Current Final

Author: AFP

  • Pre-Halloween ‘Terrifier’ lands atop North America box office

    Pre-Halloween ‘Terrifier’ lands atop North America box office

    New indie horror film “Terrifier 3” opened atop the North American box office, while last weekend’s leader, “Joker: Folie a Deux,” suffered a record plunge from its own debut, industry watchers reported Sunday.

    “Terrifier 3,” from indie studio Cineverse and Icon Events, earned an estimated $18.2 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period, according to Exhibitor Relations. Analyst David A. Gross called that “an outstanding opening for a third episode in an indie horror series.”

    The slasher film has Art the Clown back to spread holiday fear — and plenty of blood and guts — with David Howard Thornton again playing the psychopathic harlequin.

    Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot” placed second again, at $13.4 million. Lupita Nyong’o voices Roz, a robot stranded on a remote island who is forced to befriend woodland animals to survive.

    That left Warner Bros.’ “Joker” film, a dark musical Batman spinoff, suffering a huge 80 percent drop, from last weekend’s $40 million to $7.1 million — a stunning result for a film with a budget close to $200 million.

    That second-week collapse was the worst ever for a comic book-based movie and one of the biggest for any film, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

    In fourth place, down one spot, was another Warner Bros.’ film, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” at $7.0 million. Michael Keaton again plays the back-from-the-dead title character.

    And in fifth, at $3.8 million, was Focus Features’ new “Piece by Piece,” a comedy-drama using Lego animation to follow the life of singer-songwriter Pharrell Williams. The all-star voice cast includes Gwen Stefani, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake and Busta Rhymes.

    Meantime, a gritty new film about Donald Trump, “The Apprentice,” detailing his early rise in New York, had a weak opening, placing 10th with $1.6 million. Trump had threatened to try to block the release over its often unflattering depiction. Sebastian Stan plays Trump.

    Rounding out the top 10 were:

    “Transformers One” ($3.7 million)

    “Saturday Night” ($3.4 million)

    “My Hero Academia: You’re Next” ($3 million)

    “The Nightmare Before Christmas (reissue): ($2.3 million)

    “The Apprentice” ($1.6 million)

  • Doraemon ke awaz khamosh hogayi: Woman behind the voice passes away

    Doraemon ke awaz khamosh hogayi: Woman behind the voice passes away

    A Japanese actor who was the voice of “Doraemon”, a cartoon cat robot beloved by children in Japan and other countries has died, her agency said Friday. Nobuyo Oyama was 90.

    For a quarter of a century until 2005, Oyama lent her endearingly hoarse voice to the titular blue feline from the 22nd century with his “magic pocket” and its supply of fantastical gadgets, including a door that lets you travel anywhere.

    She “passed away on September 29 due to old age”, her talent agency told AFP. Her funeral was attended by close relatives, it said.

    “Doraemon” is still on air as one of the longest-running Japanese anime series, popular across Asia and farther afield.

    While Oyama’s successor has played the role for nearly two decades, her voice remains the definitive sound of the robot for many who grew up hearing it.

    In “Doraemon”, the cuddly robot cat with its huge smile travels back in time to help a lazy schoolboy called Nobita overcome the trials of everyday life.

    Created by the artist Fujiko F. Fujio, the character first appeared in manga strips in 1969, making the transition to the small and big screen over the following decades.

  • US expands sanctions against Iran’s oil industry over Israel strikes

    US expands sanctions against Iran’s oil industry over Israel strikes

    The United States hit Iran’s oil and petrochemicals sectors with new sanctions Friday in response to Tehran’s October 1 attack against Israel, designating dozens of new companies and firms.

    The US Treasury Department said it was going after Iran’s so-called “shadow fleet” of ships involved in selling Iranian oil in circumvention of existing sanctions, designating 10 companies and 17 vessels as “blocked property” over their involvement in shipments of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products.

    The State Department also announced it was slapping sanctions on six other firms and six ships for “knowingly engaging in a significant transaction for the purchase, acquisition, sale, transport, or marketing of petroleum or petroleum products from Iran.”

    “Today’s sanctions target Iranian efforts to channel revenues from its energy industry to finance deadly and disruptive activity — including development of its nuclear program, the proliferation of ballistic missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.

    The sanctions form part of the US response to Iran’s attack, in which it launched some 200 ballistic missiles against Israel in retaliation for the killing of Tehran-backed militant leaders and a general from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

    Israel has said its response to Iran’s second direct attack against its territory this year would be “deadly, precise, and surprising.”

    US President Joe Biden told reporters last week that Israel should consider “other alternatives than striking oil fields,” amid reports it was planning to do so.

    His national security advisor Jake Sullivan said Friday that sanctions had been announced after the president had consulted with America’s allies and partners.

