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Margaret Atwood to receive The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment Canada Honor

As Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale builds towards its series finale, Margaret Atwood, who wrote the 1985 novel on which the popular TV drama starring Elisabeth Moss is based, will be honored by The Hollywood Reporter at its Women in Entertainment Canada event on May 29 in Toronto.

The Canadian author, poet and activist will receive the ICON Award at this year’s second annual WIE Canada gala ceremony. Atwood wrote the Handmaid’s Tale book on which the Hulu TV series, from creator Bruce Miller, is based. Her follow-up 2019 novel, The Testaments, is currently being adapted as a sequel series.

The Handmaid’s Tale explores the complicated lives of handmaids who are sex slaves forced to give birth for infertile elite couples. Cultural and political observers have noted that the themes and concepts of the Canadian-born author’s celebrated novel are eerily familiar in today’s climate that sees the Donald Trump administration making repeated strikes against the rights of women, immigrants, LGBTQ individuals and other marginalized communities.

The WIE Canada’s ICON Award was created to recognize Canadian cultural icons who have advanced greater representation of women in the media and entertainment industry and whose artistic vision has reached global audiences.

Having written around 50 books of fiction, poetry, critical essays and graphic novels, Atwood will publish her memoir, Book of Lives, later this year. She has also received awards like the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Franz Kafka International Literary Prize, the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award and the Los Angeles Times Innovator’s Award.

WIE Canada earlier announced that Tantoo Cardinal will receive the Equity in Entertainment Award, lifestyle journalist Jeanne Beker will be given the IMPACT Award; and The Sex Lives of College Girls star Amrit Kaur will receive the Breakthrough Award at this year’s event.

The upcoming second annual WIE Canada summit will again bring together the Canadian industry across TV, film and music to celebrate and recognize the achievements of women driving the industry forward.

The event’s return follows a successful first-ever WIE Canada summit on May 30, 2024 that was attended by iconic Canadian entertainers in the TV, film and music fields like Lilly Singh, Nia Vardalos, Devery Jacobs, Kim Cattrall, Catherine Reitman and Jully Black. (THR)

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Delta Assembly speaker, 21 PDP lawmakers defect to APC

The Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Dennis Guwor, and 21 other Peoples Democratic Party, on Tuesday, defected to the All Progressives Congress.

News Agency of Nigeria reports that the defection of the 22 lawmakers was a sequel to the significant shift in the state’s political landscape.

The defection means that the assembly has been turned into a one-party legislature, as the remaining seven members are from the APC.

Guwor, while announcing the defection on Tuesday during the resumption of plenary after the Easter break, noted that the decision was the result of extensive consultations with their constituents and political leaders across the state.

The move, he said, aligned with Section 109 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

According to him, the political shift toward APC was in response to the realignment of stakeholders and the desire to align with the Federal Government, under President Bola Tinubu’s leadership.

“The mass defection of members of the Peoples Democratic Party, led by Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, to the APC, was made in the overall interest of the people of the state,” he said.

Guwor explained that the decision followed extensive consultations held on April 23 which culminated in the April 28 official reception at the Government House and the Cenotaph, respectively.

“We are fully committed to partnering with the federal government to deliver greater development to the people of Delta.

“On behalf of the house, I commend the courage and visionary leadership of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori in making this strategic and timely decision.

“As a legislative body, we stand with His Excellency in this endeavour.

”This renewed partnership between the state and the federal government must be supported and allowed to flourish so that we can begin to enjoy its benefits in the shortest possible time,” he stated.Related News

Guwor also announced that he had received 22 letters, including his own, notifying him of the change of party affiliation from PDP to APC.

He said the defection was driven by instability within the PDP national leadership and divisions within the South-South Zonal Executive Committee, leading to internal conflicts and disunity.

The speaker affirmed the constitutional basis for the defection, citing Section 109(1)(g) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).

“With this action, the Delta House of Assembly is now composed entirely of members from the All Progressives Congress. We thank our constituents for endorsing this progressive course of action,” he said.

The speaker, who appreciated members for their contributions so far, urged them to ensure the completion of all pending bills as the second legislative session nears its end.

After the development, the Majority Leader, Mr Emeka Nwaobi, moved a motion for the adoption of the letters of change in the political party.

