Features

LOS ANGELES, United States — New Disney/Marvel comedy “Deadpool & Wolverine” scored a “spectacular” opening in North American theatres this weekend, its huge take of $205 million placing it not just near the top of superhero films but marking the eighth-biggest opening ever, analysts said on Sunday.

“The numbers are fantastic,” said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. “These characters’ popularity is growing, not slowing.”

The film is enjoying positive reviews and “excellent” audience scores, Gross said. The popularity of Ryan Reynolds (who plays Deadpool and shares a writing credit), and his real-life pal Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) — didn’t hurt, either.

The debut ranks just ahead of 2018’s “Black Panther,” which opened to $202 million, and just behind “Jurassic World” ($208 million in 2015), according to Variety. International ticket sales are already a stunning $233.3 million.

Its opening was also the best ever for an R-rated film (not inflation-adjusted), far surpassing the previous record holder, the first “Deadpool” ($133.7 million), according to the Hollywood Reporter.

That left last weekend’s top film, Universal’s weather thriller “Twisters”, twisting in the dust, with what normally would be a respectable take of $35.3 million, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported.

The stand-alone follow-up to 1996’s popular “Twister” has Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones playing risk-taking storm chasers caught in the middle of fast-converging tornadoes.

In third for the Friday-through-Sunday period was Universal’s animated comedy “Despicable Me 4”, earning $14.2 million in its fourth weekend out. It has total ticket sales so far of $291.0 million in North America.

Slipping one spot to fourth place was Disney and Pixar’s coming-of-age animation “Inside Out 2”, at $8.3 million.

Also down one spot was horror mystery “Longlegs” at $6.8 million. Nicolas Cage stars in the film, the all-time top grosser from indie studio Neon.

Sonia Salfity,
Desperate Dieter

As summer welcomes us with warm and open arms we can get too comfortable in its embrace. We can get so wrapped up in the joy of the wonderful season that we let our guard down when it comes to our eating habits.

The downward spiral

Despite the fact that hot weather can take away our urge to eat as we deal with the heat, we have other challenges that offset the difference.

One of these challenges for me is that I get invited to more events in the summer months especially with all the graduation parties that take place at this time.

I love celebrating with our friends and family, but it can wreak havoc on my diet and exercise routine.

If I’m not intentional about taking steps to prevent the downward spiral, then I’m doomed to fail my body.

Here are some useful ways I found when intentionally preparing myself for these summer events without sabotaging my own best interests.

1. Don’t Delay!

Get your exercise in before the event. It can be a trip to the gym or a quick walk in your neighbourhood.

Whatever you do make sure to move your body. Add cardio and weight-bearing routines to your regimen and most importantly make it a non-negotiable priority lest you negotiate yourself out of it!

The longer you delay the more excuses you’ll have!

Let’s advocate for putting ourselves at the top of our list of priorities instead of the very bottom.

2. Don’t fight this battle alone.

Round up at least one friend who will keep you accountable. This is especially beneficial when you’re both attending the same event.

‘Never go into the battle of the bulge without being armed with a companion who is fighting the same battle’

I can’t tell you how helpful this is because that friend is going to gently remind you to stay within your healthy boundaries.

A true friend wouldn’t allow you to drink and drive and so it is when it comes to overeating.

Two are always stronger than one so never go into the battle of the bulge without being armed with a companion who is fighting the same battle!

When they are weak you are strong and when you are weak they are there to prop you up even if it means limping your way out of that battle zone having succumbed to a desert or two!

3. What you do before an event is just as important as what you do afterwards.

If you’ve eaten more than you planned, make up for it at your next meal.

Don’t skip your meals instead, make an adjustment so you’re consuming less calories to make up for the ones you ate at the party.

You might also add a brisk 10 minute walk afterwards.

This will also help rev up your metabolism so you’re burning fuel even after your walk is finished.

4. If it’s feasible, stay standing up as you mingle with the guests at the event.

We sit down enough at our desk jobs and at home so let’s make an effort to get off the chair every opportunity we get!

5. Distract yourself

from the delectable food offerings by enjoying the conversations at these events.

If you don’t hear a subject you’re interested in, then start your own conversation about something more meaningful that is beyond the superficial banter.

There’s nothing wrong with chitchatting about the weather but it’s always more fun to discuss more serious topics that we’re passionate about.

