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  • Rory McIlroy has another Masters and little else the rest of the majors


    SOUTHPORT, England (AP) — Rory McIlroy has been down this road before — the thrill of being the Masters champion and not much else to celebrate the rest of the year.

    McIlroy was never part of the conversation at British Open — except for his critical comments of how Bryson DeChambeau handled a rules violation — and one last bogey gave him a 71 on Sunday to finish in a tie for 40th at Royal Birkdale.

    A year ago, when he won the Masters to complete his life goal of the career Grand Slam, he struggled to find the next mountain and never contended. This year, he had a chance Sunday afternoon at the PGA Championship but otherwise was middle of the pack.

    “This season feels very similar to last season,” McIlroy said. “Obviously won the first major of the year, fell off a little bit after that. But still, any time you win a major in a year, you have to be pleased about that.”

    McIlroy, who took three weeks off the Masters, said he hasn’t taken time to celebrate winning his second green jacket. His daughter has a month before school starts and he plans to enjoy the rest of the summer holiday before returning to the PGA Tour postseason.

    McIlroy has set a few targets, adding majors to the six he already has won with an eye on the most historic venues. Next year, the U.S. Open is at Pebble Beach and the British Open is at St. Andrews.

    “Can’t wait,” he said.

    In the meantime, he has his eyes on two tour titles — the FedEx Cup and the Race to Dubai. He only has to reach the Tour Championship in Atlanta for a shot at a fourth FedEx Cup title. In Europe, Patrick Reed is leading the Race to Dubai.

    “Try to play hard until the end of the season, and then try to win one or both of those,” he said.

    Conduct warning for MacIntyre

    Robert MacIntyre and Jon Rahm had something in common at this British Open. Both were issued a conduct warning for slamming clubs, and both said the policy won’t change who they are.

    MacIntyre, who closed with a 71, slammed his driver into the turf after a poor tee shot on the 16th. Rahm got his warning Friday for flinging his club after a bad tee shot on the 15th.

    “I expect to get a few of them in my career. Yeah, I run hot. So be it,” MacIntyre said most unapologetically. “I try and toe the line, but when you feel you’re playing a golf course that you can hit it pretty much anywhere and there’s no real punishment and then you do hit one slightly off line and you get the biggest punishment you can possibly get, it’s just a sore one.

    “Again, I’m going to react aggressively at times — part of my DNA.”

    MacIntyre was spoken to at the Masters for swearing, and for extending his middle finger toward the water on the par-5 15th in the first round, leading to a quadruple bogey.

    Rahm said after his warning: “I’m definitely more intense and passionate than a lot of the players out here, especially at work. … If I try to alter who I am too much, it might cost me a little bit on the course. But certainly shouldn’t have moments like the one on 15. I get it.”

    Lucas Herbert falls short in his Masters bid

    Lucas Herbert had the 36-hole lead at the British Open, and he was still in range of a victory Sunday when he birdied the 10th hole to reach 8-under-par, two shots behind.

    That was his last birdie. He closed with another 71 to tie for sixth.

    Most critical, though, was his bogey on the par-5 17th hole. His drive went so far to the left that he hit a provisional ball in case his wasn’t found. He gouged it out to the right rough, went into a greenside bunker and failed to get up-and-down.

    A par-par finish would have put him in a tie for fourth, and the top four at the British Open earn a spot in the Masters. Herbert has played the Masters only in 2022, getting in from his lone PGA Tour victory the previous fall at the Bermuda Championship. And then he went to LIV Golf.

    Not all was lost. His top 10 gets him into the British Open next year at St. Andrews.

    “The best Open to play,” said Herbert, who had 62 on Friday to tie the major record. “Yeah, I can’t be too upset. This is my best finish in a major. I genuinely contended. There’s a lot to take away from that. I’ve learned so much this week.”

    The downside?

    “It’s annoying that we’re 12 months away from the next major I’m going to play,” he said.

    Jon Rahm was mad and he took it out on his glove

    Rahm began the final round of the British Open six shots out of the lead and needed a good start to stand any chance of winning. So imagine Rahm’s dismay when his drive at the first hole flew way right and out of bounds.

    After reloading and hitting another tee shot, the Spaniard — clearly unhappy — reacted by removing his glove and pulling it so hard that it tore in two as he walked down the fairway.

    He made double-bogey 6 for the second straight day at No. 1 and wound up shooting 74 to finish on level par and tied for 46th.

