Author: Ohart

Tom Wolfe, an early practitioner of “new journalism” who captured the mood and culture of America across five decades with books including “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” “The Right Stuff” and “The Bonfire of the Vanities,” died

on Tuesday at the age of 87, his agent said.

Wolfe, who had a knack for coining phrases such as “radical chic” and “the me decade,” died of an unspecified infection in a New York City hospital on Monday, his agent, Lynn Nesbit, said in a phone interview.
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Spike Lee’s Ku Klux Klan crime drama “BlacKkKlansman” received a rousing, lengthy standing ovation at the 71st Cannes Film Festival. 

Lee’s film tells true-life tale of a black police detective in Colorado who infiltrates the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. It was among the most highly anticipated titles at Cannes this year and immediate reaction was positive. 

“BlacKkKlansman” ties its story to the violent protests of Charlottesville, Virginia. It stars Denzel Washington’s son, John David Washington, alongside Adam Driver and Topher Grace, who plays David Duke.

Lee was outfitted in a shiny purple-and-orange tuxedo and wore one ring declaring “love” on one hand, and “hate” on the other. He bounced into the premiere announcing: “Brooklyn’s in the house!” 

The “love” and “hate” rings pay homage to his film “Do The Right Thing”; the same jewelry was worn by character Radio Raheem.
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As the sun sets Tuesday, Muslims will begin observing the fasting month of Ramadan, the holiest on the Islamic calendar.  They abstain from food and water from dawn to dusk, pray, and recite Quran.

But, there is also a fun, festive side of the observance.  That’s the social gatherings for family and friends when they break their fast each evening, known as “Iftar.”  There are also special treats for kids who haven’t yet reached the age when they are required to fast.  And many Muslim families put up Ramadan decorations.

Though it’s not a religious requirement, decorating the house for Ramadan is a lovely, must-do tradition for Inas El Ayouby, who lives in Vienna, Virginia, with her family.

“It gives my house such a nice, warm feeling and it makes it an extra special time,” she explains.  “And it’s amazing how the decorations have the ability to create such a great delightful atmosphere and joyful mood throughout the month.”

Decorations, she adds, are especially important for children, teaching them about the month and making them love and anticipate it every year.

To El Ayouby, who loves decorating her house for various occasions, from birthdays and Thanksgiving to Easter and the Fourth of July, says decorations are part of any celebration.  Growing up in Egypt, El Ayouby recalls how her mother used to be creative, designing and making Ramadan decorations herself, as they were not sold in stores.

That’s what she did when her two kids were young, growing in America, when Ramadan was not a well-known event to non-Muslims.

“I used to get most of my Ramadan decorations from Egypt where it’s become a huge business and lucrative market.  I also used to go to nearby craft stores.  I also used to go on line and get beautiful post cards with different scenes of Ramadan, really beautiful.  I print them out and put them in colorful frames, like red, blue and yellow to add to the decorations.”

Party City makes it easier

This year, when the U.S. retail chain Party City introduced its Ramadan decorations line, El Ayouby was excited.

“Everybody just went crazy.  I can see all my friends on Facebook saying, go to Party City, go buy Ramadan stuff, you’re going to find lovely things.”

“I was able to get the hanging decorations, the balloons, the napkins and plates, which is great because in the past, I used to get solid red-color paper plates and use colorful napkins to go with it to add some coloring.  Now, we have the whole theme from Party City.  That’s really great.”

Ryan Vero, Party City’s president of retail, says the company created its Ramadan line based on requests from customers.  “We always look to support our customers in all of their party needs, for every type of celebration or event,” he says.  “We listened to our customers and recognized an opportunity to fill this underserved category of party good items.”

And, he notes, it’s a lucrative market, with about five million Muslims living in North America, according to a 2014 study by the American Muslim Consumer Consortium.

The new line includes tableware, banners, decals, gift bags and balloons in purple, blue, green and gold, embellished with mosques, stars and crescent drawings.  Beside Ramadan decorations, the company also offers similar items commemorating Eid, the end of month celebration.

“At this time, our decorations are predominantly sold out, both online, and in our stores,” Vero says.  “We were extremely pleased with the response and are working to get them back in stores.”

Ramadan decorations in the classroom

El Ayouby also bought Ramadan decorations for her grandson, Jad, who is in second grade.

“Over the past few years, his mother has been doing in-class Ramadan presentations.  She takes the decorations like the balloons, the plates and stuff in addition to food, juice and paper activity to his classroom. She takes a basket full of dates, and she tells all about Ramadan.”

With major public attention paid to the Christmas and Hanukkah holidays, she says this recognition gives Muslim children a sense of inclusion.

“With the decorations and other stuff, they feel they are integral part of the community and that their religious occasions are explained and celebrated.”
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Drake is going on tour.

The 31-year-old announced the “Aubrey and The Three Amigos Tour” on Monday. Drake will be joined by “Walk It Talk It” collaborators Migos and special guests on the North American leg through the summer and fall.

The 41-date tour starts July 26 in Salt Lake City.

Drake has released the singles “God’s Plan” and “Nice For What” ahead of his anticipated fifth studio album “Scorpion.”
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A former Australian Rules Footballer of Nigerian descent is taking legal action against the sport for alleged racial, sexual and religious discrimination.  Joel Wilkinson says the abuse he suffered was a “continuous breach of human rights” and insists that racism is rife in Australia’s most popular professional sport.  It is thought to be the first case of its kind in Australia.

