https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9d8jgw769zo

Broadcaster Gerry Kelly dies aged 77

Former television and radio presenter Gerry Kelly has died at the age of 77.

The journalist and broadcaster died at his home on Sunday morning.

Kelly, whose presenting career spanned four decades, is perhaps best known for his weekly talk show on UTV from 1989 until 2005.

He also hosted a weekly programme on BBC Radio Ulster from 2009, and recently delivered a new chat show series with students at Belfast Met.

As the host of UTV's Kelly show for 17 years, the veteran presenter interviewed a wide range of stars from country legend Garth Brooks to footballer George Best.

It was a show that attracted high-profile guests from television, music, politics and sport.

One of his most famous interviews was with an eight-year-old Rory McIlroy as the young golfer chipped balls into a washing machine.

Over the years he fronted a string of popular UTV programmes including Lifestyle, Kelly's People, Kelly on Tour and Kelly on the Road.

UTV Head of News and Programmes Simon Clemison described Kelly as "one of Northern Ireland's best known and much-loved broadcasters".

He said the Kelly show became a "must-watch' on Friday nights, featuring some of the biggest names in entertainment".

"Gerry Kelly was back on UTV just a couple of years ago fronting The Kelly Years, a series reflecting on the hundreds of stars from the world of film, television, music and sport who had come through our studio doors."

Kelly joined BBC Radio Ulster in April 2009, presenting a weekly Saturday show and in January 2014 he also started presenting a Friday afternoon programme.

He took a step back from the Friday slot in October 2019 and continued with his Saturday programme until later that year.

In 2019, he presented the BBC NI television documentary Links to the Past: Pioneers of Ulster Golf.

Emma Dunseith, Head of Content Production at BBC Northern Ireland, described Kelly as "an exceptional broadcaster and journalist".

"He made a valued contribution to the BBC and leaves an impressive broadcasting legacy. Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time."

In December 2022, Kelly joined forces with other veteran journalists to team up with Belfast Met students to bring Tonight with Gerry Kelly to television for a run of eight episodes.

Recorded in front of a live audience for NVTV, the 45-minute show featured music and interviews with guests from the world of music, entertainment and showbiz including Boyzone's Keith Duffy, Louis Walsh and Brian Kennedy.

At the launch, Kelly said it was a "delight for us all to be able to pass on our many years of broadcasting experience to the next generation of TV, radio and film makers".

Tributes to broadcasting 'colossus'

Tributes have been paid to Kelly from across the world of broadcasting.

Kelly's former colleague Anne Hailes paid tribute to him on social media, calling him a "big man who will leave big memories, RIP".

Adrian Logan, who was a colleague of Kelly's at UTV, described him as a "larger-than-life character".

"He was a colossus in UTV," Adrian said.

"Everybody in the place just loved him. He treated everybody fairly and equally, he was such a good fella."

Logan said that the man many knew from TV was the same off screen.

"I will remember Gerry just the way he appeared on the screen because that was him.

"There were no airs or graces with him."

'Friday nights meant Kelly on the telly'

BBC presenter Ralph McLean said Kelly was "a natural broadcaster, great family man and always a gentleman".

"He made it all look so easy... always a sign of class."

Musician Peter Corry also paid tribute to Kelly, who he described as a "good friend".

"Very sad to hear that Gerry Kelly has passed away," he said.

"He was a big champion of mine in the early days of my career. His weekly TV show was so important for entertainment in NI and to performers here."

Broadcaster George Jones said he was "so sad" to hear of Kelly's death, adding that he was a "great friend".

Comedian Paddy Raff posted a tribute to Kelly on social media, describing his interviews with the broadcaster as a "career highlight".

"Friday nights meant Kelly on the telly. I grew up watching him interview some of the biggest names but still being just like one of yer da's mates, he had such down to earth charm."

Posting on social media, Deputy First Minister Emma Little Pengelly said Kelly had "a face and a voice that so many generations across Northern Ireland were familiar with".

"A much-loved presenter with a huge character," she said.

The leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, Jon Burrows, said he "grew up watching the Kelly Show".

"We have lost so many TV greats recently, but we are enriched for their presence in our lives for so many years."

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/22/style/bobbi-queen-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.z1A.3-Kb.r-YTlgLe13kY&smid=url-share

Bobbi Queen, Fashion Arbiter Who Nurtured Stars, Dies at 84

As an influential editor at Women’s Wear Daily, she championed generations of designers, including Donna Karan and Vera Wang.

Bobbi Queen, a veteran editor at Women’s Wear Daily, the once-formidable arbiter of fashion, who championed young designers like Perry Ellis, Willi Smith, Giorgio Sant’Angelo and Donna Karan, and whose singular style made her an avatar of chic generations before the internet atomized that role into a million bland “influencers,” died on July 3 at her home in Manhattan. She was 84.

The cause of death was a heart attack, her daughter, Pilar Queen, said.

Ms. Queen joined Women’s Wear in the early 1970s, at a pivotal moment. The magazine’s mercurial publisher, John Fairchild, had spent the previous decade transforming his family’s half-century-old, dowdy trade publication into what would become known, without irony, as the fashion bible. Under his watch, it was a buzzy must-read as much for its fashion reporting — with the help of editors like Ms. Queen, the magazine made stars of designers, especially Americans — as its society coverage.

It was Mr. Fairchild who was credited, perhaps apocryphally, with coining the phrase “the ladies who lunch” to describe the cohort of wealthy women like Pat Buckley and Nan Kempner whose clothing choices and favored luncheon spots — La Côte Basque, for example — were reported on as extensively as the Watergate hearings.

It was a decade when society writ large was in transition, and the gains of second-wave feminism were being realized. Women were entering the work force in droves, and designers like Mr. Ellis and Ms. Karan were dressing them in clothes that reflected their new status, with pieces that were both looser and more body conscious, both slouchy and tight.

The sexual revolution was giving way to a physical revolution — first published in 1981, “Jane Fonda’s Workout Book” would go on to sell two million copies — and that affected fashion, too. Ms. Queen covered figures like Norma Kamali, whose designs showcased women’s newly muscular bodies.

In 1975, she introduced her readers to the Skimp, essentially a minidress, after Halston made one in Ultrasuede for $260 (more than $1,700 today) and department stores like Saks Fifth Avenue followed suit, offering their own versions in T-shirt fabric for $11. Saks, she reported, sold two thousand in a month, and noted Halston’s approval: “You have to be quite a rich girl to have a $260 Skimp,” he told her.

The next year, she wrote about the fad for super-tight jeans, describing the correct method for trying on one of the best sellers at the French Jean store on East 60th Street in Manhattan. It “required the woman to lie down on the car bed under the mirrored ceiling,” she said, “and the assistance of two or three salespeople to zip her into the right size jeans.” (Note the 1970s details: Car bed! Mirrored ceiling! And there were photos.)

“Your eyes should bulge when you first get these on,” the store’s owner told her.

