NEW YORK: Advance ticket sales to Marvel’s “Black Panther” were outpacing all superhero movies on Fandango.
The online ticket service said that “Black Panther” was outselling its previous record-holder for presale, 2016’s “Batman v Superman.”
Following gushing early reaction from Monday night’s premiere, Ryan Coogler’s film is the top daily ticket-seller on Fandango.
“Black Panther” doesn’t open until Feb. 16, but anticipation is especially strong for the first superhero movie in years starring a black lead character.
The premiere in Los Angeles was attended by the film’s cast decked in regal African-themed attire. Analysts are forecasting a President’s Day weekend debut for “Black Panther” of at least $100 million in North America.
On Tuesday, “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman revealed that doubters had tried to convince him not to give the superhero an African accent — and how proud he was to prove them wrong.
Boseman was speaking at a Beverly Hills news conference along with director Coogler, co-stars Michael B Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o and Danai Gurira and the rest of the cast the morning after Monday’s glittering Hollywood premiere.
The 41-year-old American stars in the titular role in the 18th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — the first black superhero to get his own standalone movie.
“There was a time period where people would ask me questions about whether or not an audience could sit through a movie with a lead character that spoke with that accent,” Boseman said of the east African inflection he gives the superhero — alias King T’Challa.
“I became adamant about the fact that it’s not true,” he added, stressing that none of the naysayers had come from Marvel itself.
“The intonations and melodies inside an African accent are just as classical as a British one or a European one.”
The actor got his break after a decade as an obscure television and indie film actor when Marvel came calling in 2014 with a lucrative five-picture deal to play Black Panther.
His appearance in “Captain America: Civil War” (2016) brought Boseman his first taste of real fame and his celebrity looks set to skyrocket when “Black Panther” opens this month, followed in May by “Avengers: Infinity War.”
T’Challa, king and protector of the technologically advanced fictional African nation of Wakanda, has been characterized as the first black superhero, which is partly true.
Around 30 black characters have donned the lycra for the big screen since the early 1990s, including Marvel’s Falcon (Anthony Mackie since 2014), Wesley Snipes’s titular vampire hunter in “Blade” (1998) and Halle Berry’s Kenyan princess Storm in four “X-men” movies.
The Wakandan royal can claim to be the first black superhero to land a standalone movie in the MCU and the first in mainstream American comics, having been featured in “The Fantastic Four” in 1966.
Critical and celebrity reactions to “Black Panther” after Monday’s premiere were about as good as could be expected, with reviewers hailing the movie as “iconic” and “astonishing.”
Donald Glover, who is due to star as Lando Calrissian in the upcoming “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” called it “beautiful” while “Ant-Man” director Peyton Reed said it was “soulful, thoughtful and of the moment.”
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, who produces every MCU movie, agreed that the messages of the movie — which posits Wakanda taking in refugees and extending its culture and technology to poorer nations — were particularly topical, but added that most of the script was written 18 months ago.
Coogler and the producers came in for particular praise at the news conference for their decision to feature a clique of powerful female characters — dubbed “the badass women of Wakanda” front and center.
“I was so pleased that this story... that it supported that. In African culture, they feel as if there is no king without a queen and this story, it highlights the queen, the warrior, the general, the young sister,” said Angela Bassett, who plays T’Challa’s mother Ramonda.
“I was so proud to have my daughter and my son there last night, because in their faces, in their spirit, they were feeling themselves. They stood taller after last night.”
Gurira (“The Walking Dead“) spoke of her trepidation over having her head shaved to play Okoye, the head of Wakanda’s Dora Milaje special forces, but how she saw it as “subversive in the right way.”
“In theory, it sounded amazing, and then the day came... It happened. Then you walk into the restroom to wash your hands, look up like, ‘What the?’
“It took a few days... Then the pride started to grow, there’s pride around it, and the embracing of this symbol of power and these women.”
‘Black Panther’ presales outpacing previous superhero movies
‘Black Panther’ presales outpacing previous superhero movies
Sahara desert, once lush and green, was home to mysterious human lineage
- Archaeological evidence indicates that these people were pastoralists, herding domesticated animals
TRIPOLI: The Sahara Desert is one of Earth’s most arid and desolate places, stretching across a swathe of North Africa that spans parts of 11 countries and covers an area comparable to China or the United States. But it has not always been so inhospitable.
During a period from about 14,500 to 5,000 years ago, it was a lush green savannah rich in bodies of water and teeming with life. And, according to DNA obtained from the remains of two individuals who lived about 7,000 years ago in what is now Libya, it was home to a mysterious lineage of people isolated from the outside world.
Researchers analyzed the first genomes from people who lived in what is called the “Green Sahara.” They obtained DNA from the bones of two females buried at a rock shelter called Takarkori in remote southwestern Libya. They were naturally mummified, representing the oldest-known mummified human remains.
“At the time, Takarkori was a lush savannah with a nearby lake, unlike today’s arid desert landscape,” said archaeogeneticist Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, one of the authors of the study published this week in the journal Nature.