In 2014, Wilkinson appeared in an anti-discrimination advert sponsored by the Australian Football League, the AFL in which he spoke of the abuse he had suffered on the field.

“I actually felt like he was trying to make me feel like I was a little kid, a little black kid, a little piece of dirt.”

But the former Gold Coast Suns player now alleges that the League’s public stance on racism is very different from what he says is a “much darker reality.”  He insists that his career ended abruptly in 2013 because he was so outspoken about the mistreatment he endured.

He is taking his case for compensation to Australia’s Human Rights Commission after talks with the AFL failed to reach an agreement.

“I have suffered extreme racism  during my time in the AFL and post my career in the AFL until this very day,” said Wilkinson. “My career was taken from me.  My rights were violated due to racism, religious vilification and racially-motivated sexual harassment that I experienced for many years.”

The AFL said in a statement that it was sorry the ex-player “had suffered experiences of racial abuse” during his time as a footballer, and that it was committed to resolving his complaint.

In 2013,  a famous Aboriginal AFL player was taunted by a young spectator who called him an ape.’  The 13-year old girl later apologized for her behavior.

The competition is Australia’s most-watched professional sport.  Matches in the city of Melbourne attract up to 100,000 fans.  The Australian Football League has more than 80 Indigenous players, about 10 per cent of the total.   It has also featured players with Jamaican, Lebanese and Sudanese heritage.

Rights groups have previously praised the League’s efforts to tackle racism in Australia.
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The latest “Star Wars” movie did not have a smooth flight to the screen, but the director and cast of “Solo” say the scramble to remake the movie ultimately paid off, with early reaction ahead of the May 25 launch largely positive.

Original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired from “Solo: A Star Wars Story” midway through production, and Walt Disney Co. asked Ron Howard to come in to oversee extensive reshoots.

The film, which tells the origin story of Han Solo, premiered in Hollywood on Thursday and drew cheers and applause throughout from the crowds in two historic theaters, the first large audiences to see the finished product.

“We went so fast to get the movie ready,” Howard said in an interview with Reuters on Friday. “I was really on pins and needles, and I was so gratified to hear laughs and hear cheers in all the places I hoped and I dreamed that they would be. It was a good night. I slept well last night.”

Alden Ehrenreich, 28, stepped into the role of cowboy smuggler Han Solo, made famous by Harrison Ford in the original “Star Wars” trilogy that began in 1977. Ehrenreich plays a younger Solo just beginning his pilot training and seeking his own spaceship when he becomes involved in a dangerous mission in the galaxy far, far away.

“Game of Thrones” star Emilia Clarke, who portrays Solo’s childhood friend Qi’ra, said the change of directors produced less drama than people may think.

“Something that on paper sounds horrific was not in reality at all for someone who was in it and experienced and was living through it,” Clarke said. “Everyone who handled it was seamless and graceful.”

Fans around the world have debated how Ehrenreich, little known beyond a well-received performance in quirky 2016 comedy “Hail, Caesar,” would handle one of cinema’s most loved characters.

Ehrenreich confirmed he had signed a contract to play Solo in three movies and said he was anxious to step into the role again in future installments.

“By the end of the movie, he’s more like the guy we know, and that’s fun,” Ehrenreich said.
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A biopic about the man who founded one of Brazil’s largest evangelical churches has sold more tickets than any other film in recent memory in the South American country. But some have accused the church of cooking the books.

The film tells the story of Bishop Edir Macedo, who founded the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in the 1970s. Macedo is a powerful and controversial figure in Brazil who owns a media empire and has been dogged by accusations of malfeasance — allegations that the film portrays as a plot by the Catholic Church and Brazilian establishment to limit his power.

A company that measures media penetration, comScore, says the film “Nada a Perder” — “Nothing to Lose” — sold more than 11.7 million tickets between its release March 29 and Thursday. That makes the film, which is being released Friday in the United States, the most attended since 2002, the first year for which comScore has Brazilian box office data. The next closest film, a 2016 movie about the life of Moses, sold more than 11.3 million tickets.

Blockbuster sales but empty seats

But the Brazilian press has accused the church of inflating sales by buying up tickets. The Folha de S.Paulo newspaper sent reporters to movie theaters during the film’s opening weekend and said the screening rooms weren’t full, despite the blockbuster ticket sales. The church denies that and, in turn, accused the Brazilian media of disseminating “fake news” to damage its reputation.

“The Universal (church) never bought tickets for the film ‘Nada a Perder,’” the church said in a statement to The Associated Press. “That said, part of the success of the film, and therein lies the hatred of some segments of the press, comes from the initiative of volunteers from Universal and other denominations and religions, who have organized so that the largest number of people possible can see the film.”

It added that other religions do exactly the same thing: recommending to their followers things they believe in.

The film, which was produced by Paris Entretenimento, is based on Macedo’s life and ends with a recorded message from the man himself. The church says it was not involved in the film’s production, though it has vigorously promoted it on its website as has Macedo’s Record TV network. Another part of Macedo’s media empire, Record Filmes, has helped to screen the film in prisons and for remote communities, including indigenous groups. A sequel is planned.

