#thoughts and prayer for fabio

[nyehhh-hh]

Do you ever just

[toni-peperoni]

Fabio: I'm staying with Yamaha, any thoughts?

Marc: And prayers, you will need them

[apr1lias]

Thoughts and prayers to all the fellow Fabio fans out there because they could not pay me 12 million to WATCH them ride around at a snail’s pace let alone pay HIM to stay like???

[godegaard]

Fabio going on loan so please extend your thoughts and prayers to martinelli during these trying times

[amicidomenicani]

Question Dear Father Angelo, I am writing to you at the beginning of this Lenten season to share some thoughts on the rite that helps me most to contemplate Christ's passion: the Via Crucis (Stations of the Cross). To better explain how I approach this pious practice, I will describe how it is carried out in my small parish: first of all we carry it out only on Fridays during Lent, with the Priest who leads the function from the seat and a lector, usually me, who announces from the ambon the biblical passages along with relevant comments; the cross that is carried through the  stations is a special cross that has depicted the instruments of Christ's torture; at the end of the rite we sing together and the Priest gives the blessing holding a stauroteca in his hand. Now what I notice is that, during the Via Crucis, I can meditate on the events of Jesus' passion in a much deeper way than with other prayers; even more than the Rosary which is the perfect prayer of contemplation. In particular, during the singing of the verses of the Stabat Mater I am really moved and I am pervaded by a state of sadness which I try to control at least in order to be able to keep reading the biblical passage of the next station. What I ask you is if these feelings are appropriate, above all in relation to the fact that I don't feel such intensity even during the consecration of the Eucharistic in which Christ's sacrifice is real and present and not only with personal thoughts; in essence, I ask you which state of mind is best to maintain. Another question: should we pay either dulia or latreutical worship to the remains of the Vera Croce (True Cross) in the staurotech? (Considering that in the parish, either there aren’t or I have not found the authentication of that relic). Thank you again for the work you do and I wish you a happy Easter in the hope that the wish will reach you in time. I’ll remember you while praying the Rosary and I greet you. Fabio Answer from the priest Dear Fabio, 1. I am not at all surprised that the celebration of the Via Crucis and above all the singing of the Stabat Mater can move you to tears. The preciousness of the so-called popular devotions (the Via Crucis is among them) lies precisely in a deep involvement of the emotional aspect. Now the emotional aspect has its importance, because it helps to pray more willingly and with greater zeal. 2. The Catechism of the Catholic Church observes: “Besides sacramental liturgy and sacramentals, catechesis must take into account the forms of piety and popular devotions among the faithful. The religious sense of the Christian people has always found expression in various forms of piety surrounding the Church's sacramental life, such as the veneration of relics, visits to sanctuaries, pilgrimages, processions, the stations of the cross, religious dances, the rosary, medals, etc.” (CCC 1674). 3. I’d like to report to you what the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy, published by the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (2002), writes about the Via Crucis: “Of all the pious exercises connected with the veneration of the Cross, none is more popular among the faithful than the Via Crucis. Through this pious exercise, the faithful movingly follow the final earthly journey of Christ: from the Mount of Olives, where the Lord, "in a small estate called Gethsemane" (Mk 14, 32), was taken by anguish (cf. Lk 22, 44), to Calvary where he was crucified between two thieves (cf. Lk 23, 33), to the garden where he was placed in freshly hewn tomb (John 19, 40-42)" (n. 131). 4. “The love of the Christian faithful for this devotion is amply attested by the numerous Via Crucis erected in so many churches, shrines, cloisters, in the countryside, and on mountain pathways where the various stations are very evocative” (n. 131). 5. “The Via Crucis is a synthesis of various devotions that have arisen since the

high middle ages: the pilgrimage to the Holy Land during which the faithful devoutly visit the places associated with the Lord's Passion; devotion to the three falls of Christ under the weight of the Cross; devotion to "the dolorous journey of Christ" which consisted in processing from one church to another in memory of Christ's Passion; devotion to the stations of Christ, those places where Christ stopped on his journey to Calvary because obliged to do so by his executioners or exhausted by fatigue, or because moved by compassion to dialogue with those who were present at his Passion” (n. 132). 6. “In its present form, the Via Crucis, widely promoted by St. Leonardo da Porto Maurizio (+1751), was approved by the Apostolic See and indulgenced(137), consists of fourteen stations since the middle of seventeenth century. (n.132). 7. “The Via Crucis is a journey made in the Holy Spirit, that divine fire which burned in the heart of Jesus (cf. Lk 12, 49-50) and brought him to Calvary. This is a journey well esteemed by the Church since it has retained a living memory of the words and gestures of the final earthly days of her Spouse and Lord”. (n. 133).  8. “In the Via Crucis, various strands of Christian piety coalesce: the idea of life being a journey or pilgrimage; as a passage from earthly exile to our true home in Heaven; the deep desire to be conformed to the Passion of Christ; the demands of following Christ, which imply that his disciples must follow behind the Master, daily carrying their own crosses (cf Lk 9, 23). The Via Crucis is a particularly apt pious exercise for Lent”. (n. 133). 9. About the last question: worship is reserved only to God. Therefore it can only be given to the Most Holy Trinity, to the individual divine Persons, to Christ, also present in the Eucharist. To the relics of the Cross and to all the other relics that remind us of the Savior, to the images of him, such as those of the Most Holy Trinity, the Crucifix is ​​given a relative adoration, which is directed to the represented person. This is also the meaning of the adoration of the cross which takes place in the liturgy of Good Friday. Thank you for the Easter wishes which I cordially reciprocate. I remember you to the Lord and bless you. Father Angelo

[lost-between-letters]

The Deal

Pairing: Crowley X Werewolf!SingleParent!Reader (she/her)

Requested by: anon

Word Count: 2,570

Warnings: demon deals, mentions of raw meat, werewolf transformation

Summary: in her desperation, Y/N summoned a demon to carve out a life worth living for her son and herself. She didn't expect him to stick around. Six firsts of their relationship

A/N: I grouped two requests together for this because the prompts fit, I hope that was alright

The first meeting

The flames burned higher than Y/N expected. She started the incantation and fell back on her heels before the fire could lick her face.

While Y/N was reading from the torn paper in her hand, a baby's cry pierced the night air. At last, she closed with a one worded prayer - although this was not the right direction to work into. "Please."

"What can I do for you, Love?"

The man was straightening his cuffs and staring down at her, a business smile on his face.

"Jesus Christ." The curse had slipped past her lips without a thought.

Y/N had figured that a demon would be taller. And more intimidating. She hadn't expected the black suit and glinting eyes with humour dancing in them.

Certainly not him laughing outright. "Quite the opposite, Love. The name's Crowley. But we're not here to talk about religious problems, are we?"

"Uh, no." The friendliness made it even creepier. Y/N felt how clammy her hands were and wiped them off on her jeans.

The baby cried again. It was a heartbreaking noise, a child's call for his mother. And Y/N wanted to wrap him up in the safety of her arms, bury her head in his little neck and promise him a good home. But in order to do that, she would have to seal a deal first.

She raised her chin high and got back up. Being confident was the key now. "I need a place for Fabio and me to live. Safe for us as werewolves and people around."

"And that's everything?" Crowley asked, a schooled expression on his face.

The uncanny feeling that he wouldn't care less if she dropped dead right in front of him drove a shiver down Y/N's back. She had to fight the urge to curl over Fabio and protect him with her body. "Yes. Ten years with my son, protection for the rest of both of our lives and then you get my soul."

"What a sweet deal," Crowley said and clapped his hands in business, "I know the perfect place for you two."

The first home made dinner

Y/N was neck deep in the cupboard while Fabio was wailing in his baby chair. The oregano had been pushed to the very back; she had been trying to retrieve it for the last few frustrating minutes.

And Fabio was hungry. His voice got shriller and shriller and Y/N wanted nothing more than to clamp her hands over her ears and curl into a ball on the ground.

Five days of take out and formula for both of them. Not a moment of peace since they moved into the apartment; there had to be downsides in a demon sponsored building Y/N figured.

"What is it with this child and screaming?"

Y/N froze.

The door had been locked when she had checked it twenty minutes ago. No one was in the apartment aside from her and her son.

Fabio stopped screaming abruptly right as Crowley kept talking. But not with her. "Do you enjoy giving people a headache? Your mum sold her soul for you, I'd be a little more considering."

"What did you do to my son." It wasn't a question. It was a threat.

Y/N turned around, ready to stab the demon with the kitchen knife when she caught sight of Fabio. He was happily suckling on a bland cookie. It was ridiculously big in his hands.

"What you obviously were trying to do." Crowley held up a box full of the same cookies, "Fed him. Now would you get on with the pasta? Your noodle water should be boiling by now."

"I- okay."

It simply did not occur to her to not listen to him. Only when she was cutting up the herbs and mixing them with the tomatoes, Y/N turned to the demon leaning against the refrigerator. "What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like?" Crowley asked and threw his hands up as if it was supposed to be obvious.

It was absolutely not obvious. Unless-

"The deal is non negotiable," she stated firmly and hid her shaking hands in her back pockets, "ten years and not a day earlier."

Oddly enough, Crowley merely rolled his eyes. "Calm down Love, I'm a demon of my word. I came to see if you got adjusted just fine. Judging by your horrendous hair and sweet smelling kitchen it's a nice balance of stressed and getting to it, am I right?"

He was. Y/N didn't know if that was unsettling or straight out creepy. But he was being polite about it and technically the owner of her soul so it wasn't like she could just throw him out.

"Would you like to stay for dinner?"

The first full moon

Every werewolf felt the moon coming. They didn't need the calenders to tell them when to get ready, their bones were telling them just fine.

So when the time came around, Y/N locked her front door, the windows and every other way out of the apartment she could squeeze through. Human flesh was out of the equation and to make sure of that, she had to keep the both of them inside these four walls.

The sun was setting when she curled herself around her son on the sofa.

It surpassed the horizon when Crowley walked out of the kitchen, hands full. "Thought I'd bring you two a nice little snack."

Surprisingly enough, her pack instincts did not immediately scream danger. Usually, whenever someone even attempted to get near Fabio on the day of the full moon, Y/N had to use all of her self control to not claw their face of. Not with Crowley.

He stepped into the room fully - none the wiser of Y/N musings whether this was owed to the fact that he could easily overpower her or rather that he was here half the time - and handed her the plate full of raw meat.

"Thank you." her fangs were coming in so the words were a bit muffled.

Crowley nodded in acknowledgement and claimed the armchair he favoured whenever he visited. Against everything Y/N had expected, this was a quite frequent occurence. Not in any discernable rhythm but at least once a week Y/N could count on the King of Hell visiting.

"Are you planning on staying the full night?" She asked and bit down on the first piece of meat. Cow.

While she was chewing Crowley considered. "Let's see where the night takes us. Isn't like you two puppies could do me any harm."

"Sounds like a challenge," Y/N mumbled around the meat and reached down to feed a few pieces of it to a whining Fabio. The first few changes were the worst; she remembered them in graphic detail. Luckily Fabio wouldn't have to.

Crowley snorted. "Maybe another time when your pup isn't too small to be taken along."

Fabio was walking wobbly, his tiny hand clutching hers tightly. In Y/N's opinion, he had the right thought.

So he was planning on staying. Something uncurled inside of her and the usual need to kill, bite, maim, was eased for the moment.

The first visit of the throne room

This room was suffocating. She had no idea how Crowley worked here. However, she definitely got why he hadn't invited them over earlier.

A year into their weird arrangement and Y/N was seeing the insides of Crowley's - let's call it office - for the very first time.

Towering brick walls that looked ready to collapse any second, blind windows on the very corners of the walls, the floor littered with bones Y/N pointedly ignored.

And at the wall farthest away, a throne. On it sat Crowley, deep in discussion with presumably a demon in the same black suit that seemed to be Crowley's trademark.

The moment he glimpsed them, he shooed away the demon talking to him rapidly and got up. "If it isn't my two favourite werewolves."

"This place is... nice," Y/N said politely.

Fabio murmured something like 'scary' so she reached down and sat him on her hip. Immediately, his tiny fists curled into her shirt for support.

On the other hand, Crowley chuckled. "It's world's away from my office in hell, Love. Literally and metaphorically speaking. But you're not here to enjoy the atmosphere. Come on, I need a fresh eye on the texts these up to no good Winchesters thrusted at me. Can't believe they didn't ask Singer before."

That was a new aspect of their bizarre relationship. Crowley asking for her opinion, allowing her to help him. It made Y/N feel not as dependent on him as she once thought she was.

With a well paying job and a day care for Fabio keeping the most urgent problems off her back, Y/N slowly was feeling like herself again.

And if her knowledge of ancient Latin came in handy, she would do everything in her power to use it. Especially if it re-established their situation as equal.

Crowley pulled out a chair for her and pointed at the offending text. "Can you translate it and give me your interpretation? Moose's translation is giving me headaches."

"I can try," Y/N laughed, "but you'll have to watch Fabio for the time being."

Another new occurence. Her son trusted Crowley - had even declared him his play buddy. To everyone's surprise, Crowley suffered through it. Sure, he did not look pleased but he didn't turn him into a grease stain on the carpet.

So while Y/N dug into the text, Fabio was keeping Crowley occupied.

The first (and last) official™ date

"Love are you ready to go?"

Y/N was pretty sure that she would get a heart attack one of these days. Crowley stood in the doorway, she had just walked past, cuffing his sleeves.

"You have to stop entering my home like that," she said, hand on her chest. Good God.