    “These measures will help further deny Iran financial resources used to support its missile programs and provide support for terrorist groups that threaten the United States, its allies, and partners,” Sullivan said in a statement.

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington had made clear after the October 1 attack that Tehran would face consequences.

    “To that end, we are taking steps today to disrupt the flow of revenue the Iranian regime uses to fund its nuclear program and missile development, support terrorist proxies and partners, and perpetuate conflict throughout the Middle East,” he said in a statement.

  • Trump biopic ‘The Apprentice’ hits US theaters weeks before election 

    Trump biopic ‘The Apprentice’ hits US theaters weeks before election 

    Explosive Donald Trump biopic “The Apprentice” hits US theaters Friday, with filmmakers gambling that it will draw audiences in a fiercely polarized nation just weeks before its subject’s election showdown with rival Kamala Harris.

    The hot-topic film about the Republican candidate’s younger years has drawn legal threats from Trump’s attorneys, not least for deeply unflattering scenes including a depiction of the former president raping his wife.

    None of the major Hollywood studios was willing to risk distributing the polarizing movie, which is instead being released in some 1,700 North American movie theaters this weekend by indie studio Briarcliff Entertainment.

    “I think it’s interesting that people think this movie is controversial,” said director Ali Abbasi at the film’s New York premiere this week, which was attended by stars Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong.

    “Think about it. We’re talking about a person who is actually convicted in civil court of sexual assault.”

    The most talked-about scene in “The Apprentice” shows Trump raping his first wife, Ivana, after she belittles him for growing overweight and bald.

    In real life, Ivana accused Trump of raping her during divorce proceedings, but later rescinded the allegation. She died in 2022.

    Controversy tends to raise awareness, said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore, “but whether that translates to people wanting to see it is a whole different thing.”

    “The Apprentice” is “not going to be the number one movie at the box office this weekend,” he predicted.

    But it can still only benefit from the timing, much like the recent successful release of another biopic, “Reagan.”

    “You’ve got to strike while the iron is hot, and right now political movies are pretty hot.”

    Despite the headlines, “The Apprentice” offers a nuanced view of the young Trump as an ambitious but naive social climber, desperately trying to navigate the cutthroat world of Manhattan property deals and politics.

    “I really don’t think we’ve done like a hit job on Donald Trump,” Abbasi told AFP at the Cannes film festival in May, where he used a press conference to invite Trump to watch the movie before judging it.

    On Wednesday, marketers hired a plane to fly a banner over a Trump rally in Pennsylvania which read “TRUMP GO SEE THE APPRENTICE FRIDAY.”

    Nonetheless, Trump’s lawyers have vowed to sue the producers, calling the film “garbage” and “pure malicious defamation.”

    Its title reflects the name of NBC television show “The Apprentice,” which brought Trump fame and fortune over 15 seasons beginning in 2004.

    Executive producer James Shani told the New York premiere audience the film had been “especially difficult” to release, and praised Briarcliff for being the only distributor with “the balls to get us here.”

    “I think that says a lot about the time that we’re in,” he said.

  • Let ‘Emily in Paris’ remain in Paris, Macron says

    Let ‘Emily in Paris’ remain in Paris, Macron says

    French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview published Wednesday he hoped that Netflix’s hit series “Emily in Paris” would remain centred on the French capital rather than move to Rome.

    The fourth season of “Emily in Paris”, currently streaming, takes events to the Italian capital where the show’s star, played by Lily Collins, seeks to break new ground both personally and professionally.

    When the show was renewed for a fifth season last month, the series’ creators said it would play out between Paris and Rome, with Emily having “a presence” in Italy.

    Darren Star, the creator and showrunner of “Emily in Paris”, was quoted as saying that the show’s heroine “was becoming very comfortable in Paris. I wanted to throw her into some unfamiliar waters”.

    Asked by US magazine Variety what he thought of the move, Macron said he would not take it lying down.

    “We will fight hard,” he said. “And we will ask them to remain in Paris.”

    Macron’s wife Brigitte has a cameo appearance in the show’s fourth season, in which, during a chance meeting in a restaurant, she says she follows Emily on Instagram.

    “I was super proud, and she was very happy to do it,” the president said about his wife’s effort. “‘Emily in Paris’ is super positive in terms of attractiveness for the country. For my own business, it’s a very good initiative.”

    Was he asked to appear on the show? “I’m less attractive than Brigitte,” Macron replied.

    “Emily in Paris” has been mostly lambasted by French critics for showing the French capital in what they say is an unrealistically glamorous light. Some of them have admitted, however, that it has its moments.

    “It’s a saccharine series filled with stereotypes,” judged culture magazine Telerama when the show first aired. “And yet we can’t get ourselves to totally hate it.”

