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HBO dominated Wednesday morning’s Emmy nominations, with the elite trio of “Succession,” “The White Lotus” and “The Last of Us” combining for a whopping 74, but the dominant theme darkening the scene is the ongoing writers strike and the looming possibility that actors may join them in as little as a day.

“Succession” and its deeply dysfunctional dynasty of 1 percenters led all Emmy nominees in its fourth and final season with 27, including best drama, which it has won two of the past three years. It got three nominations for best actor in a drama, with Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong and Kieran Culkin all getting nods for playing men of the Roy clan, and Sarah Snook getting a best actress nomination. It also got four nominations for best supporting actor in a drama.

The cursed vacationers at a Sicilian resort from the second of “The White Lotus” truly dominated the supporting categories, however, landing five nominations for best supporting actress in a drama — including nods for Jennifer Coolidge and Aubrey Plaza — and four more for best supporting actor.

Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal, the duo on a fungus-filled quest in ” The Last of Us,” each got lead acting nominations. The show, an adaption of the popular Playstation video game, was second behind “Succession” with 24 nominations. “The White Lotus” had 23.

“Ted Lasso” was tops among comedies with 21 nominations, including best comedy series and best actor for Jason Sudeikis.

The nominations suggested that HBO can still dominate even as streaming-only outlets have taken over so much of elite TV — though the distinction is increasingly blurred, with a huge segment of viewers watching “Succession” and the cable channel’s other offerings on the streaming service now known as Max.

Cox, 77, got his best actor in a drama nod despite appearing in fewer than half of this season’s “Succession” episodes, though as the Roy family patriarch he loomed just as large over the episodes he didn’t appear in. A win would be his first in three nominations for the role, though he won an Emmy for best supporting actor in a TV movie in 2001.

Strong won in 2020 for playing “eldest boy” Kendall Roy. Culkin got his first nomination for best actor after two previous nominations in the supporting category.

Other nominees:

Drama series: “Andor”; “Better Call Saul”; “The Crown”; “House of the Dragon”; “The Last of Us”; “Succession”; “The White Lotus”; “Yellowjackets.”

Comedy series: “Abbott Elementary”; “Barry”; “The Bear”; “Jury Duty”; “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”; “Only Murders in the Building”; “Ted Lasso”; “Wednesday.”

Anthology series: “Beef”; “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”; “Daisy Jones & the Six”; “Fleishman is in Trouble”; “Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

Best actress in a drama series: Sharon Horgan, “Bad Sisters”; Melanie Lynskey, “Yellowjackets”; Elisabeth Moss, “The Handmaid’s Tale”; Bella Ramsey, “The Last of Us”; Keri Russell, “The Diplomat”; Sarah Snook, “Succession.”

Best actor in a drama series: Jeremy Strong, “Succession”; Bob Odenkirk, “Better Call Saul”; Kieran Culkin, “Succession”; Pedro Pascal, “The Last of Us”; Brian Cox, “Succession”; Jeff Bridges, “The Old Man.”

Best actor in a comedy series: Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”; Jason Sudeikis, “Ted Lasso”; Bill Hader, “Barry”; Martin Short, “Only Murders in the Building”; Jason Segel, “Shrinking.”

Best actress in a comedy series: Quinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary”; Rachel Brosnahan, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”; Christina Applegate, “Dead to Me”; Jenna Ortega, “Wednesday”; Natasha Lyonne, “Poker Face.”

Best supporting actress in a comedy series: Sheryl Lee Ralph, “Abbott Elementary”; Ayo Edebiri, “The Bear”; Janelle James, “Abbott Elementary”; Hannah Waddingham, “Ted Lasso”; Juno Temple, “Ted Lasso”; Jessica Williams, “Shrinking.”

Best supporting actor in a comedy series: Anthony Carrigan, “Barry”; Brett Goldstein, “Ted Lasso”; Phil Dunster, “Ted Lasso”; Henry Winkler, “Barry”; James Marsden, “Jury Duty”; Tyler James Williams, “Abbott Elementary”; Ebon Moss-Bachrach, “The Bear.”

Best supporting actor in a drama series: F. Murray Abraham, “The White Lotus”; Nicholas Braun, “Succession”; Michael Imperioli, “The White Lotus”; Theo James, “The White Lotus”; Matthew Macfadyen, “Succession”; Alan Ruck, “Succession”; Will Sharpe, “The White Lotus”; Alexander Skarsgård, “Succession.”

Best supporting actress in a drama series: Jennifer Coolidge, “The White Lotus”; Elizabeth Debicki, “The Crown”; Meghann Fahy, “The White Lotus”; Sabrina Impacciatore, “The White Lotus”; Aubrey Plaza, “The White Lotus”; Rhea Seehorn, “Better Call Saul”; J. Smith-Cameron, “Succession”; Simona Tabasco, “The White Lotus.”

Actors joining movie and television writers on strike would further shut down the industry and be the first time since 1960 that two Hollywood unions are on strike. While show and film releases will continue, work on upcoming projects would cease and the promotional interviews and appearances by actors to support the projects would cease.

The possibility of an industry debilitated by two strikes could dampen any joy for those nominated and could put the damper on the ceremony scheduled for September 18 on the Fox network.

The nominations were announced by “Community” star Yvette Nicole Brown and Television Academy CEO Frank Scherma, who referenced the labor disputes before at the top of Wednesday’s livestream.

“We hope the ongoing guild negotiations can come to an equitable and swift resolution. We are committed to supporting a television industry that stands strong in equity and where we can continue to honor all the incredible work you do,” Scherma said.
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Vietnam’s move to ban the Warner Bros. film “Barbie” from domestic distribution over a scene showing China’s claimed territory in the South China Sea encapsulates an age-old territorial dispute between the two countries, experts said.

A nine-dash line encompassing about 90% of the South China Sea has appeared on Chinese maps since the 1950s. More recently, China has been aggressive about exercising its claimed sovereignty, to the consternation of the other countries bordering the sea.

Among them is Vietnam, which has rejected China’s claim for decades as an illegal violation of its sovereignty and security — a position endorsed by an international tribunal in 2016.

This week, Hanoi asked Netflix to remove the Chinese-made romance drama series “Flight to You” from its service in Vietnam because multiple episodes showed a map with the nine-dash line. Netflix complied, according to the entertainment media outlet Variety.

Last week, Vietnam also banned the release of the Warner Bros. film “Barbie,” originally scheduled be released in the country next week, because of a scene in the movie showing a map that appears to depict the nine-dash line.

The Philippines, another nation with jurisdictional dispute with China, announced Wednesday that after extensive deliberations it has decided to let the film be shown there.

Also last week, Vietnam ordered the inspection of a website of iMe, a promoter of the K-pop girl group Blackpink, which was scheduled to perform its first concert in Hanoi this month.

‘A strong signal’

Prashanth Parameswaran, the founder of the weekly ASEAN Wonk newsletter and a fellow with the Wilson Center’s Asia Program, said, “Vietnam’s response sends a strong signal that the government does not recognize the legitimacy of the nine-dash line and will take actions to demonstrate its commitment to this.”

Vietnam’s Cinema Department under its Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism reviewed all 39 episodes of “Flight to You,” according to Variety, and said a map showing the nine-dash line depicted in nine episodes of “Flight to You” is “inappropriate.”

Regarding the “Barbie” ban, Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Cinema Department, said on July 3 the film “contains the offending images of the nine-dash line.”

About the Blackpink promotor’s website, Le Thanh Liem, inspector of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said on July 5 that the ministry is looking into the matter.

On July 6, Pham Thu Hang, Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said, “The promotion and usage of products or publications featuring the nine-dash line in Vietnam is a violation of Vietnam’s law and is unacceptable.”

Warner Bros. said on July 6 the dashed lines in the film are a “whimsical, child-like crayon” scribble tracing a “make-believe journey from Barbie Land to the real world” and do not represent China’s nine-dash line.

