Russian authorities have suspended the release of an award-winning film about a serial killer who targets sex workers in Iran, a distributor said on Tuesday.

“Holy Spider,” directed by Danish Iranian Ali Abbasi, was inspired by a true story about a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war who killed 16 sex workers in the early 2000s in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city and a main shrine city of Shiite Islam.

The move comes as Russia and Iran are seeking closer ties amid Moscow’s growing isolation in the West over its war on Ukraine.

Russia has become increasingly conservative since President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022.

The film hit theaters in Russia on May 11, but less than a week later the culture ministry withdrew the film’s distribution license.

“Unfortunately, that’s true,” Anastasiya Kruglyakova, a representative of Exponenta Film, told AFP in written comments.

The ministry said that the release was canceled “due to the presence in the specified film of materials, containing information whose dissemination is prohibited by the legislation of the Russian Federation.”

Kruglyakova did not provide further details.

There was no immediate comment from the culture ministry.

Abbasi was denied permission to film in Iran, and “Holy Spider” was eventually shot in Jordan.

Last year, Zar Amir Ebrahimi won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in “Holy Spider” as a journalist who investigates the murders.

Iran protested to France after the Cannes film festival selected the film, slamming the move as “wrong and completely political.”
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Writer Salman Rushdie has made a public speech, nine months after being stabbed and seriously injured onstage, warning that freedom of expression in the West is under its most severe threat in his lifetime.

Rushdie delivered a video message to the British Book Awards, where he was awarded the Freedom to Publish award on Monday evening. Organizers said the honor “acknowledges the determination of authors, publishers and booksellers who take a stand against intolerance, despite the ongoing threats they face.”

 

Rushdie, 75, looked thinner than before the attack and wore glasses with one tinted lens. He was blinded in his right eye and suffered nerve damage to his hand when he was attacked at a literary festival in New York state in August.

His alleged assailant, Hadi Matar, has pleaded not guilty to charges of assault and attempted murder.

He told the awards ceremony that “we live in a moment, I think, at which freedom of expression, freedom to publish has not in my lifetime been under such threat in the countries of the West.”

“Now I am sitting here in the U.S., I have to look at the extraordinary attack on libraries, and books for children in schools,” he said. “The attack on the idea of libraries themselves. It is quite remarkably alarming, and we need to be very aware of it, and to fight against it very hard.”

Rushdie spent years in hiding with police protection after Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, in 1989 calling for his death over the alleged blasphemy of the novel “The Satanic Verses.”

He gradually returned to public life after the Iranian government distanced itself from the order in 1998, saying it would not back any effort to kill Rushdie, though the fatwa was never officially repealed.

Rushdie won the Booker Prize in 1981 for his novel “Midnight’s Children,” and in 2008 was voted the best-ever winner of the prestigious fiction prize. His most recent novel, “Victory City” — completed a month before the attack — was published in February.

In his speech, Rushdie also criticized publishers who change decades-old books for modern sensibilities, such as large-scale cuts and rewrites to the works of children’s author Roald Dahl and James Bond creator Ian Fleming.

He said publishers should allow books “to come to us from their time and be of their time.”

“And if that’s difficult to take, don’t read it, read another book,” he said.
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Striking members of the Writers Guild of America have said they will not picket next month’s Tony Award telecast, clearing a thorny issue facing show organizers and opening the door for some sort of Broadway razzle-dazzle on TV.  

The union last week denied a request by Tony organizers to have a waiver for their June 11 glitzy live telecast. It reiterated that in a statement late Monday, saying the guild “will not negotiate an interim agreement or a waiver for the Tony Awards.” 

But the guild gave some hope that some sort of Tony show might go on, saying organizers “are altering this year’s show to conform with specific requests from the WGA, and therefore the WGA will not be picketing the show.” What is being altered was not clear, but it may be to allow a non-scripted version of the Tonys to go on.  

The strike, which has already darkened late-night TV shows like “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert “and “Saturday Night Live” and delayed the making of scripted TV shows, was jeopardizing theater’s biggest night, one that many Broadway shows rely on to attract interest with millions of people watching. 

The union — representing 11,500 writers of film, television and other entertainment forms — has been on strike since May 2, primarily over royalties from streaming media. While the guild doesn’t represent Broadway writers, it does represent writers who work on the Tonys telecast. 

Tony organizers faced a stark choice after the request for a waiver was rejected: either postpone the ceremony until the strike ends or announce winners in a non-televised reception that would ask nominees to cross picket lines. The decision Monday means the possibility of a third way: A non-scripted show that leans heavily on performances.  

That is largely what happened during the 1988 awards, which were broadcast during a Writers Guild of America walkout. Host Angela Lansbury and presenters speaking impromptu and with performances from such shows as “A Chorus Line” and “Anything Goes.” 

Before the Writers Guild of America decision, a two-part Tony ceremony had been planned, with a pre-show of performances streaming live on Pluto, and the main awards ceremony broadcasting live on CBS and streaming live to premium-level Peacock members. 

The big first awards show during the current strike was the MTV Movie & TV Awards, which had no host and relied on recycled clips and a smattering of pre-recorded acceptance speeches.  

The strike has also disrupted the PEN America Gala. The Peabody Awards, which celebrate broadcasting and streaming media, on Monday canceled its June 11 awards show. 
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Several new movies infiltrated theaters nationwide this weekend, from a lighthearted trip to Italy with Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Diane Keaton and Mary Steenburgen to a Ben Affleck-fronted detective thriller. The two top spots were once again claimed by Marvel and Mario, however. 

In its second weekend, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3″ added $60.5 million from North American theaters, according to studio estimates on Sunday. That’s a slim 49% drop from its opening, which is rare for big superhero films that tend to be front-loaded and have big second weekend drops of 60% or more. As the smallest Marvel drop since the beginning of the pandemic, it also answers the ” superhero fatigue ” question that some floated last weekend. Including $91.9 million from international showings, “Vol. 3” has already grossed over $528.8 million worldwide. 

Second place went to “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” with $13 million in its sixth weekend, bringing its domestic grosses just shy of $536 million. Families with younger children have had almost no other options at the theaters since Mario entered the picture, resulting in repeat viewings and its continued dominance at the box office, where it is still playing in 3,800 locations domestically. Globally, it’s at $1.2 billion. 

With Chris Pratt in the leading positions of chart-topping movies, as Star Lord in “Guardians” and the voice of Mario, debates have ensued about how much of the draw is star power versus brand power. 

