Turner died surrounded by his family, according to Turner Enterprises, the company that oversees his vast business interests and investments.

Turner owned professional sports teams in Atlanta, defended the America’s Cup in yachting in 1977 and donated a stunning $1 billion to United Nations charities. He married three women — most famously actor Jane Fonda — and earned the nicknames “Captain Outrageous” and “The Mouth of the South.”

He once bragged: “If only I had a little humility, I’d be perfect.”

He was slowed in later years by Lewy body dementia. Long since out of the television business, he concentrated on philanthropy and his more than 2 million acres of property, including the nation’s largest bison herd.

His garrulous personality sometimes overshadowed a driven, risk-taking business acumen.

By the time he sold his Turner Broadcasting System to Time Warner Inc. in a 1996 media megadeal, Turner had turned his late father’s billboard company into a global conglomerate that included seven major cable networks, three professional sports teams and a pair of hit movie studios.

President Donald Trump, reacting to Turner’s death, called him “one of the Greats of All Time.”

“Whenever I needed him, he was there, always willing to fight for a good cause!” Trump posted on social media.

The creation of CNN

Turner’s signature achievement was creating CNN, the first 24-hour, all-news television network in 1980. At a time news is instantly available at anyone’s fingertips, it’s hard to recall that the idea of letting consumers decide when they choose to learn what’s going on in the world was once revolutionary.

In part, Turner’s own frustration with television news was the instigator. He often worked past 8 p.m., after the ABC, CBS and NBC nightly newscasts had already gone off the air, and was in bed by the time his local stations did their own newscasts at 11 p.m.

He took a chance by starting the operation sometimes derided as the “chicken noodle network” in the early days of cable television, living in an apartment above its Atlanta office.

“I was going to have to hit hard and move incredibly fast and that’s what we did — move so fast that the (broadcast) networks wouldn’t have the time to respond, because they should have done this, not me,” Turner recalled in a 2016 interview with the Academy of Achievement. “But they didn’t have the imagination.”

CNN’s breakthrough moment came during the Gulf War with Iraq in 1991. Most television journalists had fled Baghdad, warned of an imminent American attack. CNN stayed, capturing arresting images of a war’s outbreak, with anti-aircraft tracers streaking across the sky and correspondents flinching from the concussion of bombs.

Turner was promised a continued role in CNN after his company’s sale to Time Warner for $7.3 billion in stock, but was gradually pushed out, much to his regret.

“I made a mistake,” he later said. “The mistake I made was losing control of the company.”

That same year — 1996 — saw the birth of Fox News Channel and arrival of a new dominant mogul in cable news, Rupert Murdoch. Political opinion became the stock in trade of networks like Fox News and MSNBC.

Building TBS SuperStation

Robert Edward Turner III was born Nov. 19, 1938, in Cincinnati. When he was 9, his family moved to Savannah, Georgia, where he grew up. After being expelled from Brown University for sneaking a coed into his room, Turner came to Atlanta to work as an account executive for his domineering father’s billboard company, Turner Advertising.

After his father’s 1963 suicide, Turner took over the company. In 1970, he bought an independent UHF station with a weak signal that didn’t even cover Atlanta.

On Dec. 17, 1976, he began transmitting the station to cable systems around the country via satellite. It became the TBS SuperStation. “It was the start of something bigger than we ever imagined,” Turner said in 1996.

TBS’ motley collection of old movies and “The Andy Griffith Show” reruns was augmented by Turner’s acquisition of baseball’s Atlanta Braves. Perennial doormats, the Braves slowly attracted fans across the nation through their superstation exposure and in the 1980s began declaring themselves “America’s Team.”

Turner, who early on donned a uniform and managed one game, helped open baseball’s free-agent price wars by signing pitcher Andy Messersmith.

In the 1980s, Turner went deeply into debt to buy MGM, a move again greeted with skepticism.

But the acquisition gave his company a huge library of vintage movies that eventually were parlayed into the TNT and Turner Classic Movies networks. His devotion to older movies earned Turner a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004.

He was also criticized for adding color to classic movies like “Casablanca,” which he said he did to make them appealing to a younger audience.

TBS also acquired the Hanna-Barbera animation library, which led to the launch of the Cartoon Network.

