'Unrelenting' paedophile sent nearly £21k to women in Philippines for child abuse streams

Last weekend was a huge one for the blue half of the city. There will have been plenty of sore heads on Monday morning after Manchester City celebrated winning their third Premier League title in a row. It is a feat only matched by Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United in the modern era.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Recently-established Philippines-based production and financing company, Fire and Ice, has deals to provide completion funding to two films being produced by prolific Singapore-based independent producer Potocol. Under a related agreement, Fire and Ice has also struck a multi-faceted first-look deal with Potocol. The completion funding, which gives Fire and Ice a share of the film’s equity, will permit the completion of post-production of upcoming Potocol titles: “Pierce,” a sports drama by Nelicia Low, and “Last Shadow at First Light,” by Nicole Midori Woodford. Both films were recently showcased at Focus Asia’s Far East In Progress, part of the Far East Film Festival in Udine, and are expected to be completed before the end of the year.

The CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator today announced the projects that will take part in the sixth edition of the prestigious training program for women-identifying nonfiction filmmakers. 

Lise Pedersen Newcomer Docs-by-the-Sea, the international documentary Labs and Forum for creative doc projects from Asia, will present and works-in-progress showcase for the first time at the Marché du Film’s Cannes Docs.  Featuring four films in late production stage, the showcase is highly necessary, argues its curator, Gugi Gumilang, the executive director of In-Docs, the non-profit org behind Docs by the Sea.   A member of last year’s Docs-in-Progress jury, he said this gave him a chance to see what people are looking for. “There’s a lack of Asian representation [in documentaries],” he tells Variety, adding: “It’s really tough for documentary filmmakers in Asia, few countries have film funds,” he said, citing Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, the Philippines and, more recently, Hong Kong. “There are few dedicated festivals, the biggest being South Korea’s DMZ. Other international film festivals like Busan, Singapore and Jeonju cater for documentary film, but the competition is tough as they don’t just focus on Asian projects.”

A £3.6m plan aims to help youngsters who cannot attend mainstream schools in Salford. Broadwalk Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) provides education and support for secondary school-age pupils who struggle to cope in mainstream schools and have been permanently excluded.

Two murderers who killed schoolboy Khayri Mclean have been named and pictured for the first time.

A new park and ride facility has opened in Walkden and will provide more than 100 free car parking spaces. Local residents will be able to park their car free of charge, before boarding tram, train or bus services to other parts of the city-region.

A Salford councillor is defying the city mayor’s call for him to resign following his shock election to another authority 160 miles away. Coun Chris Twells has been a Liberal Democrat representative in the Orsdall ward since his election last year.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology is launching a grant scheme to support co-productions between Indonesian and international filmmakers. 

A woman who quit her job in HR to look after other people's pets is now travelling the globe and living it up in luxury homes - for free. Kristina Corniel says she feels more alive than ever after ditching her office job which saw her working 80-100 hours a week.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The premium end of the streaming video sector in India is poised for shake-up, with Reliance Industries’ JioCinema challenging the SVOD dominance of Disney+ Hotstar, new research suggests. “The India Online Video Report: Analysis of Consumption, Content & Investment Trends,” from Singapore-based Media Partners Asia, shows total consumption across the online video sector reached 6.1 trillion minutes for the 15-month period from Jan 2022 to Mar 2023. Within that period, the SVOD, AVOD and freemium platforms accounted for some 12% of viewing time, up from 10% in 2021. Social services such as YouTube and TikTok accounted for 88% of viewing time.

Bernard Grace lived a solitary life.

A man has been robbed in a town centre backstreet before being attacked by a group. Greater Manchester Police has launched an investigation following the incident, close to a taxi rank in Bury.

A controversial plan to build 450 homes on green belt land in Worsley has been submitted to Salford city council. Residents turned out in force a year ago to register their opposition to the plan for the 42-acre plot on land known as Hazelhurst Farm between the busy A580 East Lancs Road and the slip road to the M61.

Stockport County have paid tribute to former record-signing Neil Matthews following his death with cancer aged 56. Matthews played a key role in County's legendary 1990-91 season, scoring two goals in the club's final day 5-0 win over Scunthorpe that secured the club's first promotion in 20 years.

is finally back with season 2. The world's fiercest competition, which sees each drag queens debuting a new musical number in front of a live audience and a «Pop Dival Panel» of judges, returns to Paramount+ on Friday, June 2. And among this year's contestants are queens from nine countries including the United States, Mexico, Brazil, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Israel, the United Kingdom, Italy and Australia. Executive produced by RuPaul and hosted by Graham Norton, follows some of the world's most talented performers as they battle it out for global domination during head-to-head singing battles spotlighting their wide range of talent.

Marta Balaga The Fantastic Pavilion, a new hub for the genre community set to make its debut at this year’s Cannes’ Marché du Film, has revealed its seven Gala screenings. Over May 16-21, industry professionals will get to “appreciate the diversity of genre offerings coming from all over the world,” tease the organizers. They will also be able to create new alliances and acquire titles from companies like Raven Banner, MPI Media, Screenbound and Mantícora. “The reason for the Pavilion is that we needed space to do better business and help newcomers integrate more easily, and faster, into this constantly growing industry,” says Fantastic Pavilion executive director Pablo Guisa Koestinger. “Genre needs to take the place it deserves and it’s Fantastic Pavilion’s mission to help to achieve this.”

features the return of one of the franchise's most controversial couples — Gino and Jasmine. In this exclusive first look at the brand new season premiering June 4 on TLC, Gino and Jasmine are seen in yet another explosive argument and seven brand new couples are introduced.During their previous season, 34-year-old Jasmine and 52-year-old Gino had no shortage of drama including her catching him on a sugar daddy website, and producers having to intervene at one point when she physically attacked him after finding out he sent topless pictures of her meant only for him to his ex.

Fans are convinced that Taylor Swift has just confirmed her new romance with singer Matty Healy after mouthing the exact same message as Matty whilst on stage for her Eras tour. Before the singer's latest performance, it was rumoured the couple might reveal their new romance during the Nashville show, however it has turned out more cryptic than fans expected.The Love Story singer, 33, was caught mouthing the words: “This is about you, you know who you are. I love you” before singing Cardigan from the Folklore album.

The Duke of Sussex and Duke of York will have no formal roles throughout the coronation, according to Buckingham Palace.