It was an especially crowded weekend for new movies, opening both wide and limited in all genres and of all qualities. 

“The second weekend in May is very notable, traditionally speaking, because it bridges the gap between a big summer kickoff movie (“Guardians 3”) and the next big blockbuster (“Fast X”),” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “Everyone in the business knew Guardians would dominate the weekend but it provided an opportunity for a lot of movies to get out there that hit that sweet spot between two behemoths.” 

“Book Club: The Next Chapter ” fared the best on the charts with $6.5 million from 3,508 locations. The sequel, released by Focus Features on Mother’s Day weekend, reunites the cast with director Bill Holderman and his co-writer Erin Simms. Audiences were heavily female (77%), Caucasian (59%) and over 45 (66%) and the hope is that there will be a Mother’s Day boost and decent holdover for the $20 million production. Older audiences typically don’t rush out on opening weekend. The first film opened to $13.5 million in 2018 and went on to gross over $104 million. 

Robert Rodriguez’s “Hypnotic,” meanwhile, is bombing. The mystery starring Affleck as a detective whose daughter is missing cost a reported $65 million to make. It went into the weekend with poor reviews (32% on Rotten Tomatoes) and limited marketing from distributor Ketchup Entertainment and earned just $2.4 million from 2,118 locations. 

Other mid-level releases failed to make a big splash, including Charlie Day’s Hollywood satire “Fool’s Paradise,” which earned $443,140 from 784 locations, and the anime-inspired “Knights of the Zodiac,” which made only $535,000 from 586 theaters. 

“BlackBerry,” Matt Johnson’s well-reviewed portrait about the rise and fall of the beloved smartphone starring Glenn Howerton and Jay Baruchel, got off to a bumpy start with $473,000 from 450 theaters. 

Sony Pictures Classics also launched its Yogi Berra documentary “It Ain’t Over” in 99 theaters, making $106,000. 

Dergarabedian noted that several independent films thrived this weekend with solid per theater averages, including IFC’s “Monica” ($26,500 from two theaters) and Bleecker Street’s “The Starling Girl” ($27,736 from four theaters). 

“If you’re a moviegoer, you have a lot to choose from right now,” Dergarabedian said. 

There was also quite a bit of competition on home screens, from a Michael J. Fox documentary on Apple TV+ to the Jennifer Lopez action pic “The Mother” on Netflix. “Air,” which is still in the top 10 after six weekends in theaters, also made its debut on Prime Video. 

Things are going to pick up considerably next weekend when “Fast X” enters the summer box office race, followed by the live-action “The Little Mermaid” on May 26. 

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

"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," $60.5 million. 
"The Super Mario Bros. Movie," $13 million. 
"Book Club: The Next Chapter," $6.5 million. 
"Evil Dead Rise," $3.7 million. 
"Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret." $2.5 million. 
"Hypnotic," $2.4 million. 
"John Wick: Chapter 4," $1.9 million. 
"Love Again," $1.6 million. 
"Air," $875,357. 
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves," $740,000. 

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As people brace for the disruptive impact of artificial intelligence on jobs and everyday living, those in the world of audio books say their field is already being transformed.

AI has the ability to create human-sounding recordings — at assembly-line speed — while bypassing at least part of the services of the human professionals who for years have made a living with their voices.

Many of them are already seeing a sharp drop off in business.

Tanya Eby has been a full-time voice actor and professional narrator for 20 years. She has a recording studio in her home.

But in the past six months she has seen her work load fall by half. Her bookings now run only through June, while in a normal year they would extend through August.

Many of her colleagues report similar declines.

While other factors could be at play, she told AFP, “It seems to make sense that AI is affecting all of us.”

There is no label identifying AI-assisted recordings as such, but professionals say thousands of audio books currently in circulation use “voices” generated from a databank.

Among the most cutting-edge, DeepZen offers rates that can slash the cost of producing an audio book to one-fourth, or less, that of a traditional project.

The small London-based company draws from a database it created by recording the voices of several actors who were asked to speak in a variety of emotional registers.

“Every voice that we are using, we sign a license agreement, and we pay for the recordings,” said DeepZen CEO Kamis Taylan.

For every project, he added, “we pay royalties based on the work that we do.”

Not everyone respects that standard, said Eby.

“All these new companies are popping up who are not as ethical,” she said, and some use voices found in databases without paying for them.

“There’s that gray area” being exploited by several platforms, Taylan acknowledged.

“They take your voice, my voice, five other people’s voices combined that just creates a separate voice… They say that it doesn’t belong to anybody.”

All the audio book companies contacted by AFP denied using such practices.

Speechki, a Texas-based start-up, uses both its own recordings and voices from existing databanks, said CEO Dima Abramov.

But that is done only after a contract has been signed covering usage rights, he said.

Future of coexistence?

The five largest U.S. publishing houses did not respond to requests for comment.

But professionals contacted by AFP said several traditional publishers are already using so-called generative AI, which can create texts, images, videos and voices from existing content — without human intervention.

“Professional narration has always been, and will remain, core to the Audible listening experience,” said a spokesperson for that Amazon subsidiary, a giant in the American audio book sector.

“However, as text-to-speech technology improves, we see a future in which human performances and text-to-speech generated content can coexist.”

The giants of U.S. technology, deeply involved in the explosively developing field of AI, are all pursuing the promising business of digitally narrated audio books.

‘Accessible to all’

Early this year, Apple announced it was moving into AI-narrated audio books, a move it said would make the “creation of audio books more accessible to all,” notably independent authors and small publishers.

Google is offering a similar service, which it describes as “auto-narration.”

“We have to democratize the publishing industry, because only the most famous and the big names are getting converted into audio,” said Taylan. 

“Synthetic narration just opened the door for old books that have never been recorded, and all the books from the future that never will be recorded because of the economics,” added Speechki’s Abramov.

Given the costs of human-based recording, he added, only some five percent of all books are turned into audio books.

But Abramov insisted that the growing market would also benefit voice actors.

“They will make more money, they will make more recordings,” he said. 

The human element

“The essence of storytelling is teaching humanity how to be human. And we feel strongly that that should never be given to a machine to teach us about how to be human,” said Emily Ellet, an actor and audio book narrator who cofounded the Professional Audiobook Narrators Association (PANA).

“Storytelling,” she added, “should remain human entirely.”

Eby underlined a frequent criticism of digitally generated recordings. 