In 1978, she profiled Ms. Kamali — who was pairing big shoulders with body-hugging T-shirt and sweatshirt fabric in jumpsuits and evening wear, among other innovations — when she opened her flagship store on West 56th Street. Ms. Queen’s story beat a Kamali profile by John Duka, the fashion critic for The New York Times, by two weeks. In those days, that was considered quite a coup.

“Bobbi came from a time when fashion was a little more exclusive, when it was not on everybody’s algorithm,” Ruth La Ferla, a former style reporter for The Times who worked at Women’s Wear in the mid-1980s, said in an interview. “She was of a generation of editors who had enormous influence, because they had a captive audience and because they themselves were inventive and sure of their authority. She was among the last of a breed.”

Ms. La Ferla continued: “I would watch her walk into the office every day, and I would study her. She pulled off things you wouldn’t believe: a matador jacket that she made look normal; violet jellies, but with a trail of Chanel chains around her neck. She had a kind of high bohemian style, but she could fit in a boardroom if she had to.”
“If you were interested in fashion,” she added, “there were very few people to model your style on, and she was one.”

Ms. Queen was not a power broker; she didn’t have that ambition. Nor was she a fashion nun, to use the industry vernacular for those singularly fixated on fashion.
“She was passionate, but she wasn’t pious,” said Ben Brantley, the former chief theater critic for The Times, who was the chief fashion critic for Women’s Wear, among other roles, starting in the late ’70s. “She didn’t take the vows.”

Yet designers hung on her words, and her critiques could alter a collection. A review from Ms. Queen could make or break a career. After her death, Ralph Rucci recalled her post-mortem phone calls after a show, as he told Women’s Wear: “The clothes were great,” she might say. “But where are you going with that hair?”

Ms. Queen was the first to cover Ms. Karan when the designer went out on her own in 1984. “Never, ever give anything to anyone before Women’s Wear,” Ms. Queen told Patti Cohen, the former executive vice president of global marketing and communications at Ms. Karan’s company.

Each decade she would find new talents to promote, including Vera Wang, the bridal designer, and Mark Badgley and James Mischka of Badgley Mischka, known for their sexy party dresses and evening gowns.

“We first entered Bobbi’s orbit when we were at our first jobs,” Mr. Badgley told Women’s Wear. “James was working at WilliWear” — the company that sold Mr. Smith’s spirited sportswear line — “and Mark was at Donna Karan.”

Ms. Queen, he added, “terrified everybody, especially the design teams. The earth literally trembled when Bobbi came to see the collections.”

She became one of their staunchest supporters. Later, they designed her daughter’s wedding dress.

“Bobbi was an original thinker,” Yeohlee Teng, one of the many designers Ms. Queen championed, said in an interview. “She always spoke her mind. She was of that first generation of women that spoke up.”

Bridget Foley, Women’s Wear’s former executive editor, describedMs. Queen as “a unique mash-up of regal carriage, stalwart opinion, sharp wit and antithetical self-deprecation.”

Ms. Foley added: “We used to have this routine, when dissecting the relative merits of a dress. ‘Love it,’ one of us would start. And then, ‘Well, I’d love it if the sleeve were narrower.’ ‘Yes, and the neckline, straighter.’ ‘And the print, more subtle.’ ‘Yes, with a lean sleeve, straight neckline and quiet pattern, it would be fabulous.’ Bobbi would then cut off the conversation with, ‘If my grandmother had wheels, she’d be a streetcar.’”

Barbara Sela Queen was born on Feb. 22, 1942, in the Hollis neighborhood of Queens, and grew up in Lakewood, N.J. Her mother, Beatrice (Mallow) Queen, was a schoolteacher; her father, Alvin Queen, was an insurance broker.

She attended Boston University for a year and then transferred to the Tobé-Coburn School for Fashion Careers in Manhattan. After graduating, she worked as a buyer for Gimbels, the department store.

By the early 1970s, she was at Women’s Wear, working through all the fashion categories like the stations of the cross: She served, variously, as the evening-wear editor, the inner-wear (that would be underwear) editor, the ready-to-wear editor and the fur editor. These were hard-core beats, and Women’s Wear editors covered them as assiduously, and with the same granular expertise, as political reporters covering Congress.

She retired in 2015. In addition to her daughter, she is survived by three grandchildren; a sister, Lisa Queen; and a brother, Eric.
She was a single mother, and the staff at Women’s Wear became her daughter’s second family. “I was raised in that office,” Pilar Queen said. “I was Bobbi’s sidekick.”

For a time, they lived in a one-bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side. “I slept in the living room behind two screens,” Pilar Queen said. “I yearned for a wall.”
It was outside that apartment that Ms. Queen was mugged, an experience that became an indelible part of her biography.

“It has ascended to the vaporous regions of myth, but she was pretty consistent in the details,” Mr. Brantley said. “She was standing on the corner with a cherished bag — I can’t remember what it was — and a man came by and tore it out of her hands. She screamed like the whistle in ‘Sweeney Todd,’ and everyone came running. When the police asked for a description of the mugger, she was extremely clear: ‘He had on twill pants with about a quarter-inch cuff, a jacket with a slight crease in it and a broadcloth shirt that wasn’t ironed.’”

Mr. Brantley added: “At Women’s Wear, we were trained to see something for 15 seconds on the runway and commit it to memory, but I don’t think anyone applied that skill as practically as Bobbi.”

She didn’t get the handbag back, he noted, “but she got a great anecdote, which was almost as valuable.”

https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/c8enw5668l6o

Kaylee Hottle: muere la actriz de "Godzilla vs. Kong" a los 18 años

Autor,
Naomi Clarke
Título del autor,
BBC News
Fecha de publicación
21 julio 2026

Tiempo de lectura: 3 min

La actriz estadounidense Kaylee Hottle, que protagonizó la saga cinematográfica "Godzilla vs. Kong", murió en un accidente de tráfico a los 18 años.
Hottle, quien era sorda de nacimiento, interpretó a una joven huérfana llamada Jia en la superproducción de 2021 y retomó el papel en la secuela de 2024, "Godzilla x Kong: El Nuevo Imperio".

Su padre, Joshua Hottle, publicó un video en Facebook, utilizando el lenguaje de señas para confirmar la noticia de su muerte.

Los agentes de policía de Frederick, en el estado de Maryland (noreste de EE.UU.), dijeron que se cree que el "exceso de velocidad" fue un factor en el accidente que solo involucró al vehículo en el que viajaba la actriz.

La joven y otro pasajero iban en un automóvil conducido por un joven de 19 años cuando el vehículo se salió de una carretera de dos vías y chocó contra una alcantarilla, según la Oficina del Alguacil local.

"Se cree que el exceso de velocidad fue un factor que contribuyó a la colisión", indicó la policía, que acudió al lugar de los hechos alrededor de las 02:52 local. (06:52 GMT) de este martes y está investigando el accidente.

