TRENDING WORLD NEWS

BREXIT CASE: UK HIGHEST COURT HEARS GOVT SIDE-

The British government was back at the country's Supreme Court on Wednesday, contend that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's decision to break off parliament just weeks before the country is set to allowance the European Union was neither improper nor illegal. It's the second day of a three-day hearing that pits the powers of Britain's legislature against those of its executive as the Brexit date of October 31 looms. A government lawyer was place to contend that a lower court was right to rule that Johnson's suspension of parliament was a element of high policy and politics, not law. The government's opponents argue that Johnson illegally close down parliament.

EU WARNS NO-DEAL BREXIT IMMINENT-

The EU's two top officials handling Brexit talks warned the risk of a no-deal exit looms large unless Johnson offers concrete proposals. The risk of a no-deal remains very real, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said. 

FOSSIL OF ONE OF THE WORLD'S ANCIENT BIRD SPECIES DISCOVERED-

Scientists have invented fossils of one of the world's oldest bird species in New Zealand that settled about 62 million years ago, soon after the dinosaurs expired. Bony-toothed birds, an ancient family of huge seafaring birds, were thought to have evolved in the Northern Hemisphere but that theory has been upended by the analysis of the family's oldest, but the smallest member in North Canterbury, New Zealand. At 62 million-years-old, the newly discovered Protodontopteryx ruthae is one of the oldest named bird species in the world, the study published in the journal Papers in Palaeontology said. While its descendants were some of the biggest flying birds ever, with wingspans of more than five meters, Protodontopteryx ruthae was only the size of an average gull, researchers said. Like other members of its family, the seabird had bony,tooth-like projections on the edge of its beak, they said. The seabird fossil was recognize by the same team that recently introduced the discovery of a 1.6 meter-high giant penguin from the identical site.

UNFOCUS LINE BETWEEN MAN AND BEAST, JALLIKATTU CONSTRUCT SUPERIOR DEBUT-

It has been a five-film, sandpaper eyes-exhausting-yet-fulfilling-day, and yes, it's odious to compare, but I'm thrilled to report that Lijo Jose Pellissery's new film Jallikattu is the clear winner: its world premiere, for which the director, his cast and crew are present, is a smash-hit. It is one of those films where nothing much happens and yet everything happens. A water buffalo has run amok in a tiny Kerala village, and in the 96-minute run time, we see warring residents, greedy outsiders, wise old coots, nosey neighbors, men and women involved in that oldest dance of lust and stealth, displaying all the emotions known to humans, from pettiness to grand gestures and everything in between. If you have seen Pellissery's Angamaly Diaries(2017) and Ee Ma Yau(2018), you will be familiar with the way the director orchestrates chaos. The strands he plays with simmer away at a slow burn till there comes a crescendo, and you are left gasping. Through the immersive method of his filming, he makes sure the viewer is both observer and participant, and we emerge from that experience knowing more and feeling more. In Jallikattu, that feeling is intensified. The control Pellisery displays as the film race along, showing us the buffalo crashing through built inhabitations and the surrounding forests, is evident. Through it, we see what the film is aiming at-a galloping, raging mass of masculinity where being a man is equated with how you can kill and subjugate and snarl-and even more importantly, amongst men and beasts, who, really, is bestial? Amongst the men chasing the buffalo, and often their own tail, is the good-looking Antony Varghese, who made his debut in Angamaly Diaries, and Chemban Jose, both of whom were present on stage, with Santhy Balachandran, resplendent in a kasavu sari. They clean up well, these actors because in the film they are unrecognizable, hidden under layers of fear, uncontrolled greed and grime they collect during the chase, crashing through bushes and ambushing their own. Jallikattu is exhilarating, and I am still all shaken up, a few hours after the standing-ovation gala screening.