But Crowley merely grinned. Offered his arm to her. "We have dinner reservations for seven."

It was five to seven. Y/N took his arm, charmed by the action and did her best not to giggle like a teenager. "Then let's get there."

Wrong choice of words.

The nervous butterflies in her stomach soon grabbed the nearest surface and held on for dear life. Traveling through space and time via demon was not good for her insides, Y/N discovered.

By the time the world wasn't spinning anymore, they were standing in front of a classy restaurant. It was evident that Crowley knew the owner as they were immediately led to a table.

Y/N was intimidated to no end.

She took her seat with Crowley's help and hid her shaking hands behind the menu. She would not mess this up, this night was supposed to be great. Her stupid nerves should not ruin her chances with Crowley. Not when her heart was far too invested already.

"I'd recommend the- what's wrong Love?" He looked up from his own menu, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Yeah no. She sighed and put it down. She had to answer him truthfully - somehow he always knew when Y/N attempted to lie. An irritating fact. "This is a really fancy place."

"I hoped you'd like it." Crowley nodded and reached over to cup her hand, "you don't?"

Slowly, she shook her head. No use in sitting through a horrible dinner and giving him a bad night on top of that with her fumbling. Let's end it while there was still hope of recovering the friendship. "I feel out of place. I'm sorry that I'm ruining it."

"Nonsense," Crowley immediately waved for the waiter, "we're leaving."

As fast as they had entered the place, they left it as well. Crowley had taken her hand at some point and held onto it every step into the crisp night air.

This time they walked to their destination. It was a diner, family owned and cozy. He turned, raised his eyebrows. "Is this better?"

"Much better," she confirmed, still a little uneasy for making all that fuss.

But Crowley didn't seem to mind. His relaxed smile (a rare occurrence) was still in place and he was still holding onto her hand.

With the same authority that he entered the restaurant, he walked up to a booth and pulled Y/N down next to him. Their arms were touching so she leaned into his side a little more. It was a pleasant feeling, being close to Crowley.

They ordered from a bubbly teenager that handed out smiles like cookies. He made Y/N relax instantly; the mood was obviously set to be inviting and homey. About the last place that she would have expected Crowley to visit. But here they were and it looked like he knew this place just as good as the restaurant.

"So tell me, what made you accept a dinner offer from a demon?"

Y/N snorted. "I happen to like that demon."

"Oh do you now?" He asked deadpan. His fingers curled around hers under the table and eased the sting of the sarcasm.

So she smiled and squeezed his hand. "Yep. And I'm pretty sure that the feeling is mutual."

Crowley followed the plates being placed down in front of them before he looked up straight into her eyes. Then, he grinned. "It is."

The first night as a family

"Momma momma, I wanna watch Monster Inc!" Fabio abandoned his Lego in favour of climbing Y/N's lap and declare his demands.

It was quite the accomplishment too as she was half curled around Crowley herself. She laughed and wrapped her arms around him. "And what do you say when you want something baby?"

"Please!" Fabio wiggled around until he was comfortably squished between them.

His tiny fist was balled into her shirt but his eyes were on Crowley. Who looked down at the boy with - was that fondness?

Y/N nudged him. "Are you up for it?"

"A wildly inaccurate depiction of made up monsters?" Crowley huffed, "obviously."

Fabio whooped. "Momma, daddy said it's okay so we'll have to watch it."

Everything froze.

He did not just say that. She needed to say something, assure Crowley that neither of them was expecting this of him, gently talk to Fabio-

Then, Crowley chuckled and nudged her back. "Can't argue with that. Come on momma, put it on."

Y/N was dumbfounded. Did he- did he just go along with it? Of course, she had counted him a part of their little family for longer than she'd like to admit but she would have never dreamed that he would react so casual to it.

The first time that Fabio called him that too, Jesus Christ.

Apparently, it was pretty obvious what was going through her mind. Crowley lowered his head on her shoulder, mouth close to her ear while his arm held onto her a little tighter. "You are my family, Y/N. You and the boy. Did you doubt that?"

"I-"

"Mommy!" Fabio whined and pushed between them, "Monster Inc!"

And just like that, the spell was broken. All the nervous energy left her in a slightly insane giggle. "You're spoiled, young man."

"Please please please plea-"

"Alright alright," Crowley groaned exaggerated and snapped his fingers.

The TV started playing the movie and Fabio was quiet as a mouse.

These two were going to kill him, Y/N realised. And she was pretty okay with it.

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[calciopics]

Jordan Henderson pays emotional tribute to Olivia Pratt-Korbel after Liverpool win

The Liverpool captain made sure to dedicate some time paying tribute to the tragic death of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel following the Reds' thumping of Bourenmouth at Anfield on Saturday afternoon.

Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson paid a touching tribute to Olivia Pratt-Korbel following the Reds' 9-0 win over Bournemouth at Anfield.

Jurgen Klopp's men cruised to victory against the Cherries on Merseyside, matching the all-time biggest Premier League win in the process. In the aftermath of the victory, Reds skipper Henderson revealed a shirt underneath his Liverpool jersey adorned with the words "RIP Olivia YNWA".

The story behind the nine-year-old's death has shocked the nation after she was shot in her Dovecot home on Monday, with her injuries directly contributing to her death. A 36-year-old man from Huyton has since been detained and arrested on two counts of attempted murder.

Ahead of the game, Reds' boss Jurgen Klopp paid tribute to Olivia and hit out at the circumstances of her heart-breaking death.

Writing in his programme notes, the German said: "Away from football, I need to talk about a subject of much, much more importance.

"Like anyone else who loves Liverpool and its people, I was incredibly shocked by the murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel. Nine years old? How can this happen? How can this happen? How is this even possible?

"I cannot comprehend it and the more I think about it, the more difficult it becomes to understand. That it could happen in a city as special as this one where people look out for one another and stand together makes even less sense.

"I would like to pass on the sympathies of everyone at Liverpool FC to Olivia's family. They are in my thoughts and prayers and I know this will be the same for so many others as well.

"There is only one side to be on in this situation and that is the side of Olivia and her family. We are all with them. You'll Never Walk Alone."

At Anfield, the Reds finally got their first win of the campaign, equalling a Premier League record in the process.

The hosts found themselves 5-0 up at the break with goals from Luis Diaz, Harvey Elliott, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Roberto Firmino and Virgil van Dijk putting them in firm control. Further strikes from Diaz, Firmino and Fabio Carvalho and an own-goal from Chris Mepham secured a dominant victory.

[literaryfic]

Chapters: 1/?
 Fandom: 빈센조 | Vincenzo (TV) 
Rating: Explicit
 Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Vincenzo Cassano | Park Joo Hyeong/Hong Cha Young
Characters: Hong Cha Young, Vincenzo Cassano | Park Joo Hyeong
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Italian Mafia, (i know nothing about the mafia so this will be very inaccurate!!!), basically vincenzo & cha-young being mafia bosses in italy


Summary: When Vincenzo Cassano came back to Italy, no one expected to see someone by his side. Or how Cha-young and Vincenzo became the head of the Cassano family. a mafia couple au inspired by a discussion with @ourgalaxybangtan @ghostrights & @whovie-reloaded

  Vincenzo had been handling most of the family business since their adoptive father’s health had started to decline. As the consigliere of the Cassano family, he was Fabio’s most trusted man, his advisor, his lawyer but also his second-in-command.

It hadn’t been easy, all these years, to climb the ladder. He wasn’t a native, he wasn’t blood, and so not many people had welcomed him at first. That’s why he had to become ruthless, so that no one could deny his authority or even dare to try. He had killed and tortured many men, broken their minds and their bones, burned their flesh and cut off their limbs, ashes and screams trailing behind him. If he wasn’t proud of the blood on his hands, he was at least proud of his work. All the hours he’d spent training, fighting, preparing, scheming, studying, all his efforts to erase Park Joo-hyung from the face of earth had paid off. The scared, weak little kid was gone, buried with all his other victims. ‘An eye for an eye, and then some’, Vincenzo lived by that, and he would stop at nothing except killing the innocent. There was no doubt he was the best at what he did and anyone who did not respect him feared him enough to not threaten him. His success was the Cassano family’s success, yet he knew that members of his own clan would not hesitate to have him killed if they could. Two clear factions had formed in the past five years, those who supported Vincenzo as the next head of the family, and those who supported Paolo, his brother. Paolo and Vincenzo had never gotten along, and Paolo’s inferiority complex and jealousy grew deeper every time his older brother had to clean up after one of his rushed job. Paolo had a particular taste for violence. Whereas Vincenzo killed and tortured because he had to, Paolo got a kick out of hurting others, be it children, women or elders. He loved to assert his dominance, to feel almighty. Vincenzo didn’t think himself much better than him, (regardless of the reasons behind his murders, he’d probably killed way more than him), but he wanted Paolo to be punished for his sins. It was only a matter of time before some influential family members whispered plans of assassination and of ‘restoring the rightful heir’ into his ear. Paolo was an angry, frustrated man who wasn’t particularly good at his job, an easy puppet to control. He’d been watching them carefully but he knew that as long as his father was alive, no one would dare to touch him. Back then he had thought he would take care of them when it came to it, become the head of his family, and continue to rule the underworld. Then, the incident happened and everything changed. He hadn’t been able to sleep for weeks, his victims’ screams haunting his dreams. He started avoiding mirrors, his reflection taunting him. He barely ate anymore, and Fabio had reminded him to get a grip. So he had done just that. He drank himself to sleep or took sleeping pills, and he went on. He knew, however, that he could not go on like this much longer. He had to get out before he buried himself next to Park Joo-hyung and all the others whose lives he’d taken. He’d started to plan his escape secretly. He would wait until his father died, staying loyal to him as long as he was alive. When the time came, he knew Paolo would try to kill him. The power struggle between them would start as soon as the head of the family would die, but instead of destroying his opponents, Vincenzo would seize the opportunity to leave. He would go back to South Korea, get the gold and leave to an island, where he would spend the rest of his days. The death of his previous Chinese client was perfect timing. As expected, Fabio, his boss and adoptive father, had named him the next head of the family in his will. It came to no surprise to most members, but murmurs spread quickly, “Can you imagine? A foreigner, as the head of our family? What has the world become?”. After wrapping things up in Italy, Vincenzo promised himself to never return, throwing away the key to the graveyard of his sins. …. There’s no going back from this, he thinks. Vincenzo is still holding Cha-young’s face, unable to look away from her lips, still wet from the kiss. Her pink cheeks, her smeared lipstick, the freckles under her fondation. Her. Hong Cha-young. His heart is soaring in his chest, all the emotions he had desperately tried to silence erupting all at once. There was no point in denying it, he had fallen in love with her. All he could do now was break his own heart, hoping it would heal. …. He realises he can’t live without her after she gets injured. They’re trying to get more information on Jang Han-seok’s paper company, and this time they’re trying to prove that some of the transactions made to European bank accounts were bribes. They’re breaking into none other than the Minister of Economy and Finance, Cha Do-won’s house. Miri had made sure to deactivate the security system and cameras, and Vincenzo was in charge of securing the place while Cha-young searched for the secret ledger the Minister kept hidden in his office. Cha Do-won was making a speech right now, and they had assumed most of his personal security would be with him. Vincenzo had quickly incapacitated the few men around the house and Cha-young looked for the ledger. After a few minutes, she found a hidden drawer in his desk. There it was, a thick documents labelled 'Accounts’. Subtlety wasn’t one of his strong points, apparently. They were about to leave when suddenly, a dozen men started to raid the place. Vincenzo fought them off as best as he could, and he was grateful that Mr. Lee barged in to help. They thought they had them all beat, and so Vincenzo made a mistake. He turned his back to the door to look for Cha-young, who he thought was behind him. “Vincenzo!”, he heard her shout his name. He sees her across the room, about to get struck by a man. He rushes to her and knocks him out quick enough. “Oh my God”, she says, “Did you see that? I almost died! He had a knife as well, and I dodged it, and then I ran—”. She keeps rambling while they get out of the house and into their car, clearly in shock. She’s getting paler as time passes, and he only notices the blood that pooled on the seat when she tries to get out of the car. She was stabbed, but the shock and adrenaline had prevented her from feeling any pain. “Oh”, she says, looking down at her wound. Vincenzo jumps out of his seat and rips the bottom half of the T-Shirt he’s wearing. “I don’t think now’s the time for that, Darling.” Even in a life-threatening situation, Cha-young is joking around. Vincenzo’s mind stops, he feels paralysed by fear, the fear of losing her, of her dying in his car, because of him. He pushes those thoughts away as he holds the fabric to her wound. “Hold this, as hard as you can.” The rest of the car ride to the hospital is a blur of running red lights, speeding in between traffic and repeating “Hong Cha-young, stay with me.” Vincenzo had faced death everyday for the last 20 years. He had killed, had seen people kill and had almost died countless of time. “There’s no limit to fear”, he’d once said to Jang Han-seok’s informant. Only now, waiting for Cha-young’s surgery to be over, does he understand what those words truly mean. During 6 hours, Vincenzo pleads and begs God, the devil, anyone willing to listen (Don’t take her. Everyone but her). He makes empty promises (I’ll do anything. I’ll stop hurting others, I’ll disappear from her life) and meaningless threats (Don’t you dare take her. I’ll kill you, too). In the end he doesn’t know who answers his prayers, and what promises seals the deal, but Cha-young wakes up and he doesn’t care. He holds her hand, stays by her side, and vows to never leave her. He starts to plan for an escape route shortly after that. In case they can’t stay in South Korea and need to take off. First, he thinks of Malta, or another island. But they would need to go somewhere they have allies, somewhere with an easy access to emergency money and resources. Italy. He contacts Luca and sets everything up, a two bed-room apartment, two bank accounts, and everything they could ever need like cash, some guns, and a car. “Consigliere, will there be another person with you?”, Luca asks. “Hopefully it won’t come to that”, he avoids the question. He knows he promised not to come back, but some promises need to be broken out of necessity. He needed to make Cha-young was safe, at all cost. His brother’s betrayal had made it easier. He’d been caught in the crossfire of their fight against Babel, killed by Choi Myung-hee in order to frame Vincenzo. But they had proved his innocence, and sent back his corpse in Milan. After Fabio’s death, Paolo hadn’t been the best replacement, and after he was killed in South Korea, they’d put in charge one of their cousins who had neither Fabio’s experience, nor Vincenzo’s mastermind. The family was in a crisis, which didn’t go unnoticed by their rivals. Soon, business started to slow down, their clients stolen by the competition and their allies started to switch teams. Money ran low. For that reason, Vincenzo didn’t run into much opposition when he came back. Most members and people in their business thought he had killed Paolo after he’d unreasonably followed him to South Korea and tried to finish him. Paolo only left disappointment and resentment behind him, and so no one missed him much. What they had not expected, however, was for Vincenzo Cassano to come back with someone.

