obviously fall within the thematic concept of “Bleak Week,” titles such as Bennett Miller’s “Moneyball” or Boaz Davidson’s “The Last American Virgin” do not make such an apparent fit.
“We work outside of academic and algorithmic models,” said Moninger. “This allows for an emotional reaction to films and a more expansive ‘Bleak Week’ program. The festival is a tapestry of bleak moments and feelings that can be presented in all types of cinema, including the occasional comedy. We are not measuring the hopelessness of each film but creating something by bonding together a wide variety of challenging, unpromising cinema, which I hope builds to something positive.”
Ivan Dixon and ‘The Spook Who Sat by the Door’
An image from 1973’s “The Spook Who Sat by the Door,” directed by Ivan Dixon.
(United Artists / Photofest / UCLA Film & Television Archive)
This weekend the UCLA Film & Television Archive will be hosting “‘Going My Own Way’ Celebrating Ivan Dixon,” a tribute to the actor and filmmaker, including the local premiere tonight of a new 35mm print of the restoration of his 1973 film, “The Spook Who Sat by the Door.”
The film tells the story of the first Black CIA officer (Lawrence Cook), who leaves his token position at the organization to use what he learned there to train a Black guerrilla fighting force in Chicago. “The Spook Who Sat by the Door,” which was added to the National Film Registry in 2012, had a truncated release with it first came out due to its revolutionary politics, with some accounts that the FBI became involved in suppressing it.
“It’s just one of the most powerful meditations on the meaning of freedom that I’ve ever seen,” said UCLA programmer Beandrea July. “It’s so nice to see a movie that really knows what it is and doesn’t apologize for it. It doesn’t equivocate, it’s not trying to explain itself to people who aren’t interested in really understanding. It’s so satisfying to watch because it’s like finally someone actually speaks to the thing with the same oomph that the thing demands.”
On Saturday, along with the second screening of the film, there will be a showing of Christine Acham and Clifford Ward’s 2011 documentary “Infiltrating Hollywood: The Rise and Fall of ‘The Spook Who Sat by the Door,’” which examines the long saga of the film, its reception and release.
Acham will be present at screenings throughout the weekend as will Nomathande Dixon, Ivan Dixon’s daughter, as well as Natiki Hope Pressley, daughter of Sam Greenlee, author of the book on which the film is based.
Dixon, who died in 2008 at age 76, was best known for his role as Sgt. James Kinchloe on TV’s “Hogan’s Heroes,” a part he left before the show had ended to move behind the camera and begin a prolific career directing for television.
Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln in the movie “Nothing but a Man.”
(Criterion Collection)
Also screening will be the 1964 film “Nothing but a Man” starring Dixon and directed by Michael Roemer, who died just last week at age 97. The film tells the story of racial tension in a small town; Dixon considered the film his favorite of his performances. The film will be paired with a 1960 episode of “The Twilight Zone” starring Dixon and Kim Hamilton.
The series will conclude Sunday with two pieces Dixon directed for television, 1983’s “Frederick Douglass: Slave and Statesman,” starring “Blacula’s” William Marshall, and an adaptation of Philip Hayes Dean’s “The Sty of the Blind Pig” starring Mary Alice and Scatman Crothers.
The Dixon family lived for many years in Altadena. What was once their home was destroyed in the January fires, a circumstance that gives the weekend an even greater emotional resonance.
“It’s special for the family because his wishes were never to have a memorial,” said Nomathande Dixon. “And this is something that feels like a tribute to him in our hometown of L.A. So we’re very appreciative of that. And I think he would’ve been thrilled.”
Points of interest
‘Michael Clayton’ in 35mm
George Clooney, left, and Sydney Pollack in the movie “Michael Clayton.”
(Myles Aronowitz / Warner Bros. Pictures)
At Vidiots on Saturday will be a 35mm screening of 2007’s “Michael Clayton” with writer-director Tony Gilroy in person. The film marked the feature directing debut for Gilroy, who previously had a successful career as a screenwriter and has gone on to be showrunner of the recent series “Andor.”
George Clooney stars in the film as a fixer for a powerful New York City law firm. He finds himself drawn into an already complicated situation involving defending an agricultural conglomerate in a class-action lawsuit when one of the firm’s top lawyers (Tom Wilkinson) has a nervous breakdown.
The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, with Tilda Swinton winning for supporting actress for her role as the conglomerate’s chief counsel. In his original review of the film, Kenneth Turan wrote, “Watching this film makes you feel that Gilroy, best known for writing credits on all three ‘Bourne’ films, has poured the energy pent up during a decade and a half in Hollywood into this strong and confident directorial debut about desperate men searching for redemption in a cold and ruthless world. … As a director, Gilroy has an unmistakable instinct for the emotional jugular and a breakneck storytelling style that pulls you through his movie, no stragglers allowed.”
Sofia Coppola and Kirsten Dunst with ‘The Virgin Suicides’
Leslie Hayman, left, Kirsten Dunst, A.J. Cook and Chelse Swain in “The Virgin Suicides.”
(Paramount Classics)
On Sunday afternoon, the Academy Museum will screen Sofia Coppola’s 1999 feature debut, “The Virgin Suicides” with the filmmaker and star Kirsten Dunst in person. (There will also be a signing for Coppola’s new book of Corinne Day’s on-set photos from the film.) The story of five sisters in 1970s Michigan who all die by suicide, the film set the stage for Coppola’s gently incisive explorations of female interiority and a recurring collaboration with Dunst.