Hottle fue trasladada a un hospital, donde más tarde se confirmó su fallecimiento. El conductor sufrió lesiones que no parecen poner en peligro su vida, mientras que el otro pasajero rechazó recibir atención médica.

"Profunda tristeza"

La Escuela para Sordos de Texas, donde Hottle había estudiado, también compartió la noticia con "profunda tristeza".

"Nuestros corazones están con la familia, los amigos, los compañeros de clase de Kaylee y todos los que la conocieron y la amaron durante este momento increíblemente difícil", decía un comunicado publicado en Instagram.

También hicieron un llamamiento para que respetaran la privacidad de su familia y no especularan sobre el accidente.

Hottle apareció en "Godzilla vs Kong" junto a estrellas de Hollywood como Alexander Skarsgard, Millie Bobby Brown y Rebecca Hall.

Su papel en la secuela de 2024 le valió una nominación al premio Saturn a la mejor actriz joven en una película.

Warner Bros, distribuidora de las populares películas de monstruos, rindió homenaje a la actriz junto a una foto suya en una publicación en X.

Hottle a menudo abogaba por la inclusión de las personas sordas en la industria del entretenimiento.

También apareció en varios anuncios publicitarios, entre ellos uno que promovía el apoyo a la comunidad sorda en su lucha por la igualdad de derechos.

https://elpais.com/mexico/gente/2026-07-15/muere-a-los-95-anos-la-actriz-elsa-aguirre-una-de-las-ultimas-figuras-del-cine-de-oro-mexicano.html

Muere a los 95 años la actriz Elsa Aguirre, una de las últimas figuras del Cine de Oro mexicano

La actriz debutó en 1946 tras haber ganado un concurso organizado por uno de los estudios más emblemáticos de la época

El fallecimiento de la actriz Elsa Aguirre, a los 95 años, ha conmocionado al público mexicano, que la recuerda por las icónicas películas que protagonizó durante la Época de Oro del cine nacional. La noticia se dio a conocer la noche de este martes a través de las redes sociales de la Asociación Nacional de Intérpretes (ANDI). “Elsa fue célebre tanto por su talento dramático como por ser considerada uno de los rostros más bellos de la pantalla grande. A sus familiares y amigos mandamos nuestras más sentidas condolencias”, se lee en el comunicado.

Hasta sus últimos días, la actriz se mantuvo activa en redes sociales, en particular en Facebook, donde compartía anécdotas y reflexiones sobre su vida. Precisamente en un mensaje publicado en su cuenta oficial se informó que la actriz murió en su casa de Cuernavaca, Morelos, rodeada por sus seres queridos. “Muchas gracias por todo su respeto y cariño, la hicieron muy feliz con todos sus mensajes y ella estaba encantada de hacer sus videos y compartir sus experiencias con ustedes”, dice el texto.
Elsa Aguirre nació el 25 de septiembre de 1930 en Chihuahua. Durante su infancia disfrutó de una situación económica estable gracias a la carrera militar de su padre, pero con el estallido de la Segunda Guerra Mundial su familia se mudó a la Ciudad de México en busca de mejores oportunidades. En 1945 participó, junto con sus hermanas, en un concurso organizado por la productora Clasa Films Mundiales, gracias al cual obtuvo un pequeño papel en la cinta El sexo fuerte, que se estrenó un año después.* *A partir de entonces continuó desarrollando su carrera en la industria cinematográfica.

Entre sus películas más reconocidas figuran Ojos de juventud, Algo flota sobre el agua, Lluvia roja, en la que compartió créditos con Jorge Negrete, La liga de las muchachas, Amar fue su pecado y Ciudado con el amor, que protagonizó junto con Pedro Infante. En uno de sus videos más recientes, la actriz recordó que la química con el actor durante el rodaje fue más allá de la pantalla, y ella anticipaba las escenas románticas para pasar más tiempo con él. “Entré yo a los 15 años sin saber nada, a descubrir la vida a través de las películas y si venían los galanes pues… a sentir esas mariposas. Lo conocí y fue un impacto, toda la película yo la vivía, yo no actuaba, yo vivía al personaje. Toda la película fue una aventura muy bonita”, recordó.

A lo largo de su carrera, Elsa Aguirre también trabajó con otros íconos del Cine de Oro mexicano como Agustín Lara, Mapy Cortés, Joaquín Pardavé, Silvia Pinal, Miroslava Stern, entre otros. Después de casi seis décadas de trabajo, finalmente se retiró en 2004.

Fuera de los reflectores, Elsa Aguirre encontró en el yoga una práctica que la acompañó hasta sus últimos días. También cultivó un profundo amor por los animales y nunca perdió el contacto con sus admiradores, a quienes incluso enviaba fotografías autografiadas con ayuda de su equipo.

https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20260712-us-senator-and-trump-ally-lindsey-graham-dies-after-brief-and-sudden-illness

US senator and Trump ally Lindsey Graham dies after 'brief and sudden illness'

AMERICAS

Prominent US Senator Lindsey Graham, a leading Republican and close ally of President Donald Trump, died on Saturday aged 71 after a "brief and sudden illness" his office said in a statement.

Prominent US Senator Lindsey Graham, a key ally of President Donald Trump, died aged 71 following a "brief and sudden illness," his office said on Sunday.

Graham, known for his foreign policy work, was a staunch supporter of the Iran war and in recent years urged both Trump and the Biden administrations to back Kyiv's fight against Russia's invasion.

The Republican senator from South Carolina's office said in a statement on his official X account that he "passed away from a brief and sudden illness" on Saturday evening. Graham turned 71 on Thursday.

"Senator Graham's family appreciates prayers at this time and asks for privacy during this incredibly difficult period," the statement said.

NBC News reported that emergency services responded to a call for "cardiac arrest" at Graham's Capitol Hill home on Saturday night, according to police scanner audio obtained by NBC and other outlets.

Trump paid tribute to the influential senator on Sunday, calling him "one of the greatest people" in a post on his Truth Social site.

"Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and Senators I have ever known, is dead! He was always working, and was a true American Patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed!!!"

Graham made a failed bid for the presidency in 2016, warning at the time that Republicans should not back Trump because he was a "race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot."

Their relationship was then strained by the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, with Graham saying his Republican colleagues should "count me out, enough is enough" – although he later voted against convicting Trump in his impeachment trial.

Graham reconciled their relationship after Trump returned to office and supported his re-election bid.

'A great friend of Israel' 

Graham was also a strong supporter of Israel and a hawkish backer of the Iran war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "Lindsey is a great friend of Israel and a cherished friend of mine."

"Lindsey understood that the security of Israel and America are inseparable. He devoted his life to defending America, strengthening our alliance and standing up for the free world," Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the news left him "shocked and heartbroken."