The genomes reveal that the Takarkori individuals were part of a distinct and previously unidentified human lineage that lived separated from sub-Saharan and Eurasian populations for thousands of years.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Sahara was lush green savannah 14,500 to 5,000 years ago
• Isolated lineage of pastoralists inhabited ‘Green Sahara’
“Intriguingly, the Takarkori people show no significant genetic influence from sub-Saharan populations to the south or Near Eastern and prehistoric European groups to the north. This suggests they remained genetically isolated despite practicing animal husbandry — a cultural innovation that originated outside Africa,” Krause said.
Archaeological evidence indicates that these people were pastoralists, herding domesticated animals. Artifacts found at the site include tools made of stone, wood and animal bones, pottery, woven baskets and carved figurines.
The ancestry of the two Takarkori individuals was found to have derived from a North African lineage that separated from sub-Saharan populations around 50,000 years ago. That roughly coincides with when other human lineages spread beyond the continent and into the Middle East, Europe and Asia — becoming the ancestors of all people outside Africa.
“The Takarkori lineage likely represents a remnant of the genetic diversity present in northern Africa between 50,000 and 20,000 years ago,” Krause said.
“From 20,000 years ago onward, genetic evidence shows an influx of groups from the Eastern Mediterranean, followed by migrations from Iberia and Sicily around 8,000 years ago. However, for reasons still unknown, the Takarkori lineage persisted in isolation for much longer than expected. Since the Sahara only became habitable about 15,000 years ago, their original homeland remains uncertain,” Krause said.
Their lineage remained isolated throughout most of its existence before the Sahara again became uninhabitable. At the end of a warmer and wetter climate stage called the African Humid Period, the Sahara transformed into the world’s largest hot desert roughly around 3,000 BC.
Members of our species Homo sapiens who spread beyond Africa encountered and interbred with Neanderthal populations already present in parts of Eurasia, leaving a lasting genetic legacy in non-African populations today. But the Green Sahara people carried only trace amounts of Neanderthal DNA, illustrating that they had scant contact with outside populations.
Although the Takarkori population itself disappeared around 5,000 years ago when the African Humid Period ended and the desert returned, traces of their ancestry persist among various North African groups today, Krause said.
“Their genetic legacy offers a new perspective on the region’s deep history,” Krause said.
Gaza heritage and destruction on display in Paris
- Bouffard said the damage to the known sites as well as treasures potentially hidden in unexplored Palestinian land “depends on the bomb tonnage and their impact on the surface and underground”
PARIS: A new exhibition opening in Paris on Friday showcases archaeological artifacts from Gaza, once a major commercial crossroads between Asia and Africa, whose heritage has been ravaged by Israel’s ongoing onslaught.
Around a hundred artifacts, including a 4,000-year-old bowl, a sixth-century mosaic from a Byzantine church and a Greek-inspired statue of Aphrodite, are on display at the Institut du Monde Arabe.
The rich and mixed collection speaks to Gaza’s past as a cultural melting pot, but the show’s creators also wanted to highlight the contemporary destruction caused by the war, sparked by Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023.
“The priority is obviously human lives, not heritage,” said Elodie Bouffard, curator of the exhibition, which is titled “Saved Treasures of Gaza: 5,000 Years of History.”
“But we also wanted to show that, for millennia, Gaza was the endpoint of caravan routes, a port that minted its own currency, and a city that thrived at the meeting point of water and sand,” she told AFP.
One section of the exhibition documents the extent of recent destruction.
Using satellite image, the UN’s cultural agency UNESCO has already identified damage to 94 heritage sites in Gaza, including the 13th-century Pasha’s Palace.
Bouffard said the damage to the known sites as well as treasures potentially hidden in unexplored Palestinian land “depends on the bomb tonnage and their impact on the surface and underground.”
“For now, it’s impossible to assess.”
The attacks by Hamas militants on Israel in 2023 left 1,218 dead. In retaliation, Israeli operations have killed more than 50,000 Palestinians and devastated the densely populated territory.
The story behind “Gaza’s Treasures” is inseparable from the ongoing wars in the Middle East.
At the end of 2024, the Institut du Monde Arabe was finalizing an exhibition on artifacts from the archaeological site of Byblos in Lebanon, but Israeli bombings on Beirut made the project impossible.
“It came to a sudden halt, but we couldn’t allow ourselves to be discouraged,” said Bouffard.
The idea of an exhibition on Gaza’s heritage emerged.
“We had just four and a half months to put it together. That had never been done before,” she explained.
Given the impossibility of transporting artifacts out of Gaza, the Institut turned to 529 pieces stored in crates in a specialized Geneva art warehouse since 2006. The works belong to the Palestinian Authority, which administers the West Bank.
The Oslo Accords of 1993, signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel, helped secure some of Gaza’s treasures.
In 1995, Gaza’s Department of Antiquities was established, which oversaw the first archaeological digs in collaboration with the French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem (EBAF).
Over the years, excavations uncovered the remains of the Monastery of Saint Hilarion, the ancient Greek port of Anthedon, and a Roman necropolis — traces of civilizations spanning from the Bronze Age to Ottoman influences in the late 19th century.