The motion, which was unanimously adopted by the assembly when put to a voice vote by the speaker, was seconded by Mr Ferguson Onwo (APC-Isoko South II).

Addressing newsmen shortly after the plenary, the majority leader said that the defection was prompted by the crisis within PDP.

“Our decision was based on the instability at the national level and the factionalisation at the South-South level.

”Consequently, we chose to move to the ruling All Progressives Congress, in accordance with Section 109 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended,” he said. (Punch)

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Bayern Munich win Bundesliga title to end Harry Kane’s trophy wait

Harry Kane ended his long wait for the first team trophy of his career as Bayern Munich clinched the Bundesliga title – without playing – on Sunday.

Bayern’s celebrations were dramatically put on hold a day earlier when Yussef Poulsen scored a stoppage-time goal to earn RB Leipzig a 3-3 draw and make the leaders wait.

But Leverkusen, who had to win at Freiburg on Sunday to mathematically stay in the hunt, were held to a 2-2 draw that crowned the Bavarians this weekend after all.

Kane was forced to watch on against RB Leipzig after picking up a fifth yellow card of the season, moving to the touchline in expectation before Poulsen spoiled the party in the 94th minute.

But the 31-year-old England captain will be back for Saturday’s home game against Monchengladbach as Bayern can look forward to celebrating with their fans at the Allianz.

Kane has played a huge role in securing Bayern’s 34th league crown, topping the Bundesliga scoring charts with 24 goals, but in his 15th season as a pro – and two years after leaving boyhood club Tottenham – he has finally got his hands on silverware.

After 11 straight Bundesliga titles, Bayern fell short last season in Kane’s first year with the club, when invincible Bayer Leverkusen finished top. But Bayern have regained the championship this time with two rounds remaining.

Kane, who has lost Champions League and Carabao Cup finals at club level and twice lost European finals with England, has broken goal-scoring records in Germany but now has the team title he has craved.

Bayern boss Vincent Kompany, who won the Championship with Burnley in 2022/23, has claimed his first major honour as a manager, while Kane’s former England and Tottenham team-mate Eric Dier is also celebrating the first team trophy of his career. (SkySports)

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Marvel’s Thunderbolts* proves a hit at box office

Marvel and Disney’s newest release Thunderbolts* has proved a hit at the box office, after taking an estimated $162m (£122m) internationally.

The film, which both production houses hope will kickstart a new franchise, is based around lesser-known superheroes who have to take on human and superhuman threats whilst fighting their own personal battles.

It stars Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan in two of the main roles, alongside Julia Louis-Dreyfus and David Harbour.

Whilst not all critic reviews have been favourable, the movie has been a hit with superhero fans – drawing in an impressive 95 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

It means the film receives the third highest audience score for a Marvel title, tying with Spider-Man: Far From Home and behind Shangi-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Not all critics have not treated the film as favourably, with Empire’s John Nugent noting that the film is “missing a bit of colour – literally, in the washed-out palette and CG shadow-threat that dominates the latter half of the film — and figuratively, in its subject matter”.

He adds that the topics covered, including suicide, depression and domestic violence are “not always sensitively handled”.

Radheyan Simonpillai at The Guardian gives the film three stars, citing that although the film is “the best thing to come from the brand [Marvel] since WandaVision“, “Thunderbolts often irritates because the depression and trauma the movie supposedly grapples with so often lives on the surface”.

Simonpillai is full of praise for Pugh though, “who can wrestle sincerity out of a screenplay (and a franchise) that has so little”.

However, Clarisse Loughrey from The Independent looks on the film a little more favourably, giving it four stars and calling it “the best Marvel movie in years”.

“Thunderbolts does feel different to what’s come before.

“It’s the first of its kind to seem genuinely self-aware – Thunderbolts might actually then be the ultimate Marvel film for now,” she adds.

Audience fatigue when it comes to Marvel films is a genuine concern for the studio, which has been trying to pivot away from the characters from the main Marvel Cinematic Universe since the release of Avengers: Endgame in 2019.

It is perhaps why Deadpool & Wolverine was a big hit for Marvel last summer, as it featured characters that have been less front and centre for them, with Thunderbolts* potentially following a similar path. (BBC)

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Epic will use an EU account to bring Fortnite back to the US App Store

Epic Games plans to use its Sweden developer account to submit Fortnite to Apple’s US iOS App Store, according to CEO Tim Sweeney.