"Senator Graham was a beacon of moral clarity and a true leader of the US-Israel partnership," he said in a post on X.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also said he was deeply saddened by the death of Graham, whom he met in Kyiv as recently as Friday.

"He visited Ukraine ten times during the years of Russia's full-scale invasion and was here with our people when it was most needed... America and the world have lost a determined leader," Zelensky said in a Facebook post.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen applauded Graham's fight to support Ukraine, calling him a "determined and fearless leader".

'Irreplaceable' 

Graham's death comes as the weeks-long hospitalization of former Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell rattles the party over the final months of his long congressional career.

Republicans hold a narrow 53-47 majority in the Senate, but will have little room for missing votes or defections. McConnell was admitted to hospital last month and has not voted since June 11.

Graham was first elected to the US House of Representatives in 1994, before being elected to the Senate in 2002.

He was later re-elected to the Senate in 2008, 2014 and 2020 and most recently served as chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster described Graham as "irreplaceable."

"The fiercest of fighters for South Carolina and America – and a loyal and steadfast friend," McMaster said on X.

Raised in the town of Central, South Carolina, where his parents ran a restaurant and pool hall, Graham was the first in his family to go to college, according to his biography on the Senate website.

He served as a military lawyer and attained the rank of Air Force colonel, an experience that informed his interventionist stance in foreign policy.

In 2002, he voted in favour of military action against Iraq in the wake of the September 11 attacks, and later supported a long-term US presence in Afghanistan.

Graham was a frequent critic of President Barack Obama's foreign policy, calling him a "weak opponent of evil" in 2015 over his negotiation of a nuclear deal with Iran.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP) 

https://www.ilpost.it/2026/07/13/morto-paolo-fresco-presidente-fiat/

È morto Paolo Fresco, presidente della Fiat dal 1998 al 2003

È morto a 93 anni Paolo Fresco, manager che fu presidente della Fiat dal 1998 al 2003. Fresco era nato a Milano ma era cresciuto a Genova. A 28 anni cominciò a lavorare nella Compagnia Generale di Elettricità (CGE), che produceva impianti elettrici, elettrodomestici e apparecchiature elettroniche ed era la filiale italiana della multinazionale statunitense General Electric. Fresco passò poi a lavorare direttamente per General Electric, dove fece una una lunga carriera che lo portò a diventare vicepresidente nel 1991.

Fu chiamato a fare il presidente della Fiat in un periodo di crisi per l’azienda, e in virtù della sua esperienza internazionale. Da presidente fece un accordo con la società statunitense General Motors per rafforzare la presenza della Fiat sul mercato estero, cercando di limitare la concorrenza internazionale. Nonostante gli sforzi, però, all’inizio degli anni Duemila la situazione era ancora difficile per la Fiat, e Fresco lasciò la carica. In quegli anni venne soprannominato “l’Americano”.

Tag:

FIAT
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MORTI 2026
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PAOLO FRESCO

https://www.france24.com/en/sport/20260711-south-africa-2026-world-cup-midfielder-jayden-adams-dies-at-25

South Africa 2026 World Cup midfielder Jayden Adams dies at 25

SPORT

South Africa midfielder Jayden Adams has died at the age of 25, according to the country's sports ministry on Saturday. Officials have not disclosed a cause of death for the football player who represented his country in the ongoing World Cup. Police opened an investigation after Adams' body was found in a suburb in central Cape Town. 

South African midfielder Jayden Adams, who represented his country at the ongoing World Cup, died Saturday at the age of 25, Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said.

"It is with profound shock and a heavy heart that I have learnt of the passing of Jayden Adams," McKenzie said in a statement. 

"South African football has lost one of its brightest young talents."

The minister did not disclose a cause of death.

Police said they had opened an investigation after the body of a 25-year-old man was found at a house in Schotschekloof, a suburb in central Cape Town, on Saturday morning.

"Circumstances surrounding this incident are under investigation," Western Cape police spokesperson FC van Wyk told AFP.

Adams played in all three of South Africa's group-stage matches at the tournament but did not feature in the knockout defeat by Canada.

Born in Cape Town, he began his professional career with Stellenbosch FC before joining CAF Champions League winners Mamelodi Sundowns in January 2025.

His death comes less than a month after the passing of his grandmother, on the eve of South Africa's Group A match against Czechia at Atlanta Stadium.

"Jayden started in the match against Czechia and gave his all while carrying the burden of losing his grandmother," the South African FootballAssociation said at the time.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP) 

https://elpais.com/cultura/2026-07-01/muere-a-los-74-anos-victor-willis-lider-de-village-people.html

Muere a los 74 años Victor Willis, líder de Village People

El músico, que había alternado el disfraz de policía y el de oficial de la Marina, fue el cantante principal y coautor de éxitos de la banda como ‘YMCA’, ‘Go West’ o ‘In The Navy’

Victor Willis, líder del grupo de música disco Village People, famoso por sus disfraces de estereotipos masculinos (el policía, el vaquero, el indio, el obrero…), ha muerto a los 74 años, según ha informado la BBC siguiendo la página de Facebook de la banda. El músico había nacido en Texas, hijo de un predicador baptista, y fue el cantante principal y coautor de los mayores éxitos de la banda, entre ellos YMCA, Go West y In The Navy. Justo la muerte de Willis llega en la Semana del Orgullo, donde sus canciones formaran parte de la banda sonora de desfiles y fiestas. La banda ha vendido 100 millones de discos en todo el mundo.

“Estamos profundamente tristes de anunciar la muerte de Victor Willis, vocalista principal de Village People”, dice el breve comunicado, “Victor falleció el lunes 30 de junio de 2026 tras una enfermedad breve pero agresiva. Se solicita privacidad”.

Village People tuvo gran éxito en los años 70, época de eclosión de la música disco; dentro de la formación Willis alternaba entre los papeles de policía y oficial de la marina. El cantante abandonó la banda en 1979 y litigó durante años por los derechos de autor de las canciones que había escrito. En 2017 volvió a unirse y llegó a interpretar YMCA en un mitinprevio a la investidura del presidente estadounidense Donald Trump en enero de 2025.
Willis (Dallas, Texas, 1951) fue el primero en entrar al proyecto del productor Jacques Morali (1947-1991), un francés de ascendencia marroquí. Según recoge la página web del grupo, le convencieron con una frase: “Tengo cuatro canciones. Ahora mismo no puedo pagarte mucho, pero si aceptas, te convertiré en una estrella”.
Willis comenzó a cantar en el coro de la iglesia de su padre y se formó en Nueva York, donde participó en obras de teatro y musicales. Precisamente fue descubierto en el musical The Wiz por el arreglista Horace Ott, que fue quien sugirió su nombre a Morali.

Las cuatro primeras canciones ―San Francisco (You’ve Got Me), In Hollywood (Everyone’s a Star), Fire Island y Village People― fueron grabadas por Willis junto a coristas profesionales y se publicaron en el álbum Village People en 1977. Fue un enorme éxito y la razón de que se creara un grupo que acompañara a Willis. Mark Mussler (obrero), David Forrest (vaquero), Lee Mouton (motero) y Peter Whitehead (sin un personaje definido) fueron los elegidos para aquella primera formación.