That explanation appears to have satisfied a movie classification board in the Philippines, which cited it as grounds for letting the film be shown after “having exhausted all possible resources” in making its decision. The board said it would ask Warner Bros. to blur part of the scene showing the map with the dashed line.

Additionally, on July 6 in Vietnam, iMe apologized for an “unfortunate misunderstanding” and pledged to replace images that are inappropriate for Vietnamese audiences, according to Tuoi Tre News.  

Cleo Paskal, a non-resident fellow for the China Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), said, “This is a matter of national sovereignty and security to Vietnam — things it perceives as under attack, including from frequent PRC incursions into its waters.”

China’s official name is the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Paskal continued, “Vietnam is also signaling to neighbors that standing up to China is imperative.”

Ruling against China

An international tribunal at The Hague ruled in 2016 that China had no legal basis to claim the line as its maritime border.

Based on the ruling, not only Vietnam but the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, all countries surrounding the nine-dash line, have been refuting the disputed border.

Bates Gill, executive director for Asia Society’s Center for China Analysis, said via email, “In official maps of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the so-called ‘nine-dash line’ appears to encircle almost all of the South China Sea, signaling that expansive area within the line belongs to China.”

He continued that aside from Vietnam, “a number of other governments – including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam – also claim territory either within or near the nine-dashed line.”

Chinese ships often make incursions into the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of these countries to exercise China’s claim on the territory.

A country’s EEZ extends 200 nautical miles out from its coast.

The U.S. has been patrolling the South China Sea to exercise the freedom of navigation in the area against Chinese aggressions.

India’s reversal

Late last month, India reversed its previous stance and supported the 2016 ruling in a joint statement released with the Philippines.

Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo said in the statement after their meeting in New Delhi from June 27 to 30 that the dispute over the nine-dash line should be resolved in line with the 2016 ruling.

At the time, China’s Foreign Ministry described the 2016 ruling as “null and void and has no binding force.”

The Chinese Embassy in Washington on Friday referred the VOA Korean Service to its Foreign Ministry comments when asked about Vietnam’s rejection of the nine dash-line on a map shown in “Barbie.”

“Relevant country should not link the South China Sea issue with normal cultural exchange,” Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on July 4.

Promoting disputed line

According to Bich Tran, a fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore and an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Beijing has disregarded the international ruling.

“Beijing has actively promoted the line, and due to the size of the Chinese market, companies face pressure to please China by showing the controversial line on their products [or] websites,” Tran said in a video interview.

“In the case of the Blackpink concert, the map was clear, and an apology statement was issued by iMe. It becomes more complicated in the case of Barbie. The map is abstract, but there is a dashed line that reminds people of the nine-dash line,” he continued.

“I believe the film producer wants to have it both ways. On one hand, they can please China and have access to the Chinese market. On the other hand, they make the map so abstract that they have plausible deniability,” Tran said.

China has been engaged in a campaign to promote the disputed dashed line as its southern maritime border through scholarly journal articles as well as items like maps, globes, postcards and T-shirts.

Paskal at the FDD said, “Vietnam know that the PRC starts on the political warfare front — making grand territorial claims based on little fact, then repeats those claims to the point that they become normalized and a challenge to the claims is perceived as an ‘offense’ to China.”

Last year, Vietnam prohibited Sony film “Uncharted” and, in 2019, banned DreamWorks’ animation “Abominable” for showing a map containing the nine-dash line.
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The last time Elina Svitolina was a Grand Slam semifinalist — twice, actually, in 2019 — she was pursuing the usual trappings of success in professional sports: trophies, money, fame, etc.

Now Svitolina plays for more important reasons. For her daughter, Skaï, who was born in October. For her country, Ukraine, where a war that began with Russia’s invasion in February 2022 continues.

And Svitolina firmly believes that those factors affect the way she swings a racket and the way she handles important moments on a tennis court. Enough so that she is one of the last four women remaining at Wimbledon after adding to her series of surprising victories over major champions with a 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-2 victory against No. 1-ranked Iga Swiatek on Tuesday.

“War made me stronger and also made me mentally stronger. Mentally, I don’t take difficult situations as, like, a disaster, you know? There are worse things in life. I’m just more calmer,” said Svitolina, 28, who once was ranked as high No. 3 and now is No. 76 after taking time off to start a family with her husband, tennis player Gael Monfils.

She returned to the tour three months ago.

“Also, because I just started to play again, I have different pressures,” Svitolina said after kneeling and covering her face with her hands, when Swiatek missed one last forehand at Centre Court. “Of course, I want to win. I have this motivation, like huge motivation, to come back to the top. But I think having a child — and war — made me a different person. I look at the things a bit differently.”

She received a wild-card entry from the All England Club to get into the field and now will face another unseeded player, 42nd-ranked Marketa Vondrousova, for a berth in Saturday’s final.

Vondrousova, the 2019 French Open runner-up, beat fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula.

Swiatek, who was coming off claiming her fourth Grand Slam title at the French Open last month, felt the change in the way Svitolina smacked balls over the Centre Court net. That included a stretch where Svitolina won 20 of 22 points during a stretch that spanned the end of the first set and start of the second.

“She played with more freedom and more guts. Sometimes, she really just let go of her hand,” Swiatek said, pantomiming a forehand, “and she played really, really fast.”

Svitolina certainly did not expect to still be around this deep into the fortnight. She originally wasn’t even planning to get back in action after giving birth until around now. But she and Monfils started working out together on January 2, and Svitolina’s progress was substantial enough that she altered her timeline.

Svitolina’s phone has been inundated by messages of support from her native country, and she’s seen videos of kids there following her matches.

“This really makes my heart melt, seeing this,” she said. “Just happy I could bring a little happiness to the people of Ukraine.”
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Double Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya won an appeal against track and field’s testosterone rules on Tuesday when the European Court of Human Rights ruled she was discriminated against and there were “serious questions” about the rules’ validity.

World Athletics, which enforces the regulations, said in reaction to the decision that its rules would remain in place, however, meaning there would not be an immediate return to top-level competition for the South African runner.

Semenya’s case at the rights court was against the government of Switzerland, and not World Athletics itself, although the decision was still a major moment in throwing doubt on the future of the rules.

Semenya was legally identified as female at birth and has identified as female her entire life, but regulations introduced by track and field’s governing body in 2019 forced her to artificially suppress her natural testosterone to be allowed to compete in women’s competitions.

World Athletics says she has one of a number of conditions known as differences in sex development, which results in a natural testosterone level in the typical male range and which gives her an unfair advantage in women’s competitions.

Semenya has been challenging the testosterone rules in the courts for years, but had previously lost an appeal at sport’s highest court in 2019 and a second challenge against the rules at Switzerland’s supreme court in 2020. That second rejection of her appeal was the reason why the Swiss government was the respondent in the European Court of Human Rights case.

The Strasbourg-based rights court ruled in Semenya’s favor by a 4-3 majority of judges on the complaint of discrimination and noted she was denied an “effective remedy” against that discrimination through the two previous cases she lost at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Swiss supreme court.

Tuesday’s ruling was in many ways a criticism of the 2019 decision by CAS. The sports court kept in place the rules that require Semenya and others with so-called differences in sex development conditions, or DSDs, to take birth control pills, or have hormone-blocking injections, or undergo surgery to be allowed to run at top competitions such as the Olympics and world championships.

The rules were initially enforced in certain events but were expanded and made stricter by World Athletics this year. Athletes such as Semenya were forced to lower their testosterone further if they wanted to run in any race.

The decision by the Switzerland-based CAS that rejected Semenya’s first appeal had not properly considered important factors such as the side effects of the hormone treatment, the difficulties for athletes to remain in compliance of the rules, and the lack of evidence that their high natural testosterone actually gave them an advantage, the European rights court said.

