The head of New York City’s largest evangelical church has resigned from President Donald Trump’s unofficial panel of evangelical advisers, one of the latest resignations in a string of high-profile withdrawals from advisory boards serving the president.

A.R. Bernard, head of the 37,000-member Christian Cultural Center, announced this week he submitted a formal letter to Trump on Tuesday announcing his withdrawal.

Tuesday was the day Trump gave a press conference from Trump Tower in New York City, in which he doubled down on his assertions that “many sides” were to blame for the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend when a counterprotester was killed at a white supremacist rally

Bernard was one of a few dozen leaders, reports The Washington Post, who gave advice to the president through the White House liaison office. Other members of the advisory group include a mix of Southern Baptist and Pentecostal church leaders.

Several other members of the board, including Southern Baptist Pastor Jack Graham, the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference’s Tony Suarez, and televangelist Mark Burns, told the Post that they plan to stay on the council.

Meanwhile the Commerce Department is also losing members of its board of “digital economy” advisers.

This week more than half of the 15 members of the expert board set up last year by President Obama resigned this week in the wake of the Charlottesville comments. Among them are Zoe Baird, president and CEO of the Markel Foundation; Mitchell Baker, executive chairwoman of the tech organization Mozilla; David L. Cohen, senior vice president and chief diversity officer at Comcast; and Microsoft president and chilef legal officer Brad Smith.

Earlier this week, Trump announced he had dissolved two business advisory committees composed of top American corporate executives, after at least seven CEOs announced they were resigning from the councils because of his remarks. Also, all 17 members of a presidential advisory committee on the arts announced their resignations in a letter on Friday over his comments about the Charlottesville rally, saying, “The false equivalencies you push cannot stand.”
…

U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will not attend an annual ceremony at Washington’s Kennedy Center honoring the lifetime achievements of select artists to avoid distraction, a White House statement said Saturday.

“The president and first lady have decided not to participate in this year’s activities to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction,” the White House said.

The announcement came after one of the honorees, dancer Carmen de Lavallade, said she would boycott a separate White House reception that is held in conjunction with the award ceremony.

The 86-year-old de Lavallade issued a statement Thursday announcing her decision.

“In light of the socially divisive and morally caustic narrative that our current leadership is choosing to engage in, and in keeping with the principles that I and so many others have fought for, I will be declining the invitation to attend the reception at the White House,” she said.

Another honoree, TV writer Norman Lear, has also said he will not attend the reception. A third, singer Lionel Richie, has said he is “on the fence” about the White House event.

In addition to Richie, Lear and de Lavallade, singer Gloria Esfefan and rapper LL Cool J will be celebrated for their lifetime contributions to the arts at the December 3 ceremony.

The White House announcement came just days after members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities resigned in protest against Trump’s controversial remarks this week following last Saturday’s violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The latest developments are indicative of Trump’s contentious relationship with the arts world. After his election, Trump had a difficult time finding entertainers to perform at his inaugural gala in January.
…

Recruiting for Jihad is a Norwegian expose on the practices extremist Jihadists follow to recruit young men to fight for ISIS. During filming, Adel Khan Farooq, one of the two filmmakers, had unprecedented access to a radicalized network of Islamists in Europe. He met them through Norwegian-born Ubaydullah Hussain, a notorious recruiter, currently serving a nine-year sentence in a Norwegian prison.

 

“In the beginning, he was very charming,” Farooq told VOA, describing Hussain. “He was easy to talk with, and I never felt like he was a threat directly against me or anybody else for that matter, but when the attacks against Charlie Hebdo in France occurred and he was praising ISIS and then praising the attacks on Copenhagen, I certainly felt like that I did not know him after all.”

Still, Farooq kept filming Hussain.

“I wanted to find out why he became that way, why did he become so extreme, because there are some pieces of him that he used to be a referee in soccer and he was a bright child and did OK in school,” he says. Farooq accompanied Hussain to underground meetings and workshops among radicalized Islamists in a number of places in Europe, trying to learn what was behind the radicalization of people like him.

