US Business Archives - Page 461 of 902

Spielberg confronts his childhood as 'Fabelmans' premieres in Toronto

11 Sep 2022 12 Sep 2022

Steven Spielberg finally turned the camera on his own childhood — from his parents’ troubled marriage to anti-Semitic bullying — as his new movie “The Fabelmans” received its world premiere on a star-studded Saturday at the Toronto film festival.

Considered one of Hollywood’s greatest living directors, with classics from “Jaws” to “E.T.”, Spielberg told a rapturous audience how he had long wanted to make such a deeply personal movie, but had eventually been motivated by the “fear” of the pandemic.

“I don’t think anybody knew in March or April of 2020 what was going to be the state of the art, the state of life, even a year from then,” said Spielberg.

“I just felt that if I was going to leave anything behind, what was the thing that I really need to resolve and unpack about my mom and my dad and my sisters?” he said after the screening at North America’s biggest film festival.

“It wasn’t now or never, but it almost felt that way,” said the 75-year-old.

The movie — which will be released in November — is technically semi-autobiographical, following young Sammy Fabelman and his family, although the parallels to Spielberg’s own life could hardly be more clear.

Like the real Spielberg, the Fabelmans move from New Jersey to Arizona and eventually California, with Sammy falling in love with filmmaking and honing his craft as a young director with the help of willing friends and improvised camera tricks.

“It was really using glue and spit, trying to figure out how to put things together,” recalled Spielberg after the film, which recreates many of the amateur movies he made as a teenager.

“I made all the behind-the-scenes stuff in this movie much better than the actual 8mm films I shot… it was a great do-over!”

– ‘Outsider’ –

While directing and filmmaking are a source of comfort and escapism for young Sammy, the movie tackles head-on his problems at home, including within the marriage of his parents — played by Michelle Williams and Paul Dano.

Another sequence recalls anti-Semitic taunts by two bullies at his California high school — a real-life incident Spielberg said he wanted to include in the film, without placing it center stage.

“Bullying is only a small aspect of my life. Anti-semitism is an aspect of my life but it isn’t any kind of a governing force in my life,” he said.

“It made me very, very aware of being an outsider growing up.”

Before the screening, Spielberg noted that “The Fabelmans” is his first-ever film to be officially entered at a film festival, marking a coup for the Toronto event.

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), renowned for its large cinephile crowds as well as A-list stars, was hit badly by the pandemic, but this year has seen the return of packed audiences and red carpets.

– No ‘swan song’ –

Earlier on Saturday, Jennifer Lawrence drew screaming fans to the red carpet for “Causeway,” an indie drama in which she plays a wounded Army engineer struggling to recover from conflict-zone trauma back in her hometown of New Orleans.

Daniel Craig and the star-studded cast of “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” arrived in Toronto for the whodunit sequel’s premiere.

Director Rian Johnson and Craig’s gentleman sleuth Benoit Blanc return for a new case featuring Edward Norton’s shady billionaire and his wealthy friends on a private Greek island.

Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Janelle Monae and Leslie Odom Jr co-star in the second installment of a budding “Knives Out” franchise which has been taken over by Netflix.

“I’m gonna keep making these until Daniel blocks me on his phone,” joked Johnson after the premiere.

Similarly, Spielberg assured the Toronto audience that reports he could step away from Hollywood after finally making the “The Fabelmans” were wide off the mark.

“It is not because I have decided to retire and this is my swan song… don’t believe any of that!” he said.

TIFF runs until September 18.

Ethereum blockchain set for 'monumental' overhaul

11 Sep 2022 13 Sep 2022

An army of computer programmers scattered across the globe is set to attempt one of the biggest software upgrades the crypto sector has ever seen this week to reduce its environmentally unfriendly energy consumption.

Developers have spent years working on a more energy-efficient version of the ethereum blockchain, a digital ledger that underpins a multibillion dollar ecosystem of cryptocurrencies, digital tokens (NFTs), games and apps.

Ethereum — the second most important blockchain after bitcoin — burns through more power each year than New Zealand.

Experts say the changeover, expected to take place between Tuesday and Thursday, would slash energy consumption by more than 99 percent.

Enthusiasts hope a greener ethereum will spur wider adoption, particularly as a way of enabling banks to automate transactions and other processes.

