Global Edition

US-German trio wins medicine Nobel for work on optogenetics

BY PIA OHLIN

  • In 2021, Deisseroth and Hegemann won the Lasker Prize for their work in the field, often considered a precursor to the Nobel.
  • The Nobel medicine prize was awarded Monday to US psychiatrist and neurologist Karl Deisseroth and German scientists Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their pioneering work in the field of optogenetics.
  • In 2021, Deisseroth and Hegemann won the Lasker Prize for their work in the field, often considered a precursor to the Nobel.
The Nobel medicine prize was awarded Monday to US psychiatrist and neurologist Karl Deisseroth and German scientists Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their pioneering work in the field of optogenetics.
Optogenetics involves controlling nerve signals with light, and helps researchers understand how specific cell types contribute to behaviours like learning, fear, addiction and movement.
The trio were honoured "for their discovery of a molecular switch for nerve cells", the Nobel Assembly said.
Using light, researchers are now able to switch individual neural circuits on or off in a brain.
They have been able to reveal neural circuits governing specific memories, feelings, and behaviours relevant for neurological and psychiatric disorders.
In clinical medicine, the method is being used in attempts to restore sight in people with visual impairment, and may one day lead to treatments for disorders such as Parkinson's disease and epilepsy.
"Optogenetics provides opportunities for mapping the brain in a way that we could once only dream of," Per Svenningsson, chair of the Nobel committee, said in a statement.
"Optogenetics has fundamentally altered our understanding of the brain. Every day brings new discoveries, helping to solve one of humanity's great mysteries: how our incredible brain works," the Nobel Assembly said.
The secretary general of the assembly, Thomas Perlmann, told reporters he was able to reach the three laureates by phone to break the news.
"That was great to talk to them. I first called Deisseroth, he was very tired when he answered. He was definitely asleep, but he woke up," he said.
 

Illumination

 
In the early 2000s, Hegemann and Nagel were examining why a single-celled alga was able to swim toward a light source.
They discovered an algal protein with unique properties, called channelrhodopsin, found on the surface of the cell.
When illuminated by blue light, a channel opens through the protein.
Charged ions then flow into the cell, creating an electrical impulse. They found that any cell they put the protein in became light sensitive.
Deisseroth then introduced the gene for channelrhodopsin into nerve cells from rats.
By illuminating the cells with blue light, he was able to trigger a nerve signal.
He published his breakthrough in 2005, and two years later, made the light-controlled switch for nerve cells work in the brains of living mice.
In 2021, Deisseroth and Hegemann won the Lasker Prize for their work in the field, often considered a precursor to the Nobel.
Deisseroth, 54, is  a professor at Stanford University in the US, while Hegemann, 71, is a neuroscience professor at Humboldt University of Berlin. 
Nagel, 73, is a biophysics professor at the University of Wurzburg.
The Nobel prize for physics will be announced on Tuesday, followed by the chemistry prize on Wednesday and the literature prize on Thursday.
Some pundits have suggested that for literature, the Swedish Academy could follow up last year's award to Hungary's Laszlo Krasznahorkai with a woman writer, possibly from Central or Latin America.
Argentine author Samanta Schweblin, 48, could be one such pick, literary critic Lina Kalmteg told AFP.

All eyes on peace

 
Perhaps the most keenly anticipated award is that due on Friday, the peace prize -- the only Nobel to be awarded in Oslo.
This year, some experts have suggested the jury could choose a laureate who enjoys broad consensus, after last year's winner, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, stirred controversy.
Among possible laureates this year are a joint prize to Save the Children and Mykola Kuleba, a Ukrainian children's rights activist campaigning for the return of Ukrainian children illegally taken to Russia from occupied territories.
Others include Sudan's Emergency Response Rooms (ERR), a vast network of volunteers risking their lives to help people facing the double threat of war and hunger, and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) after the deadliest year on record for the profession in 2025.
The economics prize wraps up the Nobel season on October 12.
This year's laureates will receive their prizes -- a diploma, a gold medal and a $1.2-million cheque -- on December 10, the anniversary of the death in 1896 of the prize's creator, scientist Alfred Nobel.
bur-po/rlp

film

Zuckerberg skewered again on screen in 'The Social Reckoning'

BY ANTOINE GUY AND ADAM PLOWRIGHT

  • OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was set to be the subject of new biopic "Artificial" by Italian director Luca Guadagnino until it was dropped by producers Amazon MGM Studios -- shortly after Amazon entered into a partnership with OpenAI. Independent film distributor Neon has stepped in and is set to release the movie next year.
  • Sixteen years after being portrayed as a power-hungry start-upper in "The Social Network" film, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is set for another damning on-screen depiction, this time as a ruthless Silicon Valley overlord.
  • OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was set to be the subject of new biopic "Artificial" by Italian director Luca Guadagnino until it was dropped by producers Amazon MGM Studios -- shortly after Amazon entered into a partnership with OpenAI. Independent film distributor Neon has stepped in and is set to release the movie next year.
Sixteen years after being portrayed as a power-hungry start-upper in "The Social Network" film, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is set for another damning on-screen depiction, this time as a ruthless Silicon Valley overlord.
Hitting screens internationally from Wednesday, the follow-up movie "The Social Reckoning" by Aaron Sorkin delves into the darkest corners of Facebook's legacy, from spreading hate speech to encouraging political polarisation, and undermining democracy.
It is told through the real-life story of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, played by "Anora" star Mikey Madison, and Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz (Jeremy Allen White), who were the duo behind the 2021 "Facebook Files" PR disaster for the company.
The Zuckerberg character, played by "Succession" star Jeremy Strong, is the central figure in the drama, but the heroic Haugen and hard-working Horwitz provide the emotional core of the film.
"This is a whistleblower story. It's a newspaper story," Sorkin told AFP and a handful of other entertainment journalists last week.
"In 'The Social Network' I made an attempt to understand his (Zuckerberg's) motives and get inside his head. I do that less in 'The Social Reckoning'," added Sorkin, who wrote the script of the first movie.
"I put him in a single situation and have him make a single argument so that by the end of the film he is confronted with the consequences of what he's done," Sorkin said.
That situation is Facebook's refusal to fact-check political advertisements on its platform in the run-up to the 2020 US elections, which ended with President Donald Trump contesting the results and his supporters smashing their way into the Capitol.
 
- Cool kids - 
 
Critically acclaimed "The Social Network" in 2010, which went on to win three Oscars, was written by Sorkin but directed by "Fight Club" maker David Fincher.
It featured a break-out performance from Jesse Eisenberg as a then-student Zuckerberg, a socially awkward mogul-in-the-making who has trouble making friends and is accused of ripping off the idea for Facebook from his peers at Harvard University. 
"What I had suggested back in 2010 was that he was a guy uncomfortable with the social structure of college -- feeling, as so many people do, that there's a cool kids table somewhere and he's not welcome at it," Sorkin said. 
"And so he created his own cool kids table, which he's now the mayor of."
In "The Social Reckoning", Sorkin does not wrestle with what motivates 42-year-old Zuckerberg as he runs his Meta empire that now includes Instagram, WhatsApp and his faltering parallel online world called the "Metaverse".
"It can't possibly be money. There's nothing you can buy for $120 billion that you couldn't buy for $119 billion," Sorkin said. 
Jeremy Strong told GQ magazine last month that he had reached out to the Meta supremo via email to say he had approached the role "very seriously" and "with respect". 
He did not reveal Zuckerberg's response.
On screen, the Zuckerberg character is heard acknowledging his image problem, saying: "I know what people think of me". 
 