“He sees the obvious before most people do,” Bob Wright, former president and CEO of NBC, told The New Yorker in 2001. “We all look at the same picture, but Ted sees what you don’t see. And after he sees it, it becomes obvious to everybody.”

He revealed his ambitions as a younger man: “I used to tell people I wanted to become the world’s greatest sailor, businessman and lover all at the same time.”

Asked to share the secret to his success, he said: “Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise.”

Acquiring sports teams and land

For much of his life a partying roustabout who wooed beautiful women with a roguish charm, the lean, mustachioed sportsman married three times.

He was married to Fonda from 1991 to 2001. She quit acting while married to Turner, but tired of his philandering and divorced him, although they remained friends.

“He was sexy. He was brilliant. He had 2 million acres by the time I left. It would have been easy to stay,” Fonda said of her relationship with Turner.

Turner had an unexpected friendship with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, bonding over hunting and arguments about politics over rum and cigars. A once bitter rival who compared Fox’s Murdoch to Adolf Hitler, they later reconciled over a mutual concern over the environment.

Turner built a sports empire, at one point owning professional baseball, basketball and hockey teams in Atlanta.

He was best remembered at the helm of the Atlanta Braves, turning the doormats into postseason regulars by the 1990s. Their stadium, built for the 1996 Olympics, was named Ted Turner Field. The Braves replaced it in 2016 with a newer stadium north of Atlanta.

Perhaps Turner’s greatest love was for the land. He acquired millions of acres in ranches complete with roaming buffalo and was Nebraska’s largest private landholder.

He spoke often of reviving the West’s bison herds, and in 2002 started a restaurant chain serving bison burgers, Ted’s Montana Grill. Researchers at Texas A&M University credited his donation of a few bulls in 2005 with helping increase the genetic diversity of the last herd of southern Plains bison.

He had a net worth of $2.5 billion in 2023, but had dropped off Forbes magazine’s ranking of the 400 richest Americans in 2021.

During a stock market bust, Turner’s net worth went from nearly $10 billion to about $2 billion in two-and-a-half years.

“To put this in perspective, I lost nearly $8 billion in 30 months,” he wrote in his autobiography, “Call Me Ted,” in 2008. “That means that, on average, my net worth dropped by about $67 million “per week,” or nearly $10 million “per day, every day, for two and a half years.”

He had enough time, and money, to devote to such lofty goals as promoting world peace and protecting the environment.

“See, my life is more an adventure than a quest to make money. Adventure is going out and doing something for the pure hell of it,” Turner once said. “You just want to see if you can do it, period. There’s no thought of gain other than your own satisfaction.”

‘The Mouth of the South’

Through the years, Turner’s antics occasionally overshadowed his business activities.

Fresh from skippering his boat “Courageous” to the America’s Cup title in 1977, a very inebriated Turner was captured by TV cameras stretched out on the floor at the victory celebration.

Turner managed to insult many with his shoot-from-the-lip style. An atheist since his only sister died of lupus at age 17, he called Christians “losers” and “Jesus-freaks,” later apologizing for both remarks.

He once suggested in a speech that unemployed Black people be used to haul mobile missiles with ropes “like the Egyptians building the pyramids.” After civil rights leaders demanded an apology, he said he was just joking.

Other times, his humor saved him from potentially awkward situations, like when he talked to an audience in Berlin in 1999.

“You know, you Germans had a bad century,” Turner said, according to The New Yorker.

“You were on the wrong side of two wars. You were the losers. I know what that’s like. When I bought the Atlanta Braves, we couldn’t win, either. You guys can turn it around. You can start making the right choices. If the Atlanta Braves could do it, then Germany can do it.”

Turner, father of five children, grabbed a leadership role in American philanthropy with his Sept. 18, 1997, pledge to give $1 billion, or $100 million a year for 10 years, to United Nations charities. Even as Turner’s fortune shrank after the AOL Time Warner merger, he continued giving money to the U.N., calling it the best hope for peace.

Dedication to various causes

He promoted a range of humanitarian causes. Turner joined former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn to start the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to reducing the threat of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Turner fretted publicly about the world’s problems.