The second most-attended film since comScore started keeping track is “Os Dez Mandamentos,” which Record Filmes produced. The third film is “Tropa de Elite 2,” the sequel to a popular Brazilian film about gang violence and police corruption in Rio de Janeiro. But comScore data shows that “Nada a Perder” may not reign for long: “Avengers: Infinity War,” which opened April 26 in Brazil, has more than 10.4 million ticket sales so far.

Luis Fernando Rodrigues was among five people who saw “Nada a Perder” at a movie theater in Sao Paulo on Thursday afternoon.

“This film is part of a holy war” over the image of Macedo and his church, said the 57-year-old architect. Even the debate over how many people saw the film is part of that battle, he said.

Gesturing at the empty theater, he added: “We don’t know if it’s because of the time of day or if it’s a manipulation.”

Controversy has long surrounded Macedo, a colorful character who has won both adoration and notoriety for taking on two of Brazil’s most entrenched institutions: the Catholic church and the Globo media empire. Brazil is the world’s most populous Catholic country, but evangelicals are on the rise: They account for 1 in 5 people, up from 1 in 20 a few decades ago, and evangelical lawmakers make up a powerful voting bloc in Congress. Macedo’s Universal church has been one of the motors of the group’s growth.

​Fervent followers

Macedo was raised a Catholic, but the movie shows him searching for spiritual meaning elsewhere. In the film, his family experiments with traditional healers to cure his sister’s asthma and finally joins an evangelical church. But he ends up rejecting that church as too elitist and finally founds his own.

Over the years, he and his preachers have drawn the ire of Catholics for railing against their “idolatry” of saints and calling the pope the Antichrist.

But they have also drawn fervent followers, who have turned the Universal church into a powerful player in Brazilian politics and culture. Macedo’s nephew and a bishop in the church, Marcelo Crivella, was elected mayor of Rio de Janeiro in 2016, and the Universal church says it has 9 million followers in 110 countries, 7 million of whom are in Brazil.

Macedo himself has been dogged by accusations of financial crimes and exploiting his followers. He was briefly jailed in 1990s amid accusations of extortion, tax evasion and fraud, an episode portrayed in the film as proof of the power of his message and the great lengths that the Brazilian establishment will go to silence it.

In 2011, federal prosecutors accused Macedo of false representation, larceny by fraud, money laundering and forming a criminal association. A judge rejected some of those charges, and the statute of limitations expired for others. According to the Sao Paulo Federal Justice system, the money-laundering charge is still pending.

In a statement, the church said Macedo was the victim of “judicial persecution” and that it was sure that he would be found innocent in the remaining case.
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So how do you ask 85-year-old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to let you bring video cameras into a gym to record her workout?

The answer, according to the makers of the RBG documentary that’s in theaters now and bound for CNN later this year, is “very meekly.”

A trainer pushing Ginsburg on the free weights provides one of the smile-worthy moments in the documentary, which puts meat behind the cultural phenomenon created by the 2015 book Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The film’s story traces her legal work advancing rights for women leading up to her 1993 elevation to the top court, and her role as a justice since.

Mixed in is the tender love story with her husband, Martin Ginsburg, who died in 2010, and rich personal touches, including her friendship with the late Justice Antonin Scalia — bringing a liberal and conservative together in a way that seems alien to modern Washington.

Watching the Notorious RBG fame, film director Betsy West said that “we felt that many of her millennial fans didn’t know her full story.” West and co-director Julie Cohen set out to tell it. 

When they first approached Ginsburg with the idea, her answer was “not yet.”

“We noticed the two words not in her email to us were ‘no’ and ‘never,’ ” Cohen said. So they got to work, and later Ginsburg cooperated with interviews.

Dean’s question

Ginsburg met her husband as an undergraduate at Cornell University. When she was admitted to Harvard Law School, a dean famously asked her and the other eight women in the class why they deserved to take a place in the class that should have gone to a man.

It was a far different time. Ginsburg attacked sexism methodically while working for the American Civil Liberties Union, using the words of the Constitution to fight gender roles that had been enshrined into law. She won five of the six cases she argued before the Supreme Court.

Filmmakers outline that effort by mining archives with tapes of her legal arguments. Research also uncovered one priceless moment in Ginsburg’s confirmation hearing to the court. As the still-novel idea of women on the court was being discussed, the camera pans to senators at the hearing where, behind them, a young legislative aide and Ginsburg’s future colleague on the court, Elena Kagan, was working.

Ginsburg provides a still-relevant model for activism, Cohen said — even if her quiet, persistent, “long game” strategy can make younger idealists impatient.

Cohen and West’s portrait is mostly loving, although Ginsburg’s unusual criticisms of Donald Trump when he was a presidential candidate were addressed. Trump’s supporters didn’t like them and many Ginsburg fans thought them ill-advised.

Perhaps unexpectedly, the film received a three-star review (out of four) from the conservative website Newsmax.

“You can completely disagree with everything Ginsburg has ever done as a lawyer and/or a judge but as a subject for a nonfiction film, she has few peers,” wrote Newsmax’s Michael Clark. “Like it or not, Ginsburg’s story is captivating and ideal fodder for a movie.”

Ginsburg in audience

The film began appearing in a limited number of theaters this month and is starting to expand its reach this weekend. The one critic Cohen and West were most interested in saw it for the first time at the Sundance Film Festival. Cohen and West sat across the aisle from Ginsburg, stealing nervous glances.