    Britain’s The Guardian came to the show’s defence. “Yes, Emily in Paris is unrealistic”, the paper said. “But when it comes to escapist TV, reality is overrated.”

  • India mourns death of billionaire Ratan Tata

    India mourns death of billionaire Ratan Tata

    Crowds of mourners gathered in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, on Thursday for the funeral of industrialist Ratan Tata, hailed as a “titan” who led one of the country’s biggest conglomerates.

    Tata, who died at the age of 86 on Wednesday, transformed the Tata Group into a sprawling international enterprise with a portfolio ranging from software to sports cars.

    His coffin, draped in an Indian flag, was flanked by a guard of honour, with a marching band of trumpets and drums accompanying the procession.

    Mumbai has declared a day of mourning, with the funeral rites to take place on Thursday afternoon.

    “A titan of Indian industry”, The Hindu newspaper called him on its front page. “India loses its crown jewel”, the Hindustan Times wrote.

    Tributes also poured in from fellow industrialists, with Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, saying it was a “big loss, not just to the Tata group, but to every Indian”.

    Who was Ratan Tata?

    Tata was born in Mumbai in 1937 into a family of Parsis — a proud but dwindling community which played an outsized role in the city’s business affairs under British rule.

    He had intended to chart his own course in life as an architect after graduating from Cornell University in New York.

    But an appeal from his grandmother saw him return to India in 1962 and join the sprawling family business, beginning work as a factory floor labourer and sleeping in a hostel for trainees.

    He took over the family empire in 1991, riding the wave of the radical free-market reforms India had just unleashed that year.

    Tata’s 21 years at its helm saw the salt-to-steel conglomerate expand its global footprint.

    His 2008 decision to purchase Britain’s loss-making Jaguar and Land Rover carmakers for $2.3 billion burnished his reputation when Tata Group was able to restructure both brands and return them to profit the following year.

    The Tata Group said his philanthropy work “touched the lives of millions.”

    “From education to healthcare, his initiatives have left a deep-rooted mark that will benefit generations to come,” the company added.

    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Tata “a visionary business leader, a compassionate soul and an extraordinary human being.”

    Modi praised Tata for providing “stable leadership to one of India’s oldest and most prestigious business houses”.

    People from all walks of life appreciate him for his service towards the country.

    In one of his last social media post he addressed the concerns regarding health that was posted two days ago.

  • Taylor Swift got police escort to London gigs after Austria terror plot

    Taylor Swift got police escort to London gigs after Austria terror plot

    US star Taylor Swift got a special police escort for her London concerts after an alleged suicide attack plot led to the cancellation of three performances in Vienna.

    Culture Minister Lisa Nandy denied the singer was given preferential treatment, after reports she had a motorbike escort usually reserved for senior members of the royal family and politicians.

    Her denial comes with the new Labour government under attack for accepting free gifts, including Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was given six tickets to the Swift concert.

    Starmer, who attended the concert with his wife Victoria, announced last week that he had repaid thousands of pounds worth of gifts including the concert tickets.

    But Nandy said the police escort, first reported by The Sun newspaper, was not the result of pressure from senior politicians.

    “I utterly reject that there’s been any kind of wrongdoing or undue influence in this case,” she told Sky News television.

    The interior minister, Yvette Cooper, would not have insisted “any individual got the top level of private security arrangements. That is an operational matter for the police, not for the government,” she said.

    Other Labour politicians who enjoyed free tickets for the “Eras” tour shows included Education Minister Bridget Phillipson, London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Nandy herself.

    The Swift tour wrapped up its European leg in August in London following dates across a dozen countries.

    The last month of the Europe tour, however, was marred by the thwarted Austria attack, with authorities there revealing that an Islamic State sympathiser was planning a deadly attack at a concert in Vienna.

    Three suspects were detained and all three August concert dates in Vienna were cancelled after an investigation conducted with the help of US intelligence.

    According to The Sun report, Swift’s mother and manager threatened to axe the London shows in August unless she received the police escort.

    It alleged that the Met Police agreed after “personal interventions from Cooper and Khan”, stressing that any cancellation would be “economically damaging and embarrassing”.

    The Swift tour had been forecast to boost the UK economy by almost £1 billion ($1.3 billion), Barclays bank said in a study entitled “Swiftonomics”.

    London’s Metropolitan Police told AFP the force was “operationally independent” with decisions taken on the basis of a “thorough assessment of threat, risk and harm and the circumstances of each case”.

  • Turkish Airlines pilot dies mid-flight, forcing emergency landing

    Turkish Airlines pilot dies mid-flight, forcing emergency landing

    A Turkish Airlines pilot died after collapsing mid-flight, forcing the Turkish national carrier to make an emergency landing in New York, the airline said on Wednesday.

