Prediction markets let people wager on anything from a basketball game to the outcome of a presidential election - and recently, the downfall of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The latter is drawing renewed scrutiny into this murky world of speculative, 24/7 transactions. Last week, an anonymous trader pocketed more than $400,000 after betting that Maduro would soon be out of office. The bulk of the trader's bids on the platform Polymarket were made mere hours before President Donald Trump announced the surprise nighttime raid that led to Maduro's capture, fueling online suspicions of potential insider trading because of the timing of the wagers and the trader's narrow activity on the platform. Others argued that the risk of getting caught was too big, and that previous speculation about Maduro's future could have led to such transactions. Polymarket did not respond to requests for comment. The commercial use of prediction markets has skyrocketed in rece...
Even as Aditya Dhar's Dhurandhar continues its triumphant box-office run, Sriram Raghavan has made it clear that the blockbuster spy thriller sits firmly outside his own creative comfort zone. Speaking to The Hindu ahead of the release of his next film, Ikkis , Raghavan explained why the Ranveer Singh-starrer, despite being well-crafted, represents a cinematic language he would not personally adopt. Why Dhurandhar's Success Does Not Define His Filmmaking Choices Addressing comparisons between Dhurandhar and the kind of spy films he and his brother Shridhar Raghavan have made in the past, Sriram stressed that it is less about quality and more about worldview. "It is a well-made film with terrific performances, but it is not our kind of film. We must understand that we are living in different times. The earlier James Bond films starring Sean Connery and Roger Moore were fun movies. Later on, Bond films started to get serious. Dhurandhar is one movie. It is doing spe...