Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi says that Qatar has rejected Israeli media reports claiming the Qataris agreed to participate in military action against Iran. Doha says the false allegations seek to undermine its role as a regional mediator.
Published On 16 Jul 2026
James Gray’s crime drama “Paper Tiger,” starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller, will make its North American premiere as the opening night film of the 64th New York Film Festival on Sept. 25.
This is Gray’s fourth film to screen at the prestigious festival, following “The Immigrant” (2013) and “Armageddon Time” (2022), both official main selections, and “The Lost City of Z” (2016), which was the closing night film.
“Paper Tiger,” Gray’s first film since 2022’s “Armageddon Time,” joins a long lineage of opening night selections such as RaMell Ross’ “Nickel Boys” (2024), Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” (2019) and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite” (2018) over the last decade.
Thirteen of the 64 films chosen to open the New York Film Festival between 1963 and 2025 have gone on to earn Academy Award nominations for best picture. Only one opener has claimed the top prize: Hugh Hudson’s “Chariots of Fire” (1981). The dozen other best picture nominees span six decades: “The Big Chill” (1983), “Pulp Fiction” (1994), “Secrets and Lies” (1996), “Mystic River” (2003), “Good Night, and Good Luck” (2005), “The Queen” (2006), “The Social Network” (2010), “Life of Pi” (2012), “Captain Phillips” (2013), “The Favourite” (2018), “The Irishman” (2019) and most recently, “Nickel Boys” (2024).
Neon premiered “Paper Tiger” at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it received a seven-minute standing ovation. In his Variety review, chief film critic Owen Gleiberman wrote that the movie “has the dread-fueled engine of a neo-New Hollywood vérité thriller.”
Set in 1986, the film follows two brothers, Irwin (Teller) and Gary Pearl (Driver). Irwin becomes entangled with the Russian mob after embarking on a get-rich-quick scheme to clean up the Gowanus Canal, and his former cop brother, Gary, is the only one who can get him out of trouble.
“James Gray has been a fixture at the New York Film Festival for many years, and we are thrilled to welcome him back as our Opening Night filmmaker with a career-best achievement,” said NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim in a statement.
Gray added, “I’m immensely grateful to be welcomed back to this remarkable festival. This deeply personal film is rooted in New York City; from my upbringing to life-changing family experiences. To be here, at the heart of art and cinema, with our cast and crew — many of whom are New Yorkers — is a privilege.”
Gray and members of the cast and crew will be in attendance.
The NYFF Main Slate selection committee is chaired by Lim, along with Florence Almozini, Justin Chang and Rachel Rosen. NYFF64 single tickets will go on sale to the general public on Tuesday, Sept. 15 at noon ET, with presale access for FLC members and pass holders before then.
More NYFF selections will be announced in the coming weeks.
Brian Swarth, a veteran of promoting series such as Showtime’s “Billions,” Audacy’s “Fly on the Wall with David Spade and Dana Carvey” and AMC’s “Interview with the Vampire,” will join MS NOW as its senior vice president of marketing, at a time when the news outlet will be working to lure its viewers to join a new “community” service that will offer content and interaction for a subscription.
Swarth will join the Versant Media property on July 20, and report to Rebecca Kutler, president of its operations. He will work closely with Maritza Berta, MS NOW’s vice president of marketing.
“Brian joins us at a critical time for the network as we prepare for our inaugural direct-to-consumer product launch in the coming months and continue to see significant momentum across the organization,” Kutler said in a memo to staffers issued Thursday. “His experience in growing brands, launching direct-to-consumer businesses, and navigating periods of transformation will help us build on our successes as we continue to write the next chapter for MS NOW.”
Swarth will oversee audience growth strategies, consumer engagement, and brand marketing across MS NOW’s portfolio, including linear television, digital platforms, direct-to-consumer products, live events, and more. He joins the company following a four-year stint at AMC Networks, where he served as vice president of product strategy and business operations. Previously, he spent eight years at Showtime as the senior vice president of digital media and marketing, where he helped the company move into the direct-to-consumer streaming business.
He previously served as head of marketing for Audacy’s podcast division, where he worked to spur audience growth across Cadence13 and Pineapple Street Studios. Earlier in his career, he held leadership roles at Warner Bros. and MTV Networks.
“I’m grateful to join MS NOW at this critical moment when the brand is growing across every platform and reaching more people than ever,” Swarth said in a statement. “It’s an exciting time to be part of the team, as we prepare to launch our first-ever direct-to-consumer service which will give our audience new ways to connect with MS NOW and each other.”
