Legendary American actor said football unites nations. “Football spans the world, unites nations in their love of the beautiful game. What brings together nations, brings together communities,” said Freeman…reports Asian Lite News
One of the most popular faces in Hollywood Morgan Freeman and South Korean singer BTS’ Jung Kook stole the limelight during a glittering opening of the FIFA World Cup 2022 at the Al Bayt Stadium here on Sunday.
One of the non-musical performers was American actor Morgan Freeman. The 85-year-old narrated the event live and delivered a speech about the “emotions that connect us all now”. It spanned around 20 minutes and kept the audience all around the world glued to their screens.
Legendary American actor said football unites nations. “Football spans the world, unites nations in their love of the beautiful game. What brings together nations, brings together communities,” said Freeman.
However, besides Freedman, the real star of the nearly hour-long ceremony had to be BTS’ Jung Kook laying down his new tune “Dreamers” for the 60,000-capacity stadium. Surrounded by dancers, the international superstar and South Korean supporter set the standard for World Cup opening ceremonies to come.
The stadium was also packed as the glitz and glamour of the ceremony caught all the limelight. Some of the superstars of the world performed.
Among the famous faces in the crowd was former England captain David Beckham, who has been working as an ambassador for Qatar 2022.
One of the most colourful elements of the show was an appearance by all former World Cup mascots, including South Africa’s Zakumi and Footix from France 1998.
After the performances, His Highness The Amit, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani gave a speech.
“Welcome and good luck to all,” he said in English. His speech was followed by loud cheers by the crowd.
The audiences will get to know where all the protagonist goes but they will not be able to find out the story or the climax of the film.”…reports Asian Lite News
In what could well be a first-of-its-kind move, National Award-winning actor and director Parthiban says that he will first screen the making-of video of his single-shot, non-linear film ‘Iravin Nizhal’ for audiences before screening the actual film to them.
In an exclusive interview, director Parthiban, who has a penchant for pushing boundaries, said, ” We will first screen the making video of the film, which will be almost half-an-hour long, to all audiences who come to watch my film. This will be followed by a short five to 10-minute break. After that, the actual screening will start and there will be no interval break during the screening then.”
Explaining why he had embarked on such a move, Parthiban says, “Most people do not know what a single-shot, non-linear film is. So, this video will enable them to appreciate the film better. Also, when I screened my film to some friends, I did not show them the making video. After the screening, some had a smile that gave away what they were thinking. Some thought that I must have shot different shots and edited them together. However, when I showed them the making video, they realised how wrong they were.”
But won’t this move take away the suspense element or won’t it give away the plot to audiences? Says Parthiban with confidence, “No, it won’t. The audiences will get to know where all the protagonist goes but they will not be able to find out the story or the climax of the film.”
‘Iravin Nizhal’ (which means ‘Shadow of the Night’, has music by Oscar winner A.R. Rahman and cinematography by Arthur A. Wilson. The film is all set to hit screens in July.
In total, over a quarter-million people tuned in to see the band speak on the White House’s YouTube live stream…reports Asian Lite News
For the final day of Asian American and Pacific Islanders Heritage, K-pop supergroup BTS stopped by the White House on Tuesday to speak with US President Joe Biden about Asian inclusion and representation.
Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre introduced the group and RM kicked off the press conference in English by introducing themselves and thanking the White House and Biden for the opportunity to speak on “the important issues of anti-Asian hate crimes, Asian inclusion and diversity,” reports ‘Variety’.
Then, each of the guys took turns speaking in Korean with Jin and Jimin expressing how honoured they were to be standing for their community at the White House on the last day of AAPI Month.
Jimin said: “We were devastated by the recent surge of hate crimes�to put a stop to this and support the cause, we’d like to take this opportunity to (lend our voices).”
J Hope added: “We are here today thanks to our Army – our fans worldwide – who have different nationalities and cultures and use different languages. We are truly and always grateful.”
Jungkook concluded their speech by sharing that the band was “still surprised that music created by South Korean artists reaches so many people around the world… we believe music is always an amazing and wonderful unifier of all things.”
Suga also added, “It’s not wrong to be different, equality begins when we open up and embrace all of our differences.”
V said: “We hope today is one step forward to respecting and understanding each and everyone as a valuable person.”
In total, over a quarter-million people tuned in to see the band speak on the White House’s YouTube livestream.
