The art director for the surprise hit movie “Obsession” has ignited a major controversy online after taking to social media to complain about how much she was paid. Sally Choi said in the post shared late last week that she debated whether to publicize her thoughts “for a long time” but ultimately decided to let the world know how upset she was. “I’ve been holding a lot of weight over the past two years since the production of ‘Obsession,’ so I’m going to say it as it is,” Cho wrote in an Instagram post. She explained that the film was made for “$750K and is projected to make $250M. How much I made: $300/day as Art Director. This came out to $6741.36 after taxes. No mileage.” “I did know the rate beforehand and agreed to it, but atp I was living paycheck to paycheck. This is the reality of most filmmakers especially those who work below the line. We become a line in the budget sheet to keep as low as possible,” she went on, adding that she and other crew members did more work than what they signed on for because it was an indie production. Choi ended the lengthy post by encouraging other filmmakers to share their rates in the hopes of “turn[ing] a tide in the industry.”   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by °•°sally•°•♡ (@kiwisupreez) While the art director for “Obsession” did have some support in the comments, most reactions centered on how Choi wasn’t the one taking the risk, and because she didn’t have the same financial stakes, she didn’t deserve a higher cut in the profits. They also said her ungrateful reaction would all but guarantee she’d never succeed in the industry. “One year total experience. Only credit pre-Obsession is a single short film. Sign on to a low budget indie. Agree to rate. Movie explodes. You’re suddenly the Art Director [for] the most talked about film of the year,” one X commenter wrote. “If this ever happens to you, let me give one piece of advice. Embrace it. Use the credit to fight off offers, get a BTL agent, turn those difficult three weeks into an incredible career.”  “Do NOT cut every connection you have to the filmmakers, put out tweets about how you wish you’d shut down their production, and complain about the rate you agreed to,” the post continued.  “When I worked in fashion casting every model knew the Condé Nast rate was $150 / day and they were lining up down the hall. Bc it meant they could potentially get a $25k / day campaign and it was good for their book,” another person agreed. “In [the] film industry there is no universe where a second time art director isn’t doing it for their reel off the bat and the $ second. And also no universe where an investor, top of the line credit, distributor etc are sharing profits w someone who put zero $ INTO the film in some way and had no risk exposure, unless contracted prior.” “As someone who freelances, this is just the game. She agreed to the pay and did it. And now that the film has done well, I’m not sure what she expects. Retro active pay beyond what she agreed to? She has her name attached to a highly successful film. She could market herself for future projects where she could make more,” a third commenter observed. “Instead, I think with this attitude, she’s going to make future producers think twice before they hire her despite her work on this successful film.” “This post is a cautionary tale of how victimhood mentality is poison,” another said. “The very nature of low budget independent filmmaking is working long hours, wearing many hats, and helping each other out. You do it because it’s what you love. But this is the entitlement culture we live in: Someone thinking that just because they showed up and did their job for the agreed upon salary, they’re entitled to the sun, the moon, and the stars, simply because the work was demanding.”  After so many people weighed in, Choi responded with a follow-up Instagram post. “I feel no obligation to clear any misunderstandings from my last post … What I posted struck a nerve, not because it was a singular story of being overlooked, but because this happens everyday, in and out of the film industry.” “It is finally time to speak your truth. Do not be afraid; we face the powers that ‘were’ together,” she concluded.

President Donald Trump’s administration is pulling no punches in the war on Cochliomyia hominivorax — the New World Screwworm. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on Monday released a fact sheet detailing a number of steps that are being taken to target and eradicate the parasitic insect — which primarily infests livestock and pets, but can infect humans as well.

