Human Remains Found During Search For Missing Idaho Children

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Human Remains Found During Search For Missing Idaho Children

The stepfather of two Idaho children who have been missing since September was arrested after human remains were found during a search of his home, authorities said.

Chad Daybell was taken into custody Tuesday on a felony charge and is being held without bond following the discovery at his Fremont County home, the county sheriff’s office said.

The remains have yet to be identified and an autopsy is planned, Gary Hagen, assistant chief of the Rexburg Police Department, said at a press conference Tuesday evening that did not allow questions from the media.



Chad Daybell was arrested Tuesday after authorities said they found human remains on his Idaho property. 

Tylee Ryan, 17, and Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, haven’t been seen since September, though they were not reported missing until November. The children’s mother, Lori Vallow, has been behind bars on charges related to their disappearance since February.

On Oct. 19, Chad Daybell’s wife, Tammy, died in her sleep at the couple’s Idaho home. Her body was exhumed in December for testing, though any results have not been publicly released. 

A few weeks later, Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow moved to Hawaii the day after authorities in Idaho visited their home to check on the children. Daybell and Vallow then got married in Hawaii. 

Tylee Ryan, 17, and Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, haven’t been seen since September.



Tylee Ryan, 17, and Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, haven’t been seen since September.

Authorities have repeatedly described Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow as uncooperative during their search for the two children, though Daybell told a reporter back in March that the kids “are safe,” without elaborating on their whereabouts.

Both Daybell and Vallow have been described by family as very religious and obsessed with the afterlife.

Daybell has written several books on the end of the world and the Christian belief in Christ’s return to Earth. Vallow’s family has described her as being fascinated with the afterlife to the point where she may have become a danger to herself.

Lori Vallow, also known as Lori Daybell, is behind bars on charges related to the disappearance of her two children. 



Lori Vallow, also known as Lori Daybell, is behind bars on charges related to the disappearance of her two children. 

Vallow’s previous husband, Charles Vallow, said in divorce papers that she needed psychiatric help. He said she was obsessed with near-death experiences and believed she had lived numerous lives on other planets before her current life. He sought an order of protection as well as a mental health evaluation of his wife before his death last summer, The Associated Press reported.

Charles Vallow was fatally shot by Lori Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox, during what Cox said was an act of self-defense. Cox then died in December of natural causes, an autopsy determined in May.



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Women’s eggs prefer some men’s sperm over others, research shows

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Women’s eggs prefer some men’s sperm over others, research shows


Eggs can afford to be choosy when it comes to sperm (Credits: Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF)

Whatever the level of attraction a woman feels for a man, the same may not always be the case for her eggs.

That’s according to a new study that looked into the chemicals used by a female egg to attract male sperm.

‘Human eggs release chemicals called chemoattractants that attract sperm to unfertilized eggs. We wanted to know if eggs use these chemical signals to pick which sperm they attract,’ said John Fitzpatrick, an associate professor at Stockholm University, which partnered with the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) for the study.

The scientists specifically looked at follicular fluid, which surrounds the eggs and contains the chemicals that attract sperm. They wanted to see if the fluids from different women attracted certain sperm more than others.

And, to put it bluntly, it does.

‘Follicular fluid from one female was better at attracting sperm from one male, while follicular fluid from another female was better at attracting sperm from a different male,’ said Professor Fitzpatrick.

‘This shows that interactions between human eggs and sperm depend on the specific identity of the women and men involved.’


Surrogate mother who changed her mind must hand baby to gay couple
A woman’s egg may not be attracted to her partner’s sperm (Credits: Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF)

What’s more, it seems that even if a woman has chosen a partner to mate with, it’s not a given her egg and his sperm will attract each other.

The research team obtained anonymous egg and sperm samples from couples undergoing IVF at St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester.

According to Professor Fitzpatrick, sperm have only one job — to fertilise the eggs. So they won’t be choosy about which egg they fertilise. However it seems human eggs have evolved to benefit by picking high quality or genetically compatible sperm.

‘The idea that eggs are choosing sperm is really novel in human fertility’ said Professor Daniel Brison, the scientific director of the Department of Reproductive Medicine at Saint Mary’s.


IVF treatment. Technician injecting human sperm into a human egg cell using a technique known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). This technique is used for in vitro fertilisation (IVF). The injected sperm fertilises the egg.
A technician injecting human sperm into a human egg cell using a technique known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). (Science Photo Library (Photographer)

‘Research on the way eggs and sperm interact will advance fertility treatments and may eventually help us understand some of the currently ‘unexplained’ causes of infertility in couples.’



