Latest news with #patriotism
Zawya
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Zawya
Eritrean Community Festival in Scandinavian Countries Concludes
The 27th annual Eritrean Community Festival in the Scandinavian countries, held from 24 July in Stockholm, concluded with a vibrant expression of national unity and patriotism. The festival featured seminars, a photo exhibition showcasing national development programs and the activities of the Eritrean community in the Scandinavian countries, children's and youth programs, exhibitions by villages representing Eritrea's ethnic groups and national organizations, as well as cultural and artistic performances by a cultural troupe from Eritrea. Speaking at the concluding event, Mr. Mohammed-Ali Mohammed-Seid, Chargé d'Affaires at the Eritrean Embassy, said the yearly Eritrean Community Festival is an event that promotes national identity and values. He commended the members of the coordinating committee for organizing the colorful national event despite various challenges. Ms. Tsigereda Berhe, Secretary of the National Holidays Coordinating Committee, stated that the success of the festival reflects the strong participation and commitment of the Eritrean community, as well as the noble Eritrean culture of sharing and mutual support. The festival was attended by over 28,000 nationals from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland, as well as from various European countries and the United States. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Ministry of Information, Eritrea.
Fox News
2 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
New film company founded by tech industry veterans wants to make Hollywood pro-American again
A new film company with ties to the tech and defense world is on a mission to reignite patriotism in Hollywood. The backers of the new project, called Founders Films, believe there's a growing appetite among audiences for bold stories that inspire and celebrate the American spirit. But they say that content has become increasingly rare in mainstream entertainment. "Movies have become more ideological, more cautious, and less entertaining," the company wrote in a pitch to investors, first reported by Semafor. "Large segments of American and international viewers are underserved. Production costs have soared and sales are flagging." The new studio aims to fill that gap by producing a range of content — from historical dramas to big-budget blockbusters — that celebrates American greatness, ingenuity and heroism. The commercial success of films like "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Oppenheimer" and series such as "Yellowstone" show that audiences are hungry for these types of stories, sources close to the project told Fox News Digital. While "unapologetically pro-American," Founders Films stresses that its mission is not partisan. Rather, it wants to make compelling films with a broad appeal. The project is already attracting significant interest from investors and collaborators, the sources said. One project has already been sold to a major studio. The company hopes to produce its own films, collaborate with other production companies and finance the development of other projects that align with its mission. Proposed project ideas include a film dramatizing the evacuation of the World Trade Center on 9/11, a movie about the "botched withdrawal from Afghanistan" and a multi-season spy thriller exposing "China's plans to replace the United States as the dominant global power," according to the Semafor report. Founders Films' leadership team has ties to Palantir, a tech giant which builds defense software solutions for the U.S. military and Allied forces. One of the film company's co-founders is Shyam Sankar, chief technology officer at Palantir. Ryan Podolsky, an early Palantir employee and U.S. Marine veteran, also serves as co-founder and CEO of the film company, while investor Christian Garrett is the third co-founder. Sankar immigrated to the United States as a child after fleeing violence in Nigeria and has often spoken about his gratitude to the United States. In a blog post late last year, he outlined his vision for the new film project, saying Hollywood needs to return to the "American cinematic universe" that shaped his love for America. "I remember growing up as an immigrant kid at the end of the Cold War, watching movies like Red Dawn, Top Gun, Rocky IV, and The Hunt for Red October," he wrote in the December 2024 Substack post. "These movies were the pump-up material of Peak America. They were awesome, and they instilled a healthy aversion to ushanka-wearing commies, for good measures." Sankar called out Hollywood executives for being unwilling to criticize America's adversaries today out of fear doing so would hurt them financially. "America is in the middle of Cold War II against a communist enemy with more people, more money, and more military might than the Soviets ever had," he wrote in the post. "The CCP is playing a more careful game than the Kremlin, but as the Uyghurs, Tibetans, and Taiwanese know, it's no less tyrannical, even genocidal." "What is Hollywood doing to expose this new villain and inspire Americans? When was the last time you saw the CCP presented as a bad guy in a major motion picture, like the USSR? Cold War II is heating up, yet the American Cinematic Universe is AWOL. Worse than that, it's compromised by Chinese influence," he wrote. "Breaking out of our cultural malaise will require the studios to wake up and choose America," his post went on to say. "But it will also require a new crop of artists who are disenchanted with the status quo and who can re-enchant audiences with new, well-told stories."