After consolidating within a narrow range early in July, DeXe [$DEXE] skyrocketed to a new all-time high of $49.40. The rally was driven by the successful rollout of the Dexelization AI integration upgrade, which triggered the move to $ATH.
The upgrade embeds specialized AI agents into the protocol infrastructure, enabling AI and users to collaborate in operation and management. However, the market buzz around it faded after the altcoin reached $ATH, resulting in a rejection. Since then, the altcoin has printed four red candles, closing at new lows each day.
At press time, $DEXE traded around $34, down 9.85% on the daily charts. Over the same period, altcoin volume jumped 58% to $158 million, suggesting intense selling pressure.
Interestingly, after $DEXE began to decline, whales re-entered the market. Spot Average Order Size data from CryptoQuant showed Big Whale Orders for three consecutive days.
When this metric shows whale orders, it suggests increased market participation from the cohort either selling or buying. Notably, the Spot Taker CVD highlighted that these whales have been actively cashing out.
The Spot Taker CVD metric has remained red for five consecutive days, indicating that more sell orders have recently been executed on the spot.
Therefore, it’s most likely that these whales have mostly been closing their positions. Furthermore, the exchange flow also echoed this selling trend. According to CoinGlass data, $DEXE’s netflow has remained positive over the past week.
For example, over the last three days, $33.1 million in $DEXE has entered exchanges, while $26.27 million has left.
As a result, the Spot Netflow climbed to $6.8 million, a trend that has continued as of this writing. A sustained period of positive net flow suggests that sellers are more incentivized to exit the market.
Often, such market conditions have preceded extended market weakness, leading to more losses on price charts.
$DEXE is currently experiencing strong downward pressure, largely driven by whale bearishness. As a result, downside market momentum strengthened significantly.
At press time, the Stochastic Momentum Index (SMI) crashed into oversold territory, falling from 77 to 27. At such low levels, the SMI indicated the downside momentum is especially strong.
At the same time, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) formed a bearish crossover, falling from 70 to 58 at press time. This showed that although buyers remain active, sellers managed to retake the market.
Typically, such market conditions have preceded a price drop. Thus, if investors, especially whales, continue to offload, $DEXE could drop below $30. However, if the market manages to hold between $37 and $40, this bearish outlook will be invalidated.
The 2026 Toronto International Film Festival announced five additions to its Special Presentation program today.
This sci-fi comedy from the Zellner brothers (“Sasquatch Sunset”) concerns a gang of humanoid aliens who visit Earth with the intent to wipe everyone out only to take a liking to its people. The film boasts a big cast including Cate Blanchett, Chris Pine, Dave Bautista, Léa Seydoux, Lily-Rose Depp and Adria Arjona.
Glaxo (Dir. Benjamín Naishtat)
Brazilian filmmakers have been on a heater of late, and this film from director Benjamín Naishtat (“Rojo”) may continue that streak. A decades-spanning film set in a small provincial town between the 1950s and 1980s, “Glaxo” follows four young men whose lives intersect in a tale of lust and revenge amid a backdrop of unrest in Brazil.
Love of Your Life (Dir. Rachel Morrison)
The sophomore directorial feature from filmmaker Rachel Morrison, an acclaimed DP who became the first woman nominated for the Best Cinematography Oscar in 2018 for “Mudbound,” is a romantic drama produced by Ryan Gosling about a nurse (Margaret Qualley) swept up in a great love affair. The film also stars Patrick Schwarzenegger, Aaron Pierre, Gabriel Basso and Catherine Keener.
The Housewife (Dir. Ben Shirinian)
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother (Dir. Bassam Tariq)
$XRP attracted renewed attention after whales accumulated 70 million $XRP over the past week, reinforcing confidence despite the token’s prolonged consolidation below resistance.
The bullish narrative also gained support after the $XRP Ledger surpassed 8 million activated accounts, highlighting continued network adoption.
Large holders continued increasing their exposure even as $XRP traded inside a well-defined range.
That behavior suggested institutional-scale investors viewed current prices as attractive rather than risky.
Instead of distributing holdings after previous rallies, whales kept absorbing available supply.
Meanwhile, the expanding $XRP Ledger ecosystem reflected growing activity across payments, tokenization, DeFi, and AI-related applications.
Together, stronger network adoption and sustained whale buying reinforced confidence that long-term demand continued strengthening beneath the current price consolidation.