In his original review of the film, Kevin Thomas wrote, “Sofia Coppola shows an impressive maturity and an assured skill in adapting Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel ‘The Virgin Suicides’ to the screen for her directorial debut. As the title suggests, it’s a challenging undertaking that requires a smooth passage from pitch-dark humor to a stark finish. The result is a highly affecting film unafraid to exact an emotional toll. … While subtle in the utmost, Coppola leaves us with an understanding of how things could turn out as they did.”
‘Frances Ha’ and ‘Girlfriends’
Greta Gerwig, left, and Mickey Sumner in the movie “Frances Ha.”
(Pine District Pictures)
The New Beverly will host a double feature of Noah Baumbach’s 2012 “Frances Ha” and Claudia Weil’s 1978 “Girlfriends,” two sharply insightful portraits of female friendship, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“Frances Ha” was the first screenplay co-written by Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, both who would (of course) go on to collaborate on the script for the mega-successful “Barbie,” directed by Gerwig. In “Frances Ha,” Gerwig plays a 20-something woman coming to grips with life as an adult while struggling to accept the end of a friendship by which she has long defined herself.
In his original review of the film, Kenneth Turan declared it “Effortless and effervescent, ‘Frances Ha’ is a small miracle of a movie, honest and funny with an aim that’s true.”
Of Gerwig and Bambach’s collaboration, he noted, “For the actress, a quicksilver presence with a fluid face who couldn’t be more natural on screen, ‘Frances’ is an opportunity to build a character of unexpected complexity. For the director, having a gifted collaborator able to be so completely present adds a lightness his films have not always had and has made possible an irresistible command of the moment.”
I spoke to Baumbach and Gerwig about the film when it was premiering at film festivals in Telluride and Toronto.
“The writing of it and the acting of it were separate for me,” Gerwig said at the time. “The writing of it was such a huge thing, but the acting of it was scary. I really was worried I wouldn’t be right for it…. It didn’t feel like, ‘I wrote this great part, and I’m perfect for it.’”
“I can say I totally had Greta in my head,” Baumbach said. “I always thought, ‘I can’t wait for Greta to play this part.’”
“Girlfriends” stars Melanie Mayron as Susan Weinblatt, a young photographer in New York City, who finds her life starting to unravel when her best friend (Anita Skinner) moves out of the apartment they share together. The supporting cast also includes Christopher Guest, Bob Balaban and Eli Wallach.
Selected for the National Film Registry in 2019, the film was praised by Stanley Kubrick when it was originally released; he declared it “one of the very rare American films that I would compare with the serious, intelligent, sensitive writing and filmmaking that you find in the best directors in Europe.” Lena Dunham likewise sparked to the film, once recalling of her first viewing, “It felt eerie, in the true sense of the word, how familiar this film was to me. … I almost thought, ‘Have I seen this and been gently ripping it off for the last five years?’”
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark will be out at least two weeks with a left quad strain, the team announced Monday.
The Fever did not say when Clark suffered the injury. The team said further updates will be provided after she gets another evaluation.
Clark played 37:52 and had 18 points and 10 assists in a 90-88 loss to the New York Liberty on Saturday.
The Fever are 2-2 this season and could be without Clark for at least the next four games against the Mystics (twice), Sun and Sky. All the opponents sit below the Fever in the Eastern Conference.
Clark is averaging 19.0 points, 9.3 assists and 6.0 rebounds this season.
Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
The Cannes Film Festival is winding down, with the awards ceremony happening on Saturday. Amy Nicholson and Joshua Rothkopf have been there, watching as many films as they can. In a notebook dispatch from the fest’s first week, Amy covered many early titles, including Harris Dickinson’s directing debut, “Urchin,” Ari Aster’s “Eddington,” Dominik Moll’s “Dossier 137,” Sergei Loznitsa’s “Two Prosecuters” and Oliver Laxe’s “Sirât.” A second diary is live now, covering several films including Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest” and the directorial debut of Kristen Stewart, “The Chronology of Water.”
Josh spoke to filmmaker Lynne Ramsay about her long-awaited return with “Die, My Love,” a tale of the struggles of motherhood, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. So far the film has become the festival’s biggest acquisition, picked up by “The Substance’s” distributor Mubi for a reported $24 million.
Director Lynne Ramsay on the set of the movie “Die, My Love.”
(Kimberly French)
Ramsay spoke about working with Lawrence and Pattinson, who, besides being big stars, are committed performers as well.
“I think they were very willing participants,” said Ramsay. “There was a lot of trust. I try and create an atmosphere of trust and I just threw them into the fire. I did the sex scene on the first day. I thought it’s a risk. It’s either going to work or it’s going to be a disaster. But I could see there was chemistry. And when they arrived, I was getting them dancing. They were dancing together, synchronized. And it was fun. And then I think Robert was a little nervous, but then something just kind of broke the ice.”
Josh also spoke to director Ari Aster about “Eddington” and whether he set out to make his most overtly politically charged film to date with the story of a small town’s sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) sparring during the early days of the pandemic.
“I am just following my impulses, so I’m not thinking in that way,” said Aster. “There’s very little strategy going on. It’s just: What am I interested in? And when I started writing, because I was in a real state of fear and anxiety about what was happening in the country and what was happening in the world, and I wanted to make a film about what it was feeling like.”
‘The Sugarland Express’ and our Spielberg Summer
Michael Sacks, left, William Atherton and Goldie Hawn in the 1974 movie “The Sugarland Express.”