Meta launched a free program on Monday that it’s calling America’s Workforce Academy, a first-of-its-kind $115 million initiative designed to fast-track Americans into high-demand jobs without requiring a college degree. Meta’s pitch is simple: train for free, get paid while you learn, and walk into a guaranteed job on the other side. Meta said that its new school is not a federal program or another handout but a private company spending its own money because it needs the workers for the next wave of a technological revolution.  “The AI revolution is bringing change but also historic opportunities. Skilled workers electrified rural America one pole at a time,” said Meta’s President and Vice Chairman Dina Powell McCormick. “They manned the factories that built the arsenal that won World War II. Now a new generation will pour the foundations and lay the fiber that secures American strength in this new age.” The program will launch as a pilot in four states: Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana, and Texas. America’s Workforce Academy seeks to output welders, electricians, plumbers, and fiber technicians, the workers who will physically build the data centers and infrastructure powering the artificial intelligence boom. Mike Rowe, the host of the Discovery Channel’s “Dirty Jobs” and CEO of a foundation that awards $10 million a year in scholarships to aspiring tradesmen, praised Meta’s new program. “Workers are actually paid to learn,” Rowe said. “There is zero cost to them, no college debt and a fast certification, with a guaranteed job on the other end. This is an important step in the right direction, and one that I hope other companies will be inspired to take.”  Meta said it is partnering with the National Urban League, Associated Builders and Contractors, and CBRE, along with a roster of regional groups including the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, and local economic development organizations across each of the pilot regions. The idea for the academy came after Meta saw huge demand for a similar initiative. LevelUp, Meta’s fiber-installation training program, received 35,000 applications in the seven days after it launched. As college tuition continues to soar, interest in trade schools has steadily increased. Earning a four-year degree in America costs an average $153,080, with in-state public schools averaging $108,584 and private nonprofit $234,512. Total student loan debt in the United States is now over $1.8 trillion, and many of the students carrying that debt also worry that the rise of artificial intelligence could eventually make their jobs obsolete. Gen Z’s outlook on AI is largely negative, with 42% reporting they feel anxious about the technology’s rapid advancement. Meta, while not dismissing the possibility of workforce disruption, is betting that AI will also create a new generation of high-paying skilled trades jobs that cannot be outsourced to algorithms. The company argues that building the infrastructure behind the AI revolution will require millions of workers whose labor remains firmly rooted in the physical world and educated by its new America’s Workforce Academy.

Karmelo Anthony allegedly brought a prohibited knife to a track meet, trespassed into the other team’s tent, refused to leave, reached into his bag in a threatening manner, challenged people to fight him, brutally stabbed Austin Metcalf, an unarmed 17-year-old, who lightly shoved him in response, then ran away and tried to hide the murder weapon.  And yet, even with these facts in mind, the trial of Karmelo Anthony has revealed a slew of new details that underscore just how horrific and premeditated this alleged murder was.  It’s not an overstatement to say that Anthony’s defense has imploded far more quickly than anyone anticipated. As bad as you thought this case was, it’s much worse. The trial has also revealed that everyone in that tent — including witnesses called by the defense — portrayed Karmelo Anthony as the aggressor who refused to leave and provoked the confrontation. We need to establish at the outset that this trial isn’t really about Karmelo Anthony, in isolation. This trial is also about the $600,000 that was donated to Anthony’s defense solely because he murdered a white teenager. This trial is about the hordes of black activists outside the courtroom, cheering for a murderer and endorsing his violent, depraved behavior — again, solely because he murdered a white teenager. It’s also about our post-1960s legal system, which prohibits schools from punishing dangerous black students like Karmelo Anthony, and which forces white people to live around them.  We’re launching Part Two of our documentary on the Civil Rights Movement on the Daily Wire, called “The Looting of America,” which demonstrates — in graphic detail — exactly how we ended up in a country like this. We talk about how many white people came to be terrified in their own neighborhoods — at schools, at track meets, everywhere — because of court-ordered busing, public housing policy, and so-called “urban renewal efforts.” We talk about the development of a fundamental, unstated rule of modern society — a rule we’re all familiar with, and which Austin Metcalf broke — which states that you’re supposed to tolerate antisocial behavior by black people, no matter how offensive it may be, or else you’ll end up dead.  