Los Angeles — Fantasy musical “Wonka” bounced back to the top of the North American box office this New Year’s weekend as an otherwise pallid film year came to an end, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported Sunday. The Warner Bros. film took in an estimated $24 million for the three-day weekend in the U.S. and Canada, and $31.8 million when New Year’s Day is included. It has passed the $140 million mark domestically and taken in $244 million globally. That strong showing came at the end of an off year for Hollywood, with numbers roughly 20 percent below the three-year pre-pandemic average, said analyst David A. Gross. Audience tastes are starting to change, he said, from universe-saving action films to stories closer to home. Close to home — at least if you live near a chocolate factory — was family-friendly “Wonka,” with Timothee Chalamet as a younger version of Roald Dahl’s famous chocolatier. Hugh Grant has an unforgettable turn as a grouchy, green-haired, gnome-like Oompa Loompa. Last weekend’s leader, Warner Bros.’ “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” took on a bit of water, slipping to second at $19.5 million for three days ($26.3 million for four). Jason Momoa again plays the sea-dwelling …

london — Two-time Oscar-nominated actor Tom Wilkinson, who starred in “The Full Monty” — a movie about a group of unemployed steel workers who launched new careers as strippers — died suddenly on Saturday.  The British actor’s death was confirmed in a statement released by his agent on behalf of his family. He was 75.  “It is with great sadness that the family of Tom Wilkinson announce that he died suddenly at home on December 30. His wife and family were with him.”  Wilkinson was nominated for Academy Awards for actor in a leading role for “In The Bedroom” in 2001, and for a supporting role in “Michael Clayton” in 2007.  He most recently reunited with his “Full Monty” co-stars, Robert Carlyle and Mark Addy, in a Disney+ series of the same name.  The original 1997 smash hit about an unlikely group of men stripping won an Oscar for best original musical or comedy score and was nominated for three others, including best picture and best director.  Wilkinson played ex-foreman Gerald Cooper who was recruited to help the unemployed men dance.  The actor also took home the best supporting actor Bafta for the role.  Wilkinson won a 2009 Golden Globe and …

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Beirut, Lebanon — For decades, Tele Liban has been a mainstay of Lebanese living rooms. Now the country is seeking UNESCO recognition for the archives of its pioneering Arab broadcaster.  Information Minister Ziad Makary told AFP that Beirut would apply to have the full archives of Tele Liban added to the United Nations cultural body’s Memory of the World Register, which UNESCO says “aims to prevent the irrevocable loss of documentary heritage.”  Tele Liban was “the first television (network) to be established in the Arab world on a state level,” Makary said, adding that Lebanon had the region’s “oldest audiovisual archive.”  The collection includes footage that dates back “to World War II and the 1940s,” although Tele Liban did air its first program until 1959, the minister said from his Beirut office.  Were it to join the register, it would sit alongside hundreds of other entries, spanning print, audiovisual, digital and other heritage from across the globe.  Archives documents culture, politics The only television channel in Lebanon until 1985, the broadcaster’s archive is brimming with years of history, politics and culture not only from Lebanon but across the Arab world, during tumultuous decades in the region.  It counts more than 50,000 …

MILAN — The Italian city of Venice announced new limits Saturday on the size of tourist groups, the latest move to reduce the pressure of mass tourism on the famed canal city. Starting in June, groups will be limited to 25 people, or roughly half the capacity of a tourist bus, and the use of loudspeakers, “which can generate confusion and disturbances,” will be banned, the city said in a statement. The city official charged with security, Elisabetta Pesce, said the policies were aimed at improving the movement of groups through Venice’s historic center as well as the heavily visited islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello. The city previously announced plans to test a new day-tripper fee this year. The 5 euros ($5.45) per-person fee will be applied on 29 peak days between April and mid-July, including most weekends. It is intended to regulate crowds, encourage longer visits and improve the quality of life for Venice residents. The U.N. cultural agency cited tourism’s impact on the fragile lagoon city as a major factor in it twice considering placing Venice on UNESCO’s list of heritage sites in danger. The city escaped the first time by limiting the arrival of large cruise ships …

