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JAKARTA, Dec 21 — Indonesian artist Arahmaiani has had many lives — from an imprisoned then exiled anti-dictatorship activist to a hippie, art teacher and environmentalist — which have inspired her works that test the limits of freedom. The South-east Asian artist was a nomad for years because of a crackdown on her paintings, installations and performances, which were viewed as provocative in the conservative Muslim-majority nation. Her works are now on show at Britain’s Tate Modern in London for the first time and in November she gave a performance there focusing on violence suffered by Chinese-Indonesians in unrest during the fall of dictator Suharto in the late 1990s. Her voice and percussion-based performance named “Burning Country” presents a healing process for the community after the trauma from riots still fresh in the memory. Her radical view of that era, questioning of religious tolerance and environmental damage were major themes of her mini-exhibition “The Wrath of Earth” held in the Indonesian capital Jakarta in August and September. “Art should challenge the status quo and provoke thought. It is a means to question our reality and inspire change,” she wrote in the exhibition catalogue. ‘Our Frida Kahlo’ Prominently featured in Jakarta were Linnga and Yoni, masculine and feminine symbols that are Hindu representations of the balance of opposites. Indonesians “wanted to forget these symbols” that were once omnipresent in the archipelago, which was Buddhist, Hindu and animist before becoming the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, she said. “I want to remind myself and others about this forgotten cultural heritage,” Arahmaiani, 63, told AFP. Recognised abroad as one of the region’s best artists, she is “less so in Indonesia”, said Deborah Iskandar, owner of ASI Gallery in Jakarta that hosted Arahmaiani’s exhibition this year. She wanted to host an exhibition for Arahmaiani to “introduce her work to a younger generation of art lovers”, she said. Exhibition curator Nasir Tamara calls Arahmaiani “our Frida Kahlo”, comparing her to the Mexican feminist and taboo-breaker. “For young people, Yani (Arahmaiani) is a heroine, she’s free. She’s been a fighter since university,” she said. The black-haired woman with a serene smile from Indonesia’s main island of Java now laughs at past controversies. Born in the Javan city of Bandung to a cleric father and a mother of Hindu-Buddhist descent, she studied art at the Bandung Institute of Technology. She was briefly imprisoned there in 1983 following complaints about her works from Islamist parties. ‘Freedom for everyone’ A 1993 painting “Lingga-Yoni” and 1994 installation “Etalase” caused controversy for combining symbols linked to Islam, Western culture and sexuality. Conservative Muslims called for these works to be censored and Arahmaiani received death threats. She then left for Australia, where she carried on her studies while living with a hippy community. “There should be freedom for everyone, including women, on the religious basis of love and compassion,” she said. But being a Muslim woman abroad can also carry its own stigma. She criticised those prejudices in her installation “11 Juni 2002” after a trip to the United States. In that work, she recreates a room where she was detained by American immigration officers. Her status as a young Muslim woman travelling alone had made authorities suspicious about possible terrorism links, she said. In 2006, following a major earthquake in the central Javan city of Yogyakarta, she launched the “Flag Project”: spectacular performances in which flags are waved with messages that encourage community dialogue. Those performances were replicated elsewhere, including Tibet. Arahmaiani is involved in environmental protection work there and visits regularly, marvelling at the historical links between Tibetan Buddhism and Indonesia’s Buddhist heritage. The artist says she is now working on the theme of political dynasties, a hot topic in Indonesia since the election of President Prabowo Subianto. Prabowo is a former son-in-law of Suharto and his vice-president is the son of the outgoing head of state Joko Widodo, in a country long known for its political nepotism. — AFPEddy Grant and Donald Trump have reached a settlement in the singer’s copyright infringement lawsuit over the Trump campaign’s use of “ Electric Avenue ” in an online video promoting his 2020 reelection campaign. U.S. District Judge John Koetl filed notice that the parties had reached a settlement, but a sum was not disclosed. The judge also wrote that the case was discontinued with prejudice but without costs. In September, the judge found Trump liable for copyright infringement, leaving unresolved the issue of whether a jury should be convened to decide an amount. Grant has asked for $300,000 and lawyers’ fees in the four-year-old case. Grant sued Trump in 2020 over an animated video that mocked then-President Trump’s opponent, Joe Biden, with “Electric Avenue” playing in the background. The clip was posted on Twitter without asking Grant or paying a song license. But Trump’s legal team claimed that the use of the song was fair use, in that it was political commentary. The judge, though, had described the video as “a wholesale copying of music to accompany a political campaign ad.” There has been a long line of artists who have objected to Trump’s use of their music at campaign rallies and elsewhere, including the Foo Fighters, ABBA, Celine Dion, Jack White, Johnny Marr of The Smiths and the estate of Sinead O’Connor. In September, a judge ruled that Trump’s campaign had to stop playing Hold On, I’m Coming as singer-songwriter Isaac Hayes ‘ family pursued legal action.

