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Who Succeeds Sanwo-Olu? Battle for Lagos Governorship in 2027 BeginsNihon Hidankyo’s Nobel Prize: Voices for Peace / Sueichi Kido Calls A-Bombs ‘Absolute Evil’; Sees Message In Award: ‘Don’t Run Away’“ Deep Dive ” is an in-depth podcast and video essay series featuring interviews with the stars and creative team behind an exceptional piece of filmmaking. For this edition, the IndieWire Crafts and Special Projects team partnered with Prime Video to take a closer look at “ The Boys ” with creator Eric Kripke, actor Antony Starr, production designer Mark Steel, costume designer Laura Jean Shannon, visual effects supervisor Stephan Szpak-Fleet, supervising stunt coordinator John Koyama, composers Christopher Lennertz and Matt Bowen, as well as editors David Kaldor and Scott Stolzar to examine the emotionally charged and shocking fourth season of the hit series. When it comes to “The Boys,” you can expect the unexpected. Since its inception, creator Eric Kripke has adapted Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson’s comic book series into a standout among superhero offerings. The Prime Video series is beloved for its dark humor and imaginative violence, but it keeps audiences watching because of its intelligent writing, unforgettable characters, superb acting, and engaging storylines that are rife with conflict and emotional resonance. In Season 4, the complexity of the characters is pushed even further as they’re forced to question wounds from their past. Kripke, actor Antony Starr, and eight members of the creative team spoke to IndieWire about how they were able to weave emotionally charged themes to deepen our understanding of the characters without losing sight of what makes “The Boys” an entertaining satire. In the videos below, watch how those involved in the series developed the engrossing backstories through production design, costumes, score, editing, and visual effects. One might not think death-defying superheroes spend much time considering their own mortality, but such was the case in the fourth season of “The Boys.” Creator Eric Kripke told IndieWire that Season 4 was meant to be “the low point for the characters” where each one confronts “the trauma that really defines them.” For Homelander, played by Antony Starr, the dream of a brighter future prompts a return to a traumatic past. “His humanity has always been his kryptonite. As much as he wants to be a god, he’s always been aware that he’s human,” Starr told IndieWire. “That mortality being on display and the sense of legacy really drives all of what he does through the whole season. He’s really concerned about what’s gonna happen when he dies.” Starr brilliantly captures the weight of the character’s internal conflict, culminating in a terrifying sequence during which Homelander seeks revenge on a group of Vought researchers who conducted experiments on him as a child. In creating the ominous moment, production designer Mark Steel found inspiration from the “Cold War era” to give shape to the laboratory sets, adding nuanced details to heighten the realism. “We put all the dents at kid height and made it sort of feel like this was a familiar place he’d been in before,” Steel told IndieWire. And the composers enhanced the tension twofold. “The tension is so crazy, to think that everyone knows: just the slightest flinch and you’re dead,” said Christopher Lennertz, who worked alongside fellow composer Matt Bowen. “Musically, there’s a lot of things that we took a pause for and it was to have it be this breathing of like, oh my god, tension, tension, tension. Oh, maybe he’s not gonna kill him. And it’s this back and forth.” There are plenty of gruesome deaths in the sequence, including a memorable cremation with a live scientist. “When you’re meeting people, I always ask for as much practical fire as possible. So the very last shot of that sequence was the dummy on the ground,” VFX supervisor Stephan Szpak-Fleet said. “It was a mixture of Indiana Jones and OG face melts and having done so many burning bodies and melty, gross shit for this show by now.” “The way he comes in and the way he goes out are the key moments,” Starr noted of the sequence. “Because he goes in really not knowing what’s gonna come out of it. And then in the elevator on the way out, that smile was everything. That’s like therapy.” In the video above, watch the team break down Homelander’s complicated relationship to his own humanity — and how he handles it. As costume designer Laura Jean Shannon