What’s the matter with Kim Jong Un?

On April 15, Kim Jong Un, the North Korean dictator, missed an important birthday celebration: that of his late grandfather, Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s founding ruler. The younger Kim’s absence sparked speculation about his health. Early last week, Daily NK, a website based in South Korea, claimed that Kim had needed to undergo heart surgery due to “excessive smoking, obesity, and overwork.” The next day, CNN reported, citing Trump administration sources, that US officials had received intelligence suggesting that Kim may be in mortal peril. On Saturday, TMZ—which has a track record of breaking stories about celebrity peril—splashed, with characteristic subtlety, that Kim was “REPORTEDLY DEAD” (or dying); it cited regional media sources—including “a Hong Kong-backed news channel’s vice director who’s apparently the niece of a Chinese foreign minister”—that, it warned, in bold type, it had not itself corroborated. (Your average Hollywood gossip, this was not.) Twitter went into overdrive, but nothing concrete followed. Top officials in South Korea played down suggestions that much is amiss; one told CNN that Kim is “alive and well.” As the New York Post put it in a headline, Kim is variously “rumored to be dead, brain-dead, or just fine.” Since the weekend, confusion has continued to swirl. South Korea’s unification minister said Kim may simply be hiding out from the coronavirus—but as one analyst pointed out to Reuters, if that’s the case, why has North Korea not issued... Continue reading at 'Columbia Journalism Review'

[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2020-04-28 12:08:17 UTC ]
News tagged with: #justice department #local authorities #south wales #place ads #crooked media #print titles

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Carys Bray | 'My Northern-ness feels like a matter of fact to me'

Set during an extremely wet December, Carys Bray’s new novel tells the story of the cooling climate of a marriage, as well as dealing with climate anxiety. Though she started writing the book almost four years ago, she notes that in the intervening years discussion of the issues she explores in... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-26 02:55:29 UTC ]
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Why the #247challenge matters

The National Literacy Trust today released new research for National Writing Day, which found that more young people have been writing and reading in lockdown. Following already promising research from the Reading Agency in April, showing that 45% of young people were choosing to read more, it’s... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-23 13:42:51 UTC ]
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WATCH: Jericho Brown and Nikky Finney on Black Lives Matter and Bearing Witness

Renowned poets Jericho Brown (2020 Pulitzer Prize winner) and Nikky Finney (2011 National Book Award winner), formerly student and teacher, reunite to address the current moment of uprising and solidarity in the face of anti-Black violence, in a visceral conversation about art, identity, and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-06-09 17:00:01 UTC ]
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Waterstones responds to staffers' call to support Black Lives Matter

Waterstones has said Covid-19 closures means a charitable donation to Black Lives Matter is not currently possible despite a petition set up by booksellers calling for the chain to financially support the cause. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-08 15:36:16 UTC ]
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Publishers, agents and authors continue to respond to Black Lives Matter protests

Publishers and authors have continued to share reading lists and offers of help following the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-05 10:41:41 UTC ]
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Black Lives Matter in the book industry

It’s early 2012 and a young boy is walking home when he is fatally shot in the back by a neighbourhood watch officer. The officer claims the boy – only seventeen at the time – was reaching for a gun. All the boy had on him was a packet of Skittles and a can of Arizona iced tea. Now it’s the... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-02 22:33:58 UTC ]
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Hachette donates £20k as trade supports Black Lives Matter

The book trade has been showing its support of the Black Lives Matter movement, speaking out across social media and making donations to relevant organisations, following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man killed by police in the US. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-01 06:44:29 UTC ]
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Mental health matters

We are living through an unprecedented time in global history. The coronavirus pandemic has hit every industry, and – this is not news to any of you – publishing is no exception. This week is Mental Health Awareness Week, the theme is ‘kindness’, chosen because we need to reach out to those... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-17 22:41:35 UTC ]
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Why book prizes matter more than ever

The pandemic and lockdown have affected the book industry from the fate of distributors to the closure of independent shops to the drop in individual book sales, and many literary prizes have this year postponed their announcements. But the Desmond Elliott Prize, for the first time under aegis... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-16 09:44:41 UTC ]
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The philosopher who rebelled on matters of the soul

Clare Carlisle’s biography explores Soren Søren///post style Kierkegaard’s ideas on the individual and God. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-05-01 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Why small presses matter

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[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-10 21:57:10 UTC ]
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Panel Mania: Banned Book Club by Kim Hyun Sook, Ko Hyung-Ju, and Ryan Estrada

'Banned Book Club' by Kim Hyun Sook, Ko Hyung-Ju, and Ryan Estrada is the true story of Hyun Sook’s years as a South Korean college student under the brutal military regime of the early 1980s. In this 11-page excerpt a naive and apolitical Hyun Sook meets the fearless student members of a book... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-02-19 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Telling Universal Truths: Spotlight on Michael ByungJu Kim

In his debut novel, Kim mines his experiences as a financier and banker to tell a coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the Asian financial crisis. (Sponsored) Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-02-17 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The Famous Baldwin-Buckley Debate Still Matters Today

In 1965, two American titans faced off on the subject of the country’s racial divides. Nearly 55 years later, the event has lost none of its relevance, as a recent book attests. Continue reading at The Atlantic

[ The Atlantic | 2019-12-02 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Books Matter: HCCP’s David Moberg on the Future of Christian Publishing

Group publisher of HarperCollins Christian Publishing David Moberg reflected on the birth of faith-based publishing, the ways it’s changed and stayed the same, and what to expect in the future during PWedu’s Christian Publishing Summit on Wednesday. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-11-01 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Crystal Hana Kim and Laura van der Berg on What It Means to ‘Learn to Write’

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[ Literrary Hub | 2019-10-07 08:49:33 UTC ]
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We’ll Be Talking ‘Impeachment’ Again in a Year, No Matter What Happens With Trump

No matter how the House of Representatives' inquiry into President Trump plays out, FX hopes that "impeachment" is still a big buzzword exactly one year from today. That's when the third season of American Crime Story--titled, that's right, Impeachment--is set to debut. But Season 3 of Ryan... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2019-09-27 10:30:50 UTC ]
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William Collins launches 'Ideas Matter' podcast featuring David Cameron as first guest

David Cameron will be the inaugural guest on "Ideas Matter", the new podcast from William Collins when it launches this week. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-23 17:42:22 UTC ]
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Why It Matters That Amazon Shipped Margaret Atwood’s “The Testaments” a Week Early

Back in May, I signed an embargo agreement on behalf of my bookstore stating that I would “ensure that [The Testaments by Margaret Atwood] is stored in a monitored and locked, secured area and not placed on the selling floor prior to the on-sale date.” The idea behind such agreements is that... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-09-06 11:00:49 UTC ]
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