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What to Cook Right Now

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What to Cook Right Now

Good morning. Nicole Taylor leads the Food section we printed last night, with a story about how the coronavirus and protests over the killing of George Floyd have added complicated textures to the coming celebrations of Juneteenth, the June 19 holiday that honors the day in 1865 when, Nicole writes, enslaved Africans in Galveston, Texas, learned from Union soldiers that they were free, two years after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

For her article, Nicole spoke to chefs from across the nation and came back with recipes: for Memphis ribs and Memphis mushrooms, using a dry rub from Greg Collier, and for his sweet potato pikliz; and for Edouardo Jordan’s Juneteenth red punch (above). She also curated a collection of NYT Cooking recipes for the holiday.

Priya Krishna, meanwhile, took a look at how Sikhs in America are handling life amid a pandemic and against the backdrop of the protests: by cooking as an act of faith, and providing for people in need.

For her weekly column, Melissa Clark introduced us to a new recipe for strawberry shortbread, a kind of cross between strawberry shortcake and a strawberry tart.

And for his monthly column, David Tanis dug into the pantry to examine his collection of canned fish, emerging with three new recipes of his own: for crostini with sun-dried tomato and anchovy; for tuna-stuffed piquillo peppers; and for spicy clam pasta with bacon, peas and basil.

So there’s lots to read and cook today. Additionally, you might find yourself interested in Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipe for roasted asparagus with buttered almonds, capers and dill, or Kay Chun’s recipe for roasted salmon with miso rice and ginger-scallion vinaigrette, or this recipe Jeff Gordinier secured from the chef Nick Anderer, back when he was cooking at Marta in New York, for grilled broccoli with apricot puttanesca.

I like that last one with grilled chicken thighs, no-recipe-style, brushed in oil, showered with salt and pepper, and cooked slowly on the other side of the grill from the broccoli. Hit them with fresh thyme and a squeeze of lemon when you serve.

Thousands and thousands more recipes, actual recipes, are waiting for you on NYT Cooking. A lot more of them than usual are free to use even if you aren’t yet a subscriber to our site and apps. But I hope you will think about subscribing all the same. Your subscription supports our work.

And please get in touch if anything goes wrong along the way. We are here to serve: cookingcare@nytimes.com. We will get back to you.

Now, here’s a fun idea for later today. Our Kim Severson and the food personality Ted Allen will gather virtually at 5 p.m. Eastern time to talk about cooking with kids. At least that’s the prompt. Kim takes the people she interviews on journeys. A lot of subjects should come up. You can sign up to watch them here, and I hope you’ll do so.

My former colleague Rochelle Oliver is the editor of Island and Spice, a digital magazine devoted to Caribbean cuisine and living. In it, you’ll find this terrific essay from Paula Madison, about growing up black, Chinese and Jamaican-American in Harlem in the 1960s.

Finally, it’s nothing to do with vanilla beans or blueberry pie, but you might want to check out this puppy cam situation at Guide Dogs of America. Soothing. I’ll be back on Friday.

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Has Lindsey Graham Become Too Trumpy for South Carolina? Not So Fast.

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Has Lindsey Graham Become Too Trumpy for South Carolina? Not So Fast.

Before the victory of Mr. Cunningham, who declined a request to be interviewed, the sole route to prominence as a Democrat in South Carolina went solely through Representative James E. Clyburn, the powerful House majority whip, who is even more influential on a local level.

Mr. Harrison, who was once an aide for Mr. Clyburn, said he recognized the long odds of his task, but believes he is well-positioned to win. He identified two things he needed to do: Replicate Mr. Cunningham’s success with white, college-educated voters, and increase the share of the black electorate by bringing in new voters.

Mr. Harrison, the first black chairman of the state Democratic Party and a former Washington lobbyist, has toed a moderate line when it comes to policy.

He has stayed away from issues that have become litmus tests for progressives, such as “Medicare for all” and tuition-free college. Instead, his website speaks about issues like health care and the student loan crisis in broad, vague terms, saying he supports “lowering the cost of health care for those who already pay too much” and making “college affordable for anyone willing to work hard.”

In the interview, Mr. Harrison hinted that he would need third-party candidates to take votes from Mr. Graham in the general election. No matter Mr. Graham’s best efforts, he speculated, the lingering perception of him as insufficiently conservative could lead to fractures among Republicans.