“If I had to predict, the way things are going, I’d say the chances are about 50-50 that humanity will be extinct in 50 years,” Turner said in 2003. “Weapons of mass destruction, disease, I mean this global warming is scaring the living daylights out of me.”

As he poured millions into nonprofits on a global scale, Turner was also fond of spreading his wealth in small ways.

He once gave $500 to a volunteer fire department that helped extinguish a blaze on one of his ranches. Another time he lent personal paintings for an exhibit at a Bozeman, Montana, museum.

AP

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“Everyone who attended the Met Gala this year really leaned into fashion is art, using your body as a canvas, and that really came across in some of the best-dressed looks of the night,” said Kevin Huynh, fashion director of InStyle.

Fashionable A-listers gave into the theme and had fun with it. First-time Met Gala attendees included actors Chase Infiniti and Hudson Williams, as well as Olympian Alysa Liu, all of whom commanded the carpet in dramatic ensembles. Infiniti, for example, donned an enchanting Thom Browne sequined gown using trompe l’oeil to depict the female form.

Meanwhile, Met Gala mega stars and repeat attendees rose to the occasion: Vogue red-carpet correspondent Emma Chamberlain playfully dressed in a dramatic long-sleeved gown that appeared dipped in a rainbow of color from indigo to the brightest yellow-gold. And after 10 years of skipping the Gala, Beyoncé arrived to reclaim her throne, wearing a glittering crown and radiant Olivier Rousteing silver gown designed in the shape of a skeleton.

Artistic masters or novices

Maybe it was the theme or something in the air, but Met Gala guests ran with the dress code, embracing color, sculpture and a plethora of artistic references from Gustav Klimt and John Singer Sargent to the Winged Goddess of Samothrace.

Madonna even delivered performance art on the carpet, arriving with seven women carrying her cape, which was attached to her pirate-ship headpiece in reference to a painting by Leonora Carrington.

“The Met Gala has finally settled the question of ‘Is fashion art?’” said Nancy Hall-Duncan, an art historian and author of “Art X Fashion: Fashion Inspired by Art. “It is, according to the Met Gala, Anna Wintour and Andrew Bolton.”

For Lynette Nylander, executive digital director of Harper’s Bazaar, there were wins from Infiniti to Cardi B, though some guests steered more toward costume than couture. Heidi Klum, for example, arrived in full costume as a statue.

“It was the kind of loudest Met Gala that we’ve seen in a while, probably since the ‘Camp’ theme,” Nylander said. “It felt very ostentatious.”

Pops of color in a sea of black

Despite all the artistic opportunities to draw from, some celebrities chose sophisticated all-black looks instead of color. Zoë Kravitz and Connor Storrie both wore black custom Yves Saint Laurent.

Yet the examples in solid black only amplified the more colorful ensembles, like Chamberlain’s hand-painted Mugler dress with cascading fringe sleeves and a spiral deep rainbow train.

“It looked like an artist’s palette and it’s just stunning, colorful and interesting,” Hall-Duncan said. “This isn’t addressing a specific painting. It’s addressing the whole concept of color in artistic work.”

Trompe l’oeil

Artistic illusions of the body stood out throughout the night, with celebrities playing with the dress code and the “Costume Art” exhibit inside the Metropolitan Museum, which examines the dressed body and thematic body types.

Naomi Osaka wowed in a white Robert Wun overcoat featuring tiny slits that allowed a glimpse of her sparkling red dress underneath. In a dazzling red carpet moment, Osaka removed the overcoat to reveal a two-toned red gown with the human anatomy beaded into the dress. Nylander said designer Wun was one of several independent designers who dominated the carpet, dressing stars including the tennis pro and singer Lisa.

Actor Jeremy Pope was on theme for the menswear look of the night. Pope sported a Vivienne Westwood corseted jacket filled in with pearls in the shape of a chest.

And fashion darling Colman Domingo is never one to disappoint with his menswear attire.

“He was wearing a Valentino look that was color blocked in these beautiful tulle squares that were really reminiscent of Pablo Picasso’s harlequin paintings,” Huynh said. “I thought that was such a clever way to tap into the artistic side of things, whereas Hudson Williams, hot off all the ‘Heated Rivalry’ madness, wore a matador-inspired look that really harkened back to Cristóbal Balenciaga’s Spanish roots.”

