Chandana Witharanage posted a photo:

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Small section of a Vintage Fossilized Brain Coral

This is a natural white brain coral skeleton often used for nautical or coastal home decor. It is composed of a hard calcium carbonate skeleton secreted by marine polyps. These specimens are frequently found washed ashore on beaches or sourced from shallow tropical reefs. You might consider using it as a decorative element in a book case or display cabinet.

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Had A24's Backrooms not broken its own records this past weekend, the near-unbelievable performance of Focus Features' Obsession would have once again dominated headlines. Obsession registered another weekend-to-weekend increase in box-office revenue, following a 40% increase in its sophomore frame. To be clear, every movie that is released in theaters these days is expected to report a decline in revenue over the course of its run, unless it's a tiny indie being given a platform release. Obsession, however, has largely maintained its domestic theater count over the last fortnight. In its third weekend, the horror sensation passed the coveted $100 million mark and became Focus Features' top-grossing domestic release of all time.

PUTRAJAYA, June 9 — Chief Justice Tun Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh once said that justice must reach those who had long stood furthest from its protection, a simple yet enduring belief that the Malaysian judiciary continues to reaffirm today.

The remark, made during his speech at the Opening of the Legal Year 2026, referred to the Mobile Courts initiative launched in circa 2018.

“It was born out of necessity, to serve communities in remote and interior areas where travelling to a courthouse was often an insurmountable challenge, and in places where no permanent court buildings existed,” Wan Ahmad Farid was quoted as saying.

Nearly eight years later, the Mobile Courts initiative has since expanded into the Children’s Mobile Court, reflecting a shared commitment between the Judiciary and the federal government to a fairer, more child-sensitive justice system.

“When it comes to court, everyone feels scared and intimidated, especially children, whether as victims or witnesses.

“Before this, you including the children had to go to court in person but now the court comes to you.

“We don’t want people coming to court and not being able to give their evidence properly because they are intimidated by the building and the proceedings,” Registrar of the Subordinate Courts of Malaya Mohammed Mokhzani Mokhtar told Malay Mail during a recent interview at the Palace of Justice here.

An interior view of the Mobile Court (Mahkamah Bergerak) reveals a fully equipped hearing room, complete with a magistrate's bench, pictured during an exclusive interview with Malay Mail in Putrajaya. May 19, 2026. — Picture by Raymond Manuel

At the heart of the initiative are three components: 

• The Vehicle for Meaningful Redress (VMR), which safely transports child victims and witnesses
• The Victims’ Nexus to Justice (VNEJ), where children can testify remotely in a comfortable environment 
• The Vehicle for Nationwide Justice (VNJ), a courtroom on wheels equipped to hear cases outside conventional court settings.

“Though the feedback is not quantifiable, the information we gathered from our judges and prosecutors indicates it has been favourable.

“The reason is that child victims who attend court and hesitate while giving evidence are now able to complete their testimony without much difficulty.

“I cannot say the quality of their testimony is now better (as compared to in court), but the Children’s Mobile Court has facilitated and eased their anxiety during court proceedings,” Mohammed Mokhzani said.

In essence, the Children’s Mobile Court aims to create a conducive environment — physically, economically and emotionally — for children at every step, from their homes through their journey and into the courtroom.

“Because every time a victim goes to court, it can be a traumatic experience even if they are placed in a separate room from the accused (who may try to make their presence known).

“They go through it once and are then often required to relive it again when giving testimony, so our aim is to reduce that burden and make the process as supportive and least distressing as possible,” he said.

He noted that some families of child victims or witnesses also come from less privileged backgrounds, making trips to court a costly undertaking and the Children’s Mobile Court helps alleviate these costs by bringing court services closer to the children and their families.

An exterior view of the Mobile Court (Mahkamah Bergerak) truck parked outside the court complex in Putrajaya, showcased during an exclusive interview with Malay Mail. May 19, 2026. — Picture by Raymond Manuel

Specially designed

Mohammed Mokhzani said the Judiciary’s Mobile Court primary setup is built around the VNEJ and the VNJ, and is later complemented by the VMR.

The VNEJ — a modified Weststar Maxus V80 multipurpose van — is equipped with daybeds, pillows, books, toys, air-conditioning and anatomical dolls to help children feel more comfortable while giving evidence, particularly in cases under the Sexual Offences Against Children Act.

It also doubles as a child witness room where children can testify via video conferencing during ongoing hearings, or as a temporary child witness room where specially appointed Victim Liaison Officers (VLOs) assist in recording evidence.

Unlike the VNEJ, the VNJ — a modified Isuzu medium-duty truck — is essentially a courtroom on wheels, complete with nearly all the facilities found in a conventional courtroom.

This includes areas for the judge, prosecutors, lawyers, court staff, auxiliary police, the witness and the accused, except for a public gallery due to space constraints.

As the VNJ is a fully functioning courtroom, it may hear cases before a Magistrate, Sessions Court judge or High Court judge, provided all parties consent to its use.

