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Tag: International

  • Russia has tested a new nuclear-capable missile, Putin and top general say

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    MOSCOW, Russia — Russia tested a new nuclear-capable and powered cruise missile fit to confound existing defenses, inching closer to deploying it to its military, President Vladimir Putin claimed in remarks released on Sunday.

    What You Need To Know

    • Russia has tested a new nuclear-capable cruise missile fit to confound existing defenses, President Vladimir Putin and a top general have claimed
    • In a video released Sunday, Putin is seen meeting with senior military figures. General Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s chief of general staff, tells Putin the Burevestnik missile covered 8,700 miles
    • Gerasimov says the missile spent 15 hours in the air, adding that’s not the limit. Putin instructed Gerasimov to work on the missile’s final tests, claiming it’s invulnerable to current and future defenses
    • On Wednesday, Putin directed drills of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces, testing the skills of military command structures

    Putin, dressed in camouflage fatigues, could be seen meeting with senior Russian military figures, according to a video released by the Kremlin. The footage showed Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s chief of general staff, telling the Russian leader that the Burevestnik covered 14,000 kilometers (8,700 miles) in a key test Tuesday.

    Gerasimov said the Burevestnik, or Storm Petrel in Russian, spent 15 hours in the air, adding “that’s not the limit.”

    “We need to determine the possible uses and begin preparing the infrastructure for deploying these weapons to our armed forces,” Putin told Gerasimov in the video and instructed him to work on the missile’s final tests. Putin also claimed it was invulnerable to current and future missile defenses, due to its almost unlimited range and unpredictable flight path.

    On Wednesday, Putin directed drills of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces that featured practice missile launches. The exercise came as his planned summit on Ukraine with U.S. President Donald Trump was put on hold.

    The Kremlin said that the maneuvers involved all parts of Moscow’s nuclear triad, including intercontinental ballistic missiles that were test-fired from launch facilities in northwestern Russia and a submarine in the Barents Sea. The drills also involved Tu-95 strategic bombers firing long-range cruise missiles.

    The exercise tested the skills of military command structures, the Kremlin said in a statement on Wednesday.

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    Associated Press

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  • Russian attacks kill 4 in Ukraine as Zelenskyy pleads for air defense

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine overnight into Saturday killed at least four people and wounded 20, officials said, and prompted fresh pleas from Ukraine’s president for Western air defense systems.

    What You Need To Know

    • Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine overnight into Saturday have killed at least four people and wounded 20, according to officials

    • In Kyiv, two people were killed and 13 were wounded in a ballistic missile attack

    • In the Dnipropetrovsk region, two more were killed and seven wounded

    • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has renewed calls for Western air defense systems, emphasizing the need for Patriot systems to protect cities

    • Zelenskyy is seeking to purchase 25 Patriots from the U.S. to bolster Ukraine’s air defenses

    In the capital, Kyiv, two people were killed and 13 were wounded in a ballistic missile attack in the early hours of Saturday, Kyiv’s police said.

    A fire broke out in a non-residential building in one location, while debris from intercepted missiles fell in an open area at another site, damaging windows in nearby buildings, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service wrote on the message app Telegram.

    “Explosions in the capital. The city is under ballistic attack,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram during the onslaught.

    In the Dnipropetrovsk region, two people were killed and seven wounded, acting regional Gov. Vladyslav Haivanenko said, adding that apartment buildings and private homes were damaged in the strikes.

    Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched nine missiles and 62 drones, of which four missiles and 50 drones were intercepted.

    In Russia, the Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 121 Ukrainian drones over Russia overnight.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that such attacks intensify Ukraine’s need for Patriot defense systems.

    “It is precisely because of such attacks that we pay special attention to Patriot systems — to be able to protect our cities from this horror. It is critical that partners who possess relevant capability implement what we have discussed in recent days,” he wrote in English on X.

    “America, Europe and the G7 countries can help ensure that such attacks no longer threaten lives,” he said.

    Zelenskyy is hoping Ukraine can purchase 25 Patriots from the U.S. to fortify its air defenses, particularly in cities.

    Zelenskyy on Friday urged the United States to expand its sanctions on Russian oil from two companies to the whole sector, and appealed for long-range missiles to hit back at Russia.

    Zelenskyy was in London for talks with two dozen European leaders who have pledged military help to shield his country from future Russian aggression if a ceasefire stops the more than three-year war.

    The meeting hosted by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer aimed to step up pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin, adding momentum to recent measures that have included a new round of sanctions from the United States and European countries on Russia’s vital oil and gas export earnings.

    The talks also addressed ways of helping protect Ukraine’s power grid from Russia’s almost daily drone and missile attacks as winter approaches, enhancing Ukrainian air defenses, and supplying Kyiv with longer-range missiles that can strike deep inside Russia. Zelenskyy has urged the U.S. to send Tomahawk missiles, an idea U.S. President Donald Trump has considered.

    Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s envoy for investment and economic cooperation, said Friday he believes Russia, the U.S. and Ukraine were “quite close to a diplomatic solution” to end the three-year war.

    Speaking to CNN after arriving in Washington for talks with U.S. officials, Dmitriev said a planned summit in Budapest between Trump and Putin had not been canceled but would likely occur later.

    Trump said Tuesday his plan for a swift meeting with Putin was on hold because he didn’t want it to be a “waste of time.”

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made clear in public comments Tuesday that Russia is opposed to an immediate ceasefire.

    A White House official confirmed Friday that Dmitriev, who announced his visit on X, will meet with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to publicly discuss the private meeting.

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    Associated Press

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  • Trump heads to Asia where he will meet with China’s Xi

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    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump departed Washington Friday night for Asia with trade and U.S. relations with China top of mind. 

    The nearly weeklong trip will include visits to three countries as well as a refueling stop in Qatar, touch two separate summits and include individual meetings with multiple heads of state. But all eyes are likely to be fixated on the end of his trip when he is set to hold a high-stakes sit-down with Chinese President Xi Jinping amid a recently reinflamed trade war between the world’s two largest economies and with the threat of massive new tariffs looming.

    What You Need To Know

    • President Donald Trump departed Washington on Friday night for Asia with trade and U.S. relations with China top of mind
    • The nearly weeklong trip will include visits to three countries as well as a refueling stop in Qatar, touch two separate summits and include individual meetings with multiple heads of state

    • But all eyes are likely to be fixated on the end of his trip when he is set to hold a high-stakes sit-down with Chinese President Xi Jinping amid a recently reinflamed trade war between the world’s two largest economies and with the threat of massive new tariffs looming

    • Trump is set to meet with the leaders of Qatar, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea and China and take part in events for the ASEAN and APEC summits

    Briefing reporters on a phone call, senior U.S. officials said Trump will sign a “series of economic agreements” over the course of the trip, including what they described as “forward looking and tough” trade deals as well as a new agreement on critical minerals. On the first leg of the visit, Trump is also set to preside over a “significant peace agreement,” the officials added. 

    Before arriving in Malaysia on Sunday morning, Trump will speak with the emir and prime minister of Qatar aboard Air Force One during a refueling stop at Al Udeid Air Base, a White House official said early Saturday. Secretary of State Marco Rubio would join the president for the meeting with Qatari leaders, the official said.

    Once in Malaysia, the U.S. president will meet with its prime minister, ​​Anwar Ibrahim, and then attend a working dinner with leaders from a bloc of countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, also known as ASEAN, as part of the group’s 2025 summit, press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday. 

    Trump will head to Japan on Monday and meet with its newly elected leader and the country’s first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, in Tokyo on Tuesday, Leavitt added. While there, senior U.S. officials said the president will also pay a visit to U.S. troops in the region. 

    He will set off Wednesday for Busan, South Korea, where he will sit down with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and take part in two events for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, summit, including delivering keynote remarks at a CEO luncheon and joining a working dinner, according to Leavitt. 

    APEC, a forum established in 1989 to focus on the economies of nations in the Asia-Pacific, includes 21 countries, including China, Russia, Australia, Canada, Mexico and the U.S.

    Thursday is when Trump is scheduled to hold his first in-person meeting of his second term with Xi, Leavitt said, before he heads back to the White House. 

    Trump spent this week leading up to the meeting projecting confidence it would lead to a successful outcome, with a lot on the line for both countries. 

    Officials were able to temporarily cool a trade war that exploded this spring between the U.S. and China and saw each country place tariffs of well over 100% on one another. But tensions flared again after China’s announcement earlier this month that it was placing new export controls on its rare earth minerals. The move to put restrictions on access to its critical minerals, which are considered essential for manufacturing and technology moving forward, led Trump to vow to increase the tariffs he’s placed on the country by 100 percentage points, resulting in a total rate of 157%, if a deal isn’t worked out by Nov. 1.

    China processes nearly 90% of the world’s rare earths, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Trump brought Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, a country fertile with rare earth resources of its own, to the White House this week to sign a critical minerals deal in a bid to counter Beijing’s commanding presence in the space. 

    In the immediate wake of the announcement, the U.S. president also hinted at calling off the yet-to-be-scheduled meeting with his Chinese counterpart but tides shifted again just days later when he pledged “all will be fine” with China and insisted Xi “just had a bad moment.”

    This week, Trump has insisted his administration will be able to reach a “very fair deal” with China on trade and has touted his relationship with his Chinese counterpart. Two of his top trade officials are already engaging in talks in Asia with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.

    “I think we’re going to come out very well, and everyone’s going to be very happy,” Trump declared to reporters Thursday regarding the upcoming meeting. 

    Trump also said he will discuss China’s role in the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. with his Chinese counterpart. 

    Despite calling on European nations to halt buying oil from Russia as he hopes to hinder its economy as part of his effort to end the war in Ukraine and putting higher tariffs on the U.S. ally of India for doing so, Trump has yet to take the same action against China. But he told reporters this week he plans to bring the topic up with Xi.

    “What I’ll really be talking to him about is, how do we end the war with Russia and Ukraine, whether it’s through oil or energy or anything else?” Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday, the same day his administration announced new sanctions on Russian oil companies. 

    Trump also told reporters that day he believed he and Xi could reach deals on critical minerals, soybeans and “maybe even nuclear.” 

    Democrats and some Republicans are also fuming over his administration’s decision to lend an economic hand to Argentina, even after the Latin American country cut export taxes on agricultural products, including soybeans. China has been the biggest export market for U.S. soybeans, and lawmakers argue that boosting Argentina is hurting U.S. farmers. 

    In Asia, the U.S. leader is also likely to talk trade with Japan and South Korea. 

    The administration cut a deal earlier this year with Japan that is set to include the country investing billions in the U.S. but Trump will now be talking details with a new prime minister. 