On Wednesday, following the major ruling in Epic Games v. Apple that blocked Apple from collecting fees on purchases outside of apps, Sweeney said that Fortnite would return to the US App Store “next week.” (Apple has appealed the ruling.) But Apple terminated Epic’s App Store developer account in 2020 after Epic introduced an in-app payment system into Fortnite that ultimately led to the whole legal battle, so it was unclear how Epic might bring the game back to the US App Store until Sweeney’s post.

“We have conversed with Apple on the topic,” Sweeney said in an X post over the weekend. He noted that Epic created its Sweden account last year so it could launch the Epic Games Store and Fortnite in the EU. (That account was banned and reinstated in 2024 over another dispute.)

Fortnite won’t be back on iOS on Monday or Tuesday, Sweeney said. “Beyond that, we’re working as hard as possible and aren’t certain what day it will be ready.” Epic Games didn’t immediately reply to a request for more details about when the game might return.

Fortnite’s latest season, which is Star Wars-themed, kicked off last week. (Verge)

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Five injured as burial convoy crashes in Lagos

There was commotion on Wednesday after a mini commercial bus conveying a corpse for burial was involved in an accident at Idimu in the Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State.

PUNCH Metro learnt that about five people sustained varying degrees of injuries in the incident, which occurred around 10 am.

These include three females and two males.

It was gathered that the mourners were transporting the corpse from Ejigbo to the Ikotun area of the community in a convoy of three minibuses and one Toyota space bus.

On getting to the Idimu bus stop area, the bus on which the corpse was, developed a faulty brake, thereby causing the driver to ram into the bus ahead of it.

An eyewitness, who identified himself simply as Foluke, said the drivers of both buses were also injured in the accident.

She said, “Some buses were picking up passengers on the layby when a minibus suddenly crashed into another one. The impact caused some of them to fall off the vehicle, and they got injured.

“At first, we thought it was an accident between two buses that had passengers inside them.

It was when we moved close that we discovered that they were heading for burial when we saw a corpse inside one of them. The occupants were also seriously injured.”

The bus driver conveying the corpse, while narrating how the accident occurred, said the vehicle had initially developed a fault midway before they later proceeded on the journey.

Reeling in pain, he said, “On our way coming from Ejigbo, the bus developed a fault midway and started moving slowly.  It later started working normally again, and while we approached Idimu to connect to Ikotun, I discovered that the brake was no longer responding. That was how I lost control and crashed the bus ahead of me. I wasn’t expecting this terrible incident today.”

The scene of the incident was already crowded when our correspondent visited the spot.

Some of the injured persons were also seen sitting on the bare floor, as some residents administered first aid to them.

During a closer look, a female occupant was seen holding onto the corpse in the bus with injuries on her leg.

A food vendor close to the spot where the accident happened, but declined to mention her name, said that about three of the victims had broken legs.

“About three people had broken legs in the accident. It took the intervention of the people around who rescued them because their legs were trapped in the seat of the bus. The one who got flung out of the bus waiting to pick up a passenger was among them,” she disclosed.

It was, however, gathered that some mourners who were ahead of the bus in the convoy had driven some distances away before they realised what had happened.

One of the mourners who alighted from the vehicles ahead and rushed down to the spot where the incident occurred said, “We were ahead of them and we had almost reached the Council bus stop when we noticed that they were no longer behind us. It was when we put a call through that we realised that there was an accident.

Our correspondent observed that the injured victims were taken away from the spot and transported to a nearby hospital for medical attention, while the corpse was moved into another vehicle.

PUNCH Metro reported that no fewer than six people lost their lives, while several others sustained various degrees of injuries in a fatal accident involving an 18-seater commercial bus along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on Saturday, April 5.

The crash caused a major gridlock, leaving commuters stranded for hours as emergency responders worked to clear the wreckage and rescue victims. (Punch)

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President Trump signs order seeking to end federal funding for NPR and PBS

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to end federal funding for America’s two biggest public broadcasters, which have faced a series of attacks from the White House and Republican lawmakers accusing them of biased reporting.