But so far the technology has been used largely to create speculative financial products.

The ING bank said in a recent note that the switchover might help ethereum gain acceptability among policymakers and regulators.

“This in turn may provide a boost to traditional financial institutions’ willingness to develop ethereum-based services,” the bank said.

– ‘Technological milestone’ –

The switchover, dubbed “the merge”, will change the way transactions are logged.

At the moment, so-called crypto miners use energy-guzzling rigs of computers to solve puzzles that reward them with new coins — a system known as “proof of work”.

The new system will get rid of those miners and their computer stacks overnight.

Instead, “validators” will have to put up 32 ether (worth $55,000) — ethereum’s cryptocurrency — to participate in the new “proof of stake” system where they earn rewards for their work.

But the merge process will be risky.

Blockchain company Consensys called it a “monumental technological milestone” and the biggest update to ethereum since it was launched in 2015.

Critics have questioned whether such an upgrade will pass off without incident, given the sector’s history of instability.

Ethereum went offline in May for three hours when a new NFT project sparked a surge in buyers that overwhelmed the network.

Several exchanges and crypto companies said they would halt transactions during the merge process.

– ‘Decentralised and complicated’ –

The upgrade also faces a possible rebellion from crypto mining companies whose business will be severely damaged.

They can try to hijack the process or create a “fork”, basically a smaller blockchain that would continue with the old mechanism.

And even if the “merge” is successful, ethereum will still face major hurdles before it can be more widely adopted.

For example, it is expensive to use and the update will not reduce fees.

And the wider crypto sector is beset by wildly fluctuating prices, security flaws and an array of scams.

Crypto lawyer Charles Kerrigan from the firm CMS told AFP that ethereum was “decentralised and complicated” and had not yet been tested enough for governments and banks to get onboard.

“There have been questions about how easily it could deal with upgrades of the type that traditional software vendors provide to customers,” he said.

“A successful merge will answer those questions.”

Gas rationing risk means French yoghurt factory faces sour future

11 Sep 2022 13 Sep 2022

Tanker trucks filled with milk collected from across northern France waited in line to unload their precious cargo at one of the country’s biggest yoghurt factories on a recent morning, but this ritual is at risk as the nation considers how to cut energy use.

Like many countries, France plans to shut off businesses first if there is not enough gas or electricity, with European nations facing the prospect of energy shortages this winter following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

But energy cuts, or even mandated reductions to businesses, risk causing unexpected and surprising economic consequences, such as a halt in the production of French consumers’ beloved yoghurt.

The French are big on yoghurt, behind only the Dutch in consumption per capita. It is not only a breakfast staple, but often eaten with lunch or as a snack.

But making yoghurt is an energy-intensive process.

For Patrick Falconnier, director of the Eurial Ultra Fresh factory southeast of Paris, it’s quite simple: “No gas” means “no more yoghurt”.

The milk from the tanker trucks, after having gone through rigorous quality controls, is transferred into tanks where it is briefly heated to a high temperature to kill bacteria naturally present.

The pasteurised milk is then ready to be transformed into yoghurt or other dairy products, then kept chilled before being quickly shipped off to supermarkets.

“We’ve been told we could have gas cuts at certain periods this winter, and for us that’s really serious,” Falconnier told AFP.

If a lack of gas prevents the pasteurisation “we couldn’t take deliveries of milk, which means it won’t be collected and this will be dramatic for our farmers who will be forced to throw out their milk,” said Falconnier, who is also head of the Syndifrais association which unites 22 yoghurt manufacturers responsible for 70 percent of French production.

The impact would be quickly felt within days by consumers as supermarkets receive dairy shipments daily.

“We make products with an average shelf life of 30 days. We make them to be sold the next day,” Falconnier said.

“When I shut down a factory, I halt production and I stop sales and I can’t supply my clients,” he added.

The Eurial Ultra Fresh factory which employs 461 is part of the Agrial agricultural cooperative which has four such facilities.

About 90 percent of their output is sold under brands of major retailers, in France and several other neighbouring European countries.

– ‘Can’t handle another crisis’ –

Falconnier worries that the industry wouldn’t be able to survive such disruptions.

The pandemic saw staff worn down by high numbers of people off due to illness.

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the surge in prices of energy , packaging and fruits has added 20 percent to costs.