    Divots

    Call this the “Shootout at the OK (State) Corral.” Rickie Fowler played with Eugenio Chacarra, both alumni of Oklahoma State and both wearing bright orange shirts. Fowler shot 66 and Chacarra had a 69 in his British Open debut. … Among those who booked their tee times at St. Andrews next year from finishing in the top 10 were Casey Jarvis of South Africa and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen of Denmark. … Tommy Fleetwood was the only player to break par all four rounds.

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    AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf


  • Not Greek to them. Scholars question Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’


    NEW YORK (AP) — For Greek translator Emily Wilson, the release of director Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” has been gratifying in various ways. Her acclaimed 2017 edition of Homer’s epic has reached the top 5 on Amazon.com, leading a wave of similar books boosted by the movie. Nolan has even cited her translation, notably the opening line “Tell me about a complicated man,” as inspiration.

    But the film itself, which brought in more than $260 million worldwide during its opening weekend and has received raves from many critics, left her unsatisfied.

    “I want to celebrate the fact that so many more people are aware of ‘The Odyssey’ and were brought back to the poem,” she told The Associated Press. “But at the same time, I had the sense that Christopher Nolan was trying to pack everything in while missing themes that were essential to the poem.”

    One of the year’s most anticipated releases, “The Odyssey” stars Matt Damon as the returning warrior Odysseus, Anne Hathaway as his wife, Penelope, and Tom Holland as their son, Telemachus. Reviewers have praised the acting and the narrative drive, the grand scale of a movie shot entirely on IMAX film and how it weds the sensibilities of ancient Greece and the modern world, at least as Nolan perceives it.

    The divide between scholars and critics seems in part a matter of whether the balance should tilt toward Nolan or Homer. Wilson and fellow translator Daniel Mendelsohn both expressed admiration for Nolan’s cinematic flair and ambition, what Mendelsohn calls his “great visual panache.” Both speculated that his desire to make a “Christopher Nolan” movie led to unfortunate decisions.

    Mendelsohn is an author, critic and translator and his assessment appeared Friday in The New York Review of Books, where he is an editor-at-large.

    Mendelsohn had previously defended Nolan’s controversial decision to cast a Black actor, Lupita Nyong’o, as Helen of Troy, calling it a worthy way to “provoke, challenge and discomfit how we think about beauty and identity.” But he faulted the director for giving us an Odysseus with “no cleverness, no humor, no wily charm.” One of the Western canon’s formative tricksters has been transformed, he contended, into the kind of haunted protagonist featured in such previous Nolan movies as “Oppenheimer” and “Memento.”

    “This tormented, guilt-ridden Odysseus, stripped of humor and wit, seductiveness and cleverness, is a sibling of Memento’s anguished amnesiac, of Batman, of Oppenheimer, men tormented by pasts they wrestle with in different ways,” wrote Mendelsohn, whose “Odyssey” translation came out in 2025. “Nolan has merely remade Homer’s hero in his own image.”

    Author Gareth Hinds, whose graphic novel adaptation of “The Odyssey” has also received a sales bump from the movie, had a response similar to Mendelsohn’s about Nolan’s interpretation of Odysseus. The “wily trickster and smooth talker” is now an “everyman who appears to be honorable, except in select situations which then continue to haunt him.” For Hinds, Nolan’s film raises the question of how much you can change a story’s main character before the story itself is changed entirely.

    “That’s one of many interesting things Nolan has left us to ponder,” says Hinds, who credits the director for creating a “powerful film.”

    Wilson, a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, said she didn’t want to come across as a “snobby,” nitpicking expert at odds with any deviation from the original text. But she questioned a range of omissions and other choices, from the absence on screen of the Gods Zeus and Poseidon (Athena is played by Zendaya ) to the “incoherent” messaging that condemns both war and physical cowardice. She found Penelope’s role so thinned out that it endangered “any possibility of believing in this marriage.” Wilson also that thought parts of the movie, notably the scenes with Odysseus’ dog, Argos, “catered towards modern sentimentality.”

    “Everybody’s a sucker for a dog,” she said.

    A spokesperson for Nolan did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Wilson declined to offer a grade or ranking for the movie, but said she would recommend it for others, as long as they see it in a theater.

    “It was fun to be there with my kids. I didn’t feel it was pulling teeth to engage with it,” she said. “If you can see it on a big screen you should absolutely go.”


