YCLOAK

As October gives way to November, Halloween is followed by the celebration of the Day of the Dead in Mexican American communities across the U.S. to honor the memory of loved ones who have died. Genia Dulot visited one of the largest events, the Dia de los Muertos — Day of the Dead — at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.
…

Cruel joke for trick-or-treaters or coveted seasonal delight? The great Halloween debate over candy corn is on.

In the pantheon of high-emotion candy, the classic shiny tricolor kernels in autumn’s white, orange and yellow are way up there. Fans and foes alike point to the same attributes: its plastic or candle-like texture (depending on who you ask) and the mega-sugar hit it packs.

“I am vehemently pro candy corn. It’s sugar! What is not to love? It’s amazing. It’s like this waxy texture. You get to eat it once a year. It’s tricolor. That’s always fun,” comedian Shannon Fiedler gushed on TikTok. “Also, I know it’s disgusting. Candy corn is objectively kind of gross, but that’s what makes it good.”

Or, as Paul Zarcone of Huntington, New York, put it: “I love candy corn even though it looks like it should taste like a candle. I also like that many people hate it. It makes me like it even more!”

Love it or loathe it, market leader Brach’s churns out roughly 30 million pounds of candy corn for the fall season each year, or enough to circle planet Earth about five times, the company says. Last year, that amounted to $75 million of $88.5 million in candy corn sales, according to the consumer research firm Circana.

When compared to top chocolate sellers and other popular confections, candy corn is niche. But few other candies have seeped into the culture quite like these pointy little sugar bombs.

While other sweets have their haters (we’re looking at you Peeps, Circus Peanuts and Brach’s Peppermint Christmas Nougats), candy corn has launched a world of memes on social media. It inspires home decor and fashion. It has its knitters and crocheters, ombre hairdos, makeup enthusiasts and nail designs.

And it makes its way into nut bowls, trail mixes, atop cupcakes and into Rice Krispie treats. Vans put out a pair of shoes emblazoned with candy corn, Nike used its color design for a pair of Dunks, and Kellogg’s borrowed the flavor profile for a version of its Corn Pops cereal.

Singer-actor Michelle Williams is a super fan. She recorded a song last year for Brach’s extolling her love.

As consumers rave or rage, Brach’s has turned to fresh mixes and flavors over the years. A Turkey Dinner mix appeared in 2020 and lasted two years. It had a variety of kernels that tasted like green beans, roasted bird, cranberry sauce, stuffing, apple pie and coffee.

It won’t be back.

“I would say that it was newsworthy but perhaps not consumption-worthy,” said Katie Duffy, vice president and general manager of seasonal candy and the Brach’s brand for parent Ferrara Candy Co.

The universe of other flavors has included s’mores, blueberry, cotton candy, lemon-lime, chocolate and, yes, pumpkin spice. Nerds, another Ferrara brand, has a hard-shell version.

It’s unclear when candy corn was invented. Legend has it that Wunderle Candy Co. in Philadelphia first produced it in 1888 in collaboration with a longtime employee, George Renninger. It was called, simply, Butter Cream, with one type named Chicken Corn. That made sense in an agrarian-society kind of way.

Several years later, the Goelitz Confectionery Co., now Jelly Belly, began to produce candy corn, calling it Chicken Feed. Boxes were adorned with a rooster logo and the tagline: “Something worth crowing for.“ Brach’s began candy corn production in 1920.

Today, kids delight in stacking candy corn in a circle, points in, to create corncob towers. As for nutrition, 19 candy corns amount to about 140 calories and 28 grams of sugar. To be fair, many other Halloween candy staples are in the same ballpark.

Ingredient-wise, it couldn’t be more straightforward. Candy corn is basically sugar, corn syrup, confectioner’s glaze, salt, gelatin, honey and dyes, among some other things.