“Some of those folks just can’t trust this guy because he’s been on both sides of every issue,” Mr. Harrison said. “There’s going to be alternatives on the ballot this fall. There’s a Constitution Party person. There’s a Libertarian Party person. And I think there’s enough distrust, at the end of the day, they’re not going to give him their support.”

The race, once viewed as an afterthought as South Carolina focused on the Democratic presidential primary, has slowly consumed the state. Mr. Harrison out-raised Mr. Graham in the first quarter of 2020, bringing in more than $7 million. Mr. Graham raised just over $5.5 million, though he had about $4 million more cash on hand from previous fund-raising efforts.

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Children Born to Unmarried Mothers in North Korea Excluded From UN-Sponsored Immunization Initiatives

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Children Born to Unmarried Mothers in North Korea Excluded From UN-Sponsored Immunization Initiatives

North Korea excludes children of single mothers from vaccination and nutritional programs sponsored by the United Nations because local law forbids registering out-of-wedlock births, RFA has learned from sources inside the reclusive country.

North Korea depends on aid programs from UNICEF and other U.N. agencies to maintain the health and nutrition of children. In a country with a crumbling medical infrastructure that started a precipitous decline after the collapse of the Soviet Union almost three decades ago, the vaccinations and food supplements for children are highly prized by parents.

“Every year, infants and children who have been vaccinated with the help of the United Nations are made safe from polio and other diseases. So when the vaccination project, which people call ‘UN shots,’ is announced, people scramble to go to  the hospital,” a resident of South Pyongan province, who requested anonymity to speak freely, told RFA’s Korean Service Tuesday.

“Last week, local hospitals in our province provided nutritional supplements to infants younger than one-year-old and toddlers five and younger. They also gave shots to prevent polio and tuberculosis,” the source said.

But not all children are eligible for this type of immunization, because there is no mechanism to legally register the births of children born out of wedlock, leaving them without legal protections.

“Babies born out of wedlock were not included on vaccination lists after last year because their births have not been registered,” the source said.  “Only children whose birth certificates are confirmed by the health authorities are included on the vaccination list.”

Another source, a resident of North Pyongan province who requested anonymity to ensure security, told RFA that the problem is becoming more common along with changing attitudes on premarital sex.

“These days, young people in urban areas are more sexually open, so more and more unmarried women are giving birth to children,” the second source said.

“Newborn babies that have parents who did not register their marriage are not legally allowed to register their births because their biological parents are not identified,” said the second source.

North Korea does not release statistics on unwed mothers and single-parent families. Although single mothers may be more common these days, the stigma against them remains strong in a traditionally conservative society cut off from most outside culture and media for decades, with even the primary youth organization fueling discriminatory perceptions of them.

“The Kimilsungist-Kimjongilist Youth League label single mothers as ideologically corrupt women,” the second source said.

“Parents of young single mothers often secretly raise their [grandchildren], but when the story gets out in the neighborhood, they are accused of [enabling] morally corrupt [behavior],” the source added.

“Because of this, single mothers can’t even vaccinate their babies.”

“The authorities should not only advertise that they value human life, but also establish a legal protection system for children born by single mothers, as they are [people too],” the North Pyongan province resident added.

The first source, from South Pyongan province, said parents have turned up at hospitals begging to at least be given nutritional supplements for their children.

“Unmarried mothers pleaded with a local hospital doctors to provide the nutritional supplements for their babies, as they are famous for their healthful effects, but they were rejected,” said the source.

“Doctors said they were not allowed to give them anything because they were only provided enough supplements and vaccines for the number of registered children. They told [the mothers] to appeal to upper leadership to get it,” the source added.

UNICEF, along with the World Vaccine Immunization Alliance (GAVI), provides major immunizations for diseases such as tuberculosis, measles, and hepatitis B for infants and toddlers under 6 years old in North Korea.

RFA requests for comment from UNICEF on medical assistance they provide for single mothers and their children in North Korea received no reply.

Reported by Hyemin Son for RFA’s Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.



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2 Art Gallery Shows to Explore From Home

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2 Art Gallery Shows to Explore From Home

Through Sept. 4. The Galerie St. Etienne, youthstyle.gseart.com

When everything closed in March, Galerie St. Etienne was just about to hang its spring show, “‘Youth Style’: Austrian and German Posters From the Collection of Merrill C. Berman.” A group of 46 pre-World War I rarities, the posters exemplify Jugendstil, or youth style, the German-speaking world’s answer to Art Nouveau. (Mr. Berman has been gathering them for decades, ever since a financial reversal forced him to stop collecting paintings.) Luckily the very same qualities that make for an effective poster — sharp edges, bold colors and graphic economy — work beautifully on a computer screen, so the gallery uploaded an extensive exhibition website, instead.