“As it went on, I think we started to relax because she was completely engrossed throughout,” Cohen said. “She laughed repeatedly, she pulled out a tissue and cried a number of times, including in an earlier scene of watching herself watching a beautiful opera duet that she loves. Wouldn’t have occurred to us as being … a strong emotional point in the movie, but that really seemed to move her.”

For the workout scene, it had been West’s job to ask if Ginsburg would allow a camera. The request was met, as was often the case, with a dramatic pause. Then came the answer: “Yes, I think that would be possible.”

“We weren’t in that room for more than a few minutes, then we knew why she’d let us film this,” West said. “She’s an elderly woman who is keeping herself in very good shape to do the job that she loves and I think she’s proud of this.”
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Dr. Dre has lost his trademark fight against Dr. Drai.

The rapper, whose real name is Andre Young, objected to the trademark application of a Pennsylvania gynecologist whose nickname is spelled differently but sounds the same. Dr. Draion M. Burch’s website advertises that he’s a sex expert, “obgyn and media personality.”

 

Burch goes by a shortened version of his first name and applied to register it as a trademark. The rapper objected, saying the public would be confused and assume a connection between him and the gynecologist.

 

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has disagreed, saying consumers will be able to distinguish between the two.

 
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Spotify has removed R. Kelly’s music from its playlists, citing its new policy on hate content and hateful conduct.

A spokesperson on Thursday says Kelly’s music is no longer available on the streaming service’s owned and operated playlists and algorithmic recommendations. His music will still be available, but Spotify will not actually promote it.

The new policy defines hateful conduct as “something that is especially harmful or hateful,” such as violence against children and sexual violence.  

 

Spotify says it doesn’t censor content because of an artist’s behavior. But the service wants programs to “reflect” its values. It says when an artist does something harmful or hateful, it may affect the ways it works with the artist.

 

Kelly has long been the target of sexual misconduct allegations, which he has denied.

 

Kelly’s representative didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

 
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Virginia Wallen is a wife, a mother of three, and a woodworker. She achieved what she has never imagined she would — turning her carpentry hobby into a business. And as Faiza Elmasry tells us, the entrepreneur isn’t just succeeding in her new career, she’s tearing down stereotypes and building a new role model. Faith Lapidus narrates.
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Attraction park Legoland has unveiled a miniature model of this month’s royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Windsor castle, built by a team of 11 model-makers who used almost 60,000 pieces of Lego bricks.

The replica includes a 60-brick Markle in her wedding dress and veil, with Harry by her side.

The couple are riding in a brick-built carriage being drawn by horses along Windsor Great Park’s Long Walk toward the castle, surrounded by 500 spectators, recreating the real-life procession that is planned for the big day on May 19.

The scene is completed by miniature models of Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh along with best man Prince William, his wife, Kate, and their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, and Meghan Markle’s parents.

Lego said the wedding scene replica, which took 752 hours to build, will be on permanent display at its theme park, just three miles (5 km) from the real Windsor castle to the west of London.
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The double-Oscar winning filmmaker who opened the Cannes Film Festival has made a last-minute plea to Iran to let a fellow Iranian director – who is officially banned from working and traveling – come to the premiere of his own film.

Seated alongside Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, the stars of his new movie, Asghar Farhadi said Iran should allow acclaimed director Jafar Panahi to attend the festival where they both have movies competing for the Palme d’Or.

“I think there’s still time,” he said of getting Panahi to the Saturday premiere of his film “3 Faces.”

“I would like to send this message: I hope the decision will be taken to allow him to come,” Farhadi said at the end of a news conference on his own movie “Everybody Knows” on Wednesday.

Farhadi, who won foreign language Oscars for films made in Iran: “A Separation” and “The Salesman”, is free to come and go from his home country as he makes films there and in Europe.

But Panahi, who won the Camera d’Or in Cannes in 1995 for his debut “The White Balloon” was arrested after the 2009 protests against the re-election of hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and was banned from making films.

Depite that, he has continued working under the radar, starting with “This Is Not a Film,” shot in his Tehran apartment on a mobile phone, and more recently “Taxi” in which he plays himself as a film director now working as a taxi driver – winning the Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin film festival in 2015.

“It’s wonderful that he has continued his work in such adversity,” Farhadi told reporters. “It’s a very strange feeling for me to be able to be here but not him. It’s something I have difficulty living with.”

The gala screening of “Everybody Knows” on Tuesday evening coincided with U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that he was pulling of the 2015 nuclear deal – delivering a bitter-sweet moment for Iranians.

“It was a very strange moment, to have come out of the film and have all the emotions about how good or bad the film was and also the real, real worries that we have about the future of our country,” said Arash Azizi, a New-York based Iranian movie critic for website IranWire.

“Unfortunately, the reality of the world is that our fate is not being decided not by the Farhadis or other artists but by Trump or (Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei – men in power who represent a very different face of Iranians.”

The Cannes Film Festival runs from May 8 to May 19.

 
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The new, young Han Solo says he has “a good feeling about this” in a trailer for “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” reversing one of the best-known catchphrases in the sci-fi movie franchise.

Yet fans are watching to see if a little-known actor can fill the shoes of Harrison Ford, whose dry-witted bounty hunter is one of the franchise’s most popular characters.

All eyes will be on Alden Ehrenreich, 28, when Disney’s “Solo” gets its world premiere in Los Angeles on Thursday ahead of an international rollout on May 23.

