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The race-swapped casting of Anna Shaffer as Triss Merigold has been the source of some controversy for The Witcher since well before the TV show premiered. A more accurate representation of the character would have been nice to see, but Shaffer does the best with what she has to work with, which isn’t the strongest material in the series so far. Despite Triss being a hugely popular character in The Witcher books and games, she’s basically just a walking plot device here, meant to push Geralt into another side quest and spout expository dialogue along the way....

The Witcher’s second season continues the arduous task of adapting Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels, as well as CD Projekt Red’s video games, and the latter is something showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich definitely keeps in mind, especially when it comes to bringing over the Wild Hunt. An often ignored fact about The Witcher lore for those who’ve never ventured outside of the video games is that the Wild Hunt isn’t nearly as relevant in literature as it is in Geralt’s most recent interactive adventure....

Based on the Roald Dahl novel of the same name, The Witches centers on a young boy who works with his grandmother to thwart the sinister plot of a group of witches led by Hathaway’s the Grand High Witch. Director Robert Zemeckis’ adaptation of the story depicts the Grand High Witch with missing fingers, which people with disabilities have noted suggests the character may have Ectrodactyly, a limb abnormality more commonly known as split or cleft hand....

Elizabeth Dole has always cloaked her ambition with warmth and charm. But at heart she is very much like her husband: for them, politics is family. Elizabeth’s marriage to Bob Dole came late – she was 39, he 52 – and having children was never a priority. ““Either way would have been fine,’’ Mrs. Dole, now 60, told NEWSWEEK. ““But we knew that marrying later in life, that was probably not going to happen....

There’s only one problem: the Patients’ Bill of Rights would affect only a minority of Americans–even of those who are insured. And it will do very little to improve the nation’s health. The real issue is not how to make group health plans pay more, but how to keep Americans from getting critically ill in the first place. Of the 2 million deaths that occur in the United States each year, half are preventable....

Moreover, over the last decade or so, the sub-genre of ‘video essays’ relating to film and TV has exploded in popularity – thousands of creators have put forward slickly-edited commentaries on nearly every IP available. However, due to the unfettered nature of the world wide web, it’s difficult to know which of these essayists are actually worthwhile and which are just peddling idiocy. Thankfully, there are a few out there that have cut through the noise and have established themselves with their fresh insights and clever takes – here are some of the best video essay channels available....

Real Madrid sign Theo Hernandez In recent years, there has been a “non-aggression” pact ruling out such switches anyway and that stopped Sergio Aguero from swapping the Vicente Calderon for the Santiago Bernabeu back in 2011. But the pact could not prevent Theo Hernandez from leaving Atletico to join Real, with a medical passed in May for the left-back (who spent last season on loan at Alaves) and a transfer completed on Wednesday as Madrid paid his release clause of €24 million (and reportedly a little more in order to maintain good relations with their city rivals) for the talented 19-year-old....

“In terms of legacy, there is a strong commitment to having a carbon-neutral FIFA World Cup, especially through the utilisation of environmentally friendly cooling technologies.” It turns out the entire idea of cooling outdoor stadiums in a desert summer with average high temperatures of 106 degrees (and a record high of 120) with technology that would delight both the Sierra Club and the American Outlaws — well, that was as fantastic as Gene Roddenberry’s United Federation of Planets....

The France midfielder scored from the penalty spot to help United record a 2-1 win over Leicester City on Friday, despite returning to training just four days prior to the fixture. Pogba was given time off after helping his country lift the World Cup in France, though Jose Mourinho still opted to name him as captain for the Premier League opener at Old Trafford. The 25-year-old has been linked with a move away during the transfer window, with both Barcelona and former club Juventus reportedly interested, but looks set to remain with his current employers....

The leader of the march is Protestant M.P. Ivan Cooper (James Nesbitt), who is committed to nonviolent protest. The movie never stops to give the usual character-building exposition, yet full-fledged characters do emerge, defined by their grace–or disgrace–under pressure. We follow a 17-year-old Irish hothead (Declan Duddy) who has been arrested before for rioting; the cool, iron-fisted commander of the British forces, Major General Ford (Tim Pigott-Smith), a master of media manipulation; Brigadier MacLellan (Nicholas Farrell), the man who must carry out Ford’s belligerent orders, though they go against his conscience; the officers and soldiers out in the streets, itching for confrontation with the “hooligans” Ford wants to arrest....

