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Fifth Medal Added to Saudi Billiards National Team in Arab Championship

Saudi flag - Reuters
Saudi flag - Reuters
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Fifth Medal Added to Saudi Billiards National Team in Arab Championship

Saudi flag - Reuters
Saudi flag - Reuters

Saudi billiards player Ahmed Al Jabbar won the bronze medal in the 9-ball singles competition in the Arab Billiards and Snooker Championship, currently being hosted in Riyadh, while the Lebanese player Mazen Berjawi won the gold medal, and the silver medal went to the Iraqi player Habib Mustafa.

By winning this medal, the balance of the Saudi billiards national team becomes five medals on the sixth day of the tournament, state news agency SPA reported.

In the junior 9-ball singles billiards competition category, eight players from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iraq, and Lebanon qualified for the quarter-finals.

In the women's billiards competition, four women qualified for the semi-finals of 9-ball singles from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, and Kuwait.

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World

Ukraine Sees ‘Big Risk’ of Losing War If US Congress Postpones Vital Aid

Ukrainian servicemen take part in anti-sabotage drills, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Chernihiv region, Ukraine December 5, 2023. (Reuters)
Ukrainian servicemen take part in anti-sabotage drills, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Chernihiv region, Ukraine December 5, 2023. (Reuters)
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Ukraine Sees ‘Big Risk’ of Losing War If US Congress Postpones Vital Aid

Ukrainian servicemen take part in anti-sabotage drills, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Chernihiv region, Ukraine December 5, 2023. (Reuters)
Ukrainian servicemen take part in anti-sabotage drills, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Chernihiv region, Ukraine December 5, 2023. (Reuters)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff said on Tuesday that the postponement of US assistance for Kyiv being debated in Congress would create a "big risk" of Ukraine losing the war with Russia.

The remarks by Andriy Yermak were some of the frankest yet from a senior Kyiv official as uncertainty swirls over the future of vital US and European Union assistance packages as Ukraine's war with Russia rages on with no end in sight.

"If the help which (is) now debating in Congress will be just postponed...it gives the big risk that we can be in the same position to which we're located now," he said, addressing the audience in English.

"And of course, it makes this very high possibility impossible to continually liberate and give the big risk to lose this war."

White House officials said on Monday that the United States was running out of time and money to help Ukraine fight its war against Russia.

US President Joe Biden's administration asked Congress in October for nearly $106 billion to fund ambitious plans for Ukraine, Israel and US border security but Republicans who control the House with a slim majority rejected the package.

US officials hope they can still get a significant package approved.

Yermak singled out the threat of no more direct budgetary support as problem.

"Of course, without this direct budget support, it will be difficult to keep ... in same positions and to be for the people to really survive...during the situation when the war will continue," he said.

"That is why it is extremely critically important that this support will be voted and will be voted as soon as possible."

Yermak made the remarks on his second visit to Washington in a matter of weeks. He said he planned to press lawmakers and administration officials on the critical importance that Congress approve the new aid package.

Arab World

Jordan’s King Abdullah Says World Should Condemn Any Attempt to Forcibly Expel Palestinians

Palestinians fleeing the Israeli ground offensive arrive in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023. (AP)
Palestinians fleeing the Israeli ground offensive arrive in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023. (AP)
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Jordan’s King Abdullah Says World Should Condemn Any Attempt to Forcibly Expel Palestinians

Palestinians fleeing the Israeli ground offensive arrive in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023. (AP)
Palestinians fleeing the Israeli ground offensive arrive in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023. (AP)

Jordan's King Abdullah said on Tuesday the world should condemn any attempt by Israel to create conditions that would forcibly displace Palestinians within the war-devastated Gaza Strip or outside its borders.

In remarks carried by state media after a meeting with the Cypriot president in Amman, the monarch again called for an immediate ceasefire and warned that Israel's relentless bombing campaign was leading to a "dangerous deterioration" in the situation.

Talks with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides focused on the need to increase efforts to deliver humanitarian aid and relief to the embattled civilians living in Gaza.

Abdullah has lobbied Western leaders to pile pressure on Israel to allow an uninterrupted flow of aid and open crossings it controls to bring in sufficient level of aid needed.

Israel now controls the volume and nature of aid entering to over 2.3 million inhabitants under siege, according to UN officials and humanitarian workers.

UNRWA officials say only a trickle of the aid the enclave needs is getting through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt which NGOs and officials say can only handle a fraction of the needs.

Israel started its campaign in retribution for an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas fighters who rampaged through Israeli towns, killing 1,200 people and seizing 240 hostages, according to Israel's tally.

Israeli bombardments have killed nearly 16,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health ministry figures, and driven 80% of the population from their homes.

King Abdullah told Christodoulides there would be dangerous consequences from any attempt to forcibly push Palestinians en masse from their land while it maintained security control, officials said.

Officials also fear wider violence in the West Bank, which Jordan borders, as settler attacks on Palestinian civilians, confiscation of land and Israeli military raids mount.