- 'Tech bros' on screen - 
 
The American tech billionaire class is inspiring a growing number of films, while also becoming more tightly enmeshed in the business side of Hollywood.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was set to be the subject of new biopic "Artificial" by Italian director Luca Guadagnino until it was dropped by producers Amazon MGM Studios -- shortly after Amazon entered into a partnership with OpenAI.
Independent film distributor Neon has stepped in and is set to release the movie next year.
Elon Musk was seen as inspiration for the space-faring main character in black comedy "Mickey 17" starring Robert Pattinson last year, while the Tesla and SpaceX boss is the subject of a new documentary by Oscar winner Alex Gibney.
British comedy writer-turned director Jesse Armstrong made "Mountainhead" for HBO last year that imagined four tech billionaire villains stuck in a mountain retreat.
Given the deep pockets and powerful lawyers available to Zuckerberg, Sorkin's script was picked over at studio Sony Pictures' behest.
The "West Wing" creator also re-shot two scenes, but has denied legal fears were to blame.
"Under normal circumstances when you're doing non-fiction, there is a thorough legal vet that happens. In this case, they decided to hire an outside law firm just to handle this," Sorkin explained. 
"There were some, not many notes from the lawyers and those notes did not affect (the film)," he said.
agu-adp/ach

Canada

'Verity' kills, Cruise bombs in N. American movie theaters

  • Then in fourth with debut revenue of just $8 million was "Digger," a black comedy starring Cruise as a powerful man who sets off a climate disaster, then tries to show he is the one to save the world from it.
  • The bookish thriller "Verity" cleaned up in its North American box office debut this weekend while Tom Cruise flopped in "Digger" playing a rich old guy who thinks he can save the world.
  • Then in fourth with debut revenue of just $8 million was "Digger," a black comedy starring Cruise as a powerful man who sets off a climate disaster, then tries to show he is the one to save the world from it.
The bookish thriller "Verity" cleaned up in its North American box office debut this weekend while Tom Cruise flopped in "Digger" playing a rich old guy who thinks he can save the world.
"Verity," an MGM film starring Dakota Johnson, Anne Hathaway and Josh Hartnett, took in $32.6 million in its first weekend, industry monitor Exhibitor Relations said.
Adapted from a novel by Colleen Hoover, the story of a struggling writer hired to help a famous author finish her book scored an excellent opening for an original psychological thriller, said veteran industry watcher David A. Gross of FranchiseRe Movies.
"The weekend figure is well above average for the genre, in spite of weak reviews and audience ratings," he wrote. "The reception is not hurting the film — audiences are showing up in big numbers."
Holding on to second place was Sony's "Resident Evil," with $12.5 million this weekend, bringing its North American total to $125 million after three weekends in theaters.
"Heart of the Beast," starring Brad Pitt as a former soldier and his loyal but traumatized combat dog as they survive in the Alaskan wilderness, brought in an estimated $11 million for Paramount on its second weekend. It stayed in third place.
Then in fourth with debut revenue of just $8 million was "Digger," a black comedy starring Cruise as a powerful man who sets off a climate disaster, then tries to show he is the one to save the world from it.
"For a black comedy, the numbers are not bad, but black comedies are small films and this isn't a small film, it's a Tom Cruise movie," Gross wrote.
Dropping one rung to fifth, also with $8 million, was "Primetime," starring Robert Pattinson as reality TV host Chris Hansen. 
The film is based on a real-life US show from the mid-2000s called "To Catch a Predator" in which Hansen and his production staff lured would-be pedophiles into sting operations where police were waiting to make on-screen arrests.
Rounding out the top 10:
"Forgotten Island" ($7.2 mn)
"Avengers Endgame: Encore" ($4.4 mn)
"Practical Magic 2" ($2.65 mn)
"Spider-Man: Brand New Day" ($2.45 mn)
"The Odyssey" ($1.3 mn)
dw/md
  

Glastonbury

UK's Glastonbury festival tickets sell out in 45 minutes

  • "Tickets for Glastonbury 2027 have now sold out," the organisers posted on social media, less than an hour after the general sale began.
  • Tickets for next year's Glastonbury music festival in the UK sold out in 45 minutes on Sunday, organisers said, with thousands rushing for sought-after tickets despite the hefty price tag.
  • "Tickets for Glastonbury 2027 have now sold out," the organisers posted on social media, less than an hour after the general sale began.
Tickets for next year's Glastonbury music festival in the UK sold out in 45 minutes on Sunday, organisers said, with thousands rushing for sought-after tickets despite the hefty price tag.
"Tickets for Glastonbury 2027 have now sold out," the organisers posted on social media, less than an hour after the general sale began.
The iconic festival held at Worthy Farm in southwest England has become a fixture of the international musical calender, after first launching in 1970 inspired by British hippie and counterculture movements.
Prices have risen steadily in the last decade, with standard tickets costing £408 ($539) for the June 2027 iteration, which follows the "fallow year" of no festival in 2026.
The performers for next year has not yet been announced, although organisers confirmed the recently reunited Britpop band Oasis will not play at Worthy Farm after months of speculation.
Once a mecca for legendary British rockers, Glastonbury's line-up in recent years has veered to include global pop stars alongside festival veterans, with the likes of Charli XCX, Dua Lipa and Olivia Rodrigo gracing the stages.
The festival, popularly known as Glasto, courted controversy in 2025 after two acts offered messages of support for Palestinians in Gaza, where the United Nations says there are "reasonable grounds" to conclude that Israel's authorities and security forces "have continued to commit the crime of genocide".
Police assessed comments made on stage by Irish rappers Kneecap and the London-based duo Bob Vylan -- but ultimately took no action against either band. 
Frontman Bobby Vylan had led the crowd in chants against the Israeli army, sparking backlash against the BBC from some quarters for its live broadcast of the moment.
Last year's festival also saw singer Lewis Capaldi make an emotional return to the vaunted Pyramid Stage, two years after he stopped a performance on the same stage as he struggled to overcome his Tourette symptoms.
Glastonbury 2025, which was attended by some 210,000 people, featured veteran stars Neil Young and Rod Stewart, as well as performances by Raye, The Prodigy, Alanis Morissette and Snow Patrol.
The festival will take place from June 23 to 27, 2027.
aks/gil

film

Music links past, present for Pedro Pascal's cellist in 'Behemoth!'