[stevedonnellyfaith-blog]

Father Jerry on Television (Post 104) 9-2-15

                        We sat in a group up in the loft of my father’s house watching a familiar man on a big screen television that my father had long since abandoned as a luxury not worth the physical exertion of climbing the stairs to utilize.  Nicholas has been encamped in the loft these last several months, sleeping on one of the several sofas, not bothering to unfurl either hideaway sofa-beds, which might make his abode seem less of a bus stop.  Nicholas doesn’t feel moved to construct something each night that will only need to be stored away again anyway each morning.

Normally none of the other three of us living in my parent’s house disturb Nick’s abode.  On Monday night, though, Nicholas invited Natalie, Stephen and I to join him on the landing outside our bedrooms to watch Father Jerry be interviewed for the Coming Home Network of EWTN.  Three of us made a night of it, while Natalie scurried off after about half an hour thoroughly bewildered about all the talk of seminaries, sacraments and Protestant denominations.  She enjoyed seeing Father’s bearded visage again, though.  After more than a year she still remembers him fondly.  I think the Donnelly’s will always consider Father Jerry to be our family priest.  We know he loves us despite all our faults and we love him back even when he gets prickly.

I enjoyed watching Marcus Grodi’s astonishment as Father Jerry explained that he is a pastor of a parish in a town nobody has ever heard of with a membership of 5700 families.  It would have taken somebody really paying attention to notice that Father Jerry’s first Episcopalian parish also grew quite surprisingly during an era when Anglicanism was largely on the retreat throughout most of the former colonies and most certainly in the San Francisco area. To many Father Jerry remains an enigma wrapped in the Spirit.  The Coming Home Network is a landing strip for many conventionally unusual stories; Father Jerry’s biography is more of a curiously unusual tale, but it is also reads as a report oddly bereft of bling.

I watched hoping for some insight into a man that I came to know some during Pam’s illness, more during Stephen’s trials and even more throughout Nicholas’s cancer treatment.  Father Jerry visited our house, as did Father Jim and Father Fabio, but very few of our friends ever saw the inside of 387 Madera Street.  It was a house of illness, after all, so we didn’t entertain.  Still we were only one of 5700 families and all priests at IHM have much to do, so I have always remained curious to know more about Father Jerry.   For our family, Marcus Grodi’s show was helpful in providing a good overall plot summary that added context to the many individual specifics of Father Jerry’s life that he has provided in his homilies over the years.  

He painted in some details of his spiritual awakening and the growth of his vocation, but not of his hikes up Calvary.  That was not the purpose of the show.  He has shared much of his pain with the parish over the years and it always made me chuckle that he respected the incidences of pain that Jesus favored me with. That is like Buster Posey complementing the uppercut swing of a weekend softball palooka. I always wondered why Father Jerry volunteered for the AIDS ward before there was a cure for the disease; now I know it is because he admired Damian of Molokai.  It is a rare Protestant that emulates the life of an obscure Catholic saint, before he was ever canonized – not that that should matter to a Protestant.

Anyway we enjoyed watching Father Jerry; we haven’t done much as a group in the last several months. Much change is coming for the Donnellys as I close on a family house on Wednesday – never thought I would own another. Hopefully, it will be a good home for Natalie to grown into her young womanhood.  So we sat as a group in the loft on the cusp of a big change and quite a bit of work in the near term watching a man from our recent past for whom we continue to pray.  Because Father Jerry helped shepherd us through the dark valleys of the last several years, we are thankful for him and all the prayers of our IHM friends.

[classyfoxdestiny]

Collapse in HGV apprentices behind empty shelf crisis, warns Labour

Collapse in HGV apprentices behind empty shelf crisis, warns Labour

A collapse in the numbers of people signing up for transport and warehousing apprenticeships has driven the current delivery crisis causing empty shelves in supermarkets and shortages at fast-food chains, Labour has claimed.

The party released figures showing that entrants on transportation apprenticeships have fallen by almost half (49 per cent) since 2015/16 and by a massive 83 per cent for warehousing and distribution.

Future transport spokeswoman Kerry McCarthy blamed the government for failing to ensure the supply of new drivers in an industry facing the “ticking time-bomb” of a rapidly ageing workforce, with the average person behind the wheel of an HGV now 55 years old and fewer than 1 per cent aged under 25.

With drivers reaching retirement at a rate of 6,000 a year and others leaving the profession because of , the current crisis can be expected to worsen unless urgent action is taken to attract more young people onto apprenticeships, she said.

Recent weeks have seen major chains including Nando’s, McDonald’s and Greggs blame distribution problems for shortages preventing them from serving popular items to customers, while the boss of Iceland supermarkets has warned that the supply chain crisis could “cancel” Christmas.

The Road Haulage Association says the UK is around 100,000 drivers short, with Brexit and Covid blamed for worsening chronic labour shortages in the industry.

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Rehearsals are held in a car park in Glasgow for a parade scene ahead of filming for what is thought to be the new Indiana Jones 5 movie starring Harrison Ford

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In July, ministers announced a short-term relaxation to limits on drivers’ working hours and said measures were being taken to increase the throughput of HGV driving tests in response to the crisis, after the pandemic led to a 30,000 fall in the number of drivers getting their heavy goods licences last year.

But the government has resisted industry calls for a relaxation of immigration rules to try to attract back some of the thousands of drivers from EU countries who have left the UK since Brexit.

And Labour today accused the government of failing to ensure adequate supplies of home-grown drivers, pointing to figures showing that numbers of trainees in key apprenticeships were falling long before the impact of the virus and EU withdrawal was felt.

Numbers on transportation operation and maintenance courses fell from 16,620 in 2015/16 to 8,430 in 2020/21, while starts on warehousing and distribution roles declined from 14,860 to 2,500 over the same period.

“The shortage of drivers is now visible on a daily basis through empty shelves in shops and closures on our high streets,” said Ms McCarthy.

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“It is increasingly clear that the government does not have a plan to address a national crisis that is grinding our economy to a halt.”

With only 3,000 vocational driving tests being taken a week, she warned it will be months before the huge shortage in drivers is filled. And she said it was dangerous to rely on longer hours for drivers to keep the supply chain moving.

Labour has called on the government to work with the Migration Advisory Committee to determine whether HGV driving should be designated a skills-shortage profession under the immigration points system, to allow the recruitment of more foreign drivers.

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[missrkl]

The Temple Chapter Twelve

The interview

I wish I could feel better, Rachel had thought to herself. Her life was hard, everything was always a fight. She always had to defend herself, stand up for herself, stand up for what she believed in. A lot of the time nobody cared, nor paid any attention. Rachel had to work extra hard just to be seen and heard sometimes, which did mean becoming a nuisance to many members of the temple, to which they never could understood. They couldn’t see beyond past their own annoyances. Right now Rachel stood with the Ecclesiastes gang. Ecclesiastes was going to interview Rachel in front of the gang, just some questions to get to know her better, understand her better. It was about learning to trust your leaders and to prevent them from being seen as idols that could topple and fall at any given moment. So Rachel sat in the armchair and Ecclesiastes sat in the opposite armchair and he informed her that he would ask her a series of questions and all she had to do was answer straight from the heart. Being honest and being real was more important than being right than wrong. What mattered was Rachel showing her humanity as well as her spirituality, in order for the eaglettes to have a balanced view of her. Rachel confirmed that she understood and braced herself for the coming questions. Ecclesiastes had warned her last night that these questions was not something you could study for, or plan answers in advance to. All she had to do was share herself with the team for a stronger and firmer bonding time.

Ecclesiastes began the interview:

1. How did you meet the Lord? A relatively easy question. Rachel answered: I met the Lord when I was 8 years old. I was in Catholic Church and I was in the Sunday school and we was colouring in Jesus on the boat with his disciples. I remember being transported both physically and mentally, in every sense of the word, all of my senses and physical sensations to being in that boat with Jesus and his disciples fishing. I felt the greatest peace and joy that could never be experienced on planet earth (true story, reference my book on Amazon Rachel Leynes The Power and The Glory). This was very important to me, being raised in an abusive home and an abusive school, I didn’t want to leave. Mum came to pick me up from Sunday school and she wouldn’t let me finish my colouring in of Jesus in the boat. I got very upset with her. After we left the meeting, she pinched me walking down the road and that just made me all the more determined to get back to that place as soon as possible. I loved Jesus then.

Ecclesiastes continued:

2. When did you next encounter Jesus and did you give your life to Christ then?

Rachel answered: no, I didn’t know about those things yet. I next encountered Jesus in another Sunday school setting, I was older by then, don’t remember the age. The Sunday school teacher was reading the Bible story about Jesus on the boat fishing, again, and then she had this big massive net on the wall and we each had a fish and we wrote our names on the fish and put it in Jesus net. After that I ran around school shouting how I belonged to Jesus, I was his child, Mary was my mother and Adonai was my father.

Ecclesiastes and the crowd was like ‘wow, so amazing’ (true story, reference my book Rachel Leynes, the power and the glory Amazon kindle only). So Ecclesiastes continued:

3. When exactly did you give your life to Jesus and accept Christ as your lord and saviour?

Rachel answered: when I was 13 years of age, my mother was invited to a bible study, but she didn’t want to attend. I so badly wanted to attend because one day when I was left to fend for myself at home (illegally) at 10 years old, I watched this cartoon on tv about a little girl searching the entire world for a scarce bible. It was shown to be as precious. So, without knowing about prayer I asked God for one, and so the bible study invitation was I knew my answer, God giving me one. So I went to the bible study and was amazed and ‘happy’ to be around people who loved the holy book like I did. Who had a passion as much as myself. I was then allowed to go to their church service and when the evangelical pastor called for anyone who wants to give their life to Christ, I did and I literally saw in my minds eye a door of my heart and Jesus knocking and me opening and sunshine ray of light coming, bursting through the doors into my darkness, or the darkness.

Everyone was silent, nobody had really taken the time to get to know Rachel like this, they all thought they knew her, but clearly they underestimated her relationship with Adon short for Adonai.

Ecclesiastes continued further:

4. Have you ever been persecuted for the faith?

Rachel sighed, yes she had. Rachel recalled the time in high school, year 7, she had just given her life to Christ at 13 years of age and so excited she proclaimed it to all the students of a Catholic school. How they mocked at her. Most especially Margaret. In class, and she didn’t mock Rachel per se, but she mocked Adam and Eve, Gods creation creative beginning and the bible itself. Rachel cried, she loved mashiac yeshua, Hebrew for jesus saviour of the world. People laughed at her crying because they said she wasn’t being mocked, her God was, the bible was. What they didn’t understand was, when they mocked her God, they mocked her, because Yah was her God and they were one. Two weeks later Margaret’s mother died and the whole class came to the conclusion it was her God that took her mother’s life. They soon became afraid of Rachel’s God. This led up to the point that all bullying against her stopped, plus when someone shouted at her a year later and she cried, that girl named Khadesha fell down the stairs, unharmed, in school. The whole class cornered khadesha and begged her to apologise to Rachel in case Rachel’s God got angry again, they said it was better to be safe than sorry. She didn’t understand their fears but feeling the weight of their peer pressure she did and Rachel only knew this because she heard them talking and she pretended she didn’t hear at all.

This also included the time Ruth in her older teenager days laughing again at Rachel’s faith and she bowed knelt on the ground in front of Rachel in mockery and proclaimed she worshipped Satan. Rachel didn’t know what to say, but just walked away. Nothing she could do about that, obviously.

On top of that was the persecution at home as well. Her parents were unbelievers and when she was still in primary school Rachel loved the holy book and Yah so much that she sprayed the bible with perfume and her mum came in and took the bible and hit her with it and said in a very stern yet also threatening voice “do you really think God is happy with you?” Rachel’s mother also tried drowning her in the bathtub shouting at her ‘you want Jesus! This is Jesus!’ Rachel shed a few tears (true story guys, this is all my true story, reference again my book on Amazon kindle only Rachel Leynes the power and the glory! Yes it’s been and still is a hard knock life, #loveshouldnothurt by Fabio d’andrea against domestic violence!)

The crowd was on the verge of tears unsure as how Rachel got through all of this, alone. She wasn’t in any church yet, she didn’t know about being born again yet!

