Latest news with #Upgrade
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, David Cronenberg & Javier Bardem Join 380 Cinema Figures In Open Letter Condemning Silence Over Gaza
More than 350 film world figures, including Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Javier Bardem, have published an open letter on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival condemning 'silence' over the deadly impact of Israel's ongoing military campaign in Gaza. The letter, published on the website of France's Libération newspaper on Monday evening, was headed 'In Cannes, the horror Gaza must not be silenced'. It was addressed 'For Fatem', in memory of 25-year-old Gaza artist and photojournalist Fatima Hassouna. More from Deadline Matt Rife To Star In Comedy 'The Escort' For 'Wedding Crashers' Director David Dobkin; Upgrade & UTA Launching For Cannes Market Mubi Deep Dive: Founder Efe Cakarel & Content Boss Jason Ropell Lift The Lid On Rapid Growth & Next What Does The Industry Think? Maya Hawke & Rhys Ifans Set For Aisling Walsh's Lucia Joyce Biopic As The Veterans Boards Sales - Cannes The young woman was killed in an Israeli airstrike in mid-April just 24 hours after it was announced a documentary exploring her life in the Gaza Strip would world premiere in the Cannes. Ten of her relatives, including her pregnant sister, were killed in same strike. 'She was a Palestinian freelance photojournalist. She was targeted by the Israeli army on 16 April, 2025, the day after it was announced that Sepideh Farsi's film Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk, in which she was the star, had been selected in the ACID section of the Cannes Film Festival. She was about to get married,' read the letter. 'Since the terrible massacres of 7 October 2023, no foreign journalist has been authorised to enter the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army is targeting civilians. More than 200 journalists have been deliberately killed. Writers, filmmakers and artists are being brutally murdered.' Israel's bombing and invasion of Gaza began in October 2023 in response to Hamas's October 7 attacks on southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people and resulted in the taking of 251 hostages. Eighteen months on, at least 52,600 people have been killed by Israeli military action, according to figures released by the Hamas-run Gaza health authority, while the 2.4 million population is also facing severe food shortages due to a two month blockade of essential supplies by Israel. The letter was published just hours after Hamas released Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, in what it said was a gesture of goodwill ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to the Middle East, which does not include Israel. Around 58 hostages are still missing in Gaza, with around 24 of them still believed to be alive. Further signatories include Pedro Almodóvar, Javier Bardem, Leïla Bekhti, Kaouther Ben Hania, David Cronenberg, Costa-Gavras, Julie Delpy, Alice Diop, Xavier Dolan, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Nicole Garcia, Jonathan Glazer, Alain Guiraudie, Annemarie Jacir, Yórgos Lánthimos, Nadav Lapid, Mike Leigh, Boris Lojkine, Kleber Mendonça, Viggo Mortensen, Laura Poitras, Ruben Östlund, Mark Ruffalo and Ira Sachs. The letter also highlighted the case of Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, co-director of Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, with Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra and Rachel Szor, who was attacked by Israeli settlers and then kidnapped by the army in late March, before being released under international pressure. 'The Oscar Academy's lack of support for Hamdan Ballal sparked outrage among its own members and it had to publicly apologise for its inaction,' read the letter, referring to a U-turn by the body. 'As artists and cultural players, we cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza and this unspeakable news is hitting our communities hard. What is the point of our professions if not to draw lessons from history, to make films that are committed, if we are not present to protect oppressed voices? Why this silence?' Read the full letter here: For Fatem Fatma Hassona (Fatem) was 25 years old. She was a Palestinian freelance photojournalist. She was targeted by the Israeli army on 16 April 2025, the day after it was announced that Sepideh Farsi's film PUT YOUR SOUL ON YOUR HAND AND WALK, in which she was the star, had been selected in the ACID section of the Cannes Film Festival. She was about to get married. Ten of her relatives, including her pregnant sister, were killed by the same Israeli strike. Since the terrible massacres of 7 October 2023, no foreign journalist has been authorised to enter the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army is targeting civilians. More than 200 journalists have been deliberately killed. Writers, film-makers and artists are being brutally murdered. At the end of March, Palestinian film-maker Hamdan Ballal, who won an Oscar for his film NO OTHER LAND, co directed by Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra and Rachel Szor, was brutally attacked by Israeli settlers and then kidnapped by the army, before being released under international pressure. The Oscar Academy's lack of support for Hamdan Ballal sparked outrage among its own members and it had to publicly apologise for its inaction. We are ashamed of such passivity. Why is