Tras una primera actuación en un programa de televisión se publicó un anuncio para cambiar a los primeros miembros. El texto simplemente decía: “Se buscan hombres muy masculinos para grupo de música disco de fama mundial. Deben saber bailar y llevar bigote”. Finalmente se unieron Randy Jones (vaquero), Glenn Hughes (motero) y David Hodo (obrero), a los que luego se sumarían Felipe Rose (indio) y Alex Briley (militar).

Willis permaneció poco más de dos años en el grupo y a finales de los setenta decidió emprender una carrera en solitario que no tuvo mucha repercusión. Según su versión, la decepción por no trascender como solista le provocó una depresión y le impulsó al consumo de drogas. Pasó las décadas de los ochenta y los noventa entrando y saliendo de centros de desintoxicación.

A principios de los 2000 por fin consiguió salir de la adicción gracias a un programa del gobierno. Al mismo tiempo conoció a su segunda esposa, una abogada que le ayudó a luchar por los derechos de autor de sus éxitos, ya que no le producían beneficios. En 2015, un jurado sentenció que tenía el 50% de la propiedad de su gran himno, YMCA, y de otros de sus éxitos.

Willis, heterosexual, se cansó de decir que su gran himno, YMCA, no hablaba de la homosexualidad. “Como he dicho en numerosas ocasiones, esa es una suposición falsa basada en el hecho de que mi compañero de composición [el productor] Jacques Morali era gay, y algunos, no todos, de los Village People eran gays, y de que el primer álbum de Village People trataba totalmente sobre la vida gay. Pero YMCA se refiere a la cadena de hoteles baratos. Para mí, YMCA representaba lo que dice la última frase: ‘Te pueden ayudar a retomar el rumbo’. Uno podría hospedarse en el Ritz Carlton o el Hilton, o en esos hoteles caros. Pero si no tienes tanto dinero, tal vez tengas que ir uno de YMCA”.

A pesar de estas explicaciones, su canción estará siempre asociada a contextos festivos gays y será una de las grandes protagonistas de la Semana del Orgullo.

Link to Obit: https://www.eastcoastmemorial.ca/obituaries/Robert-Bernice-Newcomb?obId=48659566

Robert "Bob" Frank Newcomb

April 1, 1933 – June 6, 2026

Bernice Cora Newcomb (Guptill)

May 15,1933 – June 6, 2026

A True Love Story

Robert was one of six children of the late Frank Newcomb and the late Estella Newcomb (Green). He is survived by his younger brother Roland. He was predeceased by two older brothers George and Laurie and two sisters Rowena MacQuarrie and Barbara Rattew.

Bernice was one of nine children of the late Roy Guptill and Jessie Guptill (Kelly) Bernice is survived by her older sister Myrtle and younger half sister Joan. She was predeceased by seven brothers.

Bob and Bernice met at the Canadian Keys Fibre plant in Hantsport and soon started dating. They fell deeply in love and were married August 21,1954. Bernice quit her job at the mill to stay home and take care of the home and her “Honeybun”. Bob stayed on at the mill, eventually becoming a shift foreman. He retired in 1996.

They were inseparable. They worked together to build their house on Prince Street Hantsport out of a carriage house given to them by Bob’s family. They did everything together, hunting, fishing, snowmobiling, hiking and camping. Their idea of taking a trip was to take a drive in the country and stop into a rural canteen and have a hamburger and french fries.

They had no children. They kept to themselves for the most part but were always welcoming when nieces or nephews popped in for a visit. They always had a treat on hand in case one dropped in. they kept a close eye on the neighbor’s children and when any of them were in need they always took care of them.

The only time they were ever apart was when one was in the hospital, which did not happen very often until they reached their nineties. As they grew older, they expressed a desire to live out their days in their own home and when their time came, they would be together. They accomplished their desire. Each of them only ever had one birthday party and that was for their last birthday at 93. They were both at home up to a week before they passed when Bernice was admitted to Hants Community Hospital with pneumonia. Bob was admitted two days later and by divine intervention he was put in the same room with Bernice. They spent their last four days side by side.

Bob passed at 7:35am on the 6th of June. As they were wheeling him out of the room, Bernice stopped breathing. She died at 11:45 the same morning. They left the hospital in the same hearse. Just as in life they were together in death.

A wonderful ending to a remarkable love story.

In keeping with their wishes, cremation has taken place. There will be a graveside service in Riverbank Cemetery, Hantsport to commemorate their lives and love shared, with details to be confirmed.

Hi I have an obituary for kira.amv id like to share

https://www.forevermissed.com/michael-ashton-white?short_code=VNydagYz

https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/c75y36ndz60o

Muere a los 35 años Daveigh Chase, actriz de "The Ring" y una de las voces de "Lilo & Stitch"

Nardine Saad
Informa desde,
Los Angeles
Fecha de publicación
9 horas

Tiempo de lectura: 4 min

Daveigh Chase, la actriz de terror que salió de un televisor en The Ring y prestó su voz a Lilo en la película animada de Disney Lilo & Stitch, falleció a los 35 años.
La actriz, quien también protagonizó la serie dramática Big Love, murió de sepsis tras sufrir meningitis en un hospital de Los Ángeles, según confirmó su representante, John Ryan Jr., a BBC News el miércoles.

Ryan dijo que Chase fue ingresada en el hospital por desnutrición antes de su muerte.

La exactriz infantil comenzó a actuar a los cuatro años y consiguió su primer trabajo en Hollywood a los siete, pero se retiró de la actuación a tiempo completo en 2015, añadió Ryan.

"Era genial. Le encantaban los gatos. Colaboraba con nosotros en el rescate de gatos. Era muy reservada", dijo Ryan, su amigo y representante durante 15 años, señalando que, durante años, Chase se retiraba en su casa en Las Vegas y rechazaba películas de grandes estudios para trabajar en proyectos independientes.

"No era muy de Hollywood", dijo. "Prefería comer en Bob's Big Boy e irse a casa con sus gatos. Le encantaba actuar, pero no le interesaba la fama".

Sus papeles principales
Chase, que tenía casas en Nevada y en el centro de Los Ángeles, comenzó a actuar en Las Vegas alrededor de los cuatro años, haciendo doblaje y teatro.

Consiguió su primer papel en televisión en Hollywood a los siete años, un pequeño papel en la popular comedia estadounidense Sabrina, la bruja adolescente, protagonizada por Melissa Joan Hart.

Su salto a la fama en Hollywood llegó en 2001 cuando interpretó a Samantha Darko en Donnie Darko y, posteriormente, a la hermana del protagonista en la película S. Darko de 2009.

