The changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace may draw tourists from far and wide, but Sunday visitors to the landmark were treated to a different sort of spectacle: a parade of corgis dressed up in crowns, tiaras and royal outfits.

Around 20 royal fans and their pet corgis gathered to walk their dogs outside the palace in central London to remember Queen Elizabeth II a year since her death.

Corgis were the late queen’s constant companions since she was a child, and Elizabeth owned around 30 throughout her life. Generations of the dogs descended from Susan, a corgi that was given to the queen on her 18th birthday.

Agatha Crerer-Gilbert, who organized Sunday’s event, said she would like the corgi march to take place every year in Elizabeth’s memory.

“I can’t see a better way to remember her than through her corgis, through the breed that she loved and cherished through her life,” she said.

“You know, I can’t still get used to the fact that she’s not physically around us, but she’s looking at us. Look, the sun is shining, I thought it would shine on us today,” she added.

Aleksandr Barmin, who owns a corgi named Cinnamon and has taken the pet to attend past royal-related events, said the parade was a poignant reminder that Elizabeth is no longer around.

“It’s a really hard feeling, to be honest … it’s really sad that we don’t have (the queen) among us anymore,” he said. “But still, Her Majesty the Queen is still in our hearts.”

Sept. 8 will be the first anniversary of the death of the 96-year-old queen at her Balmoral castle estate in Scotland. She was queen for 70 years and was Britain’s longest-reigning sovereign. 
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It seemed wistfully appropriate, somehow, that news of Jimmy Buffett’s death emerged at the beginning of the Labor Day weekend, the demarcation point of every American summer’s symbolic end. Because for so many, the 76-year-old Buffett embodied something they held onto ever so tightly as the world grew ever more complex: the promise of an eternal summer of sand, sun, blue salt water and gentle tropical winds.

He was the man whose studied devil-may-care attitude became a lifestyle and a multimillion-dollar business — a connecting filament between the suburbs and the Florida Keys and, beyond them, the Caribbean. From Margaritaville to the unspecified tropical paradise where he just wanted to eat cheeseburgers (“that American creation on which I feed”), he became a life’s-a-beach avatar for anyone working for the weekend and hoping to unplug — even in the decades before “unplugging” became a thing.

“It’s important to have as much fun as possible while we’re here. It balances out the times when the minefield of life explodes,” he posted last year.

The beach has stood in for informality and relaxation in American popular culture for more than a century, propelled by the early Miss America pageants on the Atlantic City boardwalk and the culturally appropriative “tiki” aesthetic that GIs brought back from the South Pacific after World War II. It gained steam with the Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello “Beach Blanket Bingo” years, the mainstreaming of surfing and beach-motel culture and the Beach Boys’ “California Girls.” And it continues unabated — just look to the dubious stylings of MTV’s “Jersey Shore.”

That train arrived at Margaritaville in the 1970s, and Buffett jumped aboard and became the conductor and chief engineer of its gently rebellious counterculture. He was hardly a critical darling, but he was, as he sang, “a pirate, 200 years too late” who believed that latitude directly impacted attitude. That accounted for a lot of the mass appeal.

These days, for every piece of the culture that made the shoreline or the tropical island a potentially dispiriting place to become unanchored — “The Beach” or “Lost” or even, heaven help us, “Gilligan’s Island” — there is a counterbalancing Buffett song right there to tell you that at the edge of the land you can find peace, or at least a chance at it.

There was of course “Margaritaville,” the song that launched a “Parrothead” empire, the one that prescribed taking time “watching the sun bake” and invoked “booze in the blender” and shrimp “beginnin’ to boil” (from which you can draw a direct line to the sensibility of seafood restaurant chains like Joe’s Crab Shack).

There was “Last Mango in Paris,” in which the singer had to “get out of the heat” to meet his hero, who told him to inhale all that life offers, and that even after that, “Jimmy, there’s still so much to be done.” There was “’Bama Breeze,” an ode to a bar along the Gulf Coast where “you’re one of our own” and, says the protagonist, “Good God, I feel at home down there.”

And there was “Come Monday,” in which a trip to do a gig in San Francisco — on Labor Day weekend, no less — became a meditation on city (“four lonely days in that brown LA haze”) vs. paradise (“that night in Montana”) and which he liked better.

Here was the funny thing, though: In that song, the unrepentantly inland Montana became his beach, his paradise of the moment. That was part of why he resonated: because the metaphorical Buffett beach could be pretty much anywhere that contained people looking for a bit of peace.

Just as country music spent decades building “country” from an actual geography into an entire state of mind, Buffett — whose roots were in country and folk — did the same thing with the beach. In his hands, it became an aesthetic as much as a place — the anti-city, where the backbreaking labor and the cubicle blues could be left behind for a realm where real people roamed. That’s been a deeply American trope from the beginning.

Americans have always romanticized the frontier — the edge of civilization, the place whose exploration defined them. But the frontier was, of course, a lonely and dangerous place. As Buffett rhapsodized, the sand-covered edge of the land that he so adored was also the edge of civilization — but only in the most appealing (and, not coincidentally, mostly apolitical) ways possible. In the universe of his songs, the beach was a safe frontier that you could explore if you wanted to. But you could also sit back in a straw hut and hat, sip a Corona, contemplate your navel and your sins — and be left alone.

In their 1998 book “The Beach: The History of Paradise on Earth,” Lena Lenček and Gideon Bosker trace the emergence of the beach as “a narcotic for holiday masses.” They write: “Before it could be transformed into a theater of pleasure, it had to be discovered, claimed and invented as a place apart from the messy business of survival.”

Buffett and his music — and the empire they begat — became pivotal figures in that claiming and invention. Through them, the off-the-grid sensibility and the loud-shirt aesthetic were vigorously mainstreamed and popularized.

All of his imagery, beach and beach-adjacent, shouted to us that there was a better, more relaxing way than regular daily life. It said that all those characters and people were waiting there for us with bare, sandy feet and cold beers and a bit of melancholy, and that we could jack into that sunny world and escape the monotony — for a long weekend or forever.

And therein lies a rub.

These days, summer ain’t what it used to be. With apologies to Buffett and the Beach Boys, the notion of an “endless summer” has a different, more unsettling connotation after these climate-change-inflected months of dangerous heat and devastating wildfires in places like Maui. Five years ago, even Paradise burned. So “watching the sun bake” has become a statement with multiple layers, and some of them are more rueful than relaxing.