We seem to be on the verge of a summer of Spielberg. After last week’s screening of 2002’s “Minority Report,” this Thursday brings a showing of Spielberg’s 1974 “The Sugarland Express” at the Academy Museum with a conversation with the film’s star, Goldie Hawn.
There are also multiple opportunities to see “Jaws” this Memorial Day weekend in celebration of the film’s 50th anniversary, including presentations at the Egyptian, the New Beverly,Vidiots and the Frida Cinema. The film will also play at the Hollywood Bowl on July 5, with a live performance of John Williams’ score by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
“The Sugarland Express,” screening in a 4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative, was Spielberg’s theatrical feature debut. As tempting as it is to view it for the seeds of what was still to come, the movie is a fully formed charmer all on its own.
Lou Jean Poplin (Hawn) convinces her husband (William Atherton) to escape from prison just a few months from being released because their son is about to be placed for adoption. When the pair wind up taking a police officer hostage, their journey across Texas becomes an unlikely pursuit involving the authorities and the media.
In an April 1974 review, Kevin Thomas called the film “dazzling, funny, exciting and finally poignant. … An increasingly disenchanted portrait of contemporary America.”
Thomas added, “Spielberg and his associates are trying for entertainment rather than profundity, and ‘The Sugarland Express’ is anything but heavy. But it is incisive as it is rapid, like the more optimistic vintage Capra films it brings to mind. … When all things are considered, however, one realizes it is Goldie Hawn who gives the film its focus and dimension, making Lou Jean at once very funny and very sad, quite real, and for all her intransigence, most appealing.”
In a March 1973 report from the set, Hawn spoke to reporter Jeff Millar. She said it took a year after the film “Butterflies Are Free” to find another project that excited her as much. “I flipped when I saw this one,” Hawn said. “It’s a different kind of role for me. She’s aggressive. She’s a leader, she’s comical. But she’s still a plain country girl.
“I guess the most exciting thing is the director,” Hawn continued. “I’d never met him, but everybody knew about him, you know? ‘Oh yeah, you’re going to do a picture with Steve Spielberg. The bright young guy who’s coming up…’”
In comments that bring to mind his recent film “The Fabelmans,” Spielberg, 25 at the time, told Millar, “I’ve been making pictures in 8mm, 16mm and 35mm since I was 15. This is the fourth year I’ve had that Directors Guild of America card. I’ve been directing in television since I was 21.”
Of the movie, he added, “I wanted to shoot in Texas because it’s so big. I’m very into Americana — and Texas is a lot more Americana to me than, well, Kansas or Andrew Wyeth.”
Points of interest
Susan Sontag’s ‘Duet for Cannibals’
Adriana Asti, left, and Susan Sontag making their 1969 film “Duet for Cannibals.”
(Susan Wood / Getty Images)
In 1968, Susan Sontag, already a well-known and deeply influential writer and critic, was invited to Stockholm to make her first movie. The result was “Duet for Cannibals,” a darkly comedic satire of bourgeois values focused on two couples. The film plays at Vidiots on Wednesday.
In May 1973, Kevin Thomas wrote about the film when it had a few screenings at an art gallery and restaurant near LACMA, noting that it “demonstrates Susan Sontag is as gifted a filmmaker as she is a critic and philosopher.”
Thomas concluded, “Sontag illuminates human potential, with emphasis on its bent for destruction yet capacity to endure to a breathtaking fullness. In this bravura example of a work of art that achieves maximum of means, Susan Sontag proves she is a critic who can practice what she preaches.”
‘How to Get Ahead in Advertising’
Richard E. Grant in the movie “How to Get Ahead in Advertising.”
(Janus Films)
Writer-director Bruce Robinson followed up his cult hit “Withnail & I” with 1989’s “How To Get Ahead in Advertising,” a bitter satire of commercialization and the media. Richard E. Grant plays rising advertising executive Denis Dimbleby Bagley, who, while suffering an ethical crisis over the impact of his work, develops a boil on his neck that begins talking to him. The film will play in a new restoration at the Los Feliz 3 on Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday.
In a May 1989 review, Sheila Benson called the movie “a strange piece, to be sure. It’s cruel, funny, knowing, never less than biting and occasionally brilliant. Pure fury seems to have driven Robinson to it. … There are problems in creating something as simultaneously funny and unlovely as a talking boil. It’s possible that some audiences will lose interest once they learn that the effects are good but minor; the boil, even when grown to full manhood (boilhood?) isn’t a patch on ‘The Fly.’ But then, this isn’t that sort of movie. This is a blistering broadside, a warning for the safety of our souls.”
In a set visit by Bart Mills published around the film’s release, Robinson, then 43, did an interview from his office at Shepperton Studios outside London.
He said it was his own disillusionment at “the constant stream of disinformation the media and the politicians give us” that inspired the story. “This is the kind of anger I feel all the time. All the time. It’s intolerable. The only thing that saves me, that keeps the electrodes off my head, is that, thank God, I’m allowed to make a movie about it.”
Yet, Robinson added, “I don’t believe the cinema can change anything. It’s not a teacher, it’s an entertainer. I enjoy finding a comedic way to exploit my burning rage.”
The short films of Charles and Ray Eames
The title frame for Charles and Ray Eames’ 1955 short film “House: After Five Years of Living.”
(Eames Office, LLC.)