These deeper conversations require more of our mental attention and thus take our minds off autopilot.

The deeper our mind has to focus on the conversations at hand the less likely we will be distracted by that chocolate cake that’s calling our name!

‘The more events you have to attend in one day the more likely your defenses will break down’

6. Don’t forget your triggers.

Keep them at the forefront of your mind because you’ll want to avoid consuming the foods that trigger your cravings.

I know that if I eat a salty snack I will likely crave something sweet afterwards.

To offset that, make sure to drink enough water before, during and after your outing.

7. Avoid overcrowding your schedule

even if it means gently declining some invitations.

The more events you have to attend in one day the more likely your defenses will break down.

Simplify your life as much as possible for your own mental, physical and emotional wellbeing.

It’s honestly quite difficult to take care of yourself when you’re too busy trying to please everyone else.

Decide what can stay on your schedule and what needs to go.

A good friend will always understand and not hold it against you if you have to decline the invitation.

If they don’t understand, then you might want to rethink who your true friends are!

Here’s to a healthy summer as you conquer one challenge at a time ,one day at a time. Stay cool!

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

PARIS — Lady Gaga, Celine Dion and French-Malian singer Aya Nakamura joined dancers, an opera diva and even a heavy metal band in an opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics that sought to proudly showcase French culture with a modern twist. The first-ever opening ceremony held outside a stadium - on the River Seine - had to battle driving rain that cast a pallid gloom over the City of Light.

The fast-moving and multi-location ceremony masterminded by acclaimed French theatre director Thomas Jolly was aimed at impressing the global TV audience as much as those who braved the weather and intense security to watch live.

“It is now. The world is watching us. Let’s open the Games in style!” French President Emmanuel Macron, who watched the ceremony in a VIP stand with other leaders, wrote on X.

In a nod to her passion for French culture, US pop star Lady Gaga appeared from behind a fan of pom-poms held by her dancing troupe to sing “Mon truc en plumes” (“My Thing With Feathers”), an iconic French music hall hit by the legendary Zizi Jeanmaire.

“It is my supreme honor to sing for you and cheer you on,” Gaga wrote on her social media channels after the performance, saying she always “felt a very special connection with French people and singing French music”.

Franco-Malian R&B superstar Aya Nakamura, the most listened-to French-speaking singer in the world, performed a medley with two of her hits “Pookie” and “Djadja” and a classic by Charles Aznavour, “For me Formidable”, one hundred years since his birth.

Rumours she was to perform had sparked a backlash from the extreme right in France and a torrent of racist abuse on social media. But in a striking symbol, she was accompanied in her performance by musicians from France’s Republican Guard.

Canadian singer Celine Dion, who had been battling a rare illness, made a spectacular comeback by singing from the Eiffel Tower at the climax of the ceremony with a rousing version of the “Hymn to Love” by Edith Piaf.

According to Jolly, the 12 different phases of the ceremony told the story of a country rich in its “diversity”, “inclusive”, “not one France but several Frances”, and celebrating “the whole world united”.

He has been backed by a writing team including famed novelist Leila Slimani and screenwriter Fanny Herrero, who penned the smash-hit casting agency comedy “Dix pour cent” (“Call My Agent”).

In another highlight, the star “etoile” dancer of the Paris Opera, Guillaume Diop, performed on a Paris rooftop.

For many French spectators, the highlight was the surprise appearance of the heavy metal group Gojira, who burst out onto platforms constructed on the Conciergerie, a key building in the French Revolution, where deposed queen Marie-Antoinette was held.

With a mannequin of a headless Marie Antoinette after her guillotine execution for good measure, they belted out the revolutionary chant “Ah! Ca ira”.

In an unlikely collaboration, they were joined by the French-Swiss mezzo-soprano Marina Viotti, who makes no secret of her taste for metal as well as classical.

Jakub Jozef Orlinski, a Polish counter-tenor who is also a break-dancer, interpreted an aria from the opera “Les Indes Galantes” by Jean-Philippe Rameau combining both of his talents.

The ceremony, which lasted just over four hours, had got under way with a clip of French actor Djamel Debbouze carrying the Olympic torch into the national stadium, the Stade de France, only to realise he should have gone to the river.