Athleticism on display

Several Olympians hit gold twice for taking risks with their looks. Bubbles filled the carpet as Olympian free style skier Eileen Gu walked up the steps in her mini Iris van Herpen dress covered with bubbles. Lindsey Vonn made a surprise appearance following multiple surgeries after a fracture took her out of the Winter Olympics.

Other athletes on the carpet included NFL players Joe Burrow and Justin Jefferson.

NFL Fashion Editor Kyle Smith, who dressed Burrow in a custom navy Bode look, said the Met Gala allows athletes to shine off the field.

“It’s this opportunity to express yourself and when you put on your uniform and your helmet, you’re part of a team and you’re working toward this really big shared goal,” he said. “But when you’re dressing for the tunnel or any red carpet event, it’s an opportunity to express themselves and show their identity.”

Fashion as protest?

The night’s fashion put a spotlight on some underlying politics: Billionaire Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos sponsored the gala and exhibit and served as honorary chairs, prompting some protests and a few absences.

Their involvement added another layer of interest in some of the fashion choices of the night. Actor Sarah Paulson arrived in a Matières Fécales gray tulle gown from their collection titled “The One Percent,” which she accessorized with a $1 bill mask covering her eyes.

AP

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They also released a new single, titled “In The Stars.”

To celebrate, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood will attend an album announcement event in Brooklyn, NY this afternoon.

The Stones’ last album was 2023’s “Hackney Diamonds.” It was their first album of original material in 18 years — since 2005’s “A Bigger Bang.” It was also their first full-length release since the death of drummer Charlie Watts in 2021. He appeared posthumously on two of that album’s 12 tracks.

According to press materials for the album, “Foreign Tongues” will also include a special appearance from Watts from one of his final recording sessions before his death, as well as contributions from Steve Winwood, Paul McCartney, The Cure’s Robert Smith and The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith.

“I love doing these recording sessions in London at Metropolis. It was a very intense few weeks recording Foreign Tongues,” Mick Jagger said in a statement. “We had 14 great tracks and we went as fast as we could. I like the room there as it’s not too big so you can feel the passion in the room from everyone.”

The Stones worked closely with Oscar-winning pop producer Andrew Watt (known for his work with Post Malone and Justin Bieber, to name a few) on “Hackey Diamonds,” and that continues with “Foreign Tongues.”

A taste of ‘Foreign Tongues’

Speculation surrounding a new Stones’ album has been going around for weeks. First, posters appeared around London with the band name “The Cockroaches,” a pseudonym the Stones’ have used in the past, along with a QR code.

The code led to ‘thecockroaches.com’ and a sign-up page. Once a user had signed up, they received a confirmation message from Universal Music — the Stones’ label. Representatives did not provide The Associated Press with comment or confirmation at the time.

Eventually it lead to a white label, vinyl-only release of the track “Rough and Twisted” using The Cockroaches name — the first true tease of “Foreign Tongues” decipherable only by their most dedicated fans.

Then, in the week leading up to their announcement, billboards with the band’s iconic mouth and tongue logo began appearing in major cities around the world with the words “Foreign Tongues” in various languages: “Fremmede Sprog,” “Vreemde Tongen,” “Dayuhang Dila,” “외국어,” and “Langues Étrangères” among them.

Around the same time, the Rolling Stones’ official website was updated to feature video clips stylized to look like surveillance footage of them in the studio.

On Sunday, the band shared a slide puzzle graphic fans believed to be the album artwork, depicting a cartoonish collage of the members’ faces. (They were correct; it was the official album cover.) There was also a short video clip, just 10-seconds long, that appeared to tease a new song.

AP

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Johannesburg Zoo is expecting more than 8,000 people at its annual Mother’s Day Concert on Sunday, 10 May 2026, with Ami Faku set to headline the four-hour live music event.

Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo (JCPZ) said that the concert will take place at the zoo and will combine live music, family activities, guided tours, and picnic spaces.

This year’s line-up includes The Soil, Bongi Archi, Phoebe Mgxaji, Matthew Mole, Chubby Cheeks, and The Phoenix Orchestra, conducted by Richard Cock.