it that cinema, a breeding ground for socially committed works, seems to be so indifferent to the horror of reality and the oppression suffered by our sisters and brothers? As artists and cultural players, we cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza and this unspeakable news is hitting our communities hard. What is the point of our professions if not to draw lessons from history, to make films that are committed, if we are not present to protect oppressed voices? Why this silence? The far right, fascism, colonialism, anti-trans and anti-LGBTQIA+, sexist, racist, islamophobic and anti-Semitic movements are waging their battle on the battlefield of ideas, attacking publishing, cinema and universities, and that's why we have a duty to fight. Let's refuse to let our art be an accomplice to the worst. Let us rise up. Let us name reality. Let us collectively dare to look at it with the precision of our sensitive hearts, so that it can no longer be silenced and covered up. Let us reject the propaganda that constantly colonises our imaginations and makes us lose our sense of humanity. For Fatem, for all those who die in indifference. Cinema has a duty to carry their messages, to reflect our societies. Let's act before it's too late. Best of Deadline Everything We Know About 'Nobody Wants This' Season 2 So Far List Of Hollywood & Media Layoffs From Paramount To Warner Bros Discovery To CNN & More A Full Timeline Of Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni's 'It Ends With Us' Feud In Court, Online & In The Media
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Amazon's Zoox to scale up robotaxi production for US expansion
Amazon's self-driving start-up Zoox will scale up production next year, as it accelerates plans for a commercial rollout of its fleet of Upgrade to read this Financial Times article and get so much more. A Silver or Gold subscription plan is required to access premium news articles.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Into the lion's den': Mark Carney's high-stakes meeting with Donald Trump
Mark Carney has had a short honeymoon since his victory in Canada's election.A little over a week after spearheading his Liberal party's Upgrade to read this Financial Times article and get so much more. A Silver or Gold subscription plan is required to access premium news articles.
Daily Mirror
01-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
How to earn EA FC 25 packs quickly during TOTS without buying any FC Points
TOTS is the best time to grind your way to packs in EA FC 25 Ultimate Team in the hope of packing one of the famous blue and gold items Earning EA FC 25 packs in EA FC 25 Ultimate Team has never been easier. Here's how you can grind your way to packing some TOTS players, without spending a penny. The popular TOTS promo is now live in EA FC 25 Ultimate Team, with a Premier League TOTS, WSL TOTS and EFL TOTS all set to be released this week in place of the Ligue 1 TOTS squad. The Premier League TOTS squad is arguably the most anticipated from the entire TOTS release schedule, so it's no surprise that players will be doing whatever they can to try and earn one of these blue and gold player items. From saving packs for weeks to loading up a fresh batch of FC points into Ultimate Team, there's a host of different methods people will be using to try and pack these players, but one thing EA Sports always gets right during TOTS is the menu grind, and it's easily the best way to earn EA FC 25 packs quickly during TOTS. Follow these steps, and you'll have some incredible packs in no time, even if you're starting from scratch. How to grind packs for TOTS in EA FC 25 Ultimate Team There's no reason to be spending any money on FC Points in EA FC 25, because it's never been easier to grind your way to the best packs in the game and make the best Ultimate Team squad possible. As we saw during TOTY, EA has added some new upgrade packs as SBCs during TOTS, allowing you to exchange low-rated bronze, silver and gold players for bigger packs in return. These are the exact steps you need to follow to grind some packs during TOTS. Daily Silver Upgrade and Super Daily Silver Upgrade (Step 1) Each day, EA refreshes the Daily Silver and Super Daily Silver Upgrade SBCs, where you can complete the former three times and the latter seven times daily. Each SBC requires just one silver player, so in total, you're submitting 10 silver players for three Premium Silver Players Packs (12 common silver players, three rare silver players) and seven Super Silver Packs (11 common silver players, three rare silver players). In total, for submitting 10 silver players, you're getting 143 silver players in return. TOTS Griding Upgrade ( Once you've earned all of your silver players, you will submit these into the TOTS Grinding Upgrade SBC, which can be completed 25 times daily. The requirements for the SBC are 11 silver players, so if you were to complete all 25, you'd have to submit a total of 275 silver players. This is obviously more than what you get from the silver upgrades, so either do as many as you can or just save a few more silvers to reach this quota. For each TOTS Griding Upgrade SBC you complete, you will receive a Grind Pack in return, which includes seven common gold players and three rare gold players. In exchange for 275 silver players, you will get 250 gold players, with 75 of these rare. TOTS Crafting Upgrade ( The next stage is to submit all of the gold players you just earned into the