PARIS — The Tour d’Argent already boasts a 320,000-bottle wine cellar, a world-famous duck recipe and a storied 441-year history. Now, the legendary Paris restaurant is about to serve up its “plat de résistance”: a front-row view of two of the biggest events of 2024 — the renaissance of Notre Dame Cathedral and the 2024 Summer Olympics. A city landmark unto itself — and an inspiration for the restaurant in the movie Ratatouille — the Tour d’Argent recently reopened after its own renovation, which preserved revered traditions while adapting to the 21st century. ”It’s very reassuring for many customers to see that such establishments are still present in our history, and in French gastronomic history,” owner and CEO André Terrail told The Associated Press. The restaurant claims to be the oldest in Paris, its 1582 opening date embossed on the doors. It says King Henri IV ate heron pâté here; ”Sun King” Louis XIV hosted a meal here involving an entire cow; and presidents, artists like Salvador Dalí, and celebrities including Marilyn Monroe have graced its tables in the generations since. Today the Michelin-starred restaurant remains one of the most exclusive places to dine in the French capital, out of reach …

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilians paid several tributes to soccer legend Pelé on Friday, one year after the three-time World Cup winner’s death at age 82 due to a colon cancer. A ceremony held at Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the redeemer, one of the South American nation’s most famous postcard locations, featured a projection of a Brazil shirt with Pelé’s name and number 10 on the statue and a message from Pope Francis. Pelé was a devout Catholic throughout his life. “Pelé, as Mr. Edson Arantes do Nascimento became globally known, was undoubtedly an athlete who showed in his life all positive traits of a sportsman. The memory of ‘the King of Soccer’ remains indelible in the minds of many, and it stimulates new generations to seek in sport a means to strengthen the bonds of unity among us,” the pontiff said in a letter as a local orchestra played. Other religious ceremonies were held at the Museu Pelé in Santos, the port city he put on the map with his goals and success for Santos FC, and in the small city of Tres Corações, where do Nascimento was born in 1940. Santos FC also held a tribute at its Vila …

COMANESTI, Romania — Centuries ago, people in what is now northeastern Romania donned bearskins and danced to fend off evil spirits. That custom is today known as the Dancing Bears Festival, drawing crowds of tourists every December. Hundreds of people of all ages, clad in bear costumes, dance every year around Christmas to the deafening beat of drums and roam villages and towns. The highlight of this year’s festival falls on December 30, with bear-clad dancers descending on the town of Comanesti, in eastern Romania, for the finale. Visitors come from as far as Japan to see the spectacle, featuring lines of people in costumes with gaping bear jaws and claws marching and dancing. Giant red pompom decorations are usually added to the furs. Some of the “bears” jokingly growl or pretend to attack the spectators. Locals say the custom dates back to the pre-Christianity era when people believed that wild animals staved off misfortune or danger. Dancing “bears” visited people’s homes and knocked on their doors to wish them good luck and a Happy New Year. “The bear runs through our veins, it is the spirit animal for those in our area,” said Costel Dascalu, who started taking part in …

new orleans, louisiana — The sweet sensation of fried shrimp egg rolls dipped in duck sauce. Steam rising from dumplings stuffed with chicken, ginger and cabbage. Smells wafting from a plate of General Tso’s chicken on a bed of beef fried rice.  These are just some of the dishes coming from the kitchen of Miss Shirley’s Chinese Restaurant on a packed Christmas Day in New Orleans, Louisiana.  On a holiday when most restaurants are closed so customers and employees can celebrate with their families, many Chinese restaurants in America are gathering places for the country’s estimated 7.6 million Jews.  “Outside of these walls, maybe people are relaxing with their families, but inside these walls, it’s a celebratory madhouse!” said Carling Lee, whose family owns Miss Shirley’s and has owned and operated Chinese restaurants in and around New Orleans for more than four decades.  On Christmas and Christmas Eve, “we’re slammed from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. with people ordering takeout or dining in with groups of five, 10, 15 or even more,” Lee continued. “It’s friends and family, and we’ve even sometimes gotten three rabbis in here at once! Everyone’s just looking for a way to enjoy the day off in …

BEIJING — Chinese lawmakers Friday weighed in on a fiery online debate on whether fireworks should be used to ring in the Lunar New Year in February, saying a total ban on pyrotechnics in the country credited with inventing them would be hard to implement.  In an unusually frank response, lawmakers said air pollution prevention laws and fire safety regulations have led to “differences in understanding” of the ban on fireworks, which was never absolute.  In 2017, official data showed 444 cities had banned fireworks. Since then, some cities have scaled back curbs, allowing fireworks at certain times of the year and at designated venues.  This month, however, many counties rolled out notices prohibiting fireworks, rekindling discussion on the ban.  “We’ve the right to fireworks,” wrote a user of Weibo, a popular Chinese social media platform.  According to folklore, the earliest fireworks were invented 2,000 years ago to drive away the “Nian,” a mythical beast that preyed on people and livestock on the eve of the Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival.  Since then, fireworks have been used to celebrate other occasions: This January, after three years of COVID-19 curbs were lifted, some people defied bans — and authorities — and …