A Chhattisgarh police constable, who was facing a probe in connection with an alleged police recruitment scam, was found hanging from a tree in Rajnandgaon district on Saturday (December 21, 2024). A handwritten message on the palm of the deceased, Anil Ratnakar, on purported attempts to shield officers and implicate junior staff in the scam, has added mystery to the death, with the Opposition targeting the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the State on alleged corruption. Ratnakar’s family has also alleged that he was being harassed by investigators. Rajnandgaon Superintendent of Police (SP) Mohit Garg said Ratnakar’s body had been found on Saturday morning. Mr. Garg said Ratnakar and a few police personnel, as well as staff of a timing technology company partnering in the ongoing recruitment drive, were being questioned in connection with alleged irregularities in the drive. The First Information Report (FIR) filed in connection with the alleged irregularities on December 17 notes that “the process was tampered with in an unfair manner” and that the “possibility of involvement of technical team, police staff and others in the above case cannot be ruled out”. Ratnakar, who was posted at the Jalbandha police post of neighbouring Khairagarh-Chhuikhadan-Gandai, was visiting Rajnandgaon to assist with the same recruitment drive examination in which 20,000 candidates had appeared. So far six persons — four constables and two members of the private company providing technical assistance — have been arrested, the police said in a statement. The SP added that a note handwritten with a pen had been found on Ratnakar’s palm, alleging (police) staff were being targeted amid attempts to “save officers who were involved”. Anil Ratnakar’s older brother Sunil Ratnakar reiterated the allegations, and said that his brother was being framed. He cited a phone call from Anil and said the latter was being harassed and tortured by his seniors. “He had called from someone else’s number and said he was not even 1% involved. He said that one by one their [his and other police personnel’s] statements were being taken and they were being harassed and tortured,” Mr. Sunil Ratnakar told journalists. Mr. Garg said the allegations would be probed. “The matter was serious to begin with and is being handled with seriousness. When the matter was revealed, we had filed an FIR. There will be a thorough probe into what was written on Anil’s hands. We are already probing and checking [the role of] all the officers and if we get any evidence against anyone, strict action will be taken,” Mr. Garg said. Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel took to social media platform X and demanded a high level probe. “The police recruitment scam of Rajnandgaon seems to be a serious matter. What constable Anil Ratnakar wrote on his hand before committing suicide shows its seriousness. The meaning of ‘employees are being framed, officers are being protected. All officers are involved’ is clear @vishnudsai [Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai’s handle] ji. Corruption has definitely taken place. Officials also have a role to play. Now a high level investigation is necessary,” Mr. Baghel said. Those who require assistance for overcoming suicidal thoughts may contact Sanjivini, Society for Mental Health suicide prevention helpline 011-4076 9002 (10 a.m. to 7.30 p.m., Monday-Saturday). Published - December 21, 2024 11:13 pm IST Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Chhattisgarh / police / crime, law and justice

Article content Sometime this financial quarter, the Canadian oilsands will hit a major milestone: one trillion dollars in cumulative spending. This number does not represent profits or dividends. It is the amount of direct spending – the capital, the operating expenses, the taxes and the royalties – that Canada’s most important industrial activity has injected into the economy over a period of about 25 years. The oilsands are Canada’s winning lottery ticket. Economists are well aware of the huge outlay of capital that the oilsands attracted in the early 2010s. Many macroeconomic datasets are distorted by them: investment attraction, productivity, GDP per capita: all enjoyed a bump during the oilsands’ most capital-intensive years. What’s less discussed is how those early outlays of capital committed producers to operational and de-bottleneck spending for years to come: the drilling, well pads, gathering pipelines and equipment needed to sustain and optimize operations. As a result of higher royalties and taxes, oilsands spending actually peaked in 2022, not 2014, the latter of which was the high point for the construction phase of the oilsands’ life cycle. The 2022 oilsands expenditures were equivalent to the GDP of Saskatchewan that same year. The trillion dollars in spending has bolstered the Canadian economy in hundreds of ways, but a few are worth highlighting. Over $107 billion in royalties and $79 billion in taxes have been paid to Canadian governments, representing more than the last five years of Canadian defense spending . Billions in goods and services have been procured from Indigenous businesses, and tens of billions from the manufacturing sector in central Canada. Far from just an Alberta success story, the oilsands are a quintessentially Canadian sector. M ore than 2,300 companies outside of Alberta have had direct business with the oilsands, including over 1,300 in Ontario and almost 600 in Quebec. If anything, the trillion-dollar figure is conservative. It does not include third-party handling, tankage or pipeline spend (the cost of TMX, for example). And it does not include IT, corporate, research and development, diluent costs or the indirect spend that impacts countless firms across the country. These add tens of billions more to worker paycheques, small business profits, and taxes. Such a golden goose should surely be cossetted by our political class? Of course not. The oilsands have been consistently undermined by Ottawa. The announcement of an emissions cap is the latest example. Analysis by S&P Global and the Conference Board of Canada show that, depending on the implementation, the