Derivatives traders continued favoring the upside despite $XRP’s lack of a decisive breakout.
Binance’s top trader positioning remained heavily skewed toward longs, with 77.21% of accounts maintaining bullish exposure.
That left the Long/Short Ratio at 3.39, reflecting sustained confidence among experienced market participants.
However, traders refrained from aggressively adding leverage while $XRP remained below resistance.
Instead, they maintained existing long positions and waited for confirmation from spot markets.
That behavior suggested expectations of continued upside rather than an immediate rally.
However, the elevated long bias also increased the risk of short-term volatility if buyers failed to reclaim higher resistance.
Even with that risk, derivatives sentiment continued aligning with the accumulation trend seen among whales.
$XRP recovered from the $1.05 support zone and traded near $1.10, showing buyers continued defending recent lows.
This recovery gradually improved short-term sentiment and kept the broader recovery structure intact.
The daily RSI climbed to 48.64, while its signal line reached 47.74, indicating buying strength continued improving despite remaining below the neutral 50 level.
$XRP also traded within the $1.05–$1.20 range, where repeated higher lows reflected steady demand.
Recent AI forecasts supported a constructive longer-term outlook.
Grok projected a year-end range between $1.80 and $4.50, while Claude estimated $1.50 to $1.90 as the most likely range and suggested prices above $2.50 would require stronger catalysts.
Even so, $XRP would first need to reclaim $1.20 to strengthen the bullish technical outlook.
The Liquidation Heatmap identified several dense liquidity clusters above the current price, making those levels important if buyers extended the recovery.
The largest concentration appeared around $1.12, while additional clusters stretched toward $1.14 and $1.16.
Those areas could attract price because large concentrations of leveraged positions often trigger liquidation-driven volatility.
On the downside, another liquidity pocket remained near $1.10, providing nearby support if sellers regained control.
The heavier liquidity concentration above market price slightly favored an upward liquidity sweep before a larger directional move developed.
$XRP maintained a constructive outlook as whale accumulation aligned with strong bullish positioning among Binance’s top traders.
Buyers also defended the $1.05 support while the RSI continued recovering toward neutral territory.
These signals favored another attempt at $1.20. If buyers generated stronger spot demand, $XRP could challenge that resistance and target higher liquidity levels.
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A mysterious green mass has been spotted in the waters of Loch Ness, fuelling fresh rumours about the monster which is said to lurk in its depths.
The object was caught on camera next to Urquhart Castle by a tourist on a Jacobite Cruises boat tour on June 23.
Sharon Herbert had been taking a picture of the castle – but spotted the strange sight lurking just beneath the surface. It is the seventh possible Nessie sighting to be made this year.
The picture, recently uploaded to the official Loch Ness monster sightings register, also left the experienced skipper of the tour boat flummoxed.
The register said: ‘Sharon Herbert, visiting from Kent, took a picture of an unknown object close to the Jacobite cruise boat at 10.27am as it came to shore at Urquhart Castle.’
‘Jacobite Cruises have confirmed that their skipper says there is no explanation that they can offer as to what the green mass is.’
The incident is the latest in a busy year for Nessie spotters with six in-person sightings and another via webcam since the start of the year.
By comparison, the register only recorded six in-person and four webcam sightings for the whole of 2025.
The official Loch Ness Monster sightings register has recorded a total of 1,172 sightings to date.
Scientists have long cast doubt on the existence of the aquatic being, with the famous 1933 photograph of a long-necked creature swimming in the lake dismissed as a hoax.
Nevertheless, thousands of people still head to Loch Ness every year armed with cameras in the hopes of catching a glimpse of its most famous resident.
In April, the mythical creature was ‘spotted’ twice within a few days after months without a glimpse of it.
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And in December 2024, it emerged the sightings could be down to ‘standing waves’,according to Alan McKenna, the founder of Loch Ness Exploration (LNE).
MORE: Social media posts ‘celebrating’ Ann Widdecombe’s death investigated by police
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Bitcoin rose above $64,000 following weaker-than-expected US CPI and PPI data. However, further gains are limited due to simultaneous selling by both long-term and short-term investors.
While Bitcoin, Ethereum, and altcoins are also experiencing gains, noteworthy statements have come from the US banking giant Morgan Stanley.
At this point, a Morgan Stanley analyst compared Solana to Ethereum, the largest altcoin.
And here, $SOL has historically been highlighted as a better diversification tool than $ETH.
Speaking to Coindesk, Morgan Stanley investment strategist Denny Galindo argued that Solana has historically been a superior diversification asset compared to Ethereum.