“Solo” is an origin story set some 10 years before the events of the 1977 “Star Wars” movie, when Ford starred as the cynical cowboy space pilot. He reprised the role almost 30 years later for “The Force Awakens,” which at $2 billion is the third biggest-grossing film on record.

“Han Solo is my favorite character in ‘Star Wars’ and Harrison Ford is a big part of that,” said Sarah Woloski, co-host with Tricia Barr and Teresa Delgado of “Star Wars” podcast Fangirls Going Rogue.

“But if Alden has the right swagger and attitude to pull that off, that’s more important than being a Harrison Ford look-alike,” she said.

Ehrenreich got warm reviews for quirky 2016 comedy “Hail, Caesar” but is otherwise little known to generations of fervent “Star Wars” fans.

On the other hand, Ford, now 75, became a taciturn sex symbol, a persona that grew with his “Indiana Jones” adventures.

Yet his alpha male Han Solo of the 1970s and 80s may not be the hero audiences want in 2017.

“I think a lot of heterosexual men learned how to flirt from Han Solo and Indiana Jones. But men like me grew up and realized you can’t act like Han Solo. Han Solo is kind of a jerk,” said Ryan Britt, entertainment editor of pop culture and technology at website Inverse.com.

“If Alden’s sexy, I don’t think he can be as pushy as the Han Solo of the 80s,” Britt said.

Trailers for “Solo,” including some deadpan lines from co-screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, have excited fans who were initially nervous about Ehrenreich’s casting.

They are also hoping the film will explain Han Solo’s back story, including his friendship with co-pilot Chewbacca, how he won the Millennium Falcon spaceship, and how he became the cynic whose catchphrase “I have a bad feeling about this” has been used in some form in almost every “Star Wars” movie.

“Why did he lose his idealism? Does he get his heart broken? Does he get ripped off? Does he get betrayed?” said Britt.

The biggest surprise may come in the form of Donald Glover, the singer and actor who plays a young version of smuggler Lando Calrissian.

“I might be more excited about Lando, and seeing the swagger of Donald Glover, than seeing Han Solo,” said Delgado, who plans to see “Solo” three times over its opening weekend.

“I can’t imagine he will be anything less than awesome and swoon-worthy.”

 

 

 

 

 
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Dolls, a memory jar, a magnifying glass, a used condom — each is a memento of heartbreak contributed by an anonymous contributor to the Museum of Broken Relationships, an eccentric display in Kosovo.

The traveling exhibition — tied to a permanent tourist attraction in the Croatian capital, Zagreb, dedicated to treasuring and sharing heartbreak stories and symbolic possessions — opened a monthlong stint in Kosovo last week as part of Europe Week. 

“Its mission is to connect people in public spaces through the stories of love and loss,” a statement from the EU office in Kosovo said.

Curator Kushtrim Fetahu said organizers launched an open call for stories on Facebook and Instagram, and managed to collect 30 objects for the Kosovo exhibition.

They all aim at “storytelling, story sharing, to explain all the relationships, what happened not only between lovers but also between friends and families,” he said.

One contributor from the western Kosovo city of Prizren writes of a memory jar: “This jar holds the beautiful days and nights of our relationship and that doesn’t deserve to be thrown away and not to be remembered.”

The collection in Pristina includes items from the museum’s permanent collection in Zagreb, such as a positive pregnancy test from Leipzig, Germany, as well as the wedding dress of a Turkish woman who lost her husband-to-be the day they would have gotten married — in June 28, 2016, when a terrorist attack killed him at the Istanbul airport.

The museum won the EMYA Kenneth Hudson Award in 2010 for the most innovative and daring museum project in Europe.

The EU statement said that the Museum “encourages discussion and reflection not only on the fragility of human relationships but also on the social, cultural and political circumstances surrounding the stories being told.”

When the project wraps up in Kosovo, some of the stories will be sent to the permanent museum in Zagreb.

“In this way, stories from Kosovo will be a permanent part of an international museum,” the EU statement said.
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Disney is seeking new frontiers.

The media company launched its $5-a-month sports streaming service, ESPN Plus, last month, and it signed a deal with Twitter this month to create Marvel, ABC and ESPN content on that service. Meanwhile, Disney is trying to buy much of 21st Century Fox, including the Fox television network and the X-Men movie franchise.

The moves come as Disney seeks ways to extend beyond the traditional cable-bundle format as more people watch TV online. Sports network ESPN was once a jewel in Disney’s crown but subscriptions have been falling as people drop cable services.

But the company has found strength elsewhere, notably its movie studio and theme parks.

Disney’s franchises such as Marvel’s Avengers and Star Wars have been raking in money. Avengers: Infinity War has grossed over $1 billion since it opened April 27.

In a statement, CEO Bob Iger said Disney was “very well-positioned for future growth” because of its ability to take advantage of such franchises across all businesses and “the unique value proposition” it’s creating with direct-to-consumer streaming services.

In Disney’s fiscal second quarter, net income rose 23 percent to $2.94 billion, or $1.95 per share, from $2.39 billion, or $1.50 per share a year ago. Excluding one-time items such as a benefit from the U.S. tax overhaul, net income totaled $1.84 per share.

The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of six analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.68 per share.

Revenue rose 9 percent to $14.5 billion, from $13.3 billion a year ago. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $14.2 billion.

Sports streaming

To prepare for the future, Disney launched a sports streaming service with video not available on the regular ESPN channels. This includes additional baseball and soccer games, and the entire 30 for 30 documentary series on demand.

