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      Thailand launches airstrikes along disputed border with Cambodia as tensions flare

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian • 8 December

    Escalation comes after Thai soldier was killed and four others wounded in clashes, more than a month after Donald Trump oversaw ceasefire agreement

    Thailand has launched airstrikes along its disputed border with Cambodia after both countries accused each other of breaching a ceasefire deal brokered by Donald Trump.

    Four Cambodian civilians and at least one Thai soldier have been killed in the renewed clashes, which have forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

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      A year after fall of Assad, a divided Syria struggles to escape cycle of violence

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian • 8 December

    While country’s return to global stage has filled many Syrians with pride, domestically old grievances threaten efforts to rebuild the state

    Lying in bed recovering after his latest surgery, Ayman Ali retells the story of Syria’s revolution through his wounds. His right eye, lost in an attack on a rebel observation post he was manning in 2012, is covered by yellow medical tape. Propped against the wall is a cane he uses to walk, after a rocket attack in 2014 left him with a limp.

    For 14 years, Ali dreamed of freedom and of justice. A year after the ousting of Bashar al-Assad, he has his freedom but not his justice. The man he was dreaming of holding accountable – a member of his extended family who was a part of an Assad militia – had already fled the country by the time Ali returned to his home in Damascus.

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      Trump warns Netflix’s $83bn deal for Warner Bros poses competition concerns

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian • 8 December

    President promises to get involved personally in controversial takeover called ‘unprecedented’ by ex-regulator boss

    Donald Trump has warned there could be competition problems around Netflix’s $83bn (£62bn) deal to buy Warner Brothers’ movie studio and streaming networks.

    The US president, speaking at an event in Washington DC on Sunday, confirmed he would be involved personally in the decision about whether the government would approve the takeover.

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      The Tale of Silyan review – farmer adopts stork in delightfully cockle-warming mud-caked folk tale

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian • 8 December • 1 minute

    This story set in North Macedonia stars non-professional actors and follows ageing farmers trying to survive in a cockle-warming family film

    Like director Tamara Kotevska’s previous feature Honeyland (which she co-directed with Ljubomir Stefanov), this sly, delightful film is neither a pure documentary nor a work of fiction. Instead, working with non-professional actors and a story clearly premeditated enough to earn a credit for its authors (Kotevska and Suz Curtis), this blends folk tale, improvisation and mud-caked vérité to tell the story of a contemporary farming family, the Conevs, in economically depressed North Macedonia.

    Sixtysomething paterfamilias Nikola and his wife, Jana, have been growing watermelons, tomatoes and tobacco on the family land for years. However, the wholesale prices have recently dropped through the soil, prompting a mini riot by irate agricultural workers who take out their frustrations by destroying their own crops. Nikola and Jana’s daughter Ana decides to emigrate to Germany with her husband, taking their preschool-aged daughter with them, only to discover that most of their wages will be eaten up by childcare fees. They implore Jana to come out and be their childminder, leaving Nikola to try to sell the farmland for a pittance and find a job at a local landfill. Melancholy video-calls to the family abroad underscore his loneliness, but at least he has old mucker Ilija to talk to and share the odd bottle of hooch.

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      The Effingers by Gabriele Tergit review – a vivid portrait of Berlin before the Nazis

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian • 8 December • 1 minute

    Written in 1951 and now translated into English for the first time, this family saga by the acclaimed German author recaptures a golden age for Jewish life

    In 1948, the German Jewish author Gabriele Tergit travelled to Berlin. There, in ruins, was the city in which she was born and grew up, reported on, then chronicled in fiction. Tergit had been one of the shining lights of interwar Berlin’s flourishing journalistic scene; she had also married into one of the city’s most prominent Jewish families. In 1931 her debut novel announced her as a literary phenomenon.

    Then the Nazis came to power. Tergit was on an enemies list. She fled, first to Czechoslovakia, then to Palestine, and finally to London, where she lived from 1938 until her death in 1982. Never again did she call Berlin home. When she visited after the war, she found no real place in the conservative postwar German literary world – and no real audience for The Effingers, her newly completed magnum opus. A version was printed in 1951, but to little acclaim; only recently has a critical rediscovery in Germany established Tergit as one of the country’s major authors. Now, thanks to an excellent translation by Sophie Duvernoy, The Effingers is appearing in English.

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      Ancient Egyptian pleasure boat found by archaeologists off Alexandria coast

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian • 8 December

    First-century luxury vessel matches description by the Greek historian Strabo, who visited city around 29-25BC

    An ancient Egyptian pleasure boat that matches a description by the first-century Greek historian Strabo has been discovered off the coast of Alexandria, to the excitement of archaeologists.

    With its palaces, temples and the 130 metre-high Pharos lighthouse – one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – Alexandria had been one of the most magnificent cities in antiquity. The pleasure boat, which dates from the first half of the first century, was 35 metres long and constructed to hold a central pavilion with a luxuriously decorated cabin.

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      Extracting hangovers from beer: inside Budweiser owner’s ‘nolo’ brewery in south Wales

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian • 8 December

    AB InBev unveils its ‘de-alcoholisation’ annex at Magor site as demand for once ‘lousy’ low- or no-alcohol beer rises

    A “de-alcoholisation facility” sounds like somewhere to check in after a boozy Christmas, but in the new annexe of a brewery in south Wales they are extracting hangovers from beer.

    With demand for no-alcohol and low-alcohol (“ nolo ”) beer taking off in the UK, the hi-tech brewing apparatus enables the plant at Magor, which produces more than 1bn pints of Budweiser, Corona and Stella Artois a year, to make the increasingly popular teetotal versions too.

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      Trump claims rave reviews for hosting Kennedy Center Honors – before ceremony even ends

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian • 8 December

    President refers jokingly to renamed ‘Trump-Kennedy Center’ at celebration of stars from music and film

    Donald Trump added another job title – awards host – to his presidential portfolio on Sunday when he took charge of the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, claiming his show was getting “rave reviews” even before it ended.

    The US president stayed away from the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts during his first term. But since returning to office in January, he has made the complex a lightning rod in a broader attack against what he has labelled “woke” anti-American culture.

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      Farage urged to ‘come clean’ over alleged election spending breaches in Clacton

      news.movim.eu / TheGuardian • 8 December

    Reform campaign accused by ex-councillor of falsely reporting expenses during Farage’s run to become MP last year

    The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, has been urged to “come clean” over his election campaign in Clacton after a former aide claimed his party breached spending rules.

    Farage’s campaign has been accused of falsely reporting his election expenses during his successful run to become an MP last year.

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