Helped by French football great Zinedine Zidane, he then takes the torch on an underground odyssey through Paris and hands it to a group of children who are then guided by a mysterious masked individual who then eventually passed on the flame towards the final relay for the cauldron.

TOKYO — Keita Suzuki leads a group of young analogue photography fans around a coastal city in Japan, stopping to snap pastel hydrangea blooms with bulky vintage film cameras.

The participants later share their lush retro-looking snaps online — a trend a top Japanese camera brand wants to capture with its first new film model in two decades.

Instead of pressing a smartphone button, more and more young people “want to experience the original act of taking a photograph: Winding the film up, looking through the viewfinder and releasing the shutter”, Suzuki told AFP.

Another “beauty” of film photography is that with limited physical film, you must think carefully about which memories to “lock in” to each photograph, he said.

Suzuki advertises his tours on social media and has seen a growing interest from teens and 20-somethings loading 35mm film and taking it to be developed for the first time.

Yuriko Yamada was one of around 20 people who joined a recent gathering in Kamakura near Tokyo.

“Digital photos are clear and clean, but film ones have faint, soft colours, which I prefer,” the 34-year-old said.

“It takes time to see the final product, but I really enjoy the process,” she added. “It feels nostalgic.”

Japan’s biggest camera brands stopped making analogue film models in the 2000s as digital ones became dominant.

Countless camera sellers in Japan’s big cities have since stepped up to fill the void, refurbishing old models for a new generation of analogue enthusiasts.

Despite the surge in popularity, many of those on the photo tour said they still find it difficult to repair their old cameras because the parts are no longer being produced.

‘Many hurdles’

To meet rising demand from new film fans, the $500 Pentax 17 — the brand’s first analogue model in 21 years — was launched in Europe and the United States in June, and Japan this month.

The camera has a classic black appearance but takes half-frame photos, meaning a 24-exposure film yields 48 shots, which are portrait-orientated like phone photos.

It has been so popular in Japan that pre-orders sold out, according to manufacturer Ricoh Imaging Company.

Product planner and designer Takeo Suzuki, nicknamed TKO — a revered figure among photography fans — said Ricoh had been “surprised” by the “huge” global response.

Plans to release a new analogue camera were hatched around 2020, but weren’t easy to realise.

“This was a completely new project, so it was like groping in the dark,” Suzuki said.

“There were so many hurdles, but we received a lot of support from many people.”

Pentax engineers used archive drawings of past cameras, some on paper, to try and make manual winders and other analogue technology.

But they struggled, so the company asked retired colleagues to come back to help.

“They taught us tips and tricks that were not on the blueprints, but were really recipes in the engineer’s head,” Suzuki said.

By doing so, they “revived the old technology little by little”.

‘Spark conversations’

Instant and disposable film cameras made by Ricoh’s rival Fujifilm have also become popular as the trend for sharing old-fashioned photos on social media grows.

Sales of the palm-sized Instax, launched in 1998 as a competitor to Polaroid, stagnated for several years in the 2000s due to the shift to digital cameras.

But they are rising again in part thanks to an expanded range including sleek, classic designs made to appeal to men and older customers, the company says.

“People enjoy prints as a communication tool, because they spark conversations,” said Senior Fujifilm Manager Ryuichiro Takai, who is responsible for the Instax business.

Young customers at Popeye Camera, a specialist film photography shop in Tokyo’s Jiyugaoka district, seem to agree.

Yoshinobu Ishikawa took over the family business in 2000, when the rise of digital cameras had nearly forced the shop’s closure.

Back then, “young people found it difficult to enter” as mostly older male customers would be having “intimidating, technical conversations” with staff, he said.

But now Ishikawa actively courts them with fun items such as stickers to decorate photos and leather camera straps, as well as a custom developing service — speaking to customers beforehand about the style they want.

“Young people see film photography shared on social media, and they want to try it themselves,” he said.

Yamada, the photo tour participant, says she feels “more and more into film photography”.

“It’s inconvenient, but I feel it’s something new.”

LOS ANGELES, United States — John Mayall, the British blues pioneer whose 1960s music collective the Bluesbreakers helped usher in a fertile period of rock and brought guitarists like Eric Clapton to prominence, has died at 90, his family said Tuesday.

