Salman Rushdie made an emotional and unexpected return to public life Thursday night, attending the annual gala of PEN America and giving the event’s final speech as he accepted a special prize, the PEN Centenary Courage Award, just nine months being after being stabbed repeatedly and hospitalized. “It’s nice to be back — as opposed…
Rafael Nadal to Miss French Open with Hip Injury, Expects to Retire after 2024
Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal announced Thursday that he is pulling out of the French Open because of a lingering hip injury, and he expects 2024 to be the final season of his career. The owner of a record 14 championships at the clay-court Grand Slam tournament will miss it for the first time since…
Spokesperson: Prince Harry, Wife Meghan in ‘Near Catastrophic Car Chase’ with Paparazzi
Britain’s Prince Harry, his wife Meghan and her mother were involved in a “near catastrophic car chase” involving paparazzi photographers, a spokesperson for the prince said on Wednesday. It occurred after the couple had attended an awards ceremony held in New York by the Ms. Foundation for Women, where Meghan was honored for her work.…
Russia Halts Release of Iranian Film About Serial Killer, Distributor Says
Russian authorities have suspended the release of an award-winning film about a serial killer who targets sex workers in Iran, a distributor said on Tuesday. “Holy Spider,” directed by Danish Iranian Ali Abbasi, was inspired by a true story about a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war who killed 16 sex workers in the early 2000s…
Salman Rushdie Warns Free Expression Under Threat in Rare Public Address After Attack
Writer Salman Rushdie has made a public speech, nine months after being stabbed and seriously injured onstage, warning that freedom of expression in the West is under its most severe threat in his lifetime. Rushdie delivered a video message to the British Book Awards, where he was awarded the Freedom to Publish award on Monday…
Striking Hollywood Writers Vow not to Picket Tony Awards, Opening the Door to Some Kind of Show
Striking members of the Writers Guild of America have said they will not picket next month’s Tony Award telecast, clearing a thorny issue facing show organizers and opening the door for some sort of Broadway razzle-dazzle on TV. The union last week denied a request by Tony organizers to have a waiver for their June…
‘Guardians Vol. 3’ and ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Top Box Office Again
Several new movies infiltrated theaters nationwide this weekend, from a lighthearted trip to Italy with Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Diane Keaton and Mary Steenburgen to a Ben Affleck-fronted detective thriller. The two top spots were once again claimed by Marvel and Mario, however. In its second weekend, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3″ added $60.5…
Audio Book Narrators Say AI Is Already Taking Away Business
As people brace for the disruptive impact of artificial intelligence on jobs and everyday living, those in the world of audio books say their field is already being transformed. AI has the ability to create human-sounding recordings — at assembly-line speed — while bypassing at least part of the services of the human professionals who…
Hobbit Houses Spring Up in Bosnia Hills
Four sisters are building the first Hobbit-style village in southeast Europe in the green hills of central Bosnia, hoping to attract fans of “The Lord of the Rings” books and movies as well as sharing their childhood memories. “We have often held family gatherings on this hill and discussed what would be the best way…
Last Known Speaker Fights To Preserve South African Indigenous Language
When she was a girl in South Africa’s Northern Cape, Katrina Esau stopped speaking her mother tongue, N|uu, after being mocked by other people and told it was an “ugly language.” Now at age 90, she is the last known speaker of N|uu, one of a group of indigenous languages in South Africa that have…
Swedish Singer Loreen Wins Eurovision Song Contest With ‘Tattoo’
Swedish singer Loreen won the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night with her power ballad “Tattoo,” at a colorful, eclectic music competition clouded for a second year running by the war in Ukraine. The diva from Stockholm beat acts from 25 other countries to take the continent’s pop crown at the competition in Liverpool. Finnish…
It’s Eurovision Time! Here’s How the Contest Works and Who to Watch For
Sprinkle the sequins and pump up the volume: The 67th Eurovision Song Contest reaches its climax on Saturday with a grand final broadcast live from Liverpool. There will be catchy choruses, a kaleidoscope of costumes and tributes to the spirit of Ukraine in a competition that for seven decades has captured the changing zeitgeist of…
How A Theater Production Helped Ukrainian Refugees Amid War
Thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the war found refuge in the small town of Uzhhorod in Ukraine. A local theater director decided to stage the Shakespearean play, King Lear, to help refugees find some normalcy during the war. They were surprised by what happened next. Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Vazgen Varzhabetian …
Vienna Sets Trend in Gender-Friendly City Planning
Austria, has been ranked by The Economist as the most livable city in the world and it is also the pioneer of adopting a gender-inclusive urban design. For VOA, Chermaine Lee reports from Vienna. …
US Returns Two Stolen 7th-Century Antiquities to China
The United States returned two looted antiquities to China, the latest in a wave of repatriations of artifacts stolen from more than a dozen countries, New York authorities announced Tuesday. The two 7th-century stone carvings, currently valued at $3.5 million, had been sawn off a tomb by thieves in the early 1990s and smuggled out…
Tucker Carlson Will Bring His Show to Twitter After Leaving Fox
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who was taken off the air by the network last month, said on Tuesday he would relaunch his show on Twitter “soon.” Fox News Media and its top-rated host agreed to part ways last month, shortly after parent company Fox Corp. settled for $787.5 million a defamation lawsuit in…
Iranian American Wins Pulitzer Prize
Iranian American Sanaz Toossi won the Pulitzer Prize in drama Monday for her play English. The play takes place in 2008 near Tehran, where four Iranian adults prepare for an English proficiency test. It examines how family separation and travel restrictions push them to learn a new language and how that may change their identity. …
Opera Icon Grace Bumbry Dies at 86
Mezzo-soprano Grace Bumbry, a Black opera singer who blazed trails and broke barriers, has died, her son and publicist announced Monday. She was 86. The artist died on May 7 at a hospital in Vienna, having suffered a stroke in October, according to her adopted son David Lee Brewer, who was speaking to the press…
Ukrainian Folk Attire Exhibited During Seattle’s Fashion Week
Authentic Ukrainian ethnic folk attire made a recent appearance on a runway at Metropolitan Fashion Week Seattle, held in the city’s suburb of Woodinville. Natasha Mozgovaya has more. …
Fast-Rising Teqball Crashes Southeast Asian Games
As teqball continues its fast growth with its debut at the Southeast Asian Games, the young sport has drawn resentful glances from similar sports in the region that feel it is treading on their turf. Invented in Hungary in 2012, teqball is a nonmedal exhibition sport at this year’s SEA Games in Phnom Penh, Cambodia,…
‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ Opens to $114 Million
There is nothing like the promise of a chapter closing to draw people to the movie theater, especially when tied to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This weekend, ” Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” which says goodbye to this iteration of the space misfits and its driving creative voice, director James Gunn, earned $114 million…
Newton Minow, Ex-FCC Chief Who Dubbed TV ‘Wasteland,’ Dies
Newton N. Minow, who as Federal Communications Commission chief in the early 1960s famously proclaimed that network television was a “vast wasteland,” died Saturday. He was 97. Minow, who received a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, died Saturday at home, surrounded by loved ones, said his daughter, Nell Minow. “He wanted to be at…