    Meanwhile, the trade deal that the U.S. made with South Korea still has specifics to be worked out, and the meeting between Trump and his South Korean counterpart comes just weeks after the Trump administration’s immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia led to the arrest of more than 300 South Korean workers.

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    Maddie Gannon

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  • Izumi Kato’s Hybrid Totemic Forms Trace Possible Paths of Ecological Survival

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    Izumi Kato, Untitled, 2025. Oil on canvas, 191.5 x 194.5 cm./75 3/8 x 76 9/16 in. Photo: Ringo Cheung ©2025 Izumi Kato, courtesy of the artist and Perrotin

    Japanese artist Izumi Kato’s humanoid hybrid creatures exist in a fluid space between worlds, hovering somewhere between ancient totems, unborn spirits and extraterrestrial beings. They emerge as sudden, epiphanic visions that reveal unprecedented truths about our evolutionary path while profanely suggesting new possibilities for more symbiotic and sustainable survival on this planet.

    In just a few years, Kato has risen to international and institutional prominence, building a strong market presence through powerhouse gallery Perrotin and steadily climbing auction results. He has established a global reputation with a distinctive symbolic language and a sense of mystery and magic that unites Japan’s ancient folklore and Shinto spirituality with underground manga aesthetics and a contemporary, saturated visual sensibility that feels attuned to the world ahead.

    As the artist further cements his status as one of the region’s most compelling names through his participation in the Aichi Triennale in Nagoya, Japan, alongside the major solo exhibition that opened at Perrotin during Seoul Art Week, Observer caught up with him to explore the meanings and messages behind his fantastical universe and the evolution of his otherworldly creatures.

    An artist with shoulder-length hair and glasses stands beside a carved stone sculpture painted with a colorful, mask-like face.An artist with shoulder-length hair and glasses stands beside a carved stone sculpture painted with a colorful, mask-like face.
    Izumi Kato. Photo: Claire Dorn, courtesy of the artist and Perrotin

    Both in Kato’s soon-to-close show at Perrotin and in his works for Aichi, his biomorphic characters take on watery, fluid forms. Existing somewhere between human and aquatic beings, suspended in a plasmatic or amniotic dimension, they evoke the evolutionary arc from aquatic to amphibious to human life while hinting at a possible reactivation—or even inversion—of this cycle as a path toward ecological survival.

    As Kato acknowledges, his painting practice continues to evolve. “Most recently, I’ve begun incorporating living sea creatures into my work,” he explains, noting that it’s been 30 years since he last painted while directly observing his subject. “Now, I paint these forms as I need them, as a way to express what painting means to me at this moment.”

    His figures feel both ancient and futuristic, alien and human. Kato’s vivid primary palette heightens this tension. “Colors are sensory for me, and I use them intuitively,” he says. “I don’t begin with a fixed color plan; instead, I decide on each color one by one as I paint.” Balancing primal immediacy with an aesthetic partly influenced by the digital landscape is likely what makes his work so resonant for contemporary viewers.

    While his figures do not directly reference evolutionary history, Kato sees the planet itself as a living entity in continuous transformation. “Earth is home to countless life forms, though definitions of life can vary from person to person,” he says. “I see the planet itself as a living entity. It’s something mysterious and deeply fascinating to me, and I find myself thinking about it often.”

    A tall carved humanoid sculpture with a bird on its head stands on a grassy base next to small model horses, with a surreal portrait painting on the wall behind it.A tall carved humanoid sculpture with a bird on its head stands on a grassy base next to small model horses, with a surreal portrait painting on the wall behind it.
    An installation view of Kato’s solo exhibition at Perrotin Seoul. Photo: Hwang Jung Wook, courtesy of the artist and Perrotin

    Throughout his evolving practice, Kato has constructed an expansive symbolic narrative that envisions hybridization between species as an alternative path for humanity. Moving fluidly across mediums and often incorporating natural materials like wood and stone, his oeuvre feels like a continuous, urgent exercise in worldbuilding—a form of mythopoiesis aimed at imagining new destinies for human society. His work draws unconsciously from Japanese folklore and Shinto beliefs, though he clarifies that he does not intentionally reference any specific motif. Those connections surface organically, shaped by his personal and familial background.

    Kato acknowledges that autobiography inevitably seeps into his art. “It’s hard to answer that clearly, but everything I experience in life affects me in some way, and those influences likely appear in my work, often unconsciously,” he explains. Painting, for him, serves as both a pathway and a tool to absorb, process and translate these personal traces.

    “I’m definitely influenced by the local culture and upbringing I experienced in Shimane, where I grew up,” he says, recalling how parents would warn children about an imaginary sea creature—a snake with a woman’s face—that appeared at night to scare them away from the water. Kato’s paintings capture the same tension animating most fairy tales: the balance between innocence and menace. His figures appear childlike yet unsettling, gentle yet otherworldly—existing between birth and death, body and spirit, human and nonhuman. These myths, he reflects, ultimately serve as a form of survival wisdom. “I only realized recently how much the environment I grew up in has influenced my work.”

    A three-panel painting framed together, showing a crouching humanoid figure on orange, a realistic fish in the center, and a long eel-like creature with a small face on the right.A three-panel painting framed together, showing a crouching humanoid figure on orange, a realistic fish in the center, and a long eel-like creature with a small face on the right.
    Izumi Kato, Untitled, 2025. Oil on canvas, 37.5 x 116.5 x 5.6 cm | 14 3/4 x 45 7/8 x 2 3/16 in. ©2025 Izumi Kato, courtesy of the artist and Perrotin

    It is by inhabiting a symbolic third realm of myth and fairy tales—one that bridges the physical and the psychological—that Kato’s images achieve their universality, subtly conveying timeless messages about the nature of human existence. However, he says that he doesn’t view the recurring motifs in his work as characters, since they lack personalities and are not part of any linear narrative or deliberate storytelling. “I use human-like figures to strengthen the composition of the painting and to spark the viewer’s imagination,” he explains. At the same time, he acknowledges that these otherworldly, symbolic visions of alternative forms of life likely belong to another realm and time—whether future or past—where species coexist in harmonious hybridization before emerging in painterly or sculptural form. Kato admits it is difficult to articulate in words, but his paintings inhabit a memorial, imaginative and spiritual realm that precedes and transcends language, defying conventional categories. They speak both to and beyond the human, offering prophecies of alternative possibilities for cosmic life within and beyond this planet and time.

    Kato’s figures often appear suspended in a distinctly plasmatic dimension yet animated by an inner radiance—a kind of energetic aura. “I don’t really know where it comes from, but I believe art itself is energy,” Kato says, responding cryptically when asked what this energy represents. “I’m glad one can sense that energetic aura in my work.”

    In a time defined by destruction and chaos, the mythopoiesis underlying Kato’s epiphanic, profane and totemic works offers contemporary viewers a regenerative narrative reminiscent of ancient myth, reminding us that life, evolution, decay and rebirth are part of a continuous cycle. Mapping the liminal space between collapse and renewal, his hybrid creatures inhabit that threshold, carrying the deep knowledge that decay is never the end but a necessary passage. Suggesting a survival code rooted in eternal truths and expressed through symbolic language, Kato’s works—mythological in essence and, in the spirit of Joseph Campbell’s “metaphors for the mystery of being”—bridge our waking consciousness with the vast, enduring mysteries of the universe.

    A large gallery with a stacked sculpture of carved, painted figures on a metal frame, and colorful surreal paintings on the far wall.A large gallery with a stacked sculpture of carved, painted figures on a metal frame, and colorful surreal paintings on the far wall.
    Izumi Kato works at the 2025 Aichi Triennale. ©︎ Aichi Triennale Organizing Committee, Photo: Ito Tetsuo

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    Izumi Kato’s Hybrid Totemic Forms Trace Possible Paths of Ecological Survival

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    Elisa Carollo

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  • U.S. inflation stays elevated but prices rose less than feared last month

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    WASHINGTON — U.S. inflation remained elevated last month as gas prices jumped while the cost of rents cooled, painting a mixed picture of the expenses consumers are facing in a murky economy where growth appears steady but hiring slow.

    What You Need To Know

    • U.S. inflation remained elevated last month as the costs of some imported goods rose while rental prices cooled

    • Consumer prices increased 3% in September from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Friday, up from 2.9% in August

    • The figures reflect a smaller increase than many economists had forecast, and will likely encourage the Federal Reserve to cut its key interest rate when it meets next week for the second time this year

    Consumer prices increased 3% in September from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Friday, the highest since January and up from 2.9% in August. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories core prices also rose 3%, down from 3.1% in the previous month.

    On a monthly basis, price increases slowed: They rose 0.3% in September, down from 0.4% the previous month. Core inflation also cooled to 0.2%, from 0.3% in August.

    The figures show that inflation continues to rise more slowly than many economists expected when President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs in April. Some of those duties were later reduced as part of trade deals, while many companies have only passed on part of the tariff cost to consumers out of concern that doing so would reduce sales. Businesses may shift more costs to consumers in the coming months if the duties appear permanent.

    The smaller increase will come as a bit of relief to Federal Reserve officials, who have signaled that they will cut their key interest rate at their meeting next week for the second time this year. Yet inflation remains above the Fed’s 2% target, underscoring the high stakes of the Fed’s moves.

    “Put simply, while inflation doesn’t appear to be accelerating, neither is it moving back toward target,” said Eric Winograd, chief U.S. economist at asset manager AllianceBernstein. “That will keep the Fed cautious rather than aggressive.”

    The report on the consumer price index was issued more than a week late because of the government shutdown, now in its fourth week. The Trump administration recalled some Labor Department employees to produce the figures because they are used to set the annual cost-of-living adjustment for roughly 70 million Social Security recipients. Friday that increase was set at 2.8% for 2026, equal to about $56 per month.

    Gas prices jumped 4.1% just in September from the previous month, a major driver of inflation last month. Grocery prices rose 0.3%, less than in August, and are 2.7% higher than a year ago.

    Trump’s duties are pushing up the prices of many goods: Furniture costs jumped 0.9% last month and are 3.8% more expensive than a year ago. Appliance costs rose 0.8% just in September, though they are up only 1.3% from a year earlier. Clothing prices increased 0.7% last month and shoes 0.9%, though neither have risen that much from last year.

    The issues of affordability and the cost of necessities are gaining in political importance. Concerns over the costs of rent and groceries have played a key role in the mayoral race in New York City. And Trump, who has acknowledged that the spike in grocery prices under President Joe Biden helped him win the 2024 election, has been considering importing Argentine beef to reduce record-high U.S. beef prices, angering U.S. cattle ranchers.

