Headline

French Star Writer Seeks Porn Movie Ban

Published

3 years ago

February 8, 2023

French literary star Michel Houellebecq is seeking a ban on a sexually explicit film awaiting release and featuring the writer, his lawyers said Tuesday.
The global bestselling author also wants the trailer for the movie, “Kirac 27” by Dutch filmmaker Stefan Ruitenbeek, taken down, they said.

The trailer, released in January, shows a shirtless Houellebecq kissing a young woman in bed.

It contains an off-camera commentary by Ruitenbeek saying that Houellebecq had written to him saying that his honeymoon in Morocco had been called off after his wife had “spent a month booking prostitutes”.

Houellebecq and his wife, Lysis, “discovered with shock and disgust” that the trailer contained “serious and false statements which violently attacked their dignity,” their lawyers Angelique Beres and Maia Kantor said in a statement.

The couple had launched legal proceedings, “civil and criminal,” to ban the film, scheduled for release in March, and the trailer with its “defamatory” commentary, they said.

They want to “put an end to these attacks immediately” by removing the trailer from all internet platforms and banning the director and his team from showing the film, “or any other images they may have of the Houellebecqs”.

In a message to the director seen by AFP, Houellebecq said that the trailer was an attack on his honour and his personal life and, “worst of all” on his wife, who he said was “devastated by the lies” in the clip.

Ruitenbeek meanwhile told the Vice news site last week that the idea to shoot a porn movie had come from Houellebecq and his wife after they had seen “Honeypot”, a previous film by the “Kirac” collective.

“That made them want to do something similar,” he said in an interview with the site, quoting Lysis Houellebecq as telling Ruitenbeek that if he wanted to do something for her husband “you’ll have to turn him into a porn star”.

A first scene was shot the next day with Houellebecq and a young woman called Jini van Rooijen who works with the director and “adores Houellebecq”, Ruitenbeek said.

“It was incredible, they did all kinds of positions,” he said.

Shooting went on for six days in Amsterdam in Paris, and also included scenes of Houellebecq discussing philosophy with sexual partners, four in total, and restaurant visits, the director said.

Houellebecq is a controversial writer, and often accused of tapping into right-wing fears over Islam in France.

The Union of Mosques in France told AFP last month it was suing Houellebecq for discrimination, hate speech and inciting violence in remarks to an interviewer.

In 2015, Houellebecq published the international headline-grabbing “Submission” about a Muslim winning the presidency.

He was tipped as a contender for the Nobel Literature Prize last year, although it ultimately went to Annie Ernaux of France who called Houellebecq’s ideas “completely reactionary and anti-feminist”.

AFP

Headline

US Suspends Work Visas For Nigerian, Foreign Truck Drivers

Published

10 hours ago

August 23, 2025

Editor

The United States government has suspended the issuance of work visas for Nigerian and other foreign truck drivers, citing job security concerns and safety risks for American citizens.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the decision on Thursday, saying it takes immediate effect.

According to him, the rising number of foreign truck drivers on U.S. highways is both threatening lives and reducing opportunities for American truckers.

“Effective immediately, we are pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers.

“The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers,” Rubio said.

The move comes under President Donald Trump’s renewed clampdown on immigration since returning to office in January 2025.

As part of new measures, travellers from countries with high visa overstay rates or weak travel databases will be required to pay a bond of $5,000 to $15,000 before obtaining certain categories of visas.

The U.S. Embassy in Nigeria also directed all visa applicants to disclose their social media handles from the past five years, warning that failure to comply could result in denial of applications and possible ineligibility for future visas.

Headline

Judge Orders Closure Of Trump’s Controversial ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Migrant Camp

Published

23 hours ago

August 22, 2025

Editor

A US federal judge on Thursday barred the Trump administration and Florida state government from bringing any new migrants to the detention centre known as “Alligator Alcatraz” and ordered much of the site to be dismantled, effectively shuttering the facility.

Florida’s government swiftly announced it would appeal the decision.

The detention centre was hastily assembled in just eight days in June with bunk beds, wire cages and large white tents at an abandoned airfield in Florida’s Everglades wetlands, home to a large population of alligators.

President Donald Trump, who has vowed to deport millions of undocumented migrants, visited the centre last month, boasting about the harsh conditions and joking that the reptilian predators will serve as guards.

Headline

Japan City Mulls Two-hour Daily Smartphone Limit

Published

24 hours ago

August 22, 2025

Editor

A Japanese city will urge all smartphone users to limit screen time to two hours a day outside work or school under a proposed ordinance that includes no penalties.

The limit, which will be recommended for all residents in central Japan’s Toyoake City, will not be binding, and there will be no penalties incurred for higher usage, according to the draft ordinance.

The proposal aims “to prevent excessive use of devices causing physical and mental health issues… including sleep problems,” Mayor Masafumi Koki said in a statement on Friday.

The draft urges elementary school students to avoid smartphones after 9:00 pm, and junior high students and older are advised not to use them after 10:00 pm.

The move prompted an online backlash, with many calling the plan unrealistic.

“I understand their intention, but the two-hour limit is impossible,” one user wrote on social media platform X.

“In two hours, I cannot even read a book or watch a movie (on my smartphone),” wrote another.

Others said smartphone use should be a decision for families to make for themselves.

The angry response prompted the mayor to clarify that the two-hour limit was not mandatory, emphasising that the guidelines “acknowledge smartphones are useful and indispensable in daily life”.

The ordinance will be considered next week, and if passed, it will come into effect in October.

In 2020, the western Kagawa region issued a first-of-its-kind ordinance calling for children to be limited to an hour a day of gaming during the week, and 90 minutes during school holidays.

It also suggested children aged 12 to 15 should not be allowed to use smartphones later than 9:00 pm, with the limit rising to 10:00 pm for children between 15 and 18.

Japanese youth spend slightly over five hours on average a day online on weekdays, according to a survey published in March by the Children and Families Agency.