George Clooney and wife to help 3,000 Syrian children in Lebanon

George and Amal Clooney

UNITED NATIONS: George and Amal Clooney plan to help nearly 3,000 Syrian refugee children go to school this year in Lebanon, where the United Nations says around 200,000 Syrian refugee children are out of education.

More than one million Syrians -- including over 500,000 children -- are registered as refugees in Lebanon after fleeing the devastating war that has lasted more than six years in neighboring Syria.

UNICEF said Monday that close to 200,000 Syrian refugee children in Lebanon are out of school. Human Rights Watch estimates the number at more than 250,000.

The nearly 3,000 Syrian children´s education will be funded through a $2.25 million partnership announced by The Clooney Foundation for Justice with Google, in addition to a $1 million technology grant from HP.

The partnership with UNICEF will help seven public schools educate the students, who are not currently in school, and will support a pilot of technology tools in these schools for refugee and Lebanese children, the Clooneys said.

"Thousands of young Syrian refugees are at risk -- the risk of never being a productive part of society. Formal education can help change that," the couple said in a statement.

"We don´t want to lose an entire generation because they had the bad luck of being born in the wrong place at the wrong time," they added.

More than 330,000 people have been killed in Syria since war broke out in March 2011 with anti-government protests that have evolved into a complex proxy war.

The Clooneys welcomed their first children -- a twin boy and girl -- in Britain last month. Amal Clooney, a prominent British-Lebanese human rights lawyer, married her Hollywood movie star husband in 2014.

'Dunkirk' stays on top of box office

World War II epic "Dunkirk" stayed at the top of the North American box office for the second straight weekend, industry data showed Monday.

Directed by Briton Christopher Nolan, critically acclaimed "Dunkirk" took in another $26.6 million, according to box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

It stars singer Harry Styles in the retelling of the storied 1940 evacuation of hundreds of thousands of Allied troops from a beach in northern France under constant German bombardment.

Debuting in second place with $24.5 million in revenue was "The Emoji Movie," an animated flick about a world inside a cell phone that is populated by emojis.

A chipper one named Gene is embarrassed that he has an expressive face and sets off an adventure to become like all the others -- with just one look to his or her mug.

Falling from second last week to third is raunchy comedy "Girls Trip" starring Queen Latifah, Regina Hall, Jada Pinkett Smith and Tiffany Haddish, which posted a haul of $19.6 million.

Another debut movie, action flick "Atomic Blonde" starring Charlize Theron in the role of agent Lorraine Broughton, took in $18.3 million as it grabbed fourth place.

Fifth went to "Spider-Man: Homecoming," which pulled in $13.3 million.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

"War For the Planet of the Apes" ($10.5 million)

"Despicable Me 3" ($7.6 million)

"Valerian" ($6.4 million)

"Baby Driver" ($4 million)

"Wonder Woman" ($3.3 million)

Spotify builds streaming lead at 60 million subscribers

Spotify said Monday that it had 60 million paying subscribers, expanding its lead in the fast-growing world of music streaming.

The Swedish company has more than double the base of nearest competitor Apple Music, which in early June said it had 27 million subscribers.

Apple Music, however, achieved its growth rapidly as it was launched only two years ago by the tech giant.

Spotify -- started in 2008 and available in 60 countries -- gave the figure in its first update since March, when it had announced that it had 50 million subscribers.

The company said in June that it had more than 140 million overall users -- meaning most people listen on its free, advertising-backed tier, which is controversial with many artists.

The next competitor to Spotify is Paris-based Deezer, which is especially strong in continental Europe and said in January 2016 that it had six million paying subscribers.

Other streaming sites include rap mogul Jay-Z's Tidal, a service launched last year by retail giant Amazon and early streaming site Rhapsody, which has rebranded itself as Napster.

Most music industry watchers expect streaming to keep growing sharply, with the subscriber numbers a small fraction of the potential global market.

Streaming has helped the music business chart two years of bumper growth after long stagnation, although artists often question how much of the money comes back to them.

HBO says data hacked, media says 'Game of Thrones' targeted

US cable channel HBO said on Monday that hackers had stolen upcoming programming, and Entertainment Weekly reported that the theft included a script for an unaired episode of the hit fantasy show "Game of Thrones."

HBO, a unit of Time-Warner Inc, declined to comment on the specific programming stolen in the hack.

"As most of you have probably heard by now, there has been a cyber incident directed at the company which has resulted in some stolen proprietary information, including some of our programming," HBO Chairman Richard Plepler wrote in a message to employees, which the company shared with reporters.

The company declined to comment on reports that unbroadcast episodes and scripts were among the data hacked, citing an "ongoing investigation" by unspecified law enforcement officials.

Entertainment Weekly reported that hackers stole 1.5 terabytes of data and had already posted online unbroadcast episodes of "Ballers" and "Room 104," along with "a script or treatment" for next week's episode of "Game of Thrones."