It could create circumstances that could encourage Israel to forcibly push tens of thousands of Palestinians across the Jordan River.

Officials say the forcible expulsion of Palestinians would amount to a declaration of war and prompt Jordan to suspend its peace treaty with Israel.

On Tuesday, Amman condemned Israel's move to build new settlements in Arab East Jerusalem, the part of the contested city that was seized along with the West Bank in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and the UN considers occupied territory.

"Israel's expansion of Jewish settlement building on land it occupied and the confiscation of territory are a flagrant violation of international law" and dimmed any prospects of peace, said Sufain Qudah, spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry.

Entertainment

In ‘Wonka,’ Timothée Chalamet Finds a World of Pure Imagination

French-US actor Timothée Chalamet poses on the red carpet upon arrival for the Premiere of the film "Wonka" at the UGC Normandie cinema in Paris, on December 1, 2023. (AFP)
French-US actor Timothée Chalamet poses on the red carpet upon arrival for the Premiere of the film "Wonka" at the UGC Normandie cinema in Paris, on December 1, 2023. (AFP)
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In ‘Wonka,’ Timothée Chalamet Finds a World of Pure Imagination

French-US actor Timothée Chalamet poses on the red carpet upon arrival for the Premiere of the film "Wonka" at the UGC Normandie cinema in Paris, on December 1, 2023. (AFP)
French-US actor Timothée Chalamet poses on the red carpet upon arrival for the Premiere of the film "Wonka" at the UGC Normandie cinema in Paris, on December 1, 2023. (AFP)

Hugh Grant learned some years ago that if a filmmaker doesn’t make something from the heart, it shows. The films that work best, and are most loved, he's found, are the ones that the directors really meant.

It applied to his romantic comedies with Richard Curtis as well as "Paddington 2." And he’s pretty sure it’s true of "Wonka." The lavish big screen musical about a young Willy Wonka — before Charlie, before the chocolate factory — is dancing into theaters this month with its heart on its velvet sleeve.

Like the "Paddington" movies, "Wonka" was dreamt up by Paul King, a lifetime Roald Dahl fan and a writer and director whom his collaborators somewhat universally agree may actually be Paddington in a human costume. With a beloved troupe of actors, including Grant, Timothée Chalamet, Olivia Colman, Sally Hawkins as well as newcomer Calah Lane, its vibrant costumes and sets and a contagious "let’s put on a show" energy, "Wonka" feels like a modern homage to classic MGM productions of the 1940s.

But King wasn’t so sure about "Wonka" at first. He worried that like so many other "brands," a young Willy Wonka movie was something devised in a boardroom with visions of "12,000 movies and a TV show."

Then he went back to the book, which he’d read so many times as a child that the pages fell out of the spine. This time he found not just a great character in Willy Wonka, an unapologetically flamboyant dreamer whom Dahl also seemed a bit obsessed with, but also a breakthrough about his work.

"I realized how informative Dahl had been to everything that I love about family movies. They’ve got these great heightened characters, but there’s a real beating heart to them," King said. "It was like, oh this is the mothership."

And, with his "Paddington 2" co-writer Simon Farnaby (of "stop that stunning sister" fame), he would spend years toiling over what they’re calling a companion piece to the Gene Wilder "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

Chalamet, the wildly popular Oscar-nominated actor of "Call Me By Your Name" and "Dune," wasn’t technically a song and dance man (though his digital footprint from his teen years contains some evidence to the contrary) when he signed on to play Wonka. But King was convinced that he was the perfect person to balance "sincere" and "ridiculous" thanks in part to his memorable (and "hella-tight") performance in Greta Gerwig’s "Lady Bird."

This was a little baffling to Chalamet, who only learned this at the premiere in London. But for him, "Wonka" was a chance to do something a bit different, on a grand scale. He also understands audiences being a little skeptical of any spin-off of a beloved character, but he takes comfort in something Gerwig said while they were making "Little Women."

He recalled her telling him "something like, 'For anybody that’s saying that a lot of versions of this have been made, you know, when it’s done well, no one complains’. I think Paul really did that here."

In addition to "Pure Imagination" and the Oompa Loompa song from the 1971 film, Neil Hannon, frontman of The Divine Comedy, wrote six original songs, while Christopher Gatelli ("Hail, Caesar!") oversaw the choreography.

Though Chalamet grew up surrounded by dancers (his sister, mother and grandmother included), and had done musicals at his performing arts high school, he didn’t fully appreciate the exhaustive rigor of it. He’d trained for "Wonka" for months, but he was still not fully prepared for how taxing "take 13" of a large-scale dance number would be.

"He’s very modest and I think that’s one of the nice things about him," said King, who has compared Chalamet’s singing voice to Bing Crosby.

The sets, overseen by production designer Nathan Crowley ("Interstellar") were also something grand to behold. King wanted the city to look like "the best of Europe." In total, they built more than 50 set across three soundstages, a backlot and an aircraft hanger around Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, in addition to several on-site locations in the UK to give the film its whimsical, but grounded feel. Lindy Hemming ("Paddington") designed the vibrant costumes.