Of course, those same technical constraints that help the posters translate to the internet also narrow their aesthetic range. But a narrow format can still, like the internet itself, host a teeming variety. Just compare Bertold Löffler’s flowery come-on for the Austrian national lottery to the arresting image of a dragon ensnared that Julius Klinger used to sell war bonds. Several announcements for the Vienna Secession, an innovative artists’ group that closely tracked the development of Jugendstil, are included, too, and they give a sense of the movement’s own surprising range: Lithe figures and otherworldly asymmetry in Gustav Klimt’s version (1898) give way to the buoyant geometry of Adolf Boehm (1902), the melodrama of Franz Wacik (1913) and the nauseous, off-kilter intensity of Egon Schiele (1918). But you may prefer to simply marvel at the contemporary zip of the stripped-down, iconic branding exercises that Lucian Bernhard called “object posters.” In one, a fiercely sharpened pencil point underscores the name Castell; in another, a shiny black pump slightly overlaps the name Stiller.

WILL HEINRICH

The arrival of the coronavirus in New York was marked by a paradox: As many people stayed home in social isolation, the days seemed to blend together, yet outside spring was coming. The world was turning, even as it felt like it was standing still.

The artworks in the group exhibition “The Tree of Life” speak to this strange experience of time and nature, although they weren’t made in response to the pandemic. Videos with a meditative, almost existential quality — they don’t tell stories or have destinations, only droning loops and gradual shifts that require sustained attention.

“Timegarden 02” (2005), the contribution of the artist Claudia Hart, who is also the show’s curator, is an hourlong depiction of the seasons changing in a digital, circular garden. As the camera rotates, leaves turn from green to yellow to brown, but it’s impossible to pinpoint specific moments of the shift, producing a gap between sight and perception. Marina Zurkow’s “Mesocosm (Wink, TX)” (2012) — a hand-drawn, generative animation that portrays the enigmatic landscape of a sinkhole in a Texas town — has a similar effect. Little happens in the traditional narrative sense, yet eight months go by in 50 minutes.

The exhibition contains a handful of less engaging works but coheres into something compelling. One of my favorites, Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn’s “The Endless Forest” (2006/2020 — ongoing), is an unwinnable video game: The players are deer, and the only goal is to wander through a forest. Maybe we need the virtual world to help us rethink what we consider natural.

JILLIAN STEINHAUER

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Helping people with autism spectrum disorder manage masks and COVID-19 tests – Harvard Health Blog

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Helping people with autism spectrum disorder manage masks and COVID-19 tests – Harvard Health Blog

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented many new challenges for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Features of ASD, including impaired social and communication skills, repetitive behaviors, insistence on sameness, and especially sensory intolerances, make adapting to wearing face masks and the experience of a COVID-19 test particularly challenging.

Challenges of wearing face masks with ASD

Many people with ASD are highly sensitive to touch, and the face can be especially so. Wearing a face mask involves many unpleasant sensations. On the surface, there’s the scratchy texture of fabric, tight contact where the top of the mask meets the skin, and the tug of elastic on the ears. Sensations under the mask are no more pleasant and include the warm, damp smell of recycled air. In addition, the sensation of breathing in and exhaling air through the nose can feel restrictive, leading to concern and worry for many individuals with ASD. While wearing a mask is uncomfortable at best, these unpleasant sensory experiences can be intensely magnified in people with ASD.

In addition to these sensory challenges, face masks also create new social communication challenges. Autism spectrum disorder can include poor visual perception skills, making the odds of accurately reading another person’s facial expression beneath a mask, from a socially appropriate distance, more difficult than usual. Moreover, when viewing another person’s face while they are wearing a face mask, the eyes are the primary area of the face that is visible. Individuals with ASD often have difficulty making eye contact, adding yet another hurdle for them in the social-communication realm. These factors can lead to miscommunication and frustration. Because masks muffle voices, verbal communication also becomes more difficult. Fortunately, there are several strategies that can make wearing a face mask more bearable.

What to do?