JCPZ said the event would “blend world-class entertainment, culture and family-friendly activities into a truly unique celebration of mothers”.

The concert will run from 12:00 to 16:00, following a morning programme of guided heritage tours through the zoo from 09:15 to 11:45. Gates will open at 08:30.

The event will also include a kiddies corner with face painting, jumping castles, arts and crafts, and interactive animal experiences.

Other activities include heritage tours, an adopt-an-animal initiative, food vendors and picnic-friendly spaces.

“Guests are encouraged to bring picnic baskets or enjoy curated food offerings available on-site,” JCPZ said.

Entry will be controlled through designated gates, and JCPZ has encouraged visitors to arrive early “to ensure a seamless guest experience”.

JCPZ said the concert would continue to play a role in promoting social cohesion and strengthening its position as a community-centred organisation.

The event will be supported by a safety and operations plan aimed at ensuring a secure and smooth experience for attendees.

“The Mother’s Day Concert at Joburg Zoo has become a signature highlight on Johannesburg’s events calendar, a space where music, nature and community come together to honour mothers in a meaningful and memorable way,” JCPZ said.

Tickets are available via Webtickets at https://bit.ly/41iNTDr.

Adult tickets cost R150, while tickets for children aged three to 12 and pensioners cost R80.

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The performance followed similar shows by Madonna in 2024 and Lady Gaga last year, which also were attended by huge crowds that danced on the sprawling sands. For Shakira, it was part of her “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran,” or “Women No Longer Cry,” world tour named after her 2024 album.

Shakira’s set kicked off around 11 p.m., more than an hour after the scheduled slot, to her fans screaming with excitement and frantic applause as skywriting drones flew overhead, spelling out in the sky, “I love you Brazil” in Portuguese.

The megastar spoke fondly about the first time she came to Brazil, some three decades ago.

“I arrived here when I was 18 years old, dreaming about singing for you,” Shakira told the crowd shortly after coming on stage. “And now look at this. Life is magical.”

The much-loved pop star sang fan favorites such as “Hips Don’t Lie,” “La Tortura” and “La Bicicleta.” She ended with “BZRP Music Sessions #53/66,” which followed her separation from Spanish soccer player Gerard Piqué.

She also took the time to celebrate women’s resilience during the show. “Us women, every time we fall we get up a little wiser,” she said.

One of the first places where Shakira became successful

Rio Mayor Eduardo Cavaliere said on X that 2 million people attended the performance. “The She-Wolf made history in Rio,” he posted, referring to Shakira’s 2009 hit.

When Shakira first performed in Brazil in the 1990s, she established an amazing connection with the Brazilian public, according to Felipe Maia, an ethnomusicologist pursuing a doctoral degree in popular music and digital technologies at Paris Nanterre University.

That success in Brazil “has a lot to do with the fact that she comes from Colombia, a country whose culture has many similarities with Brazil,” Maia said, adding that Saturday’s performance “crowns the relationship she has had with Brazil for a very long time.”

Erica Monteiro, a 38-year-old accountant, said she has listened to Shakira since childhood.

“For me she represents the strength of our Latino community,” Monteiro said ahead of the concert. “We’re treated as if we were inferior but in fact we have much more strength.”

Heading home after Saturday’s show, Hellem Souza da Silva said Shakira’s performance, like Bad Bunny’s concerts in Sao Paulo in February, helped consolidate Brazil’s Latino identity.

These artists “are making it clear that Brazil, Puerto Rico, Colombia and other countries are part of Latin America. And that America is not the United States,” she said.

Crowds started piling onto the beach Saturday morning to nab a good spot for the show. Street vendors sold sweet corn and other Brazilian snacks, bottled water and caipirinhas, the popular Brazilian cocktail, but also toilet paper, deodorant and even bags of sand for concertgoers to stand on to get a better view of the stage set up opposite Copacabana Palace, a historic luxury hotel.

Street vendor Simone Paula da Cunha arrived on the beach on Friday evening, hoping to sell all the beer and water bottles she had bought ahead of the show and make about $100 in all.

Despite being tired, da Cunha was excited at the prospect of seeing Shakira live. “I remember her from when she still had black hair,” she said. “I’m a huge fan of hers.”