Perhaps the most inspired twist of "Wonka" is Grant, an actor made world famous for his good looks and charm and romantic leads, who is playing an Oompa-Loompa.

King had already introduced Grant to a new generation of youngsters having him as the washed-up actor Phoenix Buchanan in "Paddington 2." When he was re-rereading "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" he found "Hugh’s voice" coming into his head for the devious little workers.

"They’re so biting and satirical and funny, but they’ve got a real kind of edge to them ... and they take an enormous delight in these children’s demise," King said. "I had this vision of Hugh Grant, you know, this high with orange skin and green hair. And once you have that picture come into your mind, you have to try and get it out there."

Grant is also a self-proclaimed miserable curmudgeon, which he’ll say with a straight face right before saying something completely contradictory. In his interviews, which often go viral, he’s witty and wry and reliably unreliable.

Yet when he talks about King, and "Wonka," and it all being from the heart, something melts away.

"One of the things that made those romantic comedies that I made with Richard Curtis work, apart from the fact that he’s very good at writing comedy was that he meant it. He really cared about love and he was always falling in love, falling out of love and being traumatized by it. But he meant it," Grant said.

"Paul King means all this. The message of Paddington and the message of this one, you know, family matters, the people you share your chocolate with. It’s not a trite, tacked on motto. It comes from his heart."

And it’s easy to believe that Grant, miserable though he may be, actually means it too.

Features

US Sales of Palestinian Keffiyehs Soar, Even as Wearers Targeted

Izzat Hirbawi shows different keffiyeh fabric colorss in a textile factory in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 24,2023. (Reuters)
Izzat Hirbawi shows different keffiyeh fabric colorss in a textile factory in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 24,2023. (Reuters)
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US Sales of Palestinian Keffiyehs Soar, Even as Wearers Targeted

Izzat Hirbawi shows different keffiyeh fabric colorss in a textile factory in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 24,2023. (Reuters)
Izzat Hirbawi shows different keffiyeh fabric colorss in a textile factory in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 24,2023. (Reuters)

A growing number of Americans are donning the keffiyeh, the distinctive patterned scarf that's closely linked with Palestinians, to demand a ceasefire to Israel's attacks on Gaza or to signal their support for Palestinians.

Sales of the scarves have jumped since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, US distributors say, even as keffiyehs have been forcibly removed by security forces at some protests and wearers report being targeted for verbal and physical abuse.

"It was like a light switch. All of a sudden, we had hundreds of people on the website simultaneously and buying whatever they could," said Azar Aghayev, the US distributor for Hirbawi, which opened in 1961 and is the only manufacturer of keffiyehs left in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

"In two days, the stock that we had was just gone, and not just gone, it was oversold."

Hirbawi, which has patented its brand, sells scarves internationally via its US and German websites and on Amazon. All 40 variations on the US website, which include many in bright colors as well as the traditional black and white, are sold out, Aghayev said.

Unit sales of keffiyeh scarves have risen 75% in the 56 days between Oct. 7 and Dec. 2 on Amazon.com compared with the previous 56 days, data from e-commerce analytics firm Jungle Scout showed. Searches for "Palestinian scarf for women" rose by 159% in the three months to Dec. 4 compared with the previous three months; searches for "military scarf shemagh,keffiyeh palestine" and "keffiyeh" rose 333%, 75%, and 68%, respectively.

The keffiyeh, with its fishing net pattern, is common throughout the Arab world, with roots dating as far back as 3100 BC. It first came to symbolize Palestinian resistance during the 1936 Arab Revolt against British rule and later became the signature head gear of Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat.

While Hirbawi is the best-known manufacturer, others include small artisans and global copycats; luxury goods maker Louis Vuitton sold a version in 2021.

US supporters of the Palestinians and Israel have faced threats and attacks since the Middle East conflict began, with Jewish Americans seeing an increase in antisemitism and Muslim Americans an uptick in Islamaphobia.

Hazami Barmada, 38, a former United Nations official who lives in Virginia, wore one recently as she protested outside the White House and in Washington's Georgetown neighborhood in support of a ceasefire in Gaza.

Donning the scarf felt like a "superpower," she said, reconnecting her with her Palestinian heritage and offering a symbolic link to children in Gaza. But she believes it also attracts verbal abuse. "I'm taking a calculated risk," said Barmada.

Security target, Vermont shooting

At New York City's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting in November, one attendee who wore a keffiyeh had it yanked off by a security officer - a moment captured in a Reuters photograph.

The security officer approached protesters at the front of the crowd who had a banner, a Palestinian flag, and one wearing a keffiyeh, and grabbed all three items, taking the keffiyeh from around the neck of the protester, photographer Eduardo Munnoz said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has documented several instances of people targeted for wearing a keffiyeh, from a father assaulted on a Brooklyn playground to a Harvard graduate student who was told she was wearing a "terrorist" scarf.