On Wednesday, the Philosophical Research Society and the Charles and Ray Eames Foundation will host an evening celebrating the famous creative duo. There will be a program of seven of the Eames’ shorts, including 1955’s “House: After Five Years of Living,” 1964’s “Think” and likely their best-known film, 1977’s “Powers of Ten.”
The event will also include a panel discussion moderated by programmer Alex McDonald including the Eames’ grandson Eames Demetrios, art director Jeannine Oppewall and the creative pair of Adi Goodrich and Sean Pecknold, known as Sing-Sing.
Writing about the enduring influence of the Eames in 2012, David L. Ulin said, “In our age of constant contact, it’s almost impossible to step away from the workplace even when we’re off the clock. And yet, if the Eameses have anything to tell us, it’s that we can — must — aspire to a higher integration, in which work should not only feed our stomach but also, and more importantly, our souls.”
In other news
Rolf Saxon accepts another ‘Mission’
Actor Rolf Saxon, photographed at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York.
(Justin Jun Lee / For The Times)
Fans of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise are in for a real surprise when they see the new sequel “The Final Reckoning,” which opens this weekend. Actor Rolf Saxon, who had a memorable turn in the first film in 1996, is back with a surprisingly large role in the new film.
Saxon’s character of CIA analyst William Donloe was sent to a radar station in Alaska after his computer station got hacked by Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt in one of the series’ signature set pieces. In the new film, it turns out Donloe has been in Alaska the entire time and now may have vital information for the Impossible Mission Force.
The new film brought Saxon to caves in the English midlands and, most spectacularly, Svalbard, an archipelago off the northern coast of Norway.
“This was in many ways a dream job,” says Saxon. “The people I’m working with, the thing I’m working on and the places I got to go to work — it’s just like, what would you really like to do? Here it is.”
My extended feature with Saxon goes live a little later this afternoon. Stay tuned.
President Erdogan holds talks with Prime Minister Sharif aimed at ‘increasing solidarity in education, intelligence sharing and technological support’.
Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has held talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Istanbul, weeks after a military conflict between Islamabad and New Delhi.
The two countries would strive to boost cooperation, particularly in defence, energy and transportation, Erdogan’s office said on Sunday.
Erdogan told Sharif it was in the interest of Turkey and Pakistan to increase solidarity in education, intelligence sharing and technological support in the fight against “terrorism”, Turkiye president’s office said.
The meeting in the Turkish commercial capital comes as Ankara faces a backlash from India over its alleged supply of weapons to Islamabad during the recent conflict between the two South Asian neighbours. Ankara has denied sending weapons to Pakistan.
In recent weeks, Erdogan had expressed solidarity with Pakistan after India conducted military attacks across nine sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. New Delhi said the attacks were in response to an April 22 attack on tourists by armed fighters in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir, which left 25 Indians and one Nepalese national dead. India has accused Pakistan of indirectly supporting the attack – which Pakistan denies.
Turkiye had warned of a risk of an “all-out war” between the nuclear-armed neighbours and called on both sides to “show good sense” to reduce the tensions, while expressing support for Islamabad’s request for an international inquiry into the Pahalgam attack.
The two countries announced a ceasefire on May 10.
Turkiye faces backlash in India
Turkiye and Pakistan have long had close economic and military links.
In February, Erdogan visited Islamabad, during which the two countries signed 24 cooperation agreements to bolster bilateral ties.
In a sign of India’s displeasure with Ankara, India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson last week said that “relations are built on the basis of sensitivities to each other’s concerns”.
“We expect Turkey to strongly urge Pakistan to end its support to cross-border terrorism and take credible and verifiable actions against the terror ecosystem it has harbored for decades,” Randhir Jaiswal said during a press briefing on Thursday.
Meanwhile, grocery shops and leading online fashion retailers in India declared a boycott of Turkish products ranging from chocolates, coffee, jams, and cosmetics, as well as clothing.
Indian fashion websites owned by Flipkart retail and billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance removed numerous Turkish apparel brands from their sites.
India’s annual $2.7bn in goods imports from Turkiye, however, are dominated by mineral fuels and precious metals. We still do not know how the bilateral trade will be impacted amid the strained ties.
Indian travel companies also suspended bookings of flights, hotels and holiday packages to Turkiye “in solidarity with India’s national interest and sovereignty”.
India has not officially ordered companies to boycott Turkish products. But the country’s civil aviation ministry on May 15 revoked the security clearance of the Turkish-based aviation ground handling firm Celebi.
AMAZON is now weeks away from shutting down an app that’s been used by hundreds of millions of people.
There are major downsides for affected users – and you might even be owed a big refund.
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The Amazon Appstore is being killed off on AndroidCredit: Amazon
Millions of people using the Amazon Appstore will be cut off in mid-August.
The closure affects anyone using the app on Android phones.
Amazon’s Appstore is a rival to the default Google Play Store, letting you download apps and games. It launched on Android all the way back in March 2011.
But on August 20, the Amazon Appstore will close – and any apps downloaded from it will no longer receive updates.
That means support will end for all apps you’ve downloaded via the Amazon Appstore.
They may become buggy or stop work entirely, and won’t be able to receive any important security fixes either.
In an FAQ, Amazon warned that these apps “will not be guaranteed to operate on Android devices”.
Amazon has already begun killing the Appstore off by blocking developers from uploading new apps to it.
Amazon Prime cancels TEN TV shows this year – including A-list actor’s horror drama and beloved cult classic’s reboot
“In our ongoing effort to streamline and improve our services and programs, we are making some changes to Amazon Appstore for Android devices and Amazon Coins program,” Amazon explained.