    The cost of ground beef has jumped to $6.32 a pound, a record, in part because of tariffs on imports from countries such as Brazil, which faces a 50% duty. Years of drought that have reduced cattle herds have also raised prices. Beef costs rose 1.2% in September and are up 14.7% from a year earlier, Friday’s report showed.

    Even as inflation has fallen sharply from its peak of 9.1% more than three years ago, it remains a major concern for consumers. About half of all Americans say the cost of groceries is a “major” source of stress, according to an August poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

    And the Conference Board, a business research group, finds that consumers are still referencing prices and inflation in responses to its monthly survey on consumer confidence.

    Many economists, as well as some Fed officials, expect that the tariffs will create a one-time lift to prices that will fade by early next year. At the same time, inflation excluding the tariffs is cooling, they argue: Rental price increases, for example, are declining on average nationwide.

    Yet Trump is imposing tariffs in an ongoing fashion that could raise prices in a more sustained fashion.

    For example, the Trump administration is investigating whether to slap 100% tariffs on imports from Nicaragua over alleged human rights violations. The prospect of such steep duties is a major headache for Dan Rattigan, the co-founder of premium chocolate maker French Broad, based in Asheville, N.C.

    “We’ve been shouldering some significant additional costs,” Rattigan said. The United States barely produces any cocoa, so his company imports it from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Uganda. The imports from Nicaragua were duty-free because the country had a trade agreement with the United States, but now faces an 18% import tax.

    Cocoa prices have more than doubled over the past two years because of poor weather and blights in West Africa, which produces more than 70% of the world’s cocoa. The tariffs are an additional hit on top of that. Rattigan is also paying more for almonds, hazelnuts, and chocolate-making equipment from Italy, which has also been hit with tariffs.

    French Broad raised its prices slightly earlier this year and doesn’t have any plans to do so again. But after the winter holidays, “all bets are off … in what is a very unpredictable business climate,” Rattigan said.

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    Associated Press

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  • U.S. sending aircraft carrier to Latin America in escalation of military buildup

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    WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is sending an aircraft carrier to the waters off South America, the Pentagon announced Friday, in the latest escalation of military firepower in a region where the Trump administration has unleashed more rapid strikes in recent days against boats it accuses of carrying drugs.

    What You Need To Know

    • The U.S. military is sending an aircraft carrier to the waters off South America in the latest escalation of military firepower to a region

    • A Pentagon spokesman said Friday that the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group would deploy to the U.S. Southern Command region to “bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States”

    • The USS Ford is port in Croatia and it was not clear how long it would take for the strike group to arrive

    • Earlier Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the military had conducted the 10th strike on a suspected drug-running boat, killing six people

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group to deploy to the U.S. Southern Command region to “bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on social media.

    The USS Ford, which has five destroyers in its strike group, is now deployed to the Mediterranean Sea. One of its destroyers is in the Arabian Sea and another is in the Red Sea, a person familiar with the operation told The Associated Press. As of Friday, the aircraft carrier was in port in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea.

    The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, would not say how long it would take for the strike group to arrive in the waters off South America or if all five destroyers would make the journey.

    Deploying an aircraft carrier will surge major additional resources to a region that has already seen an unusually large U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean Sea and the waters off Venezuela. The latest deployment and the quickening pace of the U.S. strikes, including one Friday, raised new speculation about how far the Trump administration may go in operations it says are targeted at drug trafficking, including whether it could try to topple Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. He faces charges of narcoterrorism in the U.S.

    Moving thousands more troops into the region

    There are already more than 6,000 sailors and Marines on eight warships in the region. If the entire USS Ford strike group arrives, that could bring nearly 4,500 more sailors as well as the nine squadrons of aircraft assigned to the carrier.

    Complicating the situation is Tropical Storm Melissa, which has been nearly stationary in the central Caribbean with forecasters warning it could soon strengthen into a powerful hurricane.

    Hours before Parnell announced the news, Hegseth said the military had conducted the 10th strike on a suspected drug-running boat, leaving six people dead and bringing the death count for the attacks that began in early September to at least 43 people.

    Hegseth said on social media that the vessel struck overnight was operated by the Tren de Aragua gang. It was the second time the Trump administration has tied one of its operations to the gang that originated in a Venezuelan prison.

    “If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda,” Hegseth said in his post. “Day or NIGHT, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you.”

    The strikes have ramped up from one every few weeks when they first began last month to three this week, killing a total of at least 43 people. Two of the most recent strikes were carried out in the eastern Pacific Ocean, expanding the area where the military has launched attacks and shifting to where much of the cocaine is smuggled from the world’s largest producers, including Colombia.

    Escalating tensions with Colombia, the Trump administration imposed sanctions Friday on Colombian President Gustavo Petro, his family and a member of his government over accusations of involvement in the global drug trade.

    U.S. focus on Venezuela and Tren de Aragua

    Friday’s strike drew parallels to the first announced by the U.S. last month by focusing on Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration has designated a foreign terrorist organization and blamed for being at the root of the violence and drug dealing that plague some cities.

    While not mentioning the origin of the latest boat, the Republican administration says at least four of the boats it has hit have come from Venezuela. On Thursday, the U.S. military flew a pair of supersonic heavy bombers up to the coast of Venezuela.

    Maduro argues that the U.S. operations are the latest effort to force him out of office.

    Maduro on Thursday praised security forces and a civilian militia for defense exercises along some 2,000 kilometers (about 1,200 miles) of coastline to prepare for the possibility of a U.S. attack.

    In the span of six hours, “100% of all the country’s coastline was covered in real time, with all the equipment and heavy weapons to defend all of Venezuela’s coasts if necessary,” Maduro said during a government event shown on state television.

    The U.S. military’s presence is less about drugs than sending a message to countries in the region to align with U.S. interests, according to Elizabeth Dickinson, the International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for the Andes region.

    “An expression that I’m hearing a lot is ‘Drugs are the excuse.’ And everyone knows that,” Dickinson said. “And I think that message is very clear in regional capitals. So the messaging here is that the U.S. is intent on pursuing specific objectives. And it will use military force against leaders and countries that don’t fall in line.”

    Comparing the drug crackdown to the war on terror

    Hegseth’s remarks around the strikes have recently begun to draw a direct comparison between the war on terrorism that the U.S. declared after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the Trump administration’s crackdown on drug traffickers.

    President Donald Trump this month declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants and said the U.S. was in an “armed conflict” with them, relying on the same legal authority used by the Bush administration after 9/11.

    When reporters asked Trump on Thursday whether he would request that Congress issue a declaration of war against the cartels, he said that wasn’t the plan.

    “I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK? We’re going to kill them, you know? They’re going to be like, dead,” Trump said during a roundtable at the White House.

    Lawmakers from both major political parties have expressed concerns about Trump ordering the military actions without receiving authorization from Congress or providing many details.

    “I’ve never seen anything quite like this before,” said Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., who previously worked in the Pentagon and the State Department, including as an adviser in Afghanistan.

    “We have no idea how far this is going, how this could potentially bring in, you know, is it going to be boots on the ground? Is it going to be escalatory in a way where we could see us get bogged down for a long time?” he said.

    Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, who has long been involved in foreign affairs in the hemisphere, said of Trump’s approach: “It’s about time.”

    While Trump “obviously hates war,” he also is not afraid to use the U.S. military in targeted operations, Diaz-Balart said. “I would not want to be in the shoes of any of these narco-cartels.”

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    Associated Press

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  • Ontario premier pulling ad that prompted Trump to end trade talks with Canada

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    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced he’s ending “all trade negotiations” with Canada because of a television ad sponsored by one of its provinces that used the words of former President Ronald Reagan to criticize U.S. tariffs — prompting the province’s leader to later pull the ad.

    What You Need To Know

    • President Donald Trump says he is ending trade negotiations with Canada

    • This decision follows a television ad from one of Canada’s provinces that used former President Ronald Reagan’s words to criticize U.S. tariffs

    • Trump claims the ad misrepresented Reagan’s stance on tariffs and was intended to influence the U.S. Supreme Court decision on his tariffs policy

    • Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he’s pulling the ad

    The post on Trump’s social media site came Thursday night ratcheted up tensions with the U.S.’s northern neighbor after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he plans to double his country’s exports to countries outside the U.S. because of the threat posed by Trump’s tariffs. White House officials said Trump’s reaction was a culmination of the administration’s long, pent-up frustration about Canada’s strategy in trade talks.

    Later Friday, Ontario premier Doug Ford, whose province had sponsored the ad, said it would be taken down.

    Ford said after talking with Prime Minister Mark Carney he’s decided to pause the advertising campaign effective Monday so that trade talks can resume. Ford said they’ve achieved their goal, having reached U.S. audiences at the highest levels.

    “Our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses,” Ford said. “We’ve achieved our goal, having reached U.S. audiences at the highest levels.”


    The U.S. president alleged the ad misrepresented the position of Reagan, a two-term president who remains a beloved figure in the Republican Party, and was aimed at influencing the U.S. Supreme Court ahead of a hearing scheduled for next month that could decide whether Trump has the power to impose his sweeping tariffs, a key part of his economic strategy. Trump is so invested in the case that he has said he’d like to attend oral arguments.

    “CANADA CHEATED AND GOT CAUGHT!!!” Trump wrote on his social media site Friday morning. “They fraudulently took a big buy ad saying that Ronald Reagan did not like Tariffs, when actually he LOVED TARIFFS FOR OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS NATIONAL SECURITY. Canada is trying to illegally influence the United States Supreme Court in one of the most important rulings in the history of our Country.”

    Canadian premier digs in after Trump ends talks

    The ad was paid for by Ontario’s government, not the Canadian federal government. Ontario Premier Doug Ford didn’t back down, posting on Friday that Canada and the U.S. are allies “and Reagan knew that both are stronger together.” Ford then provided a link to a Reagan speech where the late president voices opposition to tariffs.

    Ford has said the province plans to pay $54 million (about $75 million Canadian) for the ads to air across multiple American television stations using audio and video of Reagan speaking about tariffs in 1987.

    A spokesperson for Ford said the ad will run during a Game 1 of the World Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night.

    Ford is a populist conservative who doesn’t belong to the same party as Carney, a Liberal.

    For his part, Carney said his government remains ready to continue talks to reduce tariffs in certain sectors.

    “We can’t control the trade policy of the United States. We recognize that that policy has fundamentally changed from the 1980s,” he said Friday morning before boarding a flight for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Malaysia. Trump is set to travel to the same summit Friday night.

    Reagan’s foundation speaks out against ad

    Earlier Thursday night, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute posted on X that the ad “misrepresents the ‘Presidential Radio Address to the Nation on Free and Fair Trade’ dated April 25, 1987.” It added that Ontario did not receive foundation permission “to use and edit the remarks” and said it was reviewing legal options.