cap could force a reduction in output of well over one million barrels of oil equivalent/day, almost of all of which would have to come out of our exports to the United States. This would lead to a significantly lower balance of trade and an even weaker dollar, affecting all Canadians’ buying power. Canada has the world’s fourth-largest oil reserves; a democracy alone on a list with authoritarian regimes Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Ninety-seven per cent of those reserves are in the Alberta oilsands. That juggernaut could keep Canada’s economy prosperous for many more decades, providing the feedstock for chemicals and carbon-based materials whenever global fuel consumption starts to decline. In fact, based on the last three years of current expenditures, the oilsands would hit their next trillion-dollar spending milestone in half the time it took to hit the first. With good planning and collaboration, some of its future expenditures will go toward emissions-reductions activities such as carbon capture and storage, and new technology investment such as carbon fibre production . But if companies are forced to cut their production, they won’t be able to afford to aggressively cut emissions. Nor will they be able to make other investments to maximize and sustain the value of this resource. Shareholders will put their money elsewhere, and spending will decline. A trillion-dollar milestone is something to celebrate. Governments and industry need to collaborate so we can reach it again. Heather Exner-Pirot is the director of energy, natural resources and environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Bryan Remillard is senior advisor, policy, at Pathways Alliance and has over 30years of experience in the oilsands sector.Deep-pocketed investors have adopted a bullish approach towards Robinhood Markets HOOD , and it's something market players shouldn't ignore. Our tracking of public options records at Benzinga unveiled this significant move today. The identity of these investors remains unknown, but such a substantial move in HOOD usually suggests something big is about to happen. We gleaned this information from our observations today when Benzinga's options scanner highlighted 35 extraordinary options activities for Robinhood Markets. This level of activity is out of the ordinary. The general mood among these heavyweight investors is divided, with 48% leaning bullish and 37% bearish. Among these notable options, 3 are puts, totaling $329,380, and 32 are calls, amounting to $2,224,324. Projected Price Targets Analyzing the Volume and Open Interest in these contracts, it seems that the big players have been eyeing a price window from $20.0 to $50.0 for Robinhood Markets during the past quarter. Analyzing Volume & Open Interest Assessing the volume and open interest is a strategic step in options trading. These metrics shed light on the liquidity and investor interest in Robinhood Markets's options at specified strike prices. The forthcoming data visualizes the fluctuation in volume and open interest for both calls and puts, linked to Robinhood Markets's substantial trades, within a strike price spectrum from $20.0 to $50.0 over the preceding 30 days. Robinhood Markets Call and Put Volume: 30-Day Overview Largest Options Trades Observed: Symbol PUT/CALL Trade Type Sentiment Exp. Date Ask Bid Price Strike Price Total Trade Price Open Interest Volume HOOD CALL SWEEP BEARISH 06/20/25 $4.1 $3.9 $3.9 $50.00 $598.8K 2.9K 1.5K HOOD PUT SWEEP BEARISH 01/16/26 $9.0 $8.9 $9.0 $37.00 $270.0K 1.2K 300 HOOD CALL SWEEP NEUTRAL 05/16/25 $18.25 $18.05 $18.15 $20.00 $232.3K 118 130 HOOD CALL SWEEP BULLISH 12/06/24 $1.75 $1.71 $1.75 $37.00 $117.2K 2.8K 1.2K HOOD CALL TRADE BULLISH 01/15/27 $10.95 $10.5 $10.9 $50.00 $109.0K 4.7K 137 About Robinhood Markets Robinhood Markets Inc is creating a modern financial services platform. It designs its own products and services and delivers them through a single, app-based cloud platform supported by proprietary technology. Its vertically integrated platform has enabled the introduction of new products and services such as cryptocurrency trading, dividend reinvestment, fractional shares, recurring investments, and IPO Access. It earns transaction-based revenues from routing user orders for options, equities, and cryptocurrencies to market makers when a routed order is executed. After a thorough review of the options trading surrounding Robinhood Markets, we move to examine the company in more detail. This includes an assessment of its current market status and performance. Robinhood Markets's Current Market Status With a trading volume of 8,734,368, the price of HOOD is down by -1.95%, reaching $37.11. Current RSI values indicate that the stock is may be approaching overbought. Next earnings report is scheduled for 77 days from now. Expert Opinions on Robinhood Markets Over the past month, 5 industry analysts have shared their insights on this stock, proposing an average target price of $33.6. Turn $1000 into $1270 in just 20 days? 20-year pro options trader reveals his one-line chart technique that shows when to buy and sell. Copy his trades, which have had averaged a 27% profit every 20 days. Click here for access .* An analyst from Goldman Sachs persists with their Neutral rating on Robinhood Markets, maintaining a target price of $25. * An analyst from Needham upgraded its action to Buy with a price target of $40. * Maintaining their stance, an analyst from Goldman Sachs continues to hold a Neutral rating for Robinhood Markets, targeting a price of $22. * An analyst from Barclays persists with their Equal-Weight rating on Robinhood Markets, maintaining a target price of $26. * An analyst from Morgan Stanley has elevated its stance to Overweight, setting a new price target at $55. Trading options involves greater risks but also offers the potential for higher profits. Savvy traders mitigate these risks through ongoing education, strategic trade adjustments, utilizing various indicators, and staying attuned to market dynamics. Keep up with the latest options trades for Robinhood Markets with Benzinga Pro for real-time alerts. © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.