An unfair advantage is the core reason why World Athletics introduced the rules in the first place.

The European rights court also found Semenya’s second legal appeal against the rules at the Swiss supreme court should have led to “a thorough institutional and procedural review” of the rules, but that did not happen when that court also ruled against Semenya.

The government of Switzerland was ordered to pay Semenya 60,000 euros ($66,000) in respect of costs and expenses by the European rights court.

Ultimately, the rules have sidelined Semenya since 2019 as she has refused to artificially suppress her natural hormone levels in order to run, and the European rights court noted the “high personal stakes” for Semenya in how the regulations interrupted her career and affected her “profession.”

Tuesday’s decision could force CAS and ultimately World Athletics to re-examine the regulations, although the path and timeline to a possible rollback of the rules is unclear.

In a statement, World Athletics said: “We remain of the view that the DSD regulations are a necessary, reasonable and proportionate means of protecting fair competition in the female category as the Court of Arbitration for Sport and Swiss Federal Tribunal both found, after a detailed and expert assessment of the evidence.”

The 32-year-old Semenya is aiming to run at next year’s Olympics in Paris. She was the 2012 and 2016 Olympic champion in the 800 meters but did not defend her title at the Tokyo Olympics because of the regulations.
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Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ms. Lauryn Hill and Megan Thee Stallion will headline this year’s Global Citizen Festival as the anti-poverty nonprofit looks to focus attention on increasing inequality for girls and young women around the world.

Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans said the Sept. 23 event at New York’s Central Park will be the centerpiece of his group’s campaign to encourage supporters, especially those in Gen Z, to take action on gender inequality, climate change and other issues.

Studies show that half of Gen Z “feel disillusioned and powerless to make a positive impact,” Evans told The Associated Press in an interview. “As long as you and I have been alive, there was almost this sense of positive momentum in the world that almost felt like the eradication of extreme poverty could be inevitable,” he said. “But the data suggests the world is now getting worse.”

According to the United Nations Population Fund, 257 million women around the world want to avoid pregnancy, but don’t have access to modern contraceptives. The fund’s partnership to provide reproductive health services is currently underfunded by $100 million.

Education Cannot Wait, the United Nations fund that helps ensure nearly 20 million children in crisis continue learning, needs $670 million for its work.

The Global Citizen Festival, which will also include performances from K-pop sensation Stray Kids and singer-songwriter Conan Gray, provides free tickets to the event in exchange for fans taking actions on the group’s app and website that support these goals.

This year, that may mean asking Canada, Norway and Japan to donate more to the United Nations Population Fund. It may mean pushing companies to join the United Nations Race to Zero to set targets for reducing their carbon emissions. Or urging the governments of the United States, United Kingdom, Italy and Australia to provide more funding to vulnerable countries to adapt to climate change.

Global Citizen’s use of supporters to convince political, business and philanthropic leaders to tackle some of the world’s biggest problems is designed to appeal to younger generations, Evans said.

“These are pillars of what we know Gen Z cares about, but often they feel powerless because the data isn’t on their side,” Evans said. “We’re talking to Gen Z in a way that they know their actions can have a scalable impact.”

Singer Angelique Kidjo, who was recently named to this year’s Great Immigrants list by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, said that her Batonga Foundation found that supporting girls and young women ends up strengthening entire villages in her native Benin and throughout Africa.

“Helping women in a community is like starting a rolling stone that never stops rolling,” said Kidjo, adding that it was the women who kept their villages safe during the COVID-19 pandemic by making masks and soap for hand-washing, as well as enforcing social distancing.

Not only will Hill and Megan Thee Stallion provide examples of female empowerment with their performances, but Evans hopes they will encourage their fans to take action during the event, which will be streamed on numerous digital platforms.

“For many decades, the Red Hot Chili Peppers have occupied that space where music and activism meet,” said Evans, adding that the band’s classic “Under the Bridge” was the first song he learned to play on guitar. “We couldn’t be happier with this lineup.”
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The Netherlands and Indonesia on Monday hailed the return of hundreds of cultural artifacts taken — sometimes by force — during colonial times as a major step forward in restitution efforts worldwide.

The items, ranging from valuable jewels to 13th-century temple carvings, were officially handed back to Indonesia at a ceremony at the Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden.

“We are really delighted. This is a very historic moment for both us, Indonesia, and the Netherlands. And the relationship between the two,” said Hilmar Farid, director general of cultural heritage at Indonesia’s Ministry of Culture. “But I think what we have achieved so far is also a very significant contribution to the global debate about returning of colonial objects.”

The Dutch government announced the return last week of the Indonesian treasures and looted artifacts from Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry welcomed the decision and said the Indian Ocean nation will work to preserve the items, including a richly decorated ceremonial cannon.

They are the first artifacts returned home on the advice of a Dutch committee set up in 2022 to assess requests by countries for restitution of artifacts in state museums. The committee is considering more restitution requests from Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Nigeria.

Indonesia got back more than the trove of glittering jewels and ancient carvings from a temple in Java, said Farid.

“We consider these objects as our missing items in our historical narrative and of course they play different roles symbolically, culturally,” he said. Their return means Indonesia can “reintegrate them into their cultural contexts. And that is, of course, of symbolic importance to us.”

Gunay Uslu, the Dutch state secretary for culture and media, called the presentation Monday “a historically, important” event that resonates beyond the Netherlands and its former colony.

“It’s also an important moment for the world because it’s about colonial objects in a colonial context. So it’s a sensitive topic,” she said.

A Berlin museum announced in January it is ready to return hundreds of human skulls from the former German colony of East Africa. In 2021, France said it was returning statues, royal thrones and sacred altars taken from the West African nation of Benin. And last year, Belgium returned a gold-capped tooth belonging to the slain Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba.
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Indiana Jones’ reign atop the box office was short-lived. In its second weekend in theaters, the Disney release was usurped by another franchise fifth – ” Insidious: The Red Door.” The horror film starring and directed by Patrick Wilson scared up $32.7 million in ticket sales from 3,188 theaters, according to studio estimates on Sunday.

It did better than the last installment, “Insidious: The Last Key,” from 2018 and is the most any PG-13 horror movie has earned in its debut in the past two years.

“Insidious 5” was not well reviewed — but modestly budgeted scary movies are often critic-proof when it comes to the box office. This Blumhouse-produced franchise starring Wilson and Rose Byrne began in 2011 under the direction of James Wan and has been responsible for over $570 million in global box office returns — and none of the films has cost more than $16 million to produce. Only the first movie received a “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes; The “Insidious” films more often garner sub 40% scores.

“The horror genre seems to have a never-ending allure for audiences,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “Horror movies are profitable and they’re popular. Audiences love them and the accountants love them, too.”

It was shrewd of Sony to release “Insidious” on the weekend between two Hollywood tentpoles, in this case ” Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ” and ” Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part I,” which opens on Wednesday. But it was still a surprise that it was able to take No. 1 from something as well-known as “Indiana Jones.”

“It was a perfect release date,” Dergarabedian said. “This adds more complexity to the dynamics of the marketplace.”

“Indiana Jones 5” took second place in its second weekend with $26.5 million in North America (down 56% from its opening), bringing its domestic total to $121.2 million. Globally it’s earned an estimated $247.9 million.

Indy had some other competition too, in “Sound of Freedom,” a child trafficking drama starring Jim Caveziel, that opened on July 4 and nearly boasted similar ticket sales for the day. “Sound of Freedom” was made and distributed by Angel Studios, a faith-based, crowdfunded operation, and managed to come in third place this weekend with an estimated $18.2 million from 2,850 theaters.

Brandon Purdie, head of theatrical distribution at Angel Studios, said in a statement that the numbers exceeded expectations and attributed its success to word of mouth.