Jimmy Buffett’s work was big on not reading too much into things. You could say, fairly, that his musical aesthetic was built around a three-word statement: Don’t overthink it. “Never meant to last,” he once sang. But as with most artists who echo resoundingly in the culture, his work — and, not incidentally, the legions of Parrotheads whose lifestyles he inspired — takes on additional dimensions when you pull the lens back and consider the broader shoreline.

That was true especially when the flip-flop fantasy collided with the reality that most people live. That collision took place at the intersection where Buffett was the most memorable, where the summer of the mind met the reality of the rest of the year. As he put it in “Son of a Son of a Sailor”: “The sea’s in my veins, my tradition remains. I’m just glad I don’t live in a trailer.”
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The entrance to the Burning Man counterculture festival in the Nevada desert was closed and attendees were urged to shelter in place Saturday as flooding from storms swept through the area.

The entrance will be closed for the remainder of the event, which began Aug. 27 and was scheduled to end Monday, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the Black Rock Desert where the festival is being held.

“Officials from BLM and the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office have closed ingress to the Burning Man event effective immediately and for the remainder of the event. Participants inbound for the event should turn around and head home.

“Rain over the last 24 hours has created a situation that required a full stop of vehicle movement on the playa. More rain is expected over the next few days and conditions are not expected to improve enough to allow vehicles to enter the playa.”

About 15 centimeters of rain is believed to have fallen on Friday at the festival site, about 177 kilometers north of Reno, the National Weather Service in Reno said. Another 7.5 centimeters of rain is expected late Saturday into Sunday.

Organizers urged festivalgoers to conserve their food, water and fuel. 
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Singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett, who popularized beach bum soft rock with the escapist Caribbean-flavored song Margaritaville and turned that celebration of loafing into an empire of restaurants, resorts and frozen concoctions, has died. He was 76.

“Jimmy passed away peacefully on the night of September 1st surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs,” a statement posted to Buffett’s official website and social media pages said late Friday. “He lived his life like a song till the very last breath and will be missed beyond measure by so many.”

The statement did not say where Buffett died or give a cause of death. Illness had forced him to reschedule concerts in May and Buffett acknowledged in social media posts that he had been hospitalized but provided no specifics.

Margaritaville, released on Feb. 14, 1977, quickly took on a life of its own, becoming a state of mind for those “wastin’ away,” an excuse for a life of low-key fun and escapism for those “growing older, but not up.”

The song is the unhurried portrait of a loafer on his front porch, watching tourists sunbathe while a pot of shrimp is beginning to boil. The singer has a new tattoo, a likely hangover and regrets over a lost love. Somewhere there is a misplaced salt shaker.

“What seems like a simple ditty about getting blotto and mending a broken heart turns out to be a profound meditation on the often painful inertia of beach dwelling,” Spin magazine wrote in 2021. “The tourists come and go, one group indistinguishable from the other. Waves crest and break whether somebody is there to witness it or not. Everything that means anything has already happened and you’re not even sure when.”

The song — from the album Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes — spent 22 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and peaked at No. 8. The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016 for its cultural and historic significance, became a karaoke standard and helped brand Key West, Florida, as a distinct sound of music and a destination known the world over.

“There was no such place as Margaritaville,” Buffett told the Arizona Republic in 2021. “It was a made-up place in my mind, basically made up about my experiences in Key West and having to leave Key West and go on the road to work and then come back and spend time by the beach.”

The song soon inspired restaurants and resorts, turning Buffett’s alleged desire for the simplicity of island life into a multimillion brand. He landed at No. 13 in Forbes’ America’s Richest Celebrities in 2016 with a net worth of $550 million.

Music critics were never very kind to Buffett or his catalogue, including the sandy beach-side snack bar songs like Fins, Come Monday and Cheeseburgers in Paradise. But his legions of fans, called “Parrotheads,” regularly turned up for his concerts wearing toy parrots, cheeseburgers, sharks and flamingos on their heads, leis around their necks and loud Hawaiian shirts.

“It’s pure escapism is all it is,” he told the Republic. “I’m not the first one to do it, nor shall I probably be the last. But I think it’s really a part of the human condition that you’ve got to have some fun. You’ve got to get away from whatever you do to make a living or other parts of life that stress you out. I try to make it at least 50/50 fun to work and so far it’s worked out.”

His special Gulf Coast mix of country, pop, folk and rock added instruments and tonalities more commonly found in the Caribbean, like steel drums. It was a stew of steelpans, trombones and pedal steel guitar. Buffett’s incredible ear for hooks and light grooves were often overshadowed by his lyrics about fish tacos and sunsets.

Rolling Stone, in a review of Buffett’s 2020 album Life on the Flip Side, gave grudging props. “He continues mapping out his surfy, sandy corner of pop music utopia with the chill, friendly warmth of a multi-millionaire you wouldn’t mind sharing a tropically-themed 3 p.m. IPA with, especially if his gold card was on the bar when the last round came.”

Buffett’s evolving brand began in 1985 with the opening of a string of Margaritaville-themed stores and restaurants in Key West, followed in 1987 with the first Margaritaville Café nearby. Over the course of the next two decades, several more of each opened throughout Florida, New Orleans and California.

The brand has since expanded to dozens of categories, including resorts, apparel and footwear for men and women, a radio station, a beer brand, ice tea, tequila and rum, home décor, food items like salad dressing, Margaritaville Crunchy Pimento Cheese & Shrimp Bites and Margaritaville Cantina Style Medium Chunky Salsa, the Margaritaville at Sea cruise line and restaurants, including Margaritaville Restaurant, JWB Prime Steak and Seafood, 5 o’Clock Somewhere Bar & Grill and LandShark Bar & Grill.

There also was a Broadway-bound jukebox musical, Escape to Margaritaville, a romantic comedy in which a singer-bartender called Sully falls for the far more career-minded Rachel, who is vacationing with friends and hanging out at Margaritaville, the hotel bar where Sully works.

James William Buffett was born on Christmas day 1946 in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and raised in the port town of Mobile, Alabama. He graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and went from busking the streets of New Orleans to playing six nights a week at Bourbon Street clubs.

He released his first record, Down To Earth, in 1970 and issued seven more on a regular yearly clip, with his 1974 song Come Monday from his fourth studio album Living and Dying in ¾ Time, peaking at No. 30. Then came Margaritaville.