  • And that became possible when (Pedro Pascal) came on."
  • Pedro Pascal learned to play the cello for his starring role in upcoming film "Behemoth!"
  • And that became possible when (Pedro Pascal) came on."
Pedro Pascal learned to play the cello for his starring role in upcoming film "Behemoth!" from Oscar-winning writer-director Tony Gilroy.
"I was so taken by what the story was and the... intimacy of all of it, in the way that I guess how intimate it can feel to listen to music and to be guided by music," the 51-year-old actor told AFP on Friday.
Jumping between past and present, the film tells the story of Alex Serian, a cellist who moves to Los Angeles to care for his dying mother and escape an overbearing ex played by Olivia Wilde.
While there he joins an orchestra that performs film scores, and the music they play serves as a link for both Alex and the audience, connecting fragments from his past that appear to have overwhelmed him.
Chilean-American Pascal said his character "just seemed like a person who is as much of a kind of passenger to his life as you are a passenger to his experience...as a viewer."
As he goes from city to city, lover to lover, the score for "Behemoth!" -- written by nine composers and which serves as the score performed by the orchestra in the film -- triggers the main character's memories.
The film marks a departure for Gilroy, who cut his teeth writing action movies like the "Bourne" films and legal thrillers like "Michael Clayton."
"I never wrote a character quite like this before that wasn't escaping or rushing towards" crises, the 70-year-old filmmaker said, adding that he was inspired by the legendary Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni, who "manages to be... a passenger in the movie, but never passive."
"And that's the trick to this: is to put him on the train and not have him run over by it. And that became possible when (Pedro Pascal) came on."
US actress Eva Victor, who plays one of Alex's partners in the movie, questions whether the main character is as passive as he appears to be.
"I feel like it's very active to be running from things and to be not engaging with things in your life... I think that's very actively self-sabotaging," she said.
pel/tmt/jgc/acb

Global Edition

Boisterous fashion week barnstorms 'sleepy' Nigerian capital

BY NICHOLAS ROLL

  • Despite the change in venue, some things are universal in Nigeria, whose creaking grid is as infamous as Lagos traffic: as the models prepped backstage Friday, the power briefly cut out.
  • Nigerian models donned outfits of seemingly impossible amounts of fabric folded and moulded into massive silhouettes, or overlapping in shingled, feather-like patterns.
  • Despite the change in venue, some things are universal in Nigeria, whose creaking grid is as infamous as Lagos traffic: as the models prepped backstage Friday, the power briefly cut out.
Nigerian models donned outfits of seemingly impossible amounts of fabric folded and moulded into massive silhouettes, or overlapping in shingled, feather-like patterns.
The colourful, detailed textiles evoked Carnival -- both Nigeria's own, in the southeastern city of Calabar, or that of Rio de Janeiro fame -- but were in fact splashing down a runway in Abuja, better known for being the sleepy seat of government than for avant-garde couture.
Nigeria Fashion Week, which wraps up Sunday, decamped from Lagos this year, trading the mega-city of more than 20 million -- the nation's economic and artistic mecca -- for the centrally planned administrative centre, which nonetheless has developed its own, smaller creative scene.
"Abuja is slow, slow in every way. People are very laid back," Lexy Mojo-Eyes, the dapper organiser of the fashion week, who cut his teeth in Lagos, told AFP. 
"We want to change the dynamics, we want to build Abuja as a fashion city."

A slowly changing city

Nigeria officially moved its capital from thronging, crowded Lagos in 1991. But even in 2026, Abuja can still look half-built, its pockmarked downtown home to modern office buildings alongside empty lots and even farms that pre-date its founding.
It doesn't have Lagos's famous, and infamous, raucousness -- but neither does it have a riposte to the Lagos film industry, known as Nollywood, or its major corporate headquarters and roster of Afrobeats stars.
As Abuja has slowly filled in over the years, it has shed some of its sterile feel, hosting a photography festival, an international film festival and a burgeoning literary scene.
Part of the reason the show moved to Abuja was to increase dialogue between industry and government, organisers said.
"Government has to be that enabling environment," including by reforming tourism and intellectual property law, culture minister Hannatu Musa Musawa told AFP, wearing a metallic silver, pink and blue dress as she sat in the front row at a Friday runway show.
Libyan designer Rabia Ben Barka, whose models showed off similarly shimmering dresses, told AFP she found Abuja -- on her first trip to Nigeria -- "so clean" and organised.
"Anyone who comes by, they greet you with 'Good morning,'" said Ben Barka, considered the doyen of Libyan fashion and who once counted Muammar Gaddafi's wife among her clients.
Some of her boxy silhouettes evoked retro women's shoulder pads -- and then, down the runway, strutted a man in a metallic silver-and-black pinstripe suit, complete with heeled leather shoes: souped-up businesswear for a capital city shedding its stuffy image.

Cost of living

Abuja is also drawing longtime Lagos players, including Chinwe Ezenwa, a handbag designer who opened a second factory in the capital in 2021.
"It's a bit of a sleepy town," Ezenwa, the CEO of Le Look, told AFP. "But it's picking up."
Lagos, for its part, still retains its own, separate fashion week.
And whether Abuja can support the workers needed to run a creative sector -- designers, fashion students and entrepreneurs -- remains to be seen. 
Many residents are already forced beyond the suburbs by brutal housing costs, and the government has come under fire for razing green areas, farms and "gardens" -- cheap, open-air restaurants situated in parks -- in favour of luxury development.
Despite the change in venue, some things are universal in Nigeria, whose creaking grid is as infamous as Lagos traffic: as the models prepped backstage Friday, the power briefly cut out.
As the lights flickered back on, baptism in blackout over, one attendee quipped that the show was now, officially, "very authentic".
nro/tba/cw/giv

luxury

Fashion industry in 'precarious moment', says Vivienne Westwood supremo

BY ADAM PLOWRIGHT

  • Asked about the commercial environment for fashion labels, with many creative directors under pressure, Kronthaler acknowledged the generally difficult trading conditions.
  • Vivienne Westwood creative director Andreas Kronthaler said the fashion industry was in a "precarious moment" as he unveiled his latest Spring-Summer collection for the British house at Paris Fashion Week.
  • Asked about the commercial environment for fashion labels, with many creative directors under pressure, Kronthaler acknowledged the generally difficult trading conditions.
Vivienne Westwood creative director Andreas Kronthaler said the fashion industry was in a "precarious moment" as he unveiled his latest Spring-Summer collection for the British house at Paris Fashion Week.
Kronthaler, the Austrian widower of Vivienne Westwood who took over after her death, found inspiration from African fabrics and his own penchant for night gowns for the typically whimsical designs of his SS27 collection called "Body and Soul".
A piece of African fabric bought at the Barbes market in Paris was one starting point, as was his decision to start wearing his night gown outside in the street during this summer's searing heatwaves. 
"I just lived my life in it, and I went on my bicycle and shopping and what not. And people really liked it," he told AFP. "And I thought that's nice, my life shirt."
"Orange Is the New Black" actress Natasha Lyonne headed down the catwalk wearing an animal print jacket with nothing underneath, as former supermodel Heidi Klum and actresses Rose McGowan and Paris Jackson looked on from the front row.
Asked about the commercial environment for fashion labels, with many creative directors under pressure, Kronthaler acknowledged the generally difficult trading conditions.
"We (Vivienne Westwood) are independent, and there are good sides to this, and of course there are hard sides to this. But it's okay," he told AFP. "We are living in a very precarious moment because things are not so secure in fashion."
Several top designers from Anthony Vaccarello at Saint Laurent, Pierpaolo Piccioli at Balenciaga and Chemena Kamali at Chloe have been linked to possible exits in recent news reports, although none of the labels have commented publicly. 
Elsewhere on Saturday, French luxury house Hermes presented its women's collection in the courtyard of the elite Republican Guard police unit in Paris, making the zip its leitmotif and the ultra-fine strap an accessory. 
Zips were used to modulate the length of skirts, they ran across leather jackets and down a flared blue pair of trousers.
The family-controlled maker of the famous Kelly bag, which generates nearly half of its sales from leather goods and saddlery, is also going through a rough patch, even though it is holding up better than the rest of the sector. 
On July 29, the group saw its share price plunge by as much as 11 percent during the session on the day it released its half-year results. Shares are down 39 percent since the start of the year.
Chief womenswear designer Nadege Vanhee will present the brand's first haute couture collection in January during Paris Couture Week. 
At the same time, British designer Grace Wales Bonner will make her runway debut as artistic director of Hermes menswear.
adp-dar/giv
 