“We will be discontinuing support of Amazon Appstore for Android devices on August 20, 2025. As of February 20, 2025, developers will no longer have the option to submit new apps targeting Android devices.
“However, developers will have the option to submit updates to their existing live apps on Amazon Appstore for Android devices until August 20, 2025.”
Amazon added: “All existing apps on Amazon Appstore for Android devices will continue to be available to customers until August 20, 2025. Developers can continue to submit app updates until August 20, 2025.”
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The change only affects Android phones – and not Fire TV devicesCredit: Google
It’s worth noting that the Amazon Appstore is only shutting down on Android phones.
The Amazon Appstore was never available on iOS for iPhone, so it can’t disappear because it was never there.
Doctors at the Nasser Hospital in Gaza are overwhelmed by a surge in the number of malnourished babies and children in urgent need of life-saving treatment. Israel’s months-long blockade has left medicine, food, and baby formula critically scarce.
Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
This year’s edition of the Cannes Film Festival launched this week. The winner of last year’s Palme d’Or, Sean Baker’s “Anora,” went on to win five Oscars including best picture. Numerous other Cannes premieres from 2024, such as “The Substance,” “The Apprentice” “Emilia Peréz” and “Flow,” went on to successful awards season runs as well.
This year’s lineup features many titles we could be talking about all year long, including Lynne Ramsay’s “Die, My Love,” Kelly Reichardt’s “The Mastermind,” Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme,” Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” Ari Aster’s “Eddington,” Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague” and Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest.” The festival will world-premiere the feature directing debuts of Kristen Stewart and Scarlett Johansson, with “The Chronology of Water” and “Eleanor the Great” respectively. Read all of our coverage as it unfurls right here.
The festival also saw the premiere of Christopher McQuarrie’s “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,” the fourth movie he has made in Tom Cruise’s venerable action-espionage franchise. Amy Nicholson was at the film’s world premiere, writing, “Cruise is the reason audiences will, and should, see “Final Reckoning” on a large and loud screen. His Ethan continues to survive things he shouldn’t. … Yet, what I’ve most come to appreciate about Ethan is that he doesn’t try to play the unflappable hero. Clinging to the chassis of an airplane with the wind plastering his hair to his forehead and oscillating his gums like a bulldog in a convertible, he is, in fact, exceedingly flapped.”
‘Minority Report’ in 35mm
Samantha Morton and Tom Cruise star in the movie “Minority Report.”
(DreamWorks LLC / 20th Century Fox)
As audiences prepare themselves for the upcoming release of “Final Reckoning,” folks may want to revisit not only other films in the “Mission: Impossible” series but also other titles from the now nearly 45-year career of Tom Cruise.
On Sunday, the Egyptian Theatre will have a 35mm screening of 2002’s “Minority Report,” which paired the star with director Steven Spielberg for the first time. Adapted from a novella by sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick and set in 2054, the story finds Cruise as an officer for a “pre-crime” unit that uses clairvoyant humans to stop crimes before they occur. When he discovers possible faults in the system and finds himself accused of a crime he has yet to commit, Cruise must go on the run.
In a review at the time, Kenneth Turan wrote that the film “finds Hollywood’s preeminent director more convincingly at home with unapologetically bleak and unsettling material than he was with Kubrick’s ‘A.I.’ ‘I wanted to make the ugliest, dirtiest movie I have ever made,’ Spielberg told cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, and there’s little doubt he’s succeeded. … But the road to self-knowledge can be an uneven one, and as impressive as this disturbing, even haunting film can be, it does not feel all of a piece.”
Turan added, “A word must be said for Cruise. Though his is the starring role, it is in some ways a thankless one, needing him to be the tireless turbine that powers this expensive cinematic machine and nothing more. It’s not the kind of work that wins awards, but without Cruise’s intensity almost willing our interest in Spielberg’s unrelentingly dark world, ‘Minority Report’ wouldn’t have nearly as much life as it does.”
More ‘Old Man’ films from ‘You Must Remember This’
Jacqueline Bisset and Candice Bergen on set of the movie “Rich and Famous” in 1981.
(Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images)
The American Cinematheque has a series underway to celebrate the recent season of the podcast “You Must Remember This.” A few months ago, I featured an interview with the show’s writer, producer and host Karina Longworth to talk about “The Old Man Is Still Alive,” a season examining the late careers of filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Vincent Minnelli, Billy Wilder and others who had enjoyed decades of success only to find themselves floundering amid the cultural changes happening in Hollywood during the 1960s and ’70s.
The Cinematheque series, playing Tuesdays throughout July at the Los Feliz 3, features some of the most intriguing titles from that podcast, many of them rarely screened and all worthy of the reappraisal Longworth invites. This Tuesday will be Howard Hawks’ 1965 film “Red Line 7000,” about young stock car racers.
In a published transcript from the episode covering Hawks, Longworth said the film was “a bizarre, low-budget experiment that grafts Hawks’s longstanding interest in gender warfare onto a semi-documentary sports movie about low-rent race car champions, starring a very young, very hot James Caan. Hawks’ ’60s romantic comedy, ‘Man’s Favorite Sport?’ could have been made in the 1930s and ’40s as basically the same movie. The same goes for each of the other films he made in his last decade as a filmmaker, none of which took place in contemporary America, except for ‘Red Line 7000.’ ‘Red Line 7000’ is a movie that could have only been made in 1965.”