pointed out, “In this season, we built new suits — we took away the flap that he’s had since Season 1, that was his ability to loosen up.” Akin to Homelander, Billy Butcher, stoically portrayed by Karl Urban, faces his own moral dilemma. Does he walk the path of righteousness or release his inner demon? In shaping the character’s arc, Kripke separated Butcher from his group of ragtag partners, leaving him to think about how to make things right with his adoptive son Ryan (Cameron Crovetti). “We knew that Butcher was going to spend so much time alone and he has a literal angel and devil on his shoulder. One character who’s telling him, ‘Show love, show mercy,’ and then he has another who’s like, just become a monster,” Kripke told IndieWire. Crafting the juxtaposition was a key development early on. “He’s really down in the dumps at the beginning of Season 4, and we’ve got hints that he’s losing his mind but maybe hasn’t completely gotten there yet,” noted editor David Kaldor. The angel on his shoulder is his deceased wife, Becca (Shantel VanSanten), while a new character, Joe Kessler (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), plays his devil, who, in a late reveal, turns out to be a figment of Butcher’s imagination. The haunting revelation plays out through a montage of moments where Butcher believes he’s talking to Kessler, but in fact, no one is there. “When he starts to go through the flashbacks, we have this, like, rhythmic piece of distortion that just starts to loop on itself and starts to feedback on itself,” said composer Matt Bowen. “Kessler represents all the bad stuff in Butcher,” editor Scott Stolzar said. “He tried, and he failed, and he immediately reverts back to the absolute worst version of himself.” The event that firmly turns Butcher to the dark side is seeing Ryan send CIA officer Grace Mallory (Laila Robins) through a brick wall. “It’s such an emotional moment. Kripke and I talk about it all the time, some things, kept simple and just fast and violent, hit harder than all kinds of fancy moves and fancy wire work,” said supervising stunt coordinator John Koyama about creating the tragic death of the character. “For Butcher, it feels like a line that Ryan has crossed that he won’t come back from. And if he doesn’t have Ryan, then what the hell is he holding onto his humanity for? That’s when Butcher accepts that fate,” revealed Kripke. Part of what “They Boys” does so well is seamlessly introducing new characters, whether it’s a minor one like Will Ferrell making a cameo as a coach in a Vought-produced film or a major one, like Sister Sage (Susan Howard), the mastermind behind Homelander’s political rise. But no one made a bigger impact this season than Firecracker (Valorie Curry), a right-wing “truth bomber” who cozies up to Homelander as part of the Seven. The political mouthpiece becomes a sore spot for Annie (Erin Moriarty), revealing some of her darkest secrets. “There’s a lot of political figures that are folded into Firecracker,” said Kripke. “A big one, though, is the QAnon movement and just this overall notion of these unfounded conspiracy theories based on misinformation and social media and how they metastasize into this very frightening worldview.” In designing her super suit, costume designer Laura Jean Shannon infused a red, white, and blue color scheme with a customized camo jumpsuit as the base. Leather was infused into the creation along with metal accents and an ammo belt across her chest. “When Vought gets their hands on Firecracker, they take aspects of her costume that she wore, and they bake the DNA of that into their bells and whistles version of the Seven branded super suit,” explained Shannon. Similar thought went into designing her televised special “Truth Bomb.” “The whole idea of that stage set up was this guerrilla event happening across the street,” noted production designer Mark Steel. “Putting her brand in full relief behind, putting it on the floor, so that in every shot, you’re just entirely immersed in her brand. It was a graphic design approach that we took and it was for television.” Before Firecracker and Annie go toe-to-toe, supervising stunt coordinator John Koyama spoke with the actors to find the emotional undertones of the scene to “drive the action.” “It was just so great seeing Annie be a badass in her little quasi-preppy sports coat,” said Shannon. “And there was something really amazing about this sort of clashing of good and evil, but the one that deserved the beating was in her patriotic red, white, and blue.”