He performed on more than 50 studio and live albums, often accompanied by his Coral Reefer Band, and was constantly on tour. He earned two Grammy Award nominations, two Academy of Country Music Awards and a Country Music Association Award.

Buffett was actually in Austin, Texas, when the inspiration struck for Margaritaville. He and a friend had stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant before she dropped him at the airport for a flight home to Key West, so they got to drinking margaritas.

“And I kind of came up with that idea of this is just like Margarita-ville,” Buffett told the Republic. “She kind of laughed at that and put me on the plane. And I started working on it.”

He wrote some on the plane and finished it while driving down the Keys. “There was a wreck on the bridge,” he said. “And we got stopped for about an hour so I finished the song on the Seven Mile Bridge, which I thought was apropos.”

Buffett also was the author of numerous books including Where Is Joe Merchant? and A Pirate Looks at Fifty and added movies to his resume as co-producer and co-star of an adaptation of Carl Hiaasen’s novel Hoot.

Buffett is survived by his wife, Jane; daughters, Savannah and Sarah; and son, Cameron. 
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An art exhibition in Rockville, Maryland, pays tribute to women in Iran who have been killed for speaking out against injustice. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.
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An original animated series from Africa has made its debut on the Netflix streaming platform. The series, dubbed “Supa Team 4,” was written by a young Zambian and takes place in a futuristic version of Zambia’s capital, Lusaka. Kathy Short reports from Lusaka. VOA footage by Richard Kille.
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Hōkūle’a, a traditional Polynesian deep-sea canoe, is on a four-year-long voyage around the Pacific Ocean to raise awareness about climate change. During its stop in the U.S. state of Washington, local Native American tribes welcomed members of the crew. Natasha Mozgovaya has the story from Seattle. (Camera: Natasha Mozgovaya; Produced by: Natasha Mozgovaya, Jason Godman)
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Leading officials within the Spanish Football Federation asked suspended president Luis Rubiales to resign Monday because of his behavior at the Women’s World Cup, including kissing a player on the lips after Spain won the championship match.

The heads of the regional bodies that make up the federation (RFEF) made the request in a collective statement.

“After the latest developments and the unacceptable behavior that has caused great damage to the image of Spanish soccer, the presidents’ request that Luis Rubiales resign immediately as president of the RFEF,” the statement said.

Earlier Monday, the federation asked UEFA to suspend it from international competitions because of government interference related to Rubiales. However, in their statement, the heads of the regional bodies urged interim federation president Pedro Rocha to withdraw that request immediately.

The federation’s request for a suspension was widely seen as an attempt to silence some of Rubiales’ critics, including government ministers who have asked for his removal. Such a suspension would ban Spanish teams from competitions like the Champions League and could sway public opinion in favor of letting him keep his job.

Soccer’s governing bodies have longstanding rules barring national governments from interfering with the running of domestic soccer federations. However, UEFA will not comply with the Spanish federation’s request for a sanction, a person familiar with the issue told The Associated Press on Monday. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the decision-making process was confidential.

Rubiales has faced a torrent of criticism from around the globe over his behavior at the Women’s World Cup final, including kissing Spain player Jenni Hermoso on the lips without her consent during the on-field trophy ceremony. He was suspended from office Saturday by soccer’s governing body FIFA, which is investigating his conduct.

Rubiales’ mother started a hunger strike Monday in a church in southern Spain in defense of her son, demanding an end to “the bloody and inhumane hounding” of him.

Rubiales is also a UEFA vice president.

Spain’s top clubs are due to take part in Thursday’s Champions League group-stage draw being made by UEFA, and the men’s national team has games on Sept. 8 and 12 in qualifying for the 2024 European Championship.

FIFA opened a disciplinary case against Rubiales on Thursday after taking control of the process because it organized the Women’s World Cup. Rubiales’ behavior during and after Spain’s 1-0 win over England in the final on Aug. 20 in Sydney, Australia, has focused intense scrutiny on him and his five-year management of the federation.

FIFA, however, did not invoke its version of the rules against government interference to protect Rubiales.

The Spanish federation then urged UEFA to act, reportedly in a letter sent Friday, the same day its embattled president defiantly refused to resign at an emergency meeting.

The FIFA suspension prevents Rubiales taking part in official business and having contact with other officials, including in Spain’s bid to co-host the 2030 World Cup with Portugal, Morocco and possibly Ukraine.

FIFA disciplinary judge Jorge Palacio also ordered Rubiales and the federation not to contact Hermoso. She has said the federation pressured her to publicly back Rubiales.

Newly crowned as world champions, though drawn into a national scandal they did not seek and has distracted from their triumph, the Spain players have said they will not play any more games for as long as Rubiales is in charge.
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The Venice Film Festival celebrates its 80th edition next week, but a Hollywood strike means many stars may be missing, leaving the spotlight to controversial directors like Roman Polanski and Woody Allen.    

The festival, which kicks off on Wednesday, has become a key launchpad for Oscar campaigns, helped by glamorous shots of stars arriving by gondola.   

But an ongoing strike by Hollywood actors and writers, the biggest industry walk-out in more than 60 years, means most are banned from publicity work.  

Missing from their Venice premieres will be Emma Stone, who plays a Frankenstein-like creature in “Poor Things,” and Bradley Cooper, who directs and stars in “Maestro,” about the legendary conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein.   

Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz, who play the leads in the biopic “Ferrari” from director Michael Mann (“Heat”), have an exemption from the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG-AFTRA) because the film was made outside the studio system, but may still stay home in solidarity.  

Nonetheless, the films are still showing and many top-name directors are due to attend as they compete for the top prize, the Golden Lion, to be announced on September 9.  

Sofia Coppola presents another biopic, “Priscilla,” about Elvis Presley’s wife, while David Fincher returns to the Lido with “The Killer,” more than 20 years after “Fight Club” was loudly booed at the festival only to become a cult hit in the following years.   

The only major casualty of the strikes has been “Challengers,” a tennis romance starring Zendaya that was set as the opening night film but has been delayed to next year.

 

Don’t see the issue 

With star gossip at a minimum, a lot of attention risks being absorbed by the inclusion of Allen and Polanski in the out-of-competition section.  

Allen, 87, was investigated for an alleged assault on his adopted daughter and cleared by police in the 1990s, but that has not been enough for many in the MeToo era, and he has been effectively blackballed by Hollywood.  