  • Demonstrate using the face mask on a preferred object or person, such as a stuffed animal, a doll, or a family member.
  • Allow the person with ASD to choose among different types of fabric face masks to find one that is most comfortable.
  • Start by practicing wearing the face mask for short durations of time, allowing for breaks when needed.
  • Plan initial outings in low-demand environments that are quiet and calm, so that the individual can experience success wearing the face mask.
  • Use a printed photo or digital photo of the individual wearing a face mask as a visual cue to wear the mask before outings. The photo can be stored close to the door or on a tablet that is easily accessible.
  • Chew gum or suck on a hard candy while wearing a mask, for distraction and to improve the smell of recycled air beneath the mask.
  • Some medical settings may have transparent face masks. These masks make the mouth visible. Susan Muller-Hershon, American Sign Language/English interpreter at Massachusetts General Hospital, notes that transparent masks can be helpful for better communication.

The challenges of a COVID-19 nasopharyngeal or throat swab test

Testing for COVID-19 requires a nasopharyngeal (through the nose) and/or oropharyngeal (through the mouth) test using a cotton swab. These tests can cause distress for people with ASD due to the associated discomfort, unfamiliarity with the procedure, and change of routine. The use of visual aids to help prepare a person with ASD, and strategically selecting a comfortable testing environment, can help with a successful procedure and reduce anxiety.

What to do?

  • Prepare for a COVID-19 test using visual supports:
    • Review a social story. Social stories are a sequence of pictures and sentences to help prepare for a new experience. Some people with ASD benefit from more detailed social stories, while others do better with simpler instructions. It is important to consider which approach will work best when selecting the social story. Both detailed and simple social stories, as well as a COVID-19 testing toolkit introduction, are available.
    • Watch a video. Some individuals with ASD will benefit from watching a video prior to being tested. The New England Journal of Medicine’s nasopharyngeal test video includes a simple video and illustration.
  • Consider options for where the test will happen: Discuss local testing site options with your primary care physician or pediatrician to determine the optimal test environment. Some people will do best being tested in an indoor medical clinic because it is a more familiar medical setting. Others may do better with an outdoor drive-through testing site because they will feel more comfortable being able to wait in the car. Drive-through sites may also offer the advantage of allowing the patient to hold a comforting object that would not be permitted in an indoor clinic for infection control reasons.
  • When testing isn’t possible: Some individuals with ASD may not be able to tolerate a COVID-19 test, even after ample preparation. If this is the case, it is very important to continue to speak with the primary care physician or pediatrician about the person’s symptoms, and whether additional medical care is needed.

It is important for parents and healthcare providers to understand why adjusting to wearing face masks and enduring a COVID-19 test can be especially challenging for individuals with ASD. There are a number of strategies, including advanced preparation using visual aids, gradual practice, and modifying the sensory experience, as well as online resources, that can be used to help individuals with ASD and their caregivers rise to meet these challenges.

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Tributes to former MLA Bobby Bell following death at 84

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Tributes to former MLA Bobby Bell following death at 84

Tributes have been paid to the former UUP MLA Bobby Bell who has died at the age of 84.

r Bell was born in Belfast in 1935.

He worked in marketing and public relations running Billy Bell Promotions.

He entered politics in 1975 serving as a Belfast councillor and was Lord Mayor in 1979. He later was elected to Lisburn Borough Council again serving as mayor.

He was elected to the NI Assembly between 1982 and 1986 and later was an MLA for the new Assembly in 1998 for Lagan Valley serving until 2007. He was UUP spokesman for finance.

He also served on numerous public bodies including the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum Board and the Board of the NI Housing Executive.

He was also personal assistant to Jim Molyneaux for 20 years.

Close

Billy Bell elected in 1975

UUP MLA Robbie Butler MLA, who was mentored by Mr Bell, said he and was deeply saddened at his passing.

“Billy had a long and distinguished career as a public representative,” he said.

“Billy had the honour of representing the people of Lagan Valley in the Assembly – as I do now – and I have often heard his name mentioned by constituents.

“He was one of those people who was held in very high esteem, even by those who may have regarded themselves as political opponents. Although he was a proud unionist to his core, Billy wanted to make politics work in Northern Ireland and to find a path to a better, peaceful and more prosperous future for all our people.

“Billy, like the late Ivan Davis, was a member of the original Assembly team of 1998. Both men supported and mentored me in my political career and for their support, advice, kindness and wisdom, I will be eternally grateful to them.

“Billy made friends far more easily than he made enemies and the word I have heard most often associated with him was ‘gentleman.’

“He will be fondly remembered not just by his fellow Ulster Unionists, but by people right across Northern Ireland and indeed far beyond. On behalf of the Ulster Unionist Party I would like to extend my deepest and sincerest sympathies to Billy’s wife Leona, the family circle and his many friends.”