“We’re deeply grateful to AMC, Cinemark, Regal, and all our theater partners — and their hard-working theater staff members — for working with us to accommodate the surging demand for this film and having the courage to release ‘Sound of Freedom’ during the busiest movie season of the year,” Purdie said.

Part of Angel Studios’ operation involved the ability to buy “pay it forward” tickets on behalf of others. On opening day, the studio estimated that $11.6 million came from direct box office and $2.7 million through the pay it forward option. The film has been popular among right-wing pundits too and has appeared on QAnon message boards.

“Joy Ride” also made its theatrical debut this weekend in 2,820 locations and earned an underwhelming $5.9 million to take sixth place behind “Elemental” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” The R-rated comedy directed and co-written by Adele Lim follows four friends on an international trip, played by Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu and Sabrina Wu.

The modestly budgeted Lionsgate release got rave reviews out of the South by Southwest Film Festival and maintains a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but it didn’t motivate big crowds this weekend. Those that did go (58% women, 72% over age 25, according to PostTrak) gave it a B- CinemaScore, suggesting the movie did not meet expectations, which can sometimes be because of how the film was marketed. The hope is that word-of-mouth might help “Joy Ride” in the coming weeks.

“Joy Ride” is one of several raunchy, adult comedies in theaters this summer, including the Jennifer Lawrence movie “No Hard Feelings,” which earned $5.3 million in its third weekend, bringing its domestic total to $40.3 million.

In more limited release, “The Lesson,” a literary chamber thriller starring Richard E. Grant and Daryl McCormack, opened to $157,752 from 268 screens.

With the summer movie season at its midway point, there is concern about the overall box office, which is about on par with where it was at the same point in 2022.

“By now, we thought we’d be well ahead of last year,” Dergarabedian said. “But (movies like ‘Insidious’ and ‘Sound of Freedom) add more revenue to the bottom line that a lot of people didn’t expect. Sometimes surprises come along and that’s great for theaters.”

He added, “But we need the next few weeks to really overperform.”

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

1. “Insidious: The Red Door,” $32.7 million.

2. “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” $26.5 million.

3. “Sound of Freedom,” $18.2 million.

4. “Elemental,” $9.6 million.

5.” Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” $8 million.

1. “Joy Ride,” $5.9 million.

2. “No Hard Feelings,” $5.3 million.

3. “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” $5 million.

4. “The Little Mermaid,” $3.5 million.

5. “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken,” $2.8 million.
   …

STOCKHOLM – Surrounded by emotional fans from around the globe, Elton John hailed them as his “lifeblood” as he gave his final farewell concert in Stockholm after more than 50 years of live performances.

“You know how much I like to play live. It’s been my lifeblood to play for you guys, and you’ve been absolutely magnificent,” he told the delighted audience at the arena in the Swedish capital.

Wearing a tailcoat accented with rhinestones and a red pair of his trademark large glasses, the 76-year-old pop superstar sat down at the piano shortly after 8 p.m. local time to cheers to open his farewell show with one of his most popular songs, Bennie and the Jets.

Playing for more than two hours, John interspersed the songs with moments when he would leave the piano to thank not only his fans but also his band and his crew, some of whom have been with him for more than 40 years.

“I want to pay tribute to these musicians. … They’re really incredible, they’ve been with me so long, some of them. And they are the best, I tell you, the best,” he said.

Shortly after a rendition of Border Song which he dedicated to Aretha Franklin, John’s I’m Still Standing brought the 30,000 fans at the Tele2 Arena to their feet.

Before he took his encore, John screened a message from Coldplay, who were playing in the western Swedish city of Gothenburg, in which singer Chris Martin thanked him for his career and commitment.

“It was amazing. I have no words right now because I haven’t processed all the show, but it was amazing,” said Anton Pohjonen, a 25-year-old bank worker from Finland.

“You almost start tearing up on his account. But then it feels great to be here,” added Swedish teacher Conny Johansson, who bought tickets for the show four years ago.

Excited fans were looking forward to an emotional end to the superstar’s glittering live career even before the curtain went up.

“It’s going to be very emotional tonight,” said Kate Bugaj, 25, a Polish student who admitted she had delayed her master’s exams to follow her musical hero’s tour.

Describing herself as a “huge fan,” she said it all began the first time she watched The Lion King, the 1994 Walt Disney film which gave John one of his two Oscar music wins.

Fifty-year-old Jeanie Kincer traveled from Kentucky in the United States for the show.

“I wanted to be here for the end because I was too young to be here in the beginning,” she said.

The star has been winding down his decades-long live career with a global farewell tour.

He played his last concerts in the United States in May and brought the curtain down on Britain’s annual Glastonbury Festival last month.

Saturday’s farewell concert was the second consecutive evening the Stockholm stadium hosted the legendary British singer-songwriter for the last leg of his final tour, which began five years ago and was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and a hip operation in 2021.

On his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour, John will have given 330 concerts, crisscrossing Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada and Britain, before closing in Stockholm.

Overall, the tour has seen him perform in front of 6.25 million fans. 
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Two very different films are set to come out on July 21. One is about the development of the world’s first nuclear weapons. The other is about Barbie. 

Which one has proved to be contentious on the global stage? Surprisingly, it’s not the Oppenheimer biopic. 

Instead, the much-anticipated “Barbie” has stoked controversy in both Vietnam and the Philippines this week, with the former banning it outright and the latter considering a similar move.  

Over the years, Barbie manufacturer Mattel has come under fire for producing dolls that aren’t diverse and that some have said promote unrealistic body standards.

But now the brand has inadvertently strayed into geopolitical quarrels with the movie’s inclusion of Beijing’s controversial nine-dash line on a map. 

Vietnamese officials this week banned screenings of the film because it shows a map with the disputed Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea. Manila is considering following suit.

The nine-dash line depicts Beijing’s contested claims to parts of the South China Sea. Vietnam, as well as Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan all dispute the line.  

An international tribunal at the Hague ruled in 2016 that the nine-dash line was invalid, but Beijing has not recognized the decision.  

Free expression experts say such bans won’t solve the territorial dispute and may help strengthen domestic censorship systems in the process. To others, the entire situation is being blown out of proportion.  

For years, questions have been raised over the extent to which American studios acquiesce to Beijing. And for Hollywood, the Chinese market, standing at 1.4 billion people, is lucrative.  

Vietnam and the Philippines have previously banned movies for including the nine-dash line, including Sony’s 2022 movie Uncharted, DreamWorks’ 2019 movie Abominable. Vietnam also banned the 2018 Australian TV series Pine Gap, and the Philippines censored select episodes.

Hanoi’s “Barbie” ban shows that “censors have started to be more sensitive about information on territorial disputes between Vietnam and China,” said Trinh Huu Long, the founder of the journalism and research group Legal Initiatives for Vietnam.  

“The censors will even be praised for overreacting to the unclear map, by both their superiors and the public, because anti-China sentiment runs deep into the country’s political culture,” added Long, who grew up in Vietnam but now lives in Taiwan.  

Still, some China experts think the Barbie movie’s alleged inclusion of the nine-dash line is not a pressing concern for either country.

“I don’t expect this to be more than a really incidental sort of thing,” said Rui Zhong, a China expert at the Wilson Center. “I don’t think either foreign ministry is losing sleep over the Barbie movie.

“The map has some waves drawn in the ocean and a sun over Africa, so I don’t really know the larger-scale geographical accuracy or implications,” Zhong told VOA. “I seriously doubt this is a film that will extensively wade into East or Southeast Asian politics.” 

China has so far been ignoring international law and building man-made islands in the South China Sea to help buttress its disputed sovereignty claims. 

But outright bans on films that may legitimize those claims still aren’t the best solution, according to Michael Caster, who covers Asia at the free expression group Article 19. 

“Maps are political, and borders often bear historical wounds, but rather than ensuring free and open discussion, the knee jerk response to censor seldom supports historical or transitional justice,” Caster told VOA. 