 

Farooq learned that most of the radicals are born in Europe but are culturally and psychologically displaced and vulnerable to the idea of close-knit radicalized communities.

 

“At least in Norway, 99 percent of Muslims, the majority of Muslims, are integrated in society. They work as lawyers, doctors, teachers, police officers, and have a Muslim background. But there are some, the minority, that have these extreme views. It’s not only in Norway, it’s in Sweden, Denmark, UK, France, Belgium, you always find a small minority of people who don’t fit in even as Muslims, they don’t fit in, they are marginalized, might struggle or have some struggles at home, hard time finding work.”

 

These types of people, Farooq says, are radicalized by leading Islamists such as Anjem Choudary, a British citizen, who supports the existence of an Islamic state.

 

Before his six-year incarceration for supporting Islamic State, Choudary was holding workshops throughout Europe advocating jihad. During one of those underground meetings, Farooq captured chilling footage of him preaching to a group of men, women and children in a basement room. His lecture, advocating that Islamic values are superior to British values and the British constitution, was also being recorded and distributed to thousands over the internet.

 

In 2015, Islamic extremists waged a series of attacks in Paris, first against the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, and months later, at a concert hall and football stadium, killing 130 and injuring 368. Afterward, Farooq says Hussain told him on camera that he did not know the attackers in Paris, but he knew people who knew them.

 

“These extremist groups,” Farooq said, “are really small, but they are strong because they work together. They either visit each other, have so called sessions, where they have seminars of sort.”

 

Though their ideas don’t represent the majority of Muslims in Europe, Farooq said, they impact the Muslim communities by fueling hatred against them.

 

“This radicalization is not a Muslim thing,” he says. “You find radicalization in America, too. Right wing extremists, they are radicalized; criminals, they are radicalized.”

One of Farooq’s last filming sessions of Hussain showed the Islamist recruiting a young Norwegian to fight for ISIS in Syria. The 18-year-old recruit was apprehended at the airport just before he boarded a plane with a fake passport. Hussain was arrested, and Norwegian police forces confiscated footage from Farooq and his co-director, Ulrik Rolfsen as evidence. The filmmakers’ fight for freedom of the press became a story in itself. Farooq and Rolfsen took their case all the way to Norway’s Supreme Court. They won.

 

“The key issue is that for any democracy, it is very, very vital that journalists and media are separated from authorities,” Rolfsen stressed. “My power is to tell stories and expose things that happen in society to educate the public, and I think it’s important that we don’t step on each other’s toes.”

When asked whether such a documentary can fuel fear and mistrust against Muslims, Rolfsen said that audiences’ reactions overall were positive, but he admitted it is a tough subject to tackle.

 

“We have a lot of people hating Islam, we have a lot of people pro Islam, the whole refugee situation is in the middle of that. Publishing the film felt like walking through a fire with a big balloon filled with gasoline and you know it’s going to blow up in your face if you don’t hold it high enough and you don’t walk fast enough.”

Farooq, raised as a Muslim, feels the film was close to his heart because he wanted to expose how these cells operate on the fringes of society.

 

“That was very important to me and Ulrik. Because most Muslims are not like these guys,” he said. “They are normal people.”
…

‘Recruiting for Jihad’ is a Norwegian expose on the practices extremist Jihadists follow to recruit young men to fight for ISIS.  During filming, Adel Khan Farook, one of the two filmmakers, had unprecedented access to a radicalized network of Islamists in Europe. Farrook and his partner Ulrick Rolfsen spoke to VOA’S Penelope Poulou on the growth of Islamist organizations in Europe.
…

A Los Angeles judge has denied the impassioned plea of Roman Polanski’s victim to end the criminal case against the fugitive film director.

Judge Scott Gordon ruled Friday that Polanski must appear in a Los Angeles court if he expects to have his 4-decade-old case resolved.

Gordon’s ruling follows a fervent request by Samantha Geimer to end a “40-year sentence” she says was imposed on both perpetrator and victim.

Polanski pleaded guilty to having unlawful sex with Geimer when she was 13. He fled the country on the eve of sentencing in 1978.