Mayall, a singer and multi-instrumentalist who was dubbed “the godfather of British blues”, and whose open-door arrangement saw some of the greats in the genre hone their craft with him and his band, “passed away peacefully in his California home” on Monday, according to a statement posted on his Facebook page.

It did not state a cause of death.

“Health issues that forced John to end his epic touring career have finally led to peace for one of this world’s greatest road warriors,” it said. “John Mayall gave us 90 years of tireless efforts to educate, inspire and entertain.”

Mayall’s influence on 1960s rock and beyond is enormous. Members of the Bluesbreakers eventually went on to join or form groups including Cream, Fleetwood Mac, the Rolling Stones and many more.

At age 30, Mayall moved to London from northern England in 1963. Sensing revolution in the air, he gave up his profession as a graphic designer to embrace a career in blues, the musical style born in Black America.

He teamed up with a series of young guitarists including Clapton, Peter Green, later of Fleetwood Mac, and Mick Taylor who helped form the Rolling Stones.

Stones frontman Mick Jagger said Mayall was “a great pioneer of British blues”.

He “had a wonderful eye for talented young musicians, including Mick Taylor — who he recommended to me after Brian Jones died — ushering in a new era for the Stones”, Jagger wrote on social media platform X.

In the Bluesbreakers’ debut album in 1966, “Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton,” John Mayall enthralled music aficionados with a melding of soulful rock and gutsy, guitar-driven American blues featuring covers of tunes by Robert Johnson, Otis Rush and Ray Charles.

The blues music he was playing in British venues was “a novelty for white England,” he told AFP in 1997.

That album was a hit, catapulting Clapton to stardom and bringing a wave of popularity to a more raw and personal blues music.

Mayall moved to California in 1968 and toured America extensively in 1972.

He recorded a number of landmark albums in the 1960s including “Crusade”, “A Hard Road”, and “Blues From Laurel Canyon”. Dozens more followed in the 1970s and up to his latest, “The Sun Is Shining Down”, in 2022.

Mayall was awarded an OBE, an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, in 2005.

LONDON — British telecommunications regulator Ofcom said on Wednesday it had handed video sharing platform TikTok a 1.9 million pound ($2.4 million) fine for failing to timely make available safety data.

Ofcom criticised the platform, which is owned by Chinese group ByteDance, saying it communicated inaccurate information last year and failed swiftly to address that.

“Ofcom has today fined TikTok £1.875 million for failing to accurately respond to a formal request for information about its parental controls safety feature,” the regulator said in a statement.

In a statement to AFP, TikTok recognised it had furnished Ofcom with inaccurate data on the use of a parental controls tool that underestimated “considerably” the number of people using the tool.

“While we subsequently provided the correct information, we fell short of our obligations by not reporting the error sooner, and apologise for any disruption this caused.

“We are committed to fully cooperating with all of Ofcom’s requests and have implemented improvements to our internal processes,” a TikTok spokesperson said, adding that Ofcom had recognised the oversight was not deliberate.

Noting the breach was a first for the platform, bringing a fine 25 percent below its maximum, Ofcom said “significant weight was also given to the fact that, notwithstanding its failings, TikTok proactively self-reported the error to us and has since taken steps to improve its internal processes.”

But the regulator said the failing had forced it to remove details on the effectiveness of TikTok’s parental controls in an upcoming transparency report.

Ofcom said it received only partial, if accurate, information data seven months after a deadline last year.

It added it believed that the penalty was appropriate for a company of TikTok’s size, given its resources and awareness of regulatory obligations.

The move comes a week after TikTok lost an appeal to escape new EU digital rules that seek to rein in the power of big tech after a court rejected its challenge.

STOCKHOLM — Police in Greenland arrested prominent anti-whaling environmentalist Paul Watson under an international warrant issued by Japan, detaining him until August 15, authorities and his foundation said.

His ship had just docked on Sunday in Nuuk to refuel on its way to “intercept” Japan’s new whaling factory vessel in the North Pacific, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF) said.

Video posted by CPWF on social media showed officers handcuffing Watson on the bridge of the John Paul DeJoria ship, putting him inside a police van on the dockside and driving him away.

Watson was then brought before a district court that ruled to detain him until a decision is made on his potential extradition to Japan, Greenland’s police said in a statement.