The order instructs the CPB’s board to terminate direct funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service to the “maximum extent allowed by law and shall decline to provide future funding.” It also orders the board to take steps to “minimize or eliminate” indirect funding to NPR and PBS.

The corporation, however, is a private entity that is supposed to be protected from government interference, including executive orders from the president. The corporation is currently suing Trump because the White House tried to terminate three of its board members earlier this week.

“CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority,” the corporation’s CEO, Patricia Harrison, said in a statement. “Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government.”

“The President’s blatantly unlawful Executive Order, issued in the middle of the night, threatens our ability to serve the American public with educational programming, as we have for the past 50-plus years,” PBS CEO Paula Kerger said in a statement Friday morning. “We are currently exploring all options to allow PBS to continue to serve our member stations and all Americans.”

Each year, the CPB disperses $535 million in taxpayer funds to public radio and TV stations nationwide and to producers of educational and cultural programming.

Stations, in turn, provide free and universal access to news, emergency alerts and a wide array of programming.

In Trump’s first term, his annual budget proposals zeroed out the funding for the corporation, but Congress always allocated the funds anyway – a reflection of the fact that national Republican opposition to NPR and PBS is countered by local support.

In Trump’s second term, he is being much more aggressive about trying to shut down the public broadcasters. The White House is alleging that the networks “spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’”

PBS and NPR executives reject that, but they recognize that Trump feels emboldened to pursue their federal funding.

The White House has said it will soon ask Congress to claw back the money already allocated for the corporation over the next two years.

“These are funds that we were already counting on,” PBS CEO Paula Kerger said earlier this week, “because it’s already appropriated. So we’re anxious to see what they’re talking about and we will be responding very quickly.”

House speaker Mike Johnson said of the expected rescission proposal, “I don’t know what the final outcome is going to be, but I can tell there’s a lot of thoughtful debate about it.”

Trump’s executive order is another pursuit of the same goal – a zeroing out of federal funding for public media.

The order also directs Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to investigate NPR and PBS for possible employment discrimination, and it instructs the heads of all other federal agencies to “identify and terminate” any direct or indirect funding of the media organizations.

When Congress established the corporation in 1967, it specifically tried to insulate public media from political pressure.

The law said the corporation is a private entity, not a federal agency, “to afford maximum protection from extraneous interference and control.”

The legislation expressly forbids the government from exercising “any direction, supervision, or control over educational television or radio broadcasting.”

But Congress could choose to stop funding the corporation. In that case, bigger stations with lots of donors and other sources of revenue would survive, but smaller stations could be forced off the air, especially in rural areas that are Republican strongholds.

In many cases “these are the last locally owned broadcasters in these communities,” Ed Ulman, the CEO of Alaska Public Media, told CNN last month. (CNN)

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‘Greatest-ever’ Vardy to leave Leicester at end of season

Leicester captain Jamie Vardy will leave the former Premier League champions at the end of the season, the relegated club announced on Thursday.

The talismanic forward, a key member of the side that lifted the English league title against the odds in 2016, was described by the club as “our greatest-ever player”.

The former England international, 38, joined the Foxes in 2012 from non-league side Fleetwood Town for £1 million ($1.3 million) and has scored 198 goals in nearly 500 appearances.

He is the club’s record Premier League goalscorer with 143 goals.

Vardy scored 24 times in the 2015/16 Premier League campaign, helping the Foxes to their first top-flight title in one of the greatest shocks in football history.

The pacy forward was also part of Leicester’s 2021 FA Cup-winning side, who beat Chelsea 1-0 at Wembley.

“We can confirm legendary striker Jamie Vardy will leave Leicester City this summer after 13 seasons that have seen him become our greatest-ever player,” the club said in a statement.

“Jamie is unique,” said chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha.

“He is a special player and an even more special person.

“He holds a place in the hearts of everyone connected to Leicester City, and he certainly has my deepest respect and affection. I am endlessly grateful for everything he has given to this football club.” (RFI)

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India PM vows to pursue Kashmir attackers to ”ends of the Earth”

India and Pakistan exchanged an escalating series of tit-for-tat diplomatic measures on Thursday after New Delhi blamed its arch-rival for backing a deadly shooting attack in contested Kashmir.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to pursue and punish the gunmen responsible for killing 26 civilians in the tourist hotspot of Pahalgam on Tuesday, accusing Pakistan of supporting “cross-border terrorism”.