Polanski’s attorneys have failed to persuade judges to sentence him in absentia for the 42 days he was incarcerated for psychological testing before he fled.

Geimer has long supported Polanski’s efforts but made her plea in court for the first time in June.
…

Every private member of the U.S. presidential advisory committee on the arts has resigned to protest President Donald Trump’s response to white nationalist violence in Virginia.

Seventeen members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities said in a resignation letter Friday, “The false equivalencies you push cannot stand.”

The letter was in response to Trump’s comments Tuesday that “both sides” were to blame for the violence at last Saturday’s white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Three people died in connection with the rally, and 19 others were injured.

James Fields Jr. was charged with several felonies, including second-degree murder in the death of Heather Heyer. He allegedly used his car to run over a group of protesters.

The arts committee is an advisory body on cultural issues composed of 12 federal agency heads and 17 scholars and artists. The members who resigned included actor Kal Penn, artist Chuck Close, and author Jhumpa Lahiri.

“The administration’s refusal to quickly and unequivocally condemn the cancer of hatred only further emboldens those who wish America ill,” the letter reads.

“Ignoring your hateful rhetoric would have made us complicit in your words and actions,” it said. “Supremacy, discrimination and vitriol are not American values. Your values are not American values.”

The advisory panel was created by Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1982. All of the current private members had been appointed by former President Barack Obama.

The resignations followed the disbanding of two presidential business advisory councils Wednesday after most of their members left in protest against Trump’s response to the violence in Charlottesville.
…

As national parks traveler Mikah Meyer wrapped up the last leg of his journey across the western state of Utah, he appears to have saved the best for last — with visits to Bryce and Zion national parks — the last two of the five national parks that make up the ‘Mighty 5.’

Hoodoo! Who knew?

Mikah was one of millions of visitors who are drawn to Bryce Canyon National Park each year. The park is home to the world’s largest collection of hoodoos — giant pillars of rock that were sculpted by erosion millions of years ago.

“What makes this place unique is that it’s not just like one, or two, or three, like you’ll see in many places,” Mikah noted. “It’s thousands!”

“Native Americans believe the hoodoos were former humans that were turned into rock,” Mikah explained. “I don’t know the whole story,” he added, but that was one explanation provided about the ancient formations that rise from the earth seemingly out of nowhere.

Observing the odd-shaped pillars from one of the many overlooks was special, Mikah said, but even better was “hiking down into them and exploring the hoodoos up close.” He especially liked looking up at some of the hoodoos that were supporting massive rocks on top of their thin pillars …  

“You wonder at what moment… that giant rock is going to come tumbling down and will I be underneath it when it does?”

Mikah had arrived at the park just in time for the sunset, which gave the surreal landscape a warm, golden glow.

“Man, am I glad I did!” he gushed. “I parked the car… ran out to the overlook and looked at the view and said to myself ‘this is a 10 — it’s a 10 park.’ I mean the view was just so incredible… at sunset or not… it is one of the most other worldly places I’ve seen in the United States.”

During his visit to Bryce Canyon, Mikah encountered an unexpected obstacle: a group of cows standing in the middle of the road, refusing to give way. At one point, he was worried one of the animals was going to charge his van, but instead, it took off, leading away the rest of the herd.

Utah’s first national park

The bovine roadblock was just a momentary distraction as Mikah made his way to Zion National Park, which welcomed almost 5 million visitors last year, making it the fifth-most visited national park in the United States.

Many consider Zion the granddaddy of all the Utah parks.

“I think what makes Zion so spectacular is this combination of red and orange rock, and lush green forests and plants,” Mikah said. “So many places are either lush greenery or stark canyons in orange and reds, but Zion National Park has both.”

Zion Canyon is the main focus of the park, Mikah explained, where “on every side you look, there is another peak that looks like a mountain in its own right, except they’re all together, all lined up on each side of the canyon.”

Angels Landing – a devilish climb

One of the most popular hikes is up Angels Landing, a 454 meter (1,488-foot) tall rock formation that’s considered by many to be the most challenging and dangerous trail in the park.

