Pop Culture

The Rings of Power wrapped up season two not only with storm clouds raging on nearly every horizon of Middle-earth, but with the deaths of several major characters—some of them towering figures from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings lore. J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, the showrunners of Amazon’s expensive, expansive series, spoke with

A Texas man who went viral after he bought a Taylor Swift-themed guitar at auction for US$4,000, only to destroy it with a hammer seconds later, says he pulled off the stunt for a laugh and claims there’s no ill will intended. Gary Estes, 67, garnered the ire of many Swifties over the weekend when

The thing about vice-presidential debates is that you typically only remember them when someone really screws up. There was Dan Quayle comparing himself to John F. Kennedy, which set Lloyd Bentsen up for an all-time zinger. More recently, there was Sarah Palin being, well, Sarah Palin. These blunders persist in the political memory because the

NOTE: The following article contains disturbing content. Please read at your own discretion. More than a hundred new sexual assault allegations have been made against Sean “Diddy” Combs, with a Texas lawyer revealing he’s representing 120 accusers who have shared dozens of new, shocking claims. Texas-based lawyer Tony Buzbee held a press conference Tuesday, saying “we will

Jessica Valenti writes and talks about abortion like someone who thinks about it for dozens of hours every week—because she does. For around two years—since the fall of Roe—Valenti has been writing about reproductive justice every day in her newsletter, aptly titled Abortion, Every Day. But, in her new book, Abortion: Our Bodies, Their Lies,

By Staff The Associated Press Posted September 30, 2024 12:42 pm 1 min read Descrease article font size Increase article font size A New Mexico judge on Monday upheld an involuntary manslaughter conviction against a movie armorer in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western film “Rust.”

Occasionally, rockets were fired from northern Gaza. This was a true exchange of fire. During one live report on Mornings with Maria, I held the mic in one hand and my ear with the other. Back in May I’d been standing too close to an Iron Dome battery when it launched an interceptor. That, along

As Sarah McLachlan, Tom Cochrane and members of Blue Rodeo were ushered into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame on Saturday, each took a moment to recognize that writing great music usually comes with incredible struggle. “Writing is often a lonely, isolating business,” McLachlan told the audience at Toronto’s Massey Hall in her speech. “But

Convicted con artist Anna Delvey has been working hard to build her post-incarceration life, dipping into New York Fashion Week, podcasting, and a docuseries (among other hustles) as she awaits the outcome of her immigration case. But a recent effort to trade fabricated societal standing for actual celebrity might have been a step backwards for

Descrease article font size Increase article font size Canadian rapper K’naan (given name Keinan Abdi Warsame), was charged with sexual assault in Quebec on Thursday in connection with an alleged incident from 2010 in the province’s capital city. The province’s Crown prosecutor office confirmed an arrest warrant was issued late last week for 47-year-old Warsame.

It’s generally thought of as the worst traffic fortnight in Manhattan: the weeks-long proceedings of the United Nations General Assembly, which ensnares all travel patterns on the east side of the island. Road closures, idling black cars, and battalions of cops and Secret Service agents make swaths of Midtown impossible-to-transverse hellscapes for a few days

Dame Maggie Smith, best known for her roles in the Harry Potter franchise and Downton Abbey, has died. She was 89 years old. The prolific star’s family issued a statement about Smith’s death through her publicist. Smith died on Friday morning in hospital, though a cause of death has not yet been announced. “It is

The investigations and resignations swirling around New York City mayor Eric Adams have multiplied nearly nonstop for the past year. For that whole time, the disclaimer has been consistent whenever I asked his possible political challengers and their advisers about plans for challenging the mayor in a 2025 campaign: Only if Adams himself is indicted.