The Walt Disney Co. is also working on an entertainment streaming service with classic and upcoming movies from the Disney studio, shows from Disney Channel, and the Star Wars, Marvel and Pixar movies. That service will launch in late 2019 and will include movies leaving Netflix, once its deal with Disney expires.

If the $52.4 billion Fox deal goes through, Disney could supplement the entertainment service with Fox properties — such as X-Men movies and National Geographic programming. Disney is still awaiting regulatory approval, and published reports say Comcast is mulling a counterbid.

J.P. Morgan analyst Alexia Quadrani expects the service to break even by 2021 with about 13 million subscribers. Until then, Quadrani said, Disney might lose some licensing fees and see spending increase to acquire content.

Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne said in a client note that the direct-to-consumer businesses like its streaming services could add $6.5 billion to revenue by 2020.
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The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox will face each other in two regular-season games at the Olympic Stadium in London next year.

“We are bringing you one of the best rivalries in baseball,” MLS Commissioner Rob Manfred said Tuesday.

Boston will be the home team for both of MLB’s first games in Europe on June 29 and 30, 2019. The stadium will have a capacity of 55,000 in a baseball configuration.

MLB said it also “committed to playing in London in 2020 and our intention is to establish a long-term footprint in the city” as American sports further embrace British fans.

The NFL has played regular-season games in London since 2007, holding 18 games at Wembley and three at Twickenham. Three more NFL games are scheduled for this year, including one at Tottenham’s new stadium.

The NBA and NHL have also held regular-season games in London.

“The stadium infrastructure in this city gives Major League Baseball every opportunity to put on a first-class event,” Manfred said. “We hope this series will be the beginning of a relationship with London that persists and a continuation of increasing exposure for Major League Baseball in Europe.”

MLB has put renewed emphasis on international games since Manfred became commissioner in 2015.

Cleveland and Minnesota played a two-game series last month in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego just completed a  three-game weekend series in Monterrey, Mexico. MLB announced Tuesday that Oakland and Seattle will open next season at the Tokyo Dome on March 20-21.

 
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Tourists gasp for breath as they climb for two hours to a peak in the Peruvian Andes that stands 16,404 feet (5,000 meters) above sea level. They’re dead tired, but stunned by the magical beauty unfurled before them.

 

Stripes of turquoise, lavender and gold blanket what has become known as “Rainbow Mountain,” a ridge of multicolored sediments laid down millions of years ago and pushed up as tectonic plates clashed. It’s only within the last five years that the natural wonder has been discovered by the outside world, earning it must-see status on Peru’s burgeoning backpacker tourist circuit.

 

“You see it in the pictures and you think it’s Photoshopped — but it’s real,” said Lukas Lynen, an 18-year-old tourist from Mexico.

 

The popularity of Rainbow Mountain, which attracts up to 1,000 tourists each day, has provided a much-needed economic jolt to this remote region populated by struggling alpaca herders. Environmentalists, however, fear the tourists could destroy the treasured landscape, which is already coveted by international mining companies.

 

“From the ecological point of view they are killing the goose that lays the golden eggs,” said Dina Farfan, a Peruvian biologist who has studied threatened wildlife in the area just a few hours from the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu.

As proof, he points to a 2.5-mile (4-kilometer) dirt trail climbed by tourists to reach Rainbow Mountain that has been badly eroded in the last 18 months, scarring the otherwise pristine landscape. A wetland once popular with migrating ducks has also been turned into a parking lot the size of five soccer fields that fills each morning with vans of mostly European and American visitors.

 

There are more serious threats, too.

 

Camino Minerals Corp., a Canadian-based mining company, has applied for mining rights in the mineral-rich area that includes the mountain. The company did not respond to a request by The Associated Press for comment on its plans.

 

Yet the flood of tourists has meant jobs and hard cash for the local Pampachiri indigenous community, which has struggled with high rates of alcoholism, malnutrition and falling prices of wool for their prized alpaca. Many have abandoned nomadic life for dangerous gold mining jobs in the Amazon.

Now, they charge tourists $3 each to enter their ancestral land, netting the community roughly $400,000 a year — a small fortune that has triggered a tax battle with an impoverished, nearby municipality, which has seen no part of the windfall.

 

The surge in tourists also comes with a responsibility to be good stewards of the environment and their new guests, and Pampachiri community leader Gabino Huaman admits he is not sure they are ready to fully handle it.

 

“We don’t know one word in English,” he said. “Or first aid.”

Despite the challenges, roughly 500 villagers have returned in the last couple of years to take up their ancestral trade of transporting goods across the Andes. The difference is that now they are hauling tourists on horseback.

“It’s a blessing,” said Isaac Quispe, 25, who quit his job as a gold miner after six of his camp mates were murdered. He returned home and bought a horse that last year earned him $5,200 hauling tourists uphill.

The guides dress in colorful woolen clothes and wide-brimmed, traditional hats to lead the horses.

Farfan, the biologist, said he hopes the Pampachiri can learn from other sustainable tourism endeavors in Peru.

 

It was the success of one such project, in the nearby town of Chillca, that first put Rainbow Mountain on the map.

 

For much of the past decade, a group of shepherds had been quietly taking small groups of tourists to the mountain as part of a five-day hike around the fast-melting Ausangate glacier. Over time, and thanks to the stunning photographs posted on the internet, the secret got out.