“What makes it so popular and so well-known is that for the last portion — maybe the last half mile — you are up on a very thin strip of rock; and it’s thin enough that the park service puts a bunch of chains that people can hold onto because since 2004, six people have fallen and died.”

It does look intimidating, Mikah admitted, “because you’re going along this thin strip of rock and either side you look, there’s very quick, dramatic drops all the way to the canyon floor and you see the shuttles driving by and the river passing through, so I think it’s popular because of this risk element that’s added into these dramatic views.”

But Mikah was undaunted, and described his four-hour roundtrip hike as a “very cool experience.”

Patriotic hike

On his second day of his visit, Mikah was invited by a group of experienced hikers on a 4-hour, back-country hike up a high plateau made up of sheer rock face, which had no trail.

“To get there, it was climbing on all fours, it was sliding down sheer rock faces, some of the guys cut their legs and they said, ‘oh, you know, it happens. Now that just proves that I was out here today.”

When he reached the peak, his fellow hikers asked him to sing, which he agreed to… belting out the National Anthem over the canyon.

“These gentlemen I was hiking with, most of them have never heard a Countertenor — which is a male Alto or Soprano — so I think they were shocked and surprised by that,” Mikah said, adding that he was surprised by the echo of his voice bouncing off the canyon walls, “so we all got something unexpected!”

The Mighty 5

As Mikah wrapped up his journey across Utah, he observed that the “Mighty 5” parks — Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks — are especially popular among foreign tourists.

“It’s an incredibly international audience at all these five sites,” he explained. “More so than any other site I’ve been to, tenfold.”

After spending time in those magical places himself, Mikah can understand why.

“The concept of how long nature and animal life has survived on its own without any human interference creating these majestic spaces that have changed by centimeters every year, and we’re witnessing this one speck of time in its marvelousness… it’s definitely a lot to wrap your mind around.”

Mikah invites you to follow him on his epic journey by visiting him on his website TCBMikah.com, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

 
…

As national parks traveler Mikah Meyer wraps up the last leg of his journey across the western state of Utah, he appears to have saved the best for last – with visits to Bryce and Zion national parks — the last two of the five national parks that make up the ‘Mighty 5.’ He shared highlights of his experiences in some of the most stunning desert landscapes he’s seen on his epic national parks journey so far with VOA’s Julie Taboh.
…

America is the birthplace of fast food and many of the restaurants that serve it have gained famed and fortune worldwide. Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington is a neighborhood landmark. Its spicy sausages are loved by presidents, movie stars and locals. During its almost six-decade history, it has survived tough times, but now the family-run business is booming. VOA’s Mariia Prus and Kostiantyn Golubchik went to the famed restaurant and found out its recipe for success.
…

Walt Disney Co. is developing a “Star Wars” standalone movie based on the beloved character of Obi-Wan Kenobi, the wise and noble Jedi master, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety reported Thursday.

The Hollywood trade publications cited unnamed sources as saying that the project was in the early stages of development by Disney and Lucasfilm.

The project has no script yet, but British filmmaker Stephen Daldry, best known for 2000’s ballet movie “Billy Elliott,” is in early talks to direct it, the publications said.

Disney declined to comment.

Han Solo movie, too

Disney bought “Star Wars” creator George Lucas’ Lucasfilm in 2012 in a $4 billion deal and announced a new trilogy of films following the space saga as well as three standalone “Star Wars” projects that focus on stories outside of the central tale of the Skywalker family.

Disney debuted the first standalone “Star Wars” story with 2016’s “Rogue One,” which featured new characters and a storyline tied loosely to the ongoing saga.

A Han Solo movie is in production featuring a younger version of the freewheeling space smuggler played by Harrison Ford in the original “Star Wars” trilogy of films.

​Who will play Kenobi?

Kenobi, a recluse played by the late British actor Alec Guinness, was the mentor to Luke Skywalker and introduced the young warrior to the Force in the first “Star Wars” movie in 1977. Kenobi was later killed by his old pupil, the evil Darth Vader.