“Between Egypt, Mesopotamian powers, and the Hasmoneans, Gaza has been a constant target of conquest and destruction throughout history,” Bouffard noted.
In the 4th century BC, Greek leader Alexander the Great besieged the city for two months, leaving behind massacres and devastation.
Excavations in Gaza came to a standstill when Hamas took power in 2007 and Israel imposed a blockade.
Land pressure and rampant building in one of the world’s most densely populated areas has also complicated archaeological work.
And after a year and a half of war, resuming excavations seems like an ever-more distant prospect.
The exhibition runs until November 2, 2025.
US tariffs take aim everywhere, including uninhabited islands
- The Australian territory in the sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean was slapped with 10% tariffs on all its exports
WASHINGTON: The world’s remotest corners couldn’t hide from US President Donald Trump’s global tariffs onslaught Wednesday — even the uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands.
The Australian territory in the sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean was slapped with 10 percent tariffs on all its exports, despite the icy archipelago having zero residents — other than many seals, penguins and other birds.
Strings of ocean specks around the globe, including Australia’s Cocos (Keeling) Islands and the Comoros off the coast of Africa, were likewise subjected to 10 percent new tariffs.
Another eye-catching inclusion in the tariffs list was Myanmar, which is digging out from an earthquake that left nearly 3,000 people dead, and whose exports to the United States will now face 44 percent in new levies.
Britain’s Falkland Islands — population 3,200 people and around one million penguins — got particular punishment.
The South Atlantic territory — mostly famous for a 1982 war fought by Britain to expel an Argentinian invasion — was walloped with tariffs of 41 percent on exports to the United States.
The Falklands’ would-be ruler Argentina only faces 10 percent new tariffs.
According to the Falklands Chamber of Commerce, the territory is ranked 173 in the world in terms of global exports, with only $306 million of products exported in 2019. This included $255 million in exports of mollusks and $30 million of frozen fish.
Australia PM Albanese falls off stage during election campaign event
- Albanese was posing for photos following his speech when he stepped back and lost his footing
- Albanese promptly got back on his feet and gestured to the crowd with two hands that he was fine
SYDNEY: Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese appeared to fall off a stage on Thursday during a campaign event for May’s national election, but quickly recovered and insisted he was “sweet” afterwards.
The leader of the center-left Labor party, 62, was posing for photos following his speech at the Mining and Energy Union Conference held in New South Wales, when he stepped back and lost his footing, drawing gasps from the audience.
Albanese promptly got back on his feet and gestured to the crowd with two hands that he was fine.
Video footage from the event showed Albanese had tumbled off the stage, although he shrugged off the incident when asked about it during a radio interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“I stepped back one step. I didn’t fall off the stage ... just one leg went down, but I was sweet,” he said.
Albanese is currently on the campaign trail for an election on May 3. The Labor party is running neck-and-neck in opinion polls with the conservative Liberal-National opposition led by Peter Dutton.
Starbucks faces new hot spill lawsuit weeks after $50m ruling
- The suit, filed at the city’s superior court, claims one of the cups in her order was not properly secured
- The negligence suit seeks unspecified general and special damages
LOS ANGELES: Starbucks was facing another lawsuit over a spilled hot drink Wednesday, just weeks after a court ordered the coffee giant to pay $50 million to a man who was injured by a cup of tea.
A lawsuit lodged in California claims Sabrina Michelle Hermes was seriously hurt when hot liquid tipped into her lap at a drive-through in Norwalk, near Los Angeles, two years ago.
The suit, filed at the city’s superior court, claims one of the cups in her order was not properly secured when it was handed to her, and the drink sloshed out onto her legs, a hip, a knee and her feet, causing severe injuries.
Starbucks “owed a duty to exercise reasonable care with respect to the preparation, handling and service of hot beverages so as to prevent them from spilling onto and injuring customers such as plaintiff,” the suit says.
The negligence suit seeks unspecified general and special damages, including reimbursement for past and future medical costs and lost earnings.
A spokesperson for Starbucks told AFP on Wednesday the company would be contesting the claim.
“We have always been committed to the highest safety standards in our stores, including the handling of hot drinks,” the spokesperson said.
“We are aware of Ms. Hermes’ claims and firmly believe they are without merit. We look forward to presenting our case in court.”
Last month a jury in Los Angeles ordered the firm to pay $50 million to delivery driver Michael Garcia, who suffered burns when a super-sized drink spilled in his lap at a drive-through.
Garcia’s lawyers claimed the server who handed him three large drinks in February 2020 did not push one of them into the cardboard cupholder properly.
Starbucks said at the time of the ruling that it would appeal the award, which it said was “excessive.”
A landmark legal ruling against McDonalds in New Mexico in 1994 established something of a precedent for Americans suing fast food companies when 79-year-old Stella Liebeck was awarded over $2.8 million after spilling hot coffee on herself.
Although the award was reduced on appeal, the case was often cited as an example of the need to reform US tort laws.