When compared to a human recording, she said, an AI product “lacks in emotional connectivity.”

Eby said she fears, however, that people will grow accustomed to the machine-generated version, “and I think that’s quietly what’s kind of happening.”

Her wish is simply “that companies would let listeners know that they’re listening to an AI-generated piece… I just want people to be honest about it.”
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Four sisters are building the first Hobbit-style village in southeast Europe in the green hills of central Bosnia, hoping to attract fans of “The Lord of the Rings” books and movies as well as sharing their childhood memories.

“We have often held family gatherings on this hill and discussed what would be the best way to make use of this view for tourism purposes,” said Milijana, the eldest of the Milicevic sisters, pointing to the stunning view of a valley and a lake nestled among the hills.

The Kresevo Hobbiton, as the Hobbits’ village is called, is located in the village of Rakova Noga (The Crab’s Leg) near the old royal and mining town of Kresevo, some 40 minutes drive from the capital of Sarajevo.

Last year Marija, a 28-year-old geology engineer, proposed to her sisters Milijana, Vedrana and Valentina that they build house in the style of the Hobbit homes in J.R.R. Tolkein’s “The Lord of the Rings” tales. The “hole houses” are built into the ground.

The sisters decided that their houses must include characteristics of the area where they live and that each sister would decorate one dwelling as she likes.

They have already built two houses and three others are under construction.

The first house, with a round green door and window, was named Lipa after the village where Milijana had spent most of her childhood with their grandparents. Lipa is also the name for the linden tree.

“Lipa is my nostalgia, the memory of a healthy childhood where garden planting was a social game, domestic animals friends and a tin barrel the Adriatic Sea,” Milijana said in the wood-decorated house.

The second house is named Ober after a cave in Kresevo. Its ceiling is decorated with stalactites to provide the feeling of being in the cave.

“Ober in history has been the mine from which Kresevo miners had extracted cinnabar and melted it to get gold,” said Marija.

Her house’s door and window is painted red after the coloring of the cinnabar ore.

The other three houses, which should be completed soon, will also be named after local attractions.

For example Bedem, with towers on its corners, is named after the fortress where Bosnia’s last queen, Katarina, had stayed while in Kresevo.

Tourists from across the region and other European countries have already started visiting, Marija said.
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When she was a girl in South Africa’s Northern Cape, Katrina Esau stopped speaking her mother tongue, N|uu, after being mocked by other people and told it was an “ugly language.”

Now at age 90, she is the last known speaker of N|uu, one of a group of indigenous languages in South Africa that have been all but stamped out by the impacts of colonialism and apartheid.

“We became ashamed when we were young girls, and we stopped speaking the language,” Esau told Reuters. Instead she spoke Afrikaans, the language promoted by South Africa’s white minority rulers.

Later, as an adult, Esau realized the importance of preserving her mother tongue and founded a school in her home town of Upington to try to pass it on.

N|uu was spoken by one of many hunter-gatherer groups that populated Southern Africa before the arrival of European colonizers. These indigenous people spoke dozens of languages in the San family, many of which have gone extinct.

“During colonialism and apartheid, Ouma Katrina and other (indigenous) groups were not allowed to speak their languages, their languages were frowned upon, and that is how we got to the point where we are with minimal speakers,” said Lorato Mokwena, a linguist from South Africa’s University of the Western Cape.

“It’s important that while Ouma Katrina is around, that we do the best that we can to preserve the language and to document it,” she said.

Ouma, or “grandmother” Katrina started teaching N|uu to local children around 2005 and later opened a school with her granddaughter and language activist Claudia Snyman.

But the school property was vandalized during the COVID-19 lockdown, and now lies abandoned.

“I am very concerned. The language isn’t where it’s supposed to be yet. If Ouma dies, then everything dies,” said Snyman, whose dream is to one day open her own school and continue her grandmother’s legacy.

“I’ll do anything in my power to help her to prevent this language from dying,” Snyman said.

Esau has two living sisters but they do not speak N|uu, and she does not know anyone else who does, save the family members and children to whom she has taught some words and phrases.

“I miss speaking to someone,” she said. “It doesn’t feel good. You talk, you walk, you know … you miss someone who can just sit with you and speak N|uu with you.”
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Swedish singer Loreen won the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night with her power ballad “Tattoo,” at a colorful, eclectic music competition clouded for a second year running by the war in Ukraine.

The diva from Stockholm beat acts from 25 other countries to take the continent’s pop crown at the competition in Liverpool. Finnish singer Käärijä was second in a close-fought battle of the Nordic neighbors.

Loreen also won Eurovision in 2012 and is the second performer to take the prize twice, after Ireland’s Johnny Logan in the 1980s.

Sounds of Ukraine throughout show

Britain hosted Eurovision this year on behalf of Ukraine, which won last year but couldn’t take up its right to hold the contest because of the war. Air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine as the contest was underway.

Under the slogan “united by music,” Eurovision fused the soul of English port city that birthed The Beatles with the spirit of war-battered Ukraine.

The sights and sounds of Ukraine ran through the show, starting with an opening film that showed 2022 Eurovision winners Kalush Orchestra singing and dancing in the Kyiv subway, with the tune picked up by musicians in the U.K. — including Kate, Princess of Wales, shown playing the piano.

The folk-rap band itself then emerged onstage in the Liverpool Arena on a giant pair of outstretched hands, accompanied by massed drummers.

Contestants from the 26 finalist nations entered the arena in an Olympics-style flag parade, accompanied by live performances from Ukrainian acts including Go A, Jamala, Tina Karol and Verka Serduchka — all past Eurovision competitors.

Three-minute performances

Now in its 67th year, Eurovision bills itself as the world’s biggest music contest — an Olympiad of party-friendly pop. Competitors each have three minutes to meld catchy tunes and eye-popping spectacle into performances capable of winning the hearts of millions of viewers.

Loreen had been the bookies’ favorite and won by far the most votes from professional juries in Eurovision’s complex voting system. She faced a close challenge from Kaarija, who won the public vote.

He is a performer with Energizer bunny energy and a lurid green bolero top who goes from metal growler to sweet crooner on party anthem “Cha Cha Cha.” The infectious song got one of the biggest singalong crowd reactions of the night.

Italy’s Marco Mengoni also had a strong following for “Due Vite” (Two Lives), a seductive ballad with enigmatic lyrics.

Austrian duo Teya & Salena was first to perform with “Who the Hell is Edgar?” — a daffy satirical ode to Edgar Allen Poe that also slams the meagre royalties musicians earn from streaming services.