Actor Ewan McGregor played the character in the second trilogy of “Star Wars” films from 1999 to 2005. The Hollywood Reporter said no actor was attached to the standalone project.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” Disney’s first installment of the new trilogy in the revamped franchise, brought back beloved characters Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo as well as introducing a new generation. It took in more than $2 billion at the world box office after its 2015 release.

The next film, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” is scheduled for release in December.
…

The late American entertainer Johnny Cash was a country music legend who embraced all races and religions.

His children say they were “sickened” to see his name on the T-shirt of a white supremacist who marched through Charlottesville last Saturday.

In a message posted on social media, Cash’s five children call their father “a man whose heart beat with the rhythm of love and social justice.”

Humanitarian awards

They say Cash would have been “horrified at even a casual use of his name or image for an idea or a cause founded in persecution and hatred.”

The Cashes say their father was the proud recipient of humanitarian awards from groups including the Jewish National Fund and United Nations. He was a champion for the rights of Native Americans, protested the Vietnam War, and stood up for the poor.

They said Cash chose love over hate and asked that his name be kept away from “destructive and hateful ideology.”

Deep bass, shy manner

Cash was known for his deep bass voice, black stage outfits, and a somewhat shy manner.

His signature songs include I Walk the Line, Folsom Prison Blues, Ring of Fire, and the humorous A Boy Named Sue.

Cash sold tens of millions of records before he died in 2003. 
…

The sounds of thundering hooves and a roaring crowd have filled Siena’s Piazza del Campo almost every year since the mid-1600s.

The passion that surrounds the bareback horse race between riders from competing city districts — the Palio di Siena — is palpable to the point of sometimes being violent.

The race, held twice a year in July and August, is contested by 10 riders, each representing one of the city’s 17 contrade, or parishes, racing around a makeshift earth track in the square.

The lure of local glory means that the rivalries between riders and fans is fierce.

Violence between rival supporters is not unknown but, for the winning jockey and his contradaioli, or parish members, a win is a cause for major celebration.

“When you win the Palio, inside the parish there’s an explosion of joy and madness which is something incredible, all the contradaioli standing in the street, singing and crying,” said Massimo Castagnini, an official with Onda parish.

With the three-lap race lasting around only 90 seconds, the rest of the day is filled with pomp and pageantry. It features an elaborate parade and ceremony, with members of each of the contrade in medieval garb, toting flags and coats of arms.

“The day of the Palio, there’s really a big tension, the time goes too slowly for us,” said Castagnini. “You just want to go in the square, stay with your people and thinking that will be the right time for your victory.”

If victory is beyond a rider’s grasp, the next best thing is preventing a rival from winning — and to that end, almost anything, including punching and kicking other riders, is permitted.

This year’s race, run on Wednesday afternoon, was won by Carlo Sanna of the Onda parish, who was carried on the shoulders of supporters after his victory.

The race began after a local aristocrat banned bullfighting in 1590. It was replaced with buffalo races, before the first race of Palio races was held in mid-1600s.

With riders frequently thrown from their horses, and horses regularly suffering serious injuries, animal rights groups have called for the race to be banned. Around 50 horses died in the event between 1970 and 2015, according to Italy’s Anti-Vivisection League, an animal rights group.

However, change appears unlikely anytime soon, as the race is tightly woven into the city’s cultural and social fabric.

“It’s not just the race,” said Castagnini. “When you are born in a contrada, your people will take you from baptism till the end of your days.”
…

Fresh off winning her first Oscar, actress Emma Stone ousted Jennifer Lawrence on Wednesday to claim the top spot on Forbes’ 2017 list of the world’s highest-paid actresses.

Stone, 28, who won best actress for her role as a struggling actress in “La La Land,” made $26 million in pre-tax earnings, according to Forbes’ calculations over a 12-month period from June 2016 to June 2017.

She outpaced Jennifer Aniston, 48, who came in at No. 2 this year with earnings of $25.5 million, with residual income still coming in from the television sitcom “Friends” and endorsement deals with brands such as SmartWater and Emirates Airline.