“It’s not any sweeter than a lot of other candy, and I’ve tasted every candy there is,” said Richard Hartel, who teaches candy science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Hartel’s students spend time in the lab making candy. The candy corn lab is among his most popular, he said, because it’s fun to make. His unscientific poll of the nine seniors who last made candy corn turned up no strong feelings either way on actually eating it.

“It’s the flavor, I think, that puts some people off. It sort of tastes like butter and honey. And some people don’t like the texture, but it’s really not that much different than the center of a chocolate-covered butter cream,” he said.

Candy corn fans have their nibbling rituals.

Margie Sung is a purist. She’s been partial since childhood to the original tricolor kernels. She eats them by color, starting with the white tip, accompanied by a warm cup of tea or coffee.

“To this day, I swear the colors taste different,” she laughed.

Fact check: No, according to Duffy.

Don’t get people started on Brach’s little orange pumpkin candies with the green tops. That’s a whole other conversation.

“The candy pumpkins? Disgusting,” said the 59-year-old Sung, who lives in New York. “Too dense, too sweet, not the right consistency.”

She likes her candy corn “borderline stale for a better consistency.” Sung added: “Unfortunately, I can’t eat too many because I’m a Type 2 diabetic.” 

Aaron Sadler, the 46-year-old spokesman for the city of Little Rock, Arkansas, and its mayor, doesn’t share his candy corn. He keeps stashes at home and in a desk drawer at his office.

“My fiancee can’t stand that I like candy corn,” he said. “I buy it and I get this look of disdain but I don’t care. I just keep plugging on.”

Sadler has been a partaker since childhood. How does he describe the texture and flavor? “Sugary bliss.”

He’ll keep buying candy corn until mid-November.

“It’s 50% off after Halloween. Of course I’m going to buy it,” Sadler chuckled. 

After Thanksgiving, he’ll move on to his Christmas candy, York Peppermint Patties. And for Valentine’s Day? Sadler is all about the candy Conversation Hearts.

And then there are the hoarders. They freeze candy corn for year-round consumption. Others will only eat it mixed with dry roasted peanuts or other salty combinations.

“My ratio is 2 to 3 peanuts to 1 piece of candy corn. That’s the only way I eat it,” said Lisa Marsh, who lives in New York and is in her 50s. She stores candy corn in glass jars for year-round pleasure.

To the haters, 71-year-old fan Diana Peacock of Grand Junction, Colorado, scolded: “They’re nuts. How can they not like it?”

Au contraire, Jennifer Walker fights back. The 50-year-old Walker, who lives in Ontario, Canada, called candy corn “big ole lumps of dyed sugar. There’s no flavor.”

Her Ontario compatriot in Sault Ste. Marie, Abby Obenchain, also isn’t a fan. She equates candy corn with childhood memories of having to visit her pediatrician, who kept a bowl on hand.

“A bowl of candy corn looks to me like a bowl of old teeth, like somebody pulled a bunch of witch’s teeth out,” said Obenchain, 63.

Candy corn isn’t just a candy, said 29-year-old Savannah Woolston in Washington, D.C.

“I’m a big fan of mentally getting into each season, and I feel like candy corn is in the realm of pumpkin spice lattes and fall sweaters,” she said. “And I will die on the hill that it tastes good.”
…

It hardly mattered that “Five Nights at Freddy’s” was released simultaneously in theaters and on streaming this weekend. Fans flocked to movie theaters across the country to see the scary video game adaptation on the big screen, which made $78 million to top the North American box office, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Universal Pictures bet on a day-and-date release on the weekend before Halloween, sending it to 3,675 theaters in the U.S. and Canada, while also making it available for Peacock subscribers, the subscription streaming service owned by NBCUniversal. The movie also opened in 64 markets internationally, where it’s expected to gross $52.6 million, giving the film a $130.6 million global launch – the biggest of any horror released this year.

“It was an extraordinary debut,” said Jim Orr, the president of domestic distribution for Universal, who praised Blumhouse, the filmmakers and the studio’s marketing department for the targeted campaign.

