Heidi Klum is the queen of Halloween, and this year, she’s truly outdone herself.

The model and former Project Runway host has made an art of show-stopping Halloween costumes each year, from her Jessica Rabbit jaw-dropper to her insect alter ego to that time she cloned herself. 

And for 2018, Klum transformed herself into the supreme green Princess Fiona from Dreamworks’ classic animated film Shrek, with her boyfriend Tom Kaulitz as the titular ogre himself.

Image: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images

Image: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images

The pair landed at Klum’s 19th Annual Halloween Party at Lavo nightclub in New York City on Wednesday. They brought the kids too.

Image: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images

How did they arrive at Klum’s coveted party? In an onion carriage, of course.

Image: Jackson Lee/GC Images

So, how did she make an ogre of herself this year?

Posting videos of the process to Twitter and Instagram, Klum recruited some hardcore prosthetics for the two costumes.

Then it’s time for a little makeup:

Pop the wig on:

And voila!

Image: jackson lee/GC Images

Alex Humphreys, Kevin Urgiles, and Ray White

about 9 hours ago

North Korean officials commit sexual violence against women with little concern for the consequences while the government neither investigates nor prosecutes complaints and does nothing to support the victims, a report said on Thursday.

Unwanted sexual contact and violence are so common in North Korea it had “come to be accepted as part of ordinary life”, New York-based Human Rights Watch said.

Women interviewed said sexual predators included high-ranking party officials, prison and detention facility guards and interrogators, secret police, prosecutors, and soldiers. Such abuse is rarely reported not only because victims fear social disgrace in a deeply conservative society, but also retaliation, the 86-page report found.

“Sexual violence in North Korea is an open, unaddressed, and widely tolerated secret,” said Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch’s executive director.

“North Korean woman would probably say ‘Me Too’ if they thought there was any way to obtain justice, but their voices are silenced in Kim Jong Un’s dictatorship.”

The group interviewed 54 North Koreans who left the country after 2011, when Kim Jong Un became leader, as well as eight former officials who also defected.

Eight former detainees or prisoners said they experienced a combination of sexual violence, verbal harassment, and humiliating treatment.

Twenty-one women traders said they endured sexual asault and unwanted advances by police or other officials as they travelled for their work.

‘Click, click, click’

Yoon Mi Hwa, a former trader in her 30s who escaped North Korea in 2014, said in the detention centre where she was held after a previous attempt to flee to China in 2009, a woman would be “forced to heave with a guard and be raped” every night.

One guard was feared for his cruelty and would find excuses to beat detainees, she said.

“Click, click, click was the most horrible sound I ever heard,” Yoon told the rights group. “It was the sound of the key of the cell of our prison room opening. Every night a prison guard would open the cell. I stood still quietly, acting like I didn’t notice, hoping it wouldn’t be me to have to follow the guard, hoping it wouldn’t be him.”

Patriarchal society

Park Young Hee, a farmer, was forced back to North Korea from China in the spring of 2010, after her first attempt to flee.

After being released by the secret police and handed over to local authorities for questioning she was touched and sexually assaulted by one of the officers who asked her about the sexual relations she had had with the man to whom she had been sold while in China.

Having escaped North Korea a second time in 2011, she, “My life was in his hands so I did everything he wanted and told him everything he asked. How could I do anything else?”

The report said the sexual abuse of women was enabled by a deeply patriarchal society and entrenched gender inequality, as well as abuse of power, corruption, the absence of rule of law, and a lack of support and legal services for survivors of sexual violence.

Justin Trudeau’s family is at it again with another year of delightful Halloween costumes.

Canada’s prime minister dressed up as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s beloved character Sherlock Holmes for the spooky holiday, donning the fictional detective’s signature deerstalker hat, pipe, and clue-hunting magnifying glass.

But Trudeau wasn’t alone in his costumed festivities, with his whole family joining in:

Trudeau joined his son Hadrien to go trick-or-treating at Rideau Hall, the home of the Canadian governor general, HuffPost reports. 

The prime minister’s proven quite the Halloween enthusiast over the years, dressing up as a rather self-aware Clark Kent/Superman in 2017, pairing with Hadrian as the Pilot and the Little Prince from the classic French tale in 2016, and as Han Solo in his get-up from The Empire Strikes Back in 2015.

While it’s likely not the reason for Trudeau’s choice of costume, the prime minister dressing up as the pipe-touting Holmes seemed a timely moment to folks on Twitter, as Canada became the second country to legalize marijuana on Oct. 18. 

