LOS ANGELES: After eight epic years of chivalry, sex, death and dragons, “Game of Thrones” fans worldwide have just 79 pulsating minutes remaining Sunday to get their final fix in one of the most hotly anticipated events in TV history.
The blood-spattered tale of noble families vying for the Iron Throne has just one episode to go and buzz is at fever pitch for a ratings juggernaut that has demolished audience records like a Dothraki barbarian finishing off a skillet of horse meat.
“We want people to love it. It matters a lot to us. We’ve spent 11 years doing this,” Dan Weiss, who directed the 73rd and final episode with fellow showrunner David Benioff, told Entertainment Weekly.
While many will watch at home, perhaps with a goblet of Dornish red wine and a punnet of Braavosi cockles, thousands will celebrate and mourn the show’s denouement at viewing parties in bars, banqueting halls and backyards from Alaska to Armenia.
One of the darkest and most controversial primetime series ever made, “GoT” has been the target of criticism over the years for senseless violence and its repeated use of rape as a dramatic device.
The scriptwriters have brutalized women, killed children, depicted graphic sex and had their characters hacked, stabbed, flayed, poisoned, decapitated, burned alive, eye-gouged and eviscerated — all in glorious close-up.
Even principal character Jon Snow (Kit Harington), whose fellow Night’s Watch troops would chant “And now his watch is ended” at comrades’ funerals, suffered the indignity of being briefly dead after a particularly violent quarrel.
The adult themes have not deterred fans, however, nor the industry itself, which has seen fit to make it the most decorated series in history, with 47 Emmy Awards.
Airing in 170 countries under its portentous tagline, “Winter is Coming,” the show is also the most expensive ever, with a budget of $15 million per episode in its final run.
The season seven finale set an all-time US record for premium cable TV with 16.5 million people watching live or streaming on the day of transmission and 15 million more tuning in later.
Viewing records also tumbled across the world, with Britain’s Sky Atlantic and OCS in France showing episodes in the middle of the night in sync with their US premieres.
Season six was the first to move beyond the source material, George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” novels, and carve its own path.
Critics said it marked a return to form, with the narrative allowing female characters to demonstrate complexity and moral agency lacking in some of the earlier seasons.
The shortened final two seasons have been more of a mixed bag, with many fans furious over what they consider poor writing.
Most controversial has been the rapid descent into mass-murdering madness by Emilia Clarke’s fan favorite Daenerys Targaryen, arguably the lead character in an enormous ensemble that has called on the services of such luminaries as Charles Dance, Sean Bean, Jim Broadbent and Diana Rigg.
A Change.org petition called “Remake Game of Thrones Season 8 with competent writers” had passed one million signatures with more than 24 hours to go until Sunday’s finale.
Assuming there is no do-over, the biggest mystery of all remains who will be sitting on the Iron Throne and ruling Westeros when “Game of Thrones” comes to an end.
To throw hackers and pirates off the scent, Benioff and Weiss shot several versions of the final episode, a tactic already used for “The Sopranos” and “Breaking Bad.”
Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa Stark, has admitted that even she was fooled into believing a fake version of the ending.
Martin will himself discover the on-screen ending of his long-running masterwork before he has had a chance to conclude the fantasy on paper.
The plot lines for his long-awaited final two novels in the series — “The Winds of Winter” and “A Dream of Spring” — were adapted to the screen based on outlines Martin gave the show’s writers. But there is no guarantee they will stick to his plan.
“Obviously, I wished I finished these books sooner so the show hadn’t gotten ahead of me. I never anticipated that,” Martin once told an interviewer.
The “Game of Thrones” finale premieres on HBO at 9:00 p.m. in the US on both coasts (0100 GMT and 0400 GMT).
‘Now our watch is ended’: history-making ‘Game of Thrones’ wraps
‘Now our watch is ended’: history-making ‘Game of Thrones’ wraps
- The blood-spattered tale of noble families vying for the Iron Throne has just one episode to go and buzz is at fever pitch
- One of the darkest and most controversial primetime series ever made, “GoT” has been the target of criticism over the years
Dubai nurse fought cancer while leading hospital teams
- Sarah Ilyas was diagnosed with the disease following her son’s 14th birthday
DUBAI: Even after being diagnosed with breast cancer, nurse and mother Sarah Ilyas did not stop helping others.
Originally from Pakistan and currently a chief nursing officer at Aster Hospitals and clinics in the UAE, Bahrain and Oman she worked her way up the ranks from being an intensive care nurse to nursing supervisor at the Dubai Health Authority.
However, just as her career was really taking off, and during her son’s 14th birthday party in November 2021, Ilyas felt something was wrong.
“I felt this shrill pain in my left breast, then I felt the lump, but since I was so exhausted, tired and burnt out, I just went to sleep,” she recalled.