“Our marketing department continues to be one of the great superpowers we have at Universal,” he said.

Blumhouse, the company behind “Paranormal Activity,” “Get Out” and recent horror hits like “M3GAN” and “The Black Phone,” produced “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” which was directed by Emma Tammi and stars Josh Hutcherson, Mary Stuart Masterson and Matthew Lillard. The popular video game series, in which a security guard has to fend off murderous animatronic characters at a rundown family pizza restaurant, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, was created by Scott Cawthon and first released in 2014.

While the game’s fanbase was strong, and passionate, the movie took many years to make. Producer Jason Blum said in an interview with IGN earlier this year that he was made fun of for pursuing an adaptation.

“Everyone said we could never get the movie done, including, by the way, internally in my company,” Blum said. They made the film with a reported $20 million production budget.

And it paid off: “Five Nights at Freddy’s” is his company’s biggest opening of all time, surpassing “Halloween’s” domestic and global debut. It’s also Blumhouse’s 19th No. 1 debut, which Orr noted is an “amazing accomplishment.”

The opening weekend audience was predominately male (58%) and overwhelmingly young, with an estimated 80% under the age of 25 and 38% between the ages of 13 and 17.

While the numbers aren’t surprising for anyone who knows the game’s audience, it is still notable for a generation not known for making theatrical moviegoing a priority.

“It’s great to get that kind of audience in theaters,” Orr said.

Audiences gave the film an A- CinemaScore, which could be promising for future weekends too.

“It’s a very young demographic,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “It won’t be lost on any of the other studios or video game manufacturers. This door has been kicked wide open.”

It’s also notable that so many chose theaters even though it was also available to watch at home.

“In some cases streaming can be additive and complimentary to theatrical,” Dergarabedian said. “Clearly audiences wanted that communal experience.

“Five Nights at Freddy’s” did not score well with critics, however. It currently has a dismal 25% on Rotten Tomatoes. AP’s Mark Kennedy wrote that it “has to go down as one of the poorest films in any genre this year.” But like many other horror movies, it appears to be critic-proof.

In second place, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” is expected to cross $200 million in global grosses by the end of Sunday, having added $14.7 million domestically and $6.7 million internationally this weekend. The concert film, distributed by AMC Theatres, is in its third weekend in theaters where it is only playing from Thursday through Sunday, though there will be “special Halloween showtimes” on Tuesday at a discounted price of $13.13.

Third place went to Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which added $9 million in its second weekend, bringing its total domestic earnings to $40.7 million, according to Paramount. With an additional $14.1 million from international showings, the film’s global total now stands at over $88 million.

Angel Studios’ “After Death,” a Christian documentary film about people who have had near death experiences, opened in fourth place to $5.1 million from 2,645 locations.

And “The Exorcist: Believer” rounded out the top five with $3.1 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its domestic earnings to just shy of $60 million.

Several of the fall’s high-profile films also launched in very limited release this weekend, including Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers” and Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla.” Both opened exclusively in New York and Los Angeles and will expand in the coming weeks.

Focus Features’ “The Holdovers,” starring Paul Giamatti as a curmudgeonly ancient history teacher at a New England prep school, debuted in six theaters where it earned an estimated $200,000.

Coppola’s “Priscilla,” about Priscilla Presley’s life with Elvis, also opened on four screens in New York and Los Angeles, where it averaged $33,035 per screen. With a cumulative gross of $132,139, the A24 release starring Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi expands nationwide next weekend.

“It was an eclectic and exciting weekend for moviegoers,” Dergarabedian said. “If you couldn’t find a film to your liking, you’re not looking hard enough.”

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

1. “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” $78 million.

2. “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” $14.7 million.

3. “Killers of the Flower Moon,” $9 million.

4. “After Death,” $5.1 million.

5. “The Exorcist: Believer,” $3.1 million.

6. “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie,” $2.2 million.

7. “Freelance,” $2.1 million.