  • Ryan Fox wins the British Open with a birdie on the final hole


    SOUTHPORT, England (AP) — The hard work for Ryan Fox was just getting to the 18th hole in the British Open with a share of the lead. Still to come was the toughest hole at Royal Birkdale, which had yielded only four birdies to the 76 players who had already come through Sunday.

    For a 39-year-old from New Zealand, the son of an All Blacks rugby star who once only dreamed of having a card on any tour, this was no time to back down.

    “I did say to my caddie Dean (Smith) that we were going to take it on, that I was going to try to win the tournament, and I’d live with the consequences if I stuffed it up,” Fox said.

    It turned out to be the stuff of major champions.

    The drive was powerful and pure. The 9-iron from 175 yards looked good in the air and even better on the ground when it settled 12 feet below the hole. The birdie putt was the biggest of his life.

    Fox closed with four birdies over his last six holes — and one bogey that felt equally important — for a 2-under 68 and a one-shot victory over hard-luck Cameron Young for his first major title.

    This was pure theater to cap off a week of so much drama — three record-tying rounds of 62, Bryson DeChambeau’s animated protest over a two-shot penalty, Tommy Fleetwood thrilling and teasing his hometown crowd to massive ovations on every hole.

    Four players had a share of the lead at some point in the final round. Young was atop the leaderboard for two hours without hitting a shot anywhere but the range because he finished his astonishing 6-under 64 as the last few groups were on the front nine.

    Young was on the range when he heard the massive roar and knew it was over. He bowed his head, lifted his driver and tapped the ground before packing up when Fox made his final birdie.

    “Everyone practices on the green — you’ve got a putt to win a major championship, to win The Open. It’s not like that in real life. It’s not a very comfortable feeling,” Fox said. “It’s certainly very enjoyable when you see it go in.”

    He thrust those powerful arms into the air and was on the phone with his family moments later and was heard telling them, “You asked me to bring a trophy home, and I am, aren’t I?”

    His name will go on the base of that shiny claret jug along with another Kiwi, Bob Charles, who won the British Open in 1963. Michael Campbell is the other New Zealand man to win a major at Pinehurst No. 2 in the 2005 U.S. Open.

    Fox’s sterling moment brought more disappointment for Young. The American also finished one shot behind in the British Open at St. Andrews four years ago, and he had a Sunday lead on the front nine at the Masters until Rory McIlroy overtook him.

    “I gave it everything I had all the way through,” Young said when he finished. He declined interviews when Fox ended the 154th Open.

    Sam Burns, the 54-hole leader who was never planning to be at the Open until his wife gave birth to their daughter earlier than expected, lost a two-shot lead and didn’t make birdie over the last 12 holes to finish two shots behind.

    “I just couldn’t find them today. Just didn’t have my best stuff,” Burns said. “Given the circumstances, I’m very pleased with the week. I’m looking forward to being home.”

    Defending champion Scottie Scheffler somehow managed to stick around until the end, getting two bad bounces that cost him momentum, then getting one big break for a most improbable birdie. He closed with a 67 and shared fourth with Fleetwood, who fell back early but delivered a birdie-birdie finish for a 68.

    Missing from all drama, remarkably, was DeChambeau. He lost a golf ball and made triple bogey on the 11th hole and didn’t make a birdie until he was well out of contention. That two-shot penalty he received Friday for improving the path of his swing wasn’t an issue at the end. DeChambeau shot a 72 and tied for 14th.

    Fox won for the 10th time worldwide, his biggest title before Sunday coming at the BMW PGA Championship in 2023. He is the oldest first-time major champion since Henrik Stenson was 40 at Royal Troon 10 years ago.

    Fox finished at 10-under 270, got his hands on the jug and heard those magic words when he was introduced as the “Champion Golfer of the Year.”

    “I’m not quite sure how I hit that putt on 18. Look, it is a dream come true,” Fox said. “Looking at that trophy now, it’s the first time I’ve seen it up close. So it’s pretty amazing.”

    Young was flawless until the final hole, his tee shot finding a pot bunker. He tried to open the face of a 6-iron but caught it thin and it smacked into the vetted wall and into the rough. He hit the next shot into a greenside bunker and nearly holed it for par. The bogey put him at 9-under 271.

    Burns was losing ground quickly on the front nine with three straight bogeys, none more damaging than a pitch to the reachable par-4 fifth hole that went over the back of the green.

