Author: Rahul M

FX One could easily make the argument that the future of an entire franchise rested on the success or failure of FX’s “Alien: Earth.” The show is a dramatic deviation from the standard storytelling format for the Alien universe. Instead of focusing on a crew of space travelers being hunted by vicious Xenomorphs — as most installments in the Alien franchise do — showrunner Noah Hawley chose to explore an Earth-based storyline that actually finds its Xenomorphs largely contained for a good portion of the season. Some fans may be…

Lucknow: Two days after the Uttar Pradesh government issued a notification prohibiting caste-based political rallies, opposition parties are exploring ways to get around it.The Samajwadi Party, for instance, has decided to rename its planned Gurjar chaupals PDA (comprising backwards, Dalits and minorities) chaupals. The Congress is planning Samajik Nyay Sammelans, while the BSP is focusing on Bahujan Samaj meetings, deliberately avoiding caste-specific terminology. Show Full Article According to SP spokesperson and organiser of the Gurjar Chaupals, Raj Kumar Bhati, “We have changed the name of our meetings from Gurjar Chaupals to PDA Chaupals for now. For our proposed rally in…

THE Election Commission has rolled out a new ‘e-sign’ feature on its ECINet portal and app, which requires those seeking to register as voters, or applying for deletion and corrections, to verify their identity using their Aadhaar-linked phone numbers.The EC move comes less than a week after Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi alleged the misuse of online voter deletion forms in Karnataka’s Aland constituency, ahead of the 2023 state Assembly polls, as part of his press conference on “electoral fraud”. Earlier, applicants could submit forms on the EC apps and portal after connecting a phone number with an existing…

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Trump administration Tuesday designated the Barrio 18 gang as a foreign terrorist organization, joining other Latin American criminal groups receiving the designation in recent months.Barrio 18, largely based in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, originated in the United States as a street gang in Los Angeles created by young Salvadoran immigrants as a way to protect themselves. When many of their members were deported from the U.S. to El Salvador, the gang expanded and gained power across Central America, where it continues to terrorize communities.In recent years, the gang has been dealt a powerful blow…

HONG KONG (AP) — Typhoon Ragasa, one of the strongest in years, whipped waves taller than lampposts onto Hong Kong promenades and halted life on the southern Chinese coast early Wednesday after leaving destruction in Taiwan and the Philippines.In Taiwan, 14 people died in flooding caused by the typhoon, and three deaths were previously reported in the Philippines. The fierce winds woke Hong Kong residents in the early hours, and many went online to describe scenes like a kitchen ventilation fan being blown down and a crane swaying.Strong winds blew away parts of a pedestrian bridge’s roof and knocked down…

ROME (AP) — Acclaimed Italian actor Claudia Cardinale, who starred in some of the most celebrated European films of the 1960s and 1970s, has died, AFP reported Tuesday. She was 87.She starred in more than 100 films and made-for-television productions, but she was best known for embodying youthful purity in Federico Fellini’s “8½,” in which she co-starred with Marcello Mastroianni in 1963.Cardinale also won praise for her role as Angelica Sedara in Luchino Visconti’s award-winning screen adaption of the historical novel “The Leopard” that same year and a reformed prostitute in Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western “Once Upon a Time in…

Paramount Pictures While “Star Trek: The Original Series” defined the pop culture landscape of the 1960s, “Star Trek: The Next Generation” helped to define 1980s pop culture with captivating Borg storylines and the commanding presence of a crew that included the friendship of Commander Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). Longtime fans have their favorite “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episodes, and that includes Stewart, who told the subreddit r/IAmA that his favorite episode is Season 5’s “The Inner Light,” which is also amongst Looper’s top picks. “It…

OpenAI is planning to build five new data centers in the United States as part of the Stargate initiative, the company announced on Tuesday. The sites, which are being developed in partnership with Oracle and SoftBank, bring Stargate’s current planned capacity to nearly 7 gigawatts—roughly the same amount of power as seven large-scale nuclear reactors.“AI is different from the internet in a lot of ways, but one of them is just how much infrastructure it takes,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said during a press briefing in Abilene, Texas on Tuesday. He argued that the US “cannot fall behind on this”…

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, in an hourlong speech before the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, attacked European allies, renewable energy and his predecessor.“I’ve been right about everything,” the president said, making and repeating a slew of misleading and false claims.Here’s a fact-check of some of his statements.What was said “In four years of President Biden, we had less than $1 trillion of new investment into the United States. In just eight months, since I took office, we have secured commitments and money already paid for $17 trillion.” This is misleading. Trump is comparing apples and oranges and appears to…

Riding on fine performances from Hussain Talat, Mohammad Nawaz and Shaheen Afridi, Pakistan registered a hard-fought five wicket-win over Sri Lanka in a low-scoring Super 4 match of Men’s T20 Asia Cup at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.   Chasing a modest total of 134 runs, Talat and Nawaz came together with Pakistan struggling at 80/5 and shared an unbeaten 58-run stand as helped their team cross the victory line with 12 balls to spare. The victory revived Pakistan’s hopes of reaching the Asia Cup 2025 final after they had suffered an embarrassing six-wicket defeat to India on…