8. “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (re-release), $2 million.

9. “Saw X,” $1.7 million.

10. “The Creator,” $1 million.
    …

A glittering crown on her head and a bouquet of flowers in her hands, Andreia Solange Sicato Muhitu beamed at being named the co-winner of the inaugural Mr. and Miss Albinism Southern Africa pageant. 

The 28-year-old Angolan model has competed in beauty pageants in her home country since her teens and won some of them. But none made her feel more beautiful or purposeful as the pageant for people with albinism that was held this month in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. 

“I can be that inspiration for young girls, especially those with albinism, to feel comfortable and beautiful in their own skin,” Muhitu said. “That is the strong message we are hoping to send out there.” 

Misunderstood condition

Albinism, an inherited genetic condition that reduces melanin pigment production, is “still profoundly misunderstood,” according to the United Nations human rights agency. People with the condition have pale-colored skin, hair and eyes, are vulnerable to sun exposure and bright light, often have eyesight problems, and are prone to developing skin cancer. 

Although traditional beauty pageants have come under criticism for objectifying women’s bodies, Muhitu thinks the October 14 event where she was crowned could bring about positive change in parts of Africa where people with albinism are treated with disdain, ridicule and even violence driven by dangerously misguided superstitions. 

“This crown gives me the opportunity to change the lives of people living with albinism in ways I never imagined, not just in my country, but in the entire region. I don’t feel shamed, I feel empowered,” she said, shaking hands with people eager to congratulate her. 

The superstitions include the belief that having sex with a person with albinism can cure HIV or that their skin, hair, feet, hands, eyes, genitals or breasts have supernatural powers to bring good luck or boost the effectiveness of witchcraft potions, according to the U.N. and rights activists. In Malawi and Tanzania, people with the condition are sometimes killed for their body parts. 

They typically face daily prejudice despite anti-discrimination laws. She and other pageant participants talked about rejection by families and fathers who denied paternity once they realized a child had albinism. 

The contestants also highlighted how they need affordable skincare services and cancer treatment but more often receive hate, mocking or insults. 

Muhitu, who works as head of the tourism department in southeastern Angola’s Cuando Cubango province, said ridicule at school almost derailed her dreams, but celebrating her skin color is helping her and others push back against stereotypes and stigma. 

“The progressive laws on paper and the ugly reality on the ground are miles apart,” Muhitu said, adding: “It is time for soft power. We can change mindsets through modeling contests, storytelling, music and any outlets that are interesting. Art forms can be a powerful tool to change mindsets.” 

Albinism is more common in sub-Saharan Africa, where it affects about 1 in 5,000 people. The prevalence can reach 1 in 1,000 in some populations in Zimbabwe and in other ethnic groups in southern Africa, compared to 1 in every 17,000 to 20,000 in North America and Europe, according to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. 

‘We are no different’

The 18 contestants who participated in the regional pageant in Zimbabwe came from countries that also included South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Angola and Tanzania. They included fashion designers, health workers and professional models. 

Waving their national flags, they entertained a small audience with poetry, song and dance performances. They elegantly cat-walked in professional wear, evening gowns and African animal skin outfits before answering questions from a panel of judges on a variety of social and economic topics. 

Held under the theme, “Into the light,” the pageant was aimed at shining a spotlight on the “boundless talents” of people with albinism in a region where they often face harsh treatment and stigma, event organizer Brenda Mudzimu, who also has albinism, said. 

“We are mentally and physically tortured, yet we are no different from any other person except skin color,” said Mudzimu, whose Miss Albinism Trust founded the event as a local Zimbabwean contest in 2018. 

The contestants were judged for their charisma, confidence, poise, quality of walk and intellect. The Mr. Albinism Southern Africa title was claimed by Zimbabwean Ntandoyenkosi Mnkandla, 26, a trainee paralegal. 

Winners also received cash prizes, trophies, medals and flowers for categories such as Miss Personality and the People’s Choice awards. 