“We’ve been weakened. We can’t handle another crisis with factory closures. That’s just not possible,” Falconnier said.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne warned industry leaders at the end of August that energy rationing was a risk this winter and urged them to quickly cut consumption.

Government ministers have begun meeting with industrial federations on how to reduce consumption, with a target of a 10 percent drop within two years.

Falconnier says he has considered moving to methane, a gas which can be produced from the breakdown of organic matter from farms, landfills and wastewater treatment plants.

But he estimates this would take five to 10 years and sees little possibility for a quick reduction in energy use.

“We can’t make investments for a term of six months,” Falconnier said.

“To stop supplies to a factory from one day to the next, that’s shutting it down. We don’t how to manage things differently.”

'A necessity': Lebanon's forced conversion to solar

11 Sep 2022 13 Sep 2022

Thanks to solar energy, residents of the northern Lebanese village of Toula are finally able to enjoy ice cream again — a treat in a sun-baked country plagued by power cuts.

Lebanon’s economy collapsed in 2019 after decades of corruption and mismanagement, leaving the state unable to provide electricity for more than an hour or two per day.

Last winter, the mountain village of Toula barely had three hours of daily generator-driven electricity.

Solar power now helps keep the lights on for 17 hours, an engineer working on the alternative energy project said.

“For two years the kids have been asking for ice cream, now it’s finally time,” said Toula mini-market owner Jacqueline Younes, beaming.

“We are waiting for our first order of ice cream to arrive.”

While many Lebanese rely on costly generators for electricity, a growing number of homes, companies and state institutions are turning to solar — not out of environmental concern, but because it’s their only option.

Solar panels dot rooftops and parking lots, powering entire villages — and even Beirut’s only functioning traffic lights, thanks to a local NGO.

“Solar energy is no longer an alternative, it’s a necessity. If we hadn’t installed panels, the village wouldn’t have any electricity,” said engineer Elie Gereige, standing beside a sea of panels on a hilltop overlooking Toula.

Gereige is part of a team of volunteers who raised more than $100,000 from Toula expatriates to build a solar farm with 185 panels installed on church land.

They worked with the municipality to feed the village generator with solar energy, cutting down on fuel costs while powering the entire community.

– $1.4 million for power –

An hour’s drive south of Toula, a branch of Spinneys supermarket is also installing panels in the parking lot and rooftop to slash its generator bills.

“I think we will save around half of our energy costs in Jbeil due to solar panels,” said Hassan Ezzeldine, chairman of Gray Mackenzie Retail Lebanon, which owns Spinneys.

The company spends between $800,000 and $1.4 million a month on electricity for its chain of supermarkets, he said, to power generators that run on diesel round-the-clock.

“The cost of generators today is dramatic. It’s a disaster.”

His company has considered turning to solar energy for years, but after the crisis “we thought… it’s something we needed to do, and we needed to do it immediately,” he said.

Private individuals are also turning to solar to cut down on generator bills, setting up panels and batteries on balconies and rooftops.

Homemaker Zeina Sayegh installed solar power for around $6,000 for her Beirut apartment last summer, when the state lifted most petrol subsidies.

She was the only one in the building with panels.

This year, nine neighbours have joined her, covering the roof with metal bars connecting dozens of panels.

She has switched completely to solar, limiting power consumption at night. But she has non-stop electricity in the summertime — a rare luxury.

“I’m more comfortable this way. I feel I’m in control of the electricity and not the other way around,” she said.

– Expensive switch –

In a country where poverty is rampant and bank depositors with savings are locked out of their accounts, installing solar power is expensive.

Many Lebanese have resorted to selling a car, jewellery or a plot of land to finance the switch.

Before Lebanon’s economy collapsed, only a few companies offered solar power installation services.

But high demand has opened the door “for anyone to start selling solar systems”, said Antoine Skayem of solar power company Free Energy.

Demand from cash-strapped municipalities has soared, he said.

But they are vulnerable to political meddling and patronage.

Russia 'regroups' troops in east as Ukraine advances

11 Sep 2022 12 Sep 2022

Russia said it was pulling back troops from the eastern Kharkiv region of Ukraine as Kyiv announced massive territorial gains in its lightning counter-offensive.

A Moscow-backed separatist leader in the east meanwhile said Russian forces were fighting “difficult” battles against Kyiv’s troops in several parts of eastern Donetsk region.