    The foundation in Simi Valley, California, is perhaps best known for maintaining the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. Its board includes longtime Republican Party stalwarts such as former Trump Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who resigned after the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol, and former House Speaker Paul Ryan, whose free-market philosophy often clashes with Trump’s protectionist tendencies.

    Another board member is Lachlan Murdoch, the son of Rupert who is executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corporation. The board is chaired by Fred Ryan, the former publisher and CEO of The Washington Post.

    Trump wrote Thursday night that “The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is FAKE, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about Tariffs.” He added, “TARIFFS ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY, AND ECONOMY, OF THE U.S.A. Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.”

    Blowup was a long time coming, administration officials indicate

    White House spokesman Kush Desai said the ad was the “latest example of how Canadian officials would rather play games than engage with the Administration.”

    Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told reporters at the White House on Friday that Canada has shown a “lack of flexibility” and also cited “leftover behaviors from the Trudeau folks,” referring to former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who had a frosty relationship with the Trump administration.

    “If you look at all the countries around the world that we’ve made deals with, and the fact that we’re now negotiating with Mexico separately reveals that it’s not just about one ad,” Hassett said.

    Carney met with Trump earlier this month to try to ease trade tensions, as the two countries and Mexico prepare for a review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a trade deal Trump negotiated in his first term but has since soured on.

    More than three-quarters of Canadian exports go to the U.S., and nearly $3.6 billion Canadian ($2.7 billion U.S.) worth of goods and services cross the border daily.

    Trump initially appeared unfazed by the ad

    Trump said earlier in the week that he had seen the ad on TV and didn’t seem bothered by it. “If I was Canada, I’d take that same ad also,” he said Tuesday during a lunch with Republican senators.

    Ontario bought more than $275,000 of ad reservations for the spot to air in 198 of the nation’s 210 media markets this month, according to data from the nonpartisan media tracking firm AdImpact. It was broadcast most frequently in the New York market, with more than 530 airings, followed by Washington, D.C., at around 280. The only other markets with more than 100 airings were those around Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and West Palm Beach, Florida.

    Ford previously got Trump’s attention with an electricity surcharge to U.S. states. Trump responded by doubling steel and aluminum tariffs.

    The president has moved to impose steep U.S. tariffs on many goods from Canada. In April, Canada’s government imposed retaliatory levies on certain U.S. goods — but it carved out exemptions for some automakers to bring specific numbers of vehicles into the country, known as remission quotas.

    Trump’s tariffs have especially hurt Canada’s auto sector, much of which is based in Ontario. This month, Stellantis said it would move a production line from Ontario to Illinois.

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    Associated Press

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  • Cate Blanchett to Receive Camerimage Icon Award

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    Two-time Oscar-winning Australian actress Cate Blanchett will be honored with this year’s Icon Award at the Camerimage film festival, which highlights the art of cinematography.

    Blanchett will attend Camerimage in Toruń, Poland, to receive the honor at the festival’s closing gala. Camerimage 2025 runs Nov. 15–22.

    Blanchett’s astounding 30+ year career on screen has been accompanied by some of the most stunning cinematography. Her breakthrough film, Elizabeth (1998), her first Academy Award nomination, earned cameraman Remi Adefarasin an Oscar nom (and a Golden Frog win at Camerimage). Ed Lachman’s lensing of Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There (2008) won the Bronze Frog at Camerimage, and his work on Haynes’ Carol (2015) received an Academy Award nomination. (Blanchett was Oscar-nominated for both films.) Florian Hoffmeister took the top prize at Camerimage for the Blanchett-starrer Tár (2022) from Todd Field, a film that scored Blanchett her eighth Oscar nomination.

    “There are artists who simply cannot be overlooked. With their sensitivity, charisma, and exceptional craft, they create unforgettable roles and bring a unique atmosphere wherever they appear. One such figure is the two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett,” said Camerimage festival director Marek Żydowicz, announcing the Icon award winner. “Cate is an extraordinary individual who treats every conversation as a singular event. It is this sensitivity and attentiveness to the world around her that make her performances unforgettable, inspiring audiences worldwide.”

    Blanchett is no stranger to Camerimage. She chaired last year’s competition jury, handing the Golden Frog to Danish cinematographer Michal Dymek for his work on Magnus von Horn’s Danish period horror drama The Girl With the Needle. In 2023, Warwick Thornton won the festival’s top prize for his lensing of The New Boy, which he also directed, and which Blanchett produced through her production shingle Dirty Films.

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    Scott Roxborough

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  • ‘B for Bartleby’ Is a Film That Explores How to Adapt the Herman Melville Story for the Screen

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    Can one adapt Herman Melville‘s Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street for the big screen? And if so, how? Austrian writer-director Angela Summereder’s new film, B for Bartleby, uses the famous short story as an inspiration for a broader cinematic reflection.

    The film explores “the impossibility of translating written language into images and sounds,” notes a synopsis on the website of Austria’s Viennale, where the movie screens this week after its world premiere at Doclisboa over the weekend. “Melville-themed tours at the author’s property, actors impersonating a fictional Bartleby and performers rehearsing the text make up Angela Summereder’s catalogue of ‘adaptation’ styles, with the purpose of carrying out her late partner’s wishes — Benedikt Zulauf, who acted in Straub-Huillet’s Geschichtsunterricht (1972), worked as a librarian and long dreamed of making a film out of the story.”

    Adds the synopsis: “As we witness the couple’s discussions about the project, we become involved in Summereder’s struggles and hesitations, a rare trait in the often solemn genre of the essay film, that offers a welcome injection of emotion into an approach otherwise predominantly textual.”

    As such, the film is also a celebration of cinema and literature as a means to engage with others and the world at large.

    Check out a trailer for B for Bartleby, for which sixpackfilm is handling international sales, here.

    How did Summereder find her approach to the film, which mixes various approaches? “It actually came about out of necessity because it was clear to me that I didn’t want to make a classic film adaptation of a literary work, or that I couldn’t,” she told THR in an interview. “It’s a really complex, difficult story, so the bar is set pretty high.”

    Her ex-partner Zulauf asked her twice to collaborate on a Bartleby film. The first time was when they met, but they didn’t end up working on it. The second time was “many, many, many years later, after parenthood and separation, when Benedikt had cancer and he asked me, like in a déjà vu: ‘Do we want to make a Bartleby film now?’” she recalled. “But we just were not on the same page, our ideas about making a feature film are very far apart.” When he died, nothing happened for two years.

    “Then, while I was cleaning up, I came across tapes I had recorded of our conversations about our ideas for the film,” Summereder told THR. Certain parts of these conversations can also be heard in the film. “Listening to them was really interesting, and you can tell how complicated the film discussions were, but there was also his sense of urgency, which really touched me. And I thought you could make a film about the attempt to make a film about the Bartleby story and the challenges, and the various approaches. So, in that sense, it also became a film about filmmaking and failure.”

    Listening to the tapes in the film may remind the audience of Bartleby’s famous catchphrase, “I would rather not,” which he uses to decline every request he receives from his employer, who is the narrator of the story.

    What is different from the story is that Summereder’s film features women. “When you read it, you notice that it is set in an all-male sphere,” she explained. “There is no woman. None of the male characters have or mention girlfriends, wives, or sisters. But when I was looking at Melville’s biography, I noticed that he surrounded himself with women in his private life. He was married and had daughters. So, he lived in a very feminine world, and the women allowed him to focus on his writing and also copied his pages.”

    Angela Summereder

    Among other women featured in B for Bartleby is a trio that moves and speaks theatrically. “They are like mediators with their spoken performances, while men sit and write in their own quiet sphere” in the film, the director explained. “It was important to me that the women act as a collective and the men as individuals, or as lone fighters.”

    Children reading and discussing Bartleby add another dimension to the movie that was important to its creator. “In the original story, there is a 12-year-old apprentice,” she emphasizes. So, she went to a youth center and asked if they were interested in a collaboration. “One of the nice things when you find yourself making a film is to dive into different social and age groups and areas and work together,” Summereder tells THR. “I love this real exchange rather than arriving with film trucks, setting up, filming, and then disappearing.”

    In the youth center, she also met rappers who feature in the film as they try to develop beats and lyrics for a Bartleby rap. “Luckily, our camerawoman [Antonia de la Luz Kasik] had the presence of mind to film this gift of the goddess of documentary filmmaking,” Summereder said with a smile.

    All in all, B for Bartleby feels more like a cinematic and performance experience than simply a film. And that is by design. “I started making film as a young woman and didn’t want to bring a certain claimed reality to the screen, but make it more about emotion and invite the audience so they feel included.”

    B for Bartleby

    Courtesy of Viennale

    Summereder’s next film project will continue her approach and focus. “It will again be a hybrid film and be about motherhood and climate,” she said. “And again, it’s connected to a literary text, in this case, the Percival epos. In it, there are two female characters that interest me — one is Percival’s mother, Herzeloyde, and the other is Cundrie, the sorceress.”

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    Georg Szalai

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  • A First-Timer’s Guide to the Dolomites

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    Where to stay in the Dolomites

    The Dolomites have no shortage of extraordinary accommodations, where design-forward hotels often become the destinations themselves. Forestis, perched 6,000 feet above sea level in Brixen, is a sanatorium-turned-five-star hotel with a minimalist aesthetic that embraces its surroundings. The Dolomites provide a breathtaking backdrop, visible through every angle, including the hotel’s floor-to-ceiling lobby windows or from the outdoor bed of a Tower Suite—the property’s signature among its 62 guest rooms. Daily wellness programming includes sound baths, guided Wyda forest walks inspired by Celtic wisdom, and Aufguss rituals, a 10-20 minute sauna experience where an Aufguss Master pours essential oils over hot stones and skillfully twirls a towel to circulate the air, all set to the rhythm of the music. This summer, Forestis quietly debuted Yera, the 14-course (cellphone-free) multi-sensory dining experience paired with housemade, fermented alcohol-free drinks, all set inside a cave. 

    About 90 minutes east in Avelengo, Italy’s German-speaking region, Chalet Mirabell feels like a whimsical fairytale. Anchored by a natural swimmable pond and roaming alpacas, the family-owned five-star resort caters to both families and couples with dedicated dining areas and pools for each. Adults can enjoy the variety of wellness programming offered daily, retreat to one of three pools, or head to the 65,000-square-foot spa at the heart of the property. 

