A few years ago, a star athlete dropping out of a major tennis tournament over mental health issues might have been seen as a sign of weakness.Today, at least for Naomi Osaka’s corporate sponsors, it is being hailed as refreshingly honest.That would explain why so many of them have stuck by Osaka after the four-time…
‘Good feeling’: Ai Weiwei Picks Portugal for New Show, Home
Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is putting on the biggest show of his career, and he is doing it in a place he’s fallen in love with: Portugal. The world-renowned visual artist’s new exhibition, “Rapture,” opens in the Portuguese capital Lisbon on Friday. Ai arrived in Portugal almost two years ago and says he has no plans…
Cannes Film Festival Lineup Features Wes Anderson, Sean Penn, Leox Carax
The Cannes Film Festival on Thursday unveiled a lineup of films from big-name auteurs — including Wes Anderson, Asghar Farhadi, Mia Hansen-Løve and Sean Penn — for its 74th edition, an in-person, summertime event that aims to make a stirring return in July after being canceled last year because of the pandemic. Among the films…
Prolific Korean American Artist Predicted Digital World We Live In Now
Decades before YouTube, there was Nam June Paik, a Korean American artist who believed all people should have their own TV channel. Matt Dibble explores a retrospective of this visionary video artist. Producer: Matt Dibble …
Video Art Pioneer Predicted Screen-Filled World
Decades before YouTube, there was Nam June Paik, a Korean American artist who believed all people should have their own TV channel. Matt Dibble explores a retrospective of this visionary video artist. Producer: Matt Dibble …
France Releases New Translation of Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’
A massive and long-awaited new translation of Mein Kampf — peppered with scholarly commentary to explain Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s disjointed, hate-filled manifesto — has been released in France. The project has been controversial, but supporters say it could serve as a warning against rising acts of hate and antisemitism today.The book is a recast…
Bolsonaro Says Brazil Ready to Host Copa America Soccer Tournament
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Tuesday his government is on board with hosting the Copa America soccer tournament later this month, in a last-minute switch after planned host Argentina pulled out due to the coronavirus. Speaking to supporters in Brasilia, Bolsonaro said he consulted with Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga and they had agreed the…
Four-Time Grand Slam Champ Osaka Out of French Open, Cites Anxiety
Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open on Monday and wrote on Twitter that she would be taking a break from competition, a dramatic turn of events for a four-time Grand Slam champion who said she experiences “huge waves of anxiety” before speaking to the media and revealed she has “suffered long bouts of depression.”pic.twitter.com/LN2ANnoAYD—…
Thailand Welcomes Back Stolen Artifacts After San Francisco Forfeiture
Thailand held a welcoming ceremony Monday to mark the return of two ancient handcarved artifacts that were stolen decades ago and smuggled out of the country to the United States.The two 680-kilogram Khmer-style stone carvings had been on display at the Asian Arts Museum in San Francisco, which was required to forfeit them when a…
Osaka: ‘Best Thing’ for French Open Would Be Her Withdrawal
Naomi Osaka wrote on Twitter on Monday that “the best thing for the tournament” would be if she withdrew from the French Open, a dramatic turn of events for the four-time Grand Slam champion and former No. 1-ranked player.She had declared she would not speak to the media during Roland Garros and was fined $15,000…
Brazil to Host Copa America as Pandemic-Hit Argentina Withdraws
Next month’s Copa America soccer tournament will take place in Brazil, the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) said on Monday, as it thanked President Jair Bolsonaro for stepping in after original host Argentina pulled out after a surge of COVID-19 cases. The surprise decision, which relocates the competition from one South American coronavirus hot…
Fueling Box Office Rebound, ‘Quiet Place’ Opens With $58.5M asso
Moviegoing increasingly looks like it didn’t die during the pandemic. It just went into hibernation. John Krasinski’s thriller sequel “A Quiet Place Part II” opened over the Memorial Day weekend to a pandemic-best $48.4 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. Including the Monday holiday, the studio forecasts the film will gross $58.5 million in…
‘Tarzan’ Actor Joe Lara Among 7 Presumed Dead in US Plane Crash
All seven passengers aboard a plane, including “Tarzan” actor Joe Lara and his diet guru wife, are presumed dead after it crashed in a lake near the U.S. city of Nashville, authorities said. The small business jet crashed at around 11:00 am local time Saturday, shortly after taking off from the Smyrna, Tennessee airport…
Most Medical Staff Needed for Olympics Secured, Games Official Says
The organizers of the Tokyo Olympics have secured about 80% of the medical staff needed to stage the Games, a top Olympic official told Reuters on Monday, amid worries over infections and the slow rollout of vaccinations in the Japanese capital. Toshiaki Endo, vice president of the Games organizing committee, said some domestic spectators could be…
Brazil’s Castroneves Wins Indianapolis 500 for 4th Time
Helio Castroneves won the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday for a record-equaling fourth time, in front of the largest crowd to attend a sporting event in the United States since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.The 46-year-old Brazilian surged to the front with two laps to go and held off a challenge from hard-charging Spanish young…
Egypt Bets on Ancient Finds to Pull Tourism out of Pandemic
Workers dig and ferry wheelbarrows laden with sand to open a new shaft at a bustling archaeological site outside of Cairo, while a handful of Egyptian archaeologists supervise from garden chairs. The dig is at the foot of the Step Pyramid of Djoser, arguably the world’s oldest pyramid, and is one of many recent excavations…
Actor MacLeod, ‘Love Boat’ Captain, Dies at 90
Gavin MacLeod, the veteran supporting actor who achieved stardom as Murray Slaughter, the sardonic TV news writer on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” before going on to even bigger fame as the cheerful Captain Stubing on “The Love Boat,” has died. He was 90. MacLeod died early Saturday, his nephew, Mark See, told Variety. MacLeod’s health had…
New Paris Museum Offers Dazzling Display of Contemporary Art
As French cultural institutions reopen after months of coronavirus restrictions, a spectacular new museum has made its debut in Paris, housing the contemporary art collection of French billionaire Francois Pinault, including a number of prominent Black artists.A wax replica of The Rape of the Sabine Women by 16th century artist Giambologna at the Pinault Collection.…
‘In the Heights’ Celebrates Diversity in America
In the Heights, a film about the dreams and struggles of the Latino community in a New York neighborhood, is Lin Manuel Miranda’s love letter to the place where he grew up. It also represents Miranda’s high-stakes bet that people will flock to the theater after months of COVID restrictions. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more…
Hollywood Actors Say Local Theaters in California Under Threat
Some veteran Hollywood actors say a law intended to help gig economy workers has the unintended consequence of threatening nonprofit theaters. Mike O’Sullivan has the story from Los Angeles. Camera: Roy Kim, Rodmy Dorcil and Arturo Martinez …
Actor John Cena Faces Backlash in China over Taiwan Comment
Actor and professional wrestler John Cena has apologized to fans in China after he called Taiwan a country in a promotional interview for his upcoming film and became the latest celebrity to face the fury of Chinese nationalists. In a short video posted Tuesday on Chinese social media site Weibo, Cena did not refer to…
HBO Max Airs Highly-Anticipated ‘Friends’ Reunion
After so many years — and episode re-watches — could there BE anything left to learn about “Friends”?As the highly-anticipated, almost two-hour reunion special for HBO Max shows (and with apologies to Matthew Perry for continuing to borrow his lines), “Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes.”One thing that we didn’t need to learn (because we…