An effort to boost the city’s post-Carnival economy

The free concerts are part of City Hall’s attempt to boost economic activity after Carnival and New Year’s Eve festivities and before the monthlong Saint John’s Day celebrations in June.

“For us, parties are serious business. Because parties generate jobs, income, development, and identity for the city,” Cavaliere, the mayor, said on Wednesday as he presented the city’s operational plan for the event. “Our investment in this show will give us a financial return 40 times greater,” he said.

Shakira’s performance could generate around 777 million reais (around $155 million), according to a study by City Hall and Riotur, the municipality’s tourism company, thanks to the influx of tourists and cash spent in restaurants, hotels and shops.

More tourists headed to Rio in the month of May in the years with shows — 2024 and 2025 — compared to 2023, according to City Hall data. In 2024, the growth was 34.2% on May 1, just ahead of the concerts, compared to the previous year. In 2025, the increase was 90.5% compared to 2023.

Ahead of Shakira’s performance, Airbnb said in an April 22 statement that it was seeing an increase in guests expected to travel from different parts of Brazil, Latin America and even European capitals such as Paris and London.

Wanderson Andrade, a 30-year-old architect, said he flew in especially for the show from the city of Goiana in central Brazil on Saturday and planned to fly back the following day.

“I tried to get tickets to see her in Brazil last year but I didn’t succeed,” said Andrade, whose first tattoo is a wolf in honor of Shakira. “Today is a dream come true.”

AP

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Michel reported to prison Thursday, a spokesperson said, with federal records listing him as an inmate at a low-security correctional institution in Arizona.

“Today is a painful day for Pras, for his family, and for everyone who believes in a fair system of justice. Pras honors the legal process as he reports to begin his sentence,” said Erica Dumas, a spokesperson for Michel, adding that his legal team is still contesting his charges.

“This chapter is difficult, but it is not his final one,” Dumas said.

Michel, 53, was convicted in 2023 on 10 counts, including conspiracy and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. He was sentenced late last year.

Prosecutors said he obtained over $120 million from Malaysian billionaire Low Taek Jho — also known as Jho Low — and steered some of that money through straw donors to Obama’s campaign.

Michel also tried to end a U.S. Justice Department investigation of Low, tampered with two witnesses and perjured himself at trial, prosecutors said. Low has maintained his innocence.

Michel was a founding member of the Fugees along with childhood friends Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean, with the group going on to win two Grammy Awards and selling tens of millions of albums.

AP

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He was 10 and half when the first film was released in theaters in 1977, which he went to see with his dad. From the opening shot of that Imperial Star Destroyer filling the screen, he was forever changed. It made him fall in love with the movies: The wonder, the world, the spectacle and the shared experience.

By the time “Return of the Jedi” came out he’d even found a job that was a little closer to the action: Movie theater usher.

For a screenwriter, director, actor and producer who has a billion-dollar film to his name, in addition to all that comes with being part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he’s always been ready to raise his hand when it comes to Star Wars.

He voiced a Mandalorian in “The Clone Wars,” played an alien in “Solo” and helped create “The Mandalorian” series and his immensely popular counterpart, Grogu (aka Baby Yoda). But believe it or not, he only ever got to direct one episode of the show (the first of the second season). So, yes, Favreau has paid his dues and now, at 59, he finally has a Star Wars movie of his own coming to theaters on May 22.

Inviting a new generation to Star Wars

“Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” is not simply Season 4 of the show on the big screen. Favreau should know, since he wrote both. And, perhaps more importantly, he knew there couldn’t be any presumption of Mandalorian knowledge. Writing a show, he said, you can assume that the audience will have seen the prior season. A movie is different; it has to be if it’s going to be a blockbuster.

“Even though in our hearts we are Star Wars fans, we make it for Star Wars fans, and we know that there’s a certain set of expectations around what Star Wars should be that we collectively hold, there is the responsibility to invite a whole new generation of people into Star Wars,” Favreau said. “That means that if a Star Wars fan brings somebody who’s not, they’ve got to have as good of a time as the fans do.”

It’s been nearly seven years since there was a new Star Wars movie released in theaters. That means there’s a whole group of a six-and-a-half-year-olds who’ve yet to have a first time experience of their own.