Ecclesiastes continued:

5) do you struggle with any flaws? What are your weaknesses and strengths?

To which Rachel replied that her strength was in her God. Adonai covered for all of her weaknesses and she quoted the bible “when I am weak then I am strong” and how “God’s strength works best in my weakness.” She acknowledged before how she couldn’t pray and how she desperately wanted to be a good prayer warrior, so she asked Adon for strength in this, his strength in this and that he did, her prayers within the prayer teams only got stronger. Her strength was only in worship, in the talent that the temple never knew she had because of being labelled as The Voiceless, she was a worshipper of Yah, a singer, a musician, someone who always went back to the heart of worship rather than showcasing a performance. She didn’t want to mention Kai but she did, he was a platform performer outside of the temple and that always clouded his judgment in terms of leading worship because it always led to performances and shows, great for evangelistic drawing crowds, but not really from the heart. She then continued to say that she is not stating that Kai didn’t have a heart of worship, neither the elitists, it was just the way things were, for now.

Ecclesiastes decided to end the interview with one final question:

6) what’s next for you Rachel?

Rachel thought a minute and replied that she was considering writing a novel, many novels in fact, ones that showcase the true glory of Yahushua, something that no Harry Potter book could ever outshine.

Rachel stepped outside after the interview and breathed in the fresh winter breeze, she was glad that was over, being questioned like that in front of a crowd, nerve wrecking, but she was glad to show that Adonai was exactly who he said he was, most especially in her life.

Reference again my book as all of the interview stories are 100% real authentic true rachel Leynes the power and the glory on Amazon kindle only.

[stevetervet]

How do I love thee? England, let me count the ways.

There are moments in everyone’s life which you can look back on and remember exactly where you were and what you were doing. It only takes one sound, one image or even the mere thought and you are transported back in an instant.

For me, this happens every two years. It is called supporting England in a major international football tournament.

In 1996, I was only allowed to stay up for the first half of the semi-final against Germany. I went to bed having seen Stefan Kuntz cancel out Alan Shearer’s early goal but only found out the result on the following morning’s news bulletin.

Two years later, Richard Pugh and I were the lucky students in our Year 8 Art class to be sat near enough the radio so as to be able to follow the commentary of the group game against Tunisia. When Paul Scholes curled in the clincher, we passed messages down the line to our class-mates with silent fist pumps and the international sign language for ‘2-0.’

Michael Owen’s historic goal against Argentina and David Beckham’s subsequent dismissal, which preceded the dreaded penalties, had me listening through headphones on the bottom bunk - the full game this time. We deserved to go through and there were tears when David Batty became the latest to suffer infamy from 12 yards.

Fast forward to the World Cup in 2006 and I was stood in a giant fan park in Gelsenkirchen among 50,000 sunburnt Englishmen (seriously, Rachel would have been in a minority of less than 1% females). Many fans were so drunk they had passed out and didn’t witness any of the quarter-final against Portugal. The party atmosphere turned ugly the second Cristiano Ronaldo fired in the winning penalty and we realised the dream was over. Bus windows were smashed and we were lucky to make it back to the train station. Rooney’s stamp on Carvalho, Ronaldo’s wink as he was sent off... it was like red rag to a bull in that sun-baked German field.

By the time 2010 came around, we were married and had moved to Kent. An appalling performance against Algeria in the group saw England booed off by the many thousands who had paid good money to fly to South Africa. This time, Rooney criticised the fans live on air as he walked off the field. It was a new low under Fabio Capello and Germany easily sorted us out in the knockout stages.

Following Euro 2012 during our (first) year in Australia was almost impossible due to the time difference between Ukraine and Melbourne - but more of this later. Still, we sat through yet more penalty pain as the two Ashleys - Young and Cole - came up short against the Italians in another quarter-final which proved one step too far.

Heartbreak turned to anger in the following years as we were knocked out before even completing the group stage in Brazil 2014 and then somehow managed to plunge even more miserable depths by going out to Iceland - Iceland! - in the next Euros. By now we had stumbled upon the combination of watching the TV coverage but immediately switching to Radio 5 Live on the final whistle. Not only was the analysis more honest and insightful but you were kept abreast of developments in the stadium after the final whistle, for instance the terrifying scenes caused by charging Russian hooligans after we’d draw with them in Marseille. Mark Chapman’s anchorage and Chris Waddle’s rants would go on to become our regular soundtrack, especially on the nights England went out.

Ivy was three when Gareth Southgate led us to the World Cup semi-finals in 2018. Rachel was away the night we played Colombia and finally managed to win a penalty shootout. The match kicked off at 6pm, from memory, so most of my day was spent working to a strict schedule that had Ivy in bed and virtually asleep by 5.45 - much earlier than normal - so I could be in position downstairs from the national anthems. I managed to stifle my yells of delight when the shootout went our way but did remove my shirt, such was the shock. Ivy watched the highlights of Jordan Pickford’s heroics over breakfast the next morning and declared that was wanted to be a ‘lady goalkeeper’ when she grew up.

But, if truth be told, she didn’t really enjoy the experience of watching games in my company. My tendancy to leap around and shout at the key moments scared her - it’s pretty out of character, in fairness - and I had not even spoken to her about Euro 2020 in the build-up to the tournament which, once again, found us battling the time zones from Australia, now our permanent residence.

However, the last few weeks have been a shared experience unlike any other, and I’m sure millions up and down the UK - and many more ex-pats around the world, for a variety of reasons - could say the same.

The majority of England’s games kicked off at 5am (2000 BST); I set an early alarm, Rachel got up too and there was Ivy alongside us, wrapped in a dressing-gown, blanket or whatever she had dragged from her room at that hour of the night. She knew none of the players at the start of the tournament but was soon querying why Phil Foden had been left on the bench against Scotland. She was asking for Three Lions to be played after the Germany game, decided Harry Kane was her favourite player after his brace against Ukraine in Rome and chastised Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips at times during the semi-final triumph over Denmark back at Wembley. All the time in her pyjamas with the sun still some way from rising over New South Wales.

As we approached the final, she knew the entire starting XI and wanted to know if Bukayo Saka would retain his place on the right against Italy. News of Foden’s injury did not go down well.

And so it was, in the wee small hours of my 36th birthday, I found myself behind the wheel of the only car on the streets of Albury at a 24-hour McDonald’s drive-through for breakfast supplies and extra strong coffee with 5 Live once again bringing the Wembley build-up to the far side of the world. At times like this, in moments like this, that vast distance back to London is evident more than ever, yet we felt very much connected to the team nurtured by Southgate and which conducts itself in a way which makes me proud to be English. It is the dignity and integrity of the players, as much as their performances, which has been heart-warming this past month.

What a ride it has been. I have looked forward so much to every early start, never wanted the journey to end, always wanted one more game, one more celebration, one more rendition of Sweet Caroline. A staggering 30 million people watched the final on the BBC and ITV combined; there are few sports teams around the globe that have such power to bring a nation together. The All Blacks and India’s cricket team, perhaps. Because, in these moments, as Luke Shaw sent us leaping off the sofa in the second minute, roaring and punching the air, as Leonardo Bonucci bundled in the equaliser which punctured the balloon of optimism, as we shuffled nearer the edge of our seats during extra-time but barely uttered a word to each other, we are not customers, we are not spectators, we are not even fans. We are England. This is us, and what happens in these moments is etched into our identity.

Not penalties, we agonised, not again. Ivy kept smiling and clapping during the final coin toss and stood holding her Euro 2020 colouring sheet as encourgament to the takers, pointing at the trophy. “I want Kane to have this,” she whispered.

But the script which has become so familiar in our lifetime was played out yet again; Rashford, Sancho and Saka the unfortunate three to miss their penalties. Why does it always have to end like this? Ivy cried too. Welcome to the club. This is England.

Because like all those tournaments listed above, we will never forget where we were on 12 July 2021, when England played in their first final for 55 years. It will be the next trip through that Macca’s drive-through, memories of setting Ivy’s ‘Gro Clock’ to wake her at 4.30am, the haunting images of a distraught Saka being comforted by Southgate which bring it flooding back.

Shame on those who racially abused the penalty missers in the hours after the game; so much unifying work done by Southgate and the squad felt like it had been undone. But when Ivy’s prayer at bedtime was for ‘Rashford, Sancho and Saka as they return to their families’ it brought a different sort of tear to the eye: absolute pride in the young men whose tenacity and humility on the biggest stage has inspired my little girl and so many others like her.

Following England is often gut-wrenching, occasionally exhilarating, always utterly unforgettable.

Football’s Coming Home? The feeling never went away.

[yeonchi]

2021 Mid-Year Report

A lot of things can change in a year, but even more things can change in six months than you think. This is going to be a special post styled like my end-of-year reviews that focuses on the events of the past six months. I don’t know if I’ll be doing this again next year because I felt like making this post; in fact, I don’t know when I’ll stop posting my end-of-year reviews either.

Looking back at Sea Princesses

This time last year, I was in the midst of the second coronavirus lockdown in Melbourne, unemployed on double benefits without needing to look for work. At the same time, I was working on translating and reviewing the Princesas do Mar books, which I had brought from Amazon the month before. My original intention was to buy the books once I had saved up enough money from putting aside part of my paycheck, but looking back, I knew I made a better decision buying the books when I did.

At the same time, Fabio Yabu had also released the main series books as ebooks on Amazon Kindle and would begin releasing translated versions of the first four literacy series books on there as well. A year on, the last two literacy series books have still not been published as yet, though Ubook would publish them as audiobooks in Brazil (with the exception of Turtles in Danger for some reason). In our communications, Yabu had expressed interest in publishing translated versions of the main series books (based on my translations), but the last time we spoke in May, he stated that he had a lot going on, so that has been put on hold for the time being.

From time to time, I go on the wiki and make edits wherever I feel like. This isn’t something that I really needed to express, but I wanted to do so because I am planning on putting the translated episode names on their respective pages eventually. That information was originally posted on the International Entertainment Project Wiki before they planned to move the episode lists to Miraheze but never ended up doing so. Though the episode lists with the translated episode names have been taken down from the IEP Wiki, I have managed to save them and I will put them up on the Sea Princesses Wiki gradually and eventually. Keep in note that the only languages I have all the translated titles for are Brazilian Portuguese, Castilian Spanish and German; sources for other languages are always appreciated.

I’ve been thinking about this question time and time again over the years, but I’ve never brought myself to bring it up on Tumblr until now - Would I like to see a reboot, revival or continuation of Sea Princesses? My answer is both yes and no. I say yes because there is so much unexplored potential and unanswered questions in both the books and animated series with things like the Barracuda Kingdom saga, Marcello and Marcela, more interactions with other characters, more focus on other characters and so forth. However, I also say no because usual reboot criticism aside (character designs are shit, story is shit etc), I fear that the character designs of the Sea Princesses may not sit right with certain people and that they may be misconstrued as jailbait or something like that. While it would be nice to see something new in regards to Sea Princesses someday, that all depends on whether Fabio Yabu is interested in revisiting it like he did the Combo Rangers nearly a decade ago. And besides, if Yabu isn’t interested, then who needs him when I’ve made so much Sea Princesses content over the past few years, including my takes on the continuation of the series in Kisekae Insights? Which brings us to our next topic...

Kisekae Insights and my transition into adult life

In case you haven’t heard, I started at a new job at the end of May and it’s been quite full-on. Amidst all the distractions around me and my commitment to finish up my personal project by the end of this year, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to make two instalments of Kisekae Insights per month as I promised in #21, but as I made clear from the very start, there is no set schedule for the series, so this isn’t necessarily the end of the second run. I decided to just take the rest of my personal project at my own pace and I will possibly do likewise with Kisekae Insights.

Coronavirus and vaccines

At the start of June, Melbourne went into a week-long circuit breaker lockdown that later became two weeks long. This was our fourth lockdown after a short third lockdown in February that lasted five days. And it just so happened that I had to start working from home because of it. It’s not that bad, I’m currently doing a mix of WFH and onsite working so I don’t have to wake up at 6 AM (play on my phone and wake up at like 6:30) and take two hours of public transport just to get to work five days a week.

Numerous variants of the coronavirus have been discovered in the past year. We have variants originating in the UK (Alpha/B.1.1.7), South Africa (Beta/B.1.351), Brazil (Gamma/P.1) and India (Delta/B.1.617.2) among others. The Indian (Delta) variant in particular has been the reason for the recent lockdowns in Australia.

In regards to the naming of the coronavirus and its variants, it’s absolutely funny how their timing came about. When the original coronavirus started in Wuhan, China and was declared to the WHO on 31 December 2019, the WHO named the resulting disease COVID-19 on 11 February 2020, keeping in mind that Asian crybabies were crying about “China Virus”, “Wuhan Virus” or “Kung Flu” back then and are probably still crying about it now. At the start of June, the WHO announced that they would use Greek letters to refer to the variants when the media have used “UK variant”, “Indian variant” etc for months, which is longer than it took mainstream media and society to adopt the name COVID-19. Though their motivation to do this is to prevent stigmatisation like with the original coronavirus, I have heard nothing about British, South African, Brazilian or even Indian people being discriminated over the variants. It’s almost like people have more problems with “China Virus” than “UK variant”, “Indian variant” etc because they somehow have a need to please China and make people realise that all Asians aren’t the same. On top of that, obscuring the variants will eventually lead to people being confused over their origins when more of them inevitably emerge.