Muhitu, who received $250 for winning the Miss Albinism prize, commended the growing number of events that celebrate people with albinism in Africa. 

“Pageants are a powerful way of showcasing our limitless potential. I love them and I want to keep on inspiring young girls to follow their dreams,” she said. “People living with albinism have dreams, they have talent, and they are amazing people. But they will stay in the background if they are not given a chance to sparkle.” 
…

Matthew Perry, who starred as sarcastic-but-sweet Chandler Bing in the hit series “Friends,” has died. He was 54. 

The Emmy-nominated actor was found dead of an apparent drowning at his home in Los Angeles, California, on Saturday, according to the Los Angeles Times and celebrity website TMZ, which was the first to report the news. Both outlets cited unnamed sources confirming Perry’s death. 

Perry’s publicists and other representatives did not immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press seeking comment. Asked to confirm police response to what was listed as Perry’s home address, LAPD Officer Drake Madison told AP that officers had gone to that block “for a death investigation of a male in his 50s.”   

Perry’s 10 seasons on “Friends” made him one of Hollywood’s most recognizable actors, starring opposite Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer as a friend group in New York. 

As Chandler, he played the quick-witted, insecure and neurotic roommate of LeBlanc’s Joey and a close friend of Schwimmer’s Ross. By the series’ end, Chandler is married to Cox’s Monica and they have a family, reflecting the journey of the core cast from single New Yorkers to married and starting families. 

The series was one of television’s biggest hits and has taken on a new life — and found surprising popularity with younger fans — in recent years on streaming services.

“Friends” ran from 1994 until 2004, and the cast notably banded together for later seasons to obtain a salary of $1 million per episode for each. 

Unknown at the time was the struggle Perry had with addiction and an intense desire to please audiences.   

“‘Friends’ was huge. I couldn’t jeopardize that,” he wrote in his memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.” “… I loved my co-actors. I loved the scripts. I loved everything about the show but I was struggling with my addictions which only added to my sense of shame. I had a secret and no one could know.” 

“I felt like I was gonna die if the live audience didn’t laugh, and that’s not healthy for sure. But I could sometimes say a line and the audience wouldn’t laugh and I would sweat and sometimes go into convulsions,” Perry wrote. “If I didn’t get the laugh I was supposed to get I would freak out. I felt that every single night. This pressure left me in a bad place. I also knew of the six people making that show, only one of them was sick.” 

An HBO Max reunion special in 2021 was hosted by James Corden and fed into huge interest in seeing the cast together again, although the program consisted of the actors discussing the show and was not a continuation of their characters’ storylines. 

Perry received one Emmy nomination for his “Friends” role and two more for appearances as an associate White House counsel on “The West Wing.” 

Perry also had several notable film roles, starring opposite Salma Hayek in the romantic comedy “Fools Rush In” and Bruce Willis in the the crime comedy “The Whole Nine Yards.” 
…

Tens of thousands of books are being banned or restricted by U.S. prisons, according to a new report from PEN America. The list includes titles ranging from self-help books to an Elmore Leonard novel.

“The common concept underpinning the censorship we’re seeing is that certain ideas and information are a threat,” said the report’s lead author, Moira Marquis, senior manager in the prison and justice writing department at PEN, the literary and free expression organization.

Timed to the start Wednesday of Prison Banned Books Week, “Reading Between the Bars” draws upon public record requests, calls from PEN to prison mailrooms, dozens of accounts from inmates and PEN’s struggles to distribute its guide for prison writing, “The Sentences That Create Us: Crafting A Writer’s Life in Prison,” which came out last year.

Marquis said that the most common official reasons for bans are security and sexual content, terms that can apply to a very wide range of titles. Michigan’s “restricted” list includes Leonard’s thriller “Cuba Libre,” set right before the 1898 Spanish-American War, and Frederick Forsyth’s “The Day of the Jackal,” about a professional assassin’s attempt to murder French President Charles de Gaulle in the 1960s. Both novels were cited as a “threat to the order/security of institution.”

