Books Newsletter: Barry Gifford, Book Festival News, Calligraphy For Nowruz And More

Warning: Possible spoilers ahead. Netflix’s Bridgerton is based on the book series of the same name by American romance author Julia Quinn. Each of the Bridgerton books, written between 2000 and 2006, follows the lives of one of the eight Bridgerton siblings as they find love matches spanning across Regency-era England—from 1811 to 1820—and slightly beyond, under the watchful eye of London’s elite society. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The show takes a lot of liberties with the book characters and plots but generally stays true to the central theme of each book.

HIV, viral hepatitis, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) collectively cause about 2.5 million deaths and 1.2 million cases of cancer each year, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO). The report, released Tuesday, found that case notifications of STIs are increasing in many regions, and new HIV and viral hepatitis infections are not declining fast enough.

It’s been over a year now since the beginning of the Writers Guild of America strike, and needless to say, the film industry still has a long way to go, between the rising AI problem and the continued domination of scripts based on IP—along with the devaluing of smaller productions that deserve a wide release but instead get dumped on VOD or streaming too early.

When the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan unveiled this week his intention to seek arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas leaders over respective violations of international humanitarian law, both parties responded with predictable outrage. But perhaps the most notable reactions came from the U. S. and the U.

Scarlett Johannson has gone to war with OpenAI, and in the battle for public opinion, OpenAI is losing—badly. Last week, OpenAI released an update of its AI chatbot called ChatGPT-4o, which featured a female voice talking to its users. Many people pointed out that the voice, which sometimes seemed to veer into flirtation, was eerily similar to Scarlett Johannson’s in the 2013 dystopian sci-fi film Her.

Fitness company Peloton has paused music and entertainment programs featuring rapper and record executive Sean “Diddy” Combs after disturbing footage surfaced of the star being physically violent. The decision comes following the release of camera footage from a Los Angeles hotel of Combs physically assaulting and kicking his then-girlfriend Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura, as she was approaching the elevator.