    Si Woo Kim emerged as the leader going to the back nine until he made bogeys on the 11th and 12th holes, and he fell out of contention for good with a pair of late bogeys that added to a 40 on the back nine for 72.

    That left Young at the top of the leaderboard, waiting to see if anyone could match him.

    Fox’s hopes took a nasty turn on the par-3 15th when his tee shot caromed off the side of a bunker and settled next to the lip, leaving him no stance and no shot. He smartly played away from the back pin to the fairway, chipped from 45 yards away to 6 feet and made bogey.

    It was as big as any shot he hit until the last.

    “To get that up-and-down really kept the momentum going,” Fox said. “I felt a whole lot better walking off that green making bogey that way than probably even if I’d have made par.”

    Fox was a late bloomer, a European tour rookie at age 30 and a PGA Tour rookie when he was 37. His goal when he started was to have a tour card. Now he’s a major champion.

    “I said to my team last night at dinner, if you’d have given me my career up until yesterday when I turned pro, I’d have jumped at that,” Fox said, speaking with the claret jug at his side. “I don’t know what to think now.”

    ___

    AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf


  • Cuban artist and dissident exiled from country after 5 years in prison arrives in US


    MIAMI (AP) — A famous Cuban dissident artist and musician, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, arrived in Miami on Saturday after being released from a five-year prison sentence on the condition that he leave his country.

    Alcántara, 38, was greeted at the airport by a crowd that was cheering, singing and holding their phones high in the air to get a photo of him. They draped him in a Cuban flag, printed with the words “Patria y Vida” — “Homeland and Life” — the title of a song he shared a Grammy for that became an anthem for Cuba’s political opposition against repression.

    The United States granted him parole into the country earlier this week, according to a social media page maintained by his friends and supporters. They wrote that he accepted exile as the only way to escape persecution and continue his art and activism.

    Alcántara co-founded a group of Havana artists, writers and musicians called the San Isidro Movement — named for the neighborhood where Alcántara lived.

    He was arrested on July 11, 2021, during a public protest. In 2022, a court sentenced him to five years in prison for public disorder, contempt and disrespect toward national symbols.

    His arrest and incarceration had long been denounced by human rights organizations and the U.S. government. Groups including Amnesty International called him a political prisoner, an allegation the Cuban government rejected.

    Alcántara was held in a maximum-security prison, he said, and was expected to be released last week. But for days, advocates said they still could not contact him and did not know where he was.

    The organization Cubalex, which legally advises dissidents and reports human rights violations from outside of the country, filed a habeas corpus petition on his behalf Monday.

    Until he boarded a plane Saturday, his advocates were not sure of his location, or if he was truly free.

    His said his first stop on American soil would be at the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity to make an offering.

    Other political prisoners remained imprisoned, including his fellow artist Maykel “Osorbo” Castillo Pérez, his advocates said, and they hoped Alcántara’s release would prompt insistence that Pérez also be set free.

    Alcántara brought from Cuba a broken statue of the Virgin Mary, which he described as a symbol of hope and healing, a chance to put back together something from fragments.


  • Angel Reese accepts Toronto coach Sandy Brondello’s apology for inappropriate comment


    ATLANTA (AP) — Angel Reese has accepted Toronto Tempo coach Sandy Brondello’s apology for an inappropriate comment about the Atlanta Dream star.

    The WNBA suspended Brondello one game for being overheard calling Reese a “protected species” during the Dream’s 111-92 win over the Tempo on Friday.

    “First, I appreciate Sandy’s apology, but I also appreciate the love and support that I’ve had for the last 48 hours,” Reese said before the Dream played the Chicago Sky on Sunday. “It has been very overwhelming with a lot of love and also other things. But I am grateful that the league did take action.”

    Brondello’s comment about Reese was picked up by the broadcast after Toronto player Nyara Sabally went down with an injury and was called for a foul following contact with Reese.

    Brondello apologized on social media and Reese posted “ARE WE SURPRISED?!” after the game, tagging Brondello’s account, followed by a clown face emoji.

    Brondello, who is in her first season with the expansion Tempo, is Australian. The “protected species” phrase is used in Australian sports to express frustration for a lack of calls against a player. However, in the U.S., the phrase suggests that someone isn’t human and could be seen as derogatory toward Black people.

    “There is no place for discrimination or hate in this league from anyone – from fans to coaches to players,” Reese said on Sunday. “And I’m just grateful that we are able to move on from the situation and just play winning basketball. The WNBA is supposed to be positive and we are going in a great light right now, so I just want to continue that and move forward.”