Recently, investigations into the origin of the coronavirus have been ongoing, much to China’s ongoing outrage and condemnation. When the coronavirus started, there was a theory that it somehow leaked from a lab in Wuhan; back then, people were laughed for believing it (because Trump was the one who was talking about it), but now, the mainstream media is going with that story while covering the investigations (because Biden’s the one who is talking about it now). It’s almost like a big “I told you so” from the people who knew better.

I’ve said this in my Red Pill Year post and I’ll say it again; all this fuss over naming the coronavirus and its variants to prevent stigmatisation is just an act of political correctness for China’s sake. While I have started to warm to the term COVID-19 (in a humourous and ironic sense), I still stand by my current positions so far; while I don’t entirely agree with “China virus”, I still refer to it as the “Wuhan coronavirus” because it started in Wuhan until proven otherwise beyond all reasonable doubt, whether it leaked from the lab or whatever. I’ll admit, I wouldn’t have much of a problem with this if the virus didn’t start in China. I’m a person who doesn’t really mind or care about political correctness if it’s just a little bit here and there, but given the events of the past decade, I draw the line when it comes to China.

Let’s talk about vaccines now. Vaccines have been a big topic over the past six months - in Hong Kong, Sinovac Biotech’s CoronaVac vaccine has become a meme in the pro-democracy population because to May, there were 24 deaths recorded as a result of side effects compared to the alternate BioNTech vaccine with 6 deaths. Granted, the deaths were in people aged 50 and over (possibly with underlying health conditions), but it has given people a reason to hold off or even refrain from getting the vaccine. On a side note, the “you’re going to Brazil” meme has never felt realer because CoronaVac is one of the vaccines being offered in Brazil along with Argentina, Colombia and Peru. My thoughts and prayers go to them at this point in time.

Now, I am by no means an anti-vaxxer, but I stand by the belief that coronavirus vaccines should be voluntary and not mandatory (I wish I could say the same for other vaccines, but I’d be perpetuating a double standard because adults are in control of our lives before we reach the age of majority). There are some countries and places that are providing incentives to people who get vaccinated, with quite a few of them being offered in the form of prize draws. In all honesty, given the nature of these vaccines, I don’t see the point of prize draws as incentives because there is no other benefit for those who don’t win except for protection against coronavirus, its associated symptoms, or even a release from our agonising and pitiful existences.

My main fear is that vaccine stigmatisation and discrimination might become mainstream with the existence of things like vaccine passports, where people who haven’t taken the vaccine are disallowed from accessing basic services. I can live with wearing masks indoors and on public transport and without leaving the country or even the state, but if the slippery slope gets to a point where people aren’t allowed to shop at supermarkets, eat at restaurants, take public transport or even hold a job without getting vaccinated, that’s the point where I start to become an anti-vaxxer.

There are some industries where getting vaccinated is not only highly recommended, but essential, such as health and aged care. I (luckily) don’t work in those industries so my opinion probably won’t matter, but if you work around vulnerable people regularly, then you as an individual should be responsible for taking the necessary precautions to prevent coronavirus infections and deaths.

So here’s my personal stance on this whole vaccination debacle; I will personally not be getting vaccinated for the foreseeable future, but I am not against people getting vaccinated if they so choose. This is not only because of the potential side effects or even my fear of needles (anyone who points this out to me is missing the point because my reasoning would be the same regardless of it), but because of the potential for the stigmatisation and discrimination of people who choose not to get vaccinated, the erosion of human rights for said people and most of all, the way that China has been involved in all of this; the vaccines were made to combat a virus that originated in China and I am particularly wary of some things coming from China, whether the vaccine is Chinese-made or otherwise.

Hong Kong pessimism

Things in Hong Kong have gotten worse over the past six months and they’re only about to get worser, but in spite of this, I believe that it will be all for the greater good.

Of significance, Apple Daily published their last issue on Thursday 24 June, taking down their website, social media and YouTube accounts on the same day. I used to make shitposts on a separate Facebook page by sharing their posts with satirical captions, sometimes with slurs (particularly the n-word on articles relating to mainland China) until some bitch I was having a feud with kept reporting my posts and got my page unpublished (he would have nearly taken my account with it if I hadn’t called him out and told him to kill himself, at which point we agreed to end the feud). Now that the Apple Daily Facebook page is gone, a lot of the shitposts on my personal page have gone as well; if I hadn’t deleted my separate page following the feud, chances are that I would be making plans to delete it by now because posts from that page made up a majority of my shitposts.

Since its founding in 1995, Apple Daily has been part of the mainstream media in Hong Kong, but due to its pro-democracy (and pro-Hong Kong) stance, it has been pushed to the fringe while other mainstream media outlets (like TVB) expressed pro-government/pro-police/pro-Beijing stances. While other pro-democracy news pages have popped up, there is a chance that the government may crack down on them following the enactment of the National Security Law one year ago; in short, Apple Daily was just in their way and the government will come for them eventually.

RTHK isn’t faring any better; while they are still running as a public radio and television service, they’ve been reined in by the government after their coverage of the 21 July 2019 attacks in Yuen Long. You know, the one where KKK members (in white clothes) lynched black(-clothed) people publicly in a train station and two police were seen walking away as emergency calls were being rejected? Earlier this year, some of RTHK’s programs were removed from their YouTube channel, claiming that their policy was to make content available for one year only, which is obviously not an excuse to fix their apparent pro-democracy bias.

Just last week on 25 June, there was a government reshuffling that led to a former police officer becoming chief secretary, the current police chief being the secretary for security and the deputy police commissioner becoming the chief commissioner. This just reaffirms my belief that all cops are bastards and that from 1 July, my bios on Facebook and Tumblr will be changing to highlight this and the plight of Hongkongers under these turbulent times. I’ve been wary of the Hong Kong police since their actions in the 2014 Occupy Central protests, but I officially became an ACABer sometime in 2020.

Here’s the thing. The government has outright ignored or rejected our requests for change over the years, so pro-democracy supporters are calling for a revolution, which the Chinese government somehow sees as advocating for independence, so the supporters have no hope of achieving their demands unless Hong Kong becomes independent from China, but the Chinese government is obviously not going to allow it, so they naturally turn to the international community for help. While sanctions did have an effect on the officials looming over Hongkongers, we are at an impasse right now because the next eventual step would be war, but no country wants to be responsible for firing the first shot, so the international community resorts to diplomacy while the Chinese government turns to condemning international interference in their internal affairs time and time again.

If, someday, the revolution were somehow successful and Hong Kong were to be liberated the way the protesters wanted, you know the first thing I would like to see? A fucking holocaust. I’d like to see a fucking holocaust of all the government officials who caused us suffering, the police officers who were “just following orders” and all the braindead boomers, Mainland Chinese n-words and other n-word lovers who have nothing but hatred for real Hongkongers. But hey, we all know that’s not going to happen because anyone who advocates for it is no worse than Hitler. Oh wait, that means I’m worse than Hitler because I said all that. Well, I guess that’s what I get for being pissed off at everything that’s happened and venting about it on the internet lol.

After Apple Daily’s shutdown, I have essentially doubled down on all of my beliefs. I have no sympathy for anyone who won’t stand with Hongkongers, and by that I mean anyone who actively stands against Hongkongers or turns traitor by questioning our motives and standing against them (I don’t really have an opinion on anyone who decides to stay silent because I don’t know what their true motivations would be). In short, anyone who doesn’t support Hongkongers is an n-word or n-word lover.

I’m really sorry for sounding toxic or harsh in anything I said about Hong Kong in the past couple of years. I only say these things because I really fucking love Hong Kong and I only hope that I won’t have to fear being confronted by the police or saying anything wrong the next time I visit Hong Kong with my family. Until things get really better, I’ve decided that Hong Kong is off-limits for me, but for now, let the government keep accelerating and laam chauing Hong Kong by themselves. It shows just how scared of us they are when they blame us for its eventual destruction, because in the end, it’s for the greater good.

UPDATE - 3 July 2021: I heard about the guy who stabbed a police officer then killed himself on 1 July. To be honest, I don’t feel sorry for the cop nor do I condemn what the guy did, particularly now that I’m fully into ACAB. People should be thinking about what motivated the guy to martyr himself in a lone wolf attack, namely the actions of the government over the past 24 years and the police over the last 7 years. Yet another reminder that all cops are bastards.

The US and Palestine

I have to say, Joe Biden has subverted my expectations when it came to Hong Kong and China. A lot of us feared that his administration would undo the hard work Trump’s administration did, but at the very least, they are still wary of the current situation and things have stayed pretty much the same.

As for Palestine, I would like to state that I stand with the oppressed peoples of the world and that goes for the Palestinians (and on a side note, Myanmar) as well. Jewish people have become a meme with their stereotypes and while I am not antisemitic, I apply the ACAB logic to them because it’s the system (or Jewish beliefs and Israeli governance) that is the problem here (haha AJAB lol). Ironically, it’s like Eric Cartman’s Mel Gibson fan club in real life.

Anyway, I think I’ve said enough. Despite all the harsh things I’ve said, I only hope that the world will become a better place one day, but until then, I wish you peace in these turbulent times.

沿途在　修理著熄了的曙光 祝你在亂流下平安

[techcrunchappcom]

New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/covid-19-news-live-updates-the-new-york-times-20/

Covid-19 News: Live Updates - The New York Times

Here’s what you need to know:

Most public health officials now believe it is important to keep schools operating, particularly for young students.Credit…Sarah Blesener for The New York Times

New York City is reopening some of its public schools Monday in the teeth of a worsening coronavirus outbreak.

The decision to do so reflects changing public health thinking around the importance of keeping schools operating, particularly for young students, and the real-world experience of over two months of in-person classes in the city’s school system, the nation’s largest.

Schools around the country have had to make the difficult decision of when to close and what metrics to follow, with some staying open amid local positivity rates in the teens and others using low single-digit thresholds.

Of the nation’s 75 largest public school districts, 18 have gone back to remote learning in the past month, according to data compiled by the Council of the Great City Schools and reported in The Wall Street Journal.

In California, many of the biggest school districts were already closed before new restrictions took effect on Sunday in three regions of the state. The new restrictions include stay-at-home orders, but do not require schools that had reopened to close again (an earlier version of this item incorrectly said they do). In the last week, California has reported more than 150,000 new cases, a record for all states.

Decisions to shutter schools have often been made on the local level and in inconsistent ways. Some schools have “paused” for short periods of time — as was the case in dozens of Central Texas districts or recently in Delaware, at the governor’s suggestion. Others have opted for blended learning with some days in school and some days remote.

Many have endured jarring periods of closing, opening and closing again. All of the solutions seem to be leading to burnout, instability and turmoil. New York City students, parents and teachers have felt their own whiplash, from a full shutdown before Thanksgiving to a partial reopening less than three weeks later.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has committed himself to keeping schools open, his aides say, and has started with elementary schools and those for students with severe disabilities. (About 190,000 children in the grades and schools the city is reopening this week would be eligible.)

Three of the country’s largest districts — in Birmingham, Ala., Tulsa, Okla., and Wichita, Kan. — made the opposite decision and closed over the past week. In Birmingham, the superintendent said the pandemic was “drastically impacting our community and our schools.” In Tulsa, two public school employees died recently after testing positive for the virus. And several of Wichita’s public schools had so many staff members quarantined that they could hardly cover vacancies by the time the district decided to close, the superintendent said.

The United States has diverged from other countries around the world in closing schools but leaving indoor dining and bars open. Many parents have criticized that situation, saying that risks of infection are higher in restaurants and bars and that it prioritizes the economy over education. Across Europe and Asia, students, especially very young ones, have largely continued going to school while other parts of daily life have shut down.

While Mr. de Blasio’s decision was applauded by many parents, there is no guarantee that the pattern of chaos that they have faced will abate as the fall turns to winter. New York City’s rules for handling positive cases all but guarantee frequent and sudden closures of individual classrooms and school buildings.

And it remains unclear whether the city will be able to reopen its middle and high schools to in-person learning any time soon.

One thing that could hamper the city’s efforts, officials cautioned, is a truly rampant second wave in New York.

The test positivity rate has only increased since the city closed schools and the seven-day rolling average rate exceeded 5 percent last week. Hospitalizations have quickly mounted.

Rudolph W. Giuliani, at age 76, is in the high-risk category for the virus.Credit…Erin Schaff/The New York Times

Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and President Trump’s personal and campaign lawyer, has tested positive for the coronavirus, Mr. Trump announced on Twitter on Sunday.

Mr. Giuliani has been admitted to Georgetown University Medical Center, according to a person who was aware of his condition but not authorized to speak publicly. Mr. Giuliani, at age 76, is in the high-risk category for the virus. Later Sunday, he wrote on Twitter: “Thank you to all my friends and followers for all the prayers and kind wishes. I’m getting great care and feeling good. Recovering quickly and keeping up with everything.”

His son, Andrew H. Giuliani, a White House adviser, said on Nov. 20 he had tested positive for the virus. He had appeared at a news conference with his father the day before.

Mr. Giuliani has been acting as the lead lawyer for Mr. Trump’s efforts to overthrow the results of the election. He has repeatedly claimed he has evidence of widespread fraud, but he has declined to submit that evidence in legal cases he has filed.

“@RudyGiuliani, by far the greatest mayor in the history of NYC, and who has been working tirelessly exposing the most corrupt election (by far!) in the history of the USA, has tested positive for the China Virus. Get better soon Rudy, we will carry on!!!” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. It was unclear why Mr. Trump was the one announcing it.

Mr. Giuliani recently traveled to three battleground states that Mr. Biden won to make his case. On Thursday he attended a hearing at the Georgia Capitol, where he didn’t wear a mask. He also went maskless on Wednesday at a legislative session in Michigan, where he lobbied Republicans to overturn the results of the election there and appoint a slate of electors for Trump.