architecture

Louvre launches appeal as part of new fundraising drive

  • Various groups already raise funds for the museum, including the historic Amis du Louvre (Friends of the Louvre), as well as the American Friends of the Louvre.
  • The Louvre Museum in Paris launched what is expected to be one of many new public fundraising appeals on Thursday, asking for money to renovate a popular inner courtyard.
  • Various groups already raise funds for the museum, including the historic Amis du Louvre (Friends of the Louvre), as well as the American Friends of the Louvre.
The Louvre Museum in Paris launched what is expected to be one of many new public fundraising appeals on Thursday, asking for money to renovate a popular inner courtyard.
The bosses of the creaking former palace, which was targeted by thieves last year, are hoping to raise 800,000 euros ($900,000) to overhaul the Cour du Sphinx (Sphinx Courtyard) in the Denon wing, which is home to the Mona Lisa and other masterpieces. 
"At the heart of the museum’s most visited wing, the courtyard will be designed as a calm space, ideal for taking a break during a visit," the museum said in a statement.
Its glazed roof dating from 1934 will be replaced, walls will be restored "to address damage caused by water infiltration" while a new floor is also set to be installed, the statement added. 
The Louvre is also inviting visitors to imagine a new name for the space which takes its current title from the Sphinx of Tanis sculpture which was displayed there between 1826 and 1848.
The Louvre's new head, Christophe Leribault, who took over in the aftermath of last year's embarrassing break-in, has outlined a vast restoration plan for the world’s biggest museum budgeted at more than one billion euros. 
With France's government under pressure to trim spending, he has indicated he would seek around a third, or 330 million euros, from private sources. 
Various groups already raise funds for the museum, including the historic Amis du Louvre (Friends of the Louvre), as well as the American Friends of the Louvre.
For the last two years, the museum has gathered celebrities and philanthropists for an annual gala dinner during the spring-time Paris Fashion Week, which raised 1.6 million euros in 2026.
On October 19, 2025, robbers disguised as construction workers broke into the museum in the morning using a truck-mounted lift and stole eight crown jewels, worth around $100 million.
agu-adp/ach 

culture

London's Bayeux Tapestry show to offer audio tour for blind people

  • Following the criticism, the museum told AFP in a statement it would be offering "an in-person audio-described tour".
  • The British Museum will provide an audio-described tour of the Bayeux Tapestry after a visually impaired man objected to lack of provision for the blind and partially-sighted.
  • Following the criticism, the museum told AFP in a statement it would be offering "an in-person audio-described tour".
The British Museum will provide an audio-described tour of the Bayeux Tapestry after a visually impaired man objected to lack of provision for the blind and partially-sighted.
Yusuf Ali Osman, who is blind, had reportedly said the museum breached equalities laws in its display of the nearly 1,000-year-old artwork on loan from France.
Following the criticism, the museum told AFP in a statement it would be offering "an in-person audio-described tour".
"We are also exploring including a separate audio-described tour as part of the exhibition's app-based audio guide," it added.
Its provisions also include a sensory map.
Excited visitors have been flocking to see the 11th-century masterpiece since the start of the sold-out exhibition earlier last month.
The tapestry, whose permanent home is a museum in Bayeux in northern France, offers an insight into life in England both before and after the invasion by William the Conqueror's Norman army.
Depicting the 1066 Battle of Hastings, the 70-metre-long (230-foot-long) tapestry is currently being displayed flat in a raised glass cabinet. It is normally hung vertically.
Tickets to the exhibition are sold out until December 31, with a second tranche for viewings until July 11 due to go on sale on October 21.
har/jkb

US

Kenneth Branagh examines the scars of Iraq war in 'Atonement'

BY PAULA RAMON

  • "I was so touched by this piece of writing and the story and all these characters and the way that their lives had intersected very tragically, and then by some miracle, they all intersect again a decade later," Van Dyk said.
  • Screenwriter Reed Van Dyk was leafing through a magazine one day in 2012 when he came across an article about the human cost of war that stopped him in his tracks.
  • "I was so touched by this piece of writing and the story and all these characters and the way that their lives had intersected very tragically, and then by some miracle, they all intersect again a decade later," Van Dyk said.
Screenwriter Reed Van Dyk was leafing through a magazine one day in 2012 when he came across an article about the human cost of war that stopped him in his tracks.
He knew that one day he would have to bring it to the screen, but he did not feel he had the leverage in Hollywood to tackle such a weighty issue.
"I wasn't in a position to make a film about this back then," he told AFP.
That all changed after his short film "DeKalb Elementary" won critical acclaim and earned an Oscar nomination in 2018, so he went back to the New Yorker article and began work on "Atonement," which goes on limited release on Friday.
The film, based on the magazine piece, begins in 2003, when the lives of an Iraqi family and a war veteran became tragically intertwined in a Baghdad under fire.
Mariam Khachaturian, played by Hiam Abbass, and her family are trying to reach their home when their two vehicles are fired on by a Marine unit that believed it was under threat. 
Three passengers die in the shooting, including Mariam's husband. 
Eventually, the widow tries to leave the war behind by moving to the United States with her daughter.
Marine Lou D'Alessandro (Boyd Holbrook) also wants to move on, but the consequences of what he was involved in continue to haunt him.
The only way he feels he might be able to exorcise his demons is to seek out Mariam.
"I was so touched by this piece of writing and the story and all these characters and the way that their lives had intersected very tragically, and then by some miracle, they all intersect again a decade later," Van Dyk said.
In the movie, Lou and Mariam sit face-to-face in California, brought together by the efforts of Michael Reid (Kenneth Branagh), a journalist who had interviewed both of them about the war. 
"I was very drawn to the idea of that complexity, and very drawn to the idea of being this witness at this remarkable meeting over years with two people trying to process the enormous pain and loss of very different kinds," Branagh told AFP on the sidelines of the Toronto International Film Festival.
"And then the really compelling drama of this immensely difficult thing, meeting again to feel, discuss, forget, forgive," said the British actor, whose character is inspired by journalist Dexter Filkins, author of the original article. 

