Movies from 77 countries will screen at the 2021 London Film Festival, as Britain's leading cinema showcase welcomes mass audiences back to movie theaters after a pandemic-disrupted year.

Valencia's "Fallas" festival wrapped up with fireworks and the burning of colourful sculptures on Sunday after returning to the eastern Spanish city following a pandemic-induced hiatus.

The five-day festival is traditionally held in March but was cancelled last year as the Covid-19 pandemic swept Spain. This year, officials postponed the start of the UNESCO-recognised event until September 1.

Having started on the 15th of August and running until the 26th of September, an extraordinary musical event featuring 37 soloists, seven orchestras and twelve conductors from all over the world is being held in Dubai, UAE. This distinguished project is led by the European Foundation for Support of Culture (EUFSC) with the collaboration of SAMIT Event Group. InClassica 2021 brings classical music to new audiences, and gives this prestigious art form a new platform in today's cultural landscape.

In addition to this outstanding festival, the EUFSC and SAMIT are also bringing to Dubai two hotly anticipated events: the Classic Piano International Competition, which started on the 15th August and finished on the 3rd of September, and the Middle East Classical Music Academy (MECMA). Classic Piano featured the winners of fourteen preliminary competitions from around the world, who competed in Dubai across four rounds in a display of pianistic excellence. The Middle East Classical Music Academy, taking place in parallel with InClassica from 4th to 23rd September, welcomes some of the most esteemed professors and performers from across the globe, for a series of workshops, lectures and open masterclasses for piano, violin, cello, clarinet and flute.

China's government banned effeminate men on TV and told broadcasters Thursday to promote "revolutionary culture," broadening a campaign to tighten control over business and society and enforce official morality.

President Xi Jinping has called for a "national rejuvenation," with tighter Communist Party control of business, education, culture and religion. Companies and the public are under increasing pressure to align with its vision for a more powerful China and healthier society.

ABBA is releasing its first new music in four decades, along with a concert performance that will see the "Dancing Queen" quartet going entirely digital.

The forthcoming album "Voyage," to be released Nov. 5, is a follow-up to 1981's "The Visitors," which until now had been the swan song of the Swedish supergroup. And a virtual version of the band will begin a series of concerts in London on May 27.

Britney Spears and her new attorney say her father is trying to get about $2 million in payments before stepping down from the conservatorship that controls her life and money, a move they liken to extortion in a court filing Tuesday.

The document filed by lawyer Mathew Rosengart says the upcoming scheduled accounting of the conservatorship, which James Spears says he wants completed before he steps down, will mean significant payments for him.

Visitors to Venice could be forgiven for not realizing that beyond the majesty of St. Mark's Square and the romance of gondola rides lies a city that helped provide a baseline of what the world knows today about containing pandemics.

It was here that the term "quarantine" was coined, after merchant ships arriving in the 15th-century Venetian Republic were moored for 40 days ("quaranta giorni" in Italian) to see if their crews were afflicted with the plague. It was here that the first isolated pestilence hospital was built on a solitary island in the lagoon, a precursor to today's COVID-19 isolation wards. And it was in Venice that 16th-century doctors donned beak-nosed masks filled with aromatic herbs to cleanse the air they breathed when treating the sick — an attempt at self-protection that today is the favored choice for Venetian Carnival costumes.

Kanye West donned a full face mask to host three livestreamed listening parties for his 10th studio album. Beyond that, he didn't say a word, or even tweet. After years of alienating longtime fans with forays into conservative politics and sometimes exhausting media spectacle, pop's King of All Controversy mostly let the music speak for him when unveiling "Donda."

In the tradition of Marvin Gaye's "Here, My Dear" or Phil Collins' "Face Value," it's a prickly, personal divorce album full of introspection, conflicting emotions and bursts of musical innovation. It's also a nearly-overbooked showcase for of-the-moment talent, some half West's age: Shenseea, Fivio Foreign, Baby Keem, The Weeknd, Lil Yachty, Roddy Ricch. There's drill music alongside church organs — so many organs!

Director Denis Villeneuve has been to the world's top film festivals, from Cannes to Toronto, but Venice holds a special spot.

"It's definitely the most elegant," Villeneuve said.

Universal Studios announced Monday that its first theme park in China will open in the country's capital in September.

The company set the opening date for Sept. 20, according to a statement and video posted on the Chinese social media site WeChat.