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Julia Child's iconic home hits the market

<p dir="ltr">The Washington DC home of famed chef Julia Child has hit the market with an asking price of $3.5 million.</p> <p dir="ltr">Child lived at the 290-square metre yellow clapboard house, where she created some of her most famous dishes that appeared in her book,<span> </span><em>Master the Art of French Cooking</em>, between 1948 and 1959.</p> <p dir="ltr">The three-bedroom and three-and-a-half bathroom home has been restored and renovated by its current owner, Rory Veveers-Carter, since he purchased it for $935,000 in 2015.</p> <p dir="ltr">It also underwent renovations during Child’s time, when she installed a $400 Garland Model stove that is now on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.</p> <p dir="ltr">Now, the kitchen features stainless steel Viking appliances, an eight-burner cooktop stove, double stacked ovens, a wooden hearth, and a wine fridge.</p> <p dir="ltr">But, the original kitchen walls and window that appeared on Child’s cooking shows have remained untouched.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Encased in glass, this window to history that sparked an American food revolution is a classic conversation starter for guests,” the<span> </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2706-Olive-St-NW-Washington-DC-20007/428757_zpid/" target="_blank">listing</a><span> </span>said.</p> <p dir="ltr">The listing also revealed that Mr Veveers-Carter's grandmother was an "avid watcher of Julia's cooking shows" and was drawn to the home after "the building fell into disrepair … work(ing) tirelessly to preserve this landmark house".</p> <p dir="ltr">Along with the famed kitchen where Child created many of her well-known recipes, the house has an open-plan design including an office, living room, foyer, fireplace and powder room.</p> <p dir="ltr">The upstairs floor houses a master bedroom and ensure, as well as two other bedrooms, with one that comes with an adjacent full bath.</p> <p dir="ltr">Mr Veveers-Carter also transformed the space under the kitchen into a den, laundry area and private Turkish steam room.</p> <p dir="ltr">According to the<span> </span><em>Washington Post</em>, the home was first built in 1869 by African American architect Edgar Murphy, who lived there with his family until his death in 1908.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Getty Images, Zillow</em></p>

Real Estate

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Denzel Washington to star in R-rated Macbeth

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Academy Award winner Denzel Washington will be taking on the titular character of Macbeth in </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Tragedy of Macbeth</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, a new adaptation of the famous Shakespearean tragedy.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://movieweb.com/the-tragedy-of-macbeth-teaser-a24/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">new teaser</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> sees Washington depict the fictional Scottish lord in stark black-and-white in an eerie and otherworldly version of medieval Scotland.</span></p> <p><img style="width: 0px; height: 0px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7845673/_0-19-screenshot-1.png" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/6feccf71e63c402d99b87f90984344e9" /></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Frances McDormand will star alongside Washington in the new adaptation. Image: A24</span></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“In meticulously world-weary performances, a strikingly inward Denzel Washington is the man who would be king, and an effortlessly Machiavellian Frances McDormand is his Lady,” the New York Film Festival’s announcement of the film reads.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The film is directed by Joel Coen - one half of the Coen brothers - though this time he will be working solo. </span></p> <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CRoxy5pIXjd/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CRoxy5pIXjd/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by A24 (@a24)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Famed actress Kathryn Hunter will also join the cast as a trio of ‘weird sisters’, alongside Brendan Gleeson as King Duncan, Corey Hawkins as Macduff, and </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Queen’s Gambit </span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">star Moses Ingram as Lady MacDuff.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Though it echoes the forbidding visual designs - and aspect ratios - of Laurence Olivier’s classic 1940’s Shakespeare adaptations, as well as the bloody medieval madness of Kurosawa’s </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Throne of Blood</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, Coen’s tale of sound and fury is entirely his own,” the announcement reads.</span></p> <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CUDKPNFrkku/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CUDKPNFrkku/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">A post shared by A24 (@a24)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Coen previously shared his aspirations for the film, with hopes it will be a “boldly inventive visualisation of the Scottish Play” and “an anguished film that stares, mouth agape, at a sorrowful world undone by blind greed and thoughtless ambition”.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The film made its debut at the 2021 New York Film Festival in September and is due to be released in select theatres on December 25. It will then be streaming on Apple TV+ on January 14, 2022.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">See the latest teaser trailer below.</span></p> <p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Bk6VArB6_us" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Image: A24</span></em></p>

