Pretoria News is a local newspaper circulating in the Tshwane Metropolitan area. Pretoria News covers a range of local news, as well as national and international news, comment and analysis by experts, sport, entertainment and lifestyle.
It’s been announced that South African opera star Pretty Yende will sing at King Charles III’s coronation in Westminster Abbey, London, on May 6. The 37-year-old soprano was elated. The invitation is reminiscent of when Charles and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, were married in 1981. For this occasion, the New Zealand soprano Kiri Te Kanawa’s beautiful voice beguiled the royal couple. Te Kanawa, being Maori, represented her indigenous community who were the victims of imperialism and colonialism. Te Kanawa was the same age as Yende is when she gave her royal performance, and Yende carries with her this colonial history too. Considering the previous British coronation was that of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, with white males dominating the music programme, it will now, to the best of…
Christoph Waltz’s face deserved a series. The breakout star of Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 film Inglourious Basterds has long excelled at playing the finicky, penetrating villain. Observant, charismatic, he brings a physicality to his roles that intimidates precisely because it is neither imposing nor muscle-bound. Prime Video’s The Consultant spins a psychological thriller with comic overtones around that trademark malevolent courtesy. The result is deliciously creepy and not entirely coherent. It feels like a ghost story you hear around the campfire; uncanny and under-explained, but pleasing nevertheless. The eight-episode series, created and written by Tony Basgallop, is an extremely loose adaptation of Bentley Little’s 2015 novel of the same name. In both, a sinister consultant named Regus Patoff shows up to assess and advise a company in crisis called CompWare. His…
Chris Rock will finally strike back at Will Smith over his Oscars slap – a week before this year’s Academy Awards. The comic, 58, who has only made brief jokes about being assaulted on stage by Smith at the 2022 awards ceremony, has had his upcoming live Netflix special scheduled for broadcast on March 4, with insiders saying it will be packed with jibes at Smith. An insider told Page Six: “If you were waiting to see Rock on tour address the infamous Will Smith slap situation ... the comedian is waiting to spill his humorous take on it on his live Netflix stand-up special.” Another source added: “People need to tune in till the last joke, they will not be disappointed.” Rock is said to have teamed up with…
Prince Harry believes in reincarnation. The now 38-year-old prince – who has children Archie, 3, and Lili, 20 months, with wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex – was quizzed on what he believes happens after death during a surprise appearance on The Late Show and expressed his hope he'd one day return to Earth as an elephant. Asked what he believes happens when we die, Harry told host Stephen Colbert: “I think we become animals.” Agreeing that he meant reincarnation, Harry was then asked what he hoped to come back as and replied: “An elephant.” During the “Colbert Questionert” segment, the Duke of Sussex was also asked to give five words he hoped would describe his future. He replied: “Freedom, happiness, clarity, space, love.” Harry declared Finley Quaye’s Your Love…
LADY Gaga took to Twitter with a desperate plea on February 26, 2021, less than 48 hours after robbers stole her two French bulldogs and shot the man who had been walking them. “My beloved dogs Koji and Gustav were taken in Hollywood two nights ago… I will pay $500,000 for their safe return,” she wrote. “If you bought or found them unknowingly, the reward is the same,” she added. Jennifer McBride returned the dogs about 80 minutes after the pop star’s tweet, bringing the two pooches to a Los Angeles Police Department station. Two months later, she was arrested and charged after police said she knew the father of one of the suspects. In December, she was convicted of receiving stolen property, and sentenced to two years’ probation, according…
Inside a 371m2 laboratory at the heart of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a group of scientists are demonstrating how to make wearable shrimp shells. It all starts with mixing chitosan – a white-powder biochemical component extracted from the shells – with water and organic acid. As the chitosan is dissolving, the scientists add in what they call the “secret sauce,” a combination of biomaterials and pigments that varies depending on the texture and colour required. The liquid is then poured into a mould and placed in a heater to evaporate excess water, not unlike baking a cake in an oven. Several hours later, all that remains is the final product: a laptop-sized piece of leather-like fabric. “It’s amazing to see how the material picks up all the details,” said Uyen…