    The plane had taken off from the western US coastal city of Seattle on Tuesday evening, airline spokesman Yahya Ustun wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

    “The pilot of our Airbus 350… flight TK204 from Seattle to Istanbul collapsed during the flight,” he wrote.

    “After an unsuccessful attempt to give first aid, the flight crew of another pilot and a co-pilot decided to make an emergency landing, but he died before landing.”

    The 59-year-old pilot, who had worked for Turkish Airlines since 2007, had passed a medical examination in March, which gave no indication of any health problems, Ustun wrote.

  • Samsung issues rare apology for poor results in tech ‘crisis’

    Samsung issues rare apology for poor results in tech ‘crisis’

    Samsung Electronics issued a rare apology and acknowledged on Tuesday it was facing a “crisis” over its technological competitiveness, reflected in a disappointing profit guidance, despite a global AI boom.

    Samsung said it expected third-quarter profits to rise to 9.1 trillion won ($6.8 billion), up 274.5 per cent from a year earlier, falling short of market expectations as the company struggles to leverage robust demand for the chips used in artificial intelligence servers.

    “Today, we, the management of Samsung Electronics, would like to first say sorry to you,” Samsung said in a statement signed by Jun Young-hyun, the vice chairman of its device solutions division.

    It said “concerns have arisen about our fundamental technological competitiveness and the future of the company” because of the results.

    “Our management will take the lead in overcoming the crisis […] We will make the serious situation we are currently facing an opportunity for a resurgence.”

    The results are up around three-fold from the same period last year but down nearly 13pc from the previous quarter.

    The rare apology came about a week after the tech giant said it intended to reduce staff in some of its operations in Asia, describing the move as “routine workforce adjustments”.

    Bloomberg reported that the layoffs could affect about 10pc of the workforce in those markets, while other reports claimed the planned move could affect up to 30pc of overseas employees at some operations.

    Samsung has been lagging behind South Korea’s SK hynix when it comes to high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips used in AI chipsets, which could be one of the biggest causes of the profit estimate released on Tuesday, said Kim Dae-jong at Sejong University in Seoul.

    “Given the circumstances, it appears that Samsung has also lost a significant number of (HBM-related) employees to SK hynix,” Kim told AFP.

    The company was facing a “grave situation”, he said.

    Shares in Samsung fell 1.31pc in afternoon trading in Seoul, with its stock down almost 30pc over the past six months.

    ‘Expected decline’

    The Samsung statement said management would “quickly assess and make any necessary adjustments to our workplace culture”.

    The firm is the flagship subsidiary of South Korean giant Samsung Group, by far the largest of the family-controlled conglomerates known as “chaebol” that dominate business in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

    Jene Park, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, said there had been “an expected decline” in Samsung’s memory sector, with delays in supply of the newest chips and general reductions in memory demand.

    Even so, a sharp profit or sales decline was unlikely in the near future, he said. “Samsung plays a significant role in the global supply chain,” Park said.

    The company’s estimate for its sales for the third quarter was seen increasing 17.2pc on-year to 79 trillion won.

    Samsung is expected to release its final earnings report at the end of this month.

  • Duo wins Physics Nobel for key breakthroughs in AI

    Duo wins Physics Nobel for key breakthroughs in AI

    American John Hopfield and British-Canadian Geoffrey Hinton won the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for pioneering work in the development of artificial intelligence.

    The pair were honored “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks,” the jury said.

    “This year’s two Nobel Laureates in Physics have used tools from physics to develop methods that are the foundation of today’s powerful machine learning,” the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences said in a statement.

    Hopfield, 91, a professor at Princeton University, was spotlighted for having created “an associative memory that can store and reconstruct images and other types of patterns in data.”

    The jury said Hinton, a 76-year-old professor at the University of Toronto, “invented a method that can autonomously find properties in data, and so perform tasks such as identifying specific elements in pictures.”

    “I’m flabbergasted… I had no idea that could happen,” Hinton told reporters via a phone interview as the winners of the award were announced in Stockholm.
    The pair will receive their prize, consisting of a diploma, a gold medal and a $1 million cheque, from King Carl XVI Gustaf in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of scientist Alfred Nobel who created the prizes in his last will and testament.

    Last year, the Nobel Prize in Physics went to France’s Pierre Agostini, Hungarian-Austrian Ferenc Krausz and Franco-Swede Anne L’Huillier for research using ultra quick light flashes that enable the study of electrons inside atoms and molecules.

    The Nobel season continues this week with the announcement of the winner, or winners, of the chemistry prize on Wednesday — followed by the much-anticipated prizes for literature on Thursday and peace on Friday.

    The Economics Prize winds things up on Monday, October 14.

    Awarded since 1901, the Nobel Prizes honor those who have, in the words of prize creator and scientist Alfred Nobel, “conferred the greatest benefit on humankind.”