Kevin Thomas reviewed the film on Nov. 26, 1965, writing, “‘Red Line 7000’ takes off like a streak of lightning, zooms through a thicket of romantic entanglements and winds up a winner at the finish. … Plenty of action plus a cast of attractive unknowns assures another success for veteran director Howard Hawks.”
That will be followed on May 27 by a 35mm screening of George Cukor’s 1981 “Rich and Famous,” starring Candice Bergen and Jacqueline Bisset as friends who become competitive over their literary careers. Noting Pauline Kael’s withering New Yorker review of the film, Longworth added, “What Kael sees as reason for derision, I see as worthy of praise.”
Thomas spent time on the set while the film was in production. Cukor told him, “It’s a great pleasure to read a really good script. And with such wit and style. It’s very contemporary and devastatingly accurate, with a bold, impertinent wit and gaiety. There are two extraordinary parts for women, and the man has a good one, too. So it’s up to us to make it work. I don’t think wit is the coin of the realm right now — it’s ‘Star Wars’ and all that.”
In an October 1981 profile of the film’s writer, Gerald Ayres, who also did Adrian Lyne’s 1980 “Foxes,” the writer says of Cukor, “He put bite and energy into it. His work survives so well because of that squeeze of lemon he puts in his films.”
James Coco and Dyan Cannon in the movie “Such Good Friends.”
(American Cinematheque)
On June 17, there will be a screening of Otto Preminger’s “Such Good Friends,” a satirical dramedy about middle-class sexual escapades starring Dyan Cannon (nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance) that featured a screenplay worked on by the likes of Joan Micklin Silver, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion with Elaine May receiving final screen credit under a pseudonym.
On the podcast, Longworth said of the film, “In the midst of a cultural moment that was obsessed with the idea of a sexual revolution but at the same time refused to acknowledge the ways in which that revolution mostly benefited men while imposing on women a whole new set of impossible standards, ‘Such Good Friends’ is the rare Hollywood movie of its time to portray the imbalance between men and women in terms of acceptable levels of desire and anger.”
A January 1972 Times profile of Preminger by Wayne Warga found the journalist tagging along to Preminger’s tastefully luxurious office on the Paramount lot (which the filmmaker would soon be losing), as well as to local TV appearances hosted by Tom Snyder and Regis Philbin. Cannon canceled a promotional tour for the film due to a dispute with Preminger and said for the record, “I have absolutely no words for him. I will come up with a word for him one day. It hasn’t been invented yet.”
Lola Falana and Roscoe Lee Browne in the 1970 movie “The Liberation of L.B. Jones.”
(American Cinematheque)
Other films in the series include Alfred Hitchcock’s 1972 “Frenzy,” Billy Wilder’s 1964 “Kiss Me, Stupid” in 35mm, Vincente Minnelli’s 1962 “Two Weeks in Another Town” in 35mm and Stanley Donen’s 1967 efforts “Two for the Road” and “Bedazzled.”
Among the most exciting titles in the series is a 35mm screening of William Wyler’s 1970 “The Liberation of L.B. Jones,” starring Roscoe Lee Browne, Lee J. Cobb, Anthony Zerbe and Lola Falana in a story of a successful Black businessman who finds his life complicated by his wife’s affair with a local white police officer.
Longworth called the film “uncompromising and unforgiving,” adding that, “‘The Liberation of L.B. Jones’ feels like Wyler leapfrogging over the ’60s entirely, skipping straight from a nostalgic cinematic universe in which nothing very bad ever happens to a ’70s of disillusionment and failed ideals.”
In a review from the time of the film’s release, Charles Champlin echoed those sentiments when he wrote the film was “unsentimental, unsparing, unforgiving, also brutal, credible, powerful, deeply disturbing and depressing and superbly well-acted. It reaffirms — not that it needed reaffirming — the immense power of the film as a social document. It will enrage as few pictures this year will enrage, and we’ll all have to hope that truth is its own purgative.”
Points of interest
‘Going Down’
A scene from the 1983 Australian film “Going Down.”
(Muscle Distribution)
The first theatrical re-release from the new company Muscle Distribution, 1983’s “Going Down” from Australian filmmaker Haydn Keenan will play in a 4K restoration on Friday and Saturday at Vidiots. The film has never had a U.S. release until now and is just the kind of off-beat, undiscovered title the current rep-revival scene is set up to embrace.
“Going Down” is similar to the early Susan Seidelman films “Smithereens” and “Desperately Seeking Susan” for the way it serves as a snapshot of a specific time and place — the clothes, the décor, the music — as well as being a portrait of a series of personalities. Capturing the early ’80s alternative scene of Sydney, the film follows four young women (played by Tracy Mann, Vera Plevnik, Julie Barry and Moira Maclaine-Cross) as they are all trying to establish their own identities and launch their lives, while also making their way across the city to find an envelope of missing money.
U.S. premiere of Chung Mong-hong’s ‘The Embers’
A scene from Taiwanese filmmaker Chung Mong-hong’s “The Embers.”
(American Cinematheque)
This weekend American Cinematheque is launching a series on the Taiwanese filmmaker Chung Mong-hong, including the U.S. premiere of his latest film “The Embers.” Aside from writing and directing all of the films in the series, Chung is also his own cinematographer. The filmmaker is scheduled to appear in person at all the shows.
Writing about him in 2022, critic Carlos Aguilar called Chung “one of the most infuriatingly underappreciated storytellers of our time.” This series should help bring his work to a broader audience.