Image: Edward Berthelot/Getty Images

For us mere follower-less mortals, making money as a social media influencer seems dead easy.

Like for Grown-ish actor Luka Sabbat, who was paid by Snapchat’s public relations agency PR Consulting (PRC) to promote Spectacles with posts on Instagram. 

But now he’s being sued for allegedly not doing his job.

According to a complaint filed in the New York Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sabbat was paid $45,000 upfront in an influencer marketing deal worth $60,000 for four unique posts.

Sabbat, who has 1.4 million Instagram followers, was to deliver one Instagram feed post, and three Instagram stories of him at New York, Milan or Paris fashion weeks. One of these posts would include a provided swipe up link to Snap’s Spectacles, smart sunglasses that can record short videos for Snapchat.

Part of the deal also meant Sabbat had to be photographed wearing Spectacles while out in public during Milan or Paris Fashion Week.

He was also required to send Instagram posts to PRC for approval before publishing them, and submit analytics to the firm within 24 hours of posting.

In the end, Sabbat is alleged to have only made one Instagram feed post and one story post, failed to submit posts for approval, and didn’t provide analytics within the 24-hour timeframe.

Sabbat is also accused of not being photographed at least once wearing Spectacles in Milan or Paris. Quelle horreur.

“Based upon the foregoing, PRC declared Sabbat in breach of the Agreement and demanded that Sabbat return the $45,000 that PRC paid him,” the complaint reads.

PRC alleges that Sabbat was aware that he failed to fulfill his obligations, but didn’t return the funds to the company. It wants the $45,000 paid to Sabbat back, plus another $45,000 in damages. 

Snap’s second effort at high-tech glasses, Spectacles 2, launched in April. Sabbat and Snap Inc have been contacted for comment.

 

Across the planet eco-systems are in a dire state. Many believe a mass extinction is under way, the sixth since life first started in the primeval melting pot billions of years ago.

This chilling fact adds a surging piquancy to the moment when you stand on the deck of an icebreaker and stare out over the vast, remote wilderness that is the Weddell Sea, a huge expanse of icy ocean fringing the Antarctic continent. 

It is the coldest sea on Earth, indeed it is the cold water heart of the planet, pumping and driving the deep water currents that circulate around the world’s oceans – a crucial mechanism that helps regulate our climate systems. 

Here too exists a spectacular festival of life. It is the realm of blue whales and orcas, of leopard seals and penguins and myriad marine animals, of thousands of species yet to be discovered. It is not yet the realm of man. And many want to keep it that way.

Antarctic expedition

In February this year I joined a Greenpeace expedition to the western edge of the Weddell Sea on board the icebreaker the Arctic Sunrise. On board marine scientists were collecting scientific evidence to back the proposal to create what would be the largest protected area on Earth, five times the size of Germany.  

The proposal aims to ring fence almost two million square kilometres of these rich waters, restricting commercial fishing and other human activity including any future attempt to mine the seabed or drill for oil.

Dr Susanne Lockhart of the California Academy of Sciences journeyed down to the ocean floor in the expedition submarine.

“We encountered seabed communities that were highly complex, consisting of ancient corals and sponges that provide habitat and shelter for an incredibly rich diversity of marine life,” Lockhart said. “It is imperative this area is protected.”

The proposal has been put forward by the European Union. But for it to come into effect it has to win consensus at the end of this week from all 25 members of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, currently meeting in the Australian city of Hobart. The commission was set up to protect the seas around the Antarctic.

Will McCallum, the lead oceans campaigner for Greenpeace, has spent the past year galvanising support for the bid. As the commission meeting opened he handed in a petition with two million signatures in favour of the sanctuary.

“We have an opportunity to protect a rare area of ocean wilderness while it is still in a near pristine state,” McCallum said. “The Antarctic Ocean Commission has given itself the mandate to create this large-scale network of protected areas. We believe the Weddell Sea proposal is absolutely filling that mandate.”

Biological richness

On board the Arctic Sunrise, we ploughed through the sea ice to remote, isolated waters where few ships venture. Where biological richness and diversity is comparable to tropical reefs, where nature is on a planetary scale. 

You can see why commercial fishing nations with interests in the Southern Ocean, such as Russia, China and Norway, might want a piece of the action.

But research shows whenever well-managed ocean sanctuaries are in place, there is more diverse and more abundant marine life, both inside protected waters and with spillovers outside.

Which means sustainable fisheries can be managed beyond the protected areas, good news for the commercial fishing fleet and for global food security.

Which begs the question, why wouldn’t this sanctuary proposal be passed without debate?

