“Champions” Queen win 2025 Polar Music Prize, Hancock and Hannigan also honored
“Champions” Queen win 2025 Polar Music Prize, Hancock and Hannigan also honored/node/2593984/offbeat
“Champions” Queen win 2025 Polar Music Prize, Hancock and Hannigan also honored
Queen have sold more than 300 million albums featuring songs such as “We Will Rock You,” “Another One Bites The Dust” and “Bohemian Rhapsody”.(AFP)
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Updated 18 March 2025
Reuters
“Champions” Queen win 2025 Polar Music Prize, Hancock and Hannigan also honored
“Champions” Queen win 2025 Polar Music Prize, Hancock and Hannigan also honored
Updated 18 March 2025
Reuters
STOCKHOLM: British rock band Queen, American jazz pianist Herbie Hancock and Canadian soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan were awarded the 2025 Polar Music Prize on Tuesday.
The Polar Prize hailed Queen for their “distinctive and instantly recognizable sound that no one else can emulate.”
“Queen were not exaggerating when they sang ‘We are the Champions’,” it said in a statement.
Queen have sold more than 300 million albums featuring songs such as “We Will Rock You,” “Another One Bites The Dust” and “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Founded in 1970, the band featured flamboyant frontman Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and bass player John Deacon. They played stadiums across the world — including a memorable performance at the Live Aid concert in 1985 — before Mercury’s death in 1991.
They relaunched in 2004 with a succession of new singers.
Queen share the prize with American jazz pianist Herbie Hanckock, a collaborator of Miles Davies among others as well as a solo star in his own right, and Canadian soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan.
Founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, publisher and manager of the Swedish band ABBA, previous winners include Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Sting, Elton John and Metallica.
Ancient Pharaonic painting vanishes from Saqqara necropolis, Egypt says
The tomb was one of the few mastaba tombs of ancient Egypt to have a written curse inscribed on its facade
Updated 06 October 2025
AP
CAIRO: Egyptian antiquities officials on Sunday said a Pharaonic painting has disappeared from the famed Saqqara necropolis just outside of Cairo, becoming the latest artifact to disappear in a country known for its rich history.
Mohamed Ismail, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the limestone painting was in the tomb of Khentika in the Saqqara necropolis.
The mastaba tomb, which housed the painting, was found in the 1950s, and hasn’t opened since 2019, he said in a statement. It dates back to the sixth dynasty of the ancient Old Kingdom — a period spanning roughly from around 2700 BC to 2200 B.C.
Ismail’s statement didn’t provide further details and said prosecutors were investigating the circumstances of the painting’s disappearance.
Egyptian media reported, meanwhile, that the painting exhibited the ancient Egyptian calendar which divided the year into three seasons mirroring the Nile River’s ebb and flow. It included the flooding season, Akhet, the planting season, Proyat, and the harvest season, Shomu.
Cairo 24 news outlet reported that a British mission working in the tomb found that the painting wasn’t there in May.
The tomb was one of the few mastaba tombs of ancient Egypt to have a written curse inscribed on its facade. The inscriptions warned intruders that they could face divine punishment, according to British Egyptologist Harry James, who co-authored a research paper on the tomb in the 1950s.
Saqqara site is part of a sprawling necropolis at Egypt’s ancient capital of Memphis that includes the famed Giza Pyramids, the step pyramid of Djoser, as well as smaller pyramids at Abu Sir, Dahshur and Abu Ruwaysh. The ruins of Memphis were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in the 1970s.
Sunday’s announcement came less than a month after an ancient bracelet was stolen from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
The bracelet, containing a lapis lazuli bead, belonged to Pharaoh Amenemope, who reigned about 3,000 years ago. It was stolen on Sep. 9 while officials at the museum were preparing artifacts for an exhibit in Italy.
Authorities said it was taken from a restoration lab at the museum and then funneled through a chain of dealers before being melted down.
The bracelet theft was painful to many people in Egypt, where there is great esteem for the nation’s heritage. It reminded some of past cultural losses, including the disappearance of Vincent van Gogh’s “Poppy Flowers” — then valued at $50 million — from another Cairo museum in 2010.
The Poppy Flowers was first stolen in 1977 but was later recovered. However, since its theft in 2010 it has not been found.
Decoding Taylor Swift’s ‘The Life a Showgirl’: A guide to her references
The album’s physical variants, like “summertime spritz pink shimmer” vinyl, also tie into the lyrics
Lyrics mention places like Portofino and Paris, and nod to her engagement to Travis Kelce. Songs reference her past, including her teenage years in Tennessee and friendships
Updated 03 October 2025
AP
NEW YORK: The curtain has been drawn. The stage lights are on. It’s time for “The Life of a Showgirl.”
