All posts tagged: Controversy

Mbappé draws fire from right wing in France, Spain over Ceuta t-shirt controversy

Mbappé draws fire from right wing in France, Spain over Ceuta t-shirt controversy

Kylian Mbappé has come under mounting criticism from conservative and far-right politicians in Spain and France after the Real Madrid forward declined to fully wear a t-shirt supporting residents of Ceuta, Spain’s north African exclave grappling with a migration crisis. Immigration has emerged as one of Spain’s dominant political issues in recent months following July’s influx to Ceuta, and the debate has increasingly spilled into football ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections. The dispute erupted before Real Madrid’s La Liga match on Tuesday when Mbappé, alongside Vinicius Junior and fellow Frenchman Ibrahima Konaté, partially rolled up t-shirts bearing the words “We are all Ceutans”, which was intended to be a message of support for people in the Spanish territory bordering Morocco. Images of the three players quickly spread on social media and prompted political reactions in Madrid. A spokesperson for the mainstream conservative Popular Party (PP) said she felt “deep shame” over the incident, while a lawmaker from the far-right Vox party said Spaniards were “perfectly free to feel outraged by three millionaires who live …

Rock legend slams Ed Sheeran as US tour crumbles over Macklemore-Palestine controversy

Rock legend slams Ed Sheeran as US tour crumbles over Macklemore-Palestine controversy

Get the inside track from Roisin O’Connor with our free weekly music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters has dubbed Ed Sheeran a “p****” who has “done the wrong thing” amid the ongoing controversy over Macklemore being pulled as a support act from Sheeran’s tour after expressing solidarity with Palestinians on stage. Ahead of Sheeran’s main performances on 3 and 4 September in New Jersey, Macklemore – the US rapper best known for his 2012 hit “Thrift Shop” – called for a “free Palestine” and told the gathered crowds he wanted people in Gaza and the West Bank to know they had not been forgotten amid the conflict with Israel. Within days, Macklemore announced that he had been dropped from the rest of the tour, and claimed that the decision came after an intervention from the billionaire Robert Kraft, who owns one of the concert venues that Sheeran is next scheduled to play at. Sheeran has since …

Ed Sheeran loses 150,000 followers in wake of Macklemore controversy while rapper sees following skyrocket

Ed Sheeran loses 150,000 followers in wake of Macklemore controversy while rapper sees following skyrocket

Get the inside track from Roisin O’Connor with our free weekly music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Ed Sheeran’s follower count is taking a nosedive while Macklemore’s is on the ascent after the rapper was pulled from Sheeran’s tour following his onstage show of support for Palestine. Sheeran’s U.S. Loop tour is imploding after Macklemore — the artist best known for his 2012 song “Thrift Shop” — announced Tuesday that he had been removed as Sheeran’s opening act on the tour because he called for a “free Palestine” at their concert earlier this month. The decision came after billionaire Robert Kraft, whose Kraft Group owns Gillette Stadium, said Macklemore would not be allowed to perform at the Massachusetts venue. Although Sheeran has insisted he is “not complicit” in the controversy and that it was not his decision to drop Macklemore, the singer-songwriter has been met with massive backlash over his apolitical stance. All four of his supporting acts have dropped …

Ed Sheeran: All supporting acts quit tour over Macklemore Palestine controversy

Ed Sheeran: All supporting acts quit tour over Macklemore Palestine controversy

Ed Sheeran’s US tour has been plunged into chaos after all four supporting acts withdrew on Tuesday in solidarity with US rapper Macklemore, who had earlier been dropped from the tour after making comments in support of Palestine. Irish acts Aaron Rowe and Beoga, the Danish band Lukas Graham and American singer Finneas all said they would no longer be performing. Source link

What OpenAI’s latest controversy tells us about the future of math

What OpenAI’s latest controversy tells us about the future of math

On Monday, NYU’s Buckmaster posted a proof on the social media site Mastodon showing that a simplified version of the Navier–Stokes equations can indeed break down—a major step forward on the Millennium Problem. He and Alpöge had worked on the problem for almost a year, using publicly available models from both OpenAI and Anthropic. Then today, OpenAI presented a proof showing that the full Navier–Stokes equations can break down as well. The proof was obtained using an internal model that dramatically outperforms the already-impressive Astra model, which was only released last week. The company says it does not plan to claim the million-dollar prize for solving the problem. These mathematical achievements are indisputably impressive, but they have attracted far less attention than the controversy about their origins. Along with the proof, Buckmaster posted a document detailing his interactions with OpenAI employees after he heard rumors about their work and reached out to one of them. According to him, OpenAI employees presented two possibilities to him: Either he and Alpöge could post their work and OpenAI …