Fox News
3 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Charlie Kirk confident conservatives are winning over young Americans after watching Dems' Gen Z summit
Turning Point USA founder and president Charlie Kirk lambasted Democrats' Gen Z summit held on Friday, questioning the apparent lack of patriotism at the event while guest co-hosting "Fox & Friends Weekend" on Saturday. "Fox & Friends" co-host Charlie Hurt pointed out that compared to Kirk's annual Turning Point USA (TPUSA) summit aimed at young conservatives in high school and college, Voters of Tomorrow's Fight for Our Future Summit seemed to lack the authenticity that Kirk and his organization bring to the table. "Well, also, you look at all the b-roll there from the Democrat event — where's the patriotism?" Kirk said. "Where's the American flag? Where's the Americana?" The co-hosts discussed a recently released poll from Pew Research Center that showed 52% of men between ages 18 and 29 lean toward the Republican Party, compared to 34% for Democrats. When asked by co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy what these numbers signal to him, the TPUSA founder laid out his case for why Gen Z men are resonating with the Republican Party. "This tells me that there's finally a pushback and a rebellion against everything that has happened culturally over the last five years," he said. "I mean, you think of — we had the lockdowns, but the other part of the COVID mess was all the wokeism that was just force-fed to our nation's youth. You can see a big split amongst Generation Z, and I think this is a very important point." Kirk added: "There is nothing less masculine than saying you have to sit home all day and not be able to leave your house, and you have to just stare at a screen," and made the point that the entire "COVID mess" led young men to seek out more masculine voices, such as podcasters Joe Rogan and Theo Von. Earlier in the show, Kirk mocked Democrats' decision to have former DNC Vice Chair David Hogg speak at the event, jokingly referring to Hogg as the "American symbol of masculinity." Later on Saturday, Democratic attorney and strategist Julian Epstein warned that the summit only reinforced that the party has a slew of problems and "no clear plan." "Voters don't like the sound of the Democrats. It's the forever grievance, forever obstructionist party," he told "Fox News Live," arguing that most voters don't like "woke" politics or the party's socialist-style economic policies.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Feeling flush? Americans can Venmo government to help pay off US debt
John F Kennedy's sage words from his inaugural address are forever seared into America's political consciousness: 'Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.' Six decades and some change later, the United States Treasury is keeping Kennedy's spirit alive by offering Americans with a few dollars collecting dust in their Venmo balance a chance to fulfill a new patriotic duty: helping pay off the national debt. The US treasury department has long had a 'Gifts to Reduce the Public Debt' page available for those that dislike traditional charity, feel like they don't pay enough in taxes, or simply want to help the country stay No 1 in an eclectic list of superlatives that includes military spending, Olympic gold medals, prison population, corn subsidies, and healthcare costs. But the new-age, Gen Z-friendly method of payment is a recent addition, first flagged on Twitter by Planet Money's Jack Corbett. A bipartisan punching bag that trades sides of the aisle depending on who's in office and who needs funds earmarked for projects in their state, concern over the national debt is one of few issues that Democrats and Republicans can unite on. Also bipartisan is the debt's growth, which has increased every year since 2001, when it sat at $10.28tn. As of this writing, the debt has ballooned to $36.72tn. America is on track to continue the trend, with the Congressional Budget Office estimating that Trump's Big Beautiful Bill will add $3.4tn to the debt over the coming decade. It is unclear how much money Trump and Elon Musk's 'Doge' saved, although analysis estimates the number at under the advertised $180bn, and a far cry short of the initially advertised $2tn. The federal government spent $6.75tn in Fiscal Year 2024 while collecting $4.92tn in revenue. Highlights of past and present government spending include the $151bn procurement process for the Trump administration's Golden Dome missile defense project, over $2tn on Lockheed Martin's long delayed F-35 fighter jet, and roughly $800bn in annual spending on the Pentagon, which recently failed its seventh audit in a row. Kind-hearted Americans have gone above and beyond their regular tax-paying duties contributing around $67.3m since 1996. That's enough to fund 20 minutes of the US government's spending habit. If Americans could dig into their couch cushions, eat less takeout, and tighten their belts, they might be able to tackle the problem once and for all. It would only take about $107,000 per person, payable via ACH, Paypal, credit or debit card, and now, Venmo.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Feeling flush? Americans can Venmo government to help pay off US debt
John F Kennedy's sage words from his inaugural address are forever seared into America's political consciousness: 'Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.' Six decades and some change later, the United States Treasury is keeping Kennedy's spirit alive by offering Americans with a few dollars collecting dust in their Venmo balance a chance to fulfill a new patriotic duty: helping pay off the national debt. The US treasury department has long had a 'Gifts to Reduce the Public Debt' page available for those that dislike traditional charity, feel like they don't pay enough in taxes, or simply want to help the country stay No 1 in an eclectic list of superlatives that includes military spending, Olympic gold medals, prison population, corn subsidies, and healthcare costs. But the new-age, Gen Z-friendly method of payment is a recent addition, first flagged on Twitter by Planet Money's Jack Corbett. A bipartisan punching bag that trades sides of the aisle depending on who's in office and who needs funds earmarked for projects in their state, concern over the national debt is one of few issues that Democrats and Republicans can unite on. Also bipartisan is the debt's growth, which has increased every year since 2001, when it sat at $10.28tn. As of this writing, the debt has ballooned to $36.72tn. America is on track to continue the trend, with the Congressional Budget Office estimating that Trump's Big Beautiful Bill will add $3.4tn to the debt over the coming decade. It is unclear how much money Trump and Elon Musk's 'Doge' saved, although analysis estimates the number at under the advertised $180bn, and a far cry short of the initially advertised $2tn. The federal government spent $6.75tn in Fiscal Year 2024 while collecting $4.92tn in revenue. Highlights of past and present government spending include the $151bn procurement process for the Trump administration's Golden Dome missile defense project, over $2tn on Lockheed Martin's long delayed F-35 fighter jet, and roughly $800bn in annual spending on the Pentagon, which recently failed its seventh audit in a row. Kind-hearted Americans have gone above and beyond their regular tax-paying duties contributing around $67.3m since 1996. That's enough to fund 20 minutes of the US government's spending habit. If Americans could dig into their couch cushions, eat less takeout, and tighten their belts, they might be able to tackle the problem once and for all. It would only take about $107,000 per person, payable via ACH, Paypal, credit or debit card, and now, Venmo.