Movies

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Reporters’ book holds new insights on Trump

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A new book penned by </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Washington Post </span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">reporters Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta has become a source of </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/29/trump-white-house-covid-taskforce-fauci" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">shocking revelations</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> about the Trump administration at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Titled </span><em><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/nightmare-scenario-yasmeen-abutalebdamian-paletta" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Nightmare Scenario</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">: Inside the Trump Administration’s Response to the Pandemic that Changed History</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;">, the authors reported on Trump’s contempt for the COVID taskforce chaired by vice-president Mike Pence, which Trump took to referring as “that f****ing council that Mike has” as the pandemic worsened.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The authors wrote that his derisive term for the taskforce was “a signal that he wished it would go away” and “didn’t want anyone to exert leadership”.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Many on the taskforce didn’t want the responsibility either, fearful of the consequences.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The book also revealed that Trump wanted to send Americans infected with the virus to Guantanamo Bay and that he hoped his former aide John Bolton would be “taken out” by COVID-19.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The book also examined the influence of “outside consultants” on Trump that undermined the work of the president’s scientific advisors.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This included unofficial advisor Stephen Moore, who the authors said acted as Trump’s “emissary [from] the conservative establishment” and “strode into the Oval Office to convince the president” to end shutdowns and kickstart the economy as cases continued to spiral and the death toll in the US passed 1,000 people.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Moore is an economist who was nominated to the board of the Federal Reserve in 2019 by Trump, but withdrew after the Guardian and other outlets reported on controversies in his past.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Moore told Abutaleb and Paletta that Trump’s promise to reopen the US economy by Easter 2020 was “the smart thing to do” because “the economic costs of this are mounting and there’s not a lot of evidence that lockdowns are working to stop the spread”.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">He has also been quoted attacking Dr Anthony Fauci, a former member of the COVID taskforce and the current chief medical advisor to Joe Biden.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Fauci is the villain here,” Moore said. “He has the Napoleon complex, and he thinks he is the dictator who could decide how to run the country.”</span></p>

Books

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Bei Bei the giant panda leaves Washington for China