A Ukrainian official also said Kyiv’s troops were closing in on the eastern city of Lysychansk, captured by Russian troops after fierce artillery battles in July.

Moscow’s announcement late Saturday of the pullback alongside Kyiv’s claim to have entered the town of Kupiansk are the most significant shifts in battlefield dynamics after months of fighting in eastern Ukraine that has been dominated by Moscow.

“A decision was made to regroup Russian troops stationed in the Balakliya and Izyum regions to bolster efforts along the Donetsk front,” Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement.

News of the drawdown came just after Ukrainian special forces published images on social media showing camouflage-clad officers with automatic weapons “in Kupiansk”, a town of about 27,000 people.

Ukrainian troops had also liberated Vasylenkovo and Artemivka in Kharkiv region, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on Saturday.

“These last days, the Russian army has shown us its best (side) — its back,” he said. “There is no place in Ukraine for the occupiers. There never will be,” he added.

Separately speaking to the annual Yalta European Strategy forum, Zelensky said Russia “is doing everything to break the resistance of Ukraine, Europe and the world during the 90 days of this (coming) winter”, counting on an eventual weakening of Western support for Kyiv due to rising energy prices and heating problems.

“It’s their final argument,” he said.

Observers expect Ukrainian forces to make further gains in the Kharkiv region, which borders Russia and has been either controlled by Moscow-backed authorities or shelled by its artillery for months.

– ‘Astonishing’ advance –

There was no official confirmation that Kyiv’s troops had also routed Russian forces from Izyum — an important staging ground for Moscow’s war effort with a population of around 45,000 people before the invasion.

But images flooding social media appeared to show Ukrainian forces within the city and Russian observers of the conflict said there were initial reports Moscow’s army had already withdrawn.

“Ukrainian troops are advancing in eastern Ukraine, liberating more cities and villages. Their courage coupled with Western military support brings astonishing results,” said foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko.

“It’s crucial to keep sending arms to Ukraine. Defeating Russia on the battlefield means winning peace in Ukraine,” he added.

Ukraine’s push appears to have caught Russian troops largely off guard.

State media on Friday published footage of Russian tanks, artillery and support vehicles moving towards Kharkiv in columns on dirt roads — a bid to dispatch reinforcements to the region.

But a day later, Russia announced a three-day operation to redeploy forces, moving away from Kharkiv to the industrial Donbas region further south.

– Houses gutted –

The capture of urban hubs like Kupiansk and Izyum would be a serious blow to Moscow’s ability to resupply its positions on the eastern frontline, and could see Russia’s hold over the east severely diminished.

In one village captured by the advancing Ukrainians, electric pylons were toppled, cables lay across the ground and houses were gutted, AFP journalists reported.

On the road towards the recaptured town of Balakliya, the journalists saw abandoned Russian armour painted with the letter “Z” — a symbol of Russia’s invasion.

Ukrainian troops were also advancing along portions of the southern front line, a spokesperson said Saturday, in some regions by dozens of kilometres, into territory captured by Russian troops at the beginning of the invasion.

Russian news agencies reported six large explosions in Nova Kakhovka, a town held by Russian troops in the southern Kherson region.

In the eastern Donetsk region, rebel leader Denis Pushilin said the situation in the town of Lyman was “very difficult” and that there was also fighting in “a number of other localities”, particularly in the northern part of the region.

– German pledge –

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock arrived in the Ukrainian capital on Saturday for a surprise visit, which she said was to demonstrate Berlin’s support for Ukraine.

It came a week after Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal’s trip to Berlin where he repeated Kyiv’s call for weapons.

Baerbock pledged continued “deliveries of weapons, and with humanitarian and financial support”.

Over recent weeks Germany has sent an array of arms to Kyiv, supplementing other Western-supplied weapons that observers say have hurt Russia’s supply and command abilities.

Baerbock’s visit follows one by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during which he promised a nearly $3 billion military package for Ukraine.

Shmyhal on Saturday also criticised a “passive attitude” by the International Monetary Fund towards Ukraine’s request for aid to help its economy, which has been badly hit by the Russian invasion.

He spoke at the Yalta forum, where Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also said India had “benefited from our sacrifices” because of Western sanctions on Russian oil.