For Taylor Swift’s most dedicated audience, a new album means new opportunities to decode Easter eggs in her lyrics and music videos. The pop superstar’s 12th studio album has no shortage of clever clues and references to her public life and discography. Many are opaque, revealing just enough to inspire a myriad of fan theories. Others are concrete – explicit names and places worth exploring. Below, you will find a guide to those instances, and how they relate to Swift.
Read on, and happy digging!
“Elizabeth Taylor”
Lyric: “That view of Portofino was on my mind / When you called me at the Plaza Athénée”
Meaning: When Swift announced her new album, she did so with the introduction of a shade she’s calling Portofino Orange Glitter after donning the color onstage during the latter part of her “Eras Tour.” “I’ve just always liked it,” she said of the hue during her first appearance on “New Heights,” the popular, typically football-focused podcast hosted by her fiancé Travis Kelce and his brother, Jason Kelce. “It feels like energetically how my life has felt. And this album is about what was going on behind the scenes in my inner life during this tour.” She and beau Kelce were spotted last year in Lake Como, Italy, but it is unclear if they spent time in nearby Portofino. Additionally, the standard version of her album is available in “sweat and vanilla perfume Portofino orange vinyl.” As for the Plaza Athénée? That’s a luxury hotel in Paris.
Lyric: “Be my NY when Hollywood hates me”
Meaning: Both locations make appearances in Swift’s songwriting. Among them: “Welcome to New York” from 2014’s “1989” and “White Horse” from 2008’s “Fearless.” She also owns property in both locations.
Lyric: “Babe, I would trade the Cartier for someone to trust … just kidding”
Meaning: In August of this year, Swift announced her engagement to Kelce by posting a carousel of images on Instagram. Eagle-eyed fans noticed that the ring wasn’t the only jewelry she was showing off. She was also wearing a Cartier watch.
Lyric: “We hit the best booth at Musso & Frank’s”
Meaning: Since opening in 1919, Musso & Frank Grill has been a hot spot for celebrities in Los Angeles – embodying the kind of old school Hollywood glamor that inspired “The Life of a Showgirl” artwork.
Lyric: “All my white diamonds and lovers are forever”
Meaning: The song is titled “Elizabeth Taylor” after the classic Hollywood starlet who, in 1991, created her own perfume called “White Diamonds.”
“Ruin the Friendship”
Lyric: “You drive, 85 / Gallatin Road and the lakeside beach”
Meaning: There are several Gallatin Roads in the United States, but given the other lyrics in the song, this one likely refers to a street in Hendersonville, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville, where Swift spent her adolescence.
Lyric: “But as the 50 Cent song played”
Meaning: A 50 Cent reference further implies this song is rooted in Swift’s teen years in the ‘00s, when the rapper was at the height of his popularity. The song also mentions “prom” and “second period,” what is typically associated with high school.
Lyric: “When I left school, I lost track of you / Abigail called me with the bad news / Goodbye”
Meaning: Abigail refers to Swift’s best friend AbigailAnderson, who she attended Hendersonville High School with. This marks the second time Abigail is mentioned in Swift’s discography: the first is the evocative “Fifteen” from “Fearless.”
“WǴǻ”
Lyric: “Redwood tree / It ain’t hard to see”
Meaning: In Oct. 2023, Swift and Kelce made a surprise appearance at “Saturday Night Live” for a season premiere episode that featured host Pete Davidson and musical performer/friend to Swift, Ice Spice.Afterwards, “SNL” cast member Bowen Yang described the couple as the “tallest people in the world,” on the “Las Culturistas” podcast he co-hosts with comedian Matt Rogers. “I see them together, I go, ‘I am in the Redwood Forest.’” Hence, “Redwood tree.”
Lyric: “New Heights of manhood”
Meaning: “New Heights” is a direct reference to the Kelces’ podcast of the same name.
“HDzԱ”
Lyric: “Summertime spritz, pink skies”
Meaning: Physical album variants have been a huge part of Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” rollout, and in some ways, they appear in the lyrics of “Honey.” The color of her exclusive vinyl release with Target, “The Crowd Is Your King” edition, was described online as “summertime spritz pink shimmer.”
Lyric: “Wintergreen kiss, all mine”
Meaning: This line relates to another one of her variants: “The Shiny Bug Collection,” which is available in “violet shimmer marbled vinyl” and more relevantly, “wintergreen and onyx marbled vinyl.”