Galindo notes that with the rise of spot Bitcoin ETFs, followed by Ethereum and Solana ETFs, the question of which digital assets investors should include in their portfolios alongside Bitcoin has come to the forefront.
Galindo also stated that the correlation coefficient between Bitcoin and $ETH is 0.78 until April 2026, while the correlation between Bitcoin and $SOL is 0.72, explaining that the BTC-$SOL correlation is lower.
According to the analyst, this suggests that Solana is slightly less likely to move in the same direction as Bitcoin. The lower correlation indicates a higher probability of Solana moving independently of Bitcoin, and therefore contributing more to portfolio diversification.
The analyst also notes that Solana’s correlation with the S&P 500 is slightly lower compared to Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Based on these historical correlations, Galindo concluded that $SOL could be a better diversification asset than $ETH. However, the analyst pointed out that Solana has higher price volatility than Ethereum, and investors should consider this risk factor when evaluating the diversification advantage.
*This is not investment advice.
In a nearly three-hour interview on The Joe Rogan Experience, US Vice President JD Vance was pressed on some of the Trump administration’s most controversial decisions. This is what he said.
Published On 16 Jul 2026
EXCLUSIVE: A decade after Ava DuVernay‘s Oscar-nominated and Peabody Award-winning 13th debuted on Netflix, the filmmaker and the streamer are back together in the Constitutional business.
Spotlighting America’s long running and sometimes bloody battle with itself over who is a citizen and how much freedom they get, Duvernay’s documentary 14th is set to launch on Netflix later this year, I’ve learned.
“If 13th asked who gets caged, then 14th asks who gets counted,” DuVernay told Deadline of the upcoming documentary. “This is not a film about the past tense of freedom. I’m not interested in asking you to look back.”
Clearly revolving around the equal protection and citizenship-focused 14th amendment, which was ratified in 1868 in the turbulent era of Reconstruction and has been a contentious part of the American body politic ever since, the14th project from the Selma helmer has been in production discreetly for well over a year. Coming from Array Filmworks, 14th is produced by DuVernay, with longtime collaborators Spencer Averick, Tammy Garnes and Paul Garnes.
“The film asks what kind of country is being written beneath our feet now… while we’re busy believing the stories we’ve all been told,” DuVernay states, with a firm nod to the ongoing vitriolic MAGA attacks in and out of the courts on the 14th amendment’s birthright citizenship guarantee, as well as against immigrants and equity.
Sitting Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden with Ava DuVernay filming14th in 2025
To that, the director/producer sits down in 14th with members of Congress present and past such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), former GOP Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, and California’s current senior Senator Alex Padilla. The film also features interviews with sitting Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden (who Donald Trump fired in May 2025), former President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund president and Director-Counsel Sherrilyn Ifill, UC Irvine School of Law Korematsu Center for Law and Equality executive director Prof. Robert Chang, activist and past Georgia gubernatorial contender Stacey Abrams. Spanning the ideological divide, DuVernay spoke with left-wing Twitch-based cultural critic Hasan Piker and conservative In Defense of Populism: Protest and American Democracy author Donald T. Critchlow too.
Along with 13th, Netflix has been the home of DuVernay’s Emmy-winning When They See Us series from 2019 about the injustices against suspects in the 1989 Central Park jogger rape case. The streamer also launched DuVernay’s 2020 Colin in Black & White limited series about NFL icon Colin Kaepernick’s formative years.
“Ava’s remarkable ability to bring history into conversation with the present made her last documentary, the seminal BAFTA-winning and Academy Award-nominated 13th, a cultural touchstone of the last quarter century,” says Adam Del Deo, Netflix’s VP of Documentary Film and Series. “With 14th, she delivers another ambitious and thought-provoking documentary with the depth, artistry, and humanity that have come to define her work. We’re proud to continue our creative partnership with Ava and bring this powerful film to audiences around the world.”
In many ways a continuum in DuVernay’s often probing career with projects like 13th and WTSU, the essence of 14th is also reminiscent of the remarks the filmmaker made in 2025 upon accepting Great Americans Medal from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
In front of a DC crowd, including Smithsonian chief Lonnie Bunch III and the museum’s Elizabeth MacMillan Director Anthea M. Hartig, DuVernay noted “History is not a weapon to be sheathed when inconvenient. It is not a bedtime story meant to lull us to sleep. It is a river, flowing… deep and often turbulent.”
Sounds like America.