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad oversaw a merciless crackdown on a pro-democracy revolt that morphed into one of the bloodiest wars of the century. After facing down nationwide protests demanding his ouster and an armed rebellion that he all but crushed, he had until this month taken back control of much of Syria in the civil war that began in 2011. Quiet in his demeanour, Assad is a political survivor who for years excelled in his alliance-building with Russia and Iran, and who knew just how to present himself as Syria's only viable leader in the face of the Islamist threat. But since November 27, an Islamist-led rebel offensive has wrested from Assad's control city after city, including Aleppo and Hama for the first time since 2011, leaving his grip on power severely under threat. Assad has cast himself as the protector of Syria's minorities, a bulwark against extremism and the sole possible purveyor of stability for the war-ravaged country. In multiple votes held over the years, conducted solely on government-held territory, he has taken the vast majority of the ballots, amid accusations from Western countries that the wartime elections were neither free nor fair. In appearance, whether in person or in the many portraits of him in the capital Damascus, Assad has typically eschewed military garb, opting instead for a sharp-cut business suit and sober tie. In official meetings, during interviews and even on the frontlines, the 59-year-old ophthalmologist by training conducts himself calmly and can almost appear timid. Behind the facade, however, is an astonishing ability to hold onto power amid multiple waves of violence and transformative change in Syria and the wider region. One journalist, who met with Assad on several occasions before and after war broke out in 2011, told AFP the president is a "unique and complex figure". "Each time I met him he was calm... even during the most difficult moments of the war," said the journalist, who declined to be named. Assad has "the same qualities" as his father, Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria for nearly three decades until his death in 2000, the journalist said. "In politics, it's important to know how to shuffle cards, not just how to arrange them," he added. "Assad has mastered the shuffling game." Hafez al-Assad, head of the Syrian Baath Party, imposed in the country a secretive, paranoid regime where even the slightest suspicion of dissent could land one in jail or worse. Bashar al-Assad was never meant to become president, but his life changed radically when his older brother Bassel, who was being groomed to inherit power, was killed in a road accident in 1994. Bashar quit his studies in ophthalmology and left London, where he had met his wife, Asma, a British-Syrian and Sunni Muslim who worked for financial services firm JP Morgan. Back home, he took a course in military studies and was tutored in politics by his father. When the latter died, Bashar became president by referendum, running unopposed, then winning a second term in 2007. Sworn in at the age of 34, Assad was widely seen by Syrians pining for freedoms as a reformer, who could do away with years of repression and introduce economic liberalisation. In the early days, Assad would be seen driving his own car or having dinner at restaurants with his wife. He relaxed some of the heavy restrictions that existed under his father. But his initial image as a reformer quickly evaporated as authorities arrested and jailed academics, intellectuals and other members of what was then known as the Damascus Spring movement. When the Arab Spring reached Syria in March 2011, peaceful demonstrations broke out calling for change. Assad, who is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces, responded by ordering a brutal crackdown on the protesters and civil war swiftly ensued. Throughout the war, which has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced half the population, Assad's position has not changed. He has been the subject of countless cartoons by dissident artists depicting him as a killer, not least in the aftermath of the 2013 chemical attacks on rebel bastions around Damascus. A Syrian researcher in Damascus, who asked to speak anonymously over security concerns, said: "Assad's personality played an undeniable role in his survival." His "persistence and rigour" were especially important in helping him "consolidate decision-making powers, and secure the army's full support", he added. Throughout the war, Assad has enjoyed military backing from staunch allies Iran and Russia, who helped him score a string of military victories. Since the start of the Islamist-led rebel offensive on November 27, Assad has echoed his long-held stance that the conflict in Syria is machinated from abroad. "The terrorist escalation reflects the far-reaching goals of dividing the region and fragmenting the countries in it and redraw the map in line with the objectives of the United States and the West," Assad said on Monday. He is the father of three