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    AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball


  • Scottie Scheffler gets bad bounces and a big break. It adds to a close call at British Open


    SOUTHPORT, England (AP) — The image of Scottie Scheffler at Royal Birkdale might be the world’s No. 1 player missing one birdie chance after another to waste a great week from tee-to-green in the British Open.

    All he could think about Sunday when he finished were the bounces that didn’t go his way.

    Scheffler managed to stay in the game until the very end and capitalized on a huge break — which followed another unfortunate bounce — with a birdie on the par-5 17th hole. Needing birdie to have any chance of a playoff, he missed a putt from off the green, missed the par putt that followed and settled for a 3-under 67 to tie for fourth behind Ryan Fox.

    “I guess it just wasn’t my week,” said Scheffler, who had top 4-finishes in three of the four majors.

    Scheffler, who began the final round six shots out of the lead, quickly made up ground with three birdies in five holes — as many birdies as he had made in the previous two rounds combined. And when he holed a 15-foot birdie putt on the 12th, he was at 8 under and closing.

    And then he was chasing after a few frustrating bounces.

    His tee shot right of the fairway on the 13th headed for the wispy grass but wound up in a deep hole, leaving him no chance but to advance it about 5 feet. Scheffler did well to make an 8-foot putt to escape with bogey.

    Scheffler thought his drive was ideal on the par-5 14th until it bounced just enough to the left to catch a pot bunker, leaving him no shot at the green. A potential birdie turned into par.

    “That stuff hurts,” he said. “My ball on 13 goes into that hole. It wasn’t my best tee shot, but it was a time where I needed to be aggressive, and I saw some good stuff happening with guys that hit the ball over there the last few days, and it didn’t happen for me today. Just those little bounces.

    “My ball on 14 I think is in the fairway, I come up there, it’s in the pot bunker,” he said. “Little stuff like that over the course of the week tends to add up.”

    His frustration boiled over on the par-5 17th when his tee shot moving left-to-right looked as though it would kick into the fairway leaving him a shot at the green. But it bounced left and stayed in the rough in front of a steep mound.

    “WHY?” Scheffler screamed at himself. “Why does this happen?”

    Welcome to links golf, which he conquered a year ago at Royal Portrush.

    Remarkably, the bad bounce led to birdie. He tried to go over the mound and the ball went so far to the left that he figured it was never to be found, He hit a provisional for a lost ball, and that wasn’t much better, And then luck seemed to finally show up.

    The entire area near a massive hospitality structure was deemed a temporary immovable obstruction. Spectators said they saw the ball disappear into gorse and rough. A security guard and NBC reporter John Wood began searching.

    But once a golf ball has been identified going into the TIO, it does not have to be found.

    “We tried to figure it out. I said: ‘If I find it, does that help me? Can I drop it since that would be about 50 yards closer to the hole?’” Scheffler said about his conversation with the rules official. “He said, ‘Yes, you can then use that spot, but you might have to go to the other side of the TIO.’ I didn’t know exactly where that would be, and that’s not a great angle coming across there. So I decided to drop the search.”

    Scheffler received a free drop 94 yards away on a baked, dusty lie. He hit wedge to 10 feet and made birdie.

    The hope didn’t last long, and he walked off the 18th green knowing he would not get his hands on the claret jug he won last year, and it would be eight-plus months before the next major.

    “I felt like this was a week I played a lot better than my score,” Scheffler said. “Thirteen and 14 really hurt, not being able to advance the ball. I feel good that I could compete when things weren’t going my way.”

    Padraig Harrington remains the last player to win back-to-back in the British Open, in 2007 and 2008. It’s the longest such stretch in the majors. And now it falls to Fox near year at St. Andrews.

    ___

    AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf


  • Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ storms the box office with a $264.1 million global debut


    NEW YORK (AP) — Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” launched with an estimated $124.5 million in domestic ticket sales and another $139.6 million from overseas, notching an even better debut than “Oppenheimer” and marking the filmmaker’s best opening since 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises.”

    Nolan flexed his singular box-office might with a global debut unlike any other. Few filmmakers alive could pull off a starry, big-budget adaptation of Homer’s epic poem. But in a Hollywood where intellectual property rights rule most hits, Nolan turned one of the world’s oldest works of literature into an unlikely summer blockbuster.