Polanski, 90, remains a fugitive from the U.S. over a conviction for raping a minor in the 1970s. The victim has long since forgiven him, but he faces other assault allegations. The festival says he is not attending.  

French director Luc Besson (“The Fifth Element”), who was recently cleared of rape allegations, is in the main competition with “Dogman.”  

Festival director Alberto Barbera defended their inclusion, telling Variety that Besson and Allen had been cleared by investigators: “With them, I don’t see where the issue is.” 

He acknowledged it was more complex with Polanski but said: “I am on the side of those who say you have to distinguish between the responsibilities of the individual and that of the artist.”  

He says Polanski’s “The Palace” is full of “grotesque and surreal characters and aims to satirize humanity,” and compared Allen’s “Coup de Chance,” his 50th film and first in French, to his earlier “Match Point.”  

Meanwhile, there are also out-of-competition premiers for a 40-minute Wes Anderson film, “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” based on a Roald Dahl tale, and a new feature from indie favorite Richard Linklater, “Hit Man.”  

“The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” the final film from William Friedkin (“The Exorcist”), who died this month at 87, is also playing out of competition.   

Hollywood actors went on strike in July after talks to reach a new deal with studios failed, joining writers who have been striking since May.  

Their demands focus on dwindling pay in the streaming era and the threat posed by artificial intelligence. 
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Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra became the first Indian to win a gold medal at the World Athletics Championships when he nipped Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem in the men’s javelin on Sunday with an 88.17-meter effort in the final.

Chopra won Olympic gold in Tokyo but managed only a silver at the worlds in Eugene, Oregon, last year. The only other Indian to win a medal at the worlds was Anju Bobby George, who took bronze in the women’s long jump in 2003 in Paris.

Pakistan’s Nadeem, coming back from elbow surgery and a knee injury, produced his season’s best effort of 87.82 on his third attempt to win the silver medal, while the Czech Republic’s Jakub Vadlejch took the bronze with 86.67.

“This was great. After the Olympic gold I really wanted to win the world championships. I just wanted to throw further. This is brilliant for the national team but it was my dream to win gold at the world championships,” Chopra said.

“This has been a great championships for India and I am proud to bring another title to my country. I don’t think I am the best thrower here. I wanted to throw more tonight,” he said. “I wanted to throw more than 90 meters tonight, but it needs all parts of the puzzle to be there. I couldn’t put it all together this evening. Maybe next time.”

Chopra needed only one attempt in the qualification round to lead the field with a season-best 88.77 meters.

But the Indian was unhappy with his first effort in the final, deliberately stepping over the line for a foul.

Under pressure, the 25-year-old then soared into the lead on his second attempt, turning his back and celebrating in trademark fashion with his arms aloft while pointing at the sky immediately after his throw, knowing it was good.

Nadeem was competing in his first event of the year and as soon as the javelin landed on his third attempt, he broke into a wide grin as he moved up to second.

India and Pakistan may have a heated rivalry in cricket but on a warm night in Budapest, all eyes were on two athletes competing for javelin gold.

But that was as close as Nadeem, the 2022 Commonwealth Games champion, got to Chopra as he ran out of steam.

Julian Weber was very close to giving Germany their first medal in Budapest on the final day of the championships, but he was pushed down to fourth when Vadlejch saved his best for his fifth attempt.

“It was a big fight and I am afraid that Julian Weber will not like me anymore,” Vadlejch said.

Kishore Jena and DP Manu finished fifth and sixth, respectively, to give India three athletes in the top six.
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Authorities in Iran have begun legal proceedings against a prominent pop singer over his latest song urging women to take off their mandatory headscarves, the judiciary said Sunday. 

The action against Mehdi Yarrahi comes almost a year after the death in custody of Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini, 22, triggered months of protests around the country. 

Amini had been arrested for alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s strict dress code requiring that a woman’s head and neck be covered.

Yarrahi, 41, released a song Friday called “Roosarito,” which means “Your Headscarf” in Farsi, expressing support for last year’s protest movement.  

“A legal case was filed against Mehdi Yarrahi following the release of an illegal song which defies the morals and customs of the Islamic society,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online website said. 

It was not immediately clear what the formal charges were. Yarrahi was not in custody. 

Yarrahi’s three-minute video clip incorporated the protest movement’s slogan, “Woman, life, freedom.” 

He called on women to “take off their (head)scarves,” and the video included short clips of several women dancing with their hair uncovered.  

Mizan said the legal measures against Yarrahi will also cover another “controversial song” he released in October. Titled “Soroode Zan” or “Woman’s Anthem,” it became a feature of the protest movement, particularly in universities.  

 

In 2018, Yarrahi received the prize for best pop singer at the Fajr festival, the country’s most important government-organized musical event.

He has criticized authorities on several occasions during his concerts, mainly over perceived marginalization of people in his native Khuzestan province which has a large Arab minority.

During the months of protest, which Tehran generally labelled as foreign-instigated “riots,” thousands of Iranians were arrested and hundreds killed including dozens of security personnel.

Iranian women have increasingly flouted the strict dress code since the mass protests began calling for an end to compulsory headscarves.

Last month, state media said police had relaunched patrols to catch those who left their hair uncovered in public.
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Popular U.S. game show host Bob Barker, a household name for a half-century as host of “Truth or Consequences” and “The Price Is Right,” died at his home in Los Angeles, said a publicist.

Barker — also a longtime animal rights activist — died Saturday morning, according to publicist Roger Neal. Barker was 99. 

“I am so proud of the trailblazing work Barker and I did together to expose the cruelty to animals in the entertainment industry and including working to improve the plight of abused and exploited animals in the United States and internationally,” said Nancy Burnet, his longtime friend and caretaker, in a statement. 

Barker retired in June 2007, telling his studio audience: “I thank you, thank you, thank you for inviting me into your home for more than 50 years.” 

Barker was working in radio in 1956 when producer Ralph Edwards invited him to audition as the new host of “Truth or Consequences,” a game show in which audience members had to do wacky stunts — the “consequence” — if they failed to answer a question — the “truth,” which was always the silly punchline to a riddle no one was ever meant to furnish. (Q: What did one eye say to another? A: Just between us, something smells.) 

In a 1996 interview with The Associated Press, Barker recalled receiving the news that he had been hired: “I know exactly where I was, I know exactly how I felt: I hung up the phone and said to my wife, ‘Dorothy Jo, I got it!'” 