In the most serious incident, three college students of Palestinian descent - two wearing keffiyehs - were shot in Burlington, Vermont, while taking a walk last month. Hisham Awartani, 20, is paralyzed from the chest down. Authorities have charged a suspect with attempted murder in the shootings and are investigating whether it was a hate-motivated crime.

Tamara Tamimi, the mother of one of the students, Kinnan Abdalhamid, told CBS News last week that she believed they would not have been targeted if they had not been "dressed the way that they were and speaking Arabic."

Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a group at the center of US campus activism since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. has been encouraging students to “wear your keffiyeh” in solidarity with the students shot in Vermont in the week after the incident.

Still, in Houston, Texas, SJP member Anna Rajagopal said she and other members had not worn their keffiyeh outside spaces they considered friendly to Arabs and Muslims since October, after people waving Israeli flags surrounded a cafe they were in, screaming insults.

"Myself and a friend have been cognizant of taking off our keffiyehs after leaving Palestinian, Arab spaces to be safe," said Rajagopal, 23, a freelance writer who graduated from Rice University in May and is also a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, a group that advocates for Palestinian independence.

Demand is unabated, though, sellers say. "If we could stock 20,000 keffiyehs, we would have sold them," said Morgan Totah, founder of Handmade Palestine, a group based in the Palestinian city of Ramallah that sells local artisans' wares online.

World

At COP28 Summit, Activists and Officials Voice Concern over Gaza’s Environment, Devastated by War

Palestinians search for bodies and survivors among the rubble of a destroyed house following Israeli airstrikes on Deir Al Balah in the southern Gaza Strip, 05 December 2023. (EPA)
Palestinians search for bodies and survivors among the rubble of a destroyed house following Israeli airstrikes on Deir Al Balah in the southern Gaza Strip, 05 December 2023. (EPA)
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At COP28 Summit, Activists and Officials Voice Concern over Gaza’s Environment, Devastated by War

Palestinians search for bodies and survivors among the rubble of a destroyed house following Israeli airstrikes on Deir Al Balah in the southern Gaza Strip, 05 December 2023. (EPA)
Palestinians search for bodies and survivors among the rubble of a destroyed house following Israeli airstrikes on Deir Al Balah in the southern Gaza Strip, 05 December 2023. (EPA)

As leaders, officials and activists descend on Dubai for United Nations climate talks to discuss saving Earth, another environmental crisis is nearby, and it's raising concerns among summit participants.

Devastated by a nearly two-month-long assault by Israeli airstrikes and ground fighting, large swaths of Gaza have been flattened, agricultural lands have been destroyed, olive trees that have stood for generations are scorched and dwindling water resources are contaminated. Experts warn that white phosphorus — a chemical illegal under international law that a human rights group says is in used in Israeli operations — could also be detrimental to the environment, including the air and soil. Palestinians are worried that the land could take years to recover, and activists at the summit are tying the plight of Gazans to climate justice globally.

The Secretary-General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Jagan Chapagain warned during the summit that Gaza could "become an environmental catastrophe."

But with the destruction of much of Gaza's infrastructure and an exceptionally heavy human cost — over 15,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed there since October — it's impossible for the country to give climate and environment the attention it needs, said Hadeel Ikhmais, a climate change expert with the Palestinian Authority, at the summit's first-ever State of Palestine Pavilion.

"We have policies, we have indices, we have ... a lot of strategies and plans, well developed. But now we have to rethink all of what we’ve been working for the last ten years because what happened in Gaza destroyed everything," she said. "We have to build the city all over again."

She asked: "What kind of climate justice are we talking about while all the people in Palestine are endangered and their lives are lost?"

Gaza's water has long been scarce — but the war has made it even more acute. Israel cut off water pipelines and electricity, meaning desalination plants couldn't run, leading to a host of health and sanitation concerns for residents. Agriculture in Gaza, mainly olive trees and citrus fruits as well as other plants, has been decimated because of water shortages and the devastation of the land.

White phosphorus, that human rights groups say was used in densely populated areas, is illegal under international law when used on civilians. It can set buildings on fire and burn human flesh. It poses health risks for survivors and can get deep into soil and water.

War also raises climate concerns: Militaries worldwide are responsible for 5.5% of all greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Conflict and Environment Observatory and Scientists for Global Responsibility, and militaries are under no obligation to report or reduce their carbon footprint.

Climate activists, who largely support calls for a ceasefire and justice for Palestinians, have centered the issue in protests at the UN talks. They say that climate justice — the idea that saving Earth from hotter temperatures is linked to more just world for everyone, especially the most vulnerable — is inextricably linked with security and freedom for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation because both crises are fueled by colonization and capitalism.

"The Palestinian struggle is a struggle for self-determination and climate justice is a struggle for self-determination," said Katherine Robinson, a climate campaigner from South Africa. "There is no climate justice in occupied territories. There’s no climate justice during war and there’s no climate justice during apartheid."

Rania Harara, from the MENA feminist task force, agreed that climate justice goes hand in hand with Palestinian solidarity.

"We cannot sit here and talk about climate justice without talking about human rights," she said, to applause from the audience at an event on Saturday.