    The hotel’s 70 cozy guest rooms blend natural wood and modern accents with plush furnishings in warm tones. Many of the guest rooms are equipped with fireplaces, free-standing tubs, and private balconies overlooking the mountains. For large groups or multi-generational families, choose from one of three mountain villas that can accommodate up to 12 guests. This winter, the sister property Chalet Zuegg debuts, with ski-in, ski-out access to Merano 2000, the town’s premier ski area.
    In Pinzolo (population: 3,000), Lefay Resort & Spa Dolomiti is the only five-star resort in Madonna di Campiglio. The nearly 54,000-square-foot spa is the resort’s crown jewel, with nine saunas and steam rooms spread out across three floors. Of the resort’s 88 alpine guest rooms and 21 residences, the Exclusive Spa Suites elevate your wellness experience to the next level. At just over 1,000 square feet, each suite features a massive whirlpool, private sauna and walk-in wardrobe for all your cozy mountain layers, hiking gear and après-ski essentials.

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    Leila Najafi

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  • ‘The Phoenician Scheme’ Set Designer’s Directorial Debut Set for Tallinn Works in Progress Showcase

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    The Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event portion of the 29th edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) has unveiled 18 works in progress that will be in the spotlight this year.

    Works in Progress presents films currently in production or post-production and seeking sales agents or festival premieres. This year’s 18 projects cover three categories: Baltic Event Works in Progress, International Works in Progress, and Just Film Works in Progress. The lineup features both debut filmmakers and acclaimed directors presenting their latest works.

    “We’re thrilled with the diversity of the selected projects. It was important for us to include films from Ukraine, both to showcase their incredible resilience and to support filmmakers creating under extremely challenging circumstances,” said Triin Tramberg, the project manager of International Works in Progress, citing 80 submissions for International Works in Progress. “We’re also excited to highlight new Catalan titles, particularly with Alba Sotorra returning — the producer of Upon Entry, which began in the festival’s debut competition and had great success — now presenting her new project Salen Las Lobas.”

    Check out the full list of Works in Progress titles below.

    International Works in Progress

    Title: The Convulsions
    Original title: Les éclats
    Country: France, Spain
    Genre: Psychological drama
    Written by: David Gutiérrez Camps, Blanca Camell Galí, Anna Zisman
    Directed by: David Gutiérrez Camps
    Produced by: Joan Carles Martorell, Iréna Lopez, Luis Ortas, Alice Baldo, Miguel Ángel Abuja, Pablo Gregorio Venegas, Joan Carles Martorell
    Production company: Auca Films
    Language: French, Catalan

    Title: Crickets Sing in the Rye
    Original title: Співають коники у житі
    Country: Ukraine
    Genre: Drama
    Written by: Yevhen Khvorostianko, Yuliia Cherniavska
    Directed by: Yevhen Khvorostianko
    Produced by: Yuliia Cherniavska, Oleg Shcherbyna, Olena Halahan
    Production company: Stage Service LLC
    Language: Ukrainian

    Title: Happiness Is Just a Blue Couch Away
    Original title: Pu spas za sve nas
    Country: Montenegro
    Genre: Drama
    Written by: Andrija Mugoša, Armin Behrem
    Directed by: Andrija Mugoša
    Produced by: Iva Kasalica, Andrija Mugoša
    Production company: KA Productions
    Language: Serbian

    Title: Kira’s Dream
    Original title: Mriia Kiry
    Country: Ukraine
    Genre: Musical film, Drama
    Written by: Denys Kolesnikov, Anastasiia Volkova
    Directed by: Denys Kolesnikov
    Produced by: Andrii Korniienko, Zlata Efimenko
    Production company: Good Morning Films
    Language: Ukrainian

    Title: Prince
    Original title: Prince
    Country: Uruguay, Argentina
    Genre: Dramedy
    Written by: Federico Borgia
    Directed by: Federico Borgia
    Produced by: Francisco Magnou Arnabal
    Production company: Montelona
    Language: Spanish

    Title: Rahma
    Original title: Rahma
    Country: Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece
    Genre: Drama, Family film, Social drama
    Written by: Faysal Soysal
    Directed by: Faysal Soysal
    Produced by: Faysal Soysal, Ivan Tonev, Michael Sarantinos
    Production company: Balkon Film
    Language: Turkish, Kurdish, Arabic, English

    Title: Salen Las Lobas
    Original title: Wolf Grrrls
    Country: Spain, Belgium
    Genre: Drama, Social drama, Youth film
    Written by: Claudia Estrada Tarascó
    Directed by: Claudia Estrada Tarascó
    Produced by: Alba Sotorra Clua
    Production company: Alba Sotorra Productions
    Contact: Sara Martorana Munner
    Language: Spanish, Catalan

    Title: Superbuhei
    Original title: Superbuhei
    Country: Germany
    Genre: Comedy, Dark comedy, Thriller, Horror
    Written by: Josef Brandl, Johannes Simon Becker
    Directed by: Josef Brandl
    Produced by: Janina Sara Hennemann, Jan Philip Lange
    Production company: junifilm
    Language: German

    Baltic Event Works in Progress

    Title: Dice-Ching-O-Mat
    Original title: Dice-Ching-O-Mat
    Country: Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia
    Genre: Drama, Fantasy
    Written by: Kristijonas Vildziunas
    Directed by: Kristijonas Vildziunas
    Produced by: Uljana Kim
    Production company: studio Uljana Kim
    Language: Lithuanian

    Title: Mo Hunt
    Original title: Mo Hunt
    Country: Estonia
    Genre: Thriller
    Written by: Eeva Mägi
    Directed by: Eeva Mägi
    Produced by: Eeva Mägi, Sten-Johan Lill
    Production company: Kultuurikuur, Kinosaurus Film
    Language: Estonian

    Title: Kingpins
    Original title: Visiem vajag naudu
    Country: Latvia
    Genre: Crime film, Comedy
    Written by: Kristians Riekstiņš
    Directed by: Kristians Riekstiņš
    Produced by: Alise Rogule
    Production company: Mima Films
    Language: Latvian, English

    Title: Lex Julia
    Original title: Lex Julia
    Country: Finland, Poland, Estonia, Sweden
    Genre: Drama, Psychological drama
    Written by: Laura Hyppönen
    Directed by: Laura Hyppönen
    Produced by: Merja Ritola
    Production company: Greenlit Productions Oy
    Language: English, Swedish

    Title: Something Real
    Original title: Midagi tõelist
    Country: Estonia, Lithuania
    Genre: Drama, Thriller
    Written by: Martin Algus
    Directed by: Evar Anvelt
    Produced by: Andreas Kask, Esko Rips
    Production company: Nafta Films
    Language: Estonian

    Title: The Wedding Day
    Original title: Līgava
    Country: Latvia, Czechia
    Genre: Musical film, Dramedy
    Written by: Marta Elīna Martinsone
    Directed by: Marta Elīna Martinsone
    Produced by: Guntis Trekteris
    Production company: Ego Media
    Language: Latvian

    Just Film Works in Progress

    Title: Morten
    Original title: Morten
    Country: Estonia, Lithuania
    Genre: Youth film
    Written by: Reeli Reinaus
    Directed by: Ivan Pavljutshkov
    Produced by: Anneli Ahven
    Production company: Kinokompanii
    Language: Estonian

    Title: Office of Magical Forces
    Original title: Хрещатик 48/2
    Country: Ukraine
    Genre: Family film, Adventure
    Written by: Yurii Mykulenko
    Directed by: Dmytro Avdieiev
    Produced by: Oleksii Komarovskyi
    Production company: Komarovski Films
    Language: Ukrainian

    Title: Suiza
    Original title: Suiza
    Country: Peru, Argentina
    Genre: Drama
    Written by: Maria Fernanda Gonzales
    Directed by: Maria Fernanda Gonzales
    Produced by: Norma Velasquez
    Production company: Lucuma Salvaje
    Language: Spanish

    Title: Tanit
    Original title: Tanit
    Country: Spain
    Genre: Children’s film, Drama, Family film, Supernatural, Youth film, Adaptation
    Written by: Pep Garrido
    Directed by: Pep Garrido
    Produced by: Xesc Cabot, Xavier Crespo
    Production company: Atiende Films / Dacsa Produccions
    Language: Catalan

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    Georg Szalai

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  • Tokyo Film Festival to Honor Yoji Yamada With Lifetime Achievement Award

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    In a tribute that’s as overdue as it is fitting, the 38th Tokyo International Film Festival will present its Lifetime Achievement Award to filmmaker Yoji Yamada, whose extraordinary career has spanned more than six decades and nearly the entire postwar evolution of Japanese cinema.

    Yamada made his directorial debut in 1961 with the domestic drama Nikai no Tanin and has since gone on to helm 91 films — from intimate portraits of ordinary Japanese life to sweeping period dramas that revitalized the jidaigeki form. His beloved Tora-san series, about a lovelorn traveling salesman (Tora-san, Our Lovable Tramp) — 50 films released between 1969 and 1995 — became a national institution and remains recognized by Guinness World Records as the longest-running film series starring the same actor.

    From the gentle domestic realism of The Yellow Handkerchief and Home from the Sea in the 1970s to his late-career masterpieces The Twilight Samurai (2002) and The Hidden Blade (2004), Yamada’s great theme has been the humor, dignity and quiet endurance of Japanese life through changing times. He has remained a relentless chronicler of the country’s moral and emotional landscape across the golden age of Shochiku Studios, Japan’s modern indie renaissance, and the emergence of the global art house circuit. Now 93, Yamada remains tirelessly at work: his latest feature, Tokyo Taxi — a remake of the French drama Driving Madeleine — will screen as the festival’s centerpiece title before its national release on Nov. 21.

    “Yoji Yamada has long observed the realities of Japanese society with a discerning yet compassionate eye, crystallizing them into numerous cinematic masterpieces,” said Tokyo festival chairman Hiroyasu Ando, praising the director’s “profound love of cinema” and “deep commitment to the future of the medium.”

    Yamada is playing several other roles at the 2025 Tokyo International Film Festival as well. He chaired the event’s Kurosawa Akira Award jury, which will present Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao and Japanese director Lee Sang-il with the prestigious prize. He will also take part in a master class discussion with Lee on Oct. 30 during the TIFF Lounge talk series, organized by Hirokazu Kore-eda.

    Across the decades, Yamada has received numerous other honors in Japan, including the Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts and the Mainichi Art Award (1970); the Kikuchi Kan Prize (1972); the Medal with Purple Ribbon and the Asahi Prize (1996); the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette (2002); recognition as a Person of Cultural Merit (2004); membership in the Japan Art Academy (2008); the Order of Culture (2012); and designation as an Honorary Citizen of Tokyo in 2014.

    The 38th Tokyo International Film Festival runs Oct. 27 to Nov. 5.