The next day, Ilyas had the lump examined. A biopsy was carried out at the same hospital in which she worked, and she carried on as normal until she received her results.
It was bad news. The lump was malignant — a stage three metastatic carcinoma.
“It is one of the most difficult cancers and notorious tumors to get over, it’s not simple breast cancer,” she explained.
After working on developing an oncology department at the hospital, Ilyas never expected she would one day be a patient benefiting from her own hard work.
By December, she had started “scary” chemotherapy, and was grateful for a strong support system that meant she could carry on working and being around her family.
“My bosses took care of me so well throughout my treatment plan. I was given so much flexibility, and I could work from home if I could not get myself out of bed,” she said.
Today, Ilyas has a new outlook on life after working throughout her treatment and beating her illness. She also urges others battling cancer to share their own stories to inspire and help others.
“I didn’t even know my daughter’s favorite color or what my son likes to eat. I regret not giving my time to them,” she said.
“Let us not shy away from telling our story, words of encouragement can inspire and give hope to others.”
Swedish club not skirting around shorts issue as they back Irish camogie players
- The Irish sport hit the headlines this week for all the wrong reasons with players
- Camogie is the female version of hurling, a ball sport played with wooden sticks
STOCKHOLM: Camogie players in Sweden have turned the clock back by wearing a kit from a bygone age in a show of solidarity with colleagues in Ireland currently protesting for the right to wear shorts.
The Irish sport hit the headlines this week for all the wrong reasons with players, tired of a rule outlawing the wearing of shorts, ramping up protests, ultimately leading to the late postponement of Saturday’s Munster final.
Camogie is the female version of hurling, a ball sport played with wooden sticks, often likened to a mix between lacrosse and hockey, with a little rugby thrown in because of its physicality.
Wherever you go in the world, from Uganda to Vietnam, you are likely to find people playing Ireland’s national sports. Sweden is no different, and Irishwoman Michelle Cotter set up the hurling and camogie teams at Stockholm Gaels.
“The goal was to do something over here to show the players back home that their impact is reaching much further than the island of Ireland,” Cotter told Reuters.
The Camogie Association of Ireland’s rules state that playing gear must include skirt, skort or divided skirt, but a recent survey showed that 83 percent of players want the choice to include shorts.
The Stockholm club, which includes not only Irish players and local Swedes but women from Australia, Austria, the US, Britain, France and Spain, took things back to even before the days of skorts, when players wore skirts down to their ankles.
The first set of camogie rules, drawn up in 1903, stated skirts should be worn no more than six inches from the ground and, while things have improved, two motions to introduce shorts were defeated at last year’s Camogie Association congress.
“Given none of us even own skorts, we togged out for training in skirts and dresses,” Cotter, who also coaches and plays on the team, said. “It felt every bit as ridiculous as it looked.”
There is still hope for change following all the media attention and controversy of the past week, after the association agreed to hold a special congress on May 22 to vote again on a motion to allow the wearing of shorts.
Liam and Olivia dominate — again — with top baby names in the US for a sixth year in a row
- ‘A trend we’re tracking is that Americans are more likely to choose heritage choices’
WASHINGTON: Liam and Olivia dominate. Still.
The two names have, for a sixth year together, topped the list of names for babies born in the US in 2024.
The Social Security Administration annually tracks the names given to girls and boys in each state, with names dating back to 1880. In time for Mother’s Day, the agency on Friday released the most popular names from applications for Social Security cards.
Liam has reigned for eight years in a row for boys, while Olivia has topped the girls’ list for six. Also, for the sixth consecutive year, Emma took the second slot for girls, and Noah for boys.
The girls’ name Luna slipped out of the Top 10 and was replaced by Sofia, which enters at number 10 for the first time.
After Liam, the most common names for boys are, in order: Noah, Oliver, Theodore, James, Henry, Mateo, Elijah, Lucas and William.
After Olivia, the most common names for girls are Emma, Amelia, Charlotte, Mia, Sophia, Isabella, Evelyn, Ava and Sofia.
Sophie Kihm, editor-in-chief of nameberry, a baby naming website, said the latest data showcases how American parents are increasingly choosing names that have cross-cultural appeal. Kihm’s first name shows up in two variations on the annual list.
“A trend we’re tracking is that Americans are more likely to choose heritage choices,” Kihm said, including names that work “no matter where you are in the world.”
”More families in the US come from mixed cultural backgrounds and I hear parents commonly request that they want their child to travel and have a relatively easy to understand name.”
The Social Security Administration’s latest data show that 3.61 million babies were born in the US in 2024. That’s a slight increase from last year’s 3.59 million babies, representing an overall increase in the American birthrate.
Social media stars and popular television shows are having some impact on the rising popularity of certain names, Social Security says.