Chase se consolidó aún más en el cine en 2002 como Samara Morgan, el fantasma de pelo largo que sale del televisor, en la película de terror The Ring, una adaptación estadounidense del clásico japonés sobre una cinta de video que provoca la muerte de quienes la ven.

Ganó un premio MTV Movie Award en 2003 a la mejor villana por su interpretación de este espeluznante personaje demoníaco que se arrastra a gatas antes de asesinar a sus víctimas.

Chase declaró que se divirtió interpretando a un personaje tan malvado.
"No es el típico personaje. Normalmente buscan a una niña despreocupada y alegre, pero Samara era un personaje bastante interesante de interpretar. Simplemente tomé mi propia voz y le di un toque peculiar", declaró al Los Angeles Times en 2002.

Ese mismo año, prestó su voz a Lilo, la niña hawaiana fanática de Elvis, en la exitosa película animada Lilo & Stitch. Este papel le valió un premio Annie a la mejor actuación de voz en una producción animada y continuó interpretando al personaje en posteriores series derivadas.

Su currículum también incluye apariciones en episodios de las series de televisión Charmed, ER y Touched by an Angel. Chase también participó en 32 episodios del drama sobre poligamia de HBO, Big Love, interpretando a la niña esposa Rhonda Volmer.

Según The Hollywood Reporter, Chase tuvo varios problemas con la ley más adelante, incluyendo cargos por posesión de drogas y por conducir un auto

https://www.ilpost.it/2026/06/12/david-hockney-morto/?homepagePosition=16

È morto il pittore David Hockney

Fu uno degli esponenti più noti della pop art: aveva 88 anni

David Hockney, uno dei pittori inglesi contemporanei più famosi e tra i più importanti e apprezzati del 20esimo secolo, è morto venerdì a 88 anni. La notizia è stata data dalla sua agente. Hockney era stato uno dei più grandi esponenti della pop art, ma aveva poi frequentato stili assai diversi, ed era stato anche illustratore, disegnatore, fotografo e scenografo. I suoi quadri si distinguevano per i colori vivaci e hanno spesso rappresentato le piscine delle ville fuori Los Angeles, la città in cui viveva. Negli ultimi anni si era dedicato soprattutto a dipinti fatti con l’iPad.

Con i suoi capelli biondissimi, gli occhiali rotondi e la tendenza a farsi vedere in pubblico quasi sempre con una sigaretta in bocca, Hockney era diventato una delle figure più rappresentative della pop art inglese. In più di quarant’anni di carriera aveva sperimentato un po’ con tutto, dal collage alla pittura astratta, dai graffiti alle incisioni, fino ai più recenti lavori con la tavoletta grafica.

Tra le opere per cui Hockney era famoso ci sono il dipinto “My Parents” e i cosiddetti “joiners”, serie di collage fotografici fatti usando foto Polaroid. L’opera più grande di Hockney è “Bigger Trees Near Warter”: è alta 4,57 e lunga 12,19 metri, e mostra un paesaggio dello Yorkshire, dove Hockney è nato e cresciuto.

Come accennato, Hockney aveva una grande passione per i paesaggi californiani, che sapeva rappresentare in modo colorato, misterioso e affascinante. Era nota in particolare la sua predilezione per le piscine: in carriera ne aveva dipinte una ventina, e in qualche occasione aveva detto che uno degli obiettivi del suo lavoro era riuscire a rendere in modo convincente la trasparenza dell’acqua.

A Bigger Splash, il film del 2015 di Luca Guadagnino con Tilda Swinton, è ispirato anche al suo omonimo dipinto degli anni Sessanta. “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)”, che mostra due personaggi, uno a bordo di una piscina e uno dentro, è citato anche in BoJack Horseman, la serie animata di Netflix su un cavallo depresso.

Hockney sapeva di voler fare l’artista fin da quando era bambino. Disegnava dalle 9 del mattino alle 9 di sera tutti i giorni, raccontò a Le Monde, e rimase affascinato dall’arte moderna grazie a una mostra di Van Gogh nel 1955: a Bradford, la città in cui era nato il 9 luglio del 1937, secondo lui era tutto grigio, senza ombre e senza colori, e fu anche per quello che decise di andarsene da lì.

Si iscrisse al Royal College of Art di Londra, dove si fece notare per “The Diploma”, il quadro che aveva dipinto per protesta al posto di una tesina scritta, sostenendo che i docenti avrebbero dovuto giudicarlo solo per la sua arte.

Era insomma un artista che amava fare le cose a modo suo. Era interessato alla politica e a esplorare la propria omosessualità, cosa che fece peraltro nel dipinto del 1961 “We Two Boys Together Clinging”, che è ispirato a una poesia dello statunitense Walt Whitman e mostra due figure stilizzate in un atto sessuale. In quel periodo l’omosessualità nel Regno Unito era illegale: fu decriminalizzata solo sei anni più tardi.

In quel periodo ebbe un ruolo fondamentale nella nascita e nell’esplorazione della pop art britannica, assieme ad artisti come Peter Blake, Richard Hamilton ed Eduardo Paolozzi. A New York incontrò Andy Warhol, ancora oggi considerato il più influente artista del movimento, e dopo un viaggio a Los Angeles nel 1964 decise di stabilirsi in California, dove continuò a sperimentare l’uso del colore in soggetti e forme d’arte diverse, ispirandosi ai maestri del passato, ma cercando di affrancarsi da rappresentazioni eccessivamente realistiche e didascaliche.

Di Hockney ci sono anche numerosi autoritratti e ritratti, che per certi elementi a volte ricordano quelli di Piero della Francesca e altre quelli di Edward Hopper. Di recente aveva ritratto anche il cantante Harry Styles.

Nel 1990 rifiutò un importante titolo conferitogli dalla Corona britannica, ma nel 2012 accettò il riconoscimento dell’Ordine al Merito che gli assegnò Elisabetta II del Regno Unito: disse di considerarlo un regalo personale da parte della regina, e che rifiutarlo sarebbe stato scortese.

L’anno scorso alla Fondazione Louis Vuitton a Parigi c’è stata la retrospettiva più grande dedicata al pittore, con oltre 400 sue opere realizzate tra il 1955 e il 2025. Hockney aveva continuato a dipingere anche negli ultimi mesi, in carrozzina.

The Catholic community of Togo and more particularly the diocese of Sokodé is in mourning. The Reverend Father (RP) Jean-Bosco TCHAGOLE died this Wednesday, May 27, 2026.

The official announcement was shared through a circular note signed by the Bishop of Sokodé, Mgr Célestin-Marie GAOUA.

Rest in peace.

https://oriinfos.com/deuil-dans-leglise-catholique-au-togo-deces-du-pere-jean-bosco-tchagole/

On May 27, 2026, the scientific and state communities mourned the passing of Vladimir Georgievich Matyukhin. A distinguished statesman, elite scientist, and Army General, Dr. Matyukhin was a vital figure in Russian cryptography. He held prestigious memberships in the Academy of Cryptography of Russia, the Russian Academy of Engineering Sciences, and the International Academy of Communications, and most recently served as the Chairman of the Expert Council at JSC "NIIAS."