The war on Gaza is also affecting how much funding can be diverted to climate initiatives, said Mohamed Adow, the director of Power Shift Africa, a Nairobi-based climate and energy think-tank.

Adow says wars and conflict are using up much needed climate cash that could have otherwise been very useful to help protect vulnerable communities from climate disaster. He used the example of Ukraine, where he says trillions of dollars were sent at a time that the international community was struggling to mobilize a hundred billion for climate finance.

"Demilitarization across the world must be a key component of climate justice," Adow said.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry’s top diplomat for the Mideast, Oded Joseph, said Israel’s priority at the moment is fighting and protecting their civilians, with climate and environmental crises being dealt with "once we meet that objective".

The war began on Oct. 7 when an attack on Israel killed 1,200 people and was retaliated with a punishing weekslong air and later ground assault on the Gaza Strip with no end in sight. A nearly week-long temporary truce ended Friday.

But beyond the war, the wider occupation is still detrimental to efforts toward climate and environmental justice, activists say.

"Climate justice is inseparable from justice for Palestinians," said Dylan Hamilton, policy coordinator for the Alliance of Non-Governmental Radical Youth. "There can be no climate justice on occupied land."

Technology

Wikipedia, Wrapped. Here Are 2023’s Most-Viewed Articles on the Internet’s Encyclopedia

Text from the ChatGPT page of the OpenAI website is shown in this photo, in New York, Feb. 2, 2023. (AP)
Text from the ChatGPT page of the OpenAI website is shown in this photo, in New York, Feb. 2, 2023. (AP)
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Wikipedia, Wrapped. Here Are 2023’s Most-Viewed Articles on the Internet’s Encyclopedia

Text from the ChatGPT page of the OpenAI website is shown in this photo, in New York, Feb. 2, 2023. (AP)
Text from the ChatGPT page of the OpenAI website is shown in this photo, in New York, Feb. 2, 2023. (AP)

Remember what you searched for in 2023? Well, Wikipedia has the receipts.

English Wikipedia raked in more than 84 billion views this year, according to numbers released Tuesday by the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit behind the free, publicly edited online encyclopedia. And the most popular article was about ChatGPT (yes, the AI chatbot that’s seemingly everywhere today).

Since its launch just over a year ago, OpenAI's ChatGPT has skyrocketed into the public's consciousness as the technology makes its way into schools, health care, law and even religious sermons. The chatbot has also contributed to growing debates about the promise and potential dangers of generative AI, much of which is documented on its Wikipedia page.

The second most-read article on Wikipedia in 2023 was the annual list of deaths, which sees high traffic year after year — taking the #4 and #1 spots in 2022 and 2021, respectively. Individual entries for notable figures who passed away also garnered significant interest this year, including pages for Matthew Perry and Lisa Marie Presley.

Meanwhile, the highly anticipated 2023 Cricket World Cup took third place — alongside three other cricket-related entries in Wikipedia’s top 25 articles this year, including the Indian Premier League at #4, marking the first time cricket content has made the list since the Wikimedia Foundation started tracking in 2015.

“Barbenheimer," Taylor Swift and more also appeared to sway our 2023 internet-reading habits. Here are this year's top 25 articles on English Wikipedia.

1. ChatGPT: 49,490,406 pageviews

2. Deaths in 2023: 42,666,860 pageviews

3. 2023 Cricket World Cup: 38,171,653 pageviews

4. Indian Premier League: 32,012,810 pageviews

5. Oppenheimer (film): 28,348,248 pageviews

6. Cricket World Cup: 25,961,417 pageviews

7. J. Robert Oppenheimer: 25,672,469 pageviews

8. Jawan (film): 21,791,126 pageviews

9. 2023 Indian Premier League: 20,694,974 pageviews

10. Pathaan (film): 19,932,509 pageviews

11. The Last of Us (TV series): 19,791,789 pageviews

12. Taylor Swift, 19,418,385: pageviews

13. Barbie (film): 18,051,077 pageviews

14. Cristiano Ronaldo: 17,492,537 pageviews

15. Lionel Messi: 16,623,630 pageviews

16. Premier League: 16,604,669 pageviews

17. Matthew Perry: 16,454,666 pageviews

18. United States: 16,240,461 pageviews

19. Elon Musk: 14,370,395 pageviews

20. Avatar: The Way of Water: 14,303,116 pageviews

21. India: 13,850,178 pageviews

22. Lisa Marie Presley: 13,764,007 pageviews

23. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: 13,392,917 pageviews

24. Russian invasion of Ukraine: 12,798,866 pageviews

25. Andrew Tate: 12,728,616 pageviews

According to the Wikimedia Foundation, this top 25 list was created using English Wikipedia data as of Nov. 28. Numbers for the full year are set to be updated by the nonprofit on Jan. 3, 2024.

The top countries that accessed English Wikipedia overall to date in 2023 are the United States (33.2 billion) and the United Kingdom (9 billion) — followed by India (8.48 billion), Canada (3.95 billion) and Australia (2.56 billion), according to Wikimedia Foundation data shared with The Associated Press.