The Nobel Prize winners will be announced next week. What to know about the prestigious awards
The winners will join the pantheon of Nobel laureates, from Albert Einstein to Mother Teresa
Updated 03 October 2025
AP
STOCKHOLM:The Nobel Prize winners will be announced next week.
The awards are considered among the world’s most prestigious honors for achievements in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, economics and peace.
The winners will join the pantheon of Nobel laureates, from Albert Einstein to Mother Teresa.
For the peace prize, US President Donald Trump has been nominated several times by people within the US as well as politicians abroad since 2018. His name also was put forth in December by a Republican congresswoman for his brokering of the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and some Arab states.
Here are some things to know about the Nobel Prizes:
A history of the Nobel Prizes
The Nobel Prizes were created by Alfred Nobel, a 19th-century businessman and chemist from Sweden. He held more than 300 patents, but his claim to fame before the prizes was having invented dynamite by mixing nitroglycerine with a compound that made the explosive more stable.
Dynamite — which became popular in construction, mining and the weapons industry — made Nobel a very rich man. Toward the end of his life he decided to use his vast fortune to fund annual prizes “to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.”
The first Nobel Prizes — in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace — were presented in 1901, five years after his death. In 1968, a sixth prize was created, for economics, by Sweden’s central bank. Though Nobel purists stress that the economics prize is technically not a Nobel, it’s always presented together with the others.
The Nobel nomination process
None of the nominations are announced by the prizes’ respective committees, and the Nobel statutes prohibit the judges from discussing their deliberations for 50 years. But those doing the nominating may choose to make their recommendations public.
A person cannot nominate themselves, though they can be nominated multiple times by others — including members of each prize’s panel.
Each prize’s committee operates slightly differently, but they all strive to honor Nobel’s wish that the winners have conferred benefit to humankind.
The peace prize committee is the only one that regularly rewards achievements made in the previous year — and the prize is the only one awarded in Oslo, Norway. For the science prizes, awarded in Stockholm, winners often have to wait decades to have their work recognized by the Nobel judges, who want to make sure that any breakthrough stands the test of time.
The program for this year’s Nobels
The 2025 Nobel Prize announcements kick off Monday with the medicine prize being announced by a panel at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
Nobel announcements continue with the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Oct. 13.
The awards will be handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death. Each prize carries an award of 11 million Swedish kronor (nearly $1.2 million), and the winners also receive an 18-carat gold medal and a diploma. Up to three laureates for each award can share the prize money.
Alaskan climbing star dies in fall from Yosemite’s El Capitan
El Capitan is one of the most striking features of Yosemite National Park, an enormous sheer granite rock face of approximately 915 meters
Miller was an accomplished alpinist who had already gained international attention for claiming the first solo ascent of Mount McKinley’s Slovak Direct
Updated 03 October 2025
AP
LOS ANGELES: A popular Alaskan climber fell to his death from Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan, marking the third death in the park this summer.
Balin Miller, 23, died in a climbing accident Wednesday, his mother Jeanine Girard-Moorman confirmed.
“He’s been climbing since he was a young boy,” she said. “His heart and soul was truly to just climb. He loved to climb and it was never about money and fame.”
The death comes on the first day of the federal government shutdown, which left national parks “generally” open, with limited operations and closed visitors centers, according to the National Park Service. The park service said in a statement that they are investigating the incident and “park rangers and emergency personnel responded immediately.”
El Capitan is one of the most striking features of Yosemite National Park, an enormous sheer granite rock face of approximately 3,000 feet (915 meters) that entices big-wall rock climbers from all over the world. Alex Honnold completed the first free solo climb of El Capitan in 2017 for the documentary “Free Solo.”
El Capitan stands in Yosemite National Park, California. (AP Photo/File)
Many posted tributes to Miller on social media, saying they had watched him climb on a TikTok livestream for two days before his death and referring to him as “orange tent guy” because of his distinctive camp setup.
Earlier this year, an 18-year-old from Texas died in the park while free-soloing, or climbing without a rope, on a different formation. In August, a 29-year-old woman died after being struck in the head by a large tree branch while hiking.
While it’s still unclear exactly what happened, his older brother, Dylan Miller, said Balin was lead rope soloing — a way to climb alone while still protected by a rope — on a 2,400-foot (730-meter) route named Sea of Dreams. He had already finished the climb and was hauling up his last bit of gear when he likely rappelled off the end of his rope, Dylan said.
Miller was an accomplished alpinist who had already gained international attention for claiming the first solo ascent of Mount McKinley’s Slovak Direct, a technically difficult route that took him 56 hours to complete, he posted on his Instagram in June.