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE NOVEMBER 1995: THE BEGINNING OF THE RESURRECTION, the beginning of the humiliation. Historians in search of the most portentous, pivotal moment of the Clinton presidency may end up here, amid the peculiar calm of the famous government shutdown. Even the Washington Monument stood silent, as irritated tourists scattered to fix blame. By day, the politicians waged an acid-tongued budget struggle. By night, with nonessential federal workers forced to stay home, a skeletal White House staff plus a few interns kept the paperwork flowing, fueled by junk food and suspense....

On Monday, Senate Republicans blocked a stopgap funding measure passed by the House of Representatives because it would also have raised the debt ceiling, which has become a point of contention. If no agreement is reached by the deadline, hundreds of thousands of non-essential federal employees will be furloughed without pay and non-essential government services will cease. The debt limit, or debt ceiling, is a legal limit on how much the federal government can owe to those who hold the country’s debt in the form of Treasury bonds, as well as money the government has borrowed from other federal accounts....

Brock Lesnar was moments away from taking back his WWE Heavy Weight Championship belt at Battleground 2015 when The Undertaker decided to make his first appearance since defeating Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 31. It didn’t end well for Lesnar. MORE: Lesnar accidentally hits fan with car door | WWE Champ rips Johnny Football The Beast Incarnate ended The Undertaker’s undefeated WrestleMania record two years ago, but the Goth Dad sent the King of Suplex City on a visit to Tombstone City on Sunday night....

About half the private work force participates in a retirement plan; that proportion has changed very little over the past 15 years. Each new offering seems to confuse people as much as encourage them. Many savers are being turned off by the Balkanized landscape of plans today. Consider: you now have three types of Individual Retirement Accounts (traditional, traditional nondeductible and Roth) to choose from; six plans for small businesses or the self-employed–SEP-IRA, two kinds of SIMPLEs, three kinds of Keoghs–and several employee plans–401(k)s for businesses, 403(b)s for schools and nonprofits and 457s for state and local governments....

On July 25, all that will be history. In the Olympic Stadium atop Montjuic-built in 1929-the first Summer Olympiad of the new world order will open. And the city will learn again the truth of the folk wisdom that you must be careful about what you pray for-because you might get it. Now, says Mayor Pasqual Maragall, the risk is that the Games “could die from success.” Barcelona just isn’t the city that it used to be-and that’s a tribute to careful planning....

Disney is the leader in family entertainment, with original and licensed entities such as Mickey Mouse and Friends, Disney Princesses, and Pixar, along with theme parks and multiple merchandise brands. In the world of anime, they’ve made multiple mangas and anime spin-offs of media entities they own, as well as obtained exclusive streaming rights for anime to stream anime created by other production companies. RELATED: Disney Anime? New Insights On The Company’s Plans...

Trust us, they do. Winona Ryder and Mira Sorvino reportedly lusted after the girlfriend role in “Maguire.” But Crowe handed it to Zellweger, who handed back an uncommonly nuanced performance. Her work has won her a National Board of Review award, and now “Wide World” is poised to give us the only thing we could ask for: more. Zellweger plays Novalyne Price, a Texas schoolteacher who falls for Robert E....

RELATED: Characters From The Witcher Netflix Show Who Look Like Their Video Game Counterparts (& Who Look Completely Different) Geralt reunites with his fellow witchers at Kaer Morhen but of all the witchers who appear, only a few of them are introduced by name and play a bigger part in the story. There are then some things from their The Witcher book and game history that the show’s fans might not know about....

Not much has been said of the future of The Witcher other than the upcoming location-based mobile game The Witcher: Monster Slayer, as well as the ongoing digital card game spin-off Gwent: The Witcher Card Game. However, CD Projekt Red has said previously that they will return to The Witcher, but that the game will likely not follow Geralt of Rivia, as the first three entries in the series form a completed trilogy....