U.S. and Iranian officials held talks in Oman Friday, as both sides seek to avert a deepening crisis that has raised fears of a wider military confrontation. Washington is pressing Iran to freeze its nuclear program, discard its enriched uranium stockpile, and address ballistic missiles, regional proxy groups, and human rights abuses. Tehran insists the talks be limited to nuclear issues and says it has a right to enrich uranium on its own soil, while demanding sanctions relief. The Iranian delegation is led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, while the U.S. side includes special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. The U.S. also added the head of U.S. Central Command Adm. Brad Cooper to the delegation in a move widely regarded as an attempt to increase Iranian awareness of the threat of American military action. Jennifer Griffin of Fox News said on X that the Friday talks between U.S. and Iranian officials were “face to face.” The discussions, the first involving U.S. and Iranian officials since last year’s Israel–Iran war and U.S. strikes on Iran’s main nuclear facilities, are taking place amid a major U.S. military build-up in the Middle East. President Donald Trump has threatened to use force against the Iranian regime if no deal is reached. The administration is also taking other steps to ramp up pressure against Iran; the president signed an executive order Friday enabling the U.S. to place tariffs on any country that trades with Iran. The post U.S. and Iran Hold Talks in Oman amid Threat of War appeared first on The American Conservative.

Schoolchildren are being executed by North Korea for watching K-pop dramas and TV shows, including Netflix's Squid Game, according to harrowing new testimony shared with Amnesty International. The group included 25 individual in-depth interviews with North Koreans, including 11 who fled the country between 2009 and 2020. Most of the interviewees were aged between 15 and 25 at the time of fleeing. Watching South Korean dramas such as Crash Landing on You, Descendants of the Sun and Squid Game, or listening to K-pop, led to severe and humiliating punishments, including death in the most extreme instances, according to the escapees...

North Korea is carrying out arbitrary and brutally disproportionate punishments, including executions, against citizens caught watching South Korean television and other foreign media, an Amnesty International report released Wednesday says. Based on interviews with 25 North Korean escapees, the report documents a system in which secret consumption of South Korean dramas and films is widespread but the consequences, ranging from public humiliation and years in labor camps to execution, vary depending on wealth and connections...

North Korea is said to be publicly executing children for watching South Korean TV shows and listening to K-pop music. In new testimonies gathered by the human rights organisation Amnesty International, North Koreans who fled the authoritarian country said that consuming globally popular South Korean media and pop culture can lead to extreme punishments - like being sent to labour camps or being publicly humiliated - and even death. Defectors described a climate of fear in which South Korean culture is treated as a serious crime, while wealthier families can sometimes avoid punishment by paying bribes to corrupt officials...

Icons in firm agreement over a "genius". The post The artist Bob Dylan and Don Henley called an American “national treasure” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

The movie featured 'Mean' Joe Greene and 'E.T.'s Henry Thomas.

The movie featured 'Mean' Joe Greene and 'E.T.'s Henry Thomas.