“One of the books [‘Day of the Jackal’] deals with the planned assassination of a political leader/methods for engaging in such activities and the second [‘Cuba Libre’] deals with an individual engaged in various criminal enterprises,” a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections told The Associated Press in an email. “As part of the updated restricted publication process, a new Literary Review Committee has been formed to review items that were previously placed on the restricted publication list, to determine if they should remain or be removed.”

Amy Schumer’s memoir “The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo” was flagged by Florida officials for graphic sexual content and for being “a threat to the security, order or rehabilitative objectives of the correctional system or the safety of any person.”

Other books to appear on banned lists: Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,” the compilation “Prison Ramen: Recipes and Stories from Behind Bars,” Barrington Barber’s “Anyone Can Draw: Create Sensational Artwork in Easy Steps” and Robert Greene’s self-help best-seller “48 Laws of Power.”

“It’s a form of control. It’s the ultimate form of power of manipulation,” Greene said in a statement issued through PEN.

In its report, PEN found parallels between the frequency of prison bans and book bannings in schools and libraries. In Florida, PEN has estimated that more than 40% of all library bans took place in the state in 2022. Meanwhile, the organization found that more than 22,000 books are banned from Florida prisons — the highest of any state — as of early this year, with some entries dating back to the 1990s. Texas, another frequent site of library bannings, had more than 10,000 prison book bans, second only to Florida.

Incidents of banning are likely much higher than what PEN has compiled, according to “Reading Between the Bars,” because record-keeping by many prisons is erratic or nonexistent. Kentucky and New Mexico are among more than 20 states that do not keep centralized records.

“Prison book programs have mostly tried to raise awareness locally when prisons implement new censorship restrictions for communities they serve,” the report reads. “But these programs are largely run by volunteers and struggle to keep up with the demand for books even absent censorship. The upshot is that there have been few nationwide efforts to analyze trends in carceral censorship.”

Marquis says that PEN places bans into two categories: content-specific, in which books are banned because of what they say or allegedly say, and content-neutral, in which books are restricted because they are not sent through accepted channels. In Maine, Michigan and other states, prisoners may only receive books through a select number of vendors, whether Amazon.com, a local bookstore or an approved publisher. In Idaho, Amazon and Barnes & Noble are not among the nine approved sellers, which include Books a Million and the Women’s Prison Book Project.

Content-neutral restrictions may also apply to the packaging (some federal facilities only permit white wrapping, Marquis says), and against free or used literature “because the intended recipient did not receive permission from a warden — or similar administrator — for each specific title mailed to them before the literature arrived,” according to Marquis.

A spokesman for the Idaho Department of Correction told the AP in an email that restrictions on packaging had become necessary because of “an increase in the amount of drug-soaked mail being sent to our residents.” He added that inmates can receive books and periodicals free of charge from authorized vendors and publishers.

“We believe our guidelines are a reasonable response to a growing problem that puts the health and safety of the people who live and work in Idaho’s correctional facilities at risk,” he said.

“Reading Between the Bars” follows a report released late in 2022 by the nonprofit Marshall Project, which found some 50,000 banned prison titles, based on lists made available by 19 states.
…

Once effectively banned, Chinese science fiction has exploded into the mainstream, embraced by the government and public alike — inviting scrutiny of a genre that has become known for its expanding diversity and relative freedom.

Its new status was epitomized by this week’s Worldcon, the world’s oldest and most influential sci-fi gathering, which closed Sunday after taking place in China for the first time.

Held in the gleaming new Chengdu Science Fiction Museum, the event’s star was Liu Cixin, author of the international phenomenon “Three-Body” series and inspiration for the domestic blockbuster “Wandering Earth.”

But the wider science fiction fandom has become a rare space where diverse voices have flourished and a vast array of issues — social, environmental, even sometimes political — can be explored.

