Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" launched with an estimated $124.5 million in domestic ticket sales and another $139.6 million from overseas, notching an even better debut than "Oppenheimer" and marking the filmmaker's best opening since 2012's "The Dark Knight Rises."

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

Madonna, Justin Bieber, BTS and Shakira each brought a bit of one of their hits to the World Cup's first halftime show in a whirlwind performance Sunday that also squeezed in Burna Boy, Ted Lasso and many Muppets.

The show at what's otherwise known as MetLife Stadium, outside New York, was an attempt to bring Super Bowl vibes to the World Cup, but the 11-minute performance was considerably more packed than the usual one-headliner, 13-minute American football counterpart. Each headliner here spent about two minutes performing.

British singer Dua Lipa said in a podcast published Tuesday that the protest movement in Albania was "inspiring", as demonstrations against a resort linked to U.S. President Donald Trump's family rattle the Tirana government.

The Lebanese judiciary on Wednesday approved the release of crooner-turned-fugitive militant Fadl Shaker months after he surrendered himself to authorities, a judicial official told AFP.

The entertainer, born to a Lebanese father and a Palestinian mother, turned himself over to authorities in October after more than a decade in hiding in a Palestinian refugee camp.

Taylor Swift became the youngest woman ever inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame Thursday night at age 36.

"It was instinctual. No one taught me how to do it," she said of songwriting through a raspy voice she attributed to screaming along to the night's performances and Wednesday night's historic NBA game between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs.

For more than two years, hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza and Lebanon have lived in dread of Avichay Adraee's next social media post.

Israel's Arabic-language military spokesman has been the animated face of its campaigns and the main source of warnings ahead of strikes and major offensives. That has made him one of the most recognizable Israelis in the Arab world and a focus of fury as well as some fascination.

Shakira and Burna Boy will perform in Mexico City for the first of three opening ceremonies at the World Cup.

The music stars will perform Dai Dai, the official song for the tournament, ahead of the opening game between co-host Mexico and South Africa on Thursday.

On his very first time hosting "The Late Show" back in 2015, Stephen Colbert ripped into Donald Trump while gorging on Oreos, likening his inability to resist the cookies to his inability to resist going after the then-presidential candidate.

"Look, you don't own me. I don't need to play tape of you to have a successful TV show," he warned an image of Trump. "Someone on television should have a modicum of dignity and it could be me."

As the song demands: "Let's go!"

The Colombian superstar Shakira and Afrobeats icon Burna Boy have teamed up for "Dai Dai," the official song for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

The Princess of Wales' visit to Italy has put the spotlight on an Italian early childhood educational model that helped revolutionize how toddlers learn in school.

The Reggio Approach, used in public daycare centers and preschools in the northern city of Reggio Emilia, values a child's inherent curiosity and potential, with teachers acting as facilitators, not instructors, and parents and the surrounding community actively involved. And Princess Catherine, who has made early development her signature cause, is spending two days seeing it up close.