Amid last year’s spike of anti-Asian hate crimes in the US, BTS spoke out about their own experience with discrimination via Twitter saying: “We cannot put into words the pain of becoming the subject of hatred and violence for such a reason. Our own experiences are inconsequential compared to the events that have occurred over the past few weeks. But these experiences were enough to make us feel powerless and chip away our self-esteem.”
In May of 2021, Biden signed a bipartisan bill geared at addressing the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes into law in May 2021. The bill was introduced to aid the reporting of hate crimes, making them more easily accessible at the local and state levels by boosting public outreach.
As a part of this year’s AANHPI Heritage Month, Biden issued a proclamation late last month about the contributions of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders to the country’s history and culture.
He and Vice President Kamala Harris – who is half Indian – also hosted a White House reception earlier in the month that included US Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
Two days later, the White House lauded the passage of legislation to establish a commission to study the possible creation of a National Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture.
In recent months the President has welcomed several performers, including Olivia Rodrigo and the Jonas Brothers, to the White House, most often as part of vaccination efforts.
Apart from the Investment agreements with the UAE, India’s premier IT state Karnataka will be looking at Global alliances with several other countries, reports Vijay Grover
The Bengaluru Tech Summit, 2021 India’s largest Information Technology event will for the first time see United Arab Emirates, South Africa, and Vietnam participating in the Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS-2021) which will be held from Nov 17-19 in Bengaluru.
Speaking to media in Bengaluru, Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, the Minister for Information Technology and Biotechnology spoke about the growing Global Investment Alliance Partnerships at BTS 2021. Minister expressed happiness that new countries are keen on joining GIA to explore areas of collaboration. Speaking about the key role that many UAE based companies would be playing in helping shape Bengaluru’s future , minister said an avant-garde ‘Design District’ will come up in Bengaluru on the lines of Dubai Design District (d3).
The proposed Bengaluru Design District will be set up with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore, the minister had announced returning from his 4-day trip to the Dubai Expo. “Karnataka is an ideal destination for investments and investors from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) agree on this. As a result, Bengaluru will soon get a world-class Design District on lines if d3,” said the Karnataka IT Minister.
The Bengaluru Design District will come up on an area spread over 100-150 acres. “Here, everything businesses need at a global level will be designed. It will be a place where design, art and fashion will meet,” Ashwath Narayan said.
The Dubai Design District is a mix of art-café culture, bespoke interior design stores, street sculptures, creative agencies, a skate park and a lot more, One can find dozens of reasons to visit the delightful Dubai Design District. The Bengaluru design park will take inspiration from the d3 Mr Ashwath Narayan who had visited Dubai said “fruitful talks” were held with investors, especially Decker & Halabi, on establishing a water theme park in the state. “A delegation of GCC will visit Karnataka in November to sign investment agreements,”
Apart from the Investment agreements with the UAE, India’s premier IT state Karnataka will be looking at Global alliances with several other countries. “For the first time, mutual participation of Karnataka and Australia through BTS and Sydney Dialogue is being arranged. These will cover Quad space collaboration and Foreign Ministers of both countries will address on the impact of tech on democracy,” Narayan explained. ‘Beyond Bengaluru’ will be focused to encourage setting up sister city collaborations with emerging cities of Karnataka and GIA partner countries in the event which is likely to see large participation also from the European Union and Commonwealth countries.
Highlighting sessions include “Deepening India – Australia ties in ‘tech & innovation” by Australia, “Healthcare & Medical Technology” by Germany, “Digital Health in Finland: Developing AI and VR tools to support the growth of health technology businesses” by Finland among others, Minister Narayan added.
GIA sessions will throw light on key issues of Cyber Security and Related Research Applications, Digital trust in a post-pandemic world, Driving Next with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Developing Artificial Intelligence and Visual Reality Tools for developing health care technology. He further told, Virtual booths set up by Australia, Pennsylvania, UK, Toronto Business Development Centre, NRW, USA will be part of the event.
Other notable sessions include “Deepening India – Australia ties in ‘tech & innovation” by Australia, “Healthcare & Medical Technology” by Germany, “Digital Health in Finland: Developing AI and VR tools to support the growth of health technology businesses” by Finland among others.
The UAE delegation will include the Evolvence Group, Crescent Group, Decker & Halabi, Aster DM Healthcare, Meitra Hospital and Mubadala Investment Company among others who have shown interest to invest in Karnataka. The Gulf Islamic Investment Group alone will invest Rs 3,500 crore in India over a 3-year period. “The group will open an office in Bengaluru soon and an agreement was signed with them in Dubai,” Ashwath Narayan said.