India has the chance to buy Russian oil at “a very low price” because “someone dies in Ukraine and someone in Europe applies sanctions”, Kuleba said

However, Russian forces were still inflicting serious damage with a campaign of shelling in Kharkiv city and the industrial region of Donbas in the east.

Russian shelling on Saturday on Kharkiv city’s Kholodnogirskiy district had left at least one person dead and two injured, the head of the region, Oleg Synegubov, said.

Earlier, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk region, which is part of Donbas, said Russian shelling had left two dead.

Concerns have also been rising in recent days over fresh shelling near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the south of the country.

Standing ovation as Harrison Ford presents new 'Indiana Jones' at Disney expo

11 Sep 2022 12 Sep 2022

An emotional Harrison Ford on Thursday unveiled a new trailer for the highly anticipated fifth “Indiana Jones” film on the second day of Disney’s biennial D23 Expo, choking up as he described the movie as “fantastic.”

Thousands of fans from around the world flocked to the entertainment giant’s biggest party held in Anaheim, California, to see their favorite characters brought to life and watch the first images of long-awaited movies and series.

The second day of the expo began with a preview of what Disney, Lucasfilm, Marvel and 20th Century Studios have in store for the coming months.

Eighty-year-old Ford received a standing ovation from some 6,000 attendees as he presented a teaser for the new “Indiana Jones” film, which also stars Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

“I’m very proud to say that this one is fantastic,” said Ford, choking back tears.

“And this is one of the reasons,” he added, pointing at Waller-Bridge.

“Keeping up with this guy is exhausting,” replied the British actress.

– ‘Very exciting’ –

Lucasfilm unveiled a teaser trailer for its popular space western series “The Mandalorian,” with actors Pedro Pascal, Giancarlo Esposito and Katee Sackhoff received warmly by the audience.

Another highlight was a trailer for the upcoming “Star Wars” series “Andor,” a “Rogue One” spinoff based on adventures of rebel spy character Cassian Andor, played by Diego Luna.

Mexico’s Luna, also an executive producer on the project, addressed the audience in Spanish, to applause.

Other teasers featured Jude Law in “Skeleton Crew,” Christian Slater in “Willow” and Jon Favreau in “Ahsoka.”

There were also previews of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” premiering in 2023, with an all-star cast that includes Paul Rudd, Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Douglas and Bill Murray, as well as of the Halloween special “Werewolf by Night,” starring Gael Garcia Bernal.

Marvel Studios pulled the curtain back on the second season of the series “Loki,” starring Tom Hiddleston, who flew in from Britain, where the episodes are being filmed, to attend the expo.

Fans also got a snapshot of “The Marvels,” starring Brie Larson, as well as a teaser for “Thunderbolts,” featuring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Florence Pugh.

Finally, with the help of 3D glasses, attendees got to immerse themselves in the world of “Avatar: The Way of Water,” the long-awaited sequel to James Cameron’s “Avatar.”

“I wasn’t expecting this,” said Peter Farrow, who traveled to Anaheim from San Francisco.

“I got here at five in the morning today and even with high expectations I didn’t expect this, it’s very exciting.”

– ‘We all accept each other’ –

The festivities began Friday at the vast Anaheim Convention Center.

Celebrating its centennial, Disney said it will include “100 Years of Wonder” in its logo and introduced fans to Disney100: The Exhibition, which tells the story of the company founded in October 1923 by Walt Disney and his brother Roy Disney.

A prominent part of the exhibition: the Mickey Mouse One, an aircraft that belonged to Walt Disney himself.

Thousands of fans of “the happiest place on Earth” lined up early to get a taste of all on offer.

Princesses and Peter Pan, witches, storm troopers and an array of fantastical creatures filled the halls as the Expo — normally held every two years but canceled last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic — returned.

“Feels like I’ve got to get emotional, because I’ve been so looking forward to come back,” said actor Allen Waiserman, who arrived on opening day disguised as Cinderella’s wicked stepmother.

Waiserman said he had worked for months on his outfit, and the transformation on Friday took five hours.

“It’s not just about the Disney brand anymore. It’s about all the fans that we’ve met, who become like family for us — who accept you for whoever you are,” he said.

“All of my friends here accept me for being dressed in drag,” he added.

“We’re just so happy to be back together.”

D23 runs through Sunday.