“Mayor Giuliani tested negative twice immediately preceding his trip to Arizona, Michigan, and Georgia,” the Trump campaign said. “The Mayor did not experience any symptoms or test positive for COVID-19 until more than 48 hours after his return.”

However, a person in contact with the former mayor said he began feeling ill late this past week.

Mr. Giuliani has repeatedly been exposed to the virus through contact with infected people, including during Mr. Trump’s preparation for his first debate against President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. in September, just before the president tested positive.

His infection is the latest in a string of outbreaks among those in the president’s orbit. Boris Epshteyn, a member of the Trump campaign legal team, tested positive late last month. The same day, Mr. Giuliani attended a meeting of Republican state lawmakers in Pennsylvania about allegations of voting irregularities. One of the lawmakers at that meeting was notified shortly after, while at the White House, that he had tested positive.

Mark Meadows, the president’s chief of staff, and at least eight others in the White House and Mr. Trump’s circle, tested positive in the days before and after Election Day.

Mr. Trump was hospitalized on Oct. 2 after contracting the coronavirus. Kayleigh McEnany, the president’s press secretary, Corey Lewandowski, a campaign adviser, and Ben Carson, the housing secretary, are among those in the president’s circle who have tested positive this fall.

Mr. Giuliani appeared on Fox News earlier on Sunday. Speaking with the host Maria Bartiromo via satellite, Mr. Giuliani repeated baseless claims about fraud in Georgia and Wisconsin on “Sunday Morning Futures.” When asked if he believed Mr. Trump still had a path to victory, he said, “We do.”

Melina Delkic and Bryan Pietsch contributed reporting.

The victims of coronavirus were remembered during a Mass at at Nembro’s cemetery in November.Credit…Fabio Bucciarelli for The New York Times

Every Monday night in the northern Italian town that had perhaps the highest coronavirus death rate in all of Europe, a psychologist specializing in post-traumatic stress leads group therapy sessions in the local church.

“She has treated survivors of war,” the Rev. Matteo Cella, the parish priest of the town, Nembro, in Bergamo province, said of the psychologist. “She says the dynamic is the same.”

First the virus exploded in Bergamo. Then came the shell shock. The province that first gave the West a preview of the horrors to come now serves as a disturbing postcard from the post-traumatic aftermath.

In small towns where many know one another, there is apprehension about other people, but also survivor’s guilt, anger, second thoughts about fateful decisions and nightmares about dying wishes unfulfilled. There is a pervasive anxiety that, with the virus surging anew, Bergamo’s enormous sacrifice will soon recede into history, that its towns will be forgotten battlefields from the great first wave.

And most of all there is a collective grappling to understand how the virus has changed people. Not just their antibodies, but their selves.

Bergamo, like everywhere, now confronts a second wave of the virus. But its sacrifice has left it better prepared than most places, as the widespread infection rate of the first wave has conferred a measure of immunity for many, doctors say. And its medical staff, by now drilled in the virus’s awful protocols, are taking in patients from outside the province to alleviate the burdens on overwhelmed hospitals nearby.

But the wounds of the first wave gnaw at them from within.

Talking about these things does not come easily to people in Italy’s industrial heartland, jammed with metal-mechanic and textile factories, paper mills, billowing smokestacks and gaping warehouses. They prefer to talk about how much they work. Almost apologetically they reveal that they are hurting.

Though no corner of the city has escaped the fallout, job losses have been concentrated in mostly Black and Latino areas like West Farms in the Bronx.Credit…Amr Alfiky/The New York Times

More than one in four workers in the West Farms neighborhood of the Bronx are out of work.

They were store clerks, hotel housekeepers, waitresses, cooks, for-hire drivers, security officers and maintenance workers before the coronavirus snatched away their livelihoods. Even before the outbreak, most were barely getting by on meager paychecks and scant savings.

Now their hopes for better lives are slipping away as they fall behind on rent, ration food and rack up credit card debt. Unemployment in this poor and largely Latino enclave of 19,000 was in double digits before the outbreak.

It has gotten far worse.

With an unemployment rate of 26 percent in September, West Farms has become a center of New York’s economic crisis, one of the hardest-hit urban communities in the country and emblematic of the pandemic’s uneven toll.

Though no corner of the city has escaped the fallout, the mass job losses have been concentrated in mostly Black and Latino pockets outside Manhattan that have long lagged economically behind the rest of the city. Communities like West Farms have also suffered disproportionately from the coronavirus itself, with higher rates of people becoming ill.

New York City’s economic crisis is among the worst in the nation, with unemployment at 13.2 percent in October, nearly double the national rate. But within the city, the pain varies vastly. Manhattan’s unemployment rate is 10.3 percent, but in the Bronx, the city’s poorest borough, it is 17.5 percent — the highest in the state.

In contrast, some of the city’s most affluent and largely white neighborhoods in Manhattan have fared far better. The unemployment rate on the Upper East Side was 5 percent in September, up from 1 percent in February. On the Upper West Side, it was 6 percent, up from 2 percent.

Poor workers, including many Black and Latino people, have been hurt much worse during the pandemic than by past recessions, including the 2008 financial crisis, said James Parrott, an economist with the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School.

He said the pandemic had triggered many more layoffs among lower-paid workers, while far fewer higher-paid workers — including those in finance, technology and professional services, who tend to be mostly white — have lost jobs or benefits.

Du Weimin, chairman of Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products, is one of the richest men in China.Credit…Yu Ga/Visual China

As a government regulator sidled into a car, the Chinese pharmaceutical executive handed over a paper bag stuffed with cash.

The executive, Du Weimin, was eager to get his company’s vaccines approved, and he needed help. The official took the money and vowed to try his best.

Several months later, Mr. Du got the greenlight to begin clinical trials for two vaccines. They were ultimately approved, generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue.

The government official was jailed in 2016 for taking bribes from Mr. Du and several other vaccine makers. Mr. Du was never charged.

His company, Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products, produces about one-quarter of the world’s supply of vaccines. And Mr. Du, who has been called the “king of vaccines,” is one of the richest men in China.

Capitalizing on that success, Mr. Du and his company are at the forefront of the race to produce a coronavirus vaccine, a national priority for China’s ruling Communist Party. Kangtai will be the exclusive manufacturer in mainland China for the vaccine made by AstraZeneca, and the companies could work together on deals for other countries. Kangtai is also in early trials for its own candidate.

As the Chinese government has pushed to develop vaccine companies of global renown, the state has fostered and protected an industry plagued by corruption and controversy.

Drug companies, eager to get their products into the hands of consumers, have used financial incentives to sway poorly compensated government workers for regulatory approvals. Hundreds of Chinese officials have been accused of taking bribes in cases involving vaccine companies.

Oversight has been weak, contributing to scandals over substandard vaccines. While the government after each incident has vowed to do more to clean up the industry, regulators have rarely provided much information about what went wrong. Companies have been allowed to continue operating.

Dr. Ray Yip, a former head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in China, said he considers Kangtai to be among the top tiers of the country’s vaccine companies, adding that he “has no problem” with the manufacturing and technology standards of most players.

“The problem for many of them is their business practice,” Dr. Yip said. “They all want to sell to the local governments, so they have to do kickbacks, they have to bribe.”

Kangtai did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

In a statement, AstraZeneca said it “conducts appropriate and thorough due diligence prior to entering an agreement with any entity.”

The lack of transparency, compounded by dubious business practices, has rattled public confidence in Chinese-made vaccines, even though they have been proved safe. Many well-off parents shun them, preferring their Western counterparts.

Christmas decorations in London last week.Credit…Andrew Testa for The New York Times

As a deadly wave of coronavirus cases extends across Europe, several countries are planning to loosen restrictions over the holidays to allow families and friends to gather.

In a four-day period beginning Dec. 23, people across Britain can form a Christmas bubble, which will allow members of up to three households to spend time together in private homes or to attend places of worship.

In Germany, officials have agreed to extend a partial lockdown to Jan. 10, but loosen restrictions from Dec. 23 to Jan. 1, allowing private gatherings of as many as 10 people from any number of households. Spanish officials have decided to allow travel between regions to see relatives and close friends, but said that social gatherings around Christmas and New Year’s Day must be limited to 10 people if not from the same household.

In France, residents will be under a nationwide curfew from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. beginning Dec. 15, when a national lockdown ends. However, the curfew will not apply from Christmas Eve to New Year’s Eve, officials said.

“We will be able to travel without authorization, including between regions, and spend Christmas with our families,” President Emmanuel Macron of France said.

Norway, one of the few European countries to keep a second wave at bay, currently limits private gatherings to five guests. But around the Christmas period, the country will allow residents to double their guests over any two days. However, people must continue to socially distance.

While some countries are becoming more permissive, Italy will tighten its restrictions on Christmas Day, Dec. 26 and New Year’s Day, when residents will be prohibited from leaving their hometowns. Travel will be banned between regions in Italy from Dec. 21 through Jan. 6, and an 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew will be implemented.

Delicate attempts at balancing a typically social time of year and easing the burden on hospitals arrived after nearly 105,000 people died of Covid-19 in November in 31 countries monitored closely by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

Health experts have cautioned that holiday travel could drive new spikes in cases.

Workers from the Bearded Fishermen charity patrolling an area known as a suicide hot spot near Gainsborough, England, last month.Credit…Andrew Testa for The New York Times

The past few weeks have been busy for the Bearded Fishermen, a mental health charity in England. With the country just emerging from a second lockdown, the group has seen a measurable uptick in calls for support and an increasing need for its crisis services as the community grapples with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

“The cold and wet weather, long nights, it does affect a lot of people,” said Mick Leyland, a founder. “And being on lockdown as well, it’s even worse.” In one recent week alone, they had responded to a number of crisis calls, including some from people threatening to take their own lives.

With the pandemic devastating Britain and two national lockdowns leaving many feeling isolated, experts say there are rising concerns about the mental health and well-being of people across the country. Research has shown a rise in reports of loneliness, a particular concern for young people, difficulties for those with pre-existing mental health issues and an increase in reports of suicidal ideation.

Though there is no recorded uptick in the national suicide rate yet, the risk of suicide among middle-age men remains concerning in Britain, where for decades the group has made up the highest number of suicide deaths.

The impact of the pandemic and its knock-on effects — lockdowns, an economic downturn and social isolation — on mental health have been well documented around the world. And in Britain, which is simultaneously grappling with the highest number of Covid-19 deaths in Europe and a deep recession, health experts worry that the impact could be felt for years to come.

People in Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia, on November 15.Credit…Erik Anderson/EPA, via Shutterstock

Australian states on Monday celebrated “Freedom Day,” as coronavirus restrictions eased in the lead up to Christmas and summer in the Southern Hemisphere.

In New South Wales and Victoria, more people will be allowed in bars, restaurants, shops and places of worship, and dance halls will be reopened in a limited capacity.

“From Monday, life will be very different,” said Gladys Berejiklian, the premier of New South Wales.

In Sydney, Australia’s most populous city, up to 50 people will be allowed on dance floors at weddings, and attendance at funerals will be unlimited. Up to 5,000 people will be permitted at seated outdoor events, and from next week, workers are being encouraged to return to the office.

In Victoria, where an outbreak in July sent the city of Melbourne into one of the world’s longest and strictest lockdowns, people can now have 30 people over at their homes and gather in groups of 100 outside. Masks, previously mandated, have to be worn only on public transport, in indoor shopping centers and crowded places.

Melbourne welcomed its first international visitors since June on Monday, when a jet carrying 253 passengers arrived from Sri Lanka. The travelers will quarantine for 14 days in hotels under strict conditions.

Last month, Victoria achieved effective elimination of the virus, and has now gone 38 days without a new case. But as people celebrated across the country, Daniel Andrews, the premier of Victoria, warned that even with the eased restrictions, there was a need to remain vigilant.

“This thing is not done,” Mr. Andrews told reporters on Sunday. “It is not over, it can come back.”

A Michigan pastor is under fire for telling his congregation to catch the coronavirus and “get it over with.”

He made the remarks during a sermon on Nov. 15, as a sort of aside while he preached about other issues. “Several people have had Covid — none have died yet. It’s OK,” said Bart Spencer, a pastor at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Holland, Mich., referring to some in his congregation. “Get it, get it over with, press on,” he advised.

Bart Spencer, senior pastor of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Holland, Mich.Credit…via The Holland Sentinel

The video was shared on Facebook about two weeks later and made waves across the country as another symbol of the divide between those who want pandemic restrictions scrapped now, regardless of rising infections, and those who urge continued caution.

In comments posted underneath the video, some voiced support of the pastor and others called his sermon reckless.

Mr. Spencer’s remarks echoed a push among some conservatives for a herd immunity approach — allowing the virus to rage unchecked until so many people have antibodies to the virus that it can no longer spread readily. Some, like Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, have claimed that surviving an infection confers superior protection compared with a vaccine.

But the course of any one patient’s infection is nearly impossible to predict, and the immunity it eventually confers is believed to vary greatly.

The Lighthouse Baptist Church did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday, but Mr. Spencer told a TV station in Grand Rapids, WXMI, that he stood by his statements. “I would never tell them to go get sick, but you don’t know how you’re going to get it,” he said.

Mr. Spencer said in an interview with The Holland Sentinel that he and members of his family had contracted the virus and had recovered.

Holland, in Ottawa County, has been hit hard lately. Over the last week, the county has averaged about 86 new cases a day for every 100,000 people, well above Michigan’s average of 69, according to a New York Times database.