“Parking,” from 2008, tells the story of a man trying to win back his estranged wife and is screening in 35mm. 2016’s “Godspeed” finds a cab driver mixed up with a drug dealer, while 2019’s family drama “A Sun” was Taiwan’s submission to the Academy Awards.
On Sunday, Chung will also introduce a 35mm screening of Jim Jarmusch’s 1984 “Stranger Than Paradise.”
Lars von Trier’s ‘Nymphomaniac’
Charlotte Gainsbourg and Jamie Bell in “Nymphomaniac: Volume II.”
(Christian Geisnaes / Magnolia Pictures)
On Wednesday, Brain Dead Studios will be screening both volumes of Lars von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac” combined as a single 242-minute experience. The films were released separately but both tell a continuing story, as Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) recounts to Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård) the story of her sexual awakening and ongoing struggles as a sex addict. The cast also includes Stacy Martin, Shia LeBeouf, Jamie Bell, Mia Goth, Willem Dafoe and Uma Thurman.
When the films were initially released in 2014, I reviewed both “Volume 1” and “Volume II” separately. As I said at the time, “Few other filmmakers are capable of quite the same walloping power, though the film’s digressive, chaptered style gives it an offhand quality that asks for easy dismissal. Von Trier is such a masterful filmmaker that every new project comes on with the expectation and air of a totalizing masterwork, [creating] the unsated sensation of having too much and wanting more.”
In another piece I wrote that considered the films within Von Trier’s larger body of work (noting the filmmaker’s turn toward pranksterish provocations such as his now-notorious Cannes news conference appearances), I added that with the “Nymphomaniac” films, “he further questions both himself and his audience, asking what we want from cinema and what cinema is capable of giving us back. … What the ‘Nymphomaniac’ project may represent most of all is Lars von Trier burning down his own house, clearing a path to get out of his own way. Provocative in every sense of the word, stirring the loins, the head and the heart, the cinema of Lars von Trier is not to be dismissed. And that’s no joke.”
In other news
Summer movie preview
Mia Threapleton and Benicio del Toro in director Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme.”
(TPS Productions / Focus Features)
As part of our summer preview, the LAT published an interview wth Benicio del Toro, star of “The Phoenician Scheme.” Del Toro’s unpredictable screen presence has long made him one of my favorite actors and it is exciting to see him in a lead role. Wes Anderson wrote the part specifically for Del Toro, playing a 1950s industrialist tycoon known as Anatole “Zsa-zsa” Korda.
As Del Toro said to Carlos Aguilar, the actor couldn’t quite believe what he was reading in the script pages Anderson would periodically send him. “I didn’t know if it was going to be another film like ‘The French Dispatch,’ where my character ends and then another story rolls up,” he said. “Little by little, I understood that it was the whole thing.”
Allison Williams and an animatronic M3GAN in a scene from the movie “M3GAN 2.0,” directed by Gerard Johnstone.
(Universal Pictures)
Joshua Rothkopf spoke to Adrien Morot and Kathy Tse, the creative team behind Morot FX Studio, who along with several puppeteers, technicians and 15-year-old actor Amie Donald bring the film’s unnerving robot doll to life in the upcoming “M3GAN 2.0.” (Morot and Tse also won an Oscar for their work on “The Whale.”) The doll for the new film has been altered somewhat to keep up with Donald’s own growth.
“In my naiveté, I never quite understood just how much this was basically an elevated Muppet movie,” said the film’s director Gerard Johnstone. He added, “I thought, Why are we making something that looks like a toy when these guys can make things that look human? Wouldn’t that be really fun if we went further into the uncanny valley than we’ve ever gone before? And Adrien and Kathy were the perfect people to partner up with on that.”
There is also a handy list of 18 films to look forward to this summer, including Celine Song’s “Materialists,” Eva Victor’s “Sorry, Baby,” Darren Aronofsky’s “Caught Stealing,” Danny Boyle’s “28 Years Later,” James Gunn’s “Superman,” Zach Cregger’s “Weapons,” Joseph Kosinski’s “F1,” Akiva Schaffer’s “The Naked Gun,” Michael Shanks’ “Together” and Nisha Ganatra’s “Freakier Friday.”
Pepe has soared 50x gain since April 2023 – but MIND of Pepe ($MIND) is expected to match that or go even further. It’s a new Pepe-themed meme coin with its own AI agent, bringing something completely different to market.
The project is undergoing a presale where it has raised over $9 million so far.
MIND of Pepe’s agent offers real utility, such as providing trading opportunities, launching tokens, and even engaging with followers on X. It’s because of this that the presale is generating such strong demand.
However the $MIND presale will end in just two weeks. As such, those wishing to secure the current fixed price of $0.0037515 should not wait to get involved.
MIND of Pepe could repeat Pepe’s 50X gain
When it was first listed on CoinGecko a little over two years ago, Pepe coin had a market cap of $100 million. But today, it’s worth $5 billion.
Inspired by the comic character Pepe the Frog from Matt Furie’s Boys Club, Pepe serves as both a political statement and a light-hearted beacon of humor.
Pepe coin hit the ground running in 2023, quickly securing a listing on Binance and subsequently becoming one of crypto’s most recognisable meme coins.
It’s currently the third-largest meme coin, even holding a higher valuation than President Trump’s official meme coin, OFFICIAL TRUMP.
Meme coin creators are well aware of this and so often follow the Pepe playbook, creating projects that incorporate Pepe the Frog in some way. Some of these include Book of Meme, Turbo, Brett, and AIXBT – each of these are worth well over $100 million.