Barker stayed with “Truth or Consequences” for 18 years — including several years in a syndicated version. 

Taped more than 5,000 shows

Meanwhile, he began hosting a resurrected version of “The Price Is Right” in 1972. (The original host in the 1950s and ’60s was Bill Cullen.) It would become TV’s longest-running game show and the last on a broadcast network of what in TV’s early days had numbered dozens. 

“I have grown old in your service,” the silver-haired, perennially tanned Barker joked on a prime-time television retrospective in the mid-’90s. 

In all, he taped more than 5,000 shows in his career. He said he was retiring because “I’m just reaching the age where the constant effort to be there and do the show physically is a lot for me. … Better [to leave] a year too soon than a year too late.” 

Comedian Drew Carey was chosen to replace him. 

Barker was back with Carey for one show broadcast in April 2009. He was there to promote the publication of his memoir, “Priceless Memories,” in which he summed up his joy from hosting the show as the opportunity “to watch people reveal themselves and to watch the excitement and humor unfold.” 

He well understood the attraction of “The Price Is Right,” in which audience members — invited to “Come on down!” to the stage — competed for prizes by trying to guess their retail value. 

“Everyone can identify with prices, even the president of the United States. Viewers at home become involved because they all have an opinion on the bids,” Barker once said. His own appeal was clear: Barker played it straight — warm, gracious and witty — refusing to mock the game show format or his contestants. 

“I want the contestants to feel as though they’re guests in my home,” he said in 1996. “Perhaps my feeling of respect for them comes across to viewers, and that may be one of the reasons why I’ve lasted.” 

Promote animal rights

As a TV personality, Barker retained a touch of the old school — for instance, no wireless microphone for him. Like the mic itself, the mic cord served him well as a prop, insouciantly flicked and finessed. 

His career longevity, he said, was the result of being content. “I had the opportunity to do this type of show and I discovered I enjoyed it … People who do something that they thoroughly enjoy, and they started doing it when they’re very young, I don’t think they want to stop.” 

Barker also spent 20 years as host of the Miss USA Pageant and the Miss Universe Pageant. A longtime animal rights activist who daily urged his viewers to “have your pets spayed or neutered” and successfully lobbied to ban fur coats as prizes on “The Price Is Right,” he quit the Miss USA Pageant in 1987 in protest over the presentation of fur coats to the winners. 

In 1997, Barker declined to be a presenter at the Daytime Emmy awards ceremony because he said it snubbed game shows by not airing awards in the category. He called game shows “the pillars of daytime TV.” 

He had a memorable cameo appearance on the big screen in 1996, sparring with Adam Sandler in the movie “Happy Gilmore.” “I did ‘The Price Is Right’ for 35 years, and they’re asking me how it was to beat up Adam Sandler,” Barker later joked. 

In 1994, the widowed Barker was sued for sexual harassment by Dian Parkinson, a “Price is Right” model for 18 years. Barker admitted engaging in “hanky panky” with Parkinson from 1989-91 but said she initiated the relationship. Parkinson dropped the lawsuit in 1995, saying it was hurting her health. 

Barker became embroiled in a dispute with another former “Price Is Right” model, Holly Hallstrom, who claimed she was fired in 1995 because the show’s producers believed she was fat. Barker denied the allegations. 

Neither uproar affected his goodwill from the audience. 

Born in Darrington, Washington, in 1923, Barker spent part of his childhood on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where his widowed mother had taken a teaching job. The family later moved to Springfield, Missouri, where he attended high school. He served in the Navy in World War II. 

He married Dorothy Jo Gideon, his high school sweetheart; she died in 1981 after 37 years of marriage. They had no children. 

Barker was given a lifetime achievement award at the 26th annual Daytime Emmy Awards in 1999. He closed his acceptance remarks with the signoff: “Have your pets spayed or neutered.” 
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Oliver Anthony, the previously unknown singer whose Rich Men North of Richmond went viral and topped the charts over the past week, hit out Friday at politicians, particularly on the right, for co-opting his message.

In a more than 10-minute clip posted on YouTube, the songwriter from Virginia reflected on his breakout success, and said that “the one thing that has bothered me is seeing people wrap politics up in this.”

“It’s aggravating seeing people on conservative news try to identify with me like I’m one of them,” he said. “It’s aggravating seeing certain musicians and politicians act like we’re buddies and act like we’re fighting the same struggle here, like we’re trying to present the same message.”

Rich Men North of Richmond overtook megastars Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen and Olivia Rodrigo to snag the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, with 17.5 million streams and nearly 150,000 downloads in less than a week.

The track invokes the argument that Americans in the south and rural areas have been left behind by rich elites farther north.

In his lyrics Anthony leans into issues of long hours for little pay with high taxes.

He also picks up talking points that have persisted since the business-friendly, pro-austerity Ronald Reagan years, namely against the welfare state.

Anthony had previously insisted that his political views are down the middle.

In his clip posted Friday he scoffed that his song was used during the opening of this week’s debate between Republican presidential hopefuls.

“I wrote that song about those people. So for [the Republican candidates] to have to sit there and listen to that, that cracks me up,” he says.

“That song has nothing to do with Joe Biden. It’s a lot bigger than Joe Biden. That song was written about the people on that stage — and a lot more, not just them, but definitely them.”

Anthony also spoke to critics on the left who accused him of ridiculing welfare and the poor.

He said his stanza about the “obese milking welfare” spoke to an article he read about individual food subsidies going toward snack foods.

“If we can fuel a proxy war in a foreign land, but we can’t take care of our own, that’s all the song is trying to say,” Anthony said. “That the government takes people who are needy and dependent and makes them needy and dependent.”

In the video he choked up while saying he cares about connecting with people, not topping charts.

He also promised more music to come: “I’m going to write, produce and distribute authentic music that represents people and not politics.” 
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Israel’s far-right national security minister lashed out at supermodel Bella Hadid on Friday for criticizing his recent fiery televised remarks about Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

In an interview earlier this week with Israel’s Channel 12 following two deadly Palestinian attacks against Israelis in the occupied territory, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir argued that his right to freedom of movement as a Jewish settler outweighs the same right for Palestinians.

“My right, the right of my wife and my children to move around Judea and Samaria, is more important than freedom of movement for the Arabs,” Ben-Gvir said on TV Wednesday, using the biblical name for the West Bank. “The right to life comes before freedom of movement.”