Lawrence, 27, who topped the Forbes list for two consecutive years, dropped to No. 3 this year with earnings of $24 million, almost half of her prior year’s earnings of $46 million.

The actress, who has spoken out on equal pay for women in Hollywood, saw her earnings dip this year after the conclusion of the “Hunger Games” franchise, but continues to make money from movie deals and an endorsement deal with fashion brand Christian Dior.

Forbes compiles its annual celebrity earnings lists from box office and Nielsen data, as well as from interviews with industry insiders.

The top-10 list also includes Charlize Theron, Emma Watson and Melissa McCarthy. Forbes said no stars from Asia made the cut this year.

Forbes said the cumulative total earned by the world’s top ten highest-paid actresses — $172.5 million — was down 16 percent from the previous year.

Last year, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson topped Forbes’ list of highest-paid actors at $64.5 million, more than double the amount made by Stone this year. Forbes is expected to release its list of top-earning male actors later this week.

 

 
…

Tom Cruise broke his ankle while performing a stunt on the set of the upcoming Mission: Impossible 6, causing production on the film to go on hiatus while the actor recovers, Paramount Pictures said in a statement Wednesday.

Paramount, a unit of Viacom, said the action movie, from one of its biggest franchises, remains on schedule to open on July 27, 2018.

Cruise, 55, who is known for doing his own stunts, was seen in a video on celebrity news website TMZ trying to jump between the roofs of two high-rise buildings and landing hard against a wall during filming in London at the weekend. He was later seen limping off the set.

“During production on the latest Mission: Impossible film, Tom Cruise broke his ankle while performing a stunt. Production will go on hiatus while Tom makes a full recovery,” Paramount said. “Tom wants to thank you all for your concern and support and can’t wait to share the film with everyone next summer.”

Paramount did not say how long production would be delayed.

Hollywood trade paper Variety said filming could be halted anywhere from six weeks to three months while Cruise recovers.

Variety said the actor also injured his hip.

Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation, in which Cruise reprised his role as agent Ethan Hunt, made more than $680 million at the worldwide box office in 2015, according to movie tracker BoxOfficeMojo.com

Cruise has carved out a career as one of Hollywood’s top-earning and longest-running action stars, much of it built on his reputation for doing his own stunts, including swinging around a Dubai skyscraper and hanging off a plane as it taxied down a runway and took off.

“I just don’t sleep, I just keep going,” he told Reuters in 2015 while promoting Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation.

Mission: Impossible 6 director Christopher McQuarrie told Britain’s Empire magazine in an interview posted Wednesday that the production schedule would be rearranged to shoot around Cruise while he recovers.

McQuarrie said that he did not know how long the immediate hiatus would be and that there were still seven or eight weeks left of filming.
…

The organizers of New York’s annual Tribeca Film Festival are launching a standalone television event to recognize the vast and varied content now available on broadcast, cable and streaming platforms.

Organizers said on Wednesday the inaugural three-day Tribeca TV Festival will take place on Sept. 22-24 in New York, and is aimed at bringing new shows and returning favorites to the public.

The lineup for the festival includes screenings and celebrity talks for the return of comedy Will & Grace, the upcoming season premieres of dramas Queen Sugar, Designated Survivor and Gotham, and the world premiere of Look But With Love, a virtual reality series about life in Pakistan.

More than 400 scripted TV shows are currently produced every year in the United States across traditional broadcast and cable networks and services such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, leading to what has been dubbed a “golden age of television.”

“Ten years ago, we wouldn’t have needed a TV festival. Now, with the change in the TV landscape, both the quality and quantity of shows, it makes sense,” actor Robert De Niro, who co-founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2002 to rejuvenate lower Manhattan, said in a statement.

De Niro is among a plethora of Oscar-winning stars, including Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Michael Douglas who are making waves on the small screen.

De Niro is competing in September for his first Emmy Award for his role as disgraced financier Bernard Madoff in HBO television film The Wizard of Lies.
…

Serbia offered a 10-year-old migrant from Afghanistan, who has been nicknamed “Little Picasso” because of his talent for painting, and his family citizenship on Wednesday, after they spent eight months in a refugee camp while seeking to reach Switzerland.

