Tue, 23 Sep 2025, 10:38 am
Economy

Vietnam lockdown hits coffee supply

Vietnam has added to concerns over global supplies of coffee as the South East Asian country’s biggest city remains in lockdown. The exporting hub of Ho Chi Minh has been

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Shein: China fashion giant investigates ‘false’ anti-Uyghur job ads

Chinese fast fashion firm Shein has launched an investigation into “false” discriminatory job adverts posted on recruitment sites under its name. Adverts seen by the BBC for factory and warehouse

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Afghanistan: World Bank halts aid after Taliban takeover

The World Bank has halted funding for projects in Afghanistan after the Taliban seized control of the country, reports BBC. It cited concerns over how the Taliban’s takeover will impact

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Chip giant IPO hit by Beijing crackdown on business

Chinese electric car maker BYD’s plan to sell shares in its computer chip making unit has been suspended, the latest share offering to be hit by Beijing’s crackdown on businesses.

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Govt’s purchase committee approves 8 proposals

The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP) approved eight proposals, including one for the printing, binding and supplying of 1,07,52,840 copies of textbook through 11 bidders. The approval came from this

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Hackers steal $600m in major cryptocurrency heist

Hackers have stolen some $600m (£433m) in what appears to be one the largest cryptocurrency heists ever. Blockchain site Poly Network said hackers had exploited a vulnerability in its system

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Banks to return to normal operation hours from Wednesday

Banks will operate normally from Wednesday with customers’ transaction time from 10 am to 4 pm instead of current hours of 10 am to 2:30 pm. The Bangladesh Bank issued

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Snickers Spain pulls TV advert after homophobia accusations

Snickers in Spain has pulled a controversial TV advert that was heavily criticised for being homophobic. The 20-second commercial shows Spanish influencer Aless Gibaja transform into a bearded man with

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Banks to remain closed on Sunday

Banks will remain closed on Sunday, said the Bangladesh Bank in a circular issued on Thursday. However, banks’ transaction time on Monday and Tuesday has been extended by half an

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Qantas stands down 2,500 staff over Sydney lockdown

Qantas says it will stand down 2,500 staff as a lockdown in Sydney impacts air travel across Australia. The furlough – affecting pilots, crew and airport workers – will last

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The megastar plays a philosophy professor shaken by a student’s sexual assault allegation against a colleague in Luca Guadagnino’s new film – and she’s easily the best thing about it. Julia Roberts doesn’t make many films these days. She was in Leave the World Behind in 2023; in 2022, there was her tropical romantic comedy with George Clooney, Ticket to Paradise; and then we have to jump all the way back to 2018 for her previous turn in Ben Is Back. But you can see why she chose to star in After the Hunt, a contentious campus drama directed by Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, Challengers). Roberts is on screen for almost every one of its 139 minutes, and she is the monumental centre around which its chaos and controversy swirl. It’s the kind of heavyweight role that gets awards nominations if it goes to the right person – and Roberts is definitely the right person. Her character is Alma, a philosophy professor at Yale University. Striding regally around its leafy quadrangles in a chic white suit that matches her blonde hair, this combatively intelligent alpha female is adored by everyone who knows her. Her husband Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is resigned to the fact that he loves her more than she loves him, and is willing to make whimsical jokes about the imbalance; Hank (Andrew Garfield), a would-be rebellious friend and colleague, is even more flirtatious with her than he is with everyone else; and her favourite PhD student, Maggie (Ayo Edebiri), worships her – which could explain why she is Alma’s favourite PhD student. It seems as if the status quo might soon be upset, though, as either Alma or Hank – or perhaps both – is expected to be granted permanent tenure. But then something far more drastic happens. The day after a boozy party in Alma and Frederik’s book-lined flat, Maggie tells Alma that Hank walked her home and then “crossed a line”. Alma is sympathetic – but only up to a point. There is no evidence of assault, so she isn’t sure whether to trust the word of a new friend over an old one, especially at such a critical moment in her career. And maybe, her thinking goes, lines were crossed at the party anyway, considering that teachers and students were hugging each other while knocking back expensive wine. “Roberts’ Alma is a coiled spring: her steely stillness makes her ferocity all the more powerful” It’s refreshing to see a grown-up Hollywood film that takes on contemporary issues: feminism, cancel culture, identity politics, and the generation gap. But After the Hunt is more of an admirable project than an engaging drama, because it never stops reminding you of how clever it wants to be. Guadagnino keeps showing off his quirky camera angles and intrusive music choices. The screenplay, by Nora Garrett, squeezes too much philosophical jargon into the dialogue, and too many tangential scenes and subplots into the structure. You might think that the alleged assault would be a big enough deal for any film, but Alma is given mysterious abdominal pains and guilty secrets, and Maggie is overloaded with significance as a queer, black, plagiarism-prone young woman with a non-binary partner and rich parents who are major donors to the university. In theory, viewers of After the Hunt should leave the cinema arguing about its subject matter. In practice, they’re more likely to be asking each other what was going on and what it meant. It’s all a bit much, basically. Garfield, miscast as a denim-clad dude who is, it is implied, roughly the same age as Roberts’ character, shouts and swears and waves his arms with a quantity-over-quality approach to acting. Stuhlbarg’s flouncing and sing-song delivery are presumably meant to be irritating, but perhaps not as irritating as they actually are. At the heart of it all, though, Roberts is a different matter. She understands that less can be more. Her Alma is a coiled spring: her steely stillness makes her ferocity all the more powerful and her pain all the more intense. Her muttering is scarier than Garfield’s yelling, and when she glares at someone, they stay glared at. It’s an expertly controlled performance which demonstrates why Roberts has been a Hollywood icon for so long, and why she could well be in line for her second Oscar, 25 years after Erin Brockovich. After the Hunt would have been better if everyone else involved had had some of that control, too.

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