Today the shepherds of Chillca manage four lodges made of eucalyptus wood with a capacity for 16 tourists each. They are lighted only by candle, but have hot water.

 

Arriving guests are given shoes made of alpaca leather and wool. At dawn, lodge-keeper Orlando Garcia gently awakens his guests with a love song performed in the Quechua language.

 

“You always have to be guessing what the client wants, and take care of it so you don’t lose their smile,” Garcia says. “We want them to feel the greatest comfort at almost 16,404 feet.”
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Lin-Manuel Miranda and the producers of his hit Broadway musical “Hamilton” are bringing an exhibit to Chicago about the musical’s Founding Father namesake.

“Hamilton: The Exhibition” will be an immersive, interactive exhibit about Alexander Hamilton and the founding of the United States, The Chicago Tribune reports. The exhibit will start November 17 in a temporary structure the size of a football field on Northerly Island, a peninsula on Chicago’s lakefront.

Miranda created and starred in the original “Hamilton” production. He’ll provide a voice narration for the tour and be featured in video form.

“People want to learn more,” Miranda said. “It seems that two hours and 45 minutes of a musical were just not enough for them.”

The project will be directed creatively by David Korins, who designed the set for the musical. The exhibit will feature a series of rooms and scenes that will recreate important moments in Hamilton’s life, starting with his childhood in the Caribbean Island of St. Croix to his death in New Jersey during a duel.

“In the theater,” Miranda said, “I had to take a lot of liberties with history to get you out of there before 11 o’clock. Now we can have a theatrical experience with historical rigor.”

The exhibit will address questions that the musical doesn’t have time to address, said Jeffrey Seller, a Broadway producer who’s in charge of the project overall.

Chicago was chosen in part because of its support of the musical, Seller said. It’s had a sold-out run since opening in Chicago in October 2016.

The exhibit will likely stay for about six months before moving to other cities, Seller said. Ticket prices have yet to be finalized, but would likely be about $25 for children and $35 for adults, he said.
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Cannes opened its doors on Monday for a festival that will show the new “Star Wars” spinoff but welcome fewer stellar names than usual.

Critics have said a jury including Cate Blanchett, Kristen Stewart and Lea Seydoux has more A-list acting talent than the films — many from lesser-known European, Asian and African filmmakers — vying for the Palme d’Or.

“Solo: A Star Wars Story,” will be the only Hollywood blockbuster screened during the fortnight, and even that will have already premiered in Los Angeles.

Netflix, which brought a raft of A-listers last year, is boycotting Cannes due to French rules that would stop it streaming movies for three years after a cinema release.

This will also be the first festival in years without Harvey Weinstein, the movie mogul once famous on the Riviera for his lavish parties, but now the subject of sexual assault allegations that have shaken the global film industry.

Weinstein has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex.

Festival director Thierry Fremaux denied that the lack of U.S. movies indicated Cannes was losing its appeal in Hollywood, where studios increasingly release big films late in the year to get visibility in the run-up to the Oscars, which are awarded in late winter.

“You should never judge on one year,” he told a news conference, while adding that the perhaps the famously harsh press corp at Cannes — where movies are often booed during media screenings — might be “scaring certain productions” away.

Hollywood Reporter critic Scott Roxborough said Cannes remained “the number one film festival for quality cinema worldwide” and that its selection of less commercial movies showed “Cannes is going back to its roots.”

“It’s the only place really you can have an unknown film … that within a hour of being shown everybody is talking about it … within a day, a week, it’s the biggest name in arthouse cinema,” he told Reuters.

There are 21 films in the main competition and dozens more vying for other prizes and screening out of competition. Here are a handful of the most hotly anticipated:

Everybody Knows (Todos lo Saben)

The festival opens with this Spanish-language family drama starring Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. The writer-director is the Iranian Asghar Farhadi who won foreign language Oscars for “A Separation” and “The Salesman”, taut character-driven realist movies that explore the divisions imposed by social class and national boundaries. “Everybody Knows” is competing for the Palme d’Or.

The House That Jack Built

Danish provocateur Lars von Trier returns after being ejected from the festival in 2011 for telling a news conference he was a Nazi who sympathized with Adolf Hitler — comments he later said were taken out of context.

Matt Dillon stars as a serial killer of women. “We experience the story from Jack’s point of view, while he postulates each murder as an artwork in itself,” according to notes in the festival’s program.

Hollywood Reporter critic Roxborough said the film, screening out of competition, is one of his top-three must-sees, calling it: “a movie that could almost be seen as an answer to the MeToo movement, in a really nasty way.”

BlacKkKlansman

Spike Lee returns to Cannes almost 30 years after “Do the Right Thing” was tipped for, but failed to get, the Palme d’Or.  [“He said he was robbed, I agree with him],” said Roxborough.

“BlacKkKlansman,” the true story of an African-American police officer who infiltrates the Ku Klux Klan, stars John David Washington (son of Denzel) and Adam Driver.

Lee says the story, set in the 1970s, is more relevant than ever in President Donald Trump’s America.

“Agent Orange refused to repudiate the Klan, the alt-right and the Nazis,” he told Hollywood Reporter. “‘There’s good people on both sides.’ That’s going to be on his gravestone.”