Llay-Llay, Chile — Few players of the online video game Free Fire would know that one of their most ferocious opponents — a lithe, gun-wielding warrior in a short kimono and fang mask — is in reality an 81-year-old grandmother from rural Chile. From her professional gaming chair at home in a small village, the soft-spoken Maria Elena Arevalo becomes a merciless hunter, mowing down rivals in a game in which tens of millions of players shoot it out to survive on an imaginary remote island. Wearing an apron over a frilly skirt, Arevalo bears little resemblance to her online alter-ego “Mami Nena” — the nickname she got from her only grandson, Hector Carrasco, 20. It was Carrasco who introduced Arevalo to the digital world of gaming that has given her a new lease on life after falling into deep loneliness following the death of her husband of 56 years in 2020. “I didn’t even know what a mouse was,” she told AFP at her home in the town of Llay-Llay in central Chile. “Afterwards, I got excited. We started to play whenever he [Carrasco] could. I felt better because I didn’t think so much about my late husband anymore.” At …

Los Angeles — Almost a century after his big-screen debut, Mickey Mouse enters the public domain Monday, opening the floodgates to potential remakes, spin-offs, adaptations … and legal battles with Disney. The copyright on Steamboat Willie — a short, black-and-white 1928 animation that first introduced audiences to the mischievous rodent who would become emblematic of American pop culture — expires after 95 years, on January 1, under U.S. law. The date has loomed large on the calendars of everyone from filmmakers, fans and intellectual property lawyers to Disney executives, who in the past helped lobby to change law to prolong US copyright terms. “This is a deeply symbolic, highly anticipated moment,” said Jennifer Jenkins, director of the Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain.   Anyone is now free to copy, share, reuse and adapt Steamboat Willie and Plane Crazy — another 1928 Disney animation — and the early versions of the characters that appear within them, including Mickey and Minnie. A vital caveat is that later versions of the characters, like those in 1940 film Fantasia, are not in the public domain, and cannot be copied without a visit from Disney’s lawyers. But artists would be free, for …

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Chinese authorities approved 105 new online games this week, bolstering support for the industry just days after proposing regulatory restrictions that sent stocks tumbling. The National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) announced approval of the 105 games Monday via WeChat, describing the move as a show of support for “the prosperity and healthy development of the online game industry. “It was only Friday that those same regulators announced a wide range of proposed guidelines to ban online game companies from offering incentives for daily logins or purchases. Other proposed rules include limiting how much users can recharge and issuing warnings for “irrational consumption behavior.” The draft rules, which were published as part of efforts to seek public comment on the proposals, caused an immediate, massive blow to the world’s biggest games market, leading to as much as $80 billion in market value being erased from China’s two biggest companies, industry leader Tencent Holdings and NetEase. After the approval was announced Monday, video game stocks in companies such as NetEase began recovering from Friday’s tumble. China’s state-run CCTV said the approval “strongly demonstrates the clear attitude of the competent authorities to actively support the development of online games,” adding …

TAIPEI, Taiwan — China has pressured an influential Taiwanese rock band called Mayday to make pro-China comments ahead of Taiwan’s key elections next month, according to sources with direct knowledge of the situation and a Taiwan security note reviewed by Reuters. China’s National Radio and Television Administration had asked Mayday to publicly voice support for Beijing’s claims that democratically governed Taiwan is part of China and to join China’s “media propaganda on Taiwan,” according to the internal Taiwan security note reviewed by Reuters. The note from earlier this month cited intelligence on Chinese government activities gathered by Taiwan authorities. Mayday are among the most successful Taiwanese artists in China, a market that has become increasingly challenging for Taiwanese celebrities as Beijing steps up its political pressure to assert its sovereignty claims. Two Taiwan security officials looking into the matter said to pressure the rock stars, the Chinese authorities in December announced an investigation against Mayday, following allegations on Chinese social media that the band had lip-synched during one of their recent concerts in China. Mayday’s management company, B’in Music, did not respond to requests for comment. B’in Music has previously denied allegations of lip-syncing during the band’s November tour in China, …