Last but not least, the specially designated VMR — a modified Weststar Maxus G10 multipurpose van — is used to safely transport child victims and witnesses involved in criminal trials to court.

An exterior view of the Mobile Court (Mahkamah Bergerak) truck parked outside the court complex in Putrajaya, showcased during an exclusive interview with Malay Mail. May 19, 2026. — Picture by Raymond Manuel

Not without challenges

While the Mobile Court initiative has had a positive impact since its launch, Mohammed Mokhzani noted that challenges remain, including the need for a stable power supply and reliable internet connectivity to ensure optimal function.

“While both the VMR and VNJ are equipped with their own generators, we prefer an external power source because it will be quieter and cause less disruption,” he said.

Security can also be a concern on certain occasions, as the VMR or VNJ are sometimes parked in public or less secure areas rather than within police stations or court complexes.

Nevertheless, Mohammed Mokhzani expressed the Judiciary’s appreciation to the federal government and the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said for allocating RM5 million to procure 15 additional VNEJ units for nationwide deployment.

“The allocation will allow each state to have at least one van, except for Kedah and Perlis, which will share one, while Sabah and Sarawak will each receive two,” he said, adding that the procurement is expected to be completed by year’s end.

He also assured that if children must go through court proceedings, families can be assured that their welfare and protection will be better safeguarded than before.

“With our VLOs and this mobile court, we try to reduce the intimidation level to a minimum.

“It might work or not work, but at the very least we try to do something to alleviate the fear of going to court,” he said.

Registrar of the Subordinate Courts of Malaya, Mohammed Mokhzani Mokhtar, speaks to Malay Mail during an exclusive interview regarding the mobile court and children witness van initiatives in Putrajaya. May 19, 2026. — Picture by Raymond Manuel

Claims of two-tier policing and uncontrolled immigration may not be borne out by the facts, but that has not stopped them being played up for political ends

As the people of Glengormley, on the northern edge of Belfast, tidied up and prepared for more violence in the midst of what has been described as a modern-day pogrom, a court 500 miles away in Southampton, on the south coast of England, started to deal with its own outbreak of thuggery.

The trigger for this week’s riots in the Northern Irish capital had been the image of a black assailant who appeared to be stabbing and slashing his supine white victim in the face and neck while shouting in Arabic. The suspect was later revealed to be a refugee from Sudan.

Truus, Bob & Jan too! posted a photo:

Vintage British postcard, 1910s. Hepworth Picture Player. P.C., 3. NB IMDb does not list a Chrissie White film with the title The Winning Smile, so it may just be a tagline accentuating what we see.

British actress Chrissie White (1895-1989) was one of the most famous and popular stars of British silent cinema.

Blue-eyed and light-haired beauty Chrissie White was born Ada Constance White in Chiswick, London, on 23rd May 1895 – the year film was introduced by the Lumière brothers. She started her film career when joining the Hepworth company in 1907 as a 12-year-old girl. Under the name of ‘ Chrissie’ she became one of the first stars in British cinema, often performing in shorts by director Lewin Fitzhamon, in particular the Tilly comedies. When White was teamed with Alma Taylor, they became a popular comic duo as the naughty schoolgirls Tilly and Sally, who create havoc everywhere. The Tilly comedies were a popular series in the years 1910 and 1911. NB White supposedly rode to the studios on a bicycle in her early years as a star.

One by one, White moved from comedy to drama and romance. By 1912 Chrissie White had become Hepworth’s leading lady and the most popular British star of her time. In the same year she married Claude Witten, who also worked for Hepworth. One of her earliest features was a crime film set in the horse racing milieu: The Kissing Cup (1913); it still survives in the Dutch Desmet Collection, as well as the Tilly comedy Tilly in a Boarding House (1911). Other memorable titles were The Vicar of Wakefield (1913), and At the Foot of the Scaffold (1913). Chrissie White’s male partners in her films were mostly Lionelle Howard (from 1914 on); Stewart Rome (between 1914-1917), a.o. in Coward! (1915) and Her Boy (1915); and Henry Edwards (from 1918 on).

Edwards also directed most of their films together, such as Possession (1919), The City of Beautiful Nonsense (1919), The Kinsman (1919), The Bargain (1921) and Lily of the Alley (1923). All in all they did some 22 films together. They were also a couple in real life, as White married Edwards in 1922, and they had a daughter Henrietta, who also became an actress. Edwards and White became real celebrities in Britain, the equivalent of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. White's last silent film with Edwards was the romance The World of Wonderful Reality (1924).

When Hepworth collapsed in 1924, Chrissie White - who had worked only for Hepworth - retired from the screen, to the regret of her fans. She returned in the sound era to play in only two films more, with Edwards as her male partner: The Call of the Sea (Leslie Hiscott 1930) and the comedy General John Regan (Edwards 1933), filmed in Northern Ireland. After that White definitively retired from the screen, and after the death of Edwards in 1952 she withdrew from publicity at all. Estimates are that Chrissie White worked in between 100 and 180 films, shorts and features. Chrissie White died 18/8/1989 in Hollywood, California, and was buried at the Westwood Memorial Park.

