Category: Мистецтво

After several quiet weeks in movie theaters, four films entered wide release over the weekend. “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie” came out the top dog, with $23 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The performances of all four films – “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie,” “Saw X,” “The Creator” and “Dumb Money” – told a familiar story at the box office. What worked? Horror and animated franchises. What didn’t? Originality and comedy.

“PAW Patrol,” from Paramount Pictures and Spin Master, had timing on its side. The film, a sequel to the 2021 “PAW Patrol” movie adapted from the Nickelodeon TV series, was the first family animated movie in theaters since “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” was released in early August.

The first “PAW Patrol,” released during the pandemic, debuted with $13 million while simultaneously releasing on Paramount+, and its success in both arenas was a contributing factor in leading Nickelodeon chief Brian Robbins to be named head of Paramount. A third “PAW Patrol” movie has already been green-lit.

“Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie,” which cost $30 million to make, added $23.1 million in overseas sales.

“Saw X,” the tenth release in the long-running horror series, managed to bounce back from a franchise low with an opening weekend of $18 million for Lionsgate. The previous “Saw” movie, 2021’s “Spiral,” starring Chris Rock, debuted with $8.8 million and totaled $23.3 million domestically.

But the 10th “Saw” doubled back on gore and brought back Tobin Bell as the serial killer Jigsaw. It came away with the franchise’s best opening weekend in more than a decade and strong audience scores.

The $13-million production was also the widest “Saw” release yet, playing in 3,262 theaters. Since James Wan’s 2004 original, the “Saw” franchise — the flagship series of so-called torture porn — has made more than $1 billion worldwide.

“The Creator,” an $80 million movie financed by New Regency and distributed by Disney’s 20th Century Studios, was easily the biggest film to launch in theaters over the weekend but struggled to catch on. It grossed a modest $14 million at 3,680 theaters while adding $18.3 million internationally.

The film, directed by Gareth Edwards, stars John David Washington as an undercover operative in an AI-dominated future. “The Creator” drew mostly positive reviews and a B+ CinemaScore from audiences.

Sony Pictures’ “Dumb Money,” expanded nationwide after two weeks of limited release but failed to ignite the kind of populist movement it irreverently dramatizes. The film, directed by Craig Gillespie, came away with a disappointing $3.5 million in 2,837 locations.

“Dumb Money,” starring an ensemble of Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, Seth Rogen, American Ferrera and Anthony Ramos, turns the GameStop stock frenzy into a ripped-from-the-headlines underdog tale of amateur traders rattling Wall Street. While all the weekend’s new releases were hampered by the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, “Dumb Money” would have especially benefitted from its cast hitting late-night shows and other promotions.

Made for $30 million, “Dumb Money” wasn’t a massive bet. But it represented the kind of movie – a mid-budget, acclaimed original mostly targeted at adults – that Hollywood seldom makes anymore. As the industry enters an awards season a year after many high-profile contenders (among them “Tár” and “The Fabelmans”) failed to catch on in theaters, the results for “Dumb Money” may be cautionary for films queuing up.

The weekend’s other notable success came from a four-decade-old concert film. The 4K restoration of the Talking Heads concert film “Stop Making Sense” made $1 million on 786 screens, and surely led all movies in the number of dancing moviegoers. The Jonathan Demme film has surpassed $3 million thus far. Indie distributor A24 promised it will “have audiences dancing in the aisles around the world for a very long time to come.”

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie,” $23 million.

2. “Saw X,” $18 million.

3. “The Creator,” $14 million.

4. “The Nun II,” $4.7 million.

5. “The Blind,” $4.1 million.

6. “A Haunting in Venice,” $3.8 million.

7. “Dumb Money,” $3.5 million.

8. “The Equalizer,” $2.7 million.

9. “Expend4bles,” $2.5 million.

10. “Barbie,” $1.4 million.
    …

Syrian writer and veteran government critic Khaled Khalifa has died of cardiac arrest at the age of 59 at his home in Damascus, a close friend told AFP.  

Khalifa, who hailed from Maryamin in northwestern Aleppo province, was celebrated for his novels, television screenplays and newspaper columns, and honored with several of the Arab world’s top literary awards.  

He “died in his home alone in Damascus” on Saturday, said journalist Yaroub Aleesa, who had spent time with the author during his final days. “We called him repeatedly and he didn’t respond. When we went to his home, we found him dead on the sofa.”  

Doctors at the Abbassiyyin Hospital in Damascus said the cause of death was a heart attack.  

Khalifa gained fame as a writer of several popular Syrian TV series in the early 1990s.  

He was known as a staunch opponent of the ruling Baath party and his columns criticizing the authorities.  

But despite his well-known stance, he chose to remain in the country after the 2011 civil war broke out with the repression of protests aimed at the government.  

“I am staying because this is my country,” he said in a 2019 interview. “I was born here, I live here, and I want to die here!”  

His 2006 novel In Praise of Hatred was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arab Fiction — often dubbed the Arab Booker prize — and was translated into six languages.  

The novel recounts the story of a young Syrian woman from Aleppo who escapes her sequestered life by joining a jihadi organization.

In 2013, his novel No Knives in the Kitchens of this City won the Naguib Mahfouz literature prize, Egypt’s top accolade for writers.

It focuses on the lives of Syrians under the rule of the Baath party headed by President Bashar al-Assad.

The writer’s death sparked a wave of condolences on social media from fellow writers and members of Syria’s exiled opposition.

“Goodbye, you kind man,” wrote Syrian writer and academic Salam Kawakibi.

Khalifa was expected to be buried later Sunday in Damascus, though details of the funeral had yet to be disclosed.
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In northern Chile, Teofila Challapa learned to weave surrounded by the hills and sandy roads of the Atacama Desert.

“Spin the threads, girl,” her grandmother told her a half a century ago.

Aymara women like Challapa, now 59, become acquainted with wool threads under blue skies and air so thin that outsiders struggle to breathe. While herding llamas and alpacas through scarce grasslands 11,500 feet above sea level, they create their first textiles.

“We had no clothes or money, so we needed to learn how to dress with our own hands,” said Challapa, sitting next to fluffy alpacas outside her humble home in Cariquima, a town with fewer than 500 inhabitants near the Chile-Bolivia border.

The knowledge of her craft passes on from one generation to another, securing Aymara families’ bond with their land.

Challapa prays before beginning her work: “Mother Earth, give me strength, because you’re the one who will produce, not me.”

Among the 3 million Aymaras who live along the borders of Chile, Perú and Bolivia, the Earth is known as “Pachamama.” Homages and rituals requesting her blessings are intertwined in everyday life.

“I believe in God, but the Earth provides us with everything,” Challapa said.

Pachamama offers Challapa inspiration for her textiles, connections to ancestors and her cultural identity. It provides means for survival, too.

“My animals are my mother,” Challapa said.

Her alpacas and llamas were a source of meat, wool and company during the tough years she spent raising her children as a single mother.

In the neighboring town of Colchane, Efrain Amaru and Maria Choque share their one-floor house with Pepe, an elegant white llama that flirts with visitors.

“To be an artisan, one must have the raw materials,” said Amaru, a 60-year-old descendant of Aymara craftsmen. His parents taught him how to raise camelids that produce the finest wool. “You have to communicate with your animals because they are part of you.”

Ahead of Pachamama Day, on August 1, the couple prepared a ritual honoring Mother Earth. Over a mantle they weaved for the occasion, they placed grains from their crops and pieces of wool — among other objects they are grateful for — and asked for prosperity.

“We make offerings hoping for good seeds and crops, welfare for our animals and rain,” Choque said. “Then we turn to the moon and the stars. Our grandparents told us that those are the souls of our ancestors, who look at us from above.”

Choque learned how to turn wool into thread when she was 6. Without toys to play with, Choque said, she and her peers spent their days watching their elders weave — a demonstration of the craft and how to live fulfilling lives.

Her grandmother was her first teacher. After giving her a sewing needle, she taught Choque how to produce socks and hats. Vests and ponchos came after that.

Once a young disciple masters sewing needles, she moves on to weaving on looms. A few years later, she’ll face her utmost challenge: weaving her own “aksu,” the Aymara’s most precious and traditional garment.

“My aksu is not a suit,” Choque said. “It’s a part of me. When I was little, I wore mine daily, until I had to wear a uniform for school.”

From wool production to fabric making, the entire textile-making process can take up to two years.

Aymara craftswomen shear their animals in October, when the weather is milder. Their llamas keep a few inches of wool to keep them warm and ready for the “floreo.” During this ancient ritual celebrated in February, Aymaras tie wool flowers and pompoms to their camelids identifying them as their property and thanking Pachamama for abundance.

Once the wool is collected and clean, craftswomen manipulate it with the tip of their fingers and pull threads out of it, creating skeins that are mounted on their looms for weaving.

Through the income they made from the sale of their textiles, Aymara women like Challapa and Choque could afford to send their children off to school.

“I thank God because I always told myself: I don’t want them to be like me,” said Marcelina Choque (no relation to Maria), another craftswoman who lives in the town of Pozo Almonte. “This is my only profession. If I don’t sell, I have nothing.”

Progress, though, is bittersweet. “I taught my daughters how to weave just like me, but now that they have other jobs, they don’t weave anymore,” Marcelina Choque said.

Because so many young people move away from their hometowns for study and work, several craftswomen agree their legacy might be in danger. Although they passed on their knowledge to their descendants, there are currently only a handful of young Aymara women who know how to use a loom.

“In rural areas, there is a significant migration of young people, and the population is aging,” said Luis Pizarro, who works at the Agricultural Development Institute of Chile. “Their grandparents are the ones who remain in the territories, so their cultural roots are severed.”

The institute supports rural development for Chilean communities linked to the Aymara culture, according to Pizarro. The goal is to boost camelid farming and craft sales through fairs, an online presence and special events.

On a recent weekend, the institute held a fashion show inside a city shopping center in Iquique, where Teofila Challapa, Maria Choque and other women sold textiles and their daughters modeled their work.

“We try to get daughters and granddaughters of artisans involved in their cultural inheritance,” Pizarro said.

Nayareth Challapa (no relation to Teofila) speaks proudly about her mother, Maria Aranibar, who taught her how to pick the perfect weeds to dye wool.

“The colors of our textiles are related to nature: the earth, the sky, the hills. The land is sacred for us,” the 25-year old said. The work reflects craftswomen’s moods and “the rheas, llamas, flowers and mountains she wants to keep present.”

She, too, moved to a city to attend university, but home is never far from her heart.

“When migrating, many forget their ethnicity and leave their roots behind,” Challapa said. “But my family tries to avoid that. We herd the llamas and raise crops to preserve what my grandfather taught us. If we were to lose that, we would lose him as well.”
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Pope Francis created 21 new cardinals at a ritual-filled ceremony Saturday, including key figures at the Vatican and in the field who will help enact his reforms and cement his legacy as he enters a crucial new phase in running the Roman Catholic Church.

On a crisp sunny morning filled with cheers from St. Peter’s Square, Francis further expanded his influence on the College of Cardinals who will help him govern and one day elect his successor: With Saturday’s additions, nearly three-quarters of the voting-age “princes of the church” owe their red hats to the Argentine Jesuit.

In his instructions to the new cardinals at the start of the service, Francis said their variety and geographic diversity would serve the church like musicians in an orchestra, where sometimes they play solos, sometimes as an ensemble.

“Diversity is necessary; it is indispensable. However, each sound must contribute to the common design,” Francis told them. “This is why mutual listening is essential: Each musician must listen to the others.”

Among the new cardinals was the controversial new head of the Vatican’s doctrine office, Victor Manuel Fernandez, and the Chicago-born missionary now responsible for vetting bishop candidates around the globe, Robert Prevost.

Also entering the exclusive club were the Vatican’s ambassadors to the United States and Italy, two important diplomatic posts where the Holy See has a keen interest in reforming the church hierarchy. Leaders of the church in geopolitical hotspots like Hong Kong and Jerusalem, fragile communities like Juba, South Sudan, and sentimental favorites like Cordoba, Argentina, filled out the roster.

Francis’ promotions of Prevost and his ambassador to Washington, French Cardinal Christophe Pierre, were clear signs that he has his eye on shifting the balance of power in the U.S. hierarchy, where some conservative bishops have strongly resisted his reforms. Between them, Pierre and Prevost are responsible for proposing new bishop candidates and overseeing any investigations into problem ones already in place.

“I think I do have some insights into the church in the United States,” Prevost said after the ceremony during a welcome reception in the Apostolic Palace. “So, the need to be able to advise, work with Pope Francis and to look at the challenges that the church in the United States is facing, I hope to be able to respond to them with a healthy dialogue.”

The ceremony took place days before Francis opens a big meeting of bishops and lay Catholics on charting the church’s future, where hot-button issues such as women’s roles in the church, LGBTQ+ Catholics and priestly celibacy are up for discussion.

The October 4-29 synod is the first of two sessions — the second one comes next year — that in many ways could cement Francis’ legacy as he seeks to make the church a place where all are welcomed, where pastors listen to their flocks and accompany them rather than judge them.

Several of the new cardinals are voting members of the synod and have made clear they share Francis’ vision of a church that is more about the people in the pews than the hierarchy, and that creative change is necessary. Among them is Fernandez, known as the “pope’s theologian” and perhaps Francis’ most consequential Vatican appointment in his 10-year pontificate.

In his letter naming Fernandez as prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Francis made clear he wanted his fellow Argentine to oversee a radical break from the past, saying the former Holy Office often resorted to “immoral methods” to enforce its will.

Rather than condemn and judge, Francis said, he wanted a doctrine office that guards the faith and gives people hope. He also made clear Fernandez wouldn’t have to deal with sex abuse cases, saying the office’s discipline section could handle that dossier.

It was a much-debated decision given that Fernandez himself has admitted he made mistakes handling a case while he was bishop in La Plata, Argentina, and that the scale of the problem globally has long cried out for authoritative, high-ranking leadership.

On the eve of the consistory to make Fernandez a cardinal, clergy abuse survivors, including a La Plata victim, rallied near the Vatican, calling on Francis to rescind the nomination.

“No bishop who has covered up child sex crimes and ignored and dismissed victims of clergy abuse in his diocese should be running the office that oversees, investigates and prosecutes clergy sex offenders from around the world, or be made a cardinal,” said Julieta Añazco, the La Plata survivor, according to a statement from the End Clergy Abuse.

With Saturday’s ceremony, Francis will have named 99 of the 137 cardinals who are under age 80 and thus eligible to vote in a future conclave to elect his successor. While not all are cookie-cutter proteges of the 86-year-old reigning pontiff, many share Francis’ pastoral emphasis as opposed to the doctrinaire-minded cardinals often selected by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

Such a huge proportion of Francis-nominated cardinals almost ensures that a future pope will either be one of his own cardinals or one who managed to secure Franciscan cardinal votes to lead the church after he is gone, suggesting a certain continuity in priorities.
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When 2019 finalists England and New Zealand meet again to open the Cricket World Cup next week, it will mark the tournament’s return to India after 12 years.

But preparations for this year’s tournament — in which the home side will start among the favorites and won the event when it was last played in India in 2011 — haven’t gone smoothly.

The event experienced numerous organizational and planning issues which the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the host body, often had difficulties dealing with them.

The 13th edition of the tournament was first scheduled for February-March 2023, but it was delayed to its current Oct. 5-Nov. 19 schedule after the COVID-19 pandemic caused a ripple effect for the hosting of 2021 and 2022 Twenty20 World Cups.

In the meantime, the BCCI delayed formalizing tax agreements with the Indian government — an issue that had plagued the 2011 ODI and the 2016 T20 World Cups, both hosted in India.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) usually receives a tax exemption benefit for its events, but that is in contravention of Indian laws. In March, the BCCI told he ICC that it would cover about $116 million in taxes out of its own pocket in lieu of the tax exemption from the Indian government.

It was, however, only the first of several stumbling blocks.

Most ICC event schedules are announced a year in advance. The BCCI only announced the World Cup scheduling on June 27. A month later, the original scheduling ran into problems when Ahmedabad police said they was unable to provide ample security for the high-profile India-Pakistan match on Oct. 15 because of already-planned festivities in the western India city.

The BCCI had to rework the schedule and a final version was released on Aug. 9 with the big India-Pakistan match now scheduled a day earlier on Oct. 14.

That caused further issues for ticketing and travel arrangements for fans across the world. Even before the final scheduling had been announced, hotel prices and airfares in major host cities shot up to exorbitant rates.

Ticketing has been another major issue in the build-up to this World Cup. After the scheduling was finally announced, tickets first went on sale as late as Aug. 30. Despite the staggered sale of tickets, Indian fans complained, and the BCCI released another 400,000 tickets to the general public on Sept. 6 in the second phase of ticketing.

BCCI secretary Jay Shah defended his group’s actions over the past few months.

“The scale and diversity of India require meticulous planning, coordination, and execution to ensure the tournament’s success and seamless experience for players, fans, and stakeholders,” Shah said in a statement.

With less than a week to go before the opening match, the tempo has gradually built up as fervent cricket loyalists in India — and there are millions— get ready to welcome the 10 teams.

All eyes will be on Rohit Sharma’s India as they look to emulate M.S. Dhoni’s team’s feat of winning the World Cup at home. India hasn’t won an ICC event since the 2013 Champions Trophy, and the 2011 triumph remains its last World Cup trophy.

Defending champion England and record five-time winners Australia, who play India in its first match on Oct. 8 in Chennai, are the other top contenders for the title.

Regional foe Pakistan’s challenge depends on the form and fitness of two players — skipper Babar Azam and pacer Shaheen Afridi. Pacer Naseem Shah has been ruled out of the World Cup due to a right shoulder injury.

Sri Lanka punched above its weight to reach the Asia Cup final. New Zealand — which lost to England in a controversial boundary countback in the 2019 final — South Africa, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and the Netherlands complete the 10-team lineup which will be expanded to 14 teams for the next Cricket World Cup in October-November 2027 co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

The round-robin format sees all 10 teams play each other once in a single group (45 matches). The top four teams advance to the semifinals on Nov. 16 and 17. The final is scheduled for Nov. 19.

In between, Sharma will try not to let the home-crowd hype get to him, although that might be easier said than done.

“For me, it is important how to keep relaxed and not worry about external factors that play a role, whether positively or negatively,” Sharma said. “It is about shutting out everything.”
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A man who prosecutors say ordered the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur was arrested and charged with murder Friday in a long-awaited breakthrough in one of hip-hop’s most enduring mysteries.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis has long been known to investigators as one of four suspects identified early in the investigation. He isn’t the accused gunman but was described as the group’s ringleader by authorities Friday at a news conference and in court.

“Duane Davis was the shot caller for this group of individuals that committed this crime,” said police homicide Lt. Jason Johansson, “and he orchestrated the plan that was carried out.”

Davis himself has admitted in interviews and in his 2019 tell-all memoir, Compton Street Legend, that he provided the gun used in the drive-by shooting.

Authorities said Friday that Davis’ own public comments revived the investigation.

Davis, now 60, was arrested early Friday while on a walk near his home on the outskirts of Las Vegas, hours before prosecutors announced in court that a Nevada grand jury had indicted the self-described gangster on one count of murder with a deadly weapon. He is due in court next week.

The grand jury also voted to add a sentencing enhancement to the murder charge for gang activity that could add up to 20 additional years if he’s convicted.

The first-ever arrest in the case came after Las Vegas police raided Davis’ home in mid-July in the nearby city of Henderson for items they described at the time as “concerning the murder of Tupac Shakur.”

It wasn’t immediately clear if Davis has an attorney who can comment on his behalf. Prosecutors said they did not know if he had a lawyer and several local attorneys said they did not know who from Las Vegas would represent him. Phone and text messages to Davis and his wife on Friday and in the months since the July 17 search weren’t returned.

“For 27 years, the family of Tupac Shakur has been waiting for justice,” Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference Friday. “While I know there’s been many people who did not believe that the murder of Tupac Shakur was important to this police department, I’m here to tell you that is simply not the case.”

Prosecutors said they have been in contact with the rapper’s family, who are “pleased with this news.”

On the night of Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur was in a BMW driven by Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight. They were waiting at a red light near the Las Vegas Strip when a white Cadillac pulled up next to them and gunfire erupted.

Shakur was shot multiple times and died a week later at the age of 25.

Davis, in his memoir, said he was in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and had slipped a gun into the back seat, from where he said the shots were fired.

He implicated his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, saying he was one of two people in the backseat. Anderson, a known rival of Shakur, had been involved in a casino brawl with the rapper shortly before the shooting.

Anderson died two years later. He denied any involvement in Shakur’s death.

Emails seeking comment from two lawyers who have previously represented Knight were not immediately returned. Knight was grazed by a bullet fragment in the shooting but had only minor injuries. He is serving a 28-year prison sentence in California for an unrelated voluntary manslaughter charge. 
…

Many millions of Chinese tourists are expected to travel within their country, splurging on hotels, tours, attractions and meals in a boost to the economy during the 8-day autumn holiday period that began Friday.

This year’s holiday began with the Mid-Autumn Festival on Friday and also includes the Oct. 1 National Day. The public holidays end Oct. 6.

Typically hundreds of millions of Chinese travel at home and overseas during such holidays. The eight-day-long holiday is the longest week of public holidays since COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were lifted in December. Outbound tourism has lagged domestic travel, with flight capacities lagging behind pre-pandemic levels.

Big cities like the capital, Beijing, Shanghai, and southern cities like Shenzhen and Guangzhou are favored destinations. Smaller cities, such as Chengdu and Chongqing in southwest China also are popular.

All that travel is a boon for the world’s No. 2 economy: During the week-long May holiday this year, 274 million tourists spent 148 billion yuan ($20.3 billion).

“Over the last few years with the pandemic, there’s been really strong pent-up demand,” said Boon Sian Chai, managing director at the online travel booking platform Trip.com Group. Both domestic and outbound travel have “recovered significantly,” but travel within China accounted for nearly three-quarters of total bookings, Chai said.

China Railway said it was expecting about 190 million passenger trips during the Sept. 27-Oct. 8 travel rush, more than double the number of trips last year and an increase from 2019, before the pandemic started.

In Guangzhou and Shenzhen, extra overnight high-speed trains will operate for 11 days to cope with a travel surge during the long holiday, according to the China Railway Guangzhou Group Co., Ltd.

Another 21 million passengers are expected to travel by air during the holiday, with an average of about 17,000 flights per day, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China. More than 80% of those flights are domestic routes.

Jia Jianqiang, CEO of Liurenyou International Travel Agency, said Chinese are splurging on more luxurious travel.

“Many people are now also inclined towards more customized, high-end tours compared to the large group tours that were popular (before the pandemic),” Jia said.

For many Chinese, long public holidays such as Golden Week are the best time to travel, since paid vacation can be as few as five days a year.

“Most Chinese don’t have long holidays, so this time of the year is when everyone can take the longest break and the only time to travel for fun,” said Fu Zhengshuai, an IT engineer and photography enthusiast who often travels alone to remote areas in China such as far western Qinghai and Xinjiang.

The downside of traveling during such big holidays is that everyone else is out there, too, and prices of tickets to attractions, food, and accommodations are high, Fu said.

For student Ma Yongle, traveling during big holidays means long waiting times, huge crowds, and heavy traffic. Train tickets often are sold out.

“I saw more people than scenery. I spent longer time waiting than eating. Train tickets were sold out quickly and traffic was heavy,” Ma said. “More time was wasted and little was left for enjoying the scenery, which spoiled my mood.”

She has since adopted what is referred in China as a “special forces travel trend” where tourists don’t stay overnight at a destination, but only take day trips to save money.

A growing but still relatively small number of Chinese are venturing abroad. According to Trip.com data, outbound travel orders this year are nearly 20 times those during last year’s autumn holidays, when many pandemic restrictions were still in place. Thailand, Singapore, South Korea and Malaysia are popular destinations, as are more distant places such as Australia and the United Kingdom.

Overseas travel is bound to bounce back, Chai said.

“If you look at flight capacity, it has only recovered to about half of pre-pandemic levels,” he said. “As flight capacity starts to pick up toward the end of this year and next year, outbound travel will continue to increase.”
…

Exiled Afghan female athletes are participating in the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, which end Oct. 8. They say they want to raise awareness of the plight of women in Afghanistan, who are barred from playing any sports in the country. Waheed Faizi has the story, narrated by Elizabeth Cherneff.
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Veteran actor Michael Gambon, who was known to many for his portrayal of Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore in six of the eight “Harry Potter” films, has died, his publicist said Thursday. He was 82.

A statement by his family, issued by his publicist, said he died following “a bout of pneumonia.”

“We are devastated to announce the loss of Sir Michael Gambon. Beloved husband and father, Michael died peacefully in hospital with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside,” his family said.

No matter what role he took on in a career that lasted more than five decades, Gambon was always instantly recognizable by the deep and drawling tones of his voice. He was cast as the much-loved Dumbledore after the death of his predecessor, Richard Harris, in 2002.

He once acknowledged not having read any of J. K. Rowling’s best-selling books, arguing that it was safer to follow the script rather than be too influenced by the books. That didn’t prevent him from embodying the spirit of Professor Dumbledore, the powerful wizard who fought against evil to protect his students.

Although the Potter role raised Gambon’s international profile and introduced him to a new generation of fans, he had long been recognized as one of Britain’s leading actors. His work spanned TV, theater and radio, and he starred in dozens of films from “Gosford Park” to “The King’s Speech” and the animated family movie “Paddington.”

Gambon was knighted for services to drama in 1998.

Born in Ireland on Oct. 19, 1940, Gambon was raised in London and originally trained as an engineer, following in the footsteps of his father. He made his theater debut in a production of “Othello” in Dublin.

In 1963 he got his first big break with a minor role in “Hamlet,” the National Theatre Company’s opening production, under the directorship of the legendary Laurence Olivier.

Gambon soon became a distinguished stage actor and received critical acclaim for his leading performance in “Life of Galileo” directed by John Dexter. He was frequently nominated for awards and won the Laurence Olivier award 3 times and the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards twice.

A multi-talented actor, Gambon was also the recipient of four coveted British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards for his television work.

He became a household name in Britain after his lead role in the 1986 BBC series “The Singing Detective,” written by Dennis Potter and considered a classic of British television drama. Gambon won the BAFTA for best actor for the role.

Gambon was versatile as an actor but once told the BBC of his preference for playing “villainous characters.” He played gangster Eddie Temple in the British crime thriller “Layer Cake” — a review of the film by the New York Times referred to Gambon as “reliably excellent” — and a Satanic crime boss in Peter Greenaway’s “The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.”

He also had a part as King George V in the 2010 drama film “The King’s Speech.” In 2015 he returned to the works of J.K. Rowling, taking a leading role in the TV adaptation of her book “The Casual Vacancy.”

Gambon retired from the stage in 2015 after struggling to remember his lines in front of an audience due to his advancing age. He once told the Sunday Times Magazine: “It’s a horrible thing to admit, but I can’t do it. It breaks my heart.”

The actor was always protective when it came to his private life. He married Anne Miller and they had one son, Fergus. He later had two sons with set designer Philippa Hart.
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TV’s late-night hosts planned to return to their evening sketches and monologues by next week, reinstating the flow of topical humor silenced for five months by the newly ended Hollywood’s writers strike.

Bill Maher led the charge back to work by announcing early Wednesday that his HBO show “Real Time with Bill Maher” would be back on the air Friday. By mid-morning, the hosts of NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” and “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” on CBS had announced they’d also return, all by Monday. “Last Week Tonight” with John Oliver was slated to return to the air Sunday.

Fallon, Meyers, Kimmel, Colbert and Oliver had spent the latter part of the strike teaming up for a popular podcast called “Strike Force Five” — named after their personal text chain and with all proceeds benefiting their out-of-work writers. On Instagram on Wednesday, they announced “their mission complete.”

The plans for some late-night shows were not immediately clear, like “Saturday Night Live” and Comedy Central’s “Daily Show,” which had been using guest hosts when the strike hit.

Scripted shows will take longer to return, with actors still on strike and no negotiations yet on the horizon.

On Tuesday night, board members from the writers union approved a contract agreement with studios, bringing the industry at least partly back from a historic halt in production that stretched nearly five months.

Maher had delayed returning to his talk show during the ongoing strike by writers and actors, a decision that followed similar pauses by “The Drew Barrymore Show,” “The Talk” and “The Jennifer Hudson Show.”

The three-year agreement with studios, producers and streaming services includes significant wins in the main areas that writers had fought for — compensation, length of employment, size of staffs and control of artificial intelligence — matching or nearly equaling what they had sought at the outset of the strike.

The union had sought minimum increases in pay and future residual earnings from shows and will get a raise of between 3.5% and 5% in those areas — more than the studios had initially offered.

The guild also negotiated new residual payments based on the popularity of streaming shows, where writers will get bonuses for being a part of the most popular shows on Netflix, Max and other services, a proposal that studios initially rejected. Many writers on picket lines had complained that they weren’t properly paid for helping create heavily watched properties.

On artificial intelligence, the writers got the regulation and control of the emerging technology they had sought. Under the contract, raw, AI-generated storylines will not be regarded as “literary material” — a term in their contracts for scripts and other story forms a screenwriter produces. This means they won’t be competing with computers for screen credits. Nor will AI-generated stories be considered “source” material, their contractual language for the novels, video games or other works that writers may adapt into scripts.

Writers have the right under the deal to use artificial intelligence in their process if the company they are working for agrees and other conditions are met. But companies cannot require a writer to use artificial intelligence. 
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The Writers Guild of America (WGA) said its members could return to work on Wednesday while a ratification vote takes place on a new three-year contract with Hollywood studios. 

Union leaders “voted unanimously to lift the restraining order and end the strike as of 12:01 a.m. PT/3:01 a.m. ET on Wednesday, September 27th,” the WGA said in a statement on Tuesday. 

WGA members will have until October 9 to cast their votes on the contract, the union said. 

Film and television writers walked off the job in May in a fight for higher pay, protections that their work will not be replaced by artificial intelligence, and other issues. 

The writers appeared to have won concessions across the board, with raises over the three years of the contract, increased health and pension contributions, and AI safeguards. 

Under the tentative agreement, AI cannot be used to undermine a writer’s credit. Writers can choose to use AI when drafting scripts, but a company cannot require the use of the software. The studios also have to disclose to a writer if any materials they furnish were generated by AI. 
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Actor David McCallum, who became a teen heartthrob in the hit series “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” in the 1960s and was the eccentric medical examiner in the popular “NCIS” 40 years later, has died. He was 90.

McCallum died Monday of natural causes surrounded by family at New York Presbyterian Hospital, CBS said in a statement.

“David was a gifted actor and author, and beloved by many around the world. He led an incredible life, and his legacy will forever live on through his family and the countless hours on film and television that will never go away,” said a statement from CBS.

Scottish-born McCallum had been doing well appearing in such films “A Night to Remember” (about the Titanic), “The Great Escape” and “The Greatest Story Ever Told” (as Judas). But it was “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” that made the blond actor with the Beatlesque haircut a household name in the mid-’60s.

The success of the James Bond books and films had set off a chain reaction, with secret agents proliferating on both large and small screens. Indeed, Bond creator Ian Fleming contributed some ideas as “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” was being developed, according to Jon Heitland’s “The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Book.”

The show, which debuted in 1964, starred Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo, an agent in a secretive, high-tech squad of crime fighters whose initials stood for United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. Despite the Cold War, the agency had an international staff, with McCallum as Illya Kuryakin, Solo’s Russian sidekick.

The role was relatively small at first, McCallum recalled, adding in a 1998 interview that “I’d never heard of the word ‘sidekick’ before.”

The show drew mixed reviews but eventually caught on, particularly with teenage girls attracted by McCallum’s good looks and enigmatic, intellectual character. By 1965, Illya was a full partner to Vaughn’s character and both stars were mobbed during personal appearances.

The series lasted to 1968. Vaughn and McCallum reunited in 1983 for a nostalgic TV movie, “The Return of the Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” in which the agents were lured out of retirement to save the world once more.

McCallum returned to television in 2003 in another series with an agency known by its initials — CBS’ “NCIS.” He played Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard, a bookish pathologist for the Naval Criminal Investigation Service, an agency handling crimes involving the Navy or the Marines. Mark Harmon played the NCIS boss.

McCallum said he thought Ducky, who sported glasses and a bow tie and had an eye for pretty women, “looked a little silly, but it was great fun to do.” He took the role seriously, too, spending time in the Los Angeles coroner’s office to gain insight into how autopsies are conducted.

Co-star Lauren Holly took to X, formerly Twitter, to mourn: “You were the kindest man. Thank you for being you.” The previously announced 20th anniversary “NCIS” marathon on Monday night will now include an “in memoriam” card in remembrance of McCallum.

The series built an audience gradually, eventually reaching the roster of top 10 shows. McCallum, who lived in New York, stayed in a one-bedroom apartment in Santa Monica when “NCIS” was in production.

“He was a scholar and a gentleman, always gracious, a consummate professional, and never one to pass up a joke. From day one, it was an honor to work with him and he never let us down. He was, quite simply, a legend, said a statement from ”NCIS” Executive Producers Steven D. Binder and David North.

McCallum’s work with “U.N.C.L.E.” brought him two Emmy nominations, and he got a third as an educator struggling with alcoholism in a 1969 Hallmark Hall of Fame drama called “Teacher, Teacher.”

In 1975, he had the title role in a short-lived science fiction series, “The Invisible Man,” and from 1979 to 1982 he played Steel in a British science fiction series, “Sapphire and Steel.” Over the years, he also appeared in guest shots in many TV shows, including “Murder, She Wrote” and “Sex and the City.”

He appeared on Broadway in a 1968 comedy, “The Flip Side,” and in a 1999 revival of “Amadeus” starring Michael Sheen and David Suchet. He also was in several off-Broadway productions.

Largely based in the U.S. from the 1960s onward, McCallum was a longtime American citizen, telling The Associated Press in 2003 that “I have always loved the freedom of this country and everything it stands for. And I live here, and I like to vote here.”

David Keith McCallum was born in Glasgow in 1933. His parents were musicians; his father, also named David, played violin, his mother played cello. When David was 3, the family moved to London, where David Sr. played with the London Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic.

 
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Spanish prosecutors have charged pop star Shakira with failing to pay $7.1 million in tax on her 2018 income, authorities said Tuesday, in Spain’s latest fiscal allegations against the Colombian singer. 

Shakira is alleged to have used an offshore company based in a tax haven to avoid paying the tax, Barcelona prosecutors said in a statement. 

She has been notified of the charges in Miami, where she lives, according to the statement. 

Shakira is already due to be tried in Barcelona on November 20 in a separate case that hinges on where she lived between 2012-14. In that case, prosecutors allege she failed to pay $15.4 million in tax. 

Prosecutors in Barcelona have alleged the Grammy winner spent more than half of the 2012-14 period in Spain and therefore should have paid taxes in the country, even though her official residence was in the Bahamas. 

Spanish tax officials opened the latest case against Shakira last July. After reviewing the evidence gathered over the last two months, prosecutors have decided to bring charges. No date for a trial was set. 

The public relations firm that previously has handled Shakira’s affairs, Llorente y Cuenca, made no immediate comment. 

Last July, it said the artist had “always acted in concordance with the law and on the advice of her financial advisers.” 

Shakira, whose full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, has been linked to Spain since she started dating the now-retired soccer player Gerard Pique. The couple, who have two children, lived together in Barcelona until last year, when they ended their 11-year relationship. 

Spain tax authorities have over the past decade or so cracked down on soccer stars like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for not paying their full due in taxes. Those players were found guilty of tax evasion but avoided prison time thanks to a provision that allows a judge to waive sentences under two years in length for first-time offenders. 
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“My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion,” a play by Ukrainian playwright Sasha Denisova, made its debut at Washington, D.C.’s Woolly Mammoth theater earlier this month. The play was inspired by online chats its creator had with her 82-year-old mother who lives near Kyiv. Maxim Adams has the story. Camera: David Gogokhia.
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The North American box office hit a 2023 low this weekend, with top film “The Nun II” estimated to take in a paltry $8.4 million, industry watchers said Sunday. 

“The numbers are not good,” said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research, describing an entire month of poor results. 

He said the months-long strikes by Hollywood screenwriters and actors — reportedly at a key point Sunday — “cannot end soon enough.”  

The strikes have prevented stars from promoting upcoming films. 

This weekend’s top five films had a combined take of roughly $31 million — less than “Barbie” alone earned in its fourth weekend out. 

Warner Bros.’ “The Nun II,” starring Taissa Farmiga in a tale of Gothic horror and possession, has led the box office for the past few weeks, despite posting tepid numbers. 

Nearly tying it this weekend was new action film “Expend4bles,” at an estimated $8.3 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period, Exhibitor Relations reported. 

The Lionsgate movie, the fourth in a series, has a veteran team of Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren — joined by franchise newcomers including Megan Fox, 50 Cent and Andy Garcia — heading to Libya to try to prevent a mercenary from stealing nuclear warheads. 

In third place, down one spot from last weekend, was 20th Century’s “A Haunting in Venice,” Kenneth Branagh’s latest Agatha Christie-inspired film, at $6.3 million. Branagh again plays legendary Belgian detective Hercules Poirot. 

Fourth spot went to Sony’s “The Equalizer 3,” at $4.7 million. Denzel Washington plays a retired U.S. Marine and drug-enforcement agent taking on beaucoup bad guys. 

And holding on in fifth — in its 10th weekend out — was Warner Bros. blockbuster “Barbie,” at $3.2 million. The Greta Gerwig paean to pinkness has now taken in $630.5 million domestically and an additional $797 million internationally. 

Rounding out the top 10 were: 

“My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3” ($3 million) 

“It Lives Inside” ($2.6 million) 

“Dumb Money” ($2.5 million) 

“Blue Beetle” ($1.8 million) 

“Oppenheimer” ($1.6 million) 
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The first gold medals at the Asian Games were all won by host nation China on Sunday in rowing, shooting and wushu after President Xi Jinping opened the two-week multisport extravaganza in a colorful ceremony.

China claimed the first gold when Zou Jiaqi and Qiu Xiuping dominated the women’s lightweight double sculls rowing final to kick off an expected medal rush for the hosts in Hangzhou.

The Chinese pair finished in 7 minutes 6.78 seconds, with Uzbekistan’s Luizakhon Islamova and Malika Tagmativa taking silver, almost 10 seconds behind.

“I am very excited as it’s my first Asian Games,” said Zou, clutching her gold medal.

“Stepping on to the podium today is a new starting point to help us prepare for next year’s Paris Olympics,” said Qiu.

Indonesia’s Chelsea Corputty and Rahma Mutiara Putri won bronze at the Fuyang Water Sports Centre.

The hosts then doubled up on the rowing lake as the men’s lightweight double sculls gold was won by Fan Junjie and Sun Man, who finished five seconds clear of India’s Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh.

Uzbekistan’s Shakhzod Nurmatov and Sobirjon Safaroliyev took bronze.

China’s shooters made it a golden hat-trick soon after when they claimed the women’s 10 meter team air rifle.

China’s perfect start continued as Sun Peiyuan won the first martial arts gold.

Sun successfully defended his men’s changquan wushu title from 2018, ahead of Indonesia’s Edgar Xavier Marvelo, with Macau’s Song Chi-Kuan third.

“I feel very happy to win the gold medal in China, near my home town,” said Sun. “I’m so very excited, I’m lost for words.”

Medals are up for grabs in nine sports on day one of the 19th Asian Games, with China expected to top the overall medals table by the time the action closes on Oct. 8.

Swimming to make splash

Swimming is one of the highlights of the Games and will see seven finals later on Sunday at the Hangzhou Olympic Centre Aquatic Sports Arena, where China is also expected to dominate.

Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Zhang Yufei will defend her title for China in the 200 meter butterfly.

Breakout Chinese freestyler Pan Zhanle faces a fellow young starlet, Korean sensation Hwang Sun-woo, in one of the blue-riband events, the men’s 100 meter.

And Chinese Olympic men’s 200 meter individual medley champion Wang Shun will be looking to bounce back after failing to make the final in the recent world championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

Women’s cricket giants India and Pakistan are both in semifinal action on Sunday with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka respectively standing in their way of reaching Monday’s final in the Twenty20 competition.

Other sports beginning their campaigns on Sunday include boxing, rugby sevens, hockey and the wildly popular eSports — where superstars such as South Korea’s “Faker” are expected to draw capacity crowds for its debut as a full Asian Games medal event.

President Xi officially opened the Games on Saturday night after a delay of a year because of China’s now-abandoned zero-COVID-19 policy.

With more than 12,000 competitors from 45 nations and territories, the Asian Games has more participants than the Olympics.

They will battle for medals in 40 sports across 54 venues.

Most events take place in Hangzhou, a city of 12 million people near Shanghai, but some sports are being staged in cities as far afield as Wenzhou, 300 kilometers to the south. 
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When an award-winning Sudanese filmmaker documented the journey of Sudan’s martial arts team, which traveled by road to Kenya for an international championship in 2019, he did not know that four years later he would be taking a similar path as he did in the film “Journey to Kenya” but for completely different reasons. VOA Nairobi Bureau Chief Mariama Diallo recently attended the screening of his movie and those of other Sudanese filmmakers and has this story.
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The Asian Games are an attention grabber. For starters, they involve more participants than the Summer Olympics. Organizers say more than 12,000 will be entered when the opening ceremony takes place Saturday in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou. That is more than the 10,500 expected for next year’s Paris Olympics.

The giant numbers are partly due to the staggering array of events with many regional specialties, sports, and games you won’t find in the Olympics. And there’s also cricket, which appears headed to the Olympics as soon as 2028 in Los Angeles, and certainly for 2032 in Brisbane, Australia.

And there’s squash, which has tried several times for Olympic recognition.

The regional fare includes dragon boat racing, sepaktakraw — sometimes called “kick volleyball — wushu, a Chinese martial art, and kabaddi, a popular contact sport on the Indian subcontinent. There is also the non-Olympic martial art of ju-jitsu, and kurash, a form of wrestling popular in central Asia.

To this, add a long list of what organizers call “mind sports” from bridge to chess to xiangqi (Chinese chess) to esports.

Of course, there are the old standbys seen in every Olympics like track and field, swimming, or volleyball — and the usual grandiose opening and closing ceremonies. Nine sports will offer qualification spots for the Olympics — archery, artistic swimming, boxing, breaking, hockey, modern pentathlon, sailing, tennis, and water polo.

However, most of the 481 events offer a chance for smaller delegations to win medals, which is often impossible at the Olympics.

China won almost 300 overall medals at the last Asian Games in Indonesia in 2018. At the bottom of the table, Syria and Nepal won a lone medal each. Bhutan and Bangladesh were among nine delegations that didn’t win any.

China will dominate the medal table as it has for the last 40 years, followed by Japan and South Korea — Asia’s other powers. The vast region stretches from Lebanon on the Mediterranean, through central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, to North Korea with organizers saying 45 nations or territories are entered.

Organizers have said 191 participants from North Korea will be on hand. North Korea closed its border early in 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic and skipped the Tokyo Olympics, which were delayed a year until 2021. The Asian Games were also pushed back a year from 2022 because of the pandemic.

According to South Korea’s Unification Ministry, the last time North Korean athletes appeared in an international sports competition was January 2020, when North Korea competed in the Asian Football Confederation’s under-23 soccer championship.

If you like political intrigue, there may be plenty of it.

The self-governing island of Taiwan will be on hand in China, which claims the democracy as a breakaway province that it has vowed to reclaim. Known as the Republic of China, the island is officially listed as Chinese Taipei in the Olympics and Asian Games and marches under a white flag adorned with the Olympics rings. Its red, blue and white flag is not allowed.

Taiwan, with only 23.5 million, is a relative sports power in the region and finished seventh in the overall medal standings in Indonesia.

The games also begin amid an open power struggle between International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and Kuwait’s Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, a long-time IOC member who is often described as the “kingmaker” who helped Bach win the IOC presidency in Buenos Aires in 2013.

The Switzerland-based IOC openly intervened in July to invalidate the presidential election of the Olympic Council of Asia. It has also suspended Sheikh Ahmad from the IOC.

The election was ostensibly won by Kuwait’s Sheikh Talal Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, the younger brother of Sheikh Ahmad. The elder sheikh is the former 30-year president of the OCA, an organization that was created by his father.

The IOC says it will continue to recognize Randhir Singh of India as interim president of the OCA until new elections are held. Bach will attend the opening ceremony in Hangzhou and is sure to have talks with Singh.

The biggest event of the games might be a possible India vs. Pakistan gold-medal game in men’s cricket on Oct. 7, which would be one of the most-watched global sports events all year. It comes just as cricket’s world cup is also under way.

China will again dominate diving, and several of China’s top swimmers — fresh from the world championships two months ago in Fukuoka, Japan — will shine. The field in gymnastics is weakened since the world championships in Antwerp, Belgium, clash with the Asian Games.

The biggest winner at the Asian Games might be South Korea esports star Lee Sang-hyeok, who is also known as “Faker.” If he wins gold he will be granted an exemption from military service.

Tottenham Hotspur soccer forward Son Heung-min also bypassed a 21-month military stint because of a government exemption when South Korea won the gold medal in soccer at the 2018 games in Indonesia — although Son still had to do three months of basic training. 
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Rupert Murdoch, the 92-year-old media magnate who created Fox News, is stepping down as leader of both Fox’s parent company and his News Corp. media holdings.

Fox said Thursday that Murdoch would become chairman emeritus of both companies. His son, Lachlan, will become News Corp. chairman and continue as chief executive officer of Fox Corp.

Lachlan Murdoch said that “we are grateful that he will serve as chairman emeritus and know he will continue to provide valued counsel to both companies.”

Besides Fox News, Murdoch started the Fox broadcast network, the first to successfully challenge the Big Three of ABC, CBS and NBC. He is owner of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

Murdoch is a force in the conservative world, where Fox News Channel has profoundly influenced television and the nation’s politics since its start in 1996.

Murdoch vowed in a letter to employees that he would remain engaged at Fox.

“In my new role, I can guarantee you that I will be involved every day in the contest of ideas, Murdoch wrote. “Our companies are communities, and I will be an active member of our community. I will be watching our broadcasts with a critical eye, reading our newspapers and websites and books with much interest.”

There was no immediate word on why Murdoch’s announcement came now. Ironically, it is the week author and Murdoch biographer Michael Wolff is publishing a book, “The End of Fox News,” speculating on what will happen to the network when the patriarch is gone.
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Just outside of Washington, D.C., in Northern Virginia, there is a place where anyone can release their inner painter and splatter their stress away. Maxim Adams has the story. Videographer: Sergey Sokolov; Video editor: Sergey Sokolov, Anna Rice     
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A resounding thump breaks the silence as Jaulia Land drops a lump of grey-brown clay onto the slab roller before Ned Heywood cranks it through the machine once, twice, three times, creating a rectangle about an inch thick. 

Laying a pattern on top of the slab, Heywood slices through the clay to create a disc the size of an extra-large pizza that will become one of the blue plaques that dot the walls of buildings throughout London, marking the places where scientists, artists, politicians and activists have made history.

As English Heritage unveiled its 1,000th blue plaque on Tuesday, the charity was working to broaden the program to include more women, people from minority ethnic backgrounds and community groups so that it better reflects the diversity of the capital.

The latest installation marks the offices where the Women’s Freedom League “campaigned for women’s equality” in the early 20th century, satisfying at least two of those goals.

“The names are no longer just English names, which is significant because, you know, the people who’ve come to this country from all over the world have made a disproportionately large contribution,” Heywood said at his workshop, a converted 18th century pub in the Welsh town of Chepstow, 180 kilometers (110 miles) west of London. “It’s changing now, which is very much for the good.” 

The blue plaque program, which began in 1866 and is believed to be the first of its kind, provides an informal historical walking tour of London that commemorates notable people and their accomplishments by highlighting the places where they lived and worked.

The honorees include famous figures from wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill to communist pioneer Karl Marx, as well as lesser-known figures such as theatrical wigmaker Willy Clarkson and civil engineer William Lindley, who built water and sewage systems around the world. There are also plaques honoring foreigners including India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and American rock star Jimi Hendrix, who lived in London only briefly. 

But English Heritage, which has sponsored the program since 1986, is concerned that past honorees were overwhelmingly white and male. Just 15% of the plaques honor women and less than 5% celebrate people from Black and Asian backgrounds.

The charity, which manages some 400 monuments, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses around England, is trying to encourage more nominations of women and people from minority ethnic groups while retaining high standards for entry into the exclusive club, said Anna Eavis, the curatorial director.

Plaques unveiled recently include Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, a suffragette and critic of British rule in India; Ottobah Cugoano, a native of present-day Ghana who was enslaved in Grenada and campaigned against slavery after gaining his freedom; and Ada Salter, the first woman to be elected mayor of a London borough.

“London is hugely diverse and it has always been, hasn’t it?” Eavis said. “And so it is important to ensure that we’re reflecting that diversity, that richness of contribution on London streets.”

Diana Yeh, a senior lecturer in sociology at City University of London, said broadening the reach of programs like the blue plaques is “an essential part of remembering invisible histories.” But heritage organizations must do more to discuss the “troubling aspects” of English history, including slavery and colonialism, she added.

“In a way it’s very easy to celebrate well-known figures who are marginalized, but it’s much harder to do that difficult work of acknowledging Britain’s difficult past,” said Yeh, whose work focuses on race, racism and cultural politics. “But this needs to be done for the benefit of future generations.” 

English Heritage installs a dozen blue plaques each year, selected from about 100 nominations. A committee reviews the nominees to decide which ones warrant commemoration and to ensure there is a real connection between each honoree and the site where the plaque is to be installed.

Once a decision is made, the order goes out to Heywood’s studio, which has been making plaques for English Heritage since 2016.

Over a period of six weeks, Heywood and Land roll and cut the clay, inscribe the disc with the honoree’s name and accomplishments, then apply the characteristic blue glaze and fire it in a kiln. It’s a process that creates an almost indestructible monument that should last as long as the building to which it’s attached — as long as the plaques don’t crack when they’re baked at 1,300° C (2,370° F).

“We pray to gods of the kiln,” Heywood said.

While the first plaque, honoring the poet Lord Byron, was destroyed when the building it adorned was demolished, the second, installed in 1867, still marks the house where Napoleon III, the last French emperor, lived in exile.

Plaque number 1,000 honors the Women’s Freedom League, a suffragist organization that used 1 Robert Street in central London as its base of operations during its most active period.

The group, which had the motto “Dare to be free,” aimed for total emancipation for women. It advocated nonpayment of taxes and backed a boycott of the 1911 census as ways to pressure the government to allow women to vote.

Heywood and Land feel the responsibility of the blue plaques intensely.

Heywood has a soft spot for scientists, who he says are the real heroes in improving people’s lives. Politicians? Not so much. They come and go.

“Blue plaques are carefully considered, the people are thoroughly researched, and the plaques are there for a reason,” he added. “And will be there forever.”
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Hundreds of soccer fans stormed into a hotel in Tehran on Monday, hoping for a glimpse of star player Cristiano Ronaldo after he arrived with his Saudi teammates ahead of a game. 