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Every December 31, New Yorkers and tourists alike flock to the Big Apple’s Times Square for the New Year’s Eve celebration. Elena Wolf had a look at how the city prepares for the big event in this story narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Max Avloshenko and Elena Matusovsky. …

Academics used their information gathering and organizing skills as weapons against the Nazis …

Seoul, South Korea — South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun, best known for his role in the Oscar-winning film “Parasite”, was found dead Wednesday in an apparent suicide according to a police official. The actor was discovered inside a vehicle at a park in central Seoul, Yonhap news agency reported, citing police. Lee, 48, had been under police investigation over his alleged use of marijuana and other psychoactive drugs. Once celebrated for his wholesome image, local news outlets reported that the actor was being dropped from television and commercial projects following the scandal. A graduate of South Korea’s prestigious Korea National University of Arts, Lee made his acting debut in 2001 in a television sitcom titled “Lovers.” He later won acclaim for his performances in a variety of roles, including a charismatic chef and a diligent architectural engineer who learns his wife cheats on him. Globally, he is best known for his portrayal of the wealthy and shallow patriarch in director Bong Joon-ho’s 2019 Oscar-winning film “Parasite.” His last film, this year’s horror flick “Sleep” — in which he played a husband whose sleepwalking eventually leads to horrifying circumstances — was well-received critically and featured in the Critics’ Week section at the …

As the end of December approaches, millions of Americans will make pledges to lose weight, save more money or learn a new language, only for most of these promises to be forgotten in a few months. So, why do we make New Year’s resolutions in the first place? …

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Paris — With bleak December weather gripping the French capital and world attention dominated by the bloody conflict in Gaza, the slow reemergence of Paris’ fire-battered Notre Dame cathedral is a welcome Christmas present. A golden rooster — a potent symbol of light in Christianity and of France — once again sits atop the cathedral’s reconstructed spire, replacing one that fell into the 2019 blaze which nearly demolished the edifice. By December 8, 2024, authorities pledge, Notre Dame will reopen to the public. “It’s extraordinary when you see it up over Notre Dame,” the cathedral’s former chief architect, Benjamin Mouton, said of the spire, which — like most of the rest of the reconstruction — replicates the one before the blaze. “It has a power,” he added in an interview. “It’s an absolute work of art.” Notre Dame’s latest reincarnation — the medieval cathedral has weathered other setbacks over the centuries — has not been without a dose of drama and controversy. In August, General Jean-Louis Georgelin, who oversaw Notre Dame’s reconstruction effort, died abruptly while hiking in the Pyrenees. He was replaced by a close associate, Philippe Jost. A decision to cover the spire in lead, as it had been …

NEW YORK — Artists under siege by artificial intelligence that studies their work and then replicates their styles, have teamed with university researchers to stymie such copycat activity. U.S. illustrator Paloma McClain went into defense mode after learning that several AI models had been trained using her art, with no credit or compensation sent her way. “It bothered me,” McClain told AFP. “I believe truly meaningful technological advancement is done ethically and elevates all people instead of functioning at the expense of others,” she said. The artist turned to free software called Glaze created by researchers at the University of Chicago. Glaze essentially outthinks AI models when it comes to how they train, tweaking pixels in ways that are indiscernible to human viewers but which make a digitized piece of art appear dramatically different to AI. “We’re basically providing technical tools to help protect human creators against invasive and abusive AI models,” said Ben Zhao, a professor of computer science on the Glaze team. Created in just four months, Glaze spun off technology used to disrupt facial recognition systems. “We were working at super-fast speed because we knew the problem was serious,” Zhao said of rushing to defend artists from software …

ACOLMAN, Mexico — Maria de Lourdes Ortiz Zacarias swiftly cuts hundreds of strips of newsprint and colored crepe paper needed to make a pinata, soothed by Norteno music on the radio while measuring pieces by feel. “The measurement is already in my fingers,” Ortiz Zacarias says with a laugh. She has been doing this since she was a child, in the family-run business alongside her late mother, who learned the craft from her father. Pinatas haven’t been displaced by more modern customs, and her family has been making a living off them into its fourth generation. Ortiz Zacarias calls it “my legacy, handed down by my parents and grandparents.” Business is steady all year, mainly with birthday parties, but it really picks up around Christmas. That’s because piñatas are interwoven with Christian traditions in Mexico. There are countless designs these days, based on everything from Disney characters to political figures. But the most traditional style of pinata is a sphere with seven spiky cones, which has a religious origin. Each cone represents one of the seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. Hitting the papier-mache globe with a stick is a symbolic, with the added advantage of …