After that, the varied tastes of the continent were on display: the cabaret-style singing of Portugal’s Mimicat; the Britney-esque power pop of Poland’s Blanka; echoes of Edith Piaf from La Zarra for France; smoldering balladry from Cyprus’ entry, Andrew Lambrou.

Rock was unusually well represented this year at a contest that tends to favor perky pop. Australia’s Voyager evoked head-banging ’80s stadium rock on “Promise,” while Slovenia’s Joker Out, Germany’s Lord of the Lost were also guitar-crunching entries.
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Sprinkle the sequins and pump up the volume: The 67th Eurovision Song Contest reaches its climax on Saturday with a grand final broadcast live from Liverpool. There will be catchy choruses, a kaleidoscope of costumes and tributes to the spirit of Ukraine in a competition that for seven decades has captured the changing zeitgeist of a continent.

Here’s what to expect as acts from across Europe — and beyond — vie for the continent’s pop crown.

Who’s Competing?

This year, 37 countries sent an act to Eurovision, selected through national competitions or internal selections by broadcasters. The host country is usually the winner of the previous year’s event, but 2022 runner-up Britain is hosting this time around on behalf of the winner, Ukraine.

Twenty-six countries will compete in Saturday’s final at the Liverpool Arena, beside the River Mersey in the port city that gave birth to The Beatles. Six countries automatically qualify: last year’s winner and the “Big Five” who pay the most to the contest — France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K.

The other 20 finalists, chosen by public votes in two semifinals on Tuesday and Thursday, are: Albania, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Israel, Lithuania, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland.

Wait — Australia?

Eurovision is about spirit, not just geography. Eurovision is hugely popular in Australia, and the country was allowed to join the competition in 2015. Other entrants from outside Europe’s borders include Israel and Azerbaijan.

Who Are This Year’s Favorites?

It’s hard to predict victors in a contest whose past winners have ranged from ABBA to Finnish cartoon metal band Lordi, but bookmakers say Swedish diva Loreen, who won Eurovision in 2012, is favorite to score a double with her power ballad “Tattoo.”

Finland’s Käärijä was a crowd-pleaser in the semifinals with his pop-metal party tune “Cha Cha Cha,” and Canadian singer La Zarra, competing for France, is also highly ranked for her Edith Piaf-esque chanson “Évidemment.”

And never underestimate left-field entries like Croatia’s Let 3, whose song “Mama ŠČ!”is pure Eurovision camp: an antiwar rock opera that plays like Monty Python meets “Dr. Strangelove.”

What Happens During The Final?

Around 6,000 fans will attend the final, hosted by long-time BBC Eurovision presenter Graham Norton, “Ted Lasso” star Hannah Waddingham, British singer Alesha Dixon and Ukrainian rock star Julia Sanina.

Each competing act must sing live and stick to a three-minute limit, but otherwise is free to create its own staging — the flashier the pyrotechnics and more elaborate the choreography, the better.

Russia’s war in Ukraine will lend a solemn note to a contest famed for celebrating cheesy pop. The show will open with a performance by last year’s winner, Ukrainian folk-rap band Kalush Orchestra. Ukrainian singer Jamala, who won the contest in 2016, will perform a tribute to her Crimean Tatar culture.

One person who won’t be appearing is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He asked to address the final by video — but organizer the European Broadcasting Union said “regrettably,” that would breach “the nonpolitical nature of the event.”

How Is The Winner Decided?

After all the acts have performed, viewers in participating nations can vote by phone, text message or app – though they can’t vote for their own country. This year for the first time, viewers in nonparticipating countries can also vote online, with the combined “rest of the world” votes being given the weight of one individual country.

National juries of music industry professionals also allocate between one and 12 points to their favorite songs, with an announcer from each country popping up to declare which has been granted the coveted “douze points” (12 points).

Public and jury votes are combined to give each country a single score. Ending up with “nul points” (zero points) is considered a national embarrassment. It’s a fate the U.K. has suffered several times.

How Can I Watch?

Eurovision is being shown by national broadcasters that belong to the European Broadcasting Union, including the BBC in Britain, and on the Eurovision YouTube channel. In the United States, it’s being shown on NBC’s Peacock streaming service.
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Thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the war found refuge in the small town of Uzhhorod in Ukraine. A local theater director decided to stage the Shakespearean play, King Lear, to help refugees find some normalcy during the war. They were surprised by what happened next. Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Vazgen Varzhabetian
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Austria, has been ranked by The Economist as the most livable city in the world and it is also the pioneer of adopting a gender-inclusive urban design. For VOA, Chermaine Lee reports from Vienna.
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The United States returned two looted antiquities to China, the latest in a wave of repatriations of artifacts stolen from more than a dozen countries, New York authorities announced Tuesday.

The two 7th-century stone carvings, currently valued at $3.5 million, had been sawn off a tomb by thieves in the early 1990s and smuggled out of China, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement.

The carvings were among 89 antiquities from 10 different countries purchased by Shelby White, a private art collector in New York.

From 1998, they were “loaned” to the Metropolitan Museum of Art until they were seized this year by the DA’s office following a criminal investigation.

“It is a shame that these two incredible antiquities were stolen and at least one remained largely hidden from the public view for nearly three decades,” Bragg said.

“While their total value is more than $3 million, the incredible detail and beauty of these pieces can never be truly captured by a price tag.”

Collectively valued at nearly $69 million, they were part of a criminal investigation by the city’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit that tracks and repatriates looted artifacts.

One of the funerary carvings was kept in the museum’s storage room and never displayed, according to the statement by Bragg’s office.

It was never cleaned and caked in dirt, another tell-tale sign of their illicit origin, the statement added.

The carvings were handed over during a repatriation ceremony at the Chinese consulate in New York.

“We regard the crackdown on crimes against cultural property a sacred mission,” Chinese Consul General Huang Ping was quoted as saying in the statement by the DA’s office.

Since January 2022, more than 950 antiquities worth over $165 million have been returned to 19 countries, including Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq, Greece, Turkey, and Italy.

In 2021, Michael Steinhardt, a private collector, returned around 180 stolen antiquities worth $70 million following an out-of-court agreement, in one of the most famous cases of art trafficking in New York.
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Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who was taken off the air by the network last month, said on Tuesday he would relaunch his show on Twitter “soon.”