It sounds like an overstatement, but it’s not: We’re all expected to go about our lives with the understanding that, if we dare to offend a young black man, we could end up in a body bag. As the writer Patrick Casey put it: “Austin Metcalf’s murder is particularly salient because almost everyone, regardless of race, has encountered a black person carrying out an antisocial act – cutting in line, mouthing off, blasting music on the subway, etc. – which is accompanied by the implicit threat of violence. … Most people don’t want to share a society with people who routinely violate public norms and are prepared to murder anyone who objects.” When you see the vagrant kicking trash cans down the street, you’re supposed to walk the other way — or else you might end up stabbed to death, like that left-wing activist in Brooklyn a few years ago. Watch: Muere apuñalado el activista de izquierdas, Ryan Carson, delante de su novia en una calle de Nueva York a altas horas de la madrugada. pic.twitter.com/mlvm2etBLp — Wall Street Wolverine (@wallstwolverine) October 3, 2023 Source: @wallstwolverine/X.com We talked about this story at the time. The white guy made the mistake of getting up off his bench and engaging with the crazy black guy. He shouldn’t have done that, obviously. He should’ve done the “racist” thing and crossed the street. But he’d rather risk his life — and die — than violate the sacred rule.  Along the same lines, when you see some unknown black athlete in your team’s tent, refusing to leave and acting belligerent, you’re supposed to look the other way. And if he ends up stealing your property, oh well — at least you’re alive and not “racist.” John Derbyshire was fired from the National Review in 2012 for saying this, but it’s true: Every white father needs to have a talk with his child about black violence and antisocial behavior. It’s simply a fact that, on average, black people are far more likely to resort to violence at the slightest provocation.  This is how “justice” works in the hood. If they feel their honor is threatened, or that they’re being “disrespected,” many black people will stab or shoot you, without any hesitation. That doesn’t mean all black people are violent. But the statistics are indisputable. If you tell a black guy on the subway to turn his music down, you’re risking your life to a much, much greater degree than if you asked, say, a Chinese woman or a white man.   We can be fairly confident that Austin Metcalf never received this “talk,” based on the public statements of his father in this case (when he told everyone that race had nothing to do with his son’s death). But it’s a vital conversation for every child to hear — including black children. Most of the homicides in cities like Chicago or Detroit or Baltimore are related to some impulsive act of violence, committed by a black man who feels he’s been wronged in some relatively minor way.  And when these young black men leave their neighborhoods and interact with white people at track meets, or on the side of the road, or on the subway, or anywhere else, their attitude doesn’t change. Many of them are still willing to kill over any challenge to their “authority,” no matter how slight. So everyone needs to be aware of the risk. It’s also worth pointing out that the type of violence overwhelmingly perpetrated by young black males is almost always cowardly and dishonorable. Very often it’s a group assaulting one person. Often kicking and beating the victim while he’s on the ground. The assault is usually committed suddenly, with no chance for the victim to defend himself. Karmelo Anthony allegedly pulled out the knife and stabbed Austin Metcalf in one fell swoop, then ran away. Metcalf never had a chance.  I point this out because often the violence is prompted by the assailant’s feeling that he’s been “disrespected” in some way. There was a time in the history of Western civilization when white men would sometimes resort to violence over disrespect. That’s what dueling was all about — a practice that was commonplace in Europe and the United States for centuries. So common that, famously, a sitting vice president shot and killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel. But the whole point of a duel was that both participants knew exactly what was going to happen. They were both armed, they were meeting at a specific time and place to have the duel, and it was a fair fight.  The idea was that in order to reclaim your honor, you had to fight honorably and honestly. Say what you will about the practice of dueling, but it was at least fair, and it took real physical courage for both parties involved.  These days, a young black male will feel that his honor has been challenged in some way, and respond with sudden, disproportionate violence against an unarmed, unprepared opponent, and then run away while his victim bleeds to death on the ground. It’s violence done over alleged “disrespect,” but committed in the most craven, disreputable, gutless way. Is this an exclusively black mentality? No, it’s not. There are other non-white groups that engage in disproportionate violence in response to criticism. That’s why Henry Nowak is dead. It’s also a third-world mentality, more generally. But in this country, by far, the greatest perpetrators of impulsive, inexplicable violence are young black men.  One wrong word, and you’re dead. And we don’t solve the problem by ignoring it, or calling people racist when they voice their concerns about it, or changing their behavior to minimize the risk to their family.  The more we ignore what’s happening, the more innocent people will die. Just the other day, a white student at Penn State named Billy Schmidt was slaughtered in the streets of South Philadelphia over a cellphone. And just based on that information alone, you can easily guess what the attackers looked like. We all know it. It wasn’t a group of white middle-aged men. It wasn’t a roving gang of Koreans. It wasn’t a splinter cell of Japanese females.  Watch:

Comedian and HBO host Bill Maher said that people often got the late Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk all wrong — and did so intentionally in an effort to score points. Maher, who interviewed Kirk before his assassination in September of 2025, raised the topic during a recent episode of his “Club Random” podcast with guest and fellow comedian Jeff Dunham — and he argued that Kirk’s statements were often cut off and presented without context so that the Christian activist could be portrayed as a “monster.” WATCH: