Category: Entertainment

A Nigerian action thriller that tells a gripping story of corruption and police brutality in Africa’s most populous country has reached record viewership numbers on Netflix charts globally. It’s a reminder of the power and potential of Nigeria’s rapidly growing film industry.

“The Black Book” has taken the streaming world by storm, spending three weeks among the platform’s top 10 English-language titles globally, peaking at No. 3 in the second week.

It garnered 5.6 million views just 48 hours after its Sept. 22 release and by its second week was featured among the top 10 titles in 69 countries, according to Netflix.

“Films are made for audiences, and the bigger the audience for a film, the better the chances of your message going out,” producer Editi Effiong told The Associated Press. “The reality for us is that we made a film, made by Nigerians, funded by Nigerian money, go global.”

Nollywood, Nigeria’s film industry, has been a global phenomenon since the 1990s when it rose to fame with such films as “Living in Bondage,” a thriller with Kunle Afolayan’s Anikulapo released in 2022 and peaking at No. 1 on Netflix’s global chart. It is the world’s second-largest film industry after India based on number of productions, with an average of 2,000 movies released annually.

Nollywood’s latest blockbuster, “The Black Book,” is a $1 million movie financed with the support of a team of experts and founders in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem and is Effiong’s first feature film.

It tells the story of Nigeria’s checkered past, spanning a period of 40 years from when military regimes killed and arrested dissidents at will until the present day, when police brutality and abuse of power remain rampant.

The film opens with the abduction of family members of the head of the Nigerian oil regulatory agency, aided by corrupt police officers working for top politicians.

To cover their tracks, the police kill a young man framed as the suspect in the kidnapping — not knowing he was the only child of a former special operative who abandoned his weapons for the pulpit.

In his prime, the character of ex-officer-turned-pastor Paul Edima — played by Nigerian movie icon Richard Mofe-Damijo — was known as Nigeria’s “most dangerous man” with a past punctuated by assassinations and involvement in several coups across West Africa.

Portrayed as a repentant man who has turned over a new leaf after being inspired by his favorite Bible passage 1 Corinthians 5:17, Edima feels compelled to take revenge for his son’s death after failing to convince authorities his son is innocent.

The issue of delayed justice is not new in Nigeria. Many on Friday remembered the deadly protests of 2020 when young Nigerians demonstrating against police brutality were shot at and killed. Three years later, rights groups say many victims of police abuse still haven’t gotten justice.

For Edima, justice for his son comes at a cost. One by one, he hunts down the officers behind his son’s death, leading him to the army general behind the plot — coincidentally his former boss.

“It is a fictional narrative, but this is what Nigeria was,” Effiong told the AP.

He believes Nigeria is not doing a good job of teaching its history in the schools and letting young people understand how the country’s past is shaping the present.

“A society must be changed positively by art, and so there was an orientation on our part to, through the film we are going to make, reflect on this issue (of police brutality),” Effiong said.

While a government-commissioned panel of inquiry investigated the protest shootings in Nigeria’s economic hub of Lagos in 2020, Effiong attended its meetings and provided live updates via his page on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. At the same time, pre-production for the movie already had begun.

“We must tell the truth in spite of the circumstances,” he said. “Justice is important for everyone: the people we like and the people we do not like — especially the people we do not like,” he said.

Some have said the movie’s plot is like that of the American action thriller John Wick. It is a surprising but flattering comparison that also testifies to the movie’s success, Effiong said. 

The movie also has been lauded as signifying the potential of the film industry in Nigeria as well as across Africa. The continent’s streaming on-demand video (SVOD) market is expected to boast a robust 18 million subscribers, up from 8 million this year, according to a recent report from market intelligence firm Digital TV Research.

According to a Netflix spokesperson, entertainment with local stories remains the core of the platform’s main objective in sub-Saharan Africa. “Africa has great talent and world-class creatives, and we are committed to investing in African content and telling African stories of every kind,” Netflix said in a statement.

In Nigeria, the movie industry is at “the point right now where the world needs to take notice,” Effiong said.

He said that’s because. “The Black Book is a film by Black people, Black actors, Black producers, Black money 100%, and it’s gone ahead to become a global blockbuster.”
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“Ordain women priests!” Not far from the Vatican, where hundreds of Catholics have gathered to debate the future of the Church, purple-clad activists make their voices heard against the “patriarchy”.

The place of women in the Catholic Church — led for 2,000 years by a man, which outlaws abortion and female priests and does not recognize divorce — is one of the hot topics at the general assembly of the Synod of Bishops taking place over four weeks.

Women campaigning for change have come to Rome to make their case, from Europe and the United States but also South Africa, Australia, Colombia and India.

They have different backgrounds and diverse goals — not all want female priests, with some aiming first for women to become deacons, who can celebrate baptisms, marriages and funerals, although not masses.

But they are united in their frustration at seeing women excluded from key roles in what many view as a “patriarchal and macho” Church.

“The majority of people who support parish life and transmit the faith in families are women, mothers,” said Carmen Chaumet from French campaign group “Comite de la Jupe”, or the Committee of the Skirt.

“It is paradoxical and unfair not to give them their legitimate place.”

“If you go to the Vatican, to a mass, you see hundreds of men priests dressed the same way, and no women,” added Teresa Casillas, a member of Spanish association “Revuelta de Mujeres en la Iglesia”, “The Women’s Revolt in the Church”.

“I feel that men are the owners of God.”

‘Voting rights’

The Synod assembly, which runs until October 29, nevertheless marks a historic turning point in the Church, with nuns and laywomen allowed to take part for the first time.

Some 54 women — around 15 percent of the total of 365 assembly members — will be able to vote on proposals that will be sent to Pope Francis.

Vatican observers have called it a revolution. “A first step,” say campaigners.

Adeline Fermanian, co-president of the Committee of Skirt, said the pope had given “openings” on the question of ordaining women.

“He recognized that the questions has not been examined sufficiently on a theological level,” she said.

Since his election in 2013, Francis has sought to forge a more open Church, more welcoming to LGBTQ faithful and divorcees, and encouraging inter-faith dialogue.

He has increased the number of women appointed to the Curia, the central government of the Holy See, with some in senior positions.

But some campaigners see the changes as “cosmetic” reforms which hide a biased perception of women.

Cathy Corbitt, an Australian member of the executive board of umbrella group Catholic Women’s Council (CWC), said the inclusion of female voting members in the Synod was a sign of progress.

But she said the wider view of women in the Church was “very frustrating”, much of it taking inspiration from the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus.

“The pope still seems to have this blind spot towards women… He seems to regard women in terms of a role, and it’s usually in terms of a mother,” she said.

Resistance

The Synod process is slow — the current meeting in Rome followed a two-year global consultation, and a second general assembly is planned for next year.

Regina Franken-Wendelsorf, a German member of CWC executive board, said women were hoping for concrete action.

“All arguments and requests are on the table. It’s now the Vatican and the Church who have to act!” she said.

While the Church debates, “there are collateral victims, frustration, Catholics who leave because they no longer feel welcomed”, added French campaigner Chaumet.

But just as Pope Francis faces resistance in his reform agenda, there is significant resistance to the women’s push for change.

“Some American bishops are afraid to follow the path of the Anglican Church,” which authorized the ordination of women in 1992, notes one Synod participant, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Another senior Church member, who also asked not to be named, noted that pressure for reform was not equal from all regions of the Church.

“We must not forget that the Church is global,” he recalled. “There are expectations (among women) in Europe, but in Asia and Africa, much less.”
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An extreme drought in parts of the Amazon has led to a dramatic drop in water levels in the river, exposing dozens of usually submerged rock formations with carvings of human forms that may date back some 2,000 years.

Livia Ribeiro, a longtime resident of the Amazon’s largest city, Manaus, said she heard about the rock engravings from friends and wanted to check them out.

“I thought it was a lie … I had never seen this. I’ve lived in Manaus for 27 years,” said Ribeiro, an administrator, after viewing the dazzling relics.

The rock carvings are not usually visible because they are covered by the waters of the Negro River, whose flow recorded its lowest level in 121 years last week.

The surfacing of the engravings on the riverbank have delighted scientists and the general public alike but also raised unsettling questions.

“We come, we look at (the engravings) and we think they are beautiful. But at the same time, it is worrying… I also think about whether this river will exist in 50 or 100 years,” Ribeiro said.

Drought in Brazil’s Amazon has drastically reduced river levels in recent weeks, affecting a region that depends on a maze of waterways for transportation and supplies.

The Brazilian government has sent emergency aid to the area, where normally bustling riverbanks are dry, littered with stranded boats.

According to experts, the dry season has worsened this year due to El Nino, an irregular climate pattern over the Pacific Ocean that disrupts normal weather, adding to the effect of climate change.

The engravings comprise an archaeological site of “great relevance,” said Jaime Oliveira of the Brazilian Institute of Historical Heritage (Iphan).

They are at a site known as Praia das Lajes and were first seen in 2010, during another period of drought not as severe as the current one.

The rock carvings appear against a backdrop of dense jungle, with the low brownish waters of the Negro River flowing nearby.

Most of the engravings are of human faces, some of them rectangular and others oval, with smiles or grim expressions.

“The site expresses emotions, feelings, it is an engraved rock record, but it has something in common with current works of art,” said Oliveira.

For Beatriz Carneiro, historian and member of Iphan, Praia das Lajes has an “inestimable” value in understanding the first people who inhabited the region, a field still little explored.

“Unhappily it is now reappearing with the worsening of the drought,” Carneiro said. “Having our rivers back (flooded) and keeping the engravings submerged will help preserve them, even more than our work.”  
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Bobby Charlton, an English soccer icon who survived a plane crash that decimated his Manchester United team and became the heartbeat of his country’s 1966 World Cup-winning team, has died. He was 86. 

A statement from Charlton’s family, released by United, said he died Saturday surrounded by his family. 

An extravagantly gifted midfielder with a ferocious shot, Charlton was the leading scorer for both United (249 goals) and England (49 goals) for more than 40 years until being overtaken by Wayne Rooney. 

“Sir Bobby was a hero to millions, not just in Manchester, or the United Kingdom, but wherever football is played around the world,” United said. 

“He was admired as much for his sportsmanship and integrity as he was for his outstanding qualities as a footballer; Sir Bobby will always be remembered as a giant of the game.” 

Alex Ferguson, who managed United from 1986-2013, said before Charlton’s death that he “is the greatest Manchester United player of all time — and that’s saying something.” 

“Bobby Charlton is absolutely without peer in the history of the English game,” Ferguson said. 

A humble man

Charlton was also renowned for his humility, discipline and sportsmanship. He never received a red card in 758 appearances for United from 1956-73 or 106 internationals for England from 1958-70. 

Charlton played with George Best and Denis Law in the so-called Trinity that led United to the 1968 European Cup after surviving the 1958 Munich crash that wiped out the celebrated “Busby Babes” team. He won three English league titles at United, and one FA Cup. 

“For a footballer, he offered an unparalleled combination of grace, power and precision,” said former United defender Bill Foulkes, another survivor of the Munich crash. 

“It added up to a greatness and something more — something I can only call beauty.” 

Charlton’s England scoring record stood for 45 years until Rooney scored his 50th goal for the national team in September 2015. Three of his England goals came in the World Cup in 1966, during which Charlton played every minute for the team and stood out especially in the semifinals when he scored twice against Portugal to lead England to a first major final. 

England beat West Germany 4-2 after extra time in the final. 

Although Ryan Giggs beat Charlton’s appearance record for United in 2008, his scoring record for the club lasted another nine years. It was only in 2017 — 44 years after Charlton last wore the famous red jersey of England’s most successful club — that Rooney scored his 250th goal for United. 

Player became coach

After retiring in 1973, Charlton went into coaching and founded a youth scheme that included United great David Beckham among its participants. 

Charlton returned to United in 1984 as a director and persuaded the board in 1986 to appoint Ferguson, who delivered 38 trophies during nearly 27 years in charge. 

Knighted in 1994 by Queen Elizabeth II, Charlton remains a mainstay at Old Trafford, featuring alongside Best and Law in a statue outside United’s stadium. 

In November 2020, it was announced that Charlton had been diagnosed with dementia, the same disease that afflicted his brother Jack — who died in 2020 at age 85 — and another World Cup winner, Nobby Stiles. 

Charlton’s death left Geoff Hurst, who scored a hat trick in the 1966 final, as the only surviving member of that England team. 

“We will never forget him and nor will all of football,” Hurst said of Charlton on X, formerly known as Twitter. “A great colleague and friend, he will be sorely missed by all of the country beyond sport alone.” 

Tragedy strikes

Robert Charlton was born Oct. 11, 1937, in the coal-mining town of Ashington, northeast England, and his talent was obvious from a young age. 

Charlton’s playing career began far from home in Manchester after leaving school at 15, making his United debut three years later in 1956. 

Within two years, tragedy struck the tight-knit group of United players. The team was celebrating winning at Red Star Belgrade to secure a place in the European Cup semifinals when their plane caught fire on its third attempt to take off in heavy snow after a refueling stop in Germany. 

Charlton miraculously emerged from the smoldering wreckage with only light head injuries and picked his way through the wreckage to help survivors. Spotting manager Matt Busby groaning on the smoke-shrouded runway, Charlton rushed to help the father-figure who had promoted him to the first team. 

But eight members of the “Busby Babes” team packed with bright prospects were among the 21 fatalities. They included Duncan Edwards, considered one of England’s most talented players at 21. 

“Sometimes it engulfs me with terrible anger and regret and sadness — and guilt that I walked away and found so much,” Charlton wrote in 2007. 

Charlton became driven by a lingering obligation to preserve the memories of the Munich dead, returning to action less than four weeks later and helping a hurriedly assembled team of survivors and stand-ins reach that season’s FA Cup final. 

Busby rebuilt his team around Charlton, adding the 1965 and 1967 English league titles to the championship they won in 1957. 

The biggest prize of his club career arrived in 1968 as United became the first English club to become champion of Europe. Charlton scored twice in a 4-1 extra-time win over a Benfica team containing Portugal great Eusebio. 

But Charlton is perhaps best known for being part of the England team that won the World Cup. It remains England’s only major title in men’s soccer. 

He is survived by his wife, Norma, whom he married in 1961, and his two daughters.
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The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. reopened to the public on October 21 after a two-year and $70 million renovation. Karina Bafradzhian has the story. Camera: David Gogokhia  
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Those miracles of modern science, the Rolling Stones, celebrated the release of their first album of original music in 18 years with a Manhattan club gig on Thursday.

Before a celebrity-strewn audience of invited guests that included Christie Brinkley, Elvis Costello and Trevor Noah at Racket NYC, the Stones made a notable racket themselves over seven songs, four from the new “Hackney Diamonds” disc.

Mick Jagger alluded to past stunts the Stones had done in New York to tout new music over the years, including performing on a flatbed truck on Fifth Avenue.

He saluted the city by opening with the 1970s-era punkish tune, “Shattered,” with the lyric “my brain’s been splattered all over Manhattan.”

After performing the new single, “Angry,” Jagger noted to his bandmates, “There’s a first time for everything.”

With the death of drummer Charlie Watts in 2021, the Stones are down to a core trio of Jagger and guitarists Keith Richards and Ron Wood. They’re supplemented onstage with four other musicians.

“Hackney Diamonds,” coming at a time many fans wondered if the Rolling Stones would ever bother again with new music, has been well received by critics, with many noting the crisp energy the band displayed. It’s out on Friday.

That vigor was apparent at the performance in Manhattan’s Meatpacking district. 

Following an opening DJ set by Questlove, Jagger pranced and prowled a stage much smaller than he’s used to, one that a roadie prepared for him by sprinkling powder on the floor. Now 80, he moved like a man half his age. His tongue wagged slightly as he caught his breath after another punk-inspired tune, “Bite My Head Off.”

“You might be familiar with this one,” Jagger said before Richards began the opening riff to “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” instantly trumping the thousands of bar band versions attempted in the 55 years since the song’s release.

This time, the bar band was the Rolling Stones.

Lady Gaga, dressed in a maroon sequined pantsuit, appeared to recreate her duet — duel, really — with Jagger on the new “Sweet Sounds of Heaven.”

“New York, the Rolling Stones!” she said before leaving, after exchanging kisses with Jagger and Richards.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the International Olympic Committee of “ethnic discrimination” ahead of the 2024 Paris Games, from which Russian and Belarusian athletes are banned from competing under their national flags.

The IOC still has to make a final ruling on whether athletes from Russia and Belarus, a key ally for Moscow in its war with Ukraine, will be permitted to compete next summer.

“Thanks to some heads of the modern International Olympic Committee we found out that an invitation to the Games is not an unconditional right for the best athletes, but some kind of privilege and you can get it not on sports results but by some political gestures,” Putin said at a sports forum in the Urals city of Perm.

“The Games themselves could be used as an instrument of political pressure towards those people who have nothing to do with politics, and as a gross — in reality — racist, ethnic discrimination.”

He added that: “Some sports officials have simply given themselves the right to determine who is covered by the Olympic Charter and who is not.”

The IOC last week suspended Russia’s national Olympic body for violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine’s membership by recognizing regional organizations in occupied Ukraine. 

Russia launched a full-scale offensive against Ukraine in February 2022, with its neighbor Belarus allowing Moscow’s troops to use its territory as a launchpad.
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TOKYO — Rickshaw puller Yuka Akimoto is one of a handful of women who have chosen to pull rickshaws in Tokyo, attracted to the male-dominated profession through social media, which in turn has given some of these female pullers a strong local and international following.

When the 45-minute tour comes to an end, the 21-year-old bows deeply to her clients and offers a blistered palm – covered with a clean cloth – to help the couple alight. Sweat pours down her flushed face.

Now, she says she loves her job and wants to work as long as she is physically able. A tag hanging on a cord around her neck reads: “I don’t want to give up.”

Wearing traditional tabi split-toed socks, Akimoto and her fellow rickshaw pullers walk or run an average of 20 km (12 miles) a day, no matter the weather.

Akimoto joined Tokyo Rickshaw two years ago after the pandemic dashed her plans to start a job at Tokyo Disneyland. The company, which mainly operates in the Asakusa tourist area, says about third of their 90 pullers are now women, and they are seeking more female recruits.

Rickshaw drivers Misato Otoshi is one of a handful of women who have chosen to pull rickshaws in Tokyo with less than 10 percent of all applicants getting a job offer. “Even though it’s considered to be men’s jobs, I thought it would be fun if I, a woman, could also do it,” she said. “I thought that being something out of the ordinary would be a strength for me.”

The pullers actively promote themselves on social media, winning repeat customers who request them personally.

And it was those social media posts that drew college student Yumeka Sakurai, 20, to join Tokyo Rickshaw.

After four months of training and overcoming opposition from friends and families, she is now proud to haul passengers in her rickshaw. “I’ve watched many videos of women training hard and becoming rickshaw drivers themselves. They gave me the confidence that I could do it too if I tried hard,” she said.

Pullers walk or run an average of 20 km (12 miles) a day and, in addition to being physically strong, they must have extensive knowledge of Tokyo and know how to engage with the tourists, who mostly hire them for sightseeing.

The most popular drivers make over 1 million yen ($6,730) a month, three times the national average, Tokyo Rickshaw said, adding that less than 10 percent of all applicants get offered a job. 

Tokyo Rickshaw President Ryuta Nishio said sometimes he gets complaints that women should not be doing such physically demanding work. Female pullers also occasionally face sexual harassment or have their knowledge challenged by male customers, he added.

“We treat both male and female pullers completely equally,” Nishio said. “The women say they want to be treated as same as the men, and in fact many of them are way tougher.”
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West African artist Amoaka Boafo has a new exhibit of portraits in the Western U.S. state of Colorado. VOA correspondent Scott Stearns has our story
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Since 2006, comic book fans have gathered at the legendary New York City Comic Con to dress up and shop. More recently, they have gathered to invest. Aron Ranen has the story from the Big Apple.
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Movie theaters turned into concert venues this weekend as Swifties brought their dance moves and friendship bracelets to multiplexes across the country. The unparalleled enthusiasm helped propel “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” to a massive, first place debut between $95 million and $97 million in North America, AMC Theatres said Sunday. 

It’s easily the biggest opening for a concert film of all time, and, not accounting for inflation, has made more than the $73 million “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never” earned in 2011. In today’s dollars, that would be around $102 million. And if it comes in on the higher end of projections when totals are released Monday, it could be the biggest October opening ever. The one to beat is “Joker,” which launched to $96.2 million in 2019. 

A unique experiment in distribution, premium pricing, star power and loose movie theater etiquette—more dancing and shouting than a Star Wars premiere—have made it an undeniable hit. Compiled from Swift’s summer shows at Southern California’s SoFi Stadium, the film opened in 3,855 North American locations starting with “surprise” Thursday evening previews. Those showtimes helped boost its opening day sum to $39 million – the second biggest ever for October, behind “Joker’s” $39.3 million. 

Internationally, it’s estimated to have earned somewhere between $31 to $33 million, bringing its global total in the range of $126 million to $130 million. 

“This is a phenomenal number,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “To have a blockbuster style opening weekend for a concert film is unprecedented.” 

Swift, who produced the film, went around the Hollywood studio system to distribute the film, making a deal directly with AMC, the largest exhibition company in the United States. With her 274 million Instagram followers, Swift hardly needed a traditional marketing campaign to get the word out. 

Beyoncé made a similar deal with the exhibitor for ” Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé, ” which will open on Dec. 1. The two superstars posed together at the premiere of “The Eras Tour” earlier this week in Los Angeles. It was a needed injection of star power with Hollywood actors over 90 days into a strike that has left most red carpets void of glamourous talent and resulted in several high-profile films being pushed to next year. 

“The Eras Tour,” directed by Sam Wrench, is not just playing on AMC screens either. The company, based in Leawood, Kansas, worked with sub-distribution partners Variance Films, Trafalgar Releasing, Cinepolis and Cineplex to show the film in more than 8,500 movie theatres globally in 100 countries. 

The spotlight on Swift has been especially intense lately as a result of her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. The two made separate surprise appearances on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend and were also photographed holding hands in New York. 

It led to some hyperbolic projections going into the weekend, with some analysts predicting that “The Eras Tour” could make over $125 million. Dergarabedian said it’s common for outsized expectations to be attached to massive brands like Swift. There’s also no precedent for something like “The Eras Tour” and a celebrity of Swift’s stature. 

“The laws of gravity don’t apply to Taylor Swift,” Dergarabedian said. 

The film scored well with both critics and audiences, who gave it an A+ CinemaScore, a metric that typically signals a film will continue to do well after its first weekend. 

Elizabeth Frank, the executive vice president of worldwide programming and chief content officer for AMC Theatres, said in a statement that they are grateful to Taylor Swift. 

“Her spectacular performance delighted fans, who dressed up and danced through the film,” Frank said. “With tremendous recommendations and fans buying tickets to see this concert film several times, we anticipate ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ concert film playing to big audiences for weeks to come.” 

The stadium tour, which continues internationally, famously crashed Ticketmaster’s site and re-sale prices became astronomical. Pollstar projects that it will earn some $1.4 billion. The concert film offered fans both better seats and a much more affordable way to see the show for the first or fifth time. Prices are higher than the national average, at $19.89, which references her birth year and 2014 album, and ran closer to $29 a pop for premium large format screens like IMAX. Even so, they are significantly less than seat at one of the stadium shows. 

Showtimes are also more limited than a standard Hollywood blockbuster, but AMC is guaranteeing at least four a day on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at all AMC locations in the U.S. Many locations also specified that there are no refunds or exchanges. And fans will have to wait a while for “The Eras Tour” to be available on streaming — part of the AMC deal was a 13-week exclusive theatrical run. 

Michael O’Leary, CEO of the National Association of Theater Owners said in a statement the moment was, “Another landmark weekend for cinemas.” 

“This year has been marked by unprecedented experiences for movie lovers in theaters across this nation,” O’Leary continued in a statement. “The ‘Eras Tour’ debut proves, yet again, that fans are eager to share other experiences in a communal way, with theater owners working creatively to build memorable moments in their cinemas.” 

O’Leary said that a survey of 6,000 people by his organization and The Cinema Foundation found that 72% want to see more concert films on the big screen. 

“The Eras Tour” accounted for over 70% of the total weekend box office grosses. “The Exorcist: Believer” placed a very distant second in its second weekend with $11 million, followed by the “Paw Patrol” movie in third with $7 million. Rounding out the top five was “Saw X” with $5.7 million and “The Creator” with $4.3 million. 

“This is great news for theaters,” Dergarabedian said. “‘The Eras Tour’ wasn’t even on our radar in mid-August. You take this out of the equation and it would have been a totally different weekend.” 

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

1. “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” $95 to $97 million. 

2. “The Exorcist: Believer,” $11 million. 

3. “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie,” $7 million. 

4. “Saw X,” $5.7 million. 

5. “The Creator,” $4.3 million. 

6. “A Haunting in Venice,” $2.1 million. 

7. “The Blind,” $2 million. 

8. “The Nun II,” $1.6 million. 

9. “The Equalizer 3,” $960,000. 

10. “Dumb Money,” $920,000. 
    …

Suzanne Somers, the effervescent blonde actor known for playing Chrissy Snow on the television show “Three’s Company” as well as her business endeavors, has died. She was 76.

Somers had breast cancer for over 23 years and died Sunday morning, her family said in a statement provided by her longtime publicist, R. Couri Hay. Her husband Alan Hamel, her son Bruce and other immediate family were with her in Palm Springs, California.

“Her family was gathered to celebrate her 77th birthday on October 16th,” the statement read. “Instead, they will celebrate her extraordinary life, and want to thank her millions of fans and followers who loved her dearly.”

In July, Somers shared on Instagram that her breast cancer had returned.

“Like any cancer patient, when you get that dreaded, ‘It’s back’ you get a pit in your stomach. Then I put on my battle gear and go to war,” she told “Entertainment Tonight” at the time. “This is familiar battleground for me and I’m very tough.”

She was first diagnosed in 2000, and also had skin cancer. She faced some backlash for her reliance on what she described as a chemical-free and organic lifestyle to combat the cancers. She argued against the use of chemotherapy, in books and on platforms like “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” which drew criticism from the American Cancer Society.

Somers was born in 1946 in San Bruno, California, to a gardener father and a medical secretary mother. She began acting in the late 1960s, playing the blonde driving the white Thunderbird in George Lucas’s 1973 film “American Graffiti.” Her only line was mouthing the words “I love you” to Richard Dreyfuss’s character.

At her audition, Lucas just asked her if she could drive. She later said that moment “changed her life forever.”

Somers would later stage a one-woman Broadway show titled “The Blonde in the Thunderbird,” which drew largely scathing reviews.

She appeared in many television shows in the 1970s, including “The Rockford Files,” “Magnum Force” and “The Six Million Dollar Man,” but her most famous part came with “Three’s Company,” which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1984 — though her participation ended in 1981.

On “Three’s Company,” she was the ditzy blonde opposite John Ritter and Joyce DeWitt in the roommate comedy. In 1980, after four seasons, she asked for a raise from $30,000 an episode to $150,000 an episode, which would have been comparable to what Ritter was getting paid. Hamel, a former television producer, had encouraged the ask.

“The show’s response was, ‘Who do you think you are?’” Somers told People in 2020. “They said, ‘John Ritter is the star.’”

She was soon fired and her character replaced by two different roommates for the remaining years the show aired. It also led to a rift with her co-stars; They didn’t speak for many years. Somers did reconcile with Ritter before his death, and then with DeWitt on her online talk show.

But Somers took the break as an opportunity to pursue new avenues, including a Las Vegas act, writing books, hosting a talk show and becoming an entrepreneur. In the 1990s, she also became the spokesperson for the “Thighmaster.”

Somers returned to network television in the 1990s, most famously on “Step by Step,” which aired on ABC’s youth-targeted TGIF lineup. The network also aired a biopic of her life, starring her, called “Keeping Secrets.”
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Taylor Swift’s movie of her Eras Tour concert dominated theaters over the weekend with $95 million to $97 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales, according to estimates from distributor AMC Theatres AMC.N on Sunday.

The movie, called “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour”, set the record for a concert film, easily surpassing the $29.5 million collected by “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never” over its first three days in 2011.

Final weekend results will be released on Monday. If current estimates hold, Swift’s film will fall short of the most bullish projections from box office analysts, who had forecast a domestic opening of $100 million to $140 million.

Still, for theater operators such as AMC and Cineworld CINE.D, the movie provided a major boost to what had looked like a lackluster autumn slate after strikes in Hollywood prompted delays to “Dune: Part Two” and other releases.

Swift said on Wednesday that she was adding extra showtimes and early screenings on Thursday to meet demand.

 
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With brushes and trowels, Indigenous Colombians are unearthing traces in the jungle of a tragic period in history when their ancestors were violently supplanted by colonists from Spain.

Working as amateur archeologists, they carefully brush away dirt to reveal pottery and other artifacts left behind by ancient inhabitants of what in 1510 became Santa Maria la Antigua del Darien — the first city built by the conquistadores in the Americas.

Watched over by archeologist Alberto Sarcina, an Italian with an Indiana Jones-like aura, what appears to be an ancient cobblestone road emerges from the patient tap, tap, tap of the workers’ tools.

At first it was “difficult” to persuade the local population of Unguia, a municipality in the middle of the Darien jungle, to get involved, said Sarcina, who works for the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History, which is funding the project.

Many, he said, “didn’t want to know anything about the city that started the tragedy” of Indigenous annihilation.

But 10 years into the project, dozens now partake with gusto and pride. They are mainly of Indigenous and Afro descent. Most are women.

“I like to find things that we don’t even know how to make today. … They made their own clay and didn’t have to buy it. They were very resourceful,” 28-year-old Karen Suarez of the Embera Indigenous community told AFP after digging up a piece of pottery.

“A dramatic turn”

Christopher Columbus first arrived on the island of Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti) in 1492 on his ultimately unsuccessful quest to find India at a time that world maps were still being developed.

From there, he led expeditions to the mainland Americas.

Several temporary settlements were created along the way, but it was the founding of Santa Maria la Antigua del Darien that really marked the beginning of colonial entrenchment.

“It’s one of those moments in history where the story takes a dramatic turn — one of those moments with a before and an after,” said Sarcina, 55.

“The conquest of an entire continent began here, which means the Indigenous genocide began here.”

Researchers have estimated that European colonizers killed 55 million Indigenous people in the Americas.

The Colombian project seeks to glean more about this period from what the colonizers, and their victims, left behind in and around the 33-hectare (80-acre) city in the northwestern Choco department.

Santa Maria la Antigua del Darien lasted for only 14 years, until 1524, when the original inhabitants of the region killed the invaders and set fire to the settlement.

At its height, the city had some 5,000 inhabitants, but many had already left before its ultimate demise when the headquarters of the so-called Castilla de Oro Spanish territories moved to what is Panama today.

“The best thing”

The source of much historic misery is today helping to lighten the burden for a few descendants of those who survived the Spanish invasion.

The amateur archeologists at Santa Maria la Antigua del Darien receive payment for their efforts and can earn money from hosting tourists at their homes.

“We have felt good in this work, we benefit a little from the economy [generated] and from learning … about the history of the ancestors,” said participant Antonio Chamarra, 40.

Jeniffer Alvarez, 32, told AFP her job on the project was “a respite” from the machismo and violence in an area ravaged by the Gulf Clan drug cartel.

“This site has been the best thing” to happen in a society that tends to relegate women to housework, she said.

The site also hosts a museum — another income generator. After dark, the horseshoe-shaped museum becomes a cinema for the children of surrounding villages in a community with very basic access to services such as health and education.

The project also serves as a sort of open-air university.

It has inspired 16-year-old Hector Monterrosa from the nearby Tanela village to aspire to a career in archeology, like his idol Sarcina.

“Here, in general, it is very difficult to get an opportunity to go to university,” said the teen, who spends much of his free time after school at the dig site.

“There are very few who can go, and since my family’s finances are not so good, this would be a great opportunity for me to start preparing” for an academic career, he said.
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Billie Jean King is still globetrotting in support of more investment and equity in women’s sports. 

She attended the Women’s World Cup in Australia, kicked off the player draft for the new women’s professional hockey league in Toronto, and is opening an office in London for a tennis business venture involving the international Billie Jean King Cup. 

That’s all in the last three months for King, who turns 80 in November. 

“We’re kind of at a tipping point,” King said. “People are actually looking at women’s sports like a great investment.” 

She’s part of ownership groups involved with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the NWSL’s Angel City FC and the PWHL hockey league that starts in January. 

Her busy schedule is reminiscent of the summer of 1973, when a 29-year-old King established the WTA, won the Wimbledon triple crown in singles, doubles and mixed doubles, achieved equal pay at the U.S. Open and beat self-proclaimed chauvinist Bobby Riggs in the “Battle of the Sexes” match. 

On Thursday, King and about 60 athletes will celebrate the 50th anniversary of equal prize money at the U.S. Open and the King-Riggs match at her annual awards dinner for the Women’s Sports Foundation in New York. 

In August, former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama attended the U.S. Open at Arthur Ashe Stadium to mark the pay equity milestone. 

“Let us remember all of this is bigger than a champion’s paycheck,” Michelle Obama said during the ceremony on opening night. “This is about how women are seen and valued in this world.” 

King recently launched the production company “Pressure is a Privilege,” a phrase associated with the 39-time Grand Slam winner. She’s also an executive producer and host of “Groundbreakers,” a documentary about female athletes that airs on PBS on November 21. 

There’s an effort by members of Congress to award King the Congressional Gold Medal, one of the highest U.S. civilian honors given to individuals whose achievements have a lasting impact in their field. 

Here’s a Q&A with King, which has been edited for brevity and clarity. 

AP: It’s the 50th anniversary of so many accomplishments in 1973. Talk about that whirlwind. 

King: We started the WTA four days before Wimbledon. I won all three titles at Wimbledon, which for me was a big deal. Then equal prize money came into being, it started in 1972 with us saying we’re not coming back (to the U.S. Open in 1973). Then King-Riggs. That’s all in 3 months. I can appreciate it since being away from it so long. How the heck did we do that? 

AP: You’ve said the King-Riggs match was about social change, women standing up for themselves in all areas. 

King: It was really about men, too. Because men started to shift a little. Obama was 12 years old when he saw the King-Riggs match. He said it affected him a lot. Guys are much better thinking about their daughters than they used to be. All these things add up. 

AP: You’re part of ownership groups for pro sports. How did you get involved in women’s pro hockey, which will have teams in Boston, New York, Minnesota, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal? 

King: The PWHL, it’s really exciting. It took five years. Plus, it took all those years of the other leagues, everyone trying. (U.S. Olympic gold medalist) Kendall Coyne said, “Can you help us?” We need to have a league where the very best players will play. We went to Toronto and I did an opening speech about trailblazers. It was amazing because the families were crying, the players were crying, they said “we’ve never been treated like this, it’s amazing, we feel like pros for the first time.” There were a lot of little kids there. Kids are going to have an amazing opportunity that the generations before them never had. All three of their networks had it on. It’s a religion up there. 

AP: How is investment in women’s sports changing? 

King: I’m asKing CEOs and everyone now — “Do you invest as much in women as you do in men?” Then it usually gets quiet. But I must say it’s better than it used to be. We’re really lucky to be with this investment group. The male allies we’ve had through the years have made such a difference. They have the money and the power. But we’re getting there, getting more and more women investors, particularly in soccer. Women’s sports, we’ve all been fighting for it. 

AP: What would you like to see in the future for women’s sports? 

King: More. And make sure we get girls early in life into sports. It’s really about the health issue, more than anything. More jobs, more everything. Women of color and diversity is really important. 

We only get 5% of the media. That’s where the money is. People always say, “Why doesn’t the WTA have as much money as the ATP?” I’m like, really? If you watch a show at night, a sports show, just count how many minutes are on men and how many minutes are on women. We’re at 5%. We’ve got to change that. 
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India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has confirmed the world’s most populous nation will bid to host the 2036 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Mumbai on Saturday, Modi said hosting the event is “the age-old dream” for India.

“Indians are not just sports lovers, but we also live it,” Modi said. “India will leave no stone unturned in the preparation for the successful organization of the Olympics in 2036 – this is the dream of the 140 crore (1.4 billion) Indians.”

“We want to realize this dream with your support. I am sure India will get constant support from IOC.”

A city or region wasn’t specified by Modi but Ahmedabad, which boasts the largest stadium in the world with a capacity of 132,000 and is named after the Indian Prime Minister, would be a likely contender as the main host city for the country’s bid.

Indonesia and Mexico have previously expressed official interest in hosting the 2036 Olympics, and last month Poland’s President Andrzej Duda told the IOC it wants to stage the Games.

No firm timeframe has been set by the IOC for when hosting rights for the 2036 Games will be awarded.

The 2036 Summer Games is the next available edition: Paris will host in 2024, Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane in 2032.

Modi also told the IOC that India would consider bidding to host the Youth Olympics in 2029.

“Sport is not just about winning medals but also winning hearts,” he said.
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For 400 years, Indigenous North Americans flocked to a group of ceremonial sites in what is present-day Ohio to celebrate their culture and honor their dead. On Saturday, the sheer magnitude of the ancient Hopewell culture’s reach was lifted up as enticement to a new set of visitors from around the world.

“We stand upon the shoulders of geniuses, uncommon geniuses who have gone before us. That’s what we are here about today,” Chief Glenna Wallace, of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, told a crowd gathered at the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park to dedicate eight sites there and elsewhere in southern Ohio that became UNESCO World Heritage sites last month.

She said the honor means that the world now knows of the genius of the Native Americans, whom the 84-year-old grew up seeing histories, textbooks and popular media call “savages.”

Wallace commended the innumerable tribal figures, government officials and local advocates who made the designation possible, including late author, teacher and local park ranger Bruce Lombardo, who once said, “If Julius Caesar had brought a delegation to North America, they would have gone to Chillicothe.”

“That means that this place was the center of North America, the center of culture, the center of happenings, the center for Native Americans, the center for religion, the center for spirituality, the center for love, the center for peace,” Wallace said. “Here, in Chillicothe. And that is what Chillicothe represents today.”

The massive Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks — described as “part cathedral, part cemetery and part astronomical observatory” — comprise ancient sites spread across 150 kilometers south and east of Columbus, including one located on the grounds of a private golf course and country club. The designation puts the network of mounds and earthen structures in the same category as wonders of the world including Greece’s Acropolis, Peru’s Machu Picchu and the Great Wall of China.

The presence of materials such as obsidian, mica, seashells and shark teeth made clear to archaeologists that ceremonies held at the sites some 2,000 to 1,600 years ago attracted Indigenous peoples from across the continent.

The inscription ceremony took place against the backdrop of Mound City, a sacred gathering place and burial ground that sits just steps from the Scioto River. Four other sites within the historical park — Hopewell Mound Group, Seip Earthworks, Highbank Park Earthworks and Hopeton Earthworks — join Fort Ancient Earthworks & Nature Preserve in Oregonia and Great Circle Earthworks in Heath to comprise the network.

“My wish on this day is that the people who come here from all over the world, and from Ross County, all over Ohio, all the United States — wherever they come from — my wish is that they will be inspired, inspired by the genius that created these, and the perseverance and the long, long work that it took to create them,” Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said. “They’re awe-inspiring.”