In all, the county has reported 15,326 coronavirus cases through Saturday, about 5.3 percent of the population. Most experts estimate that achieving herd immunity would require at least 10 times that number.

[some1s-sista]

Sunday Confessions

I've had a completely lazy weekend. I've gone nowhere and haven't done much but cook a bunch (that's relaxing for me) and cleaned a few things. Hell, I never even put on pants yesterday.

Another shooting. More thoughts and prayers but nothing will be different, nothing will change and it's just not shocking or surprising anymore. Once it was clear that the NRA and the politicians and the gun nuts were fine with 20+ babies being shot up and gun reform was STILL a bad thing...I lost all hope for any significant change. Guns and money are worth more than lives.

I had a cheat weekend and ate some prohibited carbs, mainly Halloween candy (all that sugar actually burns my mouth now) and then I made hash browns to go with our Saturday brekky and pancakes today. The rest of the time we were good. I don't think I did much damage. Back on track tomorrow!

Cut the little ones hairs tonight after their showers. Layered them both up a bit. Jim wants Fabio to get a boys cut, but I like his semi long hair! He's my skaterboi! So I just neatened it up ;)

His grandmother will HATE IT!!! Bone-us! Or bonus. You know what I mean!

[sowhatisthisfor]

Movies 2018

 List of films I watched in 2018 from best to worst.

Updated soon after I’ve seen them.

A Ghost Story [David Lowery, 2017, United States] No film has made me feel this melancholic ever. This is a film so profound, it examines existence in the simplest yet most esoteric way possible. It surely goes straight to the top of my all-time favourite list. 10/10

Burning (Boening) [Chang-dong Lee, 2018, South Korea] Shows the interrelation of hunger and class, the truths and the unknowns. Of how desires could either free you or cage you in unhappiness and despair. A mystery of misery that parallels its political viewpoint. 10/10

Roma [Alfonso Cuaron, 2018, Mexico] Its technical expertise in every element of every frame and composition is overwhelming. It's a movie about contrasts and how each opposite gives life balance, told with such authenticity, it's luxurious cinematic experience. 10/10

Women of the Weeping River [Dayoc, 2016, Philippines] A film about a generational blood feud, and also a metaphoric portrayal of the unending armed conflicts in Mindanao where the vulnerable is the most at risk, and the strong isn’t really unbreakable. 10/10

Kung Paano Hinihintay Ang Dapithapon [Carlo Catu, 2018, Philippines] a small film that tackles layers after layers of things too close to heart. Sincere and profound, definitely my favourite. 10/10  

Loveless (Nelyubov) [Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2018, Russia] cold and chilling in all aspect from start to end. It has such great observation of the recognizable societal apathy. 10/10

Beats Per Minute (BPM) [Robin Campillo, 2017, France] Goosebumps. This is a film clear of its objective, it is exhilarating and exhausting in the good kind of way. 10/10

Cold War (Zimna Wojna) [Pawel Pawlikowski, 2018, Poland] Makes something despairing so beautiful with its artful composition, rightly-paced narrative transition, and cold but affecting character treatment. 10/10

Faces Places [JR, Agnès Varda, 2018, France] Wow. This is the film to watch when your soul is dying for art. Tears, I can't help them from falling. 10/10

Sid & Aya [Irene Villamor, 2018, Philippines] It’s too beautiful, I’m crying halfway through the film for how beautiful it is. You can watch this film without audio and understand it by its lighting, it’s that amazing. 10/10

Arrhythmia (Aritmiya) [Boris Khlebnikov, 2017, Russia] For a movie with characters of increasingly tenuous emotional bond, this is teeming with sensitivity and sensibility. It has so much love, neutrality, and longing, yet so cold and fleeting. Definitely, an emotional rollercoaster of my liking. 10/10

Shoplifters [Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2018, Japan] a film that questions if blood is thicker than the ties that bind us. Here’s Kore-eda capturing our hearts again with his gently-observed humanism. 10/10

Gusto Kita With All My Hypothalamus [Dwein Baltazar, 2018, Philippines] a genius anti-romance that plays along the lines of loving the thought of being in love and making yourself believe in your own ethereality. I love it. 10/10

Balangiga: Howling Wilderness [Khavn, 2017, Philippines] Disheartening and provocative in all its hypnagogia. 10/10

A Star is Born [Bardley Cooper, 2018, United States] If only for its music and its astounding performances, I'm already sold. 10/10

Oda sa Wala [Dwein Baltazar, 2018, Philippines] Is an ode to nothing, to the unseen, to the nobody, to the dead that's more alive than the living and to the living that's more dead than those who died. Baltazar has this gilt-edged technique that leaves its audience wretched yet buoyant. 10/10

The Shape of Water [Guillermo del Toro, 2017, United States] Elegant in its visuals, storytelling, and performances. It is del Toro’s best yet. 10/10

The Guilty (Den Skyldige) [Gustav Möller, 2018, Denmark] Is clever in its minimalism. A fast-paced action thriller and a psychological suspense, all shot entirely between four walls. 9.5/10

Hereditary [Ari Aster, 2018, United States] Unsettling down to the core with a convincing cast and a powerful storytelling. 9.5/10 

Batch 81 [Mike de Leon, 1982, Philippines] In its subversiveness and its sardonic undertone is a remarkable spectacle of expertise, bravery, esoterica, and dynamism. 9.5/10 

Dogman [Matteo Garrone, 2018, Italy] Examines a man's need to be recognized as a chihuahua in a shepherd's world. 9.5/10

BuyBust [Erik Matti, 2018, Philippines] a spectacular display of astounding filmmaking where every element is designed and choreographed fittingly well. Entertaining yet harrowing from start to finish, it's the kind of film that stays. 9.5/10 

God’s Own Country [Francis Lee, 2017, United Kingdom] Features a kind of romance with such carefully-observed realism. It was very well portrayed. Very well. 9/10

Sunday's Illness (La Enfermedad del Doming) [Ramon Salazar, 2018, Spain] Scene after scene of mesmerizing mystery and such powerful attention to detail. 9/10 

Annihilation [Alex Garland, 2018, United States] Though at times flawed, it ended with such thought-provoking, ambitious, and lasting impact. 9/10 

Captain America: Civil War [Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, 2016, United States] it’s hard to point out which part of the film I didn’t like, that’s if I hated anything. 9/10 

The Florida Project [Sean Baker, 2017, United States] Kids, no matter the social class, are still just kids in search for adventure, friendship, and love. This movie doesn't feel like a movie at all, it's brilliant. 9/10

Signal Rock [Chito Rono, 2018, Philippines] Very raw and phenomenal. Each character formidably plays an important role in characterizing a small town of heartwarming spirit. If not for its distracting bad CGI which I think is unnecessary, I’d give it a perfect 10. 9/10

Beti [P. Sheshadri, 2017, India] manages to oppose patriarchy in Indian culture in such an innocent yet intelligible perspective. 9/10 

Train to Busan [Yeon Sang-ho, 2016, South Korea] When everyone's becoming a monster, humanity is the way to survive. Fast-paced. Thrilling. Heartfelt. I honestly feel like Train to Busan lacks a stronger female character, but it's interestingly very human that I'm completely captured by it. 9/10

ML [Benedict Mique, 2018, Philippines] teeming with ingenuity and masteful filmmaking, it’s a suspense too relevant for anyone to miss. 9/10

Liway [Kip Oebanda, 2018, Philippines] Is at most powerful when it exposes the correlation of facts and fiction. Doesn’t hit you right away but when it does, it hits hard. It hits still. 9/10

Sicilian Ghost Story [Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza, 2017, Italy, France, Switzerland] Cinematic and poetic. Beautiful in all its mythological symbolism. 9/10

Get Out [Jordan Peele, 2017, United States] a satire of utmost significance, it lives. 9/10

Si Chedeng at Si Apple [Rae Red, Fatrick Tabada, 2017, Philippines] Hilarious with punchlines, intelligent with comebacks. This is comedy with brain, soul, and heart. 9/10 

Happy as Lazzaro (Lazzaro Felice) [Alice Rohrwacher, 2018, Italy] a charming small film with a subtext of such vivid social allegory. 9/10

I am Not a Witch [Rungano Nyoni, 2018, United Kingdom] For a debut film, this is quite a remarkable take on exploitation, abuse, and misogyny. 9/10

A Quiet Place [John Krasinski, 2018, United States] For a film that’s supposed to be silent, I find it quite overscored. Still a good watch though. 9/10

Ang Panahon ng Halimaw [Lav Diaz, 2018, Philippines] Sarcasm at its best. Quite fun. 9/10

L'amant Double [Francois Ozon, 2018, France] Wild and mindblowing, a film of endless curiosity. 9/10

Seklusyon [Erik Matti, 2016, Philippines] a thought-provoking jewel on the corruption of divinity and an examination of people’s inner evils. 9/10

BlackKKansman [Spike Lee, 2018, United States] Although satirically exaggerated, this film is teeming with entertainment and importance. 8.5/10 

In This Corner of the World [Sunao Katabuchi, 2017, Japan] It stays. Films like this, they always do. 8.5/10

Euthanizer (Armomurhaaja} [Teemu Nikki, 2018, Finland] An examination of how suffering is commensurate with cruelty. For something so bleak, it is surprisingly a good exemplification of moral values. 8/10

Padman [R. Balki, 2018, India] Speaks volumes in a humorous way. Something enlightening and empowering, I love it. 8/10

Gutland [Govinda Van Maele, 2017, Luxembourg] For a debut feature, Van Maele is a master of slow-burn tension. 8/10

The Square [Ruben Ostland, 2017, Sweden, Denmark] An ironic and satiric take on elitism, privilege, and humanity. 8/10

A Prayer Before Dawn [Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, 2018, France, Thailand] For something that feels hesitant in showing violence, this is already quite a tough watch. 8/10

We Need to Talk About Kevin [Lynn Ramsey, 2012, United States]

A Taxi Driver [Hun Jang, 2017, South Korea] an entertaining yet affecting tribute to nameless heroes. 8/10

Memoir of War (La Douleur) [Emmanuel Finkiel, 2017, France] Sadly, its visual choices, experimental scoring, and drawn out structure don't match Marguerite Duras's poetic writing. 8/10

The Wound (Inxeba) [John Trengove, 2017, South Africa] More than the physical wound from a boy's transition to manhood, this movie tackles a deeper kind of pain, the kind that scars forever. 8/10

Pan de Salawal [Che Espiritu, 2018, Philippines] a hard-hitting reminder that the most painful challenges people overcome are also the most rewarding. Don’t be afraid to feel them all. 8/10

The Great Buddha+ [Hsin-yao Huang, 2018, Taiwan] Not sure if saying "this is my kind of humour" is something I should be proud of but damn this film is hilarious! Oh and really clever too. 8/10 

Leave No Trace [Debra Ganik, 2018, United States] a small film of massive authenticity and warm touch. It will leave a trace. 8/10

Manila by Night [Ishmael Bernal, 1980, Philippines] a classic representation of the realities of how Manila is a witness to the city's moral lethargy. 8/10 

Coco [Lee Unkrich, 2017, United States] Understands what La La Land doesn’t – relationships shouldn’t suffer when achieving our dreams. 8/10

Don’t Breathe [Fede Alvarez, 2016, United States] Alvarez has some serious skills to make this suspenseful with only a blind villain inside a small house. 8/10  

The Other Side of the Wind [Orson Welles, 2018, United States] Not for a Welles beginner but is surely a completist's delight. 7.5/10

Felicite [Alain Gomis, 2017, Senegal, Congo, France] With such lyrical tone, its narrative was thinly sketched that some of its elements don't match. 7.5/10

Malila: The Farewell Flower [Anucha Boonyawatana, 2018, Thailand] A beguiling narration of existentialism, redemption, and the philosophy of Buddhism. All told in such calming gaze, it's actually hypnotic. 7.5/10 

Revenge [Coralie Fargeat, 2018, France] Caution: explicit cursing while watching and cheering to this. 7.5/10 

Aria [Carlo Catu, 2018, Philippines] Could have gone deeper and darker to make a more harrowing but lasting impact. It borders on the safe side, but still able to tell something important. 7.5/10

Billie & Emma [Samantha Lee, 2018, Philippines] There's magic in its production design and an amusing chemistry that would remind you of what it's like to fall in love the first time. It is everyone's teenage romance, the kind that buries heteronormativity. 7.5/10

Of Love & Law [Hikaru Toda, 2017, Japan] Questions the intricacies of Japanese culture through a collection of simple yet meaningful moments. 7.5/10 

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom [JA Bayona, 2018, United States]

Saving Sally [Avid Liongoren, 2016, Philippines] Is the freshest and has the most creative visual style I’ve seen in a long long time. I want more of it. 7,5/10 

One Week Friends [Masanori Murakami, 2017, Japan]  There’s a good reason for my sunken eyes right now, right? 7.5/10 

Room 8 [James Griffiths, 2013, United States] Unique and smart. Too amazed, I had to share it with everyone. 7.5/10

Isle of Dogs [Wes Anderson, 2018, United States] A quirky imagination of a simple narrative, told in a hyper-stylized artistry. 7.5/10

Black Panther [Ryan Coogler, 2018, United States]

Hintayan ng Langit [Villegas, 2018] I'm not completely sold on a couple of its elements but boy, Gina Pareño is a gem. A sparkling one.  7.5/10  

Avengers: Infinity War [Anthony and Joe Russo, 2018, United States]