Nuuk district court in Greenland “decided that Paul Watson would be detained until August 15 and the decision has been appealed in the high court of Greenland”, judge Stig Norskov-Jensen told AFP.

Denmark’s justice ministry will decide whether or not to extradite Watson to Japan, according to the police statement.

“Japan’s arrest warrant is illegal. It violates every international treaty on human rights”, said Francois Zimeray, one of Watson’s lawyers, adding that by extraditing his client, Denmark “would violate its own constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights”.

Watson, who featured in the reality TV series “Whale Wars”, founded the Sea Shepherd and the CPWF organisations, and has drawn attention for direct action tactics, including confrontations with whaling ships at sea.

CPWF said it believed his arrest was in connection with an Interpol Red Notice related to Watson’s previous anti-whaling activities in the Antarctic.

The group added that the arrest was a “surprise” since its lawyers had reported that the Red Notice had been withdrawn.

“However, it appears that Japan had made the notice confidential to facilitate Paul’s travel for the purpose of making an arrest,” a statement said.

Mothership 

Japan’s government made no comment on Monday but a spokeswoman for the Japanese coastguard told AFP it was aware of the arrest.

“The coastguard will continue to take appropriate steps based on coordination with related entities,” the spokeswoman said.

CPWF said the ship was en route to the Northwest Passage in its campaign of “intercepting Japan’s newly-built factory ship, the Kangei Maru, in the North Pacific”.

The 9,300-tonne “mothership”, which set off from Japan in May, butchers whales caught and killed by smaller vessels.

It boasts a powerful winch that can haul carcasses weighing as much as 70 tonnes up a ramp, as well as 40 freezer containers, each with a capacity of 15 tonnes of whale meat.

Tokyo argues that eating whale is part of Japanese culture and an issue of “food security” in the resource-poor country, which imports large amounts of animal meat.

But consumption of whale has fallen to around 1,000 or 2,000 tonnes per year compared to around 200 times that in the 1960s.

‘Scientific’ 

Activists aggressively pursued the Kangei Maru’s predecessor when, prior to 2019, Japan hunted whales in the Antarctic and North Pacific for what it said were “scientific” purposes.

That year Japan quit the International Whaling Commission and nowadays conducts commercial whaling, but only in its own waters, and on what it calls a sustainable scale.

The CPWF said however that it suspects Japan intends to resume high-seas whaling in the Southern Ocean and North Pacific by 2025.

It added that it believes the reactivation of the Red Notice against Watson is “politically motivated, coinciding with the launch of the new factory ship”.

The Red Notice was issued in 2012, with an Interpol statement at the same saying Watson was wanted by Japan on charges of causing damage and injury in two incidents in the Antarctic Ocean in 2010 against a Japanese whaling ship.

NEW YORK — The buyer who spent a record $44.6 million to buy a stegosaurus fossil at auction was Ken Griffin, CEO of the Citadel hedge fund, according to a person familiar with the acquisition.

The skeleton, nicknamed Apex, is estimated to be 150 million years old and is the largest stegosaurus ever found, according to the auction house.

Griffin placed his bid over the phone to beat six others in a 15-minute-long bidding war on Wednesday, a live audience cheering as the price jumped.

“Apex was born in America and is going to stay in America,” he said after the sale, according to The Wall Street Journal, which broke the news that Griffin was the buyer.

A regular donor to the Republican Party, the hedge fund chief has a net worth of approximately $37.8 billion, according to Forbes.

He intends to explore loaning the specimen to a US institution, the source told AFP.

The executive has collaborated with museums in the past. In 2021, he paid $43.2 million for a first-edition copy of the US Constitution, later loaning it to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas.

He also helped fund a dinosaur exhibit at Chicago’s Field Museum in 2018 with a $16.5 million donation.

His latest purchase measures 3.3 metrest all and 8.2 metres long, and is near complete, with 254 bones out of an approximate total of 319.

Dinosaur remains have become a hot-ticket item in recent years, with paleontologists voicing concern that museums are losing out to private bidders.

The previous record for a dinosaur skeleton sale was set in 2020, when a Tyrannosaurus Rex nicknamed “Stan” went for $31.8 million.

Apex is 30 per cent larger than “Sophie”, the most complete stegosaurus ever put on public display, which is housed in the Natural History Museum in London.