National interests

Global environmental imperatives do not always measure up to  perceived national interests. And for any proposal to pass at the commission, it needs a unanimous ‘yes’ vote. China and Russia blocked a similar proposal for East Antarctica in 2017 and it’s feared the same could happen this year.

Already there are reports of ugly disagreements and stalling, with some saying now the Weddell Sea proposal has come to the table, it has little chance of success.  However, there was also doubt and pessimism in 2016 when out-of-the-blue consensus was reached for a similar sanctuary in Antarctica’s Ross Sea.

If the proposal is blocked, the role of the Antarctic Commission itself may come into question. Its job is to protect the continent’s seas, which no single country controls, and ensure they do not become a free for all. 

In 2011, the commission agreed to create a network of Marine Protected Areas throughout the Southern Ocean by 2020. As it stands near the end of 2018, a mere two have been designated.

Netflix dropped a Halloween surprise by releasing a very brief first look at Justice League star Henry Cavill in the TV adaptation of The Witcher video game.

But the real journey was not the 10 seconds of footage with no dialogue — it was the memes we made along the way.

Cavill has the thankless job of being the live-action embodiment of a video game character. Which, in the case of Geralt, means wearing the most 1995 Dungeons and Dragons wig you’ve ever seen on a human man.

The jokes came in hot, silvery, and with the accuracy of arrow to the face. Namely, in how closely he resembles Christopher Lambert from another video game adaptation, 1995’s Mortal Kombat.

The classic image of a young Mark Zuck even made its rounds again, providing a pretty photo-realistic recreation of the dork ass role-playing vibes from the clip.

Another hero went as far as to edit in some dialogue via a key piece of dialogue from the game.

Some even found a clear connection between the footage and a different silver-haired beauty from a fantasy TV show. Maybe The Witcher really will be Netflix’s Game of Thrones?

So does Henry Cavill look like a poor man’s Legolas? Maybe. But you know, at least this time his performance is being ruined by a practical effect rather than bad CGI mustache removal.

Man, this guy can’t catch a break.

Colombo, Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka‘s president and speaker of parliament failed to resolve a crisis over the abrupt sacking of the country’s prime minister amid fears opposing parties may turn to violence and bribery to break the deadlock.

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya held emergency talks with President Maithripala Sirisena on Wednesday, urging him to recall parliament and let legislators choose between the two men claiming to be the country’s lawful prime minister, according to Chaminda Gamage, a spokesman for the speaker.

But the hour-long meeting in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, ended without a resolution, said Chaminda.

“Sirisena said he will consider the speaker’s request and get back to him soon,” he said.

Sri Lanka has been gripped by constitutional chaos since Friday after Sirisena fired Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, suspended parliament, and appointed a controversial leader he had defeated in elections in 2015 to the prime minister’s post.

The surprise moves, which critics denounced as a “coup”, drew tens of thousands of protesters to the streets of Colombo on Tuesday.

A source close to the president, who was present at Wednesday’s meeting at Sirisena’s official residence, told Al Jazeera while Sirisena was “polite”, he remained “indifferent” to Jayasuriya’s pleas.

He responded to the speaker’s request to resume parliament by asking him to recognise newly appointed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, the official said. 

Jayasuriya, a member of the sacked prime minister’s United National Party (UNP), previously insisted the decision must be left to the 225-member House. Legal experts argue while a president can appoint a prime minister, he does not have the authority to sack one. 

Talks between the president and the speaker were held hours after the independent attorney-general declined to comment on the legality of Sirisena’s actions.

In a letter responding to the speaker’s request for his legal opinion, Jayantha Jayasuriya, the government’s top legal advisor, said commenting on the matter would be “inappropriate”. 

‘Corruption of the people’s mandate’

Despite the dispute over the legality of his appointment, the newly appointed prime minister continued to consolidate power. On Wednesday, Rajapaksa assumed the finance minister’s duties and officials said he was expected to begin work on the state budget for 2018 soon. 

Wickremesinghe, meanwhile, remained holed up in the prime minister’s official residence at Temple Trees, where Buddhist monks have been reciting prayers throughout the day. 

The ousted prime minister, whose popularity is declining amid widespread anger over costs of living, insisted he commanded majority support in the House, and members of his UNP accuse Sirisena of suspending parliament in a bid to shore up support for Rajapaksa’s appointment.

All eyes are now on the South Asian country’s legislators.

Transparency International Sri Lanka, an anti-corruption group, warned the suspension of parliament “has created a climate that is ripe for political horse-trading leading to the corruption of the people’s mandate”.