Among those rising in popularity for girls: Ailany, a Hawaiian name that means “chief,” topped the list. The boys’ name Truce, an Old English name meaning “peace,” rose 11,118 spots from last year’s position to rank 991.
The complete, searchable list of baby names is on the Social Security website.
Sweden’s new national security adviser quits over dating site images
- Thyberg said that he had failed to disclose the existence of the images
- “I should have informed about this, but I did not,” he said
OSLO: Sweden’s new national security adviser abruptly resigned on Friday, just one day after his appointment, amid criticism from the prime minister that he failed to disclose information regarding images published years ago on a dating website.
Tobias Thyberg, a foreign service veteran who in previous roles served as ambassador to both Ukraine and Afghanistan, had omitted the information during security background checks, the government said.
The resignation comes just months after Thyberg’s predecessor in the high-profile job stepped down and was charged with negligent handling of classified information.
Thyberg did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on Friday.
But in a statement to daily Dagens Nyheter, Thyberg said that he had failed to disclose the existence of the images.
“These are old pictures from an account I previously had on the dating site Grindr. I should have informed about this, but I did not,” he said, according to DN.
Reuters could not independently verify information about the content of the images.
Background checks for sensitive government jobs typically require the disclosure of any information that could potentially make someone vulnerable to blackmail.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the information should have come to light a long time ago.
“It is a systemic failure that this kind of information has not been brought forward,” Kristersson told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Norway.
Thyberg had been due to travel to Oslo on Friday with the prime minister for a meeting of northern European leaders, but the adviser’s participation was canceled.
Two men found guilty of chopping down iconic UK tree
- The tree at Sycamore Gap had stood for nearly 200 years next to Hadrian’s Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage site in northern England
- The tree was so striking it featured in the 1991 Hollywood film “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves“
LONDON: An English court found two men guilty on Friday of the “deliberate and mindless” felling of one of the UK’s most iconic trees, an incident that sparked national outrage.
A jury at Newcastle Crown Court found former friends Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, guilty of criminal damage for the 2023 felling of the tree at Sycamore Gap.
It had stood for nearly 200 years next to Hadrian’s Wall, a UNESCO World Heritage site in northern England. The tree was so striking it featured in the 1991 Hollywood film “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.”
They were convicted after around five hours of deliberation on two counts of criminal damage: to the sycamore and to the Roman wall, which was damaged when the tree fell on it.
Reacting to the verdict, the National Trust conservation body said the “needless felling” of the tree had “shocked people around the country and overseas, demonstrating the powerful connection between people and our natural heritage.
“It was felt particularly deeply here in the north east of England where the tree was an emblem of the region and the backdrop to many personal memories,” said a spokesperson.
Prosecutors had told the court that the two men used a chainsaw to cut down the tree. It was, they said, “an act of deliberate and mindless criminal damage,” which they filmed on Graham’s phone and shared with others.
Speaking after the conviction, Northumbria Police’s Kevin Waring said: “We often hear references made to mindless acts of vandalism, but that term has never been more relevant than today.
“At no point have the two men given an explanation for why they targeted the tree — and there never could be a justifiable one,” he added.
Graham has “been in custody for his own protection after an episode in December,” his lawyer Chris Knox told court on Friday.
The pair drove to the site near Hexham in Graham’s Range Rover and felled the tree on the night of September 27, 2023, slicing through the trunk in “a matter of minutes,” said prosecutor Richard Wright.
“Having completed their moronic mission, the pair got back into the Range Rover and traveled back toward Carlisle” where they lived, he added.
A video of the act recovered from Graham’s phone was shared by the two men with “the unmistakable sound of a chainsaw, and a tree falling,” said Wright.
The next day, in a voice message from Graham to Carruthers, Graham said “it’s gone viral. It is worldwide. It will be on ITV news tonight,” he added.
“They are loving it, they’re revelling in it. This is the reaction of the people that did it. They still think it’s funny, or clever, or big,” said the prosecutor.
Gale Gilchrist, from the Crown Prosecution Service North, said that “in just under three minutes, Graham and Carruthers ended its (the tree’s) historic legacy in a deliberate and mindless act of destruction.
“We hope our community can take some measure of comfort in seeing those responsible convicted today,” she added.
The pair were jointly charged with causing £622,191 ($832, 821) of criminal damage to the tree and £1,144 of damage to Hadrian’s Wall, an ancient Roman fortification stretching from northwest to northeast England.
The two men have been remanded in custody — Carruthers for his own protection. They will be sentenced on July 15.
The sycamore was a symbol of northeast England and a key attraction photographed by millions of visitors over the years, winning the Woodland Trust’s Tree of the Year in 2016.
Efforts are under way to see if it can be regrown from its stump or seeds.
The National Trust, which owns the wall and the tree, said it has grown 49 saplings from the sycamore’s seeds, which will be planted this winter at sites across the UK.