The film studio Warner Bros., for its part, has defended the Barbie movie’s map, which depicts eight dashes.

“The map in Barbie Land is a whimsical, child-like crayon drawing,” Warner Bros. said Friday. “The doodles depict Barbie’s make-believe journey from Barbie Land to the real world. It was not intended to make any type of statement.” 

For Long, the concern over Vietnam’s “Barbie” ban is that these sorts of prohibitions — related more to sovereignty and less to political dissent — ultimately make it easier for Hanoi to ban materials that actually might be critical of the government.  

“The government is surely using legitimate nationalist reasoning to strengthen its entire censorship system,” Long said.
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Apartheid ended in South Africa three decades ago, but Black people still struggle to enter luxury sports like hot air ballooning. Komane Harold Tjiane, 44, is in the process of breaking through that ceiling, training to become the country’s first black hot air balloon pilot. Zaheer Cassim reports from Johannesburg.
Camera: Zaheer Cassim
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UNESCO says in the first year of Russia’s war on Ukraine, the cost of the damage to Ukraine’s tourism and culture sectors reached more than $2.5 billion. From Warsaw, Lesia Bakalets reports on efforts to preserve art treasures and exhibit them abroad. Camera: Daniil Batushchak.
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Two environmental activists were arrested at Wimbledon on Wednesday after getting on court and disrupting a match by scattering orange confetti and puzzle pieces on the grass.

A woman and a man wearing T-shirts from Just Stop Oil — a protest group that wants the British government to stop new oil, gas and coal projects — made it onto the field of play at Court 18 before being taken away by security. Later, during a different match at the same court, another man representing the same organization also threw orange confetti on the grass before security guards corralled him and dragged him away.

The initial interruption happened as three-time Grand Slam semifinalist Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, who is seeded 21st in the men’s bracket, was about to hit a serve in the second set of a first-round match against Sho Shimabukuro of Japan.

Before the debris could be cleared from the court to allow the players to continue, action was halted by a rain delay.

“Following an incident on Court 18, two individuals have been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass and criminal damage and these individuals have now been removed from the grounds,” an All England Club spokesperson said in a statement. “Play on the court was temporarily paused and, following a suspension in play due to a rain delay, play [resumed].”

One of the activists sat down on the court before being removed.

The All England Club coordinated with London police and other agencies to increase security for this year’s tournament, in part as a result of protests at other major sports venues in Britain this year.

“Based on what has happened at other sporting events, and on the advice from our key partners, we have reviewed our security plans, which have now been uplifted for The Championships accordingly,” All England Club operations director Michelle Dite said last week.

“We have plans in place to mitigate the risks working in partnership with specialist agencies and the Metropolitan Police and should an incident occur, the appropriate specialist teams will respond,” Dite said.

Her comments came a day after people representing Just Stop Oil briefly disrupted play about five minutes after the start of a cricket match between England and Australia in London. Players from both teams intervened when the protesters attempted to spread orange powder on the field.

Earlier in June, protesters held up the England cricket team bus briefly during the test against Ireland in London. Activists also have targeted Premier League soccer matches, the Premiership rugby final at Twickenham and the world snooker championship in Sheffield this year.
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In recent years, there have been more prominent TV shows and movies featuring Asians and Chinese Americans, with many of them targeting younger audiences.  

The increase in media showing Asian Americans is more than just a product of the streaming era. For summer camp director C.C. Hsu and her students, it is also a step toward more accurate representations of their identities.   

The summer camp hosted by the Washington DC Taiwanese School, located in Maryland about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) north of the U.S. capital, is made up of the children and grandchildren of immigrants from Taiwan.   

“Our community is generational,” Hsu said.   

Hsu, who immigrated to the U.S. as a child, aims to teach the students at the summer camp more about her culture. She said what she sees at the summer camp is reflected on screen in the new Disney+ show, “American Born Chinese.”   

The show is about a child of Asian immigrants who is introduced to a new student from China and their adventures as a result of their budding friendship.   

“When he [main character Jin Wang] says multiple times, ’Can you say that slower? My Chinese isn’t very good,’ this is something that is very, very familiar with the kids that are at the Taiwanese School,” Hsu said.   

Emmanuelle Roberts, Hsu’s daughter and a camp student, said she would like to see more Taiwanese American representation.   

“I don’t feel like Taiwanese and Taiwanese American people are portrayed enough in the media,” she said.

Her comments reflect a desire among many Taiwanese Americans for recognition of an identity distinct from Chinese Americans.   

“I usually just think of myself as either Asian American or Taiwanese American,” Freddy Meng, another camp student, said. “I don’t really identify with Chinese American that much.”   

More Asian faces on screen   

Among the many reasons why Hollywood is producing more Asian American stories, experts said, is because changes to the structure of the industry have opened more doors for Asian talent in front of and behind the camera.   

“In the last few years, the last decade or so, as Hollywood — as much of corporate America — has shifted into thinking about diversity as one of its core values, thinking about, ’How do we create a pipeline?'” said Brian Hu, who teaches television, film and new media at San Diego State University and is artistic director of the San Diego Asian Film Festival.   

“This is among the first times where the showrunner is Asian American or Chinese American, where the production team behind it and the whole cast and crew … is Asian American or … Chinese American, and part of that is because we’re seeing a new generation of talent… who are… kind of reaching that level in the industry where they have that sway,” said Jason Coe, assistant professor at the Hong Kong Baptist University Academy of Film.    

Hollywood has also grown more aware of the importance of Asian American representation as a component of its broader push toward diversity.   

“Asian Americans are part of the diversity equation … 20 years ago that wasn’t necessarily the case. It wasn’t necessarily self-evident that if you are doing diversity, that Asian faces is a part of that,” Hu said.  

The increase of anti-Asian hate incidents during the pandemic is another reason behind more shows about Asian Americans, said Yao Zhang, a Chinese Canadian YouTuber and human rights activist.   

“Some people, especially Chinese people, want to show the world that we are not all spies, right? We are not all agents, right?” Zhang said. “Like, we are a loyal American citizen or whatever or just to see a different part of us.”

Hollywood and China  

For years, Hollywood has been looking outside of the U.S. to China to reach one of the largest movie markets in the world. But films would first have to get past Beijing’s government censors.   

“This obsession of Hollywood entering China that obsession was especially high like 10 years ago where you do see a lot of coproductions happening,” Hu said.  

The Tom Cruise sequel “Top Gun: Maverick” was accused of making changes to appeal to China. In the original 1986 “Top Gun” movie, the Taiwanese and Japanese flags were on Cruise’s bomber jacket. In the trailer of the 2022 sequel, those flags do not appear. The film was accused of self-censoring to please Bejing because China considers Taiwan a part of its territory.   

“When the original teaser or trailer came out that it was digitally erased or a more politically neutral flag was inserted there so as not to offend the mainland audience, but as soon as they realized they would not be that audience, the Taiwan flag came back,” Hu said.  

Chinese company Tencent Holdings was supposed to be an investor, but the company decided to pull out of the film due to fears that the strong pro-U.S. military themes would anger Beijing, The Wall Street Journal reported. The film never received permission from Beijing to be shown in China.    

Last week, Politico reported the U.S. Defense Department updated its rules to filmmakers, saying if Hollywood wants help from the U.S. military, it cannot let China censor its films.   

Focus on Asian Americans   

Film analysts say production companies may do better by focusing on audiences closer to home.   

“If they see themselves as first for making a culturally American film that, of course, will have global appeal, but they know what they know, most which is that like American culture and American way of making movies that to have to, to cater culturally to somebody else is a big list, and I think they realized that let’s not be so obsessed with the Chinese market that we forget who we are,” said Hu, of San Diego State University.   

Some recent productions about Chinese American stories have received positive reviews.   