TOTS Crafting Upgrade SBC. This SBC can be repeated as many times as you want, so you can pretty much complete this until your club is empty! The requirements for the SBC are seven gold common players and two rare gold players, and in return, you are given a 5x 77+ Rare Players Pack. If you were only to use the players earned from the TOTS Grinding Upgrade, you could complete this 25 times, which would see you submit 50 rare gold players and 175 common gold players. This means that in exchange for these gold players, you would receive 125 Rare Gold Player items, all rated 77 or higher. There's also a TOTS Crafting Upgrade Completionist Objective available, where you can earn free packs based on how many times you complete the TOTS Crafting Upgrade SBC. Pick and choose ( Now you've got 125 rare gold players at your disposal, you can pick and choose what upgrade packs you want to use. It's likely at this stage of the game you would've got some good-rated fodder from your packs, so we'd recommend using the higher-rated players for big upgrade SBCs such as 83+ x14, 84+ x7, and guaranteed TOTS upgrade packs. For the lower-rated players you packed, we'd recommend using these in the Premium League Upgrade SBC. For 11 rare gold players, you will receive a league-specific pack containing 12 gold players, with three of these rare. These league-specific upgrade packs are based on the league that currently has a TOTS squad in packs, so it increases your chances of pulling a TOTS player. Once you're out of players, repeat all of these steps the next day, and hopefully you'll be lucky enough to earn yourself some big TOTS items. Good luck!
Business Wire
28-04-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Yieldstreet and Upgrade Partner to Expand Access to Consumer Credit Investing
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Yieldstreet, a leading private markets investing platform, and Upgrade Inc., a fintech company offering affordable and responsible credit products to mainstream consumers, today announced the completion of an agreement to purchase assets through Flex Pay, Upgrade's BNPL financing solution. This partnership enables individual investors to target passive income from exposure to high-quality consumer BNPL loans. The first transaction, which closed in April 2025, includes a pool of travel loans through Flex Pay's strong partnerships with over 750 travel partners, including major airlines, cruise lines, and hotel chains. "Upgrade has established itself as a market leader in a wide range of credit categories, including BNPL travel-related financing, with its robust origination platform," said Ted Yarbrough, President and Chief Investment Officer at Yieldstreet. "We're pleased to complete this transaction which will allow investors to further diversify their portfolios in private markets with exposure to consumer credit." 'Through this collaboration with Upgrade, we're continuing to expand Yieldstreet's private credit offerings with another asset class that provides exposure to a diverse portfolio of consumer obligations capitalizing on strong demand for travel experiences even in the face of the volatility currently being experienced in public markets,' said Fahd Basir, Head of Credit and Opportunistic Investments at Yieldstreet. 'We're excited to partner with Yieldstreet to give more investors access to this rapidly-growing asset class,' said Renaud Laplanche, CEO and Co-founder, Upgrade. 'Flex Pay presents a differentiated opportunity for investors and brings more affordability and flexibility to consumers.' Flex Pay's travel financing services are integrated into checkout pages for major brands including United Airlines (NYSE: UAL), Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV), Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE: NCLH), Carnival Cruise Line (NYSE: CCL), and Wyndham Hotels (NYSE: WH). The platform allows travelers to finance trips with fixed monthly payments, targeting consumers who choose the service for convenience and flexibility as opposed to actively seeking credit. As of April 2025, over $37 billion in loans for more than 6.5 million customers has been originated through Upgrade since its founding, including $6.7 billion in Flex Pay travel financing. Yieldstreet's platform has facilitated over $6 billion in investments to date, providing individual investors with access to asset classes typically available only to institutions. This transaction marks the addition of travel financing to Yieldstreet's growing portfolio of private market opportunities. About Yieldstreet With more than 500,000 members, Yieldstreet is reimagining how wealth is created, helping investors diversify their portfolios with assets spanning real estate, private credit, private equity, art and more. Its award-winning platform offers investments across ten asset classes. For more information, visit About Upgrade Upgrade, Inc. offers affordable and responsible credit, mobile banking and payment products to mainstream consumers. Upgrade has delivered over $37 billion in affordable and responsible credit to customers since its inception in 2017. The company's headquarters are in San Francisco, California, with an operations center in Phoenix, Arizona, a technology center in Montreal, Canada, and regional offices in Atlanta, Georgia, and Irvine, California. Upgrade is a financial technology company, not a bank. More information is available at: Loans made through Flex Pay are offered by these lending partners.