    The Universal production was no small gamble on Nolan, coming off the 2023 best picture-winning “Oppenheimer.” With a production budget of $250 million, it’s among the most expensive R-rated movies ever made. Universal is spending some $125 million to market it.

    But no behind-the-camera name turns out audiences more than Nolan’s. So great was the hype on “The Odyssey” that IMAX put tickets on sale for some 70 mm showtimes a full year in advance. To satisfy the extraordinary demand for Nolan’s preferred format, IMAX 70 mm, some theaters added midnight and 3 a.m. screenings — and sold them out.

    “It’s incredibly rewarding to see the palpable excitement in theaters this weekend,” said Jim Orr, head of domestic distribution for Universal. “Nolan has crafted an epic adventure. It’s on a scale that audiences have responded to extraordinarily well.”

    IMAX drives ticket sales

    Billed as Nolan’s first feature shot entirely with IMAX cameras, the format drove a huge slice of ticket sales. That included $29.6 million domestically on IMAX and $51.8 million globally, leading to the company’s best weekend ever. IMAX is dedicating its screens entirely to “The Odyssey” for three weeks. Though only 41 IMAX screens can screen “The Odyssey” in 70 mm, they accounted for $6.3 million in ticket sales.

    “The IMAX of it all helped turn it from not only a blockbuster, but a global cultural event,” said Rich Gelfond, chief executive of IMAX. “We have tickets on sale for week five in some theaters and some of them have already sold out.”

    Since the pandemic, Nolan has been at the forefront of reviving cinemas. His “Tenet” was one of the first big releases to wade back into theaters in 2020. Three years later, “Oppenheimer” and Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” combined to create arguably the movies’ signature moment of the decade. “Oppenheimer” ultimately grossed $975 million worldwide.

    “The Odyssey” arrived in theaters during Hollywood’s best summer since 2019. Ticket sales are running 10.4% ahead of last year, according to Rentrak. The industry is expecting the first $10 billion year at the domestic box office since the pandemic.

    Universal sees ‘The Odyssey’ playing into the fall

    The only question for “The Odyssey” will be how front-loaded it is, given that many moviegoers have had this weekend circled for months. The film faced no new-release competition over the weekend, and it won’t next weekend, either.

    Gelfond said that presales for the movie’s second weekend would rank among their 10 best presales, proof that many moviegoers are waiting to see the film in their preferred format. IMAX 70mm screenings, he said, are largely sold out for the next month, except for some front row seats.

    “Christopher Nolan and Tom Cruise may be the two most high-profile ambassadors for the big-screen experience,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends for Rentrak. “Nolan is a director who’s a star as much as any movie star in front of the camera.”

    The audience for “The Odyssey” was notably male, accounting for 59% of tickets sold. But Orr said moviegoers were otherwise “ridiculously broad,” playing across demographics and geography.

    “It’s delivering for a 17-year-old dude and it’s delivering for a female that’s 55 and up,” said Orr. “It points to what I’m convinced will be a very long, very successful run throughout not only the rest of the summer but into the fall, too.”

    The next movie to pose any competition, ironically, also stars Tom Holland and Zendaya: Sony’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” on July 31.

    Casting controversy has no apparent effect

    “The Odyssey” stars Matt Damon as Odysseus and features Holland as his son, Telemachus; Anne Hathaway as Penelope; Zendaya as Athena; Robert Pattinson as the suitor Antinous and Charlize Theron as the sea nymph Calypso.

    Nolan’s casting of “The Odyssey,” including Lupita Nyong’o as Helen and Elliot Page as a soldier, was controversial to some conservative commentators. Elon Musk called Nolan a “coward” over Nyong’o’s casting.

    But that criticism had little to no effect on “The Odyssey” becoming one of the big-screen cultural events of the year. Reviews (95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) are among the best of Nolan’s career. Audiences gave it an “A” CinemaScore.

    PG-rated films followed in the wake of “The Odyssey.” The Walt Disney Co.’s “Moana” landed in a distant second place with $19 million in its third weekend. Following its disappointing $43 million launch, the live-action remake slid 56% on its second weekend. In two weeks it collected $178 million worldwide, a poor result for a film that cost $250 million to make.

    “Moana” was trailed by Universal’s “Minions & Monsters” and Disney’s “Toy Story 5,” both of which grossed about $15 million.

    Top 10 movies by domestic box office

    With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak:

    1. “The Odyssey,” $124.5 million.

