- Mets advance on Lindor blast, Dodgers stay alive in MLB playoffs
- Injury-ravaged Krygios aiming to return at Australian Open
- Greek international Baldock, dead at 31: family
- EU talks deportation hubs to stem migration
- Deaths and repression sideline Suu Kyi's party ahead of Myanmar vote
- S. Africa offers a lesson on how not to shut down a coal plant
- China opens $71 bn 'swap facility' to boost markets
- Mets advance on Lindor grand slam, Yankees and Tigers win
- Taiwan President Lai vows to 'resist annexation' of island
- China's solar goes from supremacy to oversupply
- Asian markets track Wall St record as Hong Kong, Shanghai stabilise
- 'Denying my potential': women at Japan's top university call out gender imbalance
- China's central bank says opens up $70.6 bn in liquidity to boost market
- Zelensky on whirlwind tour of Europe ahead of US vote
- Youth facing unprecedented wave of violence, UN envoy warns
- 'A casino in every kitchen': Brazil's online gambling craze
- Nobel chemistry winner sees engineered proteins solving tough problems
- Lindor powers Mets past Phillies into NL Championship Series
- Wildlife populations plunge 73% since 1970: WWF
- 'Sleeper agent' bots on X fuel US election misinformation, study says
- Death toll rises to 109 after Haiti gang attack, official says
- Tigers beat Guardians and on brink of advancing in MLB playoffs
- Argentina MPs back Milei's veto of university funding
- Man City sink Barca in Women's Champions League as Bayern outgun Arsenal
- Greek international Baldock, 31, found dead in pool: state agency
- Florida seaside haven a ghost town as hurricane nears
- Pharrell Williams to co-chair Met Gala exploring Black dandyism
- Wall Street indices hit fresh records as Chinese shares tumble
- Taiwan's president to deliver key speech for National Day
- Sea row on the menu as ASEAN leaders meet China's Li
- Injured Kane won't start England's Nations League clash with Greece
- Discord seen as online home for renegades
- US forecasts severe solar storm starting Thursday
- Mozambique starts tallying votes in tense election
- Zelensky moves to court European leaders in drive for military aid
- Ratan Tata: Indian mogul who built a global powerhouse
- Rodgers rejects 'false' suggestions of role in Saleh dismissal
- One dead as storm Kirk tears through Spain, Portugal, France
- Indian business titan Ratan Tata dead at 86
- Lebanon facing 'catastrophic' situation as 600,000 displaced: UN
- US warns Israel not to repeat Gaza destruction in Lebanon
- Musk's X returns in Brazil after 40-day showdown with judge
- Call her savvy? Harris unleashes unconventional media blitz
- Lucian Freud 'masterpiece' fetches £13.9 million at London sale
- SoFi Stadium to hold next two CONCACAF Nations League finals
- McIlroy and DeChambeau set for PGA-LIV 'Showdown' in Vegas
- Fed minutes highlight divisions over rate cut decision
- Steve McQueen debuts new WWII film at London festival
- Run blitz edges India and South Africa closer to World Cup semi-finals
- Zelensky to court European leaders in drive for military aid
Epic Cannes of strong women and ageing icons to decide Palme
It has been a year of Hollywood icons and ground-breaking women's perspectives, but as an epic edition of the Cannes Film Festival draws to a close on Saturday, eyes turn to the jury for who will win a tight race for the Palme d'Or.
There have been several strong contenders among the 21 entries in the main competition at the French Riviera festival, but no clear front runner.
Arguably the two critical favourites both star the same woman, German actress Sandra Hueller.
In "The Zone of Interest" from British director Jonathan Glazer, she chillingly plays the wife of a Nazi camp commandant, proud to be known as "the queen of Auschwitz".
The unique film never shows the horrors of the camp, leaving them implied by background noises and small visual details, and has drawn near-unanimous praise from critics.
Hueller also starred in "Anatomy of a Fall" -- one of many women-focused films at this year's festival and also lauded by critics -- about a wife accused of her husband's murder.
But the decision lies with a jury of nine film professionals led by last year's winner Ruben Ostlund ("Triangle of Sadness") and including Hollywood stars Paul Dano and Brie Larson.
- Ageing icons -
Elsewhere, Cannes sometimes felt like a dream retirement home populated by ageing male icons.
There were glitzy out-of-competition premieres for the new Indiana Jones movie, with an 80-year-old Harrison Ford getting weepy when he received an honorary Palme d'Or.
Martin Scorsese, also 80, premiered his much-anticipated Native American epic "Killers of the Flower Moon" with Robert De Niro, 79.
European auteurs Marco Bellocchio, 83, Wim Wenders, 77, and Victor Erice, 82, all premiered new films.
The oldest of all, 86-year-old Ken Loach, showed he still had fighting spirit with the final entry in the competition on Friday, a moving homage to working-class solidarity, "The Old Oak".
Loach has had no fewer than 15 films in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, and a win on Saturday would give him a record-breaking third Palme d'Or.
- 'Accessible to women' -
Meanwhile, it was notable that many of the starriest attendees made their names in the 1980s and 1990s, among them Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Johnny Depp and Sean Penn.
"Over the last 10 years, we've done a really sh--ty job of creating a new generation of movie stars," one Hollywood agent moaned to Variety.
Michael Douglas, 78, who also got an honorary Palme, regaled the festival with memories of showing erotic thriller "Basic Instinct" here in 1992.
"Watching those sex scenes on the biggest screen I'd ever seen... we had a very quiet dinner afterwards," he quipped.
"The entire range of human behaviour should be accessible to women," said Portman, whose new film "May December" is a campy but complex look at a loving mother with a buried past as a sex offender.
While Jude Law grabbed headlines as a tyrannical King Henry VIII in "Firebrand", the film's spotlight was really on Alicia Vikander as Catherine Parr, trying to escape the fate of the king's previous wives.
Among many other examples was "Four Daughters" about a mother's role in the radicalisation of her children.
And "How to Have Sex", a nuanced look at assault and consent among boozed-up Brits abroad, won the Un Certain Regard section for newcomers on Friday.
J.Williams--AMWN