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By Michael Sun of the ABC Demi Moore is the beating heart – and sinew, bone and tendon – of The Substance. Photo: Madman Would you take a miracle drug that guaranteed eternal youth? That granted poreless skin and supple limbs? That reversed all the violence of the world and restored the body to its smoothest, its tautest, its lithest? What if it wasn't so eternal after all? What if it came with a raft of unknown - and grotesque - side effects? What if the flesh rotted and bruised, peeled off like mandarin skin? Would you keep taking it? Would you? This is the Faustian bargain that powers The Substance - French director Coralie Fargeat's fantastically nasty, proudly gaudy piece of body horror that instantly cleaved audiences into loud, warring factions at its Cannes premiere earlier t...

By Daniel Trotta and Joseph Ax for Reuters Mark Robinson, Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina and candidate for Governor, delivers remarks during a campaign event for Donald Trump on 14 August. Photo: GRANT BALDWIN / Getty Images via AFP North Carolina's Republican candidate for governor has promised to stay in the race after CNN reported that he once called himself a "black Nazi" and proposed bringing back slavery in comments posted on a pornography website. Mark Robinson, an African American who denied making the comments, is North Carolina's lieutenant governor and running for governor in the 5 November election against Democratic candidate Josh Stein, the state's attorney general. North Carolina's gubernatorial campaign has implications for the presidential contest. The fortune...

Hsu Ching-kuang, head of Taiwanese company Gold Apollo, speaks to the media outside the company's office in New Taipei City. Taiwanese company Gold Apollo on September 18 denied a report that it had produced hundreds of explosive-packed pagers used by Hezbollah members which simultaneously exploded, killing at least nine people. Photo: AFP / YAN ZHAO Components used in thousands of pagers that detonated on Tuesday in Lebanon in a deadly blow to Hezbollah were not made in Taiwan, Taiwan's economy minister said on Friday. Taiwan-based Gold Apollo said this week it did not manufacture the devices used in the attack, and that Budapest-based company BAC to which the pagers were traced has a license to use its brand. It was not clear how or when the pagers were weaponised so they could be rem...

Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday issued a warning to any potential home intruder: "If somebody breaks in my house, they're getting shot." The Democratic presidential candidate and gun owner made the seemingly unguarded comment in an interview with Oprah Winfrey before a live studio audience when the conversation turned to gun laws. "I probably should not have said that. But my staff will deal with that later," Harris said, laughing. Harris, who has robust protection from the US Secret Service, made the statement amid heightened concern about political violence after a second potential assassination attempt against her opponent in the 5 November presidential election, Republican Donald Trump. Trump favors few restrictions on arms and ammuniti...