children. His wife, Asma, was dubbed a "rose in the desert" by Vogue magazine before the revolt. bur/ser/jhbInspired by Saudi writer-director-producer Ahd Kamel ’s childhood, the nostalgic coming-of-age story “My Driver & I” unfolds against the backdrop of Jeddah in the 1980s and ’90s and traces the relationship of a rebellious girl and the Sudanese chauffeur her affluent family hires as a driver. A more conventional-looking and less compelling watch than “Wadjda” (2012), the Saudi picture to which it is sure to be compared and in which Kamel played a key acting role, “Driver” lacks the convincing struggle against limitations depicted by director Haifaa Al Mansour’s earlier movie. Indeed, where “Wadjda” was tart, “Driver” is over-sweet to the point of sentimentality. Despite some sad circumstances, just how easy and nice everything seems to be for the central family and their staff somewhat beggars belief. Nevertheless, further festival play is likely and the drama will disseminate widely in Arabic-speaking territories through Dubai-based pay TV and streaming service OSN+. A bright, mischievous only child, Salma (Tarah Alhakeem as a girl, Roula Dakheelallah as a teen) grows up in a vast, well-appointed villa with a busy businessman father (Qusai Kheder) who indulges her with stacks of cassette tapes from his international travels and a strict, migraine-prone mother (Rana Aleemuddin), who is constantly raising money for Palestinian orphans. The family retainers, who live happily in an onsite servants’ quarters, include a couple of Sudanese drivers: Bakri (Amjad Abu Alala, the director of the festival hit “You Will Die at 20”), who has been with them for a long time, and the newly hired Gamar (Mustafa Shahata, the star of Abu Ala’s film and a sympathetic presence here). Gamar, who has left a wife and young daughter behind in Sudan, quickly takes to his sparky new charge and ultimately becomes her confidant, teacher, cheerleader and co-conspirator. When the youngster confesses that she wet her pants at school, he takes her out for an ice cream and makes a “pinky promise” that he will one day teach her to drive. That pledge and the shared dessert become motifs of their relationship that reoccur throughout the film. About 20 minutes in, the action jumps forward some 10 years. Even though women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, Salma pesters Gamar into teaching her and letting her take the wheel in a remote vacant lot. Their secret, of which her parents would surely disprove, further cements their bond. But when things go wrong, it’s Gamar who has to pay the price; yet he doesn’t betray Salma’s trust. Gamar, who takes his responsibility to Salma seriously, to the point of acting in loco parentis , has been putting off visiting his own family in Sudan, although he continues to send them presents and cassette tapes. Even though Salma’s father offers him extra time off and to arrange his ticket, he prefers to stay at her beck and call until she graduates from high school. Although the screenplay frequently over-burdens the dialogue with exposition, especially early on, it also allows some visual insight into the social and political restrictions that stand in the way of teens such as Salma meeting and mingling with the opposite sex. In one striking scene, Salma persuades Gamar to stop at a trendy ice cream parlor on their way home from school. As she demurely waits in the female line, she casts dimpled glances at the attractive Waleeb (Mishaal Tamer) in the male line opposite. When they meet at counter, he slips her his phone number. Salma and Waleeb connect over their shared interest in Western music and talk on the telephone until Gamar tries to shut down the relationship, feeling that it is his job to preserve her modesty and reputation. Later, after she has assured Gamar that she is no longer meeting Waleeb, he discovers them in a chaste but compromising situation. Angry at his interference, Salma utters some cruel and hurtful words. Kamel’s film represents both an apology and an homage to the man who provided a steady and steadying influence in her life. The dignified Shahata makes a strong impression as the driver who comes to painfully understand that raising a child who isn’t yours is like cultivating land that you don’t own. Meanwhile, both of the gap-toothed young actresses who play Salma twinkle becomingly onscreen. The tech side is surprisingly unremarkable, with the visuals by the normally more nuanced DP Frida Marzouk providing a bright, digitald look.
Cisco has been quick to respond to the issue and has released a security advisory outlining the steps that organizations can take to mitigate the risk posed by this vulnerability. This includes applying the latest software updates and patches provided by Cisco, implementing access controls to restrict access to vulnerable devices, and monitoring network traffic for any signs of malicious activity.B.C. premier says feds and provinces plan right-left approach to Trump's tariff plans
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