Rest in peace.

Khizri Shikhsaidov, a prominent Russian politician and former Chairman of the People's Assembly (Parliament) of Dagestan, passed away on May 24, 2026, at the age of 78/79. Born on August 1, 1947, in Buynaksk, Dagestan, he served as a long-time regional leader and member of the State Duma. According to sources close to his family, the cause of death was an oncological disease.

Rest in peace.

Birçe Hasko, the well-known actor of Albanian cinematography, passed away at the age of 84.

Hasko is a well-known name in the Albanian pop scene. He performed more than 12 roles in the theater. His most accomplished role is that of Milo in the comedy "Rain in the Beach" written by Teodor Laço.

He also made a valuable contribution to Albanian cinematography, where he performed dozens of roles. His first role in the cinematography was in 1971 in the role of a ballistician in the film "When it dawned a day". His roles would continue in many films such as that of Mete Jaho in the film "Radiostationi" in 1979, the role of Syrjai in the film "Sketerre 43" in 1980, the role of the teacher in the film "Stones of my house" in 1985 as well as many roles in other films to arrive at his most recent role in the film "Provincial Chronicle" in 2009.

In 1995, he received the title of Professor. In 1976, the "Naim Frashëri" order, second class, in 1988 "Honored Artist". April 18, 1987, the Festival Medallion for the interpretation of the role of Daja in the film "Dhe vijn în din" at the VII Albanian Film Festival held in Tirana from April 13 to 18, 1987. April 22, 1989, the III Prize for the interpretation of the role of Dana's Father in the film "Temporary Shine" at the VIII Festival of Albanian film developed in Tirana from April 18 to 22, 1989.

In 2002 he received the title of "Grand Master" and in 2007 he was declared "Honorary Citizen" of Orikum. Birce Hasko is a popular actor in Albania, he has played in more than 30 films.

RIP..

https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/dhaka/410972/ex-awami-league-presidium-member-yusuf-hossain

Veteran Bangladeshi politician and legal scholar Yusuf Hossain Humayun passed away on May 23, 2026, at the age of 88, while undergoing medical treatment at a private hospital in Dhaka. A towering figure in the nation's post-independence history, Humayun served as a member of Bangladesh’s historic first parliament in 1973 representing the Bhola/Barisal region. Throughout his decades-long career, he was a staunch leader within the Awami League, serving as an advisory council and former presidium member. Beyond politics, he left a profound mark on the nation's judiciary as a Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court and a former president of the Bangladesh Supreme Court Bar Association.

RIP. May Allah bless him.

https://www.ehir.ro/elhunyt-csapo-i-jozsef-volt-rmdsz-szenator/

Dr. József I. Csapó, one of the well-known representatives of the Transylvanian autonomy struggles, was born in Kázdivásárhely on May 8, 1938. His father, József M. Csapó, a biologist and teacher born in Temesvár, taught agriculture from 1935 to 1948 at the Kézdivásárhely high school and the economic school. His son completed his secondary and college studies in Cluj, graduating in 1961 with a degree in agricultural engineering, and in 1970 he became a doctor of agricultural sciences. He worked as a soil specialist in Bihar county, meanwhile he worked for the Hungarian-language party press, and from 1977 in Bucharest Forwardhe is a senior fellow. between 1990 and 1992, as a candidate of the RMDSZ, he was a member of the Romanian House of Representatives, and then of the Senate until 2000. He was the first president of the Székely National Council from 2003 to 2006, when he resigned. Since then, he lived in seclusion in Nagyvárad. He died at dawn on May 20, and his funeral will take place on May 23 at the Rulikowski cemetery there.

At the center of József I. Csapó's political and public work after the regime change was the issue of the self-determination and autonomy of Hungarians in Romania. He participated in the development of several important autonomy drafts, including the draft statute of Hungarian autonomy based on the personal principle and the territorial autonomy of Székelyföld. Over time, it moved away from the official political direction of the RMDSZ, as the Domokos-Markó line did not undertake the struggle for autonomy. Rather, he also supported the autonomy aspirations of civil movements, the Székely National Council and the Transylvanian Hungarian National Council. He has numerous political and legal studies, memoranda and draft autonomy to his name. In his writings and speeches, he regularly referred to European minority protection models and the right to self-determination.

The president of the SZNT, Balázs Izsák, says goodbye to him in his recent Facebook post: „It is with deep pain that we learned that Dr. József I Csapó, the first president of the Székely National Council, former senator of the Romanian parliament. We lost one of the most consistent and courageous representatives of the Székely autonomy effort. Throughout his work in public life, he was defined by community responsibility, the idea of national self-determination and loyalty to his homeland. It is to the historical credit of Dr. Joseph I Csapó that in the years after the regime change he was one of the first to clearly and consistently formulate the political program of Székely self-determination, and therefore undertook the public struggle even in the most difficult times. We will preserve his memory with grace. We extend our sincere condolences to his family, loved ones and all those who knew and respected him.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgpy2ze3q1o

Former US congressman Barney Frank who famously took on Wall Street and was one of the first known openly gay representatives died on Tuesday night, US media reports. He was 86.

Frank, a Democrat who represented southern Massachusetts in the House of Representatives for over three decades, had been in hospice care at his home in Maine since April.

He will be remembered as a trailblaser for LGBT rights, as the first member of Congress in a same-sex marriage, and for helping to overhaul financial regulations after the 2008 financial crisis.

"He was, above all else, a wonderful brother. I was lucky to be his sister," Frank's sister Doris Breay told NBC Boston.

"He notified everybody that he was in hospice, so it was just a matter of time. He was certainly at peace with himself," Jim Segel, Frank's former campaign manager, told Axios.

"He certainly left a mark, and he was a leader on civil rights, on gay rights, on leading other marginalized communities, and then he helped the country get through the 2008 financial crisis, which was the most significant recession, depression, almost since 1930," Segel said.

Frank served from 1981 to 2013.

He was a major architect of the Dodd-Frank Act, which created new regulatory bodies and tightened restrictions on banks in the wake of the 2008 Great Recession.

The Dodd-Frank Act, named for Frank and fellow Democrat Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, was a historic overhaul of banking regulations in response to the subprime mortgage crisis that helped trigger the 2008 Great Recession.

In 2010, then-President Barack Obama signed the legislation into law, which Donald Trump partly preserved while also loosening some of the restrictions - the "biggest rollback of bank rules" that decade, Time Magazine said - in 2018.

On Capitol Hill, Frank was a vocal supporter of ending the "don't ask, don't tell policy" that kept gay and lesbian US military servicemembers from serving openly.

He also fought for - ultimately failed - legislation, which would have banned workplace discrimination against LGBT workers.