Fox News Media and its top-rated host agreed to part ways last month, shortly after parent company Fox Corp. settled for $787.5 million a defamation lawsuit in which Carlson played a starring role.

The outspoken Carlson embraced conservative issues and delivered his views with a style that made his prime-time show, “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” the highest-rated cable news program in the key 25-to-54 age demographic on the most-watched U.S. cable news network.

Ratings slumped after his departure.

“Starting soon, we’ll be bringing a new version of the show we’ve been doing for the last six and a half years to Twitter,” Carlson said in a video posted on Twitter. “We bring some other things too, which we’ll tell you about. But for now, we’re just grateful to be here.”

Carlson’s announcement comes weeks after Twitter owner Elon Musk sat for a two-part interview with Carlson on Fox News.

Musk, who has referred to himself as a “free speech absolutist,” has said his goal is to make Twitter a digital town hall where users can share diverse viewpoints.

Even as Carlson announced plans to reboot his show on social media, Axios reported that his lawyers sent a letter to Fox accusing it of fraud and breach of contract.

Carlson’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Fox Corp. declined to comment.

Fox’s lawyers have asked attorneys for Dominion Voting Systems to investigate whether they leaked controversial internal messages from Carlson that provided evidence in their recent defamation suit.

The request came after multiple news outlets published racist and sexist remarks by Carlson in the leaked communications and recordings.
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Iranian American Sanaz Toossi won the Pulitzer Prize in drama Monday for her play English. 

The play takes place in 2008 near Tehran, where four Iranian adults prepare for an English proficiency test.  It examines how family separation and travel restrictions push them to learn a new language and how that may change their identity. 

The Pulitzer board called the play “quietly powerful.” 

The award includes a $15,000 prize. 

Toossi is the daughter of Iranian immigrants to the United States and grew up in the western U.S. state of California. 
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Mezzo-soprano Grace Bumbry, a Black opera singer who blazed trails and broke barriers, has died, her son and publicist announced Monday. She was 86.

The artist died on May 7 at a hospital in Vienna, having suffered a stroke in October, according to her adopted son David Lee Brewer, who was speaking to the press agency APA.

The decorated singer made her operatic debut in Paris in 1960, playing Amneris in Aida, and became a favorite of U.S. first lady Jackie Kennedy.

Over a nearly four-decade career, Bumbry received great acclaim for her performances in roles that showcased her wide vocal range and singular star power.

Grace-Melzia Bumbry was born in St. Louis on January 4, 1937, to parents hailing from Mississippi.

A unique talent in the church choir, she grew up in an era of profound racial segregation and was barred from entering the local music conservatory.

But she went on to study at Boston University and Northwestern University on scholarships, later going with her instructor Lotte Lehmann to the Music Academy of the West in California to hone her operatic and stage skills.

Following fellow pioneering Black artists including Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price, Bumbry was a major figure in breaking down racial barriers entrenched in classical music.

She gained international attention in 1961 when she became the first African American to perform at Germany’s Bayreuth Festival, an institution dedicated to Richard Wagner, a figure acclaimed for his music but whose antisemitism and white supremacist views have complicated his artistic legacy.

Wagnerites voiced some protest that she would perform, but the composer’s grandson, Wieland Wagner, said, “I require no ideal Nordic specimens,” arguing that his grandfather’s music was “for vocal color, not skin color.”

Across her storied career, Bumbry gained a reputation for glamour and high living, wearing dramatic gowns and jewels. She also had a penchant for show dogs and luxury cars.

In 2009 she was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor, among the highest American arts awards, in the presence of then-President Barack Obama. 

She lived for years in Switzerland and later settled in Vienna, retiring from opera in 1997 after gracing the world’s most prestigious stages for decades.

Bumbry remained professionally active as a teacher and concert performer, also founding the Grace Bumbry Black Musical Heritage Ensemble.

Austria’s secretary of state, Andrea Mayer, hailed Bumbry as “a pioneer for generations of opera singers.”

“With her legendary debut at Bayreuth in the 1960s, she made a decisive contribution to equal rights in the world of opera,” Mayer said in a statement. 
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Authentic Ukrainian ethnic folk attire made a recent appearance on a runway at Metropolitan Fashion Week Seattle, held in the city’s suburb of Woodinville. Natasha Mozgovaya has more.
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As teqball continues its fast growth with its debut at the Southeast Asian Games, the young sport has drawn resentful glances from similar sports in the region that feel it is treading on their turf.

Invented in Hungary in 2012, teqball is a nonmedal exhibition sport at this year’s SEA Games in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, being played over three days with the finals on Monday. It is also on the schedule for the European Games in Poland in June and July.

Teqball already has more than 140 national federations, leading its backers to call it “the fastest-growing sport in the world.”

Top international football teams, including Spain and Portugal, bond over games of teqball during downtime, and stars such as Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho have become ambassadors for the game.

Played on a curved table, teqball melds elements of football, volleyball and ping-pong. Players — alone or in pairs — trade shots without using their arms. The catch is they cannot use the same body part twice consecutively.

“In Europe, North America, South America, it’s more developed than in Asia,” said Marton Keresztury, from governing body Fiteq. “So here, it’s just starting slowly.”

On Sunday, the much-fancied Thai men’s doubles team ruthlessly saw off their Cambodian opposition, the affront to their hosts compounded by Phakpong Dejaroen’s acrobatic winning shots repeatedly bouncing up and scudding into the home fans.

That set the Thais up for a final on Monday against another Cambodian duo.

In the women’s doubles, the Thai duo of Suphawadi Wongkhamchan and Jutatip Kuntatong also swatted away the opposition on their way to the final.

One reason Thailand excels at the sport is a pre-existing love for the game of sepak takraw, a similar sport popular around the region, played on something more resembling a volleyball court.

Fahrish Khan, of the Singapore men’s doubles team that beat Brunei in their last group game, but did not progress, noted the overlap.

“We play football. So, if you see a lot of them are sepak takraw players. It’s very different,” said the 27-year-old.

“The difference is they know how to kill,” he said, referring to the bouncing winners that the Thai team reeled off with elan.

Keresztury said teqball had more tournaments coming in Asia soon, in China, Thailand, “and maybe Indonesia.”

He noted that the sport risked butting heads with sepak takraw.

“The players who are here, they come from (sepak takraw). Sometimes you have clashes with sepak takraw federations because they don’t want to let their players play teqball. That’s why it’s developing slowly in Asia,” Keresztury said. “I think 80% of the players come from sepak takraw, from all nations.”