“I want to make the next generation feel the way about Star Wars that I did when I saw it for the first time,” Favreau said.

It can be intimidating going into a movie knowing that there were three seasons of television leading up to it. But the nice thing about Star Wars is, even people who don’t know it at least kind of know it. Remember, Favreau said, George Lucas plopped audiences in the middle of an adventure in 1977 without a lot of explanation.

“George has always understood that you have to fit into the mythic structure,” Favreau said. “There are certain story types that we connect with and understand and even if we might not know the particulars of the story he’s telling, we could drop right in and understand and know who to cheer for.”

For this film, Favreau is pretty sure that most people have heard of Baby Yoda and can pick up on the dynamic between the little green guy and his enigmatic bounty hunter counterpart, played once again by Pedro Pascal. If you are a newcomer, that’s pretty much all that you need to know. Also, the Mandalorian has a name: Din Djarin.

Din Djarin is a bit different

Season three left Din Djarin and Grogu at peace, at least for a moment. He’s adopted Grogu as his son and apprentice, and they plan to live in a small cabin and take some jobs here and there to help protect the Outer Rim.

“He made it clear that he was only going to work for the good guys now,” Favreau said. “We switched the Western archetype from the bounty hunter to the guy who’s hunting down the bad guys in the wanted posters on the post office wall for the sheriff.”

When we meet him again in the film, “he’s a bit different from when we first met him, but he’s still, at his heart, a gunfighter and a warrior,” Favreau said. They’re hunting down ex-Imperial warlords who seem to be organizing. (Remember, these events happen after “Return of the Jedi” and before “The Force Awakens.” )

And he’s not exactly thrilled about his new assignment which will put him back in the orbit of the Hutt family. Yes, Jabba the Hutt had a son, his name is Rotta, he is played by internet boyfriend Jeremy Allen White — and he’s a gladiator.

“That’s one of those fun things for people who may have been following along since the first ‘Clone Wars’ film,” Favreau said. “If you don’t know who he is, you’re going to figure it out pretty quick. And he’s a lot different than people remember, and I think we have a bit of fun with that.”

Also, for superfans, Favreau is pretty sure they don’t ever refer to him by his nickname, “Stinky.”

White isn’t the only Star Wars newcomer. Sigourney Weaver plays a New Republic leader; Martin Scorsese is an alien shopkeeper.

Upping the spectacle for IMAX

“The Mandalorian” always felt more cinematic than your average television show thanks to its innovative virtual sets known as the Volume, but the big screen demands something spectacular. And it turns out, more time, space and money help out quite a bit in making something worthy of the theater.

“With the bigger screen and the larger production value, we were able to dip into another one of George Lucas’ influences, which is the Flash Gordon-style space opera where you get big monsters and creatures and worlds,” he said. “We get to do a lot more than we had the ability to do when we had to turn the show around in a year and fit it onto a television screen. Now we’re in IMAX, we had several years to do it. We got to build sets, we got to build miniatures, we got to have stop motion set pieces … it opened up a lot of opportunities to do things that we never got to do before.”

Favreau said they had a whole backlot to work with and a set of stages to build on. They could play with water and snow and environments that just weren’t possible with the show.

The future of Star Wars

The Star Wars galaxy is in a time of transition as everyone figures out what the next era of films might look like under its new leadership team of Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan. Earlier this year it was announced that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, who produced “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu,” was stepping down after 13 years.

“She’s definitely a Mount Rushmore producer,” Favreau said. “I also think she did a wonderful job preparing the next generation.”

He’s still working closely with Kennedy, and Filoni, to bring the Mandalorian movie to theaters. He’s not too worried about the box office side of things.

“All of it comes down to seeing it with an audience,” Favreau said. “That’s the part I’m looking forward to.”

AP

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Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has issued an urgent legal demand to former Ukhozi FM presenter and activist Ngizwe Mchunu, accusing him of making defamatory allegations and spreading misinformation.

The demand follows remarks made by Mchunu during an interview on 28 April 2026 outside the Union Buildings in Pretoria, which were later widely circulated on social media platforms.