Belfast Telegraph

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Quibi’s app is slowly improving — but is the world ready for it?

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Quibi’s app is slowly improving — but is the world ready for it?

If you’re into tiny movies and TV shows, here’s some news for you: Quibi‘s app now have Chromecast support. Yep, on both iOS and Android.

This comes hot on the heels of an update that allowed Apple users to stream videos to AirPlay devices too.

Quibi is a “mobile-first” video streaming service. It creates shows and movies designed to be watched on your phone — meaning they’re designed for a small horizontal or vertical stream.

While this is a novel (but not entirely new) idea, one of the things that separates Quibi‘s app from competitors is the amount of funding and investment it’s received. Somewhere in the region of $1.75 billion.

This has allowed the company to work with an incredible roster of stars, including Kevin Hart, Jennifer Lopez, LeBron James, Idris Elba, and Steven Spielberg — just to name a few. If you’d like more info on the financial workings of this, I suggest you go and check out this piece we did around the time of its launch.

Now, the reason the Quibi iOS and Android apps getting Chromecast and AirPlay support is interesting is simple: it launched without them.

On one hand, it’s understandable. The goal is to be mobile-first, right? But that logic was flawed. Mobile-first doesn’t mean mobile-only. And at least this update of the Quibi iOS and Android apps has rectified that problem.

Another issue with Quibi‘s app is there’s no easy way to share images, videos, or GIFs from its content. Anyone who’s been on social media recently can see the huge impact this has on building a show’s reputation.

The company is planning on adding this feature, but the question is if it’s already too late.

Will enough people ever actually use Quibi’s app for it be successful?

This is the real question. And things aren’t going well for the company currently.

In an interview with the New York Times, Quibi‘s founder — Jeffrey Katzenberg — says that the coronavirus pandemic has hit the company hard.

And it’s understandable. The company wanted to build a user base consisting of people watching short, high-quality videos on-the-go. And people aren’t really on-the-go currently.

This has been reflected in some pretty dire numbers. It’s reported that Quibi has been downloaded 3.5 million times (2.9 million according to Sensor Tower), but only has 1.3 million active users.

To give this a little bit of context, as of Q1 2020, Netflix has around 182 million paying subscribers.

Of course, this isn’t the fairest comparison. Netflix has been around for 23 (I know!) years and popularized video streaming as we know it. Quibi‘s app is still brand new. And it has a lot of potential.

Yes, the pandemic has stopped Quibi attracting people, but it will eventually end. And the world’s a really fucking big place.

There’ll be an estimated 3.8 billion smartphone users globally in 2021. A shit ton of those people don’t have access to TVs or computers, so if something like Quibi is done right, it could become the de facto platform for finding high-quality, narrative content designed specifically for those devices.

But that’s a big if for the company.

It needs to get in front of those people, convince them of the benefits of this sort of content, and have a selection of shows and movies good enough for people to subscribe.

Currently, Quibi‘s app is not in a state to do much of that. But it’s only a matter of time until the world is truly ready for mobile-first narrative content.

The question is whether the platform to achieve this is Quibi itself, or a competitor we haven’t heard of.

For more gear, gadget, and hardware news and reviews, follow Plugged on
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Published June 10, 2020 — 14:24 UTC



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Morocco’s Bollywood Dream

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Morocco’s Bollywood Dream

Asked to pick a country where people are passionate about Indian cinema, few might choose the North African Kingdom of Morocco. Bollywood came to the country in the 1950s, where it was embraced for its glamour, dance, romance and pure escapism. 

There is no obvious explanation for the connection, although it may have started when Ibrahim al-Sayeh began dubbing films – including Indian cinema – into the local Arabic dialect, Darija.

Now, the most devoted fans have decorated their homes with Bollywood paraphernalia and perform Hindi songs at themed events – and there is sometimes an Indian section at the annual Marrakech International Film Festival attended by well-known actors and directors.

Others have gone even further, like Imane Karouach who left Morocco for India when she was 16. She has worked hard to become a jobbing Bollywood actress and, although not a mega-star, she has had several high-profile roles; she also runs a pizzeria in Mumbai.

This quirky documentary, filled with a wide variety of characters, voices and movie clips, is a fascinating snapshot of a world few outside Morocco knew existed. It also includes a contribution from legendary Bollywood actor Rishi Kapoor who passed away in April 2020.

Source: Al Jazeera

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