Sobering

Qualcomm Inc's shares sank 7% on Thursday after the chip designer signalled it would take longer for its crucial smartphone market to rebound from a post-pandemic slump. The company, which supplies to top handset makers Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics, was set to lose about $10 billion in market valuation, if the losses hold. Qualcomm's quarterly revenue outlook marked the second time a chip firm underwhelmed Wall Street this week. Advanced Micro Devices slumped more than 9% on Wednesday after a dour forecast. "While we…

Good evening. I’m Karen Kaplan, and it’s Tuesday, Jan. 31. Here’s the latest on what’s happening with the coronavirus in California and beyond.For months now, almost everything about the pandemic seemed to be getting better. Sometimes that progress came in fits and starts, but the momentum was moving in just one direction — toward the day when we can safely treat COVID-19 like any other infectious disease.Then along came a sobering reminder of how hard it is to keep pace with the ever-changing coronavirus.The message was…

Cannabis is one of the most widely used drugs in the world. While there are only a few countries where cannabis is legal for recreational use, many more countries have legalized the use of cannabis for medical reasons.Reducing pain is one of the most common reasons people report using medical cannabis. According to a US national survey, 17 percent of respondents who had reported using cannabis in the past year had been prescribed medical cannabis.When it comes to self-medication, the numbers are even higher – with…

The wounds inflicted on many women in the film industry are far from healed; the story – of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual predation, abuse and bullying – is still unfolding (a sexual assault trial is ongoing). But Maria Schrader’s taut drama about the New York Times investigation by two reporters, Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) and Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan), feels as exhaustive and thorough as it’s possible to be, given that the full extent of the producer’s crimes remains unknown. This sobering procedural follows the dogged…

Wearing a dark hijab and gripping the wire fence, a young Afghan woman shakes her head slightly, seemingly fights back tears, searches the faces of American soldiers, glances away pensively then looks back in anger, her eyes gleaming like black diamonds.“She writes a novella for us in 36 seconds,” director Matthew Heineman says of the lingering shot that closes his documentary film Retrograde. “I’m curious what you interpreted in her face? To me it speaks volumes.”The moment was captured in August last year at the airport…

With this startling and sombre documentary, Mexican film-maker Rodrigo Reyes has conducted an experiment in verbatim cinema, or what you might call witness cinema. In 2014, Reyes was at his day job as a California court interpreter translating for a defendant: Sansón Noe Andrade, a young Mexican immigrant who was to be convicted for first-degree murder having been the driver for a drive-by gang shooting, conducted by his 15-year-old brother-in-law. Andrade got life without parole, having denied guilt and denied gang…

This time, markets understood quite clearly what the Federal Reserve meant: Inflation is too high and it will likely take a recession to get it down.There is really no other way to interpret the economic and interest-rate projections Fed officials released Wednesday, and Chairman Jerome Powell’s accompanying remarks. Markets expected the Fed to raise its interest-rate target by 0.75 percentage point, to a range of 3% to 3.25%, but not that officials would also project rates would reach 4.6%…

It’s rare for Star Wars projects to end up feeling like stronger, more interesting stories for hewing close to the tentpole movies that came before them. But that’s very much the case with Andor, Disney Plus’ new prequel series that keenly understands and expands upon everything that made Rogue One such a standout part of the franchise.Rogue One, director Gareth Edwards’ harrowing, shell-shocked, but ultimately optimistic story about the small group of freedom fighters who won the Rebel Alliance’s first victory against…

Helen Hunt has spoken out about her unsuccessful attempt at getting a sequel to Twister made, claiming she and her collaborators were unable to spark producers’ interest. The actor starred alongside Bill Paxton in the original movie in 1996. The pair played a separated couple who had to abandon their personal issues in order to help combat a series of violent tornadoes destroying Oklahoma.Globally, the film made a total of $494.5m (£428m) during its theatrical run and was one of the most successful releases of that year.…