Addressing Mohammad Magadli, a well-known Israeli-Arab television host who was in the studio, Ben-Gvir added: “Sorry, Mohammad. But that’s the reality.”

His statement drew widespread criticism as commentators seized on it as proof of allegations that Israel was turning into an apartheid system that seeks to maintain Jewish hegemony from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. The catchphrase “Sorry, Mohammad” became meme fodder for social media as critics posted it alongside videos of Israeli violence against Palestinians.

Hadid, a world-famous supermodel and social media influencer whose father is Palestinian, shared an excerpt from Ben-Gvir’s interview with her 59.5 million followers on Instagram on Thursday, writing: “In no place, no time, especially in 2023 should one life be more valuable than another’s. Especially simply because of their ethnicity, culture or pure hatred.”

She also posted a video from leading Israeli rights group B’Tselem showing Israeli soldiers in the southern West Bank city of Hebron telling a resident that Palestinians are not permitted to walk on a certain street because it is reserved for Jews. “Does this remind anyone of anything?” she wrote.

Ben-Gvir responded angrily on Friday to Hadid’s post.

“I invite you to Kiryat Arba, to see how we live here, how every day, Jews who have done nothing wrong to anyone in their lives are murdered here,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. Ben-Gvir lives in the settlement of Kiryat Arba near Hebron, the largest Palestinian city.

Earlier this week, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on an Israeli car near Hebron, killing an Israeli woman and seriously wounding the driver. That attack came just days after a Palestinian shooting attack killed an Israeli father and son in the northern Palestinian town of Hawara.

Ben-Gvir acknowledged the backlash but doubled down on his original statement. “So yes, the right of me and my fellow Jews to travel and return home safely on the roads of Judea and Samaria outweighs the right of terrorists who throw stones at us and kill us,” he wrote.

Ben-Gvir has been convicted in the past of inciting racism and of supporting a terrorist organization. He was known as an admirer of rabbi Meir Kahane, who was banned from Parliament and whose Kach party was branded a terrorist group by the United States before he was assassinated in New York in 1990. Kach wanted to strip Arab Israelis of their citizenship, segregate Israeli public spaces, and ban marriages between Jews and non-Jews. Before joining politics, Ben-Gvir hung a portrait in his living room of a Jewish man who fatally shot 29 Palestinians in the West Bank in 1994.

A once-marginal far-right activist, Ben-Gvir now wields significant power as the national security minister overseeing the Israeli police force in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
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The president of the Spanish football federation faces an emergency meeting of its general assembly on Friday amid media reports that he will hand in his resignation following an uproar for kissing a Women’s World Cup champion.

Luis Rubiales is expected to stand before representatives of Spain’s regional federations, clubs, players, coaches and referees in Madrid at noon local time, and local media say he is stepping down.

The federation has refused to comment on repeated requests from The Associated Press for confirmation of Rubiales’ decision to go that was reported late Thursday.

Rubiales, 46, is under immense pressure to leave his post since he grabbed player Jenni Hermoso and kissed her on the lips without her consent during the awards ceremony following Spain’s 1-0 victory over England on Sunday in Sydney.

FIFA, football’s global governing body and organizer of the Women’s World Cup, opened a disciplinary case against him on Thursday. Its disciplinary committee was tasked with weighing whether Rubiales violated its code relating to “the basic rules of decent conduct” and “behaving in a way that brings the sport of football and/or FIFA into disrepute.”

That move by FIFA came after Spain’s acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that Rubiales’ attempt to apologize, which came after he initially insulted his critics, was unconvincing and that “he must continue taking further steps” to be held accountable.

Spain’s Higher Council of Sports, the nation’s governing sports body, pledged it would act quickly to consider various formal complaints filed against Rubiales to see if he had broken Spain’s sports law or the federation’s own code of conduct that sanction sexist acts. If so, Rubiales would face being declared unfit to hold his office by Spain’s Administrative Court for Sports.

As if the forced kiss was not enough, Rubiales had shortly before grabbed his crotch in a lewd victory gesture from the section of dignitaries with Spain’s Queen Letizia and the 16-year-old Princess Infanta Sofía nearby.

The combination of the gesture and the unsolicited kiss has made Rubiales a national embarrassment after his conduct was broadcast to a global audience, marring the enormous accomplishment of the women who played for Spain.

Hermoso, a 33-year-old forward and key contributor to Spain’s title, said on a social media stream “I did not like it, but what could I do?” about the kiss during a locker-room celebration immediately after the incident.

The first attempt to respond to the scandal was a statement it released in the name of Hermoso in which she downplayed the incident. Later, a local media report by sports website Relevo.com said that the federation had coerced her into making the statement. The federation has denied this to The AP.

On Wednesday, Hermoso issued a statement through her players’ union saying it would speak on her behalf. The union said it would do all it could to ensure that the kiss does “not go unpunished.”

Rubiales has received no public support from any major sports figure and united political parties from both the left and right are calling for him to resign.
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Ebrahim Golestan, a renowned Iranian writer and filmmaker, has died at his home in Britain at the age of 101.

His daughter Lili, the director of Tehran’s Golestan Gallery, confirmed news of his death this week. On Instagram, she wrote “Father, you have left us. Farewell.”  

Golestan was born in Shiraz and left Iran before the 1979 Revolution. 

His notable films include “The Hills of Marlik,” “Brick and Mirror,” “The Secrets Treasure of Jin Valley,” “Waves, Coral and Rock,” and “From One Drop to the Sea.”

Ebrahim Golestan also produced “The House is Black,” directed by Forough Farrokhzad. 

The Iranian Directors Guild described him as an intellectual who “infused a renewed vitality into Iranian cinema before the new wave.” 

The statement characterizes Golestan as a literary luminary and storyteller with a uniquely captivating manner of expression.
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The DC superhero film “Blue Beetle” led weekend ticket sales with a modest $25.4 million opening, according to studio estimates Sunday, dethroning “Barbie” from the top spot after a record-setting run that left movie theaters colored pink for a month.

The “Barbie” phenomenon is far from over. Greta Gerwig’s film, which earlier this week became the highest grossing Warner Bros. release ever domestically, nearly managed to stay No. 1 again with $21.5 million in its fifth weekend. It’s up to $567.3 million in North America and an eye-popping $1.28 billion globally.

The other half of “Barbenheimer” also continues to perform remarkably well for a movie so far into its run.

Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” took in $10.6 million in its fifth week. With a $285.2 million domestic total, “Oppenheimer” now owns the distinction of being the biggest box-office hit never to land No. 1 at the weekend box office. The previous record-holder for that unlikely stat is 2016’s “Sing,” which grossed $270.3 million in the shadow of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and “Hidden Figures.”

Universal Pictures’ “Oppenheimer” has done even better overseas. Its global gross stands at an estimated $717.8 million through Sunday.

“Blue Beetle,” starring Xolo Maridueña, came in on the lower side of expectations and notched one of the lower debuts for a DC Comics movie. Though earlier planned as a streaming-only release, Warner Bros. elected to put “Blue Beetle,” the first DC movie to star a Latino superhero, into theaters in the late summer, a typically quiet period at the box office.

The production price tag of about $105 million was lower for “Blue Beetle” than the average superhero film. It’s one of the last releases produced under an earlier regime at DC Studios, which James Gunn and Peter Safran took the reins of last year.

The film, directed by Ángel Manuel Soto and written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, drew solid reviews – certainly better than the three previous DC releases this year (“The Flash,” “Black Adam” and “Shazam! Fury of the Gods”). “Blue Beetle” (76% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) is the rare comic-book film to put a Hispanic cast front and center.

But it also faced some tough luck, and not just in the unexpected staying power of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” Southern California was bracing Sunday for Hurricane Hilary — potentially dampening ticket sales in the region. (Los Angeles was still its top market.) And like recent releases, “Blue Beetle,” which added $18 million internationally, didn’t have its cast available to promote the movie due to the ongoing actors strike.

Universal’s raunchy R-rated canine comedy “Strays” showed even less bite. The film, with a voice cast including Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx, landed in fifth place with $8.4 million. Comedies have generally struggled in theaters in recent years, but “Strays” had it particularly rough given that its starry cast was unavailable.

“Strays” was very narrowly bested by “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.” The Paramount Pictures animated release earned $8.4 million in its third weekend, bringing its domestic total to $88.1 million.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “Blue Beetle,” $25.4 million.

2. “Barbie,” $21.5 million.

3. “Oppenheimer,” $10.6 million.

4. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” $8.4 million.

5. “Strays,” $8.3 million.

6. “Meg 2: The Trench,” $6.7 million.

7. “Talk to Me,” $3.2 million.

8. “Haunted Mansion,” $3 million.

9. “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” $2.7 million.

10. “The Last Voyage of the Demeter,” $2.5 million.
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The decorated French general in charge of the ambitious, big-budget restoration of fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Jean-Louis Georgelin, has died. He was 74. 

President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute Saturday to one of France’s “greatest soldiers, greatest servants,” who “stone by stone, was restoring the wounded beauty” of Notre Dame. Before being pulled from retirement to oversee the cathedral reconstruction, Georgelin previously served as chief of France’s military general staff, overseeing operations in Afghanistan, the Balkans and beyond.  

Citing the regional prosecutor, local news reports said Georgelin died while hiking in the Pyrenees, likely in an accident. The mountain rescue service in the Ariege region said a body was found Friday near the village of Bordes-Uchentein. 

Macron said in a statement that Georgelin died in the mountains, reflecting “a life always turned toward the summits.” The statement did not provide details. 

‘A way to be faithful’

Born Aug. 30, 1948, Georgelin attended the prestigious Saint-Cyr military high school before serving in infantry and parachute regiments and in military intelligence. He studied at the U.S. Army’s Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas — and went on to become personal military chief to late President Jacques Chirac — and then chief of staff of the French military from 2006-2010. 

Soon after the 2019 fire that toppled the spire of Notre Dame and consumed its timber-and-lead roof, Macron named Georgelin to lead the restoration work. Artisans around France are using medieval materials and methods to rebuild the Gothic landmark. 

“It is a way to be faithful to the (handiwork) of all the people who built all the extraordinary monuments in France,” Georgelin said earlier this year in an interview with The Associated Press. 

‘Winning the battle of Notre Dame’

The spire is being hoisted atop the cathedral piece by piece this year, a development that Georgelin called “the symbol that we are winning the battle of Notre Dame.” 

Macron lamented that “Gen. Georgelin will never see the reopening of Notre Dame with his own eyes,” but added that when it reopens on Dec. 8, 2024, “he will be present with us.” 
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Iranian cinema directors have ridiculed a six-month suspended prison sentence handed down to Saeed Roustayi and his producer for showcasing their movie at last year’s Cannes Film Festival without authorization, saying the move was designed to divert attention from the upcoming anniversary of the eruption of nationwide protests.

They also said international reaction to the sentence earlier this week was laughable.

The Iranian Cinema Directors Association said in an Instagram post that it was “the strangest judiciary sentence in the history of Iranian cinema.”

It said that the movie, “Leila’s Brothers,” had been approved by the government, and that the Iranian government itself had participated at the Cannes festival for years. “Such a strange sentence is a futile attempt to humiliate this young and intelligent filmmaker of Iranian cinema,” the association said.

Roustayi and Javad Noruzbegi have received heavy government funding throughout their careers.

Several independent filmmakers said they saw the sentence as a diversion from the upcoming anniversary of the Sept. 16, 2022, death in custody of Mahsa Amini. She had been detained for allegedly flouting the dress code, and her death sparked nationwide protests in the Islamic republic.

“The sentence is a joke. They [the authorities] want us to forget Mahsa’s anniversary,” filmmaker Mahnaz Mohammadi told Reuters.

She also said international filmmakers’ reaction was laughable as they had fallen into what she called the authorities’ trap in giving the sentence too much importance.

Filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola have shared a petition calling for “justice” for Roustayi and Noruzbegi.

Roustayi, 34, and Noruzbegi, 57, will serve one-twentieth of their jail sentence, about nine days. The remainder will be suspended over five years, according to the reformist Etemad newspaper.

During their suspension period, the defendants will have to take a filmmaking course on the “preservation of national and ethical interests.” They will also not be allowed to meet with other cinema professionals.

“Please, Mr. Scorsese! Do not, for a six-month suspended sentence, divert the attention from Mahsa’s anniversary and women’s demands for their rights, which are being increasingly violated by the day,” said an Iranian film director, asking not to be identified further.
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A Swiss citizen was arrested in military-ruled Myanmar for creating a film that allegedly insulted Buddhism, state media reported Saturday.

