Names and faces
■ Spain’s former monarch, Juan Carlos I, is leaving Spain to live in another, unspecified, country amid a financial scandal, according to a letter published on the royal family’s website Monday. The letter from the 82-year-old Juan Carlos to his son, King Felipe VI, said: “I am informing you of my considered decision to move, during this period, out of Spain.” In the letter, Juan Carlos said he made the decision against the backdrop of “public repercussions of certain episodes of my past private life.” He said he wanted to ensure he doesn’t make his son’s role difficult, adding that “my legacy, and my own dignity, demand that it should be so.” The royal website said in a statement that Felipe respected his father’s decision. The whereabouts of Juan Carlos, who is credited with helping Spain peacefully restore democracy after the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, is not currently known. Jarred by scandals in the later years of his reign, Juan Carlos in 2014 abdicated in favor of his son, losing the immunity from prosecution Spain’s Constitution grants to the head of state. Since Spain’s Supreme Court opened its probe earlier this year, Spanish media outlets have published damaging testimony from a separate Swiss investigation into millions of dollars that were allegedly given to Juan Carlos by Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah. Juan Carlos allegedly then transferred a large amount to a former companion, Danish-German businesswoman Corinna Larsen, in what investigators are considering as a possible attempt to hide the money from authorities.
■ Three original films by Oscar-winner Steve McQueen will debut at the New York Film Festival this year, organizers said Monday. The “12 Years a Slave” director will get the opening night slot for the 1980s-set music romance “Lovers Rock” in addition to two other premieres for films in his anthology series. McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology is comprised of five films telling stories about London’s West Indian community from the 1960s to the mid-1980s. “It’s an incredible honor and also very humbling to show three of my films at the New York Film Festival,” McQueen said in a statement. “It’s especially meaningful for me at this particular time to share these stories as a Black man of West Indian heritage.” “Steve McQueen is one of the essential artists of our time, and he reaches a new level of mastery with the Small Axe films,” said Dennis Lim, the festival’s programming director. “These are works of historical drama that speak powerfully and urgently to our present moment of reckoning over police brutality and systemic racism.” Dates haven’t been set for the 58th edition of the New York Film Festival because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.