The Invitation [Karyn Kusama, 2016, United States] I know a psychological thriller like this is effective when I find myself so uncomfortable, wanting to leave, cautious of being brainwashed. 7.5/10

Ready Player One [Steven Spielberg, 2018, United States] Too amusing to the point of apathy. Still entertaining though. 7.5/10

Disobedience [Sebastian Lelio, 2018, Ireland] Depicts the beauty of internal turmoils and hidden desires, it’s gripping. 7.5/10

Apostasy [Daniel Kokotajlo, 2017, United Kingdom] the more it rolls, the more I loathe religion. 7.5/10 

Wonder Woman [Patty Jenkins, 2017, United States] More than it being a feminist is it being human and that I think is more important. 7.5/10 

Meet Me in St Gallen [Irene Villamor, 2018, Philippines]

Never Not Love You [Antoinette Jadaone, 2018, Philippines] Beautifully and realistically written. It’s just really hard for me to like Reid’s character. 7/10 

Eight Grade [Bo Burnham, 2018, United States] One of the most important and most natural teen movies of the year. 7/10

Cam [Daniel Goldhaber, 2018, United States] Pushing its flaws aside, this is actually quite an accomplished thriller of a possible near future. It didn't end with an impactful resolution though. 7/10

The Miseducation of Cameron Post [Desiree Akhavan, 2018, United States] Provocatively presents how emotionally abusing conversion therapy could be. 7/10

Crazy Rich Asians [Jon Chu, 2018, United States] Important and feel-good, but that's just it for me. 7/10

Distance [Perci Intalan, 2018, Philippines] a tender family drama with powerful performances of characters who choose to love no matter how wrong or right. 7/10 

Showroom [Fernando Molnar, 2014, Argentina] is a showroom of how beautiful and luxurious an artificial world could be. 7/10 

Contagion [Steven Soderbergh, 2011, United States] Believable but somehow lacking in its scare tactic. 7/10 

Zodiac [David Fincher, 2007, United States] Intelligent drama, boring thriller. Not a fan. 7/10

The Greatest Showman [Michael Gracey, 2018, United States]

Smaller and Smaller Circles [Raya Martin, 2017, Philippines] Suspense done right but there's something about its exchanges that seems unnatural. 7/10 

Pop Aye [Kirsten Tan, 2018, Thailand, Singapore] Is as slow but as heavy as its lead. 7/10

The Day After Valentine’s [Jason Paul Laxamana, 2018, Philippines] Brilliant in its canny use of language to illustrate people's tendency to miscommunicate emotions. 7/10 

Thoroughbreds [Cory Finley, 2018, United States] The kind of film that doesn't lead to what you think. It's black comedy of my liking. 7/10

Nearest and Dearest [Kseniya Zueva, 2017, Russia] displays the weakening social and moral values in contemporary Russian society. 6.5/10 

Hearts Beat Loud [Brett Haley, 2018, United States] Magical in its little ways. 6.5/10

Me Casé Con Un Boludo [Juan Taratuto, 2016, Argentina] Nothing much in here but laughter after laughter. 6.5/10

Delinquent [Kieran Valla, 2016, United States] a small-town thriller with a set location that breathes on its own. 6.5/10

Ang Babaeng Allergic sa Wifi [Jun Lana, 2018, Philippines] I thought it was just a cutesy take on appreciating moments and living life in the present, but heck no, prepare to find your tears falling. 6.5/10

Bakwit Boys [Jason Paul Laxamana, 2018, Philippines] a warm and light-hearted family drama with beautiful original songs to brag about. 6.5/10

Musmos Na Sumibol sa Gubat ng Digma [Iar Arondaing, 2018, Philippines] At times, it feels like it's trying too hard both to make a point and to sound subtle to a point that it feels a bit disconnected. 6.5 /10 

What If It Works [Romi Trower, 2018, Australia] Delightfully charming amidst the chaos of mental disorders. Works quite well. 6.5 /10

Eternity Between Seconds [Jan Alec Figuracion, 2018, Philippines] There’s comfort somewhere between the discomforts of bad acting here. 6.5 /10

Love, Simon [Greg Berlanti. 2018, United States] It’s a very familiar coming-of-age romance, but that familiarity is what made it stand out. 6.5 /10

Blockers [Kay Cannon, 2018, United States] Definitely my kind of humour. The sarcastic wit is overflowing. 6.5 /10

Alex Strangelove [CraigJohnson, 2018, United States] Nothing too new but isn't short of likeable. 6.5/10

Lobster Cop [Li Xinyun, 2018, China] Hilarious. I’d like it to be more brutal with its action scenes but it’s already otherwise quite entertaining. 6.5/10

Ant-man and the Wasp [Peyton Reed, 2018, United States] Funny as always, but I'm in love with Paul Rudd so I must be biased. 6.5/10

Kuya Wes [James Mayo, 2018, Philippines] explores the fundamental need of being appreciated in a light yet stinging narrative. I don't like a number of things, but the soundtrack works well, it's satiating. 6.5/10 

To All the Boys I've Loved Before [Susan Johnson, 2018, United States] There's substance in its shallowness, it's charming. 6.5/10

The Snow White Murder Case [Yoshihiro Nakamura, 2014, Japan] It’s a little too long to keep it entirely interesting. 6.5/10

Cardinals [Grayson Moore, Aidan Shipley, 2018, Canada] It was burning slowly until it was shot to the head. Could have been more painful if not for its loose ending. 6.5/10

Unli Life [Miko Livelo, 2018, Philippines] Not a fan of its comedic banters but I find its rare seriousness quite a gem. 6.5/10

The Cured [David Freyne, 2018, United Kingdom]

Sympathy for Mr Vengeance [Park Chan-wook, 2002, South Korea]

Berlin Syndrome [Cate Shortland, 2017, Australia, Germany] Cold and riveting with a third act that would push you to the edge. 6.5/10 

Wonder [Stephen Chbosky, 2018, United States]

12 Strong [Nicolai Fuglsig, 2018, United States] All that technical expertise and still end up saying nothing. 6/10

Goodbye, Grandpa [Yukihiro Morigaki, 2017, Japan] depicts the kind of mourning we tend to overlook and is only intensified by the bonding of family. 6/10 

Deadpool 2 [David Leitch, 2018, United States] Started off fun, ended up exhausting. 6/10

Bird Box [Susanne Bier, 2018, United States] a film with no emotional connection, no proper climax, and therefore no sensical resolution. 6/10

Madilim Ang Gabi [Adolf Alix, 2018, Philippines] seems like a show-off of stars after stars after stars playing bit roles to the point that it already feels unauthentic. 6/10 

Call Her Ganda [PJ Raval, 2018, Canada, Philippines] I'm not convinced of its storytelling, still an important one to watch though. 6/10 

A Million Happy Nows [Albert Alarr, 2017, United States] Despite the smallness of this film, it actually hits big. 6/10 

Bomba [Ralston Jover, 2017, Philippines] is brave in its defiance, bold in its commentary but it somehow failed to deliver. 6/10

Oceans 8 [Gary Ross, 2018, United States] Slow and mediocre, quite a waste of powerhouse cast. 6/10

Koxa [Ekrem Engizek, 2018, Turkey, Germany] Uninteresting for the kind of fact it exposes. 6/10

2 Cool 2 be Forgotten [Petersen Vargas, 2017, Philippines]

Beastmode [Manuel Mesina III, 2018, Philippines] ingenious and inventive but it’s not the kind I enjoy. 6/10 

Dedma Walking [Julius Alfonso, 2017, Philippines]

Can We Still Be Friends [Prime Cruz, 2017, Philippines]

The Belko Experiment [Greg McLean, 2017, United States] The experiment and the film are both pointless, but pointless sometimes is entertaining. 6/10

Hooked [Max Emerson, 2018, United States]

Sierra Burgess is a Loser [Ian Samuels, 2018, United States] I was enjoying it until its last act which felt rushed and unnatural. 5/10

Skyscraper [Rawson Marshall Thurber, 2018, United States] Plot after plot of action-packed impossibilities. 5/10

Glorious [Connie Macatuno, 2018, Philippines] Watching it is like riding a taxi cab with a clutch driver, it’s making me dizzy. 5/10

Rampage [Brad Peyton, 2018, United States] Feels like a bargain with nothing much to offer but cool CGI. 5/10

Je Ne Suis Pas Un Homme Facile [Eleonore Pourriat, 2018, France]  

Mga Mister Ni Rosario [Alpha Habon, 2018, Philippines] Entertaining but also miserably problematic. 5/10

Carrie [Kimberly Peirce, 2014, United States] Is quite an urban myth version of a school shooting. 5/10

Rough Night [Lucia Aniello, 2017, United States] Watched it on a plane, not sure if it's as fun if landed. 5/10

Bomba [Rolston Jover, 2017, Philippines] is brave in its defiance, bold in its commentary but it somehow failed to deliver. 5/10 

Avengers: Age of Ultron [Joss Whedon, 2015, United States] Boring with a capital B. 5/10

The Meg [Jon Turteltaub, 2018, United States] Mediocre. Very mediocre. 5/10

Final Score [Scott Mann, 2018, United States] It has potential but didn't quite scored a goal. 5/10

Uncle Drew [Charles Stone III, 2018, United States] I can't force myself to get comfortable watching this. 5/10

A Piece of Paradise [Patrick Alcedo, 2017, Canada, Philippines] It’s okay but there’s nothing much in there. 5/10

Happy Death Day [Christopher Landon, 2018, United States]

The Flu [Kim Sung-soo, 2013, South Korea] Stupid but fun. It's the kind of silly you enjoy. 5/10

Ali and Nino [Asif Kapadia, 2017, Azerbaijan, Georgia] Badly-acted, badly-designed production. Offers nothing much of excitement. 4/10 

Unexpectedly Yours [Cathy Garcia-Molina, Philippines, 2017] Fun at times. Corny at most. 4/10 

Forget About Nick [Margarethe von Trotta, 2017, Germany] is as if made as an example of movies that failed the Bechdel test from supposed to be feminist directors. 4/10 

I Love You, Hater [Giselle Andres, 2018, Philippines] I find its main plot gender insensitive so it’s a nope nope for me. 4/10

The Mumbai Siege: 4 Days of Terror (One Less God) [Lliam Worthington, 2018, Australia, India] That’s an annoying take on a siege that marked world history. 4/10

Life is What You Make It [Jhett Tolentino, 2018, United States, Philippines] For some reasons, I’m not sold on how it tries to inspire. 4/10 

We Will Not Die Tonight [Richard Somes, 2018, Philippines] If you're looking for brutal action and relentless stabbing where blood and sweat are like fireworks, go see it. If you're looking for sense or better fight choreographies, go somewhere else. 3/10 

Bleeding Steel [Leo Zhang, 2018, Hong Kong] Feels like switching between channels. 3/10

Citizen Jake [Mike de Leon, 2018, Philippines] Is like a collection of everything de Leon wants to try. Not effective at that. 3/10

On Again Off Again [Arsalan Shirazi, 2017, Canada, India] Undesirable characters in undesirable performances. 3/10

Jigsaw [Spirieg brothers, 2017, United States]

Tomb Raider [Roar Uthaug, 2018, United States] Impossible but fun. 3/10

Insidious (The Last Key) [Adam Robitel, 2018, United States] 

Pitch Perfect 3: Last Call Pitches [Trish Sie, 2018, United States] The worst of them all pitches. 3/10

When We First Met [Ari Sandel, 2018, United States]

Attack on Titan: Part 1 [Shinji Higuchi, 2015, Japan] Lacks character development, lacks plot continuity, it’s the movie adaptation disappointment of the decade. 3/10

Alright Now [Jamie Adams, 2018, United States] is said to be a feel-good movie but more like a feel-regretful for the time wasted watching this. 3/10

Hostel [Eli Roth, 2006, United States] Nothing here is pleasing. Not its concept, not its execution, and not even its gore. Down to the trash bin. 3/10

One More Chance [Cathy Garcia-Molina, 2007, Philippines] I’m sorry, I really can’t stand this movie. 3/10

Slumber [Jonathan Hopkins, 2018, United States] Is a snoozefest as simple as that. 3/10

In Un Giorno La Fine (The End?) [Daniele Misischia, 2018, Italy] Is funny in a bad way. 3/10

Peter Rabbit [Will Gluck, 2018, United States] RBF the entire freaking time. 3/10

You, Me and Him [ Daisy Aitkens, 2018, United Kingdom] Just one of those films that pass you by. 3/10

The Dawnseeker [Justin Price, 2018, United States] With that kind of premise, I honestly wanted it to be at least a decent watch. It isn’t. 2/10

Mara [Clive Tonge, 2018, United States] Generic. Mediocre. Forgettable. 2/10

Office Uprising [Lin Oeding, 2018, United States] Dumb. 2/10

School Service [Louie Ignacio, 2018, Phiippines] the intention is there but the concept isn’t concrete enough to be decently executed. 2/10 

The Strangers: Prey at Night [Johannes Roberts, 2018, United States] What a freaking stupid family that was. I could go on and on and on with my disgust towards this movie, but the bacon is cooked and bacon is more important. 1/10

The Matchmaker's Playbook [Tosca Musk, 2018, United States] a misogynist piece of bullcrap. 1/10

The Do-Over [Steven Brill, 2016, United States] Wow. That was boring. 1/10

Aswang [Michael Laurin, 2018, United States] a film perfect for when you can’t sleep. 1/10

The Lookout [Afi Africa, 2018, Philippines] is a joke after joke after joke, so unfunny, it deserves a laugh. 1/10