Entertainment

Tom Hanks Brings Love of Space to New Immersive London Show

Tom Hanks poses at "The Moonwalkers: A Journey With Tom Hanks" immersive show at the Lightroom venue in London, Britain in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters on December 5, 2023. (Justin Sutcliffe/Lightroom/Handout via Reuters)
Tom Hanks poses at "The Moonwalkers: A Journey With Tom Hanks" immersive show at the Lightroom venue in London, Britain in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters on December 5, 2023. (Justin Sutcliffe/Lightroom/Handout via Reuters)
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Tom Hanks Brings Love of Space to New Immersive London Show

Tom Hanks poses at "The Moonwalkers: A Journey With Tom Hanks" immersive show at the Lightroom venue in London, Britain in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters on December 5, 2023. (Justin Sutcliffe/Lightroom/Handout via Reuters)
Tom Hanks poses at "The Moonwalkers: A Journey With Tom Hanks" immersive show at the Lightroom venue in London, Britain in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters on December 5, 2023. (Justin Sutcliffe/Lightroom/Handout via Reuters)

Archive footage of space rockets taking off beam across giant walls in a new immersive show in London, as Hollywood actor Tom Hanks narrates the story of human voyages to the moon.

"The Moonwalkers: A Journey With Tom Hanks" looks at the first moon landings of the Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972 and their successor, NASA's human spaceflight program, Artemis.

The next mission - the Artemis II lunar flyby - is planned for next year and interviews with the four-member team are also projected on the walls at the Lightroom gallery space in London's King Cross area.

"This show is about the wonder of the moon and the amazing creatures that have made it possible for members of their race to walk upon it," Oscar-winner Hanks told Reuters in a joint interview with astronauts Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen, chosen to fly on what will be the first crewed voyage around the moon in more than 50 years.

"...Men and women are going to go back...very soon and isn't it wonderful that we have the curiosity and the drive in order to do something for which there is no rewarded riches, there's no territory that is going to be conquered," Hanks said. "The only thing that we are going to get is proof that...we can not only imagine the impossible, we can make the impossible possible.”

Joining pilot Glover, who will be the first Black astronaut to be sent on a lunar mission, and mission specialist Hansen are mission specialist Christina Koch and mission commander Reid Wiseman.

The Artemis program envisions building a long-term presence on the moon.

"We've been handed this amazing legacy and hopefully we can just contribute to it, but then hand that stick off to the next mission when it's time for them," Glover said.

Hanks played space commander Jim Lovell in the 1995 film "Apollo 13", about the troubled space mission which was forced to abort a planned moon landing after an oxygen-tank explosion.

Asked if he wanted to go to space himself, he said: “If they need somebody to go up and just keep the windows clean and serve the food and clean up afterwards, I'd be their man."

"There's something about the experience. I think you need time. I know people can go up and they can come down and that's a wonderful thing and that's great. But I think I need a little bit more time up there to ponder the infinite universe.”

"The Moonwalkers: A Journey With Tom Hanks" runs December 6 - April 21, 2024.

Varieties

Discovered in Lebanon, Oldest Mosquito Fossil Comes with a Bloodsucking Surprise

An undated handout image of a view from above of the body of a fossilized male mosquito trapped in amber found in central Lebanon dating to about 130 million years ago. (Dany Azar/Handout via Reuters)
An undated handout image of a view from above of the body of a fossilized male mosquito trapped in amber found in central Lebanon dating to about 130 million years ago. (Dany Azar/Handout via Reuters)
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Discovered in Lebanon, Oldest Mosquito Fossil Comes with a Bloodsucking Surprise

An undated handout image of a view from above of the body of a fossilized male mosquito trapped in amber found in central Lebanon dating to about 130 million years ago. (Dany Azar/Handout via Reuters)
An undated handout image of a view from above of the body of a fossilized male mosquito trapped in amber found in central Lebanon dating to about 130 million years ago. (Dany Azar/Handout via Reuters)

Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide are killed annually by malaria and other diseases spread through the bite of mosquitoes, insects that date back to the age of dinosaurs. All of these bites are inflicted by females, which possess specialized mouth anatomy that their male counterparts lack.

But it has not always been that way. Researchers said they have discovered the oldest-known fossils of mosquitoes - two males entombed in pieces of amber dating to 130 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period and found near the town of Hammana in Lebanon. To their surprise, the male mosquitoes possessed elongated piercing-sucking mouthparts seen now only in females.

"Clearly they were hematophagous," meaning blood-eaters, said paleontologist Dany Azar of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology and Lebanese University, lead author of the study published this week in the journal Current Biology. "So this discovery is a major one in the evolutionary history of mosquitoes."

The two fossilized mosquitoes, both representing the same extinct species, are similar in size and appearance to modern mosquitoes, though the mouthparts used for obtaining blood are shorter than in today's female mosquitoes.