Reuters also received an e-mail on Sunday from a person claiming to have stolen HBO data, including "Game of Thrones."

The show is now in its seventh season and due to wrap up next year.

Angelina Jolie 'upset' over backlash to Cambodia film casting process

US Actor and UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie attends a conference at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 15, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

 

LOS ANGELES: Angelina Jolie responded to growing backlash over the casting process for her latest film, saying she was "upset" that an improvised scene during auditions had been misconstrued as taking real money away from impoverished children.

In a Vanity Fair interview published last week about her film First They Killed My Father, Jolie described a game played by the casting directors with the young Cambodian children auditioning for the lead role of Loung Ung.

Jolie – a special envoy for the United Nations refugee agency – told Vanity Fair she looked for her lead star in orphanages, circuses, and slum schools.

In the casting, a child was placed in front of money on a table, asked to think of what they needed it for and to snatch it away. Jolie would then pretend to catch them, and the child would have to lie about why they stole the money.

"I am upset that a pretend exercise in an improvisation, from an actual scene in the film, has been written about as if it was a real scenario," Jolie – who directed the film – said in a statement on Sunday.

"The suggestion that real money was taken from a child during an audition is false and upsetting. I would be outraged myself if this had happened."

Users on social media slammed Jolie's casting game as cruel and exploiting impoverished children. Vanity Fair reporter Evgenia Peretz called the casting game "disturbing in its realism" in the profile, while Kayla Cobb at pop culture website Decider.com compared the game to a psychological thriller.

"Everyone should know better than to literally dangle money in front of impoverished children … no movie is worth psychologically traumatizing multiple children," Cobb wrote.

First They Killed My Father is about the 1970s Khmer Rouge regime, under which more than a million people died. It is due to be released globally and on Netflix in September.

Jolie said the young girl who won the part, Srey Moch, was chosen after "she became overwhelmed with emotion" when forced to give the money back, saying she needed the money to pay for her grandfather's funeral.

"The children were not tricked or entrapped, as some have suggested," Rithy Panh, a Cambodian producer on the film, said in a statement. They understood very well that this was acting, and make believe."

Kareena Kapoor looks like ray of sunshine in surreal London shoot

Bollywood A-lister and full time mommy now-a-days, Kareena Kapoor has always the spotlight shining on her one way or another. From her pregnancy days to post baby appearances, the diva has been making continuous headlines.

Recently, the Bollywood actress had a stunning photoshoot in London.

The actress looks nothing short of a ray of sunshine on a wintry morning in a Belle-inspired yellow dress and long wavy locks. 

Online search trends witness change after '13 Reasons Why' aired: study

source: ABC

Online searches about suicide and suicidal methods soared in the weeks following the release of controversial Netflix drama "13 Reasons Why," about a teenage girl who killed herself, US researchers said Monday.

While the report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine did not examine whether the number of actual suicides rose following the popular drama's release, researchers said the spike in internet searches is cause for concern.

Overall, suicide-related queries were 19 per cent higher than expected following the show, said the research letter in JAMA.

"There were between 900,000 and 1,500,000 more suicide-related searches than expected during the 19 days following the series' release," said study co-author Mark Dredze, a professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University.

Phrases like "how to commit suicide" rose 26pc, "commit suicide" was up 18pc and "how to kill yourself" increased nine pc.

On the flip side, searches for phrases like "suicide hotline" were up 12pc, and "suicide prevention" rose 23pc.

"While it's heartening that the series' release concurred with increased awareness of suicide and suicide prevention, like those searching for "suicide prevention," our results back up the worst fears of the show's critics," said lead author John Ayers, research professor at San Diego State University Graduate School of Public Health.

"The show may have inspired many to act on their suicidal thoughts by seeking out information on how to commit suicide."

Supporters have praised the drama - in which a friend listens to a series of audio-cassette journals left behind by the deceased girl - for its frank portrayal of adolescent struggles.

Critics say the show did not provide enough referrals to suicide prevention resources for people who may be at risk, and depicted a suicide in graphic detail during the final episode.

Researchers analyzed Google trends for searches originating inside the United States between March 31, 2017 - the day the series was released - and April 18.

They stopped their analysis then because former National Football League player Aaron Hernandez's suicide on April 19 might have influenced the trends.

For comparison, researchers used the period between January to March, prior to the show's release, to determine the typically expected volumes for these words and phrases.

Previous research has shown that "suicide search trends are correlated with actual suicides," and that "media coverage of suicides concur with increased suicide attempts," said the letter in JAMA.

Researchers urged the series' creators to add suicide prevention hotline numbers to old episodes, which are still available online.

They should also follow the World Health Organization's media guidelines for preventing suicide, "such as removing scenes showing suicide."