Nita Battise, tribal council vice chair of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, said she worked at the Hopewell historical park 36 years ago — when they had to beg people to come visit. She said many battles have been won since then.

“Now is the time, and to have our traditional, our ancestral sites acknowledged on a world scale is phenomenal,” she said. “We always have to remember where we came from, because if you don’t remember, it reminds you.”

Kathy Hoagland, whose family has lived in nearby Frankfort, Ohio, since the 1950s, said the local community “needs this,” too.

“We need it culturally, we need it economically, we need it socially,” she said. “We need it in every way.”

Hoagland said having the eyes of the world on them will help local residents “make friends with our past,” boost their businesses and smooth over political divisions.

“It’s here. You can’t take this away, and so, therefore, it draws us all together in a very unique way,” she said. “So, that’s the beauty of it. Everyone lays all of that aside, and we come together.”

National Park Service Director Chuck Sams, the first Native American to hold that job, said holding up the accomplishments of the ancient Hopewells for a world audience will “help us tell the world the whole story of America and the remarkable diversity of our cultural heritage.”
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Even after long periods in Beijing, Manya Koetse still felt like an outsider. At parties and over hotpot, her Chinese friends discussed memes and other social media trends, but Koetse didn’t know what they were talking about.

“I just felt really left out,” the Dutch national told VOA, adding that she was missing a key way to relate to her friends and understand China more broadly.

That isolated feeling led Koetse in 2013 to start a news site, What’s on Weibo, named after one of China’s largest social media platforms.

Through it, she could track what was trending on Chinese social media and, more importantly, why items went viral. It all started purely out of curiosity, she said.

One decade later, her site has contended with Chinese censorship and harassment. But What’s on Weibo has continued to provide a rare window into Chinese social media — and relatively unfiltered insights into Chinese society.

The site’s coverage is wide ranging. Recent articles looked at everything from the Chinese female bodyguard assigned to the Syrian first lady on her trip to China, sand dune tourism, eco-anxiety and women’s rights, to online frustrations about youth unemployment and protests.

“What are people concerned about? What are people getting really angry about? What are people really rolling on the floor laughing about? That’s the kind of story that you want to convey to a non-Chinese audience to create this kind of bridge,” Koetse told VOA.

Koetse, who grew up in the Netherlands and spent some of her high school studies in Japan, moved to Beijing in 2008 — “the golden year,” she said.

She briefly worked at the beer company Heineken during the Summer Olympics and studied at Peking University.

She soon realized that the conversations and trends on platforms like Weibo were key to understanding China and its people.

Koetse, who is now in Amsterdam, says that for several years, she never prioritized making money from her media site. But, now that the site has become so big, she introduced its first premium subscription option in the hopes of making a full-time income from her work.

But the job comes with its challenges, including online harassment over what she publishes and censorship. “I’m still, even to this day, being accused of being both pro-China and being anti-China,” she said.

One of the biggest changes Koetse has documented at What’s on Weibo over the past 10 years has been the rise of censorship in China. “There’s more control on Chinese social media,” she said. “Censorship has professionalized.”

One example is trending lists. Years ago, trending lists on Weibo regularly included sensitive issues, Koetse said. “They would only be censored later down the road. You had a lot of time to take screenshots or to get everyone’s opinion before it finally vanished from the internet.”

But as censorship became more widespread, the trending lists became a less accurate marker, Koetse said.

Her reflections are backed by data. For nine consecutive years, Freedom House has ranked China the worst in the world in terms of internet freedom.

The rise of censorship in China has left its mark on What’s on Weibo, which has been blocked in China since 2018. Still, What’s on Weibo averages around 250,000 visitors per month — many of whom are viewers in China who use VPNs to access the site, according to Koetse.

Being blocked has given Koetse a sense of freedom. “I do feel more free in continuing just reporting whatever I feel is right to report,” she said, since she no longer has to worry about authorities blocking the site.

In a statement to VOA, Liu Pengyu, the spokesperson of China’s Washington embassy, said, “The Chinese government protects press freedom in accordance with law and gives full play to the role of media and citizens in supervising public opinion.”

Nearly 1.1 billion people — or about 76% of the population — use the internet in China, the government agency China Internet Network Information Center reported in August.

Most of their discourse doesn’t cross any red lines, What’s on Weibo’s assignment editor Miranda Barnes told VOA. “We can get a pretty good idea of what’s going on in the society,” said Barnes, who was born in China and now lives in London.

The site also provides a different perspective from other media coverage.

“We present what the ordinary people think, from the bottom. It is very easy to fall into the ideological narrative, just to bash China. And I find that helps nobody,” Barnes said.

Western media mainly focuses on political, economic and security issues, according to Yaqiu Wang, Freedom House’s China research director. While those are important, she said, “they are not all of China.”

“What’s On Weibo brings to the international audience another important aspect of China,” Wang said. “The China [that most] people are living and experiencing. It’s important for the international audience to see this aspect of China, so to understand the country in a holistic way, not just through the lens of geopolitics and human rights.”

In recent years, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, covering China has become an increasingly difficult story for foreign media to cover with fewer overseas reporters able to be based inside China.

The combination of fewer correspondents in the country and more people who are scared to talk to foreign media ultimately risks dehumanizing the country and its people, reporters have said.

Koetse, however, eschews the “journalist” label. “I see myself as a Sinologist who’s writing about China,” she said.

In a country whose population is increasingly afraid to talk to foreign news outlets, social media is one of the last remaining barometers to move past state propaganda and figure out what ordinary Chinese people are thinking, Koetse said.

“Foreign policy is one part of China. China can be very dangerous, and China can be powerful,” Koetse said. “But China can also be friendly, and China can also be fragile.”
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