Asoka Obeysekere, the group’s executive director, told Al Jazeera “closing the doors of parliament to enable deal-making has already led to allegations of monetary inducements for loyalty”.

At least five UNP legislators have defected to Sirisena’s United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA). They were offered posts in the newly appointed cabinet.

One legislator, Dunesh Gankanda, was sworn in as state minister for environment on Tuesday just hours after posting a photo on Facebook praising protesters for “turning up to defeat the evil Sirisena-Rajapaksa gang”. 

The defections prompted one UNP politician to accuse China of spending “millions to buy” legislators in Sri Lanka. Beijing, which backed Rajapaksa during the former president’s 10-year rule, has dismissed Ranjan Ramanayake’s claim as “groundless and irresponsible”.

Despite the cross-overs, it was unclear if Rajapaksa has the 113 votes he requires. Prior to the crisis, the UNP had the backing of 106 parliamentarians, and the UPFA had 96.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which has 16 seats in the house, and the People’s Liberation Front (JVP), with six legislators, have urged Jayasuriya to intervene and reconvene the House.

Targeted sanctions

Alan Keenan, researcher at the International Crisis Group (ICG), said TNA support for Rajapaksa, who is credited with ending the country’s 26-year war against Tamil separatists in 2009, was not guaranteed because of the way his government and military treated members of the ethnic minority during his decade-long rule from 2005 to 2015.

The JVP, meanwhile, was likely to abstain because of anger at both candidates, he said.

ICG, in a statement on Wednesday, urged Western countries to urge Sirisena to select a prime minister through legal means.

Condemning what it called the country’s “first-ever illegal transfer of power”, ICG said Wickremesinghe’s ouster threatens instability in Sri Lanka, while the “struggle for power jeopardises progress on reforms, reconciliation, and prospects for peaceful and fair elections in 2019”.

Governments should consider suspending economic cooperation – including a US goverment plan to loan US$450m to Sri Lanka – and “begin to consider applying targeted sanctions against Sirisena, Rajapaksa, their families and their close associates should Sri Lanka’s constitutional coup proceed”, the statement said. 

The crisis, now in its sixth day, appears unlikely to end soon.

Sri Lankan daily Lankadeepa, in a report late on Wednesday, said Sirisena – in a meeting with leaders of his party shortly before talks with Jayasuriya – vowed he would not allow Wickremesinghe to remain as prime minister.

A member of the president’s party confirmed Sirisena‘s comments to Al Jazeera.

‘No choice but Rajapaksa’

Many Sri Lankans in Colombo say they expect Rajapaksa to come out on top the longer the crisis drags on.

“He is a charismatic man, he will bring legislators to his side,” said Jeewaka Perera, a 49-year-old taxi driver.

The father of three said he voted against Rajapaksa in the 2015 elections because of corruption, but the “unity government” of Sirisena and Wickremesinghe have failed to deliver on promises of economic reform. 

“Ranil Wickremesinghe hasn’t done anything for the people in the last three years,” he said, expressing frustration over high fuel costs and taxes. “He has failed.”

“I think what Sirisena has done is wrong,” he said referring to Wickremesinghe’s ouster.

“But now there is no choice but Rajapaksa. The UNP can never be elected again.”  

Image: Chesnot/Getty Images

E-scooter company Lime is cautioning riders and contract workers about malfunctioning batteries and other issues with some of its scooters.

Lime uses Segway Ninebot scooters in many of its cities, but after an August report about battery issues in “several” units, faulty scooters are being pulled from the fleet. What Lime calls a manufacturing defect sometimes led to smoldering batteries, which would then catch fire. Lime called these “isolated instances.”

Back in August, Lime worked with Segway Ninebot to digitally monitor batteries for faulty units, which would then prompt a scooter deactivation. Lime says this affected scooters in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Lake Tahoe. 

Now, Lime says the company’s received an “unconfirmed report” about another Segway Ninebot scooter model that may have similar battery issues. Understandably, it’s prompted some immediate fixes.

Lime recently unveiled its Gen 3 scooter, which utilizes gear from other manufacturers. But since there are still Segway Ninebots out there, Lime is only allowing charging of those models in its own storage facilities, instead of having contract workers charge them. 

In a blog post this week, Lime said the battery problem affects .01 percent of its scooter fleet, but it’s still concerned about its riders’ safety and its network of chargers, called Juicers.

An email went out to Juicers on Wednesday summarizing the blog post and reiterating that all Segway Ninebot scooter home charging is temporarily suspended. The email went on to assure contract workers that the company is “grateful” for their support and “cares deeply” about their safety.  