'A new context'

"Atonement" arrives in US theaters days after the US formally ended its decades-long mission in Iraq, but with the country again at war -- this time with Iran.
"I was pulled to write about and explore these trio of people, and so that was in spite of the fact that you know it wasn't a story that headlines were echoing at the time of my writing," Van Dyk said.
But "as we’re making the film, the world has sort of backslid into war everywhere.  So it brings a new context to all of our work."
For Holbrook ("Narcos"), portraying the tormented Lou was "a fantastic experience," but also an intimidating one.
"The preparation for a film like this is everything, and for me it was life altering," he told AFP.
"It was something that I had to really find and discover in myself, the empathy and the courage that [his character] Lou had."
Abbass ("Blade Runner 2049" and "Succession") said she had wanted desperately to do justice to Mariam. 
"I wanted to take her place and shout out my feelings and my anger towards why this should happen," she said.
"Why on Earth we keep going all the time, causing these pains to people, whoever they are, whatever they are, whatever nationality they come from, whatever conflict we're talking about."
pr/hg/sla

themepark

California roller coaster shut after brain damage claims

  • Attorneys at Dordick Law, who are acting for Greer-Wilkinson, said they had been contacted by more than 100 people who say they were injured by the roller coaster.
  • A popular California roller coaster is being permanently shut down after dozens of people claimed to have suffered brain damage while riding it.
  • Attorneys at Dordick Law, who are acting for Greer-Wilkinson, said they had been contacted by more than 100 people who say they were injured by the roller coaster.
A popular California roller coaster is being permanently shut down after dozens of people claimed to have suffered brain damage while riding it.
The X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain features precipitous drops and jarring twists that have thrilled millions of riders over two decades, with seats that swivel 360 degrees as cars travel at speeds of up to 80 miles (130 kilometers) an hour.
But it has also sparked a rash of legal complaints, including from two women whose families say they were seriously injured in July on the ride in Valencia, just north of Los Angeles.
Pamela Guillen, 40, suffered a severe subdural hematoma and brain compression after riding X2 on July 5, and underwent emergency surgery that required doctors to remove part of her skull, her family told CNN in an investigation last month.
Less than a week later, Naomi Greer-Wilkinson of Los Angeles, 25, lost consciousness after riding X2 and underwent emergency brain surgery, CNN reported. She remained in a coma for weeks and still can't speak or breathe on her own, according to her parents.
The ride has been closed since shortly after the second incident, but on Tuesday park managers said they were shuttering it for good.
"After almost 20 years, we have decided to permanently retire X2," park President Brian Oerding said.
"Since X2 opened in 2008, it has welcomed more than 16 million guests and earned a passionate following among ride enthusiasts," he said.
"While X2 consistently passed a multitude of safety tests, we have decided to close the ride because we believe it's the right thing to do. Ride safety is a cornerstone of our business, and when we see guest confidence affected, we take it seriously."
Attorneys at Dordick Law, who are acting for Greer-Wilkinson, said they had been contacted by more than 100 people who say they were injured by the roller coaster.
"The design of this ride makes it inherently dangerous, and makes it dangerous in a way that no reasonable rider would expect," attorney Christopher Bulone told reporters.
Theme park operator Six Flags, which has properties throughout North America, says it does not comment on pending litigation.
In August the company and ride manufacturer S&S Worldwide Inc. reached a settlement with the family of 22-year-old Christopher Hawley, who died after riding X2 in 2022.
A separate lawsuit is scheduled for next year in which Sheila Katerelos, 56, alleges she suffered a traumatic brain injury on the ride in 2020.
hg/mjf
 

diplomacy

Panic, anger, tears: Evan Gershkovich's uneasy journey after Russian jail

BY MARIA DANILOVA

  • Most of his time behind bars was spent in the notorious Lefortovo high-security prison in Moscow in a cell so small that he could only take six to seven steps.
  • US journalist Evan Gershkovich spent nearly 500 days in a tiny Russian jail cell.
  • Most of his time behind bars was spent in the notorious Lefortovo high-security prison in Moscow in a cell so small that he could only take six to seven steps.
US journalist Evan Gershkovich spent nearly 500 days in a tiny Russian jail cell. When he was finally set free two years ago as part of an extraordinary multi-country prisoner swap, it took him almost as long to heal.
In an exclusive interview with AFP in Washington on Wednesday, Gershkovich recounted his ordeal after being arrested by Russia's security agency and charged with espionage, a journey he documented in his memoir "This Cursed Beautiful Land," which came out this week.
His release brought a flood of emotions he had kept buried in prison.
"Panic attacks, freezing in crowds of people, quick temper," Gershkovich, 34, said. "I went through prison in this sort of stoic way of thinking I have to keep my emotions in check, but clearly that all got pent up, and so it all started coming out after I got out."
Having not once allowed himself to cry in prison, he now wept regularly and was having nightmares of still being behind bars. There was an even more unsettling feeling: a desire to go back to his prison life, to which he had gotten so used.
"In the initial weeks, I had this really strange pang of wanting to go back. Because it was something I understood," Gershkovich recalled.
The son of Jewish emigres from the Soviet Union, Gershkovich grew up in suburban New Jersey speaking Russian with his parents and sister, eating Russian food and going by the Russian equivalent of his name, Vanya, at home.
He arrived in Russia in 2017 eager to get his start in journalism and later worked for AFP in Moscow before moving to the Journal. He remained one of the few journalists who continued to report inside the country after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
He was arrested in March 2023 in the industrial city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains as he was reporting a story on Russia's military production when a half-dozen security officers from Russia's Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, burst into the restaurant where he was sitting and put him in handcuffs. The source he was meeting turned out to be an FSB agent tasked with entrapping him.
"Immediately it was immense fear, it was sort of like animalistic fear," Gershkovich said.
"They, you know, put the hood back over my head and pummel my midsection," Gershkovich recounted. "I think they were just trying to give me a signal like... 'You're under our control now.'"
Gershkovich says that aside from being roughed up during his arrest, he was not subjected to physical or psychological abuse endured by thousands of other inmates in Russian prisons, including Ukrainians arrested in territories occupied by Russia.
"They chose to not break me as a person, torture me, deprive me of food and hot water," Gershkovich said, adding the agents were clearly aiming for a prisoner swap.
Most of his time behind bars was spent in the notorious Lefortovo high-security prison in Moscow in a cell so small that he could only take six to seven steps. He relied on care packages sent by family and friends, exercised, meditated and kept journals that he later used to write his book. He also read Gulag memoirs.
"I felt like it was almost like a manual," Gershkovich said.
Through his cellmate, Gershkovich learned the rules of Russian prison life, including how to perform various bodily functions in the cramped cell and how to comport himself with other inmates to stay safe.
Both Gershkovich and his employer vehemently denied he was a spy and the US State Department labeled him "wrongfully detained."
In the end, the FSB's case against him was based a document which said, citing an unnamed source, that the Moscow bureau of the Wall Street Journal is used by the CIA to gather intelligence and therefore Gershkovich "belongs to the apparatus of the CIA."
Enraged, Gershkovich yelled at his investigator. "My own editors wouldn't let me publish a scoop based on a single anonymous source, and here you are telling me I'm a spy," he recalls in his book.
In August 2024, after 16 months behind bars, having been convicted of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in prison, Gershkovich was flown to an airbase outside the US capital, where he was greeted on the tarmac by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
A group of other Russian and German prisoners were also freed, in exchange for Western countries releasing several Russian assets, including convicted murderer Vadim Krasikov.
Gershkovich's recovery took time and psychotherapy. "I'd say it took about the same amount of time as I was in to feel like I'm normal again," Gershkovich said.
Today Gershkovich is based in Berlin and is reporting full-time for the Journal.
He says he will not travel to Russia while Russian President Vladimir Putin is still in power, but he is not ready to close the door on the country.
"In terms of forgiving Russia... what is that, you know? Is it all the 145 million people that live there? Is it Putin and the FSB?" he asked.
"To me, my arrest is the FSB, sanctioned by Putin," he said. "But I would like to go back one day, of course. It meant a lot to me."
md/pnb