Evidently, Pepe-themed tokens tend to perform well. But looking ahead, analysts are tipping MIND of Pepe as the most promising Pepe alternative.
Its agentic capabilities separate it from other Pepe-themed tokens on the market.
And since it’s currently undergoing a presale, investors can buy in from the ground floor. It could be like getting to buy Pepe in April 2023.
Analyst Umar Khan believes that MIND of Pepe will mimic Pepe’s 50x gain after it launches on exchanges, hailing it as the “best crypto to buy now.”
However, others have gone even further, with Cryptonews suggesting it has 100x potential.
MIND of Pepe’s trend analysis, token deployment capabilities
Imagine having a crypto expert who monitors price data and online chatter 24/7 to inform you where the market is moving.
It might help you catch the next 100x breakout meme coin or nudge you to take profits if the market looks frothy.
Either way, it wouldn’t just be a time saver; it could be the difference between decent bull market returns and potentially life-changing money.
This is exactly the service that the MIND of Pepe agent offers. It analyzes the market to identify trends and opportunities – and it never sleeps.
The agent will consolidate its findings into actionable insights and share these with $MIND holders.
Beyond that, it can also use data it collects to identify gaps in the market and launch its own tokens. It’s worth noting that AI agents created meme coins like Fartcoin and Goatseus Maximus, so there’s real potential for MIND of Pepe to create the next big thing.
If MIND of Pepe launches a token, it’ll give $MIND holders insider access before it promotes it on social media. This equips them with another edge in the market, helping them maximize their upside potential.
Users can also earn via the project’s staking mechanism, which is live now and currently provides a 244% APY. However, this will decrease as the staking pool grows.
Final call to buy $MIND before presale ends
The MIND of Pepe presale will end in 14 days, and then the token will list on exchanges.
Once it lists on the open market, the $MIND price will shift from fixed to a product of supply and demand. And considering the hype around Pepe and AI agents, coupled with $MIND’s innate utility, it appears that token demand will be sky high.
As such, the presale price of $0.0037515 could prove to be the lowest price that $MIND is ever available again.
Follow MIND of Pepe on X or join its Telegram for updates. Alternatively, visit its website to buy and stake tokens.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not provide financial advice. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile, and the market can be unpredictable. Always perform thorough research before making any cryptocurrency-related decisions.
May 16 (UPI) — A 27-year-old Georgia woman missing nearly three weeks in the California mountains has been found alive, according to authorities.
Tiffany Slaton of Jeffersonville was reported missing by her family on April 29 after they had not heard from her for nine days. She had gone on a solo camping trip in the Shaver Lake/Huntington Lake area on April 20.
The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that the woman was found Wednesday near Lake Edison in a cabin belonging to Vermilion Valley Resort.
According to authorities, the owner of the wilderness resort found her while inspecting the property in preparation for opening it to the public for the summer season.
Snowplows had only cleared nearby roads that day, which permitted the owner to access the property, the sheriff’s office said.
“The owner said he had left a cabin unlocked as a precaution for this exact situation, where someone who is lost could seek shelter and increase their chances of surviving the outdoor elements and harsh weather,” the sheriff’s office said.
After finding Slaton, the unnamed owner contact the sheriff’s office, and deputies drove to meet them.
Slaton was reportedly in good condition, though she was dehydrated. She was transported to a hospital for further treatment, and her family in Georgia has been notified.
“Detectives are now arranging to meet with Tiffany to learn more about her timeline of events and overall experience,” the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said.
Vermilion Valley Resort celebrated Slaton’s discovery on social media.
“We are so happy Tiffany is safe! It is amazing what she went through. It is incredible what she has accomplished,” the resort said in a statement. “We went in to open the resort, found her using our cabin and brought her down the mountain to safety.”
The sheriff’s office had launched a search for the woman, during which it was discovered that she had last been seen April 24 at a general store.
From May 6 to Saturday, the sheriff’s search-and-rescue team conducted a full-scale search of the mountains for Slaton that spanned nearly 600 square miles, it said, adding that efforts were hampered by snow.
A BELOVED clothing store that has been in business for nearly 50 years has launched a massive sale ahead of its closure.
Ginger, in Norwich, will shut for good on June 7 after the owners were forced to make an “incredibly difficult decision”.
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The family-owned business is one of Norwich’s oldestCredit: Facebook
The shop was founded by David and Rodger Kingsley in 1978 following the success of their sister company Jonathan Trumbull in 1971.
Beckie Kingsley broke the sad news on social media that her family’s shop was soon to be no more.
The store manager blamed the current economic climate and the aftermath of Covid-19 for the business’s hardship.
She said: “It’s with truly heavy hearts that, after 46 unforgettable years, we have made the incredibly difficult decision to close the doors at our beautiful, beloved and historic Timber Hill home.
“We’ve weathered many storms over the decades, but there’s been ongoing challenges of today’s financial climate – coupled with the lasting impact and huge shifts within the retail landscape since Covid.
“This led us to ask – does it still work for us? After deep reflection, the answer, sadly, is no.
“We’ve had the privilege of watching generations grow, celebrating precious life milestones, sharing joys and deepest sorrows.
“Being part of people’s stories has been beyond a privilege – more than some may ever know.
“They’ve always been more than just customers – they’ve become wonderful friends.”
Ginger is one of the city’s oldest businesses and loyal customers rushed to share their praise.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury’s hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: “The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”
Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer’s household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020.”
Supplied