“I think that both ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ and ‘American Born Chinese’ are made with the Asian American and Chinese American audiences in mind, and I believe that the immigrant story is a very American story,” Coe said. 

“I think what we’re proving is that there is money to be made here. People want these stories,” said Hsu, the summer camp director.   

Increased Asian American representation means roles less rooted in stereotypes, activist Zhang said. 

“On the TV shows or on the movies, we are just [a] certain type of people, like nerd, IT [information technology] specialist — all guys are IT specialists, all women are accountants, all nerds,” Zhang said.   

The Hollywood Diversity Report 2023, conducted with the help of the University of California Los Angles College of Social Sciences, found in theatrical films that Asians make up 2.3% of lead actors, 6.5% of overall acting roles, 5.6% of directors and 4.5% of writers in 2022.

According to the 2020 U.S. Census, Asians, Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders make up 6.2% of the U.S. population. 

It is unknown whether more Asian Americans will find work in Hollywood in 2023. For people such as Hsu and her summer camp attendees, increased representation is important not just for seeing more faces who look like them, but also to ensure that their experiences are meaningfully portrayed onscreen. 
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Andy Murray said he had an emotional meeting with Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who spent six years in an Iranian jail cell, after inviting her to watch him from the royal box at Wimbledon on Tuesday.

British-Iranian Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Murray became friends after she said in an interview last year that watching the Scot win Wimbledon on television in 2016 helped sustain her during solitary confinement.

She had been accused of spying while in the country visiting her parents and held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison until her release last year.

“She hadn’t been to Wimbledon before,” Murray said.

“After the story she told me about watching my Wimbledon final while she was in a cell, I felt like I wanted to invite her to come along and watch the tennis in totally different circumstances.

“Hopefully, a much more enjoyable experience. It was very emotional talking to her and hearing her story. It was brilliant that she was able to come along and watch.”

Zaghari-Ratcliffe said in the interview that prison officials allowed her access to a TV that only had two channels.

One broadcast an Iranian soap opera while the other was a sports channel showing Wimbledon when Murray was winning his second title at the tournament.

“They had no idea what they had given me,” she said.

On Tuesday, she was able to at last see Murray in the flesh on Centre Court and the two-time champion didn’t disappoint his guest as he eased past fellow Briton Ryan Peniston.

Former world number one Murray, who won his first Wimbledon title in 2013, came through to win 6-3, 6-0, 6-1.
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Founded by a former refugee, Minnesota-based company Epimonía turns material from life jackets worn by refugees into fashion accessories and other items of clothing. VOA’s Kahli Abdu has the story.
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In recent years, TV shows and movies featuring Asians, including Chinese Americans, have been on the rise, with many of them aimed at younger audiences. Students at a Taiwanese School summer camp in Washington share their thoughts on this trend. Elizabeth Lee and Graham Kanwit report.
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WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND — When Victoria Azarenka walked into Court 15 Monday morning for her first Wimbledon match in two years, she was greeted by polite clapping. When the two-time Grand Slam champion from Belarus finished off a three-set victory more than 2½ hours later, Azarenka shook her racket with her right hand and pumped her left fist, then offered a wave to the spectators who were applauding warmly.

Unlike her opponent, Yuan Yue, whose nationality was noted on the scoreboard alongside her name, Azarenka had no country listed there. That’s because players from Russia and Belarus are back competing at Wimbledon a year after they were barred by the All England Club because of the invasion of Ukraine — and, in a sort of half-measure adopted by some other sports, are deemed “neutral” athletes who officially do not represent any nation.

The war that began in February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine with help from Belarus continues, but Wimbledon’s organizers announced in March they would lift their ban — about which Azarenka said in an interview that, in the big picture, “I’m not sure that it made any difference.”

While other players have flags to the left of their names on the oversized, manually operated brackets on the outside wall of Center Court, the Russians and Belarusians do not. Nor are the countries noted on official schedules or results issued by the All England Club, nor as part of graphics on TV broadcasts of matches. The Club did not allow Wimbledon to be aired on television in Russia or Belarus.

Azarenka and all other entrants from those two countries needed to — and did — sign a declaration agreeing to three stipulations: They wouldn’t be representing Russia or Belarus; they wouldn’t accept funding from those governments or companies operated by them; they wouldn’t express support for the invasion of Ukraine or the leaders of Russia or Belarus.

“It was a difficult decision, as we said when we made it earlier in the year,” All England Club CEO Sally Bolton said Monday about the reversal in policy. “We took a lot of time to think carefully about the decision we made and the impact that would have in the same way as we did last year. We think it’s the right decision for The Championships this year.”

Liudmila Samsonova, a Russian who was seeded 15th in the women’s field, said after being eliminated by Ana Bogdan of Romania 7-6 (1), 7-6 (4) Monday: “Last year was tough to accept. But this year, when they said that we were able to play, it was amazing.”

If there were questions about how Russians and Belarusians might be received upon their return, the earliest indications on Day 1 were that there was nothing out of the ordinary.

No protests. No boos. No shouts in support of Ukraine — or against the returning players. (Russian and Belarusian flags were not allowed to be brought into the tournament grounds.)

“Just like I never left, honestly. It feels good to be playing here,” Azarenka said after beating Yuan 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. “For me, personally, I experienced very good treatment. … Today, to hear people say, ‘Let’s go, Vika!’ and cheering me on was also why I play, to play in front of the crowd, to put on a good show.”

Russians who won Monday included No. 7 seed Andrey Rublev and unseeded Aslan Karatsev among the men, and No. 12 Veronika Kudermetova among the women.
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HANOI, July 3 (Reuters) – Vietnam has banned Warner Bros’ highly anticipated film “Barbie” from domestic distribution over a scene featuring a map that shows China’s unilaterally claimed territory in the South China Sea, state media reported on Monday.

The U-shaped “nine-dash line” is used on Chinese maps to illustrate its claims over vast areas of the South China Sea, including swathes of what Vietnam considers its continental shelf, where it has awarded oil concessions.

“Barbie” is the latest movie to be banned in Vietnam for depicting China’s controversial nine-dash line, which was repudiated in an international arbitration ruling by a court in The Hague in 2016. China refuses to recognize the ruling.

In 2019, the Vietnamese government pulled DreamWorks’ animated film “Abominable”and last year it banned Sony’s action movie “Unchartered” for the same reason. Netflix also removed an Australian spy drama “Pine Gap” in 2021.

“Barbie,” starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was originally slated to open in Vietnam on July 21, the same date as in the United States, according to state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper.

“We do not grant license for the American movie ‘Barbie’ to release in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line,” the paper reported, citing Vi Kien Thanh, head of the Department of Cinema, a government body in charge of licensing and censoring foreign films.

Warner Bros. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Vietnam and China have long had overlapping territorial claims to a potentially energy-rich stretch in the South China Sea. The Southeast Asian country has repeatedly accused Chinese vessels of violating its sovereignty.
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SYDNEY — China rallied to claim its first women’s basketball Asia Cup title since 2012 as it beat five-time defending champion Japan 73-71 in an epic final on Sunday.

Trailing at halftime it appeared China may fall for a third consecutive time in a title game as reigning champion Japan scored the last 14 points of the first half to lead by nine points.

Led by player of the tournament center Xu Han, China seized the momentum early in the third quarter and took what proved a match-winning lead late in the game to end its 12-year wait for a gold medal in front of a large crowd in Sydney.

Xu finished with a match-defining 26 points and 10 rebounds to complete the feat of recording a double-double in every game of the tournament. Siyu Wang scored 17 points.

Maki Takada led Japan with 17 points and four rebounds, with Saki Hayashi scoring 12 points for Japan.

China’s title follows its silver medal at the women’s basketball World Cup, also held in Sydney, late last year.

Japan and China met in the 2019 and 2021 title games with the Japanese prevailing in both to claim their fourth and fifth titles.