City of Gwangju Apologizes for Biennale’s Taiwan Pavilion Controversy

City of Gwangju Apologizes for Biennale’s Taiwan Pavilion Controversy

The South Korean city of Gwangju has issued an apology for controversy that surrounded the Gwangju Biennale‘s Taiwan Pavilion, whose name was initially altered in promotional materials for the show, only to be returned to its current name following an outcry from its participants. The Taiwan Pavilion, one of many national pavilions that appears alongside the biennial’s main exhibition, was at one point billed as the NTMoFA Pavilion, a reference to the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, which organizes it. Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture alleged that the Gwangju Biennale had committed “political censorship” through the renaming. Related Articles Having faced an open letter from artists showing in the pavilion, the Gwangju Biennale then retitled the presentation. Furthermore, the biennial denied that the renaming was meant to satiate China, which also has a pavilion at the Gwangju Biennale and which does not recognize Taiwan as a nation. In response, China last week ordered its pavilion’s artists not to show at the Gwangju Biennale and halted work on their presentation. On Monday, Jeonnam Gwangju City sought …

Met Museum Cancels John Galliano Exhibition Amid Controversy

Met Museum Cancels John Galliano Exhibition Amid Controversy

In a surprising turnabout, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has canceled a John Galliano exhibition that was due to open next spring, in what would’ve been the Costume Institute‘s big May show for 2027. The show had faced controversy from the start as many fixed on antisemitic and anti-Asian comments by Galliano from more than a decade ago. He was convicted of a hate crime in France in 2011. The designer previously apologized for those comments and sought mental health counseling, and the Met said it had conferred with Jewish groups in the making of its Galliano exhibition. But neither was enough to assuage the concerns of politicians and public figures who had pushed the museum to cancel the show since its announcement at the end of July. Related Articles The Met’s cancelation of the show came just a few days after the New York Times published a report detailing those criticisms, which had been largely waged in emails to curators and leadership at the Met. One of the critics was Pace Gallery founder Arne …

Sacha Baron Cohen’s new Ali G film is already embroiled in controversy, with calls to boycott it from cinemas

Sacha Baron Cohen’s new Ali G film is already embroiled in controversy, with calls to boycott it from cinemas

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Sacha Baron Cohen’s revival of his character Ali G has already sparked controversy in the U.K., where one theater chain has replied to a boycott campaign to say they have no plans to show his new movie. Earlier this week, Cohen released the trailer for an upcoming fly-in-the-wall documentary similar to Borat. The new film, titled Ali G: Who Iz I?, will be released by Amazon MGM and see Baron Cohen alongside unsuspecting members of the public while in character as Ali G. The character, who Baron Cohen originated in 1998, previously featured in a 2002 narrative feature film titled Ali G Indahouse. While some fans heralded his return, others believe the character to be outdated. The British news comparison site NewsCord launched a campaign calling on theaters to boycott the film, writing: “Black British comedians called the character ‘an alibi …

Sacha Baron Cohen’s new Ali G film is already embroiled in controversy, with calls to boycott it from cinemas

Sacha Baron Cohen’s forthcoming Ali G film is already embroiled in controversy

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Sacha Baron Cohen’s revival of his character Ali G has already sparked controversy in the U.K., where one theater chain has replied to a boycott campaign to say they have no plans to show his new movie. Earlier this week, Cohen released the trailer for an upcoming fly-in-the-wall documentary similar to Borat. The new film, titled Ali G: Who Iz I?, will be released by Amazon MGM and see Baron Cohen alongside unsuspecting members of the public while in character as Ali G. The character, who Baron Cohen originated in 1998, previously featured in a 2002 narrative feature film titled Ali G Indahouse. While some fans heralded his return, others believe the character to be outdated. The British news comparison site NewsCord launched a campaign calling on theaters to boycott the film, writing: “Black British comedians called the character ‘an alibi …