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There's one more stop on the Marvel Cinematic Universe journey to Doomsday , as Tom Holland will reprise his role as Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Brand New Day . Projected to gross between $180 million and $190 million in its three-day domestic debut, Brand New Day will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of its Spidey predecessors and hit the billion-dollar mark at the global box office. Holland is joined in the film by a host of eye-catching names, including Zendaya as MJ, Jacob Batalon as Ned, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk, Michael Mando as Scorpion, Marvin Jones III as Tombstone, and more.

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The European Union will not yet introduce a ban on products from territories illegally occupied by Israel after less than half of the bloc’s foreign ministers voted for action on the issue during a tense meeting Monday.

A group of EU countries has been haranguing the executive to ban trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, in what has become a battle between the EU’s institutions as well as between capitals with differing stances on Israel’s actions in the occupied Palestinian territories.

After Monday’s meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that a proposal to ban trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank had “got the most support” from members. However, it fell short of the simple majority needed to compel the European Commission to present specific sanctions for member countries to vote on.

“All the 27 member states agree that Israeli settlements are illegal under international law,” Kallas said, adding that the EU’s existing policies have “not done much to limit trade with the settlements” because of inconsistent implementation.

The Commission, led by Ursula von der Leyen, has resisted efforts to impose new trade barriers on Israel and did not present EU countries with formal measures for them to vote on at Monday’s meeting. It did provide an options paper for possible measures, including the trade ban, an import licensing system, and targeted tariffs.

A group of EU countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain and backed by Kallas, came into Monday’s meeting looking to force the Commission to bring specific measures for them to vote on. But only 11 actually called for concrete measures from the European Commission at the meeting, according to an EU diplomat directly aware of the exchanges — short of the simple majority needed to force the EU executive to propose such measures.

“The situation is starting to be irritating,” said a different diplomat, who hails from a country strongly supportive of further measures against imports from the settlements. “We want to be able to vote on measures and see whether they are supported or rejected. This constant in-between state is worse.”

Kallas also lamented that no immediate decision could be taken because of the Commission’s stance, but said she hoped that, since “there is a will [from member countries] … we can move forward.”

She said ambassadors have been tasked with working on the issue, and an extraordinary meeting on it is likely. She emphasized the measures are not against Israel, but against the illegal settlements which she says undermine the two-state solution.

Inside the Foreign Affairs Council meeting room, the tone of talks among foreign ministers on Israel sanctions was “tense” and “frank” between those who support further measures and those who oppose them, according to two EU diplomats aware of the talks.

The Commission also maintains that imposing any sanctions would require a unanimous vote by member countries, rather than the qualified majority Kallas believes is necessary. The distinction at issue is whether the measures are trade measures or sanctions. The difference is that the former requires only a qualified majority of states to pass, while the latter requires unanimity.

Writing on X, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideo Sa’ar, who has sparred with Kallas , said the point is moot, given there was no majority at all.

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Is your sex life as private and personal as you think it is? Or is it shaped by – and constantly shaping, in turn – the society and systems you exist in?

This week we’re joined by Dr. Angela Jones, who asks these questions and much more in their new book, Sex in Public . Angela is a professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Stony Brook University. In addition to scholarly works published in many distinguished journals including Porn Studies and The Black Scholar, they’re the author, co-author and/or editor of several books, including Black Lives Matter: A Reference Handbook and Camming: Money, Power, and Pleasure in the Sex Industry which came out in 2020 and advanced and informed a lot of my own understanding of the online adult industry especially.

Their latest book, Sex in Public: The Transformative Social Power of Our Erotic Lives , just launched. As Angela writes: “Revolutionizing how we talk about sex means thinking not just about what a single solitary person should or shouldn't do in bed.”

We get into the history of sexology, how sex toys complicate our understanding of what counts as sex, whether sex needs a definition at all, what happened when they bought and used a sex doll, and why the most vulnerable moments in their book are also the ones everyone wants to discuss.

Listen to the weekly podcast on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or YouTube .

Become a paid subscriber for early access to these interview episodes and to power our journalism. If you become a paid subscriber, check your inbox for an email from our podcast host Transistor for a link to the subscribers-only version! You can also add that subscribers feed to your podcast app of choice and never miss an episode that way. The email should also contain the subscribers-only unlisted YouTube link for the extended video version too. It will also be in the show notes in your podcast player.

Sex in Public: The Transformative Social Power of Our Erotic Lives

Cash/Consent by Lorelei Lee