Lime says it has a new daily diagnostic testing program in place for all its scooters’ batteries, no matter the manufacturer. At Lime storage facilities where scooters are being charged, 24-hour on-duty teams will keep an eye on the batteries.

A separate issue with Lime’s Okai-manufactured scooters was also revealed this week. When ridden off a curb at high speeds, the baseboard can crack or break. Lime said it’s “studying the issue,” which happens only when scooters are used improperly. It called the type of riding that leads to broken boards “repeated abuse.” 

Bird’s newest scooter also uses Okai. We reached out to Bird to see if its Okai scooters had experienced any issues.

Another scooter manufacturer, Xiaomi, reportedly has asked Lyft to stop using its scooters. In a letter obtained by TechCrunch, the Chinese scooter maker says Lyft never asked to use, modify, or reference the brand. The letter states “We also do not condone Lyft’s unauthorized modification or retrofitting of our electric scooters for general public use.”

It’s tough scooting these days.

FIFA, football’s governing body, is considering expanding the Qatar 2022 World Cup from 32 teams to 48, with the possibility of Doha sharing the tournament with other countries in the Gulf region. 

FIFA President Gianni Infantino said on Wednesday that the expansion, which is slated for the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, could come early at the next event.

“We have decided as well to increase the number of teams participating in the World Cup final tournaments, from 32 to 48. This will happen in 2026. Will it happen already in 2022? We are looking into it. If it is possible, why not?”, said Infantino, speaking at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Congress in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.

Qatar beat bid rivals Australia, Japan, South Korea and the US in 2010 to claim the hosting rights, becoming the first Arab country to do so.

One of its stated aims was to create a legacy for the Middle East, but last year, its Gulf neighbours Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain severed political and economic ties with Qatar, imposing a land, sea and air embargo on the peninsula.

“We have to see if it is possible, if it is feasible,” said Infantino about the potential expansion in four year’s time.

“We are discussing with our Qatari friends, we are discussing with our many other friends in the region and we hope that this can happen,” he added.

“And, if not, we will have tried. We will have tried because we always have to try to do things in a better way.”

‘Middle Eastern World Cup’

Infantino’s favoured plan of adding 16 extra teams – with 16 three-team groups – to football’s mega event was unanimously approved by the FIFA Council last year.

The 2026 tournament in North America is set to be the first World Cup hosted by three nations.

Preparations are under way in Qatar, which is breaking with tradition with a winter kick-off, as it looks to avoid the scorching summer heat.

Seven new state-of-the-art stadiums with advanced open-air cooling technology are being built for the 2022 event.

The eighth one, Khalifa International Stadium, was inaugurated in May last year, after undergoing renovations and upgrades.

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has said that Qatar 2022 is “very important for the whole region” and hopes that the football tournament will help the Arab nations “overcome difficulties”.

Earlier this year, South American countries had formally asked FIFA to make Qatar 2022 a 48-team event.

But Nasser al-Khater, assistant secretary-general of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC), which is overseeing the 2022 World Cup, said Qatar is still planning and working towards a 32-team tournament. 

“Technically speaking, everything is possible,” he told Al Jazeera. “It’s just that we need to understand the format, how it’s going to change, how many days would be increased for the 48-team World Cup and we take it from there.”

“We are going to keep an open-door policy as we have been,” al-Khater added. “We welcome everybody to come to Qatar and we still remain a Middle Eastern World Cup.”

‘Political difference’

Analysts have warned that the expansion of Qatar’s tournament would present a fresh batch of problems to a host nation that has already been the subject of much condemnation over migrant workers’ rights and its winter schedule. 

“How would Qatar – already working around the clock to cater for the needs of 32 nations, 64 games and the hundreds of thousands of fans eager to support their teams – allow for another 16 teams, not forgetting, of course the extra games and extra fans it would have to host in the allotted schedule?,” wrote Ross Griffin, assistant professor of Postcolonial Literature at Qatar University.

Al Jazeera’s sports correspondent Lee Wellings, reporting from London, said Infantino’s latest remarks are driven more by FIFA’s internal politics than anything else. 

“He [Infantino] is standing in Kuala Lumpur and talking to people who want to hear that there’s a chance for more teams in a tournament which is happening in their continent, so he knows he’s preaching to the converted,” he said. 

“What he also believes, somewhere at the back of his mind, is that he can actually make a political difference, rather like Sepp Blatter [ex-FIFA president] before him,” Wellings said.

“But when it comes to trying to sort out situations in the Middle East … to actually make this happen is way beyond Infantino and FIFA.”