    2. “Moana,” $19 million.

    3. “Minions & Monsters,” $14.8 million.

    4. “Toy Story 5,” $14.8 million.

    5. “Evil Dead Burn,” $5 million.

    6. “The Invite,” $3.9 million.

    7. “Young Washington,” $3.7 million.

    8. “Obsession,” $2.5 million.

    9. “Supergirl,” $1.5 million.

    10. “Disclosure Day,” $1.5 million.


  • Second death reported in Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in New York City


    NEW YORK (AP) — A second person has died in connection with an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in New York, the New York City Health Department announced Saturday.

    The outbreak on Manhattan’s Upper East Side has infected 72 people, according to health officials. Two people have died. The first death was announced Friday, and the second was announced Saturday.

    “We are heartbroken to learn that another New Yorker has lost their life to Legionnaires’ disease on the Upper East Side. Our deepest condolences are with their loved ones as they grieve,” New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Alister F. Martin said in a statement.

    Legionnaires’ disease is a form of severe pneumonia caused by a type of bacteria that thrives in warm, stagnant water. Health officials have focused on testing cooling towers that are part of air conditioning systems for large buildings. Property owners have been ordered to drain and disinfect towers where there has been a positive test result.

    Health officials did not pinpoint a source for the current outbreak but said there has been a sustained decline in new cases. They said that indicates the source of exposure to Legionella bacteria has likely been eliminated.

    Legionnaires’ disease is treatable but 10% of people will die due to complications from the illness, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Last year, seven people died and more than 100 were sickened during an outbreak in New York’s Harlem neighborhood.


  • Takeaways from the AP-NORC poll of more than 1,000 Jewish Americans


    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Associated Press surveyed more than 1,000 Jewish adults in the U.S. to better understand their views on Israel’s military actions in Gaza, their opinions of the political parties and their experiences with prejudice in the United States.

    The survey of 1,022 Jewish adults — including people who identify as Jewish by religion and religiously unaffiliated people who identify as Jewish through culture, ethnicity or family background — offers a rare detailed accounting of a key demographic that sits at the very center of some of the nation’s most divisive political debates.

    Here are five takeaways from the AP-NORC survey:

    Jewish adults have complicated views about Israel and the war in Gaza

    Among Jews with a religious affiliation, views on Israel’s recent military actions are far from uniform or uncritical.

    About 7 in 10 Jewish adults overall identify as Jewish when asked about their religious affiliation. The rest, about 3 in 10 Jewish adults, say they are atheists, agnostics, or have no particular religious affiliation, but still identify as Jewish in other ways.

    While about 8 in 10 of those with a religious affiliation say Israel’s immediate military response to Hamas’ attack on October 7 was “justified,” only about half say Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza are justified. Among Jewish adults without a religious affiliation, only about half saw Israel’s immediate response as justifiable. Now, only about 2 in 10 say the ongoing military operations are acceptable.

    About one-quarter of Jewish adults with a religious association believe Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, an accusation that’s been leveled by some major human rights organizations and a team of independent experts commissioned by the United Nations. That accusation has been vehemently denied by Israel and the U.S. government. Roughly 4 in 10 Jewish adults without a religious affiliation say Israel has committed genocide.

    Many Jewish adults feel unsafe in the United States

    About 6 in 10 Jewish adults say prejudice against Jewish people is an “extremely” or “very” serious problem in the United States today.

    About one-third of Jewish adults in the survey say they feel “very” or “somewhat” safe as a Jewish person in the U.S. today, while about one-third feel “very” or “somewhat” unsafe. The remaining roughly 3 in 10 say they feel neither safe nor unsafe.

    A significant share of Jewish adults, about 3 in 10, say they or someone in their household has experienced physical assault, verbal abuse, online harassment or damaged property because of their Jewish background over the last year, according to the survey.

    The survey points to how Jewish adults’ attitudes toward their own personal safety have changed over a relatively short period as more Americans became critical of the United States’ close alliance with Israel and the war in Gaza. The poll found that Jewish adults who feel a close emotional tie to Israel are particularly likely to feel unsafe in the country today.

    Most American Jews don’t feel politicians are supporting Jewish people

    Few Jewish adults believe that President Donald Trump — or the Democratic or Republican parties — are doing a good job supporting Jewish people in the U.S.