“In its nature, part of sci-fi is talking about the present,” award-winning author Chen Qiufan told AFP.

“It takes advantage of talking about outer space, or being set in different times, but reflects the human condition right now.”

Chen’s own novel “The Waste Tide” is set in a dystopian future China, where migrant e-waste workers toil in hazardous conditions, exploited by corrupt conglomerates.  

He grew up near Guiyu, once one of the largest e-waste dumps in the world.

Ecological destruction, urbanization, social inequality, gender, corruption, to name just a few — “these issues are intersectional and intertwined with each other,” said Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University’s Liu Xi.

Together, they “allow everyone to understand Chinese writers’ exploration of Chinese society,” she said.  

That can be rare to find in today’s China, where the space for political and artistic expression has shrunk drastically over the last decade under President Xi Jinping.

Spiritual pollution

Historically, science fiction has had a turbulent relationship with Chinese authorities — it effectively disappeared during the Cultural Revolution and then was banned as “spiritual pollution” in the 1980s.

Though it returned, it remained relatively obscure.

Writer Regina Kanyu Wang said it was only at university that she met other fans — together they formed one of the smaller clubs on campus.

Sci-fi was not taken seriously, and seen as something for children and young adults, Chen said.

That had its advantages.

“There was a lot of freedom… because nobody was reading science fiction, (authors) could just do whatever they wanted,” the University of Zurich’s Jessica Imbach told AFP.

The global success of the “Three-Body” series changed everything, catapulting its epic themes of technological prowess and the fate of humanity into the public consciousness.

“Whether you like science fiction or not, the social reality we are facing is becoming more and more like science fiction,” said Yu Xuying from Hong Kong Metropolitan University.

“We live in a high-tech era. And then your daily life is completely technological,” she said.

The pace of digital change in China, already fast, was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cash has all but disappeared, and stringent health regulations further enhanced the state’s significant surveillance capacity.

The international interest spike in Chinese sci-fi is also related to real-world concerns, Chen believes.

“I think there are different layers of reasons for the phenomenon,” he said.  

“But a major one is the rising economic and technological power of China on the world stage.”

A good vehicle

China’s government has been happy to capitalize on all this.

“At a national level, science fiction is a good vehicle for conveying the country’s discourse on its science and technology strength,” said Yu.  

It can also help “highlight the relationship between the Chinese dream (a Xi-era aspirational slogan) and science,” she said.  

Authorities have put their money where their mouth is.

The nebula-shaped Chengdu Science Fiction Museum, designed by the renowned Zaha Hadid Architects, was built at light speed in just a year to coincide with Worldcon.  

The event, historically fan-led and funded, this year was a “capitalistic initiative, coming top-down from the Chinese government,” said Chen.

“They want sci-fi to be the name card of the city, showing China’s openness and inclusiveness to the world,” he said.

Government attention comes with potential risk.

“The Three-Body Problem” has a different structure in English, with the narrative beginning with a violent Cultural Revolution scene.  

In the original Chinese, it was buried halfway through the book to make it less conspicuous, the translator Ken Liu was told.  

Liu told the New York Times in 2019 that increasingly, “it’s gotten much harder for me to talk about the work of Chinese authors without… causing them trouble.”

Some works he has translated into English, deemed too sensitive, have never been published in Chinese at all.  

“If you’re very marginal, if you have low print numbers in China, then it’s OK, you have more leeway. If you’re doing a mega big-budget movie… it’s much more complicated,” said Imbach.

“That’s what’s now also happening with science fiction,” she said.  

“As it’s becoming more mainstream, there is increased scrutiny.”
…

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.”
…

In a movie match-up almost as unlikely as “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” Martin Scorsese took on Taylor Swift in cinemas over the weekend. And while the box office belonged for a second time to “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” got off to a strong start in Apple Studios’ first major theatrical gambit.