Clips of Chrissie White's films can be traced in the BBC/BFI documentary Silent Britain (2006). See also on YouTube Tilly, the Tomboy, Gives to the Poor www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac1dVYaPN8I

Sources: IMDB, www.hepworthfilm.org/chrissie_white.htm. See also www.flickr.com/photos/truusbobjantoo/3023085296/

Truus, Bob & Jan too! posted a photo:

Vintage British postcard, 1910s. Hepworth Picture Player. P.C. 2. NB IMDb does not list a Alma Taylor film with the title The Girl Who Believed, so it may just be a tagline accentuating what we see.

Alma Taylor (1895-1974) was a British actress, who peeked in the British silent cinema of the 1910s and 1920s. In 1915 readers of Pictures and Picturegoers voted her most popular British performer, beating even Charlie Chaplin. Taylor acted in over 150 films, among which some prestigious examples like Shadow of Egypt (1924) by Sidney Morgan.

Alma Taylor was born in London, on 3 January 1895. According to Anthony Slide, brunette, blue-eyed Alma Taylor was the Hepworth actress 'par excellence'. Beginning in 1907, she already acted with producer Cecil Hepworth, playing tragic young girls. She then co-starred with Chrissie White in Hepworth's 'Tilly Girl' comic series (1910-1915) about two naughty schoolgirls, as well as in 75 or more short and long subjects by Hepworth, such as the Dickens adaptations Oliver Twist (1912), David Copperfield (Thomas Bentley) and The Old Curiosity Shop (Bentley 1913). In those days , everyone helped out at the studios, so both Alma and Chrissie helped in the processing rooms when the weather was too poor to shoot. During the First World War and soon after Taylor contributed to the war effort by acting in such propaganda films like The Nature of the Beast (Hepworth 1919). Taylor clearly was the producer's favorite, and remained devoted to him for decades, starring opposite Ralph Forbes in the rather old-fashioned British countryside drama Comin' Thro the Rye (1923), a remake of an earlier version by Hepworth. After a temporal absence from the screen, Hepworth relaunched Taylor in his last film, The House of Marney (1926), with John Longden. In 1924, the Daily News named her, along with Betty Balfour, Britain's top star. Alma Taylor only starred in four non-Hepworth films: The Shadow of Egypt (Sidney Morgan, 1924) with Joan Morgan, Quinneys (Maurice Elvey, 1927), A South Sea Bubble (T. Hays Hunter 1928) with Ivor Novello, and Two Little Drummer Boys (G.B.Samuelson, 1928). In the late silent era she did some German films, including her part of Mrs. Barrymore in Der Hund von Baskerville/ The Hound of the Baskervilles (Richard Oswald 1929), a film longtime considered lost but rediscovered in 2009. With the coming of sound, however, Taylor's career dwindled and she had to satisfy with minor, matronly roles, in small number of films, such as Bachelor's Baby (Harry Hughes, 1932), Things Are Looking Up (Albert de Courville, 1935), Lilacs in the Spring (Herbert Wilcox, 1954), and Blue Murder at St. Trinian's (Frank Launder, 1957). Uncredited, she played a box office woman in Hitchcock's second vserion of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956). Probably her last part was the uncredited role of an old lady in the Titanic-drama by Rank, A Night to Remember (Roy Ward Baker 1958). Alma Taylor died in London, 23 January 1974. She was the wife of film producer and director Walter West (1885-1958), who in the late 1910s and early 1920s was the regular director of Violet Hopson, first with his company Broadwest (1914-1921) and then for Hopson's own company.

Sources: IMDB, English Wikipedia, Anthony Slide in Encyclopedia of British Film, www.allmovie.com, www.hepworthfilm.org/alma_taylor.htm.

When Justo Betancourt, 55, was released from Alligator Alcatraz on May 14, after nearly six months in detention, he had lost 22 kilograms (48.5 lb) and could barely walk. Two days later he was admitted to hospital, on the verge of a diabetic coma. While in detention, he did not receive the insulin doses he needed, suffered strokes, and during one episode, he fell and lost a tooth. He has been left with neurological after-effects: his right hand trembles, and to climb a step, he lifts his leg from behind the thigh. “Sometimes I have to grab it and push, because it doesn’t respond,” he says on the ground floor of the apartment building where he lives, in Miami’s Little Havana. This week, President Donald Trump dedicated a message to him on Truth Social: “Welcome home to Justo Betancourt, whose Daughter, Arianne, fought very hard to free her father from Alligator Alcatraz. Enjoy your Freedom together!!!”

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Earlier in this century, horror was having a tough time at the box office. From hopeful indies to big franchise sequels, nothing seemed to stick. Then came the arthouse renaissance led by A24, and the genre was back to its best, with it becoming difficult to remember a better time for horror fans than the past couple of years. This is best exemplified by last weekend's domestic box office ranking, with the second weekend for The Mandalorian and Grogu facing a 70% drop thanks to the huge debut success of a record-breaking viral arrival.