In the interview with King Zoso, Mchunu alleged that Malema received R60 million from Nigerian drug dealers in exchange for political protection of illegal immigrants — claims Malema’s legal team has described as “false, malicious and defamatory.”

In a letter dated 29 April 2026, Malema’s attorneys, England Slabbert Attorneys, state that the allegations portray the EFF leader as “a criminal, dishonest and unfit to hold public office,” and could severely damage his reputation, particularly in the lead-up to local government elections.

Mchunu has been given 24 hours to:

. Retract the statements in full

. Issue a public apology

.Publish the apology across his social media platforms, including TikTok

.Pay R1 million in damages

Failure to comply, the lawyers warn, will result in legal action being instituted, including a claim for punitive costs.

The EFF has also weighed in, describing the claims as a “malicious lie” and accusing Mchunu of deliberately spreading falsehoods to gain attention.

Mchunu has not yet publicly responded to the legal demand.

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Ross died at home Sunday, according to the singer’s daughter, Nedra K. Ross, and the Ronettes’ official Instagram account. “Nedra’s voice, style and spirit helped define a sound that would change music. Her contribution to the group’s story and their defining influence will live forever,” a statement read.

The Ronettes’ sexy look and powerful voices — plus songwriting and producing help from Phil Spector — turned them into one of the premier acts of the girl-group era, touring England with The Rolling Stones and befriending the Beatles.

“Show business is a thing that can be great, but it can be bad, too,” Ross said during her acceptance speech to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. “For us, we had a family that gave us a core to help stabilize us in a very difficult crazy world. It was a fun time. I thank God truly for it.”

Ross, born and raised in New York City, together with sisters Veronica “Ronnie” and Estelle Bennett, released their debut album in 1964, “Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes, Featuring Veronica.” Five of its 12 tracks had made it to the U.S. Billboard charts, and it was listed in Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest albums of all time. It was the only studio album for the trio.

They also did a memorable version of “Sleigh Ride” that appeared on Spector’s “A Christmas Gift for You” album and was recently highlighted in the “Roofman” soundtrack and on “The Bear.” But their string of hits had tailed off by the time they split around 1967.

In March 1963, Estelle Bennett managed to arrange an audition in front of Phil Spector, known for his big, brass-and-drum style dubbed the “wall of sound.” They were signed to Philles Records in 1963. After being signed, they sang backup for other acts until Spector had the group record “Be My Baby” and “Baby I Love You.”

Martin Scorsese used “Be My Baby” to open his 1973 film “Mean Streets,” and the song appears in the title sequence of “Dirty Dancing” and the closing credits of “Baby Mama.” It also appeared on TV in everything from “Moonlighting” and “The Wonder Years” to “How I Met Your Mother” and “Money Heist.”

When the Ronettes were inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones remembered opening for the trio in England in the mid-1960s. “They could sing all their way right through a wall of sound,” Richards said. “They didn’t need anything. They touched my heart right there and then and they touch it still.”

After the Ronettes disbanded, Ross turned to Christian music, including the album “Full Circle” in 1978. Ross was married to DJ and television personality Scott Ross from 1967 until his death in 2023.

For nearly 15 years, the women waged a lengthy, and ultimately unsuccessful, court battle with Spector over royalties. A judge ordered Spector to pay $2.6 million in past royalties and interest, but New York State’s highest court threw out that ruling on appeal in 2002.

Ronnie Spector died at 78 in 2022. Bennett died at 67 in 2009. Ross is survived by four children.

AP

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She made her Vienna State Opera debut on 17 March 1956 as the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, the role that helped establish her international reputation.

Coertse went on to sing the role more than 500 times at major European opera centres and festivals.

She remained closely associated with the Vienna State Opera for more than two decades, although she returned permanently to South Africa in 1973 and continued to perform in Austria as a guest artist until the late 1970s.

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Her artistry earned her the honorary title of Kammersängerin from the Austrian government in 1966, cementing her place among the world’s elite opera performers.

Back in South Africa, Coertse devoted much of her later career to developing young talent, including through the Black Tie Ensemble, which she founded with Neels Hansen to help young classical singers bridge the gap between training and the professional stage.

Her legacy endures not only in her recordings and performances but in the generations of South African artists she helped inspire.

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