SYDNEY: Australian police said on Wednesday they had recovered more than 40,000 stolen limited-edition coins based on the hit children’s animated series “Bluey.”
The Bluey coins, with a face value of one Australian dollar (65 US cents) each, were found on Tuesday afternoon in a self-storage business in the Sydney suburb of Wentworthville, a police statement said.
Bluey is the name of a blue heeler puppy whose adventures with her cattle dog family living in the Australian city of Brisbane, where the series is produced, have become popular among children around the globe.
The series premiered in Australia in 2018 and began streaming on Disney+ in 2020.
The 40,061 recovered coins were still in the Royal Australian Mint plastic bags that they had been stolen in three months earlier, police said.
Police were notified on July 12 that 63,000 of the yet-to-be-released series of coins produced by the national mint in Canberra had been stolen from a warehouse in the Sydney suburb of Wetherill Park, not far from where the coins were recovered on Tuesday.
Police formed Strike Force Bandit to investigate. Bandit is the name of Bluey’s dad.
Three people have been charged over the theft.
A 27-year-old woman whom police allege drove two accomplices to the July burglary was arrested on Tuesday hours before the coins were recovered.
Two men had earlier been charged over the theft and police were a searching for a fourth suspect.
Police raided a Sydney property on July 31 and recovered 189 of the coins. They discovered the dealer selling them was a legitimate coin collector who had innocently bought them for AU$1.50 (98 US cents) each. He was paid no compensation for the seized coins.
A Royal Australian Mint spokesperson was not available for comment on Wednesday.
Australian police recover 40,000 stolen coins based on the children’s animated series ‘Bluey’
https://arab.news/w97h7
Australian police recover 40,000 stolen coins based on the children’s animated series ‘Bluey’
- A police statement said on Wednesday 40,061 coins were found on Tuesday afternoon in a self-storage business in Sydney
- Police were notified on July 12 that 63,000 of the coins had been stolen from a Sydney warehouse
Hello Kitty – the cute, enigmatic character – turns 50 on Friday
- The simple design of the character – who is not a cat, but a little girl from London according to Sanrio – has mileage as a money-spinner for years to come, experts say
TOKYO: Hello Kitty, the cute, enigmatic character that adorns everything from handbags to rice cookers, turns 50 on Friday – still making millions for her Japanese creators.
The simple design of the character – who is not a cat, but a little girl from London according to Sanrio, the company behind Kitty – has mileage as a money-spinner for years to come, experts say.
One woman in the US state of California has amassed so much Hello Kitty merchandise that her husband built her a pink so-called “she-shed” to keep it in.
Stuffed inside are thousands of toys and other items featuring Kitty and her eye-catching red bow, including rows of sunglasses, a swivel chair and novelty gumball dispensers.
“People my age, you know, we are told many times, ‘Hello Kitty is for little kids,’ and I laugh at that,” said Helen from Riverside County, conceding she is “50 plus.”
Helen, who drives a Hello Kitty-decorated SUV and runs the local fan club “Hello Kitty SoCal Babes,” has been “obsessed” with the character since its 1970s US debut.
Her vast collection of Hello Kitty plushies “make me feel warm,” she said, describing spending hours among the soft toys, many of them rare, on a regular basis.
“Something in my inner child gets healed,” she said.
Hello Kitty started life as an illustration on a vinyl coin purse.
It has since appeared on tens of thousands of products – official and unofficial – including tie-ups with Adidas, Balenciaga and other top brands.
The phenomenon shows no sign of slowing, with a Warner Bros movie in the pipeline and a new Hello Kitty theme park due to open next year on China’s tropical Hainan island.
Sanrio’s share price has soared more than seven-fold, pushing its market cap over one trillion yen ($6.8 billion), since young CEO Tomokuni Tsuji took over from his grandfather in 2020.
“We’d be foolishly cynical to say that we don’t need these soft, fluffy, pink things,” Christine R. Yano of the University of Hawaii said.
In fact, “given the fraught nature of our contemporary lives, perhaps we need it now more than ever,” said Yano, author of the book “Pink Globalization” about Hello Kitty.
“This is not a phenomenon that has died or is going to die, at least soon.”
Unlike other Japanese cultural exports such as Pokemon or Dragon Ball, there is minimal narrative around the character, whose full name is Kitty White.
She has a twin sister Mimmy, a boyfriend called Dear Daniel, and a pet cat of her own, Sanrio says. She loves her mother’s apple pie and dreams of becoming a pianist or poet.
The rest is left to fans’ imaginations – just like her “abstract, bare design that can speak with a kind of simplicity and elegance to more people,” Yano said.
“I call her a ‘pure product’,” the researcher added.
Some feminists say Hello Kitty’s lack of mouth is a symbol of disempowerment, but Yano counters that by not depicting it, “she has a greater range of expression.”