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic made the offer to Farhad Nouri, which also included a job for his father, upon meeting the five-member family in his office. Nouri’s drawings and photographs were put on display last week in what was also a charity event to raise money for a Serbian boy recovering from brain tumor surgery.

Nouri and his family left their home in Afghanistan two years ago. Upon their arrival in Serbia, Nouri joined art classes organized by aid groups, and his talent soon turned him into a local celebrity.

“I know for how long you have travelled and that you want to go to Switzerland,” Vucic said. “But if you decide to stay, we will give you the citizenship now.”

The family is among some 5,000 migrants who have been stranded in Serbia after fleeing wars and poverty in their homelands. They have been unable to move on toward Western Europe, which has sought to curb the influx of migrants.
…

Egypt’s antiquities ministry says that archaeologists have discovered three tombs dating back more than 2,000 years, from the Ptolemaic Period.

The discovery was made in the Nile Valley province of Minya south of Cairo, in an area known as al-Kamin al-Sahrawi.

Tuesday’s statement by the ministry says the unearthed sarcophagi and clay fragments suggest that the area was a large necropolis from sometime between the 27th Dynasty and the Greco-Roman period.

One of the tombs has a burial shaft carved in rock and leads to a chamber where anthropoid lids and four sarcophagi for two women and two men were found. Another tomb contains two chambers; one of them has six burial holes, including one for a child.

Excavation work for the third tomb is still underway.
…

Daniel Craig will return for a fifth go-around as James Bond.

 

The actor confirmed reports he would reprise his role as the suave British spy for “Bond 25” during an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Tuesday night.

 

The announcement is a reversal for Craig, who told Time Out London in 2015 he’d rather slash his wrists than do another Bond film.

 

Craig chalks up that comment as “a stupid answer” and tells Colbert he “couldn’t be happier” to return to the role.

 

Craig breathed new life into the Bond franchise when he took over as 007 for 2006’s “Casino Royale.”

 

“Bond 25” hits theaters in November 2019.
…

The Chinese action film Wolf Warrior 2 continues to set records at the box office and stir online debate in China. The film has raked in nearly $700 million in a little more than two weeks since its opening and looks all but set to become China’s biggest blockbuster.

While some are concerned about the chest-thumping nationalism they feel the film whips up, the movie, which features a Rambolike former special forces hero, is also showing that patriotic films can become big hits.

Realistic fiction

Moviegoers we spoke with liked how the film portrayed situations Chinese have and could face overseas when conflicts arise. They also noted a dispute in China that lands the main character in jail.

At the beginning of the movie, before the film’s hero, Leng Feng, travels to Africa to fight off foreign mercenaries and dodge hundreds (if not thousands) of bullets, he serves a prison sentence for killing a local gangster in China over a forced home demolition.

Forced demolitions, a byproduct of China’s breakneck economic growth, local corruption and greed, is one of the country’s big sources of social discontent.

One woman, surnamed Dong, who has watched the movie twice, said the film was both shocking and interesting. She said it made her think of recent situations when workers from China had to be evacuated from countries overseas by the Chinese military when conflicts arose.

“The director has good understanding of history and politics,” she said. “I heard similar stories (about the evacuation of Chinese citizens from Libya).”

Clearly, the Chinese military’s commitment to keeping its citizens safe overseas was a message the film has driven home. A closing shot in the film features a picture of a Chinese passport and a short message: “Citizens of the People’s Republic of China. When you encounter danger in a foreign land, do not give up! Please remember, at your back stands a strong motherland.”

Atypical patriotic flick

Despite such heavy overtones, and declarations by state media outlets such as the Global Times, which early on said patriotism was giving the action film a boost, those we spoke with say it is how the film was different that made it more attractive.

One woman surnamed Qi said most patriotic films are not believable.

“Usually patriotic movies like The Founding of An Army do not reflect realistic situations of everyday life like Wolf Warrior does, which showed scenes of him trying to stop a forced demolition. These kinds of things are more realistic,” she said.