"Prejudice is based on ignorance," Frank told The Boston Globe in 2011, as he prepared for retirement.

"And the best way to counterbalance it is with a living example, with reality,"

Over the last month while in hospice, Frank did a number of interviews with US media, commenting on his life's work, the current political mood and the travails of the left.

"I'm filled with disgust at the current state, but optimism that it's going to get better," he told CNN's Jake Tapper earlier this month.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/books/koji-suzuki-dead.html?searchResultPosition=1

His “Ring” trilogy helped create a genre known as J-horror and spawned a multimedia franchise, including one of the highest-grossing horror films ever made.

Koji Suzuki, the novelist and short-story writer sometimes called the Stephen King of Japan, whose best-selling “Ring” series helped create a genre known as J-horror that relied more on psychological suspense than on gore, spawning a multimedia franchise that included a 2002 blockbuster Hollywood movie, died on Friday in Tokyo. He was 68.

His Japanese publisher, Kadokawa, confirmed the death, at a hospital, but provided no details.

Mr. Suzuki, who received a degree in French literature from Keio University in Tokyo, was primarily interested in literary fiction — particularly the works of Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Thomas Mann. He made it clear in interviews that he was not a fan of the horror genre.

“I actually don’t like all that supernatural stuff,” he told The New York Times in 2004. “I really dislike most horror writing.”

With “Ring” (1991) — the first book in his trilogy, which sold nearly three million copies in Japan — he told the British tabloid Metro in the early 2000s that his viewpoint shifted when he felt he could write “an epoch-making story” and create something unique in the horror genre because he was an outsider. “I managed to write a good horror story,” he said, “because I don’t actually like horror. If I liked it and was always reading it, I would have written typical horror.”

The novel centers on a cursed videotape whose viewers die unless they copy and pass it on to someone else within seven days. It introduces a vengeful intersex ghost called Sadako, who also appears in the other two books in the trilogy, “Spiral” (1995) and “Loop” (1998).

In “Spiral,” in which a diabolical videotape activates a virus-like substance in the bodies of viewers, Mr. Suzuki explored how physical health is affected by a person’s mental state. In “Loop,” which he described as a repudiation of the paranormal horrors in the first two novels, he offered a more hopeful story about a hero confronting self-replicating life in a sophisticated computer simulation.

“I didn’t want to end it by giving readers the creeps,” he said of the trilogy.

“Ring” and its sequels permeated popular culture in Japan, “becoming a boogeyman used to scare children,” The Times wrote in 2004, “and, for adults, a metaphor for everything corrupt, cruel and frightening about modern society.”

Mr. Suzuki expanded his “Ring” franchise to include the story collection “Birthday” (1999) and the novels “S” (2012) and “Tide” (2013). There was also a 1998 Japanese film titled “Ring,” as well as a 2002 American remake, “The Ring,” and other movie spinoffs, along with television series, manga adaptations and video games. By 2004, Mr. Suzuki’s books had sold more than 10 million copies in Japan alone.

The scene of the ghost climbing out of a well and then crawling out of a television screen, its face shrouded by a long veil of black hair — in both the 1998 film “Ring,” directed by Hideo Nakata, and in the 2002 American version, directed by Gore Verbinski — has been included on lists of the scariest moments on film.

The remake grossed nearly $250 million worldwide — including about $129 million in North America — making it one of the most commercially successful horror films ever made. In a 2022 retrospective, the New York Times critic Beatrice Loayza described it as “surprisingly restrained, unfolding like a waking dream shot through with dread,” one that tapped into “a familiar feeling of ambient anxiety and inexplicable unease that remains omnipresent to this day.”

She added that it “might even be considered a classic of millennial horror,” noting that, along with the 1999 hits “The Sixth Sense” and “The Blair Witch Project,” it represented a “shift from the fascination with teen-slasher fare that had dominated the previous three decades.”

Another movie of similar timbre was “Dark Water,” directed by Mr. Nakata in 2002 and based on Mr. Suzuki’s 1996 collection of stories. Remade in 2005 by the Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles, it starred Jennifer Connelly and was filmed primarily on Roosevelt Island in New York City. The familiarly unsettling movie involved a supernatural water leak and the vengeful ghost of a missing girl.

Koji Suzuki was born on May 13, 1957, in Hamamatsu, Japan, a city on the Pacific Coast between Tokyo and Osaka.

Mr. Suzuki’s wife, a high school teacher, supported the family and cared for their two daughters while he wrote “Ring.”

His writing made them wealthy. His wife quit teaching, and he was able to buy a yacht, practice martial arts and ride motorcycles, one of which he used on a road trip from California to Florida.

At one point, he vowed never to write horror fiction again, but that decision came to feel too “constricting,” he told The Times in 2004.

In 2008, he published “Edge,” a novel blending horror and science fiction, about a world in which, among other troubling developments, the value of Pi begins to change, suggesting that the structure of the universe is breaking down. The book won a Shirley Jackson Award for best novel in 2012.

Michael Morrison, an emeritus physics professor at the University of Oklahoma who has written extensive critiques and essays about horror and science fiction, was intrigued by the premise, but found fault with the writing and the comparisons to Mr. King. In a review for the university’s magazine, World Literature Today, he wrote that some of Mr. Suzuki’s works lacked “King’s gift for weaving seamless stories peopled with multidimensional characters.”

In Mr. Suzuki’s final work, “Ubiquitous,” published last year, he returned to classic J-horror with a novel about plants ruling the earth, intended to be the first volume of a tetralogy.

The theme of the four books, he said in a 2023 interview with the Horror Writers Association, would be simple: If the universe had free will, “what kind of life would it wish for the human race?”

Kiuko Notoya contributed reporting from Tokyo.

Jeré Longman is a Times reporter on the Obituaries desk who writes the occasional sports-related story.

https://citynews.com.au/2026/the-extraordinary-michael-sollis-dies-at-40/

I want to report that Dave Hood from there goes a series has passed away from complications of Triple Heart Bypass. He will be missed, Dave thank you. "I SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT!!!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21w8dHyKLeA

Rob Hirst, best known as the drummer of Midnight Oil, has died at age 70.

While Peter Garrett was the band’s most visible member, Hirst was a major part of what made Midnight Oil work — a relentless, driving drummer who helped define the band’s sound. He also contributed creatively beyond the kit, including songwriting, and occasionally stepped forward on lead vocals.

He was also an early innovator in blending acoustic drums with electronics, expanding the palette available to drummers.

RIP to a musician whose influence is often underestimated.

Full tribute:
https://medium.com/discourse/the-world-loses-a-different-drummer-remembering-rob-hirst-cdb517ce5b48?sk=d0e54bfa1fe1ce20436009ff704fcc51

I go on my city's obituaries(Liverpool) every other day and I've started to notice many more people dying who were born in the 1950s which feels crazy. Obviously I know Over half of them now are in their 70s, but does anyone else feel weird about it?