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    Patrick Brzeski

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  • Letitia Wright, Aneil Karia to Receive HollyShorts London Honors

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    HollyShorts London, the U.K. edition of the HollyShorts Film Festival, will honor BAFTA-winning actress and filmmaker Letitia Wright and Academy Award-winning director Aneil Karia with its Trailblazer Award during the festival’s second annual edition for “their outstanding contributions to cinema.”

    “Letitia Wright, globally known for her role as Shuri in Marvel’s Black Panther franchise, has emerged as a powerful creative force behind the camera,” organizers said. “Her directorial debut, Highway to the Moon, premiered at HollyShorts Los Angeles to critical acclaim and will screen again at HollyShorts London. The film marks a significant new chapter in Wright’s career, showcasing her emotional and culturally nuanced storytelling.”

    The short unravels the mysterious aftermath of young boys whose lives have been abruptly taken. “Inspired by the real-life tragedy of a close friend’s family member who was killed in a knife attack, Wright transforms personal grief into a layered exploration of violence, memory, and spiritual resilience,” HollyShorts said.

    Beyond Marvel Cinematic Universe, Wright has been shining with performances in Black Mirror, Small Axe: Mangrove, and Aisha. In 2019, she won the BAFTA Rising Star Award.

    “Thank you, HollyShorts, for this beautiful award,” the star said. “This film was birthed from a place of love and a strong desire to see unity amongst our young boys. This film is my love letter to them. This journey has been a challenge but incredibly rewarding. Thank you for the opportunity to share this story with you!”

    Karia is the other Trailblazer honoree at HollyShorts London 2025. “Celebrated for his bold, emotionally resonant storytelling across film and television, in 2022, Karia’s Oscar-winning short The Long Goodbye, co-created with Riz Ahmed, gained international acclaim after winning the Grand Prix at HollyShorts Los Angeles,” organizers highlighted. “The film also received a BIFA and the London Critics’ Circle Award for best short film. Karia has recently completed his second feature, a modern adaptation of Hamlet, starring Riz Ahmed, Morfydd Clark, Joe Alwyn, and Tim Spall, which premiered at Telluride before screening at Toronto and London Film Festivals. His debut feature Surge, starring Ben Whishaw, premiered at Sundance, where Whishaw won the special jury prize for acting.”

    Karia’s TV work includes directing duties on Netflix’s Top Boy and the BBC/Paramount+ series The Gold. In 2026, he will begin production on The Ministry of Time, a new series written by Alice Birch and produced by A24. He has also made a name for himself with his work on commercials and music videos.

    “I owe a huge debt of gratitude to HollyShorts,” said Karia. “Their recognition of The Long Goodbye in 2021 played a key part in its journey and ultimately its Oscar win, but more importantly, they’ve built a festival that consistently spotlights bold, original voices and gives new filmmakers genuine visibility. It’s an honor to be acknowledged by a team that keeps pushing short film culture forward.”

    Wright and Karia join such past honorees as David Oyelowo, Jared Hess, Alden Ehrenreich, Catherine Hardwicke, and Tom Skerritt.

    The HollyShorts London festival runs Nov. 13-16, with screenings taking place at Vue Cinemas in Leicester Square.

    Check out the HollyShorts London 2025 lineup below.

    A Death in the Family — Yasmin Hafesji 

    A Friend of Dorothy — Lee Knight 

    A Good Death — Kaz PS 

    Ado — Sam Henderson 

    All Beauty Queens Have Broken Bones — Max C Tullio 

    Back of the Net — Klara Kaliger 

    Beauty Sleep — Jasmine De Silva 

    Bile Bile — Rango Mugo 

    Blue Violet — Josie Charles 

    Bluff — Naomi Wright 

    Borscht — Vika Evdokimenko 

    Boyfighter — Julia Weisberg Cortés 

    Bullet Time — Eddie Alcazar 

    Bury Your Gays — Charlotte Serena Cooper 

    Busy — Jane Moriarty 

    Care — Stef O’Driscoll 

    Chasers — Erin Brown Thomas 

    Chivalry — Charlotte Yang 

    Dating in Your 20s — Lily Rutterford, Lucy Minderides 

    Egg Timer — Rosie May Bird Smith 

    Everyone Does It — Craig Ainsley 

    Fenced — Richey Beckett 

    Fighting Demons — Simon Stock 

    First Timer — Hannah Kathryn Kelso 

    G.S.W. — Jonny Durgan 

    Goodnight Ladies — Alex Matraxia 

    Hat Trick — Tess Lafia, Noah Deats 

    Highway To The Moon — Letitia Wright 

    Hotel Fantasma — Martin Aleman 

    Hugel – The Entourage — Ludovic Genco, Hugo Lucas Pompier 

    Humantis — Paris Baillie 

    Imperfect Cadence — Ewan S. Henry 

    In Foreign — Didi Beck 

    Largo — Salvatore Scarpa, Max Burgoyne-Moore 

    Love & Loss — Mike Upson 

    Magid / Zafar — Luís Hindman 

    Naked Lights — Jeda de Brí 

    Night Terrors — Ben Hector 

    Nothing but the End — Tanguy Pichon 

    OK/NOTOK — Pardeep Sahota 

    Overcomer — Olawale Adetula 

    Paranoia — Alina Bichieva 

    Pearls — Alastair Train 

    Plastic Surgery — Guy Trevellyan 

    Rise — Jessica J. Rowlands 

    Rock Paper Scissors — Franz Böhm 

    Rocket Fuel — Jordon Scott Kennedy 

    Running against time — Alex Lockett 

    Satomi — Rayner Wang 

    Secret Level New World – The once & Future King — Maxime Luère 

    Set Pace — Daisy Ifama 

    Snipped — Alexander Saul 

    Spoken In Plain Sight — Ilya Wray, Ariel de la Garza Davidoff 

    Stomach Bug — Matty Crawford 

    The Beneath — Lisette Vlassak 

    The Bunker — Ian Killick 

    The Dartmoor Cowboy — Wij Travers 

    The Errand — Hayley Marie Norman 

    The Last Dance — Hayden Mclean 

    The Last Dumpling — Jadey Duffield 

    The Lone Piper — Matthew Kravchuk 

    The Mediator — Dean Leon Anderson 

    The Morning After — Zak Harney 

    The Painting & The Statue — Freddie Fox 

    The Pearl Comb — Ali Cook 

    The Professional Parent — Erik Jasaň 

    The Second Time Around — Jack Howard 

    The Secret Assistants — Katey Lee Carson 

    The Singers — Sam Davis 

    The Woman in the Wardrobe — Ruby Phelan 

    There’s a Robbery in Progress — Morgan Miller 

    Two Black Boys in Paradise — Baz Sells 

    Two People Exchanging Saliva — Alexandre Singh, Natalie Musteata 

    Umbra — Seb Gillmore 

    Victory — Meji Alabi 

    Wavelength — Kate Auster 

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    Georg Szalai

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  • Trump suggests U.S. will buy Argentinian beef to bring down prices for Americans

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    ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE — President Donald Trump said Sunday that the United States could purchase Argentinian beef in an attempt to bring down prices for American consumers.

    “We would buy some beef from Argentina,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One during a flight from Florida to Washington. “If we do that, that will bring our beef prices down.”

    Trump promised earlier this week to address the issue as part of his efforts to keep inflation in check.

    U.S. beef prices have been stubbornly high for a variety of reasons, including drought and reduced imports from Mexico due to a flesh-eating pest in cattle herds there.

    Trump has been working to help Argentina bolster its collapsing currency with a $20 billion credit swap line and additional financing from sovereign funds and the private sector ahead of midterm elections for his close ally, President Javier Milei.

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    Associated Press

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  • Zelenskyy: Meeting with Trump was ‘positive’ though he didn’t get missiles

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his reportedly tense meeting with U.S President Donald Trump last week was “positive” — even though he did not secure the Tomahawk missiles for Ukraine — and emphasized what he said is continued American interest in economic deals with Kyiv.

    What You Need To Know

    • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump last week was “positive,” highlighting what he sees as continued American interest in economic deals with Kyiv

    • Zelenskyy says Trump backed away from sending long-range missiles to Ukraine after a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin

    • Ukraine hopes to buy Patriot air defense systems from American firms, using frozen Russian assets and partner assistance

    • Trump supports a freeze along the current front line, which Zelenskyy sees as positive

    Zelenskyy said Trump reneged on the possibility of sending the long-range missiles to Ukraine, which would have been a major boost for Kyiv, following his phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin hours before the Ukrainian leader and American president were to meet on Friday.

    “In my opinion, he does not want an escalation with the Russians until he meets with them,” Zelenskyy told reporters on Sunday. His comments were embargoed until Monday morning.

    Ukraine is hoping to purchase 25 Patriot air defense systems from American firms using frozen Russian assets and assistance from partners, but Zelenskyy said procuring all of these would require time because of long production queues. He said he spoke to Trump about help procuring these quicker, potentially from European partners.

    According to Zelenskyy, Trump said during their meeting that Putin’s maximalist demand — that Ukraine cede the entirety of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions — was unchanged.

    Zelenskyy was diplomatic about his meeting with Trump despite reports that he faced pressure to accept Putin’s demands — a tactic he has kept up since the disastrous Oval Office spat on Feb. 28 when the Ukrainian president was scolded on live television for not being grateful for continued American support.

    Zelenskyy said that because Trump ultimately supported a freeze along the current front line his overall message “is positive” for Ukraine.

    He said Trump was looking to end the war and hopes his meeting in the coming weeks with Putin in Hungary — which does not support Ukraine — will pave the way for a peace deal after their first summit in Alaska in August failed to reach such an outcome.

    So far, Zelenskyy said he has not been invited to attend but would consider it if the format for talks were fair to Kyiv.

    “We share President Trump’s positive outlook if it leads to the end of the war. After many rounds of discussion over more than two hours with him and his team, his message, in my view, is positive — that we stand where we stand on the line of contact, provided all sides understand what is meant,” Zelenskyy said.

    Zelenskyy expressed doubts about Hungary’s capital of Budapest being a suitable location for the next Trump-Putin meeting.

    “I do not consider Budapest to be the best venue for such a meeting. Obviously, if it can bring peace, it will not matter which country hosts the meeting,” he added.

    Zelenskyy took a stab at Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, saying he does not believe that a prime minister “who blocks Ukraine everywhere can do anything positive for Ukrainians or even provide a balanced contribution.”

    Zelenskyy also expressed skepticism about Putin’s proposal to swap some territory it holds in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions if Ukraine surrenders all of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

    “We wanted to understand exactly what the Russians meant. So far, there is no clear position,” he said.

    Zelenskyy said he thinks that all parties have “moved closer” to a possible end to the war.

