The Latest Breaking News from Leo Tolstoy

Pronouncing Foreigners' Names

Some comments on the thread about pronouncing foreign country names (such as Qatar and France) raised the question of how we should pronounce foreign people's names. Here too my answer is: We should follow the English norms, which often depart from the norms in those people's native languages—just like, I…

Reason · Nov 29, 2022

Review: Frederick Wiseman's gorgeous 'A Couple' brings the words of Sophia Tolstoy to life

The title of "A Couple," Frederick Wiseman's new movie, is both intriguing and a little misleading. Intriguing because it doesn't make reference to a place, establishment or social issue, as you might expect by now from this 92-year-old master of the institution-centric documentary. And misleading because in the course of…

Los Angeles Times · Nov 22, 2022

Are Putin’s views fascist?

The Russian leader often evokes a philosopher who praised Mussolini, but analysts are divided on Putin’s own ideology.

Al Jazeera · Oct 26, 2022

First sitcom, first chef, first castaway, first dance and first Woman’s Hour: 100 years of the BBC, part three

Desert Islands Discs launched, a raffish bachelor made sitcom history, hoofers had a riot and a man called Alan hosted Woman’s Hour – which revealed how to keep your husband’s suits crease-free

The Guardian - UK · Sep 28, 2022

News briefs

Mexico officials abused 47% of migrants awaiting US asylum, rights group says

Tribune News Service · Sep 16, 2022

Miami school district says it denied Pulitzer play due to racy scenes. Others say censorship

MIAMI — Days after the Miami-Dade County School District denied students from attending Miami New Drama’s production of Nilo Cruz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Anna in the Tropics,” school officials pointed to lines and imagery they considered to be “sexually explicit” or inappropriate for school-aged children.

Miami Herald · Sep 15, 2022

I’m going through hell for the sake of art. Tolstoy or Henry James could learn a thing or two

There’s nothing like recording an audiobook to make you question every word you write. The classics would definitely take a trim

The Guardian - UK · Aug 24, 2022

How Tolstoy hurts Putin's attempt to rewrite history

On April 10, Moscow police arrested Konstantin Goldman for brandishing a book in public. Mr Goldman had posted an image on social media in which he posed holding a copy of Tolstoy's War and Peace next to a section of a World War II monument that commemorates Kyiv's status as…

Bangkok Post · Aug 9, 2022

New York Film Festival sets lineup for 60th edition

The New York Film Festival will celebrate its 60th anniversary with a robust 32-film main slate and a number of hometown tales, including James Gray’s Queens coming-of-age drama “Armageddon Time” and Laura Poitras’ documentary “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” about artist Nan Goldin’s battle against the Sackler family

The Independent UK · Aug 9, 2022

77th anniversary of A-bombing commemorated in Hiroshima / Mayor slams Russia in peace declaration

HIROSHIMA -- Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui called on the world to "immediately render all nuclear buttons meaningless" in his peace declaration at a ceremony on the 77th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city on Saturday.

The Japan News/Yomiuri · Aug 6, 2022