Earlier Saturday, host nation Australia claimed its third consecutive bronze medal as it cruised past New Zealand 81-59 to repeat its result from Bengaluru, India in 2019 and Amman, Jordan in 2021.

Alice Kunek contributed a team high 19 points and Anneli Maley completed a double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds, while Tess Madgen scored 14 points with five rebounds and three steals for the Opals.

The eight-team regional tournament doubled as qualifying for next year’s Olympics, with the semifinalists — Japan, Australia, China and New Zealand — qualifying for Paris 2024.
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Indiana Jones, and executives at the Walt Disney Co. and Lucasfilm, made a somewhat dispiriting discovery this weekend. Moviegoers didn’t rush to the theater in significant numbers to see “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and say goodbye to Harrison Ford as the iconic archaeologist. 

The film, reportedly budgeted north of $250 million, came in on the lower end of projections with $60 million in ticket sales from 4,600 North American theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday. 

Including $70 million from international showings in 52 markets, “Dial of Destiny” celebrated a $130 million global opening. It easily earned the No. 1 title but was not the high-rolling sendoff for one of modern cinema’s most iconic actor/character pairings that anyone hoped. Disney is projecting that it will make $82 million domestically through the fourth of July holiday and $152 million globally. 

“Dial of Destiny” is the long-delayed fifth installment in the Steven Spielberg/George Lucas-created adventure series that began in 1981, and the first Spielberg himself hasn’t directed. Veteran James Mangold stepped in to take the reins overseeing the Spielberg-approved script, which finds an older Dr. Jones retiring from his university job and swept up on a new adventure with his goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge). 

“It’s impressive that a franchise that’s over 40 years old is No. 1 at the box office. But there’s no question there were higher hopes for the debut of this movie,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “This is Indiana Jones. This is a summer movie icon.” 

The film had its splashy premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, with a fitting celebration of Ford, who has said this was his last time playing the character. 

But then it was hit with lukewarm reviews. This was an unexpected and unwelcome hurdle, considering it was coming after the maligned fourth film, 2008’s “Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” Another contributing snag was that a significant portion of the target audience, older viewers, don’t tend to buy many tickets on opening weekend for big blockbusters. But even “Crystal Skull,” budgeted at a reported $185 million, managed to gross over $790 million. 

“Sometimes reviews don’t matter, but the sentiment coming out of Cannes was very powerful,” Dergarabedian said. “It set off a narrative where people were already feeling disappointed, and they hadn’t even seen it.” 

Second place went to “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” with $11.5 million, bringing its domestic total to around $340 million. “Elemental” landed in third place with $11.3 million. 

Aside from “Dial of Destiny,” the weekend’s other main new opener was the animated “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken,” which debuted in sixth place with $5.2 million. 

“Dial of Destiny’s” underwhelming debut comes just a few weeks after both Warner Bros.’ “The Flash” and Disney/Pixar’s “Elemental” had lackluster openings in North America. “Elemental,” like Indy 5, also premiered at Cannes to middling reception. 

And yet, “Elemental” in its three weeks in theaters has held on much better than “The Flash,” which plummeted again to $5 million, bringing its domestic total to $99.3 million. Disney also saw similarly promising holds with “The Little Mermaid,” now at over $280 million domestically and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3″ which has grossed over $345 million. After the holiday, Disney will be responsible for nearly half of the summer box office earnings. 

“The entire story isn’t told on the opening weekend,” Dergarabedian said. 

Disney has a “clear weekend” ahead with no competing blockbusters, when studio heads can reasonably hope for more families and older audiences to buy tickets. But things will only get more challenging for “Dial of Destiny” in the coming weeks with a crowded July. “Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning Part I” opens on July 12, followed by “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” on July 21. 

“The ups and downs at the box office are giving us whiplash,” Dergarabedian said. “And we’re still on the cusp of some of the biggest movies of the summer.” 

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

1. “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” $60 million. 

2. “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” $11.5 million. 

3. “Elemental,” $11.3 million. 

4. “No Hard Feelings,” $7.5 million. 

5. “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” $7 million. 

6. “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken,” $5.2 million. 

7. “The Little Mermaid,” $5.2 million. 

8. “The Flash,” $5 million. 

9. “Asteroid City,” $3.8 million. 

10. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” $1.8 million.  
    …

A Japanese actor, artist and designer has opened a Ukrainian restaurant in Tokyo called Smachnogo. Her one and only goal: to provide jobs to Ukrainian evacuees arriving in Japan after the start of Russia’s invasion. Iuliia Iarmolenko has the story. Camera: Susumu Miyazu, Justyna Feicht. Video editing: Oleksii Osyka, Anna Rice.
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Alan Arkin, the wry character actor who demonstrated his versatility in everything from farcical comedy to chilling drama as he received four Academy Award nominations and won an Oscar in 2007 for “Little Miss Sunshine,” has died. He was 89.

His sons Adam, Matthew and Anthony confirmed their father’s death through the actor’s publicist on Friday. “Our father was a uniquely talented force of nature, both as an artist and a man,” they said in a statement.

A member of Chicago’s famed Second City comedy troupe, Arkin was an immediate success in movies with the Cold War spoof “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming” and peaked late in life with his win as best supporting actor for the surprise 2006 hit “Little Miss Sunshine.” More than 40 years separated his first Oscar nomination, for “The Russians are Coming,” from his nomination for playing a conniving Hollywood producer in the Oscar-winning “Argo.”

In recent years he starred opposite Michael Douglas in the Netflix comedy series “The Kominsky Method,” a role that earned him two Emmy nominations.

“When I was a young actor people wanted to know if I wanted to be a serious actor or a funny one,” Michael McKean tweeted Friday. ‘I’d answer ‘Which kind is Alan Arkin?’ and that shut them up.”

Arkin once joked to The Associated Press that the beauty of being a character actor was not having to take his clothes off for a role. He wasn’t a sex symbol or superstar, but was rarely out of work, appearing in more than 100 TV and feature films. His trademarks were likability, relatability and complete immersion in his roles, no matter how unusual, whether playing a Russian submarine officer in “The Russians are Coming” who struggles to communicate with the equally jittery Americans, or standing out as the foul-mouthed, drug-addicted grandfather in “Little Miss Sunshine.”

“Alan’s never had an identifiable screen personality because he just disappears into his characters,” director Norman Jewison of “The Russians are Coming” once observed. “His accents are impeccable, and he’s even able to change his looks. … He’s always been underestimated, partly because he’s never been in service of his own success.”

While still with Second City, Arkin was chosen by Carl Reiner to play the young protagonist in the 1963 Broadway play “Enter Laughing,” based on Reiner’s semi-autobiographical novel.

He attracted strong reviews and the notice of Jewison, who was preparing to direct a 1966 comedy about a Russian sub that creates a panic when it ventures too close to a small New England town. In Arkin’s next major film, he proved he could also play a villain, however reluctantly. Arkin starred in “Wait Until Dark” as a vicious drug dealer who holds a blind woman (Audrey Hepburn) captive in her own apartment, believing a drug shipment is hidden there.

He recalled in a 1998 interview how difficult it was to terrorize Hepburn’s character.

“Just awful,” he said. “She was an exquisite lady, so being mean to her was hard.”

Arkin’s rise continued in 1968 with “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter,” in which he played a sensitive man who could not hear or speak. He starred as the bumbling French detective in “Inspector Clouseau” that same year, but the film would become overlooked in favor of Peter Sellers’ Clouseau in the “Pink Panther” movies.

Arkin’s career as a character actor continued to blossom when Mike Nichols, a fellow Second City alumnus, cast him in the starring role as Yossarian, the victim of wartime red tape in 1970’s “Catch-22,” based on Joseph Heller’s million-selling novel. Through the years, Arkin turned up in such favorites as “Edward Scissorhands,” playing Johnny Depp’s neighbor; and in the film version of David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross” as a dogged real estate salesman. He and Reiner played brothers, one successful (Reiner), one struggling (Arkin), in the 1998 film “The Slums of Beverly Hills.”