    “That doesn’t mean it will definitely end, but President Trump has achieved a lot in the Middle East, and riding that wave he wants to end Russia’s war against Ukraine,” Zelenskyy added.

    He said the United States is interested in bilateral gas projects with Ukraine, including the construction of an LNG terminal in the southern port city of Odesa. Other projects of interest to the U.S. include those related to nuclear energy and oil.

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    Associated Press

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  • Emma Corrin, Maika Monroe Wrap Up Star-Spangled London Film Festival With ‘100 Nights of Hero’

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    The 2025 BFI London Film Festival has closed in style thanks to Julia Jackman’s superstar 100 Nights of Hero cast.

    The Canadian filmmaker was joined by Emma Corrin, Maika Monroe, Amir El-Masry, Richard E. Grant and Felicity Jones at the city’s Royal Festival Hall on Sunday night to wrap up an almighty run of premieres for the LFF. Key cast members Nicholas Galitzine and Charli xcx were not in attendance.

    Jackman’s sophomore feature, based on the graphic novel of the same name by Isabel Greenberg, is a visually stunning fantasy set in a fairytale kingdom. Cherry (Monroe) is happily married to Jerome (El-Masry) and living a seemingly idyllic life. But the couple have yet to conceive an heir, so when Jerome absconds and his dashing friend Manfred (Galitzine) arrives with dastardly intentions, Hero (Corrin), Cherry’s wily and loyal maid, is forced to concoct a plan to distract Manfred by telling captivating stories about rebellious women.

    “I’ve been dreaming of making this film for a long time,” Jackman said on stage. “And I actually, to be honest, didn’t know whether I’d get the chance. So to be here with you guys is incredible. Thank you so much for coming.”

    Corrin, star of The Crown, Nosferatu and Deadpool & Wolverine, added about crafting the character of Hero with Jackman: “So much of it was in Julia’s incredible adaptation. … Hero’s all-knowing wisdom — she [has] confidence and knows who she is and there’s a real relief to playing someone like that. We chatted a lot about that, and [about] getting the comedy right.”

    Monroe — best known for last year’s horror hit Longlegs — said Jackman’s script was “so incredible unique and so beautiful.” She said: “Even just reading the script, I could imagine this fantastical world. I fell in love with Cherry. … [There] was just this feeling of, like, needing to do this role.”

    The Hollywood Reporter‘s review out of Venice Critics Week — where 100 Nights of Hero earned its world premiere in August — described the feature as “eccentric, fey and surprisingly dark.” Leslie Felperin wrote that “viewers may start to expect anything could happen — like pop superstar Charli xcx showing up in a supporting role as an unlucky bride with barely any lines but a sumptuous assortment of jewel-toned gowns.”

    It marks the end to another BFI London Film Festival after 11 days of star-studded screenings that had A-listers, including the likes of George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Daniel Craig, Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jacob Elordi, Josh O’Connor, Oscar Isaac, Paul Mescal, Jessie Buckley and Daniel Day-Lewis, flocking to London’s Southbank.

    The fest kicked off Oct. 8 with the European premiere of Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery and hosted the casts of Jay Kelly, Hamnet, Frankenstein, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, After The Hunt, Die My Love, Bugonia, Ballad of a Small Player, Sentimental Value and Is This Thing On?, among others.

    The fest has also hosted some of the industry’s most celebrated directors and actors for Screen Talks sessions at BFI Southbank, including Yorgos Lanthimos, Daniel Day-Lewis, Richard Linklater, Jon M. Chu, Chloé Zhao and Lynne Ramsay.

    “It’s not enough for a film to just have an incredible cast — the film has to really stand on its own two feet,” London Film Fest director Kristy Matheson told THR at the opening-night gala. “We’re really trying to find a program that’s got a lot of different textures in it, that really feels like it reflects the city that we are in. We want a really great geographical spread.

    “We want different types of stories, because here in London,” she continued, “the cinema audiences are amazing. They’re seeing great films every day of the week here. They really do know their cinema, so we have a standard that we need to meet.”

    A total of 247 titles — comprised of features, shorts, series and immersive works — from 79 countries premiered at this year’s festival, with official wins for Martel’s Landmarks (Nuestra Tierra), David Bingong’s The Travelers (Les Voyageurs), as well as One Woman One Bra by Vincho Nchogu and Coyotes, directed by Said Zagha.

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    Lily Ford

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  • Ukraine strikes Russian gas plant as Trump says Kyiv may need to give up land

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian drones struck a major gas processing plant in southern Russia, sparking a fire and forcing it to suspend its intake of gas from Kazakhstan, Russian and Kazakh authorities said Sunday.

    U.S. President Donald Trump meanwhile suggested that Kyiv may have to give up territory in exchange for an end to Moscow’s more than 3 1/2-year invasion, in the latest of apparent reversals on how to pursue peace.

    What You Need To Know

    • Ukrainian drones have struck a major gas processing plant in southern Russia, causing a fire
    • The Orenburg plant, operated by Gazprom, is one of the world’s largest facilities of its kind
    • The regional governor says the attack damaged a workshop but caused no casualties. Ukraine’s military claims a large-scale fire erupted at the plant
    • Kyiv has increased attacks on Russian energy facilities in recent months
    • Elsewhere, U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested that Kyiv may have to give up territory in exchange for an end to Moscow’s aggression, in the latest of apparent reversals on how to pursue peace.=

    The Orenburg plant, run by state-owned gas giant Gazprom and located in a region of the same name near the Kazakh border, is part of a production and processing complex that is one of the world’s largest facilities of its kind, with an annual capacity of 45 billion cubic meters. It handles gas condensate from Kazakhstan’s Karachaganak field, alongside Orenburg’s own oil and gas fields.

    According to regional Gov. Yevgeny Solntsev, the drone strikes set fire to a workshop at the plant and damaged part of it. The Kazakh Energy Ministry on Sunday said, citing a notification from Gazprom, that the plant was temporarily unable to process gas originating in Kazakhstan, “due to an emergency situation following a drone attack.”

    Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement Sunday that a “large-scale fire” erupted at the Orenburg plant, and that one of its gas processing and purification units was damaged.

    Kyiv has ramped up attacks in recent months on Russian energy facilities it says both fund and directly fuel Moscow’s war effort.

    Russians modified bombs for deeper strikes

    Meanwhile, Ukrainian prosecutors claim that Moscow is modifying its deadly aerial-guided bombs to strike civilians deeper in Ukraine. Local authorities in Kharkiv said Russia struck a residential neighborhood using a new rocket-powered aerial bomb for the first time.

    Kharkiv’s regional prosecutor’s office said in a statement that Russia used the weapon called the UMPB-5R, which can travel up to 80 miles, in an attack on the city of Lozava on Saturday afternoon. The city lies 93 miles south of Kharkiv, a considerable distance for the weapon to fly.

    Russia continued to strike other parts of Ukraine closer to the front line. In the Dnipropetrovsk region, at least 11 people were injured after Russian drones hit the Shakhtarske area. At least 14 five-story buildings and a store were damaged, said acting regional Gov. Vladyslav Haivanenko.

    Ukraine’s General Staff also claimed a separate drone strike hit Russia’s Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery, in the Samara region near Orenburg, sparking a blaze and damaging its main refining units.

    The Novokuibyshevsk facility, operated by Russian gas major Rosneft, has an annual capacity of 4.9 million tons, and turns out over 20 kinds of oil-based products. Russian authorities did not immediately acknowledge the Ukrainian claim or discuss any damage.

    Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement early Sunday that its air defense forces had shot down 45 Ukrainian drones during the night, including 12 over the Samara region, one over the Orenburg region and 11 over the Saratov region neighboring Samara.

    In turn, Ukraine’s air force reported Sunday that Russia during the night launched 62 drones into Ukrainian territory. It said 40 of these were shot down, or veered off course due to electronic jamming.

    Trump says Ukraine may have to give up land for peace

    Trump appeared to edge back in the direction of pressing Ukraine to give up on retaking land it has lost to Russia, in exchange for an end to Moscow’s aggression.

    Asked in a Fox News interview conducted Thursday whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would be open to ending the war “without taking significant property from Ukraine,” Trump responded: “Well, he’s going to take something.”

    “They fought and he has a lot of property. He’s won certain property,” Trump said. “We’re the only nation that goes in, wins a war and then leaves.”

    The interview was aired on Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” but was conducted before Trump spoke to Putin and Zelenskyy last week.

    The comments amounted to another shift in position on the war by the U.S. leader. In recent weeks, Trump had shown growing impatience with Putin and expressed greater openness to helping Ukraine win the war.

    In Thursday’s interview, he was noncommittal about sending Tomahawk missiles requested by Ukraine, saying “I’m looking at it” but expressing concern about depleting U.S. weapons stocks.

    “We need them for ourselves too,” Trump said. “We can’t give all our weapons to Ukraine. We just can’t do that.”

    Russians and Ukrainians interviewed by The Associated Press last week voiced hopes for progress at an upcoming summit between Trump and Putin in Budapest, Hungary, but said they anticipated no major breakthrough.

    The two leaders agreed in a phone call Thursday to meet in the coming weeks, according to Trump, who also sat down with Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday.

    Contrary to Kyiv’s hopes, Trump did not commit to providing it with Tomahawks following that meeting. The missiles would be the longest-range weapons in Ukraine’s arsenal and would allow it to strike targets deep inside Russia, including Moscow, with precision.

    Deliveries of Tomahawks could provide leverage to help push the Kremlin into negotiations, analysts say, after Trump expressed frustration over Putin’s refusal to budge on key aspects of a possible peace deal.

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    Associated Press

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  • Klaus Doldinger, Composer of ‘Das Boot’ and ‘The NeverEnding Story,’ Dies at 89

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    Klaus Doldinger, the German saxophonist and composer who created the soundtracks to Wolfgang Petersen’s Das Boot and The NeverEnding Story, had died. He was 89.

    Doldinger died on Oct. 16, his family confirmed to German press agency dpa.

    Born May 12, 1936, in Berlin, Doldinger studied piano and clarinet but was drawn to the jazz music brought to Germany by American GIs after the war. Having lived through the Nazi dictatorship, Doldinger later wrote in his 2022 autobiography, “Made in Germany. Mein Leben für die Musik,” he decided to make music “that you couldn’t march in step or click your heels together [to].” The fascination with those free rhythms never left Doldinger. In 1971, he formed Passport, a long-running jazz-fusion outfit that toured internationally and released dozens of albums over five decades.