But, he added: “It’s easy to get some skills from sepak takraw, but if you want to have all the skills you have to play more teqball.”
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There is nothing like the promise of a chapter closing to draw people to the movie theater, especially when tied to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This weekend, ” Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” which says goodbye to this iteration of the space misfits and its driving creative voice, director James Gunn, earned $114 million in ticket sales from 4,450 locations in North America, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Internationally, where the film opened in 52 territories including China, “Vol. 3” earned $168 million, giving it a $282 million global debut.

Domestically, it’s both an impressive sum for any movie and slightly less than what we’ve come to expect from a Marvel opening. Last year on the same weekend, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” riding on the success of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” raked in $187.4 million in its first three days in North America. And in November, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” also opened over $181.3 million.

But things have come back to earth this year, at least by high-flying superhero standards. “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” debuted just over $106 million on its way to $474 million worldwide. At rival studio DC/Warner Bros., “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” only made $133.4 million total. The question on some analysts’ minds this weekend is whether it’s because of the specific character or a bigger issue of “superhero fatigue.”

“Guardians Vol. 3″ bumped ” The Super Mario Bros. Movie ” out of first place after four weekends atop the charts and kicked off the summer movie season, a vital and usually profitable corridor for Hollywood that runs through Labor Day and often accounts for 40% of a year’s box office.

For Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian, it’s still a solid opening for the summer season, which he said is poised to deliver the most robust profits since 2019.

“Though ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s’ debut may reflect a bit of audience fatigue for the reliable superhero genre, this is just the beginning for what promises to be an irresistible movie marketplace with a killer combination of appealing films for every taste and every audience demographic,” Dergarabedian said.

The next major superhero movie on the schedule is DC’s “The Flash,” set for June 16, which has its own flurry of intrigue around it because of star Ezra Miller’s legal and personal troubles.

“Guardians Vol. 3” sees the return of actors Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel. Reviews have been mostly positive, but a little more divided than previous installments. And it remains difficult to compare a pre-pandemic opening such as Vol. 2’s $146 million debut (May 2017) with a post-pandemic one.

“Vol. 3” is Gunn’s last Guardians/Marvel movie as he turns his focus to leading DC Studios.

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” added $18.6 million in its fifth weekend to take second place, bringing its domestic total to $518.1 million. Globally, it has now surpassed $1.1 billion.

Third place went to “Evil Dead Rise” with $5.7 million, and in fourth place was “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” with $3.4 million — both were holdovers.

Studios left the weekend mostly clear for the superhero behemoth, but Screen Gems and Sony did debut their new Priyanka Chopra Jonas romantic comedy “Love Again” (featuring Celine Dion and some new songs) in 2703 locations. It made a modest $2.4 million to take the fifth place spot.

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

1. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” $114 million.

2. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” $18.6 million.

3. “Evil Dead Rise,” $5.7 million.

4. “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” $3.4 million.

5. “Love Again,” $2.4 million.

6. “John Wick: Chapter 3,” $2.4 million.

7. “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” $1.5 million.

8. “Air,” $1.4 million.

9. “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant,” $1.2 million.

10. “Sisu,” $1.1 million.
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Newton N. Minow, who as Federal Communications Commission chief in the early 1960s famously proclaimed that network television was a “vast wasteland,” died Saturday. He was 97.

Minow, who received a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, died Saturday at home, surrounded by loved ones, said his daughter, Nell Minow.

“He wanted to be at home,” she told The Associated Press. “He had a good life.”

Though Minow remained in the FCC post just two years, he left a permanent stamp on the broadcasting industry through government steps to foster satellite communications, the passage of a law mandating UHF reception on TV sets and his outspoken advocacy for quality in television.

“My faith is in the belief that this country needs and can support many voices of television — and that the more voices we hear, the better, the richer, the freer we shall be,” Minow once said. “After all, the airways belong to the people.”

Minow was appointed as FCC chief by President John F. Kennedy in early 1961. He had initially come to know the Kennedys in the 1950s as an aide to Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson, the Democrats’ presidential nominee in 1952 and 1956.

Minow laid down his famous challenge to TV executives on May 9, 1961, in a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters, urging them to sit down and watch their station for a full day, “without a book, magazine, newspaper, profit-and-loss sheet or rating book to distract you.”

“I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland,” he told them. “You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, Western bad men, Western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence and cartoons. And, endlessly, commercials — many screaming, cajoling and offending.”

As he spoke, the three networks were just about all most viewers had to choose from. Pay television was barely in the planning stage, PBS and Sesame Street were several years away, and HBO and niche channels such as Animal Planet were far in the future.

The speech caused a sensation. “Vast wasteland” became a catch phrase. Jimmy Durante opened an NBC special by saying, “Da next hour will be dedicated to upliftin’ da quality of television. … At least, Newt, we’re tryin’.”

Minow became the first government official to get a George Foster Peabody award for excellence in broadcasting. The New York Times critic Jack Gould (himself a Peabody winner) wrote, “At long last there is a man in Washington who proposes to champion the interests of the public in TV matters and is not timid about ruffling the industry’s most august feathers. Tonight some broadcasters were trying to find dark explanations for Mr. Minow’s attitude. In this matter the viewer possibly can be a little helpful; Mr. Minow has been watching television.”

CBS President Frank Stanton strongly disagreed, calling Minow’s comments a “sensationalized and oversimplified approach” that could lead to ill-advised reforms “on the ground that any change is a change for the better.”

For the criticism over his speech, Minow said he didn’t support censorship, preferring exhortation and measures to broaden public choices. But he also said a broadcasting license was “an enormous gift” from the government that brought with it a responsibility to the public.

His daughter, Nell Minow, told The Associated Press in 2011 that her father loved television and wished he would have been remembered for championing the public interest in television programming, rather than just a few words in his much broader speech.

“His No. 1 goal was to give people choice,” she said.

Among the new laws during his tenure were the All-Channel Receiver Act of 1962, that required that TV sets pick up UHF as well as VHF broadcasts, which opened up TV channels numbered above 13 for widespread viewing. Congress also passed a bill that provided funds for educational television, and measures to foster communications satellites.

In a September 2006 interview on National Public Radio, Minow recalled telling Kennedy that such satellites were “more important than sending a man into space. … Communications satellites will send ideas into space, and ideas live longer than people.” On July 10, 1962, Minow was one of the officials making statements on the first live trans-Atlantic television program, a demonstration of AT&T’s Telstar satellite.