Didier Nusbaumer, 52, was arrested on Aug. 8 along with 13 Myanmar nationals, including a 12-year-old girl, Myanma Alinn newspaper said.

Insulting Buddhism is a punishable offense in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where religious nationalism has surged in recent years. About 90% of Myanmar people are Buddhist.

The news report said that Nusbaumer wrote, filmed and edited the 75-minute movie Don’t Expect Anything, which was posted on YouTube on July 24. Short clips from the movie spread on social media including on TikTok and Facebook, drawing rebukes from Buddhist nationalists in Myanmar.

“Although the people in the film’s main roles are Buddhist, they behaved inappropriately and degraded the dignity and morals of monks through their physical gestures and dialogue,” the media report said.

The report did not say where any of the suspects were being held.

Myanmar has been ruled by its army since February 2021, when it seized power from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Nusbaumer is not the first foreigner to be detained in Myanmar after being accused of insulting Buddhism.

In March 2015, a New Zealand citizen who was arrested with two Myanmar nationals was sentenced to 2 1/2 years imprisonment with hard labor for insulting Buddhism in an online advertisement that showed a psychedelic depiction of Buddha wearing DJ-style headphones. He was deported the following year.

In October 2016, a Dutch tourist was jailed for three months with hard labor for insulting Buddhism after he unplugged a loudspeaker used by Buddhist monks to broadcast a late-night sermon in the country’s second-largest city, Mandalay. He was deported after serving his jail term.

In the same year, a Spanish tourist was deported from Myanmar after authorities found a tattoo of Buddha on his leg.
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North Korean taekwondo athletes and officials were traveling through Beijing on Friday morning, apparently the country’s first delegation to travel abroad since the nation closed its borders in early 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The group of around 80 men and women wearing white track suits with “Taekwondo-Do” printed on the back and the North Korean flag on the front were in the departure hall of Beijing’s international airport checking in and walking to customs. They reportedly arrived Wednesday or Thursday.

The group was expected to take an Air Astana flight to Kazakhstan to compete at the International Taekwon-do Federation World Championships, according to Japanese and South Korean media. The competition is being held in Astana through Aug. 30.

North Korea has extremely limited air connections at the best of times and travel all but ended when Pyongyang closed the national borders to prevent the spread of COVID-19. How badly North Koreans were affected by the illness is unknown, since most of the country’s 26 million people have no access to vaccines, lack basic health care and are restricted from sharing information with the outside world.

In September 2022, North Korea resumed freight train service with China, its biggest trading partner and economic pipeline.

On Thursday, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers that North Korea is preparing to further reopen its border gradually as part of its efforts to revitalize its struggling economy.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that North Korea’s economy shrank each year in 2020-22 and its gross domestic product last year was 12% less than in 2016, according to Yoo Sang-bum, one of the lawmakers who attended the briefing.

The apparent resumption of travel came as the U.N. rights chief, Volker Türk, told the first open meeting of the U.N. Security Council since 2017 on North Korean human rights that the country was increasing its repression and people were becoming more desperate, with some reported to be starving as the economic situation worsens.

Türk said North Korea’s restrictions are even more extensive, with guards authorized to shoot any unauthorized person approaching the border and with almost all foreigners, including U.N. staff, still barred from the country.
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Australia already captivated a nation as co-hosts of the Women’s World Cup. Now there’s one more thing to play for, even if it’s not the fairytale ending the team had wanted for this tournament.

The Matildas play Sweden on Saturday for third place in Brisbane. Australia lost 3-1 to England in the semifinals on Wednesday, dashing hopes of playing in the title match.

“I know we’ve got the support of everyone, I know that they’re still going to come out to the game against Sweden,” midfielder Katrina Gorry said. “I know they’re always going to have our backs, but yeah, it’s just disappointing. You never want to do that on home soil.”

Indeed, the fans came out for the Matildas during their World Cup journey.

Bars and restaurants were packed around Sydney and there were live watching parties across the country for the semifinal. The sold-out crowd at Stadium Sydney was announced at 75,784, with even more gathered outside.

Australia’s men’s basketball team, the Boomers, were slated to play a tune-up game against Brazil on Wednesday night in preparation for their World Cup but moved the game up two hours to watch the Matildas in the semifinals.

Despite star Sam Kerr’s stunning goal for the hosts, the team couldn’t get by England. Even after the disappointing loss, a sign in a shop window on Sydney’s George Street read “Thank you Matildas.”

“Hopefully this has been life-changing for women’s football in Australia,” Kerr said. “I don’t think this was once in a lifetime. If you bring the product to the show, we’ve proven people will come out and support it. Hopefully we’ll get a few new fans that will stick around. Now it is time for funding and all of that stuff to be invested in the game because we’ve shown we can play the game.”

Kerr, one of the best players in the world, struggled with a calf injury at the start of the tournament, but started against England. She was a second-half substitute in the Matildas’ shootout victory over France in the quarterfinals.

Sweden was similarly disappointed to once again be out of the running for the title. The Swedes fell 2-1 to Spain on Tuesday night in Auckland.

Sweden, ranked third in the World, has never won a World Cup title. The Swedes were runners-up in 2003 to Germany and they’ve won the third-place match three times, including four years ago in France.

The Swedes were also silver medalists in both the Tokyo Olympics and the Rio Games in 2016.

“I’m tired of crying big tournament tears,” Sweden captain Kosovare Asllani said.

The Swedes made a mark on the tournament in the round of 16 when they ended the U.S. team’s run toward an unprecedented third consecutive World Cup title. Zecira Musovic had a World Cup record 11 saves and Sweden advanced on penalties after a scoreless draw — sending the Americans home earlier than ever before.

Sweden has some individual achievements to play for in its final match, including the Golden Boot award. Amanda Ilestedt has four goals, just one behind tournament leader Hinata Miyazawa of Japan.

Saturday’s match will be the last for Sweden midfielder Caroline Seger, who has played in five World Cups. She has battled a calf injury throughout the tournament and has played only sparingly.

Seger has appeared in 235 matches for Sweden, most of any player, man or woman. She did not play in the team’s knockout round matches. Should she play on Saturday, it would be her 21st appearance in a World Cup for Sweden, breaking former goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl’s record.

For both teams there’s also financial incentive.

At this World Cup, FIFA designated individual bonuses for the players out of the prize money pool. Each player in the tournament earned a base of $30,000, which grew as their teams progressed. Players on the third-place winning team will be due $185,000.
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