He grew up climbing in Alaska with his brother and their father, who was also a climber. While Dylan took a little more time to fall in love with the sport, it stuck with his younger sibling instantly.
“He said he felt most alive when he was climbing,” Dylan Miller said. “I’m his bigger brother but he was my mentor.”
This undated photo courtesy of Jeanine Girard-Moorman shows Alaskan climber Balin Miller in his room in Greenacres, Washington. (Jeanine Girard-Moorman via AP)
This year, Balin Miller had also spent weeks solo climbing in Patagonia and the Canadian Rockies, ticking off a notoriously difficult ice climb called Reality Bath, which had been unrepeated for 37 years, according to Climbing magazine.
“He’s had probably one of the most impressive last six months of climbing of anyone that I can think of,” Clint Helander, an Alaska alpinist, told the Anchorage Daily News.
But this most recent trip to Yosemite wasn’t supposed to be hard climbing. Miller had just arrived two weeks early to climb and enjoy the park’s beauty and solitude before the rest of his family, who planned to meet up there.
More than just a climber, he loved animals and was fun, kind and full of life, his mother said.
He often climbed with a stripe of glitter freckles across his cheekbones, describing it in a Climbing magazine interview like “a warrior putting makeup on before going into battle.”
“He has inspired so many people to do things that are perhaps unthinkable, including myself. I can’t imagine climbing ever again without him,” his brother said.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs asks judge for ‘mercy’ ahead of sentencing
Updated 03 October 2025
AFP
NEW YORK: Sean “Diddy” Combs, who faces more than two decades in prison following a blockbuster trial that saw the music mogul accused of harrowing crimes, on Thursday asked the judge determining his fate for “mercy” and “another chance.”
Following two months of testimony and arguments in the New York federal case, jurors rejected the most serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, sparing the 55-year-old the prospect of life in prison.
But he still faces upwards of two decades behind bars for his conviction on two prostitution-related counts.
Late Thursday, his lawyers submitted a letter signed by Combs in which he told Judge Arun Subramanian he was “scared to death” to be away from his family and vowed he “will never commit a crime again.”
“This has been the hardest 2 years of my life, and I have no one to blame for my current reality and situation but myself,” Combs wrote in the three-and-a-half page letter.
The once-powerful hip-hop innovator apologized for physically assaulting Casandra Ventura, his former girlfriend for more than a decade, who testified of gruesome beatings as well as devastating emotional and sexual abuse he inflicted on her.
“The scene and images of me assaulting Cassie play over and over in my head daily. I literally lost my mind. I was dead wrong for putting my hands on the woman that I loved,” he wrote.
Ventura said in a previous letter she had moved her family out of the New York area for fear of “retribution” if Combs walks free.
He also apologized for having “hurt” a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane, who also described abuse in wrenching detail over their years-long relationship.
Both women said that Combs, with the help of his staff and inner circle, coerced them into performing so-called “freak-offs“: sexual marathons with hired men that Combs directed and sometimes filmed.
Combs did not mention those instances in the letter.
His defense has insisted the sex was consensual and the violence domestic abuse. They convinced jurors the sometimes days-long events did not meet the legal threshold for the most serious charges Combs faced.
But jurors did find that he violated a federal statute that makes it illegal to transport people across state lines for prostitution.
“I am so sorry for the hurt that I caused, but I understand that the mere words ‘I’m sorry’ will never be good enough as these words alone cannot erase the pain from the past,” Combs said in his letter to the judge.
He blamed his behavior on drugs, excess and “selfishness” and said his more than a year in a notorious Brooklyn jail left him “reborn.”
“Prison will change you or kill you — I choose to live,” he wrote.
He cited his rags-to-riches story in the entertainment industry and his childhood trauma of losing his father to murder. Combs described abhorrent prison conditions, inner work on himself that’s led to a “spiritual reset,” his sobriety, and the positive relationships he’s tried to build with fellow inmates.
Combs’s defense team says he should be released before the end of 2025.
The prosecution says he is “unrepentant” and a public threat who should serve at least a decade more. Several of his victims have written letters to the judge to that effect.
During Friday’s sentencing hearing lawyers as well as at least one witness called by the prosecution is expected to address the court.
And Combs is expected to speak directly to the judge.
His letter offered a preview of what can be expected.
“I ask you for mercy today, not only for my sake, but for the sake of my children,” he wrote. “I can’t change the past, but I can change the future.”
“I have been humbled and broken to my core.”