"Mosquitoes are the most notorious blood-feeders on humans and most terrestrial vertebrates, and they transmit a certain number of parasites and diseases to their hosts," Azar said.

"Only fertilized female mosquitoes will suck blood, because they need proteins to make their eggs develop. Males and unfertilized females will eat some nectar from plants. And some males do not feed at all," Azar added.

Some flying insects - tsetse flies, for instance - have hematophagous males. But not modern mosquitoes.

"Finding this behavior in the Cretaceous is quite surprising," said paleontologist and study co-author André Nel of the National Museum of Natural History of Paris.

The delicate anatomy of the two mosquitoes was beautifully preserved in the fossils. Both displayed exceptionally sharp and triangle-shaped jaw anatomy and an elongated structure with tooth-like projections.

The researchers said they suspect that mosquitoes evolved from insects that did not consume blood. They hypothesize that the mouthparts that became adapted for obtaining blood meals originally were used to pierce plants to get access to nutritious fluids.

Plant evolution may have played a role in the feeding divergence between male and female mosquitoes. At the time when these two mosquitoes became stuck in tree sap that eventually became amber, flowering plants were beginning to flourish for the first time on the Cretaceous landscape.

"In all hematophagous insects, we believe that hematophagy was a shift from plant liquid sucking to bloodsucking," Azar said.

The fact that these earliest-known mosquitoes are bloodsucking males, Azar added, "means that originally the first mosquitoes were all hematophagous - no matter whether they were males or females - and hematophagy was later lost in males, maybe due to the appearance of flowering plants, which are contemporaneous with the formation of Lebanese amber."

Plenty of animals were present to provide blood meals: dinosaurs, flying reptiles called pterosaurs, other reptiles, birds and mammals.

The researchers said while these are the oldest fossils, mosquitoes probably originated millions of years earlier. They noted that molecular evidence suggests mosquitoes arose during the Jurassic Period, which ran from about 200 million to 145 million years ago.

There are more than 3,500 species of mosquitoes worldwide, found everywhere except Antarctica. Some become disease vectors transmitting malaria, yellow fever, Zika fever, dengue and other diseases. According to the World Health Organization, more than 400,000 people die annually from malaria - a parasitic infection - mostly children under age 5.

"On the other side, mosquitoes help to purify the water in ponds, lakes and rivers," Nel said. "In general, an animal can be a problem but also can be helpful."

Sports

Man United Bars Reporters after Stories about Manager Ten Hag as Problems Mount for Dutchman

Football - Premier League - Newcastle United v Manchester United - St James' Park, Newcastle, Britain - December 2, 2023 Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag before the match. (Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Newcastle United v Manchester United - St James' Park, Newcastle, Britain - December 2, 2023 Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag before the match. (Reuters)
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Man United Bars Reporters after Stories about Manager Ten Hag as Problems Mount for Dutchman

Football - Premier League - Newcastle United v Manchester United - St James' Park, Newcastle, Britain - December 2, 2023 Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag before the match. (Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Newcastle United v Manchester United - St James' Park, Newcastle, Britain - December 2, 2023 Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag before the match. (Reuters)

After reports of player unrest, Manchester United barred journalists from a pre-game news conference with Erik ten Hag on Tuesday as the Dutchman spoke ahead of a latest crunch match for his troubled team.

The United manager had been confronted with stories that his methods had been called into question by sections of the locker room after a 10th defeat of the season against Newcastle last week.

“We’re taking action against a number of news organizations today, not for publishing stories we don’t like, but for doing so without contacting us first to give us the opportunity to comment, challenge or contextualize,” United said in a statement. It did not say how long the ban would last.

The reports claimed there were growing doubts about Ten Hag’s management style as United sit seventh in the Premier League standings and on the brink of Champions League elimination.

But, speaking ahead of Wednesday's game against Chelsea at Old Trafford, the former Ajax coach said his squad remained united.

“You can see you can’t play such great football as we did lately if there is no unity,” Ten Hag said. “We are on a journey, a route, we know we are still in transition, but we are in the right direction.

“You see it how we construct a team, develop it, the team is progressing. How young players (are) coming in and you see the potential how they can contribute to a very successful Manchester United for the future.”

It is the second time in recent weeks United has responded to negative stories about Ten Hag, having last month refuted claims it was considering replacements for the coach.

While there has been no suggestion from the club that his position is in question, reports point to a growing sense of uncertainty as Ten Hag struggles to build on the success of his first season in charge when leading United back to the Champions League and winning the League Cup.

Defeat against Chelsea would raise further doubts about his future, but Ten Hag said he was confident about the team’s progress after winning five out of its last six games in the league before Newcastle.

“Still we are in the ranking. Of course we dropped, but are not too far away so we are OK,” he said.

United turned to Ten Hag after he led Ajax to three Dutch titles and two cups in the space of four seasons.

Since taking over at Old Trafford in July 2022, he has asserted his authority as he has attempted to turn the club's fortunes around.