Paramount

US judge accepts Paramount's Warner Bros. buyout settlement

  • "Bringing together Paramount and Warner Bros.
  • A federal judge on Wednesday approved a settlement between Paramount and a group of US states that clears the way for its takeover of Warner Bros.
  • "Bringing together Paramount and Warner Bros.
A federal judge on Wednesday approved a settlement between Paramount and a group of US states that clears the way for its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, creating a Hollywood empire spanning television, news and cinema.
Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin of California signed the consent decree, binding the concessions that Paramount offered to end an antitrust challenge brought by 12 states. The commitments run for five years, and the court will have the power to enforce them.
Paramount, which is run by David Ellison, whose ultra-wealthy family has ties to US President Donald Trump, won a bidding war against Netflix in February for control of a stable of assets that includes Warner Bros. Pictures, CNN and the HBO Max streaming service.
The same day, Ellison named Mattel Chief Executive Ynon Kreiz as co-CEO of the combined company once the merger closes.
Ellison will stay on as chairman and CEO, focusing on strategy, creative direction and technology, while Kreiz will handle day-to-day operations and the integration of the two businesses, the company said.
"Bringing together Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery to create a next-generation global media company is a transformational moment for our industry," Ellison said in a statement.
"In Ynon, I'm adding a partner with strong leadership and the operating firepower this integration demands," he added.
Kreiz, who has led Mattel since 2018 and oversaw its move into film with the 2023 blockbuster "Barbie," will join Paramount on October 5 and take a seat on the board at closing.
The Trump administration approved the deal, one of the largest-ever media mergers, in June without demanding a change to its business, before 12 US states sued to block the transaction.
Financing for the deal reportedly includes about $24 billion in equity from the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
David Ellison's father, billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison, provided major funding and a guarantee to lenders backing the deal.
Opponents in the movie industry said the combined company would slash jobs in a Hollywood already under pressure and reduce the number of films produced every year, while news media groups feared CNN's independence could be compromised.
The decree includes several safeguards on these issues, including a board meant to protect CNN's editorial independence.
The settlement was reached by the parties on September 21 and was awaiting the judge's approval.
It came just days after Trump banned CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House. The outlets successfully sued the administration to have the decision reversed.
Paramount had threatened to move out of California if the state's attorney general, Rob Bonta, did not end the lawsuit.
The decree commits the merged studio to release 30 movies in each of the first two years of the deal, and 32 in each of the following three years.
arp/pnb

music

Kanye West's Russian concerts have been cancelled, organisers say

  • Several Russian officials welcomed the planned shows, while others expressed concerns about the rapper's past comments glorifying Nazi Germany, a sensitive issue in Russia.
  • US rap star Kanye West's two planned concerts in Russia have been cancelled, organisers said Wednesday, less than two months after their surprise announcement triggered a frenzy of media attention and excitement among Russians.
  • Several Russian officials welcomed the planned shows, while others expressed concerns about the rapper's past comments glorifying Nazi Germany, a sensitive issue in Russia.
US rap star Kanye West's two planned concerts in Russia have been cancelled, organisers said Wednesday, less than two months after their surprise announcement triggered a frenzy of media attention and excitement among Russians.
The organisers did not give a reason for the cancellation.
West, who goes by the stage name "Ye", had been barred from several European countries over past antisemitic comments.
The Saint Petersburg venue that was originally scheduled to host the shows backed out days after tickets went on sale, sparking weeks of uncertainty about whether they would go ahead.
"Friends, it is with sincere regret that we announce that the YE concerts in Saint Petersburg cannot take place on the scheduled dates," Moscow-based events organiser Say Agency said in a statement.
"We will publish details regarding the refund terms and conditions shortly," it added.
West has not yet commented.
The Grammy-award winning rapper would have been the biggest Western musician to headline in Russia since Moscow launched its Ukraine offensive in 2022.
Several Russian officials welcomed the planned shows, while others expressed concerns about the rapper's past comments glorifying Nazi Germany, a sensitive issue in Russia.
The Kommersant newspaper reported on Wednesday that police were investigating the organisers for alleged fraud, citing an unnamed source.
bur/rlp

television

Florence Pugh stars in 'East of Eden' adaption on Netflix

  • The script is written by Zoe Kazan, whose family history is intimately tied to "East of Eden": she is the granddaughter of Elia Kazan, who directed the 1955 film adaptation starring James Dean.
  • Led by star Florence Pugh, "East of Eden" is an ambitious adaptation that streams on Netflix starting Thursday, based on the masterpiece of the same name by American novelist John Steinbeck.
  • The script is written by Zoe Kazan, whose family history is intimately tied to "East of Eden": she is the granddaughter of Elia Kazan, who directed the 1955 film adaptation starring James Dean.
Led by star Florence Pugh, "East of Eden" is an ambitious adaptation that streams on Netflix starting Thursday, based on the masterpiece of the same name by American novelist John Steinbeck.
The seven-part series focuses on the Trasks, one of the two families at the heart of the novel published in 1952, who struggle to escape generational trauma at the turn of the 20th century.
Pugh plays the darkest and most captivating figure: the manipulative, murderous Cathy Ames, whom she develops beyond Steinbeck's "monster."
The 30-year-old British actor has said she wants audiences to "sympathize and maybe fall in love with (Ames) a little bit."
"I really wanted to try and get underneath all of the decisions that she makes, and not just do the easy, cheap version of making her a villain," she said during an event in New York in September.
"She's a human that's had awful things happen to her, and so she does some awful things too," Pugh added.
The script is written by Zoe Kazan, whose family history is intimately tied to "East of Eden": she is the granddaughter of Elia Kazan, who directed the 1955 film adaptation starring James Dean.
"I really want to honor the book's pursuit of this question of: Do we all have some good and some evil inside us?" Kazan said.
"What do we do about that? Can we change? Can we break generational patterns?"
pel/rh/eml/bjt/pnb