Legendary supermodel Naomi Campbell has been banned from serving as a charity trustee for five years following a U.K. watchdog investigation that uncovered evidence of financial misconduct at her charity, Fashion for Relief. Though the group was billed as a charitable organization that provided grants to help fund various environmental and humanitarian causes, officials said

In Philadelphia and Houston, in Milwaukee and Atlanta, adoring crowds of Democrats always answer yes. The call-and-response is a joyful affirmation of the Harris-Walz campaign: that the American dream is still alive, if not well, and a more perfect union is possible—together we can preserve and protect a multiracial liberal democracy in a world full

Police in Spain have arrested five people in connection to an online romance scam centred around A-list actor Brad Pitt, which saw two women conned out of over €350,000 (C$487,800). The arrests were announced by Spain’s Interior Ministry on Monday. The authority said the five accused persons contacted their victims through an online fan page

On stage at the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual summit on Tuesday, Prince Harry stood in front of a screen that showed photographs of children on phone screens. During the speech’s most emotional moment, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and mentioned his own children, Archie and Lilibet. “My lock screen is a picture

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants Americans to know Canada has more to offer than just “maple syrup and mountains.” During a Monday night appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the Canadian political leader got laughs from the audience as he tried to set Canada apart from the U.S. and boast about what makes the

I guess it’s worth pointing out the obvious—that the very governors and politicians who loudly exalt the values of free speech are among the most aggressive prosecutors of “divisive concepts.” And I guess it should be noted that what these politicians—and even some writers—dubbed “critical race theory” bore little resemblance to that theory’s actual study

The ending of the original Planet of the Apes shook me. When Charlton Heston — SPOILER ALERT! — discovered the ruins of the Statute of Liberty on that beach, he realized that he’d never left Earth. Instead, he was the survivor of an ancient extinct civilization that left almost no trace of its existence. Stories

Cards Against Humanity—a self-described “party game for horrible people”—is suing Elon Musk’s SpaceX to the tune of $15 million dollars, claiming that the company trespassed on and “completely fucked” up their parcel of land on the US-Mexico border. Back in 2017, after then-president Donald Trump had run and won, in part, on promising to “build

By Staff The Associated Press Posted September 22, 2024 10:57 am Updated September 22, 2024 11:07 am 1 min read Descrease article font size Increase article font size Kate, the Princess of Wales, made her first public appearance Sunday since she announced she had completed chemotherapy and would return to some public duties. Kate and

Even though he’s bowed out of the 2024 race for the White House, the headlines about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. keep coming. The latest scandal involving whale-beheading, bear-dumping, Trump-endorsing RFK, Jr., is an allegedly inappropriate relationship with New York magazine’s Washington, D.C. correspondent Olivia Nuzzi, which has kept Kennedy in the news after the alleged

Sean “Diddy” Combs created a hit-making empire with big name performers, earning his place as a savvy music mogul and becoming a three-time Grammy winner while securing high-profile deals across other industries. But now, Combs’ kingdom is collapsing under charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. He was arrested in New York on Sept. 16 and

With fewer than 50 days until November 5, allies of Donald Trump serving on the election board in Georgia voted for a rule that could gum up the democratic process in a key swing state—requiring counties to hand-count ballots. “Beyond violating settled law, this change reeks of an attempt to undermine Georgia’s ability to conduct free, fair, and accurate

The Tragically Hip, from L-R: Johnny Fay, Gord Downie, Rob Baker, Gord Sinclair and Paul Langlois, pictured in front of a tour bus. Gordon Hawkins/Prime Video It’s been almost exactly seven years since Canadians lost The Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie, and more than eight years since the band played their last-ever show in Kingston,

The recent rise of political violence in the United States is sobering but not surprising to the researchers who study this subject. “We know the factors that put countries at risk of political violence,” says Barbara F. Walter, an expert on violent extremism. “We also know the factors that put countries at risk of election

Descrease article font size Increase article font size Lawyers representing the producers of “Russians at War” say they may pursue legal action against Ontario’s public broadcaster for pulling support for the controversial documentary amid outcry from the Ukrainian community and some Canadian politicians. A letter addressed to TVO’s board and management demands that the network

To this day, the strangest thing about WandaVision is that Marvel never bothered to make anything else like it. Emerging from the anxiety-fueled chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 hit was a surprise even for Marvel skeptics. The superhero factory’s first TV effort delighted early on with its nostalgic trip through the medium’s history,