Children’s programming was a particular interest of Minow, a father of three, who told broadcasters the few good children’s shows were “drowned out in the massive doses of cartoons, violence and more violence. … Search your consciences and see if you cannot offer more to your young beneficiaries whose future you guide so many hours each and every day.”

Minow resigned in May 1963 to become executive vice president and general counsel for Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. in Chicago.

Nell Minow said her father also was instrumental in getting presidential debates televised, starting with Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon, after watching Stevenson struggle to use the new medium during his 1956 presidential run.

“Minow was appalled by … the whole charade of having to image-make on television,” said Craig Allen, a mass communications professor at Arizona State University who wrote a 2001 book about Minow.

In 1965, Minow returned to his law practice in Chicago, and later served as board member at PBS, CBS Inc. and the advertising company Foote Cone & Belding Communications Inc. He was director of the Annenberg Washington Program in Communications Policy Studies of Northwestern University.

He also gave Barack Obama a summer job at the law firm, where the future president met his wife, Michelle Robinson. Minow also was one of Obama’s earliest supporters when the then-Illinois senator considered running for president, Nell Minow said.

Television is one of our century’s most important advances “and yet, as a nation, we pay no attention to it,” Minow said in a 1991 Associated Press interview.

He continued to push for reforms such as free airtime for political ads and more quality programming while also praising advances in diversity in U.S. television.

“In 1961, I worried that my children would not benefit much from television. But in 1991 I worry that my grandchildren will actually be harmed by it,” he said. 
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The commuter trains that take wearied workers out of Moscow every day can be difficult — a long and slow trip in close quarters with strangers, some of them drinking alcohol or sprawled sleeping across the seats.

But a few days a week, riders might get a lift when Oksana comes aboard to soothe them with her violin artistry. Classics, jazz, Russian folk music and children’s songs all flow as she glides her bow across the strings.

It’s not just her repertoire that raises the passengers’ spirits, but her instruments themselves. She makes her own violins from kits and decorates them with intricate, colorful paintings of flowers and winding vines.

The 49-year-old Oksana, who did not want her surname reported out of safety concerns, once worked at a cultural center in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don but moved to Moscow after she lost that job. There was a house loan to pay off along with support for her two children, who live with their father.

At first she worked as a dishwasher. One day she fell into conversation with a street musician after giving him some money and he encouraged her to follow his example, saying it would likely pay more than her scullery job.

She took his advice, except that she chose the trains known as elektrichki as her venue rather that the street. They have been her stage for the past four years.

It’s not lucrative. In a good month she can take in 80,000 rubles ($750), but that’s enough to pay for her room on the Moscow outskirts and to send some money to her kids.

She could make more, but standing for hours on the swaying trains while playing is hard on her legs and she plays only two or three times a week.
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King Charles III’s coronation is a chance to unite people with the history and pageantry of the monarchy, but those traditions are also full of potential controversies as he tries to show that the monarchy still has a role to play in modern Britain.

The new king has already recognized these challenges by adjusting the coronation festivities to the realities of today.

This coronation will be shorter and more inclusive than his mother’s in 1953. Faith leaders from outside the Church of England will take an active role in the ceremony for the first time. And people from all four nations of the United Kingdom, as well as the Commonwealth, will take part.

Here are five artifacts that will play a central role in Saturday’s events.

The Coronation Chair and Stone of Scone

King Charles III will sit atop more than 1,500 years of Irish, Scottish and English history when he is crowned Saturday at Westminster Abbey.

The crown will be placed on Charles’ head as he sits in the Coronation Chair suspended over the Stone of Scone (pronounced “scoon”) — the sacred slab of sandstone on which Scottish kings were crowned. The chair has been part of every coronation since 1308.

The 2.05-meter-tall chair is made of oak and was originally covered in gold leaf and colored glass. The gold has long since worn away and the chair is now pocked with graffiti, including one message that reads “P. Abbott slept in this chair 5-6 July 1800.”

Edward I had the chair built specifically to enclose the Stone of Scone, known by Scots as the Stone of Destiny, after he forcibly took the artifact from Scotland and moved it to the abbey in the late 13th century. The stone’s history goes back much further, however. Fergus Mor MacEirc, the founder of Scotland’s royal line, reputedly brought the stone with him when he moved his seat from Ireland to Scotland around 498, Westminster Abbey said. Before that time, it was used as the coronation stone for Irish kings.

In 1996, Prime Minister John Major returned the stone to Scotland, with the understanding that it would come back to England for use in future coronations. In recent days, the stone was temporarily removed from its current home at Edinburgh Castle in a ceremony overseen by Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf, then transported to the abbey, where a special service was held to mark its return.

Coronation spoon

The gold-plated silver coronation spoon is the only piece of the coronation regalia that survived the English Civil War. After King Charles I was executed in 1649, the rest of the collection was either melted down or sold off as Parliament sought to abolish the monarchy forever.

The spoon is central to the most sacred part of the coronation ceremony, when the Archbishop of Canterbury will pour holy oil from an eagle-shaped ampulla, or flask, into the spoon and then rub it on the king’s hands, breast and head.

The ceremony has roots in the biblical story of the anointing of King Solomon and was originally designed to confirm that the sovereign was appointed directly by God. While the monarch is no longer considered divine, the ceremony confirms his status as supreme governor of the Church of England.

The 26.7-centimeter spoon is believed to have been made during the 12th century for either King Henry II or King Richard I and may have originally been used for mixing water and wine, according to the Royal Collection Trust.

The Cullinan Diamond

Two stones cut from the Cullinan Diamond — the largest rough diamond ever found — will feature prominently in the coronation, fueling controversy the royal family would rather avoid.

For many in South Africa, where the original stone was found in 1905, the gems are a symbol of colonial oppression under British rule and they should be returned.

Cullinan I, a huge drop-shaped stone weighing 530.2 carats, is mounted in the Sovereign’s Scepter with Cross. On Saturday, the scepter will be handed to Charles as a symbol of his temporal power.

Cullinan II, a cushion-shaped gem of 317.4 carats, is mounted on the front of the Imperial State Crown that Charles will wear as he leaves Westminster Abbey.

Charles sidestepped a similar controversy when Buckingham Palace announced that his wife, Camilla, wouldn’t wear the crown of Queen Elizabeth, the queen mother, on coronation day.