Haïti

'Devastated' AI scandal author Orelien returns to Quebec

BY JéRéMY TORDJMAN AND MATHIEU GORSE IN MONTRéAL

  • "I advised him to unplug, to disconnect from all this nauseating attention, this racist hatred that has nothing to do with the controversy," he told AFP, adding that his friend had been condemned in a "summary" way based solely on AI. Rodney Saint-Eloi, another Haitian writer from Montreal, also defended Orelien, telling AFP that "a young man is being publicly assassinated, that's what hurts me the most." 
  • Top-selling author Thelyson Orelien is "devastated" by the scandal over his alleged use of AI to write his debut novel and has returned home to Montreal, friends and fellow writers say.
  • "I advised him to unplug, to disconnect from all this nauseating attention, this racist hatred that has nothing to do with the controversy," he told AFP, adding that his friend had been condemned in a "summary" way based solely on AI. Rodney Saint-Eloi, another Haitian writer from Montreal, also defended Orelien, telling AFP that "a young man is being publicly assassinated, that's what hurts me the most." 
Top-selling author Thelyson Orelien is "devastated" by the scandal over his alleged use of AI to write his debut novel and has returned home to Montreal, friends and fellow writers say.
Orelien was the toast of the French-language literary world earlier this month, with his migration-themed story "It Was Either That or Die" selling fast and picking up prize nominations and translation deals.
But following allegations started by an anonymous X account, the 38-year-old Haitian-Canadian stands accused of using artificial intelligence to write his novel based on analysis of excerpts by AI-detection websites such as Pangram. 
He has denied the claims and believes the attacks on his work are racially motivated. But he has been dropped from France's top literary prize and had his promotional tours suspended. 
James Noel, a Haitian poet and novelist who has known Orelien for 20 years, said he spoke with him at the height of the controversy and found him "devastated". 
"I advised him to unplug, to disconnect from all this nauseating attention, this racist hatred that has nothing to do with the controversy," he told AFP, adding that his friend had been condemned in a "summary" way based solely on AI.
Rodney Saint-Eloi, another Haitian writer from Montreal, also defended Orelien, telling AFP that "a young man is being publicly assassinated, that's what hurts me the most." 
His sudden rise had made him "an easily disposable product," he added.

'Gentle'

The allegations against Orelien have captivated France over the last week, focusing attention on whether AI use is acceptable for novelists and leading to questions about the reliability of apps that claim to be able to detect text written by ChatGPT or Claude. 
Pangram is considered one of the most reliable and testing by AFP on an excerpt of "It Was Either That or Die" indicated a 100-percent probability that Orelien had used AI to produce it. 
AFP ran excerpts through other AI detection tools and came up with a variety of results -- from it being "very likely" to have been written by a human to "100 percent" AI generated.
Orelien has promised to produce proof that he wrote the book himself and to speak out in detail "once things have calmed down".
But the suspicions about him were further fed when evidence emerged of plagiarism in a newspaper column and a short story he wrote before the publication of his novel. 
He is widely described as publicity-shy and reserved, making him ill-equipped to deal with the intense media spotlight cast on him over a story that has generated headlines around the world.
"He really speaks very little, he's very withdrawn, very shy, off in his corner... he's a very solitary person," Saint-Eloi told AFP.
Noël described him as "very gentle".
"When I met him, I could see a real author's style in him and I've always sensed in him an obsession with becoming a writer and a thirst for reading," he told AFP. "He's someone who devours books, who needs to talk about them." 

Exile

Orelien fled his native Haiti following a 2010 earthquake that struck the Caribbean island, already ravaged by poverty and unrest.
"I arrived like so many others: a suitcase full of dreams and fears," he wrote in June 2025 in one of his columns for the newspaper La Presse. 
He became a self-proclaimed "bookworm", reading Albert Camus, Toni Morrison, and Romain Gary, as well as fellow Haitian writers such as Jacques Roumain and James Noel.
His Facebook account, which is still accessible -- unlike his personal website -- reveals as much his love for adopted home as his native land. 
"Among Quebecers there is a rare way of helping: discreet, sincere, without fanfare," he wrote in October 2025.
In another post, he expressed his wish for "an independent Quebec, a rebuilt Haiti".
jt-mg/adp/fg

music

Swift concert attack plan convict fails to get Disney damages

  • In the documentary series on Disney+ titled "The End of an Era" Beran A.'s residential address was briefly seen, leading to the Austrian to demand damages.
  • An Austrian convicted for planning to attack a 2024 Taylor Swift concert in Vienna on Wednesday failed to win damages from Walt Disney over the publication of his family's address in a documentary series on the US megastar's tour.
  • In the documentary series on Disney+ titled "The End of an Era" Beran A.'s residential address was briefly seen, leading to the Austrian to demand damages.
An Austrian convicted for planning to attack a 2024 Taylor Swift concert in Vienna on Wednesday failed to win damages from Walt Disney over the publication of his family's address in a documentary series on the US megastar's tour.
Disney has been screening the series on Swift's record-breaking "Eras" tour since last year, which included sequences on three concerts being cancelled in Vienna after authorities warned of an Islamic State group (IS) plot.
In May, an Austrian court sentenced Beran A., 21, to 15 years in jail after he admitted plotting a foiled jihadist attack on the Swift concert.
In the documentary series on Disney+ titled "The End of an Era" Beran A.'s residential address was briefly seen, leading to the Austrian to demand damages.
His lawyer, Ulrike Zeller, argued her client's personal sphere and security had been endangered through the publication "to an audience of millions".
But judge Nicole Baczak dismissed the claim, saying "a concrete endangerment" of Beran A. was unsubstantiated.
She also added neither Beran A. nor the address could be recognised through what has been published.
Zellner said she would appeal the verdict.
Georg Kresbach, the lawyer representing Walt Disney, argued that the disputed material had been removed in May, shortly after the complaint was received.
He also said Beran A.'s parents, who still live at the address, were compensated 3,000 euros ($3,400) each.
Beran A. went on trial in April on terror offences and other charges in Wiener Neustadt outside Vienna. He was arrested the day before the cancelled concert and has been detained since.
jza/cw