“I say to the whole world: India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer,” Modi said in his first speech since the attack in the Himalayan region. “We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth”.

Indian police in the region have identified two of the three fugitive gunmen as Pakistani.

The attack at Pahalgam in contested Muslim-majority Kashmir was the deadliest for a quarter of a century and marked a dramatic shift with the targeting of civilians, rather than Indian security forces.

New Delhi suspended a water-sharing treaty, announced the closure of the main land border crossing with Pakistan, downgraded diplomatic ties and withdrew visas for Pakistanis on Wednesday night.

On Thursday, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif convened a rare meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) with top military officials, including powerful Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir, in the capital Islamabad in response to India’s accusations and measures.

“Any threat to Pakistan’s sovereignty and to the security of its people will be met with firm reciprocal measures in all domains,” a statement released by Sharif’s office said after the NSC meeting.

“In the absence of any credible investigation and verifiable evidence, attempts to link the Pahalgam attack with Pakistan are frivolous, devoid of rationality and defeat logic,” it said.

The slew of tit-for-tat measures announced by the Pakistan government include expelling Indian diplomats and cancelling visas for Indian nationals with the exception of Sikh pilgrims.

Islamabad said Indian military advisers were “persona non grata” and were “directed to leave Pakistan immediately”.

The main Wagah border crossing in Punjab will close on both sides.

Pakistan also warned that it would consider any attempt by India to stop the supply of water from the Indus River an “act of war”.

Indian police say the three gunmen are members of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group, designated by the United Nations as a terrorist organisation.

Police have offered a two million rupee ($23,500) bounty for information leading to each man’s arrest. (RFI)

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Kenyan president visits China as country pivots away from the US

Kenyan President William Ruto has begun a five-day state visit to China, signalling a deepening of strategic and economic ties between the nations. Ruto’s first state visit to China since taking office in 2022 is being viewed by some as a strategic shift amid evolving geopolitical dynamics.

Ruto is expected to seek funding for key infrastructure projects, including the extension of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) to Malaba and a major highway project.

Deals worth €750 million have already been secured from seven Chinese companies, aimed at boosting Kenya’s manufacturing, agriculture and tourism sectors, according to Kenyan newspaper The Standard. 

Trade between China and Kenya is on the rise, with a reported 11.9 percent increase in the first quarter of 2025. China is Kenya’s largest trading partner and top import source, while Kenya is China’s biggest trade partner in East Africa.

President Xi Jinping is scheduled to host a welcome ceremony and banquet for Ruto, with discussions focused on strengthening cooperation within the Global South. Ruto has also expressed Kenya’s interest in joining the BRICS intergovernmental group of emerging economies.

Faced with stalled funding from the United States and trade friction, Kenya has turned to China, according to analysts.

Adhere Cavince, a Nairobi-based international relations researcher, quoted by Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, says that US tariffs and reduced aid have pushed Ruto to seek new markets and investment from China.

Cavince sees Ruto’s visit as a “symbolic” win for Beijing. “Beijing’s hosting of Ruto amid escalating geopolitical and trade tensions with the US is a win for China in terms of optics,” he said. “Nairobi is not just an option [for China], it is also a strong gateway to the rest of Africa.”

The Chinese foreign ministry said the visit will “contribute to deepening China’s relations with Kenya” and promote “solidarity and cooperation” within the Global South.

On 8 April, US President Donald Trump imposed a baseline 10 percent tariff on Kenya, as part of a wide range of import tax measures.

Six days later, Beijing’s embassy in Nairobi took to X (formerly Twitter) to post an image of Communist China’s founder Mao Zedong and his 1946 remark that: “The US intimidates certain countries, stopping them from doing business with us. But America is just a paper tiger. Don’t believe it’s bluff. One poke, and it’ll burst.”

Meanwhile, Kenya is also pivoting away from European investors. On 11 April, Reuters reportedthat Nairobi will terminate a €1.3 billion highway expansion deal with a consortium led by France’s Vinci SA, with the project expected to go to a Chinese contractor instead.

The deal to turn 140km of single-lane road into a multilane highway linking the capital Nairobi to the Rift Valley city of Nakuru was signed in Paris in 2020, during a visit by then-President Uhuru Kenyatta. (RFI)