Famous Hello Kitty fans include Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj and Katy Perry, and her appeal extends to royalty: Britain’s King Charles wished her a happy birthday this year.
And on Hello Kitty’s TikTok account – whose bio is “CEO of supercute” – sardonic memes and footage from “Hello Kitty Day” at US baseball games delight 3.5 million followers.
Hello Kitty is the epitome of Japan’s “kawaii” – cute – soft power, and she is the mascot of a campaign promoting good tourist etiquette in Tokyo.
Posters celebrating the 50th anniversary are on display at Sanrio Puroland theme park, where businesswoman Kim Lu from Manila had brought her four-year-old niece on their holiday.
“This really is our priority here in Tokyo,” she said.
“To be honest, we really don’t know” the reason for Hello Kitty’s ineffable popularity, said Lu, 36.
“I think it’s the kawaii charm.”
Sanrio owns the copyright to hundreds of other popular characters, and Hello Kitty now accounts for 30 percent of profits, down from 75 percent a decade ago.
But Kitty is still a favorite of 23-year-old Rio Ueno, who took an overnight bus from Japan’s northern Niigata region to visit the park with a friend.
“I’ve had Kitty goods around me since I was a small child,” said Ueno, dressed in a fluffy Hello Kitty sweater, sporting a Kitty bag, and clutching a Kitty doll.
“She is someone who is always close to me, and I want it to stay that way.”
’I’m terrified’: French auteur Audiard hits Oscars trail for ‘Emilia Perez’
- Now French director Jacques Audiard is steeling himself for the next, arduous stage — a glitzy yet grueling campaign as an Oscars frontrunner
LOS ANGELES: His film “Emilia Perez” won multiple prizes at Cannes, and was snapped up by Netflix. Now French director Jacques Audiard is steeling himself for the next, arduous stage — a glitzy yet grueling campaign as an Oscars frontrunner.
“I’m terrified,” Audiard told AFP in an interview in Los Angeles, before the surreal musical about a transgender Mexican drug lord hits limited US theaters this Friday, before streaming on November 13.
“Mass success is something very unsettling — it’s not real life.”
With his movie a favorite for the best picture Academy Award, and tipped for nods in categories from best actress to best director, the 72-year-old Audiard will be shuttling back and forth from France to the United States for the next several months.
Modern Oscars campaigns involve a swirl of galas, press conferences, screenings and smaller awards shows, each offering chances to press the flesh with mercurial Hollywood voters in an expensive and crowded marketplace.
Netflix, which has come to dominate Hollywood’s vital streaming sector but has yet to win the coveted best picture Oscar, intends to use all its considerable heft in promoting Audiard’s 10th feature.
Following North American festival appearances in Telluride in August and Toronto in September, “Emilia Perez” opens The American French Film Festival (TAFFF) in Los Angeles this week.
The campaign promises to be much more intense than in 2010, when Audiard’s film “A Prophet” was nominated for an Oscar in the lower profile though still highly prestigious best international film category.
“It’s like going from a provincial competition to the Olympics,” said Audiard, a Parisian dandy, who wore a leopard-print shirt and a scarf around his neck under his blue suit.
Audiard’s genre-hopping film — winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes — is the story of the repentance of Manitas, a powerful Mexican drug lord.
Trapped in a violent, macho world, Manitas employs a lawyer (Zoe Saldana) to arrange a deep, lifelong aspiration — to become a woman, named Emilia.
Finally free to be herself, Emilia begins a crusade to help victims of the narco gangs. She also reconnects with her former wife (Selena Gomez) and children, who believe she is dead, by posing as a distant relative.
Playing both Manitas and Emilia, Karla Sofia Gascon is heavily tipped to become the first openly transgender actress ever nominated for an Oscar.
Indeed, Gascon heavily shaped the role. Audiard had originally envisioned a younger heroine, but upon meeting the Spanish star who transitioned at 46, he quickly reworked the script.
A younger character would not have suffered enough to be credible, he told AFP.
“I tried hard to make it work, but it didn’t add up,” said Audiard.
“When Karla Sofia appeared, it was a revelation. It was like the Virgin appeared before me — it was so clear.”
“When you transition at 46, I can’t even dare to imagine what her experience was like before... what was her life and her pain?“
This epiphany helped Audiard give more substance to his transgender heroine, who was first inspired by the Boris Razon novel “Ecoute.”
Borrowing stylings from opera, “Emilia Perez” is billed as a musical drama but stands at the crossroads of multiple genres — narco-thriller, Latin American telenovela, and LGBTQ drama, among others.
That unique combination was, for Audiard, the “obvious” way to embrace his heroine’s transition and the many contradictory facets of her personality.