Another agreed, noting that while some say Wolf Warrior 2 is too commercial and that it is just benefitting from the August lull, the film wasn’t that bad.

“It should be seen as just a regular film. If it was really all about patriotism, then “The Founding of An Army” should be doing well, but it’s not. And the reason for that is that Wolf Warrior 2 is worth watching,” she said.

Floundering military film

The Founding of An Army, a story about the People’s Liberation Army was released about the same time as Wolf Warrior 2 and just days before the Chinese military’s founding anniversary. But unlike Wolf Warrior 2, the film has floundered at the box office.

Part of that might be because censors are running official interference.

The Chinese social networking service Douban forbids users to comment and give marks to The Founding of An Army, a move apparently made to avoid any criticism of the film. Wolf Warrior 2, however, has received four out of five stars and a wide range of comments and opinions.

On the day we saw Wolf Warrior 2, the theater was packed. A ticket clerk let us look at showings for The Founding of An Army. While Wolf Warrior 2 showings were almost fully booked, the seats for The Founding of An Army were largely empty.

The clerk said that in some cases, state-owned enterprises would send employees in large groups to boost the film’s performance. There have also been reports online about moviegoers purchasing tickets for other films, but receiving one with The Founding of An Army on it.

Allegations of box office cheating are not uncommon in China. According to Cbooo.cn, a website that tracks box office revenues in China, the film is lagging far behind with less than 10 percent of Wolf Warrior’s sales.

Game changer

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Wolf Warrior 2 is the third highest-grossing film in a single territory, trailing Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($937 million) and Avatar ($750 million).

The film’s success has some predicting a brighter future for China’s domestic film industry, with some even saying it could pose a threat to Hollywood. But not all are giving the movie an easy pass. Many have expressed concern about the violence in the film.

Others worry about the nationalistic fervor the film’s glorified violence whips up.

One man, surnamed Zhang, said while the movie is just a consumer product and too much should not be read into it, some of the debate the action blockbuster has stirred up online is worrying. He said he will not see the film.

“The movie is like a war mobilization film,” he said. “It’s sensational and whips up feeling of patriotism and national pride to the point that some who have seen it are saying we should wage war, we should do this and that.”

Online, many are urging the film’s director Wu Jing to follow soon with Wolf Warrior 3, even suggesting he focus on conflicts with foreign powers that showcase Chinese-made weaponry.
…

Elvis Presley has been dead for 40 years, but the King’s legacy is alive and well in Las Vegas.

Elvis impersonators remain a staple of Las Vegas kitsch, performing at casino venues and wedding chapels and on street stages while decked out in garish jumpsuits, sunglasses and sideburn wigs.

At a recent Elvis convention, performers came from as far away as Japan and Australia to compete in a tribute artist contest that paid $15,000 in prize money.

Elvis performer Tyler James recalls going to Graceland for the first time when he was 5 years old — and immediately becoming hooked.

“I told my mom then I wanted my own show in Vegas as Elvis,” he said.

James now has a regular show two nights a week on an outdoor stage in downtown Las Vegas.

Elvis played hundreds of shows here, year after year — with more sellout crowds in Las Vegas than anywhere else. Sin City and the King became so deeply intertwined that fans across the country have continued to make the pilgrimage even after his untimely death. They travel to Vegas indulge in the many Elvis tribute shows, impersonators and nostalgic memories from his heyday.

Presley rose from poverty in Tupelo, Mississippi, to become an international music and movie star in the 1950s and 1960s. His life ended at age 42, when he was found dead August 16, 1977, at his Graceland mansion in Tennessee. By then, his career had slowed and he struggled with obesity and substance abuse.

But to Sin City, he’ll always be the handsome, hip-swinging, lip-curling crooner who gave the town its Viva Las Vegas anthem.

In the modern-day entertainment capital, his influence has waned in recent years. But Presley remains a larger-than-life pop culture icon in Las Vegas’ history.

To this day, the term “Elvis impersonator” is synonymous with Las Vegas — a term the performers dislike. They prefer to be called “Elvis tribute artists.”
…