After a record-breaking opening weekend of $92.8 million, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” took in an estimated $31 million over the weekend from 3,855 locations, according to AMC Theaters. In an unconventional deal, the theater chain is distributing Swift’s concert film, and playing it only Thursdays through Sundays.

Most Swifties rushed to see the film on opening weekend, when a large percentage of sales was driven by advance ticketing. Sales dropped a steep 67% in its second weekend, potentially signifying that “The Eras Tour” was predominantly an opening-weekend phenomenon.

But “The Eras Tour” has still proved to be a movie event unlike any other. Within days, it became the highest grossing concert film ever in North America, not accounting for inflation. It’s quickly accumulated $129.8 million domestically.

More was riding on “Killers of the Flower Moon,” a historical crime drama about a string of murders against the Osage nation in the early 1920s. The film, which cost at least $200 million to make, is the largest production yet from Apple Studios. The streamer partnered with Paramount Pictures to release Scorsese’s adaptation of David Grann’s bestseller in 3,628 theaters, with plans to later stream it on a not-yet-announced date on Apple TV+.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” debuted with $23 million, marking the third best opening for the 80-year-old Scorsese, following “Shutter Island” ($41 million in 2010) and “The Departed” ($26.9 million in 2006). Though Scorsese’s latest opus, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro, will have a hard road to reaching profitability, it’s a successful launch for a 206-minute-long adult-skewing drama – a type of movie that, outside “Oppenheimer,” has struggled mightily at the box office in recent years.

And “Killers of the Flower Moon,” with rave reviews, an “A-” CinemaScore from audiences and the backing of a robust Oscar campaign, should continue to play well over the long haul. It added $21 million overseas.

“Killer of the Flower Moon” also marks the best wide-release debut for a film from a streaming company. While Netflix (which backed Scorsese’s last narrative feature, “The Irishman,” in 2019) has charted a mostly limited approach to theatrical release, Apple and Amazon, which last year closed its purchase of MGM, have pursued more expansive theatrical strategies.

Earlier this year, Apple said it plans to spend $1 billion a year making movies that will have theatrical releases before reaching its streaming service. Apple is also behind Ridley Scott’s upcoming “Napoleon,” with Joaquin Phoenix, which Sony Pictures will distribute Nov. 22, and has partnered with Universal for Matthew Vaughn’s “Argylle,” due out Feb. 2.

Paramount had initially signed on to produce and distribute “Killers of the Flower Moon,” but transitioned into the deal with Apple when costs of project, shot during the pandemic, rose.

“If ‘flexibility’ is the new mantra of the theatrical movie business, then this is a significant success — it establishes a viable option for the companies,” David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research, said of the “Killers of the Flower Moon” launch.

As dissimilar as “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” are, they’re alike in their extended run times. A double feature of the weekend’s top two movies would have taken you six hours and 14 minutes, not counting ads and trailers.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” also reeled in more young moviegoers than you might have expected. Paramount said 44% of ticket buyers were under the age of 30.

“Exorcist: The Believer,” the horror sequel directed by David Gordon Green, came in a distant third with $6.7 million in its third weekend of release. The Universal, Blumhouse film has grossed $54.2 million domestically.

“PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie” came in at No. 4 with $4.3 million in its fourth weekend. The fifth spot went to the rerelease of Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” which collected $4.1 million 30 years after it first landed in theaters.

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,” $31 million.

2. “Killers of the Flower Moon,” $23 million.

3. “The Exorcist: Believer,” $5.6 million.

4. “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie,” $4.5 million.

5. “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” $4.1 million.

6. “Saw X,” $3.6 million.

7. “The Creator,” $2.6 million.

8. “Leo: Bloody Sweet,” $2.1 million.

9. “A Haunting in Venice,” $1.1 million.

10. “The Blind,” $1 million.
    …

“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.”
…

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.”  
…

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.
…

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  
…

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.
…

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.
…

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.”
…

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
…

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.
…

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.”
…

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.

 
…

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.
…

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. 
…

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.
…