Celebrate Star Wars Day: May the Fourth be with you

Born in 1977, the "Star Wars" series of live-action films -- 11 of them to date -- has long been enshrined in popular culture. Given their immense popularity, it's hard to believe, as Ronald Brownstein wrote in his recent book, "Rock Me on the Water: 1974 - the Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television, and Politics," that it took several years for George Lucas to pull together the funding and studio support for "a space epic inspired by the Saturday morning movie serials of his youth." The payoff was substantial, for within a few months of its arrival, "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope" was at the time the biggest-earning movie in history.

Ever the nostalgist, Lucas was unusual among the filmmakers of his generation for not caring much about what was going on around him: He celebrated carefree youth, as with the 1973 film "American Graffiti," and the kind of sci-fi in which the good guys have plenty of tough scrapes but emerge victorious. The challenges of the ongoing pandemic these days make a deep dive into the fantasy universe of "Star Wars" just right. And, thanks to the efforts of a devoted fan base and the movie machine behind the series alike, May 4 is just the day to do it.The day was made for a punning slogan: "May the Fourth be with you." The origins of what has become an annual holiday for true believers are a little murky.

Biden warns North Korea against escalation after missile attack

 

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden (pix) warned North Korea Thursday that the United States will “respond accordingly” if it escalates its military testing, after Pyongyang fired two missiles in its first major provocation since he took office.

 The nuclear-armed North has a long history of using weapons tests to ramp up tensions, in a carefully calibrated process to try to forward its objectives.

Biden’s response demonstrates a change of tone from his predecessor Donald Trump, who engaged in an extraordinary diplomatic bromance with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and last year repeatedly played down similar short-range launches.

Pyongyang had been biding its time since the new administration took office, not even officially acknowledging its existence until last week.

But on Thursday it launched two weapons from its east coast into the Sea of Japan, known as the East Sea in Korea.

It was a violation of UN resolutions and the US was “consulting with our partners and allies,“ Biden said, warning North Korea that “there will be responses if they choose to escalate. We will respond accordingly.”

“I’m also prepared for some form of diplomacy, but it has to be conditioned upon the end result of denuclearization,“ he told reporters.

‘Nuclear capable’