“I used to think that my stuff had a lot of variety. But I realized that for the first twenty years or so, most of the characters I played were outsiders, strangers to their environment, foreigners in one way or another,” he told The Associated Press in 2007.

“As I started to get more and more comfortable with myself, that started to shift. I got one of the nicest compliments I’ve ever gotten from someone a few days ago. They said that they thought my characters were very often the heart, the moral center of a film. I didn’t particularly understand it, but I liked it; it made me happy.”

Other recent credits included “Going in Style,” a 2017 remake featuring fellow Oscar winners Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, and “The Kominsky Method.” He played a Hollywood talent agent and friend of Douglas’ character, a once-promising actor who ran an acting school after his career sputtered.

He also was the voice of Wild Knuckles in the 2022 animated film “Minions: The Rise of Gru.”

Arkin also directed the film version of Jules Feiffer’s 1971 dark comedy “Little Murders” and Neil Simon’s 1972 play about bickering old vaudeville partners, “The Sunshine Boys.” On television, Arkin appeared in the short-lived series “Fay” and “Harry” and played a night court judge in Sidney Lumet’s drama series “100 Centre Street” on A&E. He also wrote several books for children.

Born in New York City’s borough of Brooklyn, he and his family, which included two younger brothers, moved to Los Angeles when he was 11. His parents found jobs as teachers, but were fired during the post-World War II Red Scare because they were Communists.

“We were dirt poor so I couldn’t afford to go to the movies often,” he told the AP in 1998. “But I went whenever I could and focused in on movies, as they were more important than anything in my life.”

He studied acting at Los Angeles City College; California State University, Los Angeles; and Bennington College in Vermont, where he earned a scholarship to the formerly all-girls school.

He married a fellow student, Jeremy Yaffe, and they had two sons, Adam and Matthew.

After he and Yaffe divorced in 1961, Arkin married actress-writer Barbara Dana, and they had a son, Anthony. All three sons became actors: Adam starred in the TV series “Chicago Hope.”

“It was certainly nothing that I pushed them into,” Arkin said in 1998. “It made absolutely no difference to me what they did, as long as it allowed them to grow.”

Arkin began his entertainment career as an organizer and singer with The Tarriers, a group that briefly rode the folk musical revival wave of the late 1950s. Later, he turned to stage acting, off-Broadway and always in dramatic roles.

At Second City, he worked with Nichols, Elaine May, Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara and others in creating intellectual, high-speed impromptu riffs the fads and follies of the day.

“I never knew that I could be funny until I joined Second City,” he said.
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FIFA revealed eight different armbands highlighting social causes that sides will be able to wear at the women’s World Cup as world football’s governing body seeks to avoid a row that erupted at last year’s men’s World Cup.

Captains from a number of European countries, including England and Germany, planned to wear a “OneLove” armband in rainbow colors in Qatar in support of LGBTQ rights.

However, they abandoned that stance after being threatened with sporting sanctions just days before the tournament kicked off.

The armband had widely been viewed as a symbolic protest against laws in Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal.

The “unite for inclusion” armband for the women’s World Cup is similar in style to the one outlawed with the words alongside a heart shape in rainbow colors.

Other causes highlighted include gender equality, ending violence against women, hunger and the rights of indigenous people.

Captains will be able to wear a different armband for each match corresponding to the cause being promoted or support one cause for the entire tournament.

“Football unites the world and our global events, such as the FIFA Women’s World Cup, have a unique power to bring people together and provide joy, excitement and passion,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

“After some very open talks with stakeholders, including member associations and players, we have decided to highlight a series of social causes – from inclusion to gender equality, from peace to ending hunger, from education to tackling domestic violence – during all 64 matches at the FIFA Women’s World Cup.”

The women’s World Cup, which will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand, begins on July 20.
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Hollywood actors may be on the verge of joining screenwriters in what would be the first two-union strike in the industry in more than six decades, with huge consequences for film and television production. Here is a look at how it could play out, and why it’s happening.

What’s happening with actors’ negotiations?

The contract between the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists and the studios, streaming services and production companies that employ them expires Friday night at midnight Pacific time. Unionized actors have voted overwhelmingly to authorize their leaders to call a strike when it does. But that’s hardly a hard deadline. Both sides have indicated a willingness to talk for what may be several days past the expiration, as happened before resolutions were reached in the same negotiations in 2014 and 2017.

Reports have said the talks have been productive. But some actors have expressed worry that their leaders may not be pushing hard enough. More than 1,000 of them, including Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Bob Odenkirk, have added their names to a letter to negotiators saying they are willing to strike, and are concerned they are “ready to make sacrifices that leadership is not.” The letter says, “this is not a moment to meet in the middle.”

The guild, led by president and former “Nanny” star Fran Drescher, represents over 160,000 screen actors, stunt performers, broadcast journalists, announcers, and hosts, but a strike would involve only actors working on television shows and films.

What do the actors want?

Many of the same issues that drove writers to strike are on the table for actors, including what the guilds say is shrinking compensation brought on by a streaming ecosystem in which royalty payments are no longer tethered to the popularity of a film or TV show. A role or a writing credit on a show that became a hit with a long life in reruns is no longer the cash cow that it once was. And the unions say inflation is outpacing the scheduled pay bumps within their contracts.

For both scribes and performers, the move to streaming and its ripple effects have also meant shorter seasons of shows with longer gaps between them, and therefore less work.

And like the writers, actors fear the threat of unregulated use of artificial intelligence. SAG-AFTRA said in a memo to members that the burgeoning ability of AI to recreate the performances of its members is “a real and immediate threat” that it wants to head off.

Have Hollywood actors gone on strike before?

Movie and TV actors last went on strike for three months in 1980, though actors in broadcast commercials have gone on strike twice since then. Overall, they have had far more labor peace than screenwriters, whose walkouts have been far more frequent. That includes the current standoff, in which 11,500 members of the Writers Guild of America have been on strike for nearly two months, with no end in sight.

In 1960 the actors’ union, led by then-SAG president and future U.S. President Ronald Reagan, went on strike for six weeks that fell in the middle of a five-month writers’ strike, the only time two major Hollywood unions walked off the job at the same time.

What effect would the combined strikes have for viewers?

The writers’ strike had an almost instant effect on late-night network talk shows, including NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and CBS’s “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” which all went on hiatus immediately. “Saturday Night Live” axed its last three episodes of the season.

In the two months since, many scripted television series have also shut down, including Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” Max’s “Hacks,” Showtime’s “Yellow Jackets,” and Apple TV+’s “Severance.” Some movies have reportedly also been paused.

Actors joining writers would force nearly every other show or film that hasn’t already been shot into a similar shutdown. Forthcoming seasons of television shows would be delayed indefinitely, and movie releases will be pushed back.

Streaming menus on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video will show no immediate differences, though lovers of those outlets’ original series would eventually have to wait longer for their favorites to return.

Exceptions would be productions taking place outside the United States. And reality shows, game shows and most daytime talk shows will likely be unaffected.

The two strikes are also casting doubt on the viability of the Emmy Awards, whose nominations are scheduled to be announced on July 12 before a September ceremony, though the Tony Awards and BET Awards shows managed to go on despite the writers’ strike.

What’s happening with the writers?

The writers’ strike has seen persistent picketing and some major rallies for two months, but so far, no movement. There are no current negotiations happening between the strikers and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios, streamers and production companies in all the industry’s union negotiations.  

Along with the issues they have in common with actors, writers are especially concerned with the shrinking staffs that are used on shows, which they call “mini rooms.” They have meant much less work, and far fewer guarantees of future work.

 
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