Cristiano Ronaldo was made to train away from the first team and dropped after heading to the locker room before the final whistle of a match last season. Jadon Sancho is also training away from the first team over a “discipline issue.” The winger claimed on social media that he had been made a “scapegoat” after being cut from United’s squad for its 3-1 loss to Arsenal this season.

On Tuesday Ten Hag suggested he still had the backing of his players.

“Of course there are always, in every team, players who are not playing or less playing who are less happy. That is not different to normal,” he said. “If the players have a different opinion of course I will listen. But they haven’t told me. Or maybe one or two, but it is about in general. The majority, they want to play like this — proactive, dynamic, brave, that is what they want. You can see the players are behind it because of the performances against Everton and Galatasaray. You see that we are really improving.”

Entertainment

‘Past Lives,’ ‘May December’ and ‘American Fiction’ Lead Spirit Award Nominations

US actor Charles Melton arrives for the premiere of "May December" at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California, on November 16, 2023. (AFP)
US actor Charles Melton arrives for the premiere of "May December" at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California, on November 16, 2023. (AFP)
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‘Past Lives,’ ‘May December’ and ‘American Fiction’ Lead Spirit Award Nominations

US actor Charles Melton arrives for the premiere of "May December" at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California, on November 16, 2023. (AFP)
US actor Charles Melton arrives for the premiere of "May December" at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, California, on November 16, 2023. (AFP)

Celine Song’s "Past Lives," Todd Haynes’ "May December" and Cord Jefferson’s "American Fiction" got a leading five nominations, including best feature, from the Film Independent Spirit Awards. Natalie Morales and Joel Kim Booster announced the nominees Tuesday on a YouTube livestream.

Song’s quietly romantic film, starring Greta Lee and Teo Yoo as childhood friends who reconnect later in life, earned nominations for her direction, script and for both actors. "May December," about an actress preparing to play a Mary Kay Letourneau-like role got nods for Natalie Portman, Charles Melton and screenwriter Samy Burch. MGM’s "American Fiction," featuring Jeffrey Wright as a frustrated novelist, got recognition for Wright, Erika Alexander and Sterling K. Brown. Jefferson was nominated for his script but not for his direction, however.

It was a good morning for A24. In addition to the nominations for "Past Lives," the indie film company received 11 overall for "All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt,Earth Mama" and "The Zone of Interest." Kelly Reichardt’s "Showing Up" was also named winner of the Robert Altman Award, which is given to one film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast. Michelle Williams plays a small-time sculptor in the film, leading an ensemble that includes André Benjamin, Hong Chau, Judd Hirsch and Amanda Plummer.

Alexander Payne's "The Holdovers," about a curmudgeonly teacher played by Paul Giamatti, got four nominations including for cinematography, best screenplay, best supporting performance for Da’Vine Joy Randolph and best breakthrough for newcomer Dominic Sessa. Neither Payne nor Giamatti were nominated.

Directing nominees were: Andrew Haigh ("All of Strangers"); Ira Sachs ("Passages"); William Oldroyd ("Eileen"); and Haynes and Song.

The Spirit Awards limit eligibility to productions with budgets of $30 million or less, meaning films like "Oppenheimer,Maestro" and "Poor Things" did not qualify for nominations.

Lead performance nominees include Wright, Lee, Yoo, Portman, Jessica Chastain ("Memory"), Trace Lysette ("Monica"), Judy Reyes ("Birth/Rebirth"), Andrew Scott ("All of Us Strangers"), Franz Rogowski ("Passages") and Teyana Taylor ("A Thousand and One").

Supporting performance nods went to Noah Galvin ("Theater Camp"), Anne Hathaway ("Eileen"), Glenn Howerton ("BlackBerry"), Marin Ireland ("Eileen"), Catalina Saavedra ("Rotting in the Sun") and Ben Whishaw ("Passages"), in addition to the aforementioned Melton, Randolph, Brown and Alexander.

NFL veteran Marshawn Lynch was also nominated for his breakthrough performance in the wild high school comedy "Bottoms."

Films nominated for best international film include both Sandra Hüller films, Justine Triet’s "Anatomy of a Fall" and Jonathan Glazer’s "The Zone of Interest," from Poland, as well as Denmark/Iceland’s "Godland," Nigeria’s "Mama Wata" and Mexico’s "Tótem."

Last year’s big winner was " Everything Everywhere All At Once," which accepted seven awards including best feature, best director and acting prizes for Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan – categories in which it would go on to win Oscars.

Josh Welsh, the president of Film Independent, said the spirit awards look for films and shows that, "demonstrate the uniqueness of vision, original, provocative subject matter, economy of means and diversity, both on screen and off."

The Spirit Awards also recognize television series. The nominees include "Jury Duty," for best series and best ensemble cast, "Beef" for series, Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, and "The Last of Us" which got acting nods for Bella Ramsey, Murray Bartlett and Nick Offerman. Billie Eilish was also nominated for "Swarm."

Saturday Night Live’s Aidy Bryant is hosting the show, which will take place on Feb. 25 in Santa Monica, California. The awards will be streamed live on IMDb and Film Independent’s YouTube channels.