Chanting “Ronaldo, Ronaldo,” the fans pushed past police, filling the corridors and public spaces of the Espinas Palace Hotel. 

Ronaldo arrived on his first visit to Iran with the Saudi football club Al-Nassr, which is set to play Iran’s Persepolis in Tehran on September 19. The return game will be played in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on November 27. 

Ronaldo was the first of several big-name players to accept lavish contracts to play for Saudi teams. The oil-rich kingdom is spending billions of dollars to try to transform itself into a sports and entertainment powerhouse. 

The Asian Champions League games are made possible by the restoration of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia following an agreement brokered by China earlier this year. The longtime rivals had severed ties in 2016 after an angry crowd stormed Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran to protest Saudi Arabia’s execution of a popular Shiite cleric. 

The 2015 Asian Champions League edition was the last time Saudi and Iranian teams faced each other on home turf in the group stage or knockout rounds. 
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New York Fashion Week is generally known as a showcase for fashion designers, and the celebrities that wear their clothes. But several shows held on the sidelines are trying to call attention not only to fashion but to serious and difficult issues like sexual assault. VOA’s Rendy Wicaksana reports from New York
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Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction,” a biting satire starring Jeffrey Wright as a disillusioned academic, has won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, a much-watched bellwether in the Oscar race.

“American Fiction” is the directorial debut of Jefferson, the veteran TV writer of “Watchmen” and “Succession,” and an adaptation of Percival Everett’s 2001 novel “Erasure.” The film, about an author who resents that the literary industry is only interested in “Black books” that cater to the stereotypes of white audiences, emerged as a breakout hit at TIFF.

Toronto’s audience award winner, voted on by festival attendees, has historically nearly always signified a best-picture contender at the Academy Awards. Since 2012, every People’s Choice winner at TIFF has gone on to score a best-picture nod. In 2018, when “Green Book” won, it announced the film as a surprise awards contender. (Peter Farrelly’s film went on to win best picture at the Oscars.) Last year, Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” won Toronto’s top prize.

First runner-up went to Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers,” starring Paul Giamatti as a curmudgeonly boarding school teacher tasked with staying with a handful of students over Christmas break in the 1970s. Second runner-up was Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron,” the long-awaited latest Studio Ghibli film from the Japanese anime master.

“American Fiction,” which MGM will release in theaters Nov. 3, co-stars Sterling K. Brown, Issa Rae and Tracee Ellis Ross. In an interview, Jefferson said he immediately connected with Everett’s book.

“I was having the exact same conversations with Black colleagues in both professions: Why are we always writing about misery and trauma and violence and pain inflicted on Blacks?” said Jefferson. “Why is this what people expect from us? Why is this the only thing we have to offer to culture?”

The Toronto International Film Festival, which wraps Sunday, was diminished this year due to the ongoing actors and writers strikes. Red-carpet premieres were mostly without movie stars, detracting from some of the buzz that the largest film festival in North American typically generates. It followed a similarly strike-affected Venice Film Festival, where the festival’s top prize, the Golden Lion, went to Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things.” (That film skipped TIFF.)

The People’s Choice winner for documentary went to Robert McCallum’s “Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe” and the midnight madness award went to Larry Charles’ “Dicks: The Musical.” The festival’s juried competition awards were given to Tarsem Singh Dhandwar’s “Dear Jassi,” winner of the Platform section, and Meredith Hama-Brown’s “Seagrass,” which took the FIPRESCI award from international critics.
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A U.N. conference voted Sunday to list ruins of the ancient West Bank city of Jericho as a World Heritage Site, a decision likely to anger Israel, which controls the territory and does not recognize a Palestinian state.

Jericho is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities on earth, and is in a part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank that is administered by the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. The listing refers to the Tel es-Sultan archaeological site nearby, which contains ruins dating back to the 9th millennium B.C.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the U.N. World Heritage Committee in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, under the auspices of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO.

Israel quit UNESCO in 2019, accusing it of being biased against it and of diminishing its connection to the Holy Land. Israel also objected to UNESCO’s acceptance of Palestine as a member state in 2011. But Israel remains a party to the World Heritage Convention, and it sent a delegation to the meeting in Riyadh.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state. Israel views the West Bank as the biblical and cultural heartland of the Jewish people.

There have been no serious or substantive peace negotiations in over a decade, and Israel is currently led by the most nationalist and religious government in its history, making any move toward Palestinian statehood nearly unimaginable.

The modern city of Jericho is a major draw for tourism to the Palestinian territories, both because of its historical sites and proximity to the Dead Sea. In 2021, the Palestinian Authority unveiled major renovations to one of the largest mosaics in the Middle East, in a Jericho palace dating back to the 8th century.
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“The Nun 2” and “A Haunting in Venice” virtually tied for the No. 1 spot in U.S. and Canadian theaters over the weekend, with a slight edge carrying the horror sequel over the Hercule Poirot mystery, according to studio estimates Sunday.

In its second weekend of release, Warner Bros.’ “The Nun 2,” a spinoff from the studio’s lucrative “Conjuring” franchise, grossed $14.7 million. If numbers hold, that will give “The Nun 2” (up to $56.5 million total and $158.8 million worldwide) the top spot at the box office for the second straight week.

Very close behind was “A Haunting in Venice,” Kenneth Branagh’s third Agatha Christie adaptation following 2017’s “Murder on the Orient Express” and 2022’s “Death on the Nile.” It opened with $14.5 million.

Final box-office figures will be released Monday.

After the successful run of “Murder on the Orient Express” ($352.8 million worldwide against a production budget of $55 million) and the less-stellar global haul of “Death on the Nile” ($137.3 million against a $90 million budget), the sluggish start for “A Haunting in Venice” may have signaled the death knell for Branagh’s detective.

The 20th Century Studios film, released by the Walt Disney Co., grossed $22.7 million internationally. And it cost less than its predecessor, carrying a production budget of about $60 million.

“The Equalizer 3,” starring Denzel Washington, dropped to third place with $7.2 million. In three weeks, it grossed $73.7 million domestically and $132.4 million worldwide. Fourth place went to “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3” with $4.7 million in its second weekend of release. It’s grossed $18.5 million domestically.

It was one of the quietest weekends in movie theaters this year, as Hollywood — which has spent much of the last two weeks promoting its films at the Venice, Telluride and Toronto film festivals — treads water in between the summer smashes of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” and awaits its top fall movies. Some of those, like “Dune: Part Two,” have already been postponed until next year due to the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes.

One anticipated fall film, Sony’s “Dumb Money,” opted for a platform release, debuting in eight theaters over the weekend before expanding next weekend and going wide Sept. 29. The film, a rollicking dramatization of the GameStop stock frenzy, grossed $217,000, for a per-location average of about $27,000.

And “Barbie” also remains in the picture. For the ninth straight weekend, Greta Gerwig’s box-office sensation ranked in the top five films. It added $4 million to bring its domestic total to $625 million and its global haul to $1.42 billion. Meanwhile, “Oppenheimer” has reached $912.7 million, making it the highest grossing biopic ever, passing “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “The Nun II,” $14.7 million.

2. “A Haunting in Venice,” $14.5 million.

3. “The Equalizer 3,” $7.2 million.

4. “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3,” $4.7million.

5. “Barbie,” $4 million.

6. “Jawan,” $2.5 million.

7. “Blue Beetle,” $2.5 million.

8. “Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story,” $2.4 million.

9. “Oppenheimer,” $2.1 million.

10. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” $2 million.
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