    Doldinger’s breakthrough in film came with his sparse, electronic-tinged soundtrack to Petersen’s Petersen’s submarine drama Das Boot (1981). Against the backdrop of a minimal orchestral ensemble, just strings, brass and percussion, Doldinger used early synthesizers to create a sonic soundscape evoking sonar pulses, engine drones and the metallic ambience inside the World War 2 U-boat. The title theme’s steadily ascending line, mirroring the claustrophobic tension within the sub, became a signature motif. An early 90s techno remix of the theme, by the German band U96 (named after the submarine’s military designation) spent 13 weeks at number one of the German single charts and topped charts across much of Europe.

    Doldinger returned to big-screen fantasy with The NeverEnding Story (1984), Petersen’s adaptation of Michael Ende’s classic children’s book. Doldinger’s original score was a classical European affair, with sweeping strings and brass-heavy cues (with only the occasional synth coloring) inspired by the film’s fairy-tale origins. For The NeverEnding Story‘s international release, producers brought in Flashdance composer Giorgio Moroder to give Doldinger’s score a sleeker pop-synth gloss, adding drum machines and arpeggiated synthesizers, as well as a new title song, performed by English pop singer Limahl, which was a top 10 hit on the single charts in the U.S. and U.K.

    Inside Germany, Doldinger was also known for his themes and TV scores composed for television, most famously his brief, instantly recognizable jazz-fusion intro for Tatort, a weekly crime show that has remained Germany’s most-watched scripted series for decades.

    Doldinger balanced screen work with Passport, recording and touring while maintaining a steady output for film and TV from his base in Bavaria.

    He is survived by his wife Inge and their three children.

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    Scott Roxborough

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  • Lynne Ramsay Recalls Meeting “Totally Terrifying” Joaquin Phoenix: “I’ve Never Worked With Such an Exciting Actor in My Life”

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    Die, My Love director Lynne Ramsay was hosted by the BFI London Film Festival on Saturday and reflected on filming with A-list stars Joaquin Phoenix, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson.

    The Scot’s latest feature — following Lawrence as Grace, a new mother who finds herself spiraling into the depths of psychosis — had its U.K. premiere Friday night at London’s Royal Festival Hall, with Ramsay going into more depth about the filming process at a Saturday Screen Talks session with fellow industry execs and creatives.

    Known for her movies Ratcatcher (1999), Morvern Callar (2002) and We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), Ramsay discussed getting to know Hollywood heavy-hitters and recalled meeting Phoenix, star of her 2017 neo-noir psychological thriller You Were Never Really Here. The film follows Phoenix as a traumatized mercenary named Joe, who is hired by a politician to rescue his kidnapped daughter in New York.

    “He’s amazing,” began Ramsay, “I mean, he’s totally terrifying. He’s a beast, you know? When I first met him, I was like — oh, my God, I think I said something really stupid like, ‘Are you left-handed or are you right-handed?’”

    She went on to explain the lengths that Phoenix, an Oscar winner for his performance in Joker, would often go to on set. “He would just never do the same thing twice, he’d just surprise you,” she continued, remembering one unscripted take where Phoenix purposely fell down some stairs. “Everyone’s running, going, ‘What’s happened to Joaquin?!’” said Ramsay. “He just thought, ‘I’ll try this and see if it works.’ […] Honestly, I’ve never worked with such an exciting actor in my life,” she added. “He’s phenomenal and he wants to just get on with it — he’s not into all the paraphernalia and these bullshit things… I feel bad for telling you that story because he’ll kill me!” When filming wrapped, Phoenix suggested they take the same crew and make another film straight away.

    Ramsay delighted the BFI LFF audience with a couple of anecdotes about You Were Never Really Here, including one on a French financier who was desperate for it to go to Cannes. “He was obsessed with Cannes,” recalled the celebrated filmmaker. “He wanted to see a cut every week… [I said], ‘You can wait until you get the director’s cut. But he persuaded me into it. And then [he said], ‘This is shit, this is shit’ for the rest of the edit, which was actually so soul-destroying.”

    Joaquin Phoenix in You Were Never Really Here.

    When the movie finally nabbed a spot on the 2017 Cannes lineup, there were still scenes to shoot and Ramsay was left with a week to get the film ready. It later won best actor for Phoenix and best screenplay at the prestigious festival, but it was “the nuttiest film I had ever been on,” according to its director.

    When asked about bringing music into her films, Ramsay admitted it was only after working with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood on You Were Never Really Here that she had enjoyed hiring composers. “I never used music unless it was in the scene. And then the more and more I worked on features, and especially after I worked with Jonny Greenwood, whose work really enhanced my film, I changed my mind,” she said. “Because I feel that music can tell you so much about character.” She added that receiving files from Greenwood, who recently composed the score for Paul Thomas Anderson’s buzzy thriller One Battle After Another, was like “getting a Christmas present… I was just blown away by the music.”

    Towards the end of the session, Ramsay was nervous to reveal too much about her latest film with Lawrence and Pattinson. “Jennifer Lawrence was just in a permanently bonkers situation,” she did tease, before going into depth about the characters of Grace and Jackson. “She does the most outrageous things, but he still loves her, you know?”

    “But she kind of takes it to the limit,” continued Ramsay. “It’s also about her marriage and whatnot, and she feels a bit invisible… There’s all that hope moving into a new house, there’s wild sex and then a baby comes in and he doesn’t want sex with her anymore. Those kinds of things that happen in relationships are in the film as well as elements of [postpartum depression].”

    The BFI London Film Festival 2025 runs Oct. 8-19.

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    Lily Ford

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  • Palestinians, Israel disagree on whether Rafah crossing will reopen Monday

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    CAIRO — The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will reopen Monday for people returning to Gaza, the Palestinian embassy in Egypt said Saturday, but the territory’s sole gateway to the outside world will remain closed to people trying to leave.

    What You Need To Know

    • The Palestinian embassy in Egypt says the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will reopen Monday for people returning to Gaza

    • But Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says the Rafah crossing will not reopen “until further notice” 

    • The office said Saturday it will depend on how Hamas fulfills its role in returning all 28 bodies of dead hostages

    • The crossing is Gaza’s only gateway to the outside world that wasn’t controlled by Israel before the war, and it has been closed since May 2024, when Israel took control of the Gaza side

    However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement within minutes, saying that the Rafah crossing wouldn’t reopen “until further notice,” adding that it would depend on how Hamas fulfills its role in returning all the bodies of the dead hostages.

    Israel’s foreign ministry on Thursday had said that the crossing would likely reopen Sunday — another step in the fragile ceasefire.

    The Rafah crossing is the only one not controlled by Israel before the war. It has been closed since May 2024, when Israel took control of the Gaza side. A fully reopened crossing would make it easier for Gazans to seek medical treatment, travel or visit family in Egypt, home to tens of thousands of Palestinians.

    It’s unclear who will operate the crossing’s heavily damaged Gaza side once the war ends.

    Meanwhile, Gaza’s ruins were being scoured for the dead, over a week into the ceasefire. Newly recovered bodies brought the Palestinian toll above 68,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Thousands of people are still missing, according to the Red Cross.

    The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. But the ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.

    Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people in the attack on southern Israel that sparked the war on Oct. 7, 2023.

    Palestinians watch members of the Hamas militant group searching for bodies of the hostages in an area in Hamad City, Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

    Hostages’ remains

    Israel said the remains of a 10th hostage that Hamas handed over the day before were identified as Eliyahu Margalit.

    The handover of hostages’ remains, called for under the ceasefire agreement, is among key points — along with aid deliveries into Gaza and the devastated territory’s future — in a process backed by much of the international community to help end two years of war.

    The office of the Israeli prime minister said that Margalit’s family had been notified. The 76-year-old was abducted from kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct. 7 attack. His remains were found after bulldozers plowed up pits in the southern city of Khan Younis.

    The effort to find the remaining 18 hostages followed a warning from U.S. President Donald Trump that he would greenlight a resumption of the war by Israel, if Hamas doesn’t live up to its end of the deal and return them all.

    In a statement, the hostage forum that supports the families of those abducted said they won’t rest until the remaining hostages come home. The forum said that it will continue holding weekly rallies until all are returned.

    Hamas has said it is committed to the terms of the ceasefire deal, but that the retrieval of remains is hampered by the scope of the devastation and the presence of unexploded ordnance. The group has told mediators that some remains are in areas controlled by Israeli troops.

    As part of the ceasefire agreement, Israel on Saturday returned the bodies of a further 15 Palestinians to Gaza. Gaza’s Health Ministry said the International Committee of the Red Cross handed over the bodies to Nasser Hospital, bringing the total number Israel had returned to 135.

    In announcing the updated Palestinian death toll, the ministry said the number has climbed since the ceasefire began, with the majority of the newly counted bodies being found during recovery efforts.

    Thousands of people are still missing, according to the Red Cross.

    A tent camp for displaced Palestinians sits adjacent to destroyed homes and buildings in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

    A tent camp for displaced Palestinians sits adjacent to destroyed homes and buildings in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

    Hamas accuses Israel of violations

    Hamas again accused Israel of continuing attacks and violating the ceasefire, asserting that 38 Palestinians had been killed since it began. There was no immediate response from Israel, which still maintains control of about half of Gaza.

    On Friday, Gaza’s Civil Defense, first responders operating under the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, said nine people were killed, including women and children, when their vehicle was hit by Israeli fire in Gaza City. The Civil Defense said the car crossed into an Israeli-controlled area in eastern Gaza.

    The Civil Defense said Israel could have warned the people in a manner that wasn’t lethal. The group recovered the bodies Saturday with coordination from the United Nations, it said.

    Israel’s army said it saw a “suspicious vehicle” crossing the so-called yellow line and approaching troops. It said it fired warning shots, but the vehicle continued to approach in a manner that posed an “imminent threat.” The army said it acted in accordance with the ceasefire.

    Aid demands

    Hamas has urged mediators to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza for its 2 million people, expedite the full opening of the Rafah border crossing and start reconstruction of the battered territory.

    The flow of aid remains constrained because of continued closures of crossings and Israeli restrictions on aid groups.

    U.N. data on Friday showed 339 trucks have been offloaded for distribution in Gaza since the ceasefire began. Under the agreement, about 600 aid trucks per day should be allowed to enter.

    COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing aid in Gaza, reported 950 trucks — including commercial trucks and bilateral deliveries — crossing on Thursday and 716 on Wednesday, the U.N. said.

    Throughout the war, Israel restricted aid to Gaza, sometimes halting it altogether.

    International food security experts declared famine in Gaza City, and the U.N. says it has verified more than 400 people who died of malnutrition-related causes, including over 100 children.

    Israel has long said it let in enough food and accused Hamas of stealing much of it. The U.N. and other aid agencies deny the claim.

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    Associated Press

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