Serbian Lawmakers Approve Luxury Trump Hotel on Historic Bombing Site

© Vladimir Zivojinovic for The New York Times

© Vladimir Zivojinovic for The New York Times











One of the new Paramount ownership’s first acts has been to end the Chris Pine/Zachary Quinto series of Trek movies. But surely they can’t stop making them forever?
There have been many Star Treks over the decades. First up we had a 1960s morality play performed on cardboard sets; then it became a billion-dollar movie saga about space diplomacy. More recently we’ve been gifted an ever-expanding collection of streaming spinoffs, each one more determined than the last to prove itself the true keeper of the sacred flame. Now we have a franchise that no longer has any idea what to do with itself. According to Variety, its producer Paramount has shelved the most recent film trilogy, known unofficially as the “Kelvin-verse”, that starred Chris Pine as Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock. What comes next is anyone’s guess.
Perhaps the more pertinent question here might be whether this grand old sci-fi saga is now really suited for the big screen at all. The recent films – 2009’s Star Trek, 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness, and 2016’s Star Trek Beyond – won critical plaudits, yet were also criticised by fans for trying to turn a utopian thought experiment about empathy, cooperation and the perils of militarism into a knockabout space opera.
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© Photograph: Photo credit: Kimberley French/Paramount Pictures/Allstar

© Photograph: Photo credit: Kimberley French/Paramount Pictures/Allstar

© Photograph: Photo credit: Kimberley French/Paramount Pictures/Allstar
Dispute began with Dutch government takeover of Nexperia and China halting exports, threatening car production
The vital flow of chips from China to the car industry in Europe looks poised to resume as part of the deal struck last week between Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
The Netherlands has signalled that its standoff with Beijing is close to a resolution amid signs China’s ban on exports of the key car industry components is easing.
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© Photograph: Algi Febri Sugita/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Algi Febri Sugita/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Algi Febri Sugita/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock









Downing Street has been preparing MPs for going back on its manifesto pledge and raising income tax
If Keir Starmer’s election campaign was carrying a ming vase across an ice rink, then this budget – according to one minister – is like “wrestling a squirrel across a minefield”.
It is an allusion to the biggest risk for Rachel Reeves, not the markets or big business, but Labour MPs. It was those MPs who were the key audience for the chancellor’s highly unusual speech preparing the ground for possible income tax rises.
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© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

© Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
Howard Phillips was looking for money when he offered his services to officers who were posing as agents, judge says
A man found guilty of assisting a foreign intelligence service after handing over personal details of the then defence secretary, Grant Shapps, to two undercover officers he believed to be Russian agents has been jailed for seven years.
Howard Phillips, 66, was convicted in July after jurors heard that he had been seeking “easy money” when he offered his services to the undercover officers, known as Dima and Sasha.
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© Photograph: Metropolitan Police/PA

© Photograph: Metropolitan Police/PA

© Photograph: Metropolitan Police/PA






