<p>Bei Bei the giant panda was born at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington D.C in 2015.</p> <p>However, he’s heading back to China after an agreement with the zoo. It means that giant pandas go back to China after the giant panda turns 4.</p> <p>Bei Bei was named by former First Lady Michelle Obama and China’s First Lady Peng Liyuan and was the first generation of pandas to live at the National Zoo.</p> <p>"Bei Bei is part of our family," Steve Monfort, a zoo director, told <em><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/17/us/bei-bei-giant-panda-national-zoo-trnd/index.html">CNN</a></em>. "Our team has cared for him, learned from him and, along with millions, loved watching him grow."</p> <p>“We’re sad he’s leaving, but excited for the contributions he will make to the global giant panda population. Bei Bei is an ambassador for conservation and part of a 47-year program that proves bringing species and habitats back from the brink is possible through global cooperation.”</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en-gb"> <p dir="ltr">Bei Bei always sticks the landing. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ByeByeBeiBei?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ByeByeBeiBei</a> <a href="https://t.co/gEFU641UGs">pic.twitter.com/gEFU641UGs</a></p> — National Zoo (@NationalZoo) <a href="https://twitter.com/NationalZoo/status/1196422839672475648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">18 November 2019</a></blockquote> <p>If you’re worried about how he’s travelling, Bei Bei gets his own private jet for the journey from Washington to China.</p> <p>It’s called the Panda Express and he has great snack options on board, including 66 pounds of bamboo, snacks and water. As giant pandas eat 20 to 40 pounds of bamboo each day, this should last Bei Bei a day and a half on his long journey.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en-gb"> <p dir="ltr">Wheels up on the FedEx Panda 🐼 Express! ✈️ You can track Bei Bei’s flight FDX9759 here: <a href="https://t.co/PizokJyYDt">https://t.co/PizokJyYDt</a> Thank you <a href="https://twitter.com/FedEx?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FedEx</a>! <a href="https://t.co/N93Y7HVS3r">pic.twitter.com/N93Y7HVS3r</a></p> — National Zoo (@NationalZoo) <a href="https://twitter.com/NationalZoo/status/1196844909979938818?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">19 November 2019</a></blockquote> <p>Bei Bei is the third giant panda that was born at the zoo to move to China, following Tai Shan who moved in 2010 and Bao Bao who moved in 2017.</p> <p>In order to celebrate his time at the zoo, Bei Bei was awarded with an ice cake which had some of his favourite treats, such as sugar cane and sweet potato.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en-gb"> <p dir="ltr">🐼🎂 Here’s a close up of Bei Bei’s ice cake! It featured some of his fav treats like sugar cane and sweet potato! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ByeByeBeiBei?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ByeByeBeiBei</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PandaStory?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PandaStory</a> <a href="https://t.co/MJYuLAoHEG">pic.twitter.com/MJYuLAoHEG</a></p> — National Zoo (@NationalZoo) <a href="https://twitter.com/NationalZoo/status/1196115384354721792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">17 November 2019</a></blockquote> <p>He has now arrived safely in China and is in safe hands at the Bifengxia Panda Base. The animal care team at the Smithsonian zoo will stay with him for a few days to make sure that Bei Bei adjusts well to his new home.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en-gb"> <p dir="ltr">🐼 🛬 Bei Bei has arrived safely in China. Our animal care team will go with Bei Bei to his new home and stay with him for a few days at the Bifengxia Panda Base. Thanks to <a href="https://twitter.com/FedEx?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FedEx</a> and their crew! Thanks for the outpouring of support for Bei Bei ❤️and our panda team! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ByeByeBeiBei?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ByeByeBeiBei</a> <a href="https://t.co/rFf9aXZYQc">pic.twitter.com/rFf9aXZYQc</a></p> — National Zoo (@NationalZoo) <a href="https://twitter.com/NationalZoo/status/1197090641177649153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">20 November 2019</a></blockquote> <p>There are an estimated 1,800 giant pandas left in the wild and they are listed as “vulnerable” in the wild by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.</p>

Family & Pets

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Terrified crowd looks on in horror as plane bursts into flames

<p>Terrified crowds looked on in horror as a Hawaiian Airlines Airbus A330 plane burst into flames when landing on the tarmac at Seattle airport on Tuesday.</p> <p>The plane was reportedly on a ferry flight from Washington, intended to deliver the aircraft back to its base with members of the crew the only people on board.</p> <p>The shocking footage was captured by people waiting at the terminal.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr">Waiting to taxi to our gate at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/seatac?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#seatac</a><br />A plane just landed with what appears to be an engine fire. It went out on its own before fire trucks arrived. Hopefully everyone is ok! <a href="https://t.co/Cc8yZgMwSv">pic.twitter.com/Cc8yZgMwSv</a></p> — Cheryl Mander (@messymoose) <a href="https://twitter.com/messymoose/status/928128643347501056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 8, 2017</a></blockquote> <p>Hawaiian Airlines <a href="http://www.cbs.com/" target="_blank"><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>told CBS news</strong></span></em></a> the aircraft, “experienced a left engine issue on final approach”.</p> <p>“A left engine fire reported upon landing was extinguished by the aircraft fire extinguishing system and local fire officials,” the airline said.</p> <p>Interestingly, the US Federal Aviation Administration has a different version, telling <a href="http://www.cbs.com/" target="_blank"><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>CBS</strong> </span></em></a>the plane “experienced a right engine flyer fire upon landing. The fire had already been extinguished by the time fire crews arrived at the aircraft”.</p> <p>What are your thoughts? Have you ever encountered an aircraft issue?</p> <p><em>Hero image credit: Twitter / Cheryl Mander‏</em></p>

International Travel