Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger vowed to make its streaming services profitable via a planned October price hike on its ad-free Disney+ and Hulu plans and a crackdown on password sharing expected to extend through next year

By Jack Queen ATLANTA Rudy Giuliani, who served as Donald Trump's personal lawyer, said he was traveling to

By Steven Scheer JERUSALEM Israeli stock and bond prices slid and many businesses were closed on Sunday, a

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel to Beijing later this week as part of ongoing efforts by the Biden administration to deepen communication between the US and China after what has been a particularly fraught and unstable time, the Treasury Department announced Sunday evening.

The director of the controversial Jennifer Lawrence comedy No Hard Feelings has addressed the criticism aimed at the film, and given a pretty clear response. Gene Stupnitsky has spoken about the age gap between the two main characters, which has attracted some backlash on social media. The sex comedy movie was released earlier this year and has now found a new audience after landing on Netflix. The film focuses on Lawrence's character Maddie who discovers a lucrative job for the summer; dating an introverted 19-year-old, Percy – played by Andrew Barth Feldman, before he goes to college. Social media users have criticised the age gap between the characters – but Stupnitsky shut down the backlash in a series of interviews. The filmmaker spoke about another of Lawrence’s movies, Silver Linings Playbook, which features a similar age gap between the characters played by Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. Speaking at the film premiere in New York, Stupnitsky said: “It goes the other way too. We took great pains to be careful about the ick factor because it could go that way... We took a humanist approach and I think that's all you can ask for." Feldman also spoke during an interview with Vanity Fair, saying: "Because what is a comedy if it’s not at least a little controversial?" He added: "But Percy is an adult. I am an adult, and this is a cringe comedy. It should make you uncomfortable. I’m disinterested in a movie, and specifically a comedy, about people who are perfect and make the right decisions all the time.” He went on to say: "[We were so thoughtful about it throughout. Constantly, every day talking about what it meant and how it would manifest in a truthful way. "And I think people are going to be surprised with not just how funny it turns out to be, and how uncomfortable it maybe makes them, but also how beautiful this relationship is and how heartfelt it is." It comes after Lawrence has left viewers of her new film No Hard Feelings stunned by a fight scene on a beach in the new film where the Oscar-winning Hollywood A-lister is completely naked. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings

European delegates staged a walkout at an international cooperation forum hosted by China – as Vladimir Putin was set to begin speaking. The Russian president arrived in China as a guest at Beijing’s third installment of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – Beijing’s multibillion-dollar infrastructure project aimed at increasing the country’s global standing by connecting China to other parts of the world through road, train, and port project investments. Chinese president Xi Jinping opened the ceremony in the presence of several world leaders and more than 1,000 delegates at the Great Hall of the People, west of Tiananmen Square, and shared the stage with Mr Putin who made the rare trip outside Russia despite his nation’s . But he was boycotted by some European delegates, including former French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, underscoring the growing geopolitical divide in Europe and the West. Videos from the event showed Mr Raffarin and other delegates walking out from the halls as Mr Putin was set to deliver his remarks after Mr Xi. Other footage from the visit showed Mr Putin accompanied by his aides carrying the so-called nuclear briefcase which can be used to order a nuclear strike. Surrounded by security, Mr Putin was followed by two Russian naval officers in uniform each carrying a briefcase – known as Cheget – that can transmit nuclear strike launch orders to the central military command. Mr Putin and Mr Xi spoke out against the West in their speeches as the two leaders underscored their close relationship amid Russia’s international isolation over the Ukraine war. “Ideological confrontation, geopolitical rivalry and bloc politics are not the choice for us, but we stand against economic sanctions, economic coercions, and decoupling and supply chain disruptions,” Mr Xi said Mr Xi pushed against Western efforts to reduce dependence on the Chinese economy, saying that, "our lives will not be better and our development will not be faster if we view the development of others as a threat and economic interdependence as a risk”. Mr Putin, who attended the ceremony along with foreign leaders and key Chinese officials from the 25-member Politburo, praised Mr Xi for the success of BRI projects. "When we start something big, we expect that it will be successful. But undertsanding the global scale, it is hard to expect everything will be well," he said. "But our Chinese friends did it," he said. The Kremlin leader called Mr Xi his “dear friend” as he spoke on his only second known trip outside the former Soviet Union since the Ukraine war. He insisted that Moscow can play a key role in China‘s modern-day revival of the ancient Silk Road and invited states to participate in the Northern Sea Route, which is ambitious Russian Arctic maritime transport artery running from of Russia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to Norway and to the Bering Strait near Alaska. "Starting next year, navigation for ice-class cargo ships along the entire length of the Northern Sea Route will become year-round,” he said. The two leaders held bilateral talks and touted “close political coordination” to safeguard international “justice”. "In the current difficult conditions, close foreign policy coordination is especially necessary - which is what we are doing, and today we will also discuss all of this," Mr Putin told Mr Xi. Mr Putin held several bilateral talks on the sidelines of the summit, including with Indonesian, Vietnamese, and Pakistani leaders. He took part in an official family photo ceremony with heads of delegations at the summit. Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orban held talks with Mr Putin and was pictured shaking hands with him – becoming the first western leader to share stage with him since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against the Russian president for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Mr Orban said the meeting was a bid to “save everything that is possible from our bilateral contacts” and that that Hungary “never wanted to confront Russia”. “We are interested in supporting this co-operation not only at the level of communication but also at the economic level,” Mr Orban said. Hungary, which is dependent on Moscow for it’s 80 per cent of gas trade, has faced criticism from the bloc members for aligning with Mr Putin’s interests, especially through his delays in imposing sanctions, refusal to provide military aid to Kyiv, and objections to its EU accession amid the war. Read More Putin arrives in China on rare trip abroad to meet ‘dear friend’ Xi Jinping Ukraine-Russia war – live: Putin’s forces suffer blow as Kyiv fires US ATACMS missiles for first time Russia threatens US with ‘serious consequences’ after Ukraine fires first long-range ATACMS missiles The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary

It ain’t the Olympics, but a group of Floridians plan to host competitions themed according to the collective antics of the beer-loving, gator-possessing, rap-sheet heavy, mullet-wearing social media phenomenon known as “Florida Man.”

Prior to Sunday's revelation of the miscarriage, Jade Roper and Tanner Tolbert had not disclosed Jade's pregnancy

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 3, 2023--

The same conservative activists who helped gut race-related college admissions at the US Supreme Court have now set

NATO has extended the mandate of Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg for another year

Janet Gardner is working a part-time job at a dental practice, which enables her to keep writing music