    Only about 2 in 10 Jewish adults say Trump supports Jewish people in this country “extremely” or “very” well. That’s similar to the slight share who find the Republican Party and the Democratic Party highly supportive, but Jewish adults are more likely to say the Democratic Party is at least “somewhat” supportive.

    Americans overall are more likely than Jewish adults to see Trump as “extremely” or “very” supportive of Jewish people in the United States. About 3 in 10 U.S. adults say Trump is highly supportive of Jewish people, compared to about 2 in 10 Jewish adults.

    The poll also found most Jewish adults have negative views of Trump. About 7 in 10 Jewish adults have a “very” or “somewhat” unfavorable opinion of Trump, compared to about 3 in 10 who have a favorable view.

    Jewish adults are divided over whether protesting Israel is a form of antisemitism

    Protests around events conducted in support of Israel became more common following the backlash over Israel’s military action in Gaza.

    The war in Gaza began with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed roughly 1,200 people, most of them civilians. Israel responded with a yearslong counterattack that killed more than 73,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is part of the territory’s Hamas-run government. Its casualty figures are viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and international organizations but don’t distinguish between civilians and militants.

    The poll found that about half of Jewish adults say protesting an event that is supportive of Israel is not a form of antisemitism, but roughly 4 in 10 say it is. About 1 in 10 are uncertain.

    Jewish adults are more unified in deeming some actions as definitively antisemitic. The overwhelming majority say vandalizing synagogues or Jewish-owned businesses because of Israel’s actions is antisemitism. The same goes for denying the reality or scope of the Holocaust, putting responsibility for Israel’s actions on Jewish people in the United States or saying Israel shouldn’t exist as a Jewish state.

    Support for Israel is less of a priority for younger Jewish adults

    Support for Israel is a key component of the religious identity of many older Jewish adults in the United States, but younger Jewish adults appear less likely to prioritize it.

    About half of older religious Jewish adults — those 45 and older — say that supporting Israel is “extremely” or “very” important for their Jewish identity. By contrast, only about 4 in 10 younger religious Jewish adults emphasize support for Israel.

    Younger Jewish adults are more likely to prioritize other forms of connection, like celebrating Jewish holidays. About 7 in 10 Jewish adults under 45 say celebrating Jewish holidays is at least “very” important to their Jewish identity, compared to about half of older Jewish adults.


  • Justice Department activates untested court for “alien terrorist” deportations


    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has filed a first-ever petition to a secretive and dormant court created 30 years ago to consider government requests to deport so-called “alien terrorists” from the United States.

    The Alien Terrorist Removal Court was established in 1996 but had never received a petition until this past Wednesday, when the Justice Department filed an application seeking the removal of an individual whose name is withheld from the single-page document posted on the court’s website.

    The chief judge of the five-member court, Joan Ericksen, said in a written response to the petition that a hearing was held on Thursday during which the court had “questions about the nexus that the government alleges between the actions of the respondent and the specific sections and subsections it invokes with respect to those actions.

    “The answers persuaded the Court that the Government could benefit from the opportunity for more thoughtful consideration,” wrote Ericksen, a federal judge in Minnesota.

    She directed the Justice Department to provide more information by Wednesday.

    The court’s authorities emerged from the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which permits the attorney general to file under seal applications for the deportation of a suspected “alien terrorist.” If an application is granted, the court must hold a public hearing at which the government has the burden to prove that the individual satisfies that definition. Applications must be approved by the attorney general or deputy attorney general.

    Federal law says that an individual could quality as an “alien terrorist” by, among other factors, having “engaged in a terrorist activity,” endorsing or espousing terrorist activities and by belonging to a political or social group that encourages terrorist activity.

    The court has been dormant since its creation, having received — until last week — no applications and conducting no hearings, according to a summary posted on the Federal Judicial Center website. It is comprised of five judges selected by Chief Justice John Roberts.

    The Trump administration has moved aggressively over the last year to carry out deportations, including invoking a 1798 wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to remove Venezuelan migrants who officials accuse of being part of a terrorist gang. During a hearing in that case last year, the Washington judge presiding over it, James Boasberg, indicated that the Alien Terrorist Removal Court would be the natural forum to consider a request for deportation on national security grounds.

    “In fact, Congress has an answer for us, doesn’t it? Because they created the Alien Terrorist Removal Court,” he said. “So if there’s a national security concern with having these hearings…you can always go to the ATRC, which would be a first, but that’s what it’s there for, right?”

    The petition was first reported by Court Watch, an independent news site.