That crown contains the famous Koh-i-noor diamond that India, Pakistan and Iran all claim. The gem became part of the Crown Jewels after 11-year-old Maharaja Duleep Singh was forced to surrender it after the conquest of the Punjab in 1849.

St. Edward’s Crown

The crowning moment of the coronation ceremony will occur, literally, when the Archbishop of Canterbury places St. Edward’s Crown on Charles’ head.

Because of its significance as the centerpiece of the coronation, this will be the only time during his reign that the monarch will wear the solid gold crown, which features a purple velvet cap, ermine band and criss-crossed arches topped by a cross.

After the ceremony, Charles will swap the 2.08-kilogram crown for the Imperial State Crown, which weighs about half as much, for the procession back to Buckingham Palace.

Queen Elizabeth II once said that even the lighter crown was tricky because it would fall off if she didn’t keep her head upright while reading the annual speech at the state opening of Parliament.

“There are some disadvantages to crowns, but otherwise they’re quite important things,” the late queen told Sky News in 2018, flashing a smile.

The current St. Edward’s Crown was made for the coronation of King Charles II in 1661 and has been used in every coronation since then. It is a replica of the original crown, which was created in the 11th century and melted down after the execution of Charles I in 1649.

The crown glitters with stones including tourmalines, white and yellow topazes, rubies, amethysts, sapphires, garnet, peridot, zircons, spinel and aquamarines.

Until the early 20th century, the crown was decorated with rented stones that were returned after the coronation, according to the Royal Collection Trust. It was permanently set with semi-precious stones ahead of the coronation of George V in 1911.

The Gold State Coach

King Charles III and Queen Camilla will travel back to Buckingham Palace from Westminster Abbey in the Gold State Coach, a 261-year-old relic that is renowned as much for its uncomfortable ride as its lavish decoration.

The coach was built in 1762 under the reign of King George III and it has been used in every coronation since 1831.

It is made of wood and plated with gold leaf, from the cherubs on the roof to the Greek sea gods over each wheel. About the only things that aren’t gilded are the side panels painted with Roman gods and goddesses and, of course, the interior, which is upholstered in satin and velvet.

But the coach is heavy — 4 tons — and old, meaning it only ever travels at walking speed.

And while it may look luxurious, the coach features a notoriously bumpy ride because it is slung from leather straps rather than modern metal springs.

The late queen wasn’t a fan.

“Horrible! It’s not meant for traveling in at all,” she said in 2018 in an interview with Sky News. “Not very comfortable.”

That’s one reason Charles and Camilla will ride to the coronation in the Diamond Jubilee State Coach, which is equipped with hydraulic shock absorbers, as well as heat and air conditioning. 
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The ceremony for King Charles’ coronation at Westminster Abbey in London on Saturday will involve historic regalia ranging from sceptres and maces to a ring and a spoon.

Here are details of some of the Crown Jewels that will be used during the ceremony:

St. Edward’s Crown

Charles will be crowned with the historic St. Edward’s Crown that has been used since the coronation of King Charles II in 1661 after the monarchy was restored following the 10-year republic of Oliver Cromwell. It was removed from the Tower Of London in December for modifications.

The crown, which weighs about 2.2 kilograms, is made up of a solid gold frame set with rubies, amethysts, sapphires, garnet, topazes and tourmalines and has a velvet cap with an ermine band.

It replaced an original crown believed to date back to the 11th century Anglo-Saxon king of England, Edward the Confessor.

Charles will also wear the 1-kilogram Imperial State Crown at the end of the service, the headwear regularly used by British monarchs for official occasions such as the State Opening of Parliament.

Made for the coronation of Charles’ grandfather George VI in 1937, it is set with 2,868 diamonds in silver mounts including the 105-carat Cullinan II, the second biggest stone cut from the Cullinan Diamond, which was given by the government of the Transvaal in South Africa to Edward VII on his birthday in 1907.

The crown also features the large “Black Prince’s Ruby”, along with 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds and 269 pearls, including some of which are said to have been bought as earrings by Tudor monarch Queen Elizabeth I.

Sovereign’s scepter with cross

The Cullinan 1 diamond, also known as the Star of Africa, which weighs in at 530 carats and is the world’s largest colorless cut diamond, was set in the bejeweled golden scepter which has been used in every coronation since 1661.

The scepter, which has undergone a number of alterations over the centuries, represents the sovereign’s temporal power and is associated with good governance.

Sovereign’s scepter with dove

This is the second scepter used in the ceremony, representing the sovereign’s spiritual role. It also dates from 1661. It is made from a gold rod in three sections, mounted with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires and spinels. At the top is an enameled dove with outspread wings, which represents the Holy Ghost.

The Sovereign’s Orb

The Sovereign’s Orb, another item commissioned for Charles II’s coronation, is a globe of gold with a cross mounted on top, surrounded by a band of diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires and pearls with a large amethyst at the summit. It is a representation of Christian sovereignty.

Coronation ring

The coronation ring, known as “The Wedding Ring of England” and composed of a sapphire with a ruby cross set in diamonds, was made for the coronation of King William IV in 1831. Worn at every coronation since then, it symbolizes kingly dignity.

Swords and maces

A number of swords will feature in the coronation procession.

These include the Sword of State, which symbolizes royal authority and was made in about 1678, and was used at Charles’ investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969. Also to feature will be the Sword of Temporal Justice, the Sword of Spiritual Justice and the Sword of Mercy, which were first used in the coronation of Charles I in 1626.

The bejeweled Sword of Offering, made for the coronation of George IV in 1821, will be presented to Charles, with the message it is a symbol not of might or violence but for the protection of good.

Two maces, made of silver gilt over oak and date from between 1660 and 1695, will also feature. These are the ceremonial emblems of authority which are carried before the sovereign at events such as the State Opening of Parliament.

Ampulla

The golden ampulla, which dates from 1661, is a flask in the shape of an eagle that holds the holy oil, which was consecrated in Jerusalem in March and will be used to anoint the king.

Coronation spoon

The silver-gilt spoon is the oldest piece in the regalia, probably made for Henry II or Richard I in the 12th century. It was used to anoint King James 1 in 1603 and has featured at every coronation since.

Bracelets

Two armills, golden bracelets representing sincerity and wisdom, are placed on the sovereign’s wrists. They are thought to relate to ancient symbols of knighthood and military leadership.

They date back to 1661 and have been used at every coronation from King Charles II’s until King George VI’s in 1937, with new armills specially prepared for Queen Elizabeth in 1953.
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