The film’s “kitsch” trappings insolently address social issues, such as when choirs sings the refrain “Rhinoplasty! Vaginoplasty” in a hospital-set dance sequence, he said.
“It had to absorb everything. It’s a film that has to be embarrassing,” Audiard said. “We are singing about things that are improbable.”
Those unlikely ingredients have combined to make a work hailed in the American press as one of the leading Oscars contenders, with nominations set to be revealed in January. The ceremony takes place on March 2.
Success would be a crowning achievement for Audiard’s award-winning career, in which he has repeatedly put diverse outsiders at the center of his films.
“Dheepan,” which won the Cannes top prize Palme d’Or in 2015, followed the lives of Tamil refugees in a Paris suburb. “Rust and Bone” chronicled an orca trainer who lost her legs in a horrific accident. “A Prophet” delved into the world of prison violence.
“I am a curious person,” said Audiard.
“I’m fascinated by people who are difficult to categorize.”
Adidas reaches settlement with rapper Ye
- Adidas and Ye had been embroiled in multiple lawsuits for the past two years, since the German company ended a partnership with Kanye West
LONDON: Adidas has reached a settlement with rapper Ye to end all legal proceedings between them, the sportswear brand said on Tuesday, without giving a value for the deal.
Adidas and Ye had been embroiled in multiple lawsuits for the past two years, since the German company ended a partnership with the rapper previously known as Kanye West over antisemitic comments he made.
“There isn’t any more open issues, and there is no... money going either way,” CEO Bjorn Gulden told reporters on a conference call.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sexually assaulted 10-year-old boy, lawsuit claims
NEW YORK: Sean “Diddy” Combs has been accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy in 2005, according to a new lawsuit that joins more than two dozen others accusing the music mogul of sexual misconduct.
The civil lawsuit was one of two filed on Monday in a New York state court in Manhattan by Tony Buzbee, a lawyer who says he represents more than 150 victims of Combs’ abuse, and has filed at least 17 lawsuits.
In Monday’s second lawsuit, another male accuser said he was a 17-year-old auditioning for the reality TV show “Making the Band” when Combs and a bodyguard sexually assaulted him in 2008.
“The lawyer behind this lawsuit is interested in media attention rather than the truth,” Combs’ lawyers said in a statement resembling those issued after earlier Buzbee lawsuits. “In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone--man or woman, adult or minor.”
Combs, 54, has also pleaded not guilty to criminal sex trafficking charges in federal court in Manhattan, where he faces felony counts of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Federal prosecutors have accused the Bad Boy record label founder of coercing men, women and children into sex acts without their consent, bribing and intimidating them into keeping quiet, and employing his staff to cover up his crimes.
Combs has been held for six weeks in a Brooklyn jail after being denied bail twice, and is appealing his detention.
In the complaint involving the 10-year-old, the California plaintiff known as John Doe said he was an aspiring actor and rapper when a consultant whom his parents had hired arranged an “audition” with Combs at a New York hotel.
According to the complaint, after Doe told Combs he would “do anything” to become a star, Combs gave him a soda spiked with drugs, pushed him down, and forced him to perform oral sex.
Doe said he lost consciousness, and upon waking was sore and had his pants undone. He said he cried and asked to see his parents, leading Combs to say he would hurt them “badly” if Doe revealed what happened, the complaint said.
In the second complaint, a different California plaintiff named John Doe said Combs forced him to perform oral sex on himself and the bodyguard, with Combs framing the latter as a “test” of how much Doe wanted to succeed in the music industry.
Doe failed the audition, after Combs deemed him “untrustworthy due to his reservations about performing oral sex on his bodyguard,” the complaint said.
Combs’ criminal trial is scheduled for May 5, 2025.
Michelin days are over, says cook at Thai street-food stall
- Tourists wait in three-hour queues to sample Jay Fai’s legendary crab meat omelette
BANGKOK: A Thai cook whose Bangkok street-food stall was the first to earn a coveted Michelin star has said she plans to retire, possibly as early as next year.
Jay Fai shot to international fame in 2017 when the dining guide honored her humble street-side restaurant in its first Bangkok edition.
Tourists from around the world wait in three-hour queues to sample Jay Fai’s legendary crab meat omelette — always sizzled up by the owner herself over blazing coals, wearing her signature ski googles to protect her eyes from sparks.
The 81-year-old told Thai media outlet Komchadluek that the toil of sourcing and checking ingredients every day was becoming too much.
“I will not keep the restaurant going, but I am glad to teach whoever wants my recipe,” she said in the interview, video of which was posted online on Sunday. She said she had not decided on when exactly to step down, but said it “could be next year.”
Though classed as street food, dishes from the open kitchen at Jay Fai’s eponymous restaurant in old Bangkok are not cheap — the signature crab omelette costs around $40.