AI

Japan court rules human voice is protected in TikTok AI case

BY TOMOHIRO OSAKI

  • Interest in the ruling has been high among voice actors in Japan, who worry AI mimicry of the tool of their trade will go a long way toward the decline of the storied industry.
  • A Tokyo court ruled Wednesday that the human voice is legally protected in Japan, after a high-profile anime voice actor took TikTok to court over videos he says feature an artificial intelligence clone of his "lustrous" baritone.
  • Interest in the ruling has been high among voice actors in Japan, who worry AI mimicry of the tool of their trade will go a long way toward the decline of the storied industry.
A Tokyo court ruled Wednesday that the human voice is legally protected in Japan, after a high-profile anime voice actor took TikTok to court over videos he says feature an artificial intelligence clone of his "lustrous" baritone.
The decision marks a partial victory for Kenjiro Tsuda, known for his starring roles in mega-franchises including "Jujutsu Kaisen" and "Yu-Gi-Oh!", although the court dismissed his request for removal of the videos.
"The unauthorised use of a performer's voice... can be considered an infringement on publicity rights," said presiding judge Aya Takahashi.
AI imitation is a growing concern among performers worldwide, and the threat has roiled Japan's storied animation industry, whose voice actors are sometimes worshipped as much as their characters by fans.
The lawsuit is believed to be the country's first seeking to defend an individual's vocal identity against AI-generated copies.
It centred around a slew of TikTok videos narrated by a distinctively "deep" and "lustrous" voice that Tsuda, 55, said can only be his.
The platform, however, argued it is a "generic male voice" whose perceived similarity to Tsuda's is subjective at best, according to court records accessed by AFP.
Wednesday's verdict is seen as Japan's first declaring that the human voice is protected under publicity rights if "the purpose of using that voice is exclusively to take advantage of its commercial appeal", judge Takahashi said, describing a voice "as symbolic of one's personality as portraits are".
Publicity rights refer to the ability to control and profit from the use of aspects of one's identity.
 

'Balance'

 
Takahashi, however, said TikTok was "no longer obliged to delete" the videos in question because the anonymous user behind them had taken them down several months after the lawsuit began.
Tsuda's lawyer Takashi Hirano told reporters that the ruling "ended up making both sides look victorious".
The anonymous account, whose picture resembled a "Jujutsu Kaisen" character dubbed by Tsuda, combined images and seemingly AI-generated speech about urban legends, occult phenomena and conspiracy theories.
It at one point boasted more than 200,000 subscribers and would have brought in upwards of 500,000 yen ($3,200) in monthly revenue, the legal complaint argued.
Tsuda's legal team argued the account only gained traction because "its dubious, sordid content was narrated by the attractive voice of a popular actor".
TikTok told AFP in a statement that it will "respect the court's judgement while considering what steps to take after scrutinising details" of its ruling.
"We will continue to sincerely work on the balance between technology development and rights protection," the platform said.
Interest in the ruling has been high among voice actors in Japan, who worry AI mimicry of the tool of their trade will go a long way toward the decline of the storied industry.
An actor's voice "is the result of years of rigorous training and apprenticeship" to hone talent, Yuko Sasaki, executive director of the Japan Actors Union, told AFP ahead of the ruling.
"It's something we spend lots of time and money perfecting," said Sasaki, a fellow voice actor, adding that "we support Tsuda wholeheartedly".
Parallel to the lawsuit, Sasaki and other Japanese voice actors have launched a campaign, called "No More", against using generative AI to mimic performers without permission.
"Our industry can be crushed" if "unbridled" AI voice cloning spreads on social media, actor Bin Shimada, who is part of the campaign group, had told AFP.
tmo/ami

music

Thai teen rocker Nene aims to tour, write music... and return to school

  • "My plan is... writing my own songs, you know, and also making some tours, and also go back to school," Nene told AFP after a performance at a Yamaha music showroom in Bangkok.
  • Rising Thai teen rock star Nene Royal, fresh off her win on a top US TV talent show, told AFP Wednesday she planned to write her own songs, tour -- and "go back to school".
  • "My plan is... writing my own songs, you know, and also making some tours, and also go back to school," Nene told AFP after a performance at a Yamaha music showroom in Bangkok.
Rising Thai teen rock star Nene Royal, fresh off her win on a top US TV talent show, told AFP Wednesday she planned to write her own songs, tour -- and "go back to school".
The 16-year-old, whose real name is Rattikarn Amloy, took home the $1 million prize as winner of "America's Got Talent" this month, after wowing judges and viewers with blistering guitar solos and rock ballad shrieks.
Hailing from the Thai island of Phuket, she has become a national figure in the Southeast Asian nation since entering the US competition.
"My plan is... writing my own songs, you know, and also making some tours, and also go back to school," Nene told AFP after a performance at a Yamaha music showroom in Bangkok.
The teen singer and guitarist said she was "shocked" and "fainted", dropping to the stage floor, when she was announced the champion on September 23.
Next month, she is set to open for US band Avenged Sevenfold in Singapore, after playing with Linkin Park in the final episode of "America's Got Talent".
Videos of her televised renditions of alternative rock classics such as "Zombie" by The Cranberries and "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden had gone viral in Thailand and beyond.
She performed both songs on Wednesday with her backing Ozone Band -- three teen performers who matched Nene's chops on bass guitar, keyboard and drums.
Asked about her band after the gig, Nene said: "I really missed them, because they're kind of like my brothers." 
The boys travelled to California while she filmed "America's Got Talent" to cheer her on, she said.
"They're always supporting me."
Nene, who says she started playing guitar at age seven and learned mostly by watching online videos, earned a music scholarship to a private international school.
In July, she played alongside Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who congratulated her win and praised her talent and dedication, saying it "brought pride to Thai people".
Appreciative of the outpouring of support from Thai fans, Nene said she did not expect the raucous homecoming.
"When I went back to Thailand, everyone went crazy," she said.
bur-sco/fox

Kidjo

Singer Angelique Kidjo urges Africans to 'create together'

  • "We need to come together and set aside our differences and create together, tell our story together."
  • Five-time Grammy Award winner and newly cemented Hollywood Walk of Fame honouree Angelique Kidjo called Tuesday for Africans to set aside their differences and "create together".
  • "We need to come together and set aside our differences and create together, tell our story together."
Five-time Grammy Award winner and newly cemented Hollywood Walk of Fame honouree Angelique Kidjo called Tuesday for Africans to set aside their differences and "create together".
Speaking at a Spotify gathering in Johannesburg, 66-year-old Kidjo wore a red headwrap, glasses and a printed blazer as she lauded the power and potential of Africa's youth. 
"We are the only continent where we are fighting with each other and within ourselves," said the Beninese singer and activist who was in the city for a jazz festival.  
"The youth today is hungry for new things," she said. "We need to come together and set aside our differences and create together, tell our story together."
Kidjo urged Africans to take ownership of how the continent is represented.
"We have so much culture in Africa. It's frightening. It's scary. It is so big that even we are overwhelmed, but we have to be strategic. We have to be focused," she said.  
The "Agoro" and "Afirika" hitmaker -- whose career spans more than four decades, 18 albums and countless international collaborations -- became the first Black African to receive the Hollywood star in August.
Kidjo danced in her seat at the event to songs from her latest album "Hope", which features artists Pharrell Williams and Ayra Starr -- crediting social media and "DMs" for forging her relationships with them.
"Art is a form of resistance, and we do that so well in Africa, in painting, in storytelling, books, theatre, whatever form of art we have, we always transcend it," said the humanitarian, named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people.
Kidjo strives to empower girls and young women in Africa through her Batonga Foundation and has been a UNICEF Goodwill ambassador since 2002.
"I'm going to empower everybody on the continent to tell their own story," she said.
ten/br/yad