In competition for the Palme d’Or, “BlacKkKlansman” will open in U.S. cinemas on Aug. 10, one day before the anniversary of the far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia where counter-protester Heather Heyer was killed by a car driven into the crowd.

The Man who Killed Don Quixote

Terry Gilliam’s two-decade struggle to make this film has entered movie folklore. An initial version, starring Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis, was dumped after a series of calamities meant shooting had to stop.

Finally finished, it remains to be seen if this version, with “Brazil” star Jonathan Pryce as the Spanish knight who tilts at windmills, can be shown at Cannes due to a last-minute legal challenge from a movie producer who says he has the rights over it.

“It’s taken him so long to make this movie I think we all owe it to the man to go and check it out,” said Roxborough of the film that should, but may not, close the festival, out of competition, on May 19.

A Paris court on Monday heard an application for an injunction on showing the film, but will not rule until Wednesday.

Leto (The Summer)/ 3 Faces

Two films in the main competition will screen without the presence of their directors – both prevented from traveling by national authorities in their home countries.

Leto, about the Leningrad rock music scene in the latter years of the Soviet Union, is directed by Kirill Serebrennikov who is under house arrest pending a fraud case his supporters say is part of a government crackdown on artistic freedoms.

Iranian director Jafar Panahi was arrested in 2010 and banned from making films, but has continued to work, to international acclaim. Like his 2015 film “Taxi,” “3 Faces” features Panahi playing himself on screen.

The Cannes Film Festival runs from May 8 to May 19.
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They are producers, directors, editors, and actors. But what they share in common is their continent of birth – Africa. Once a month, they meet to share their experiences in Hollywood and work together to raise their profile in the competitive movie industry. VOA’s Arzouma Kompaore went to Hollywood and filed this report.
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The movie industry must use this week’s Cannes Film Festival to “liberate and listen to women’s voices” if it is to stamp out sexual harassment, the French minister for gender equality said.

From a hotline to report harassers at the event to flyers urging participants to behave properly, Marlene Schiappa hopes to use the glitz and glamour of Cannes to ramp up the pressure.

The movie industry “has to be part of the solution”, Schiappa told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an email ahead of this year’s festival, which she said should be the “basis for liberating and listening to women’s voices.”

“The fact that the festival’s presidents decided to fight with us against sexual harassment for not just actresses but also workers and spectators at the festival … is unprecedented and a great step forward,” Schiappa said.

The 71st Cannes Film Festival will run from May 8-19 and follows allegations of sexual misconduct against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein that sparked last year’s #MeToo campaign, in which women and men shared their experiences of harassment.

Once one of Hollywood’s most powerful figures, Weinstein has been accused by more than 70 women of sexual misconduct, including rape.

He has denied having non-consensual sex with anyone. In April, Schiappa launched a campaign with the festival organizers to tackle sexual harassment.

Initiatives include a hotline and flyers reading “correct behavior required” and “don’t ruin the party, stop harassment!” with the hashtag #nerienlaisserpasser (“don’t let anything pass”).

Celebrities have used previous film awards this year including Britain’s BAFTA and the Golden Globes in Los Angeles to wear black outfits in a gesture of protest and badges name-checking the “Time’s Up” campaign against sexual harassment.

Australian movie star Cate Blanchett, who also took part in Time’s Up, will chair this year’s event, becoming the 11th woman to do so in the Cannes festival’s history.

Rachel Krys, co-director of End Violence Against Women Coalition, welcomed the Cannes hotline. But she said that “the system which supports and protects powerful men, rather than helping victims, also has to be dismantled.”

The movie industry should also “call time on films which fetishize violence against women and promote a toxic version of masculinity, and instead create art which challenges gender stereotypes and shifts social norms,” she said by email.
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When it comes to blockbusters, bigger and bolder is Hollywood’s focus for this summer as the studios count on new and improved sequels to make up for last year’s lackluster box office season. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.
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Originating from Mexico, Chihuahua’s are one of the smallest dog breeds. And on Saturday, 128 competed in the “Running of the Chihuahuas” to celebrate the Cinco de Mayo holiday. From Washington, VOA’s Jill Craig has more.
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A new invention is a result of a joint effort by artists and scientists. Computerized art robots can memorize artist’s strokes and effects and reproduce them as needed. They can perform at the artist’s direction, cover large surfaces and make precision painting easier and quicker. Old masters often used their students to help paint a large canvas and ease the tediousness of repetitive strokes. As VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports, that work too can now be taken over by robots.
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Justify, the favored horse going into Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, won the 2-kilometer race on a rain-soaked track.

Justify, ridden by Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith, held off Audible and Good Magic in the final stretch of the race.

The 144th annual Kentucky Derby was held at Churchill Downs, the legendary Thoroughbred racetrack in the southeastern U.S. city of Louisville, Kentucky.

The race is the first leg of the Triple Crown, three races for 3-year-old horses. Following the Kentucky Derby will be the Preakness Stakes on May 19 and the Belmont Stakes on June 9. A horse must win all three to capture the Triple Crown.

The Kentucky Derby, often described as “the most exciting two minutes in sports,” is 2 kilometers, or 1¼ miles (10 furlongs), in length.

Saturday’s weather was less than ideal, as steady rain fell much of the day. The National Weather Service predicted up to one-quarter inch (6 millimeters) of rain would fall, with a high temperature near 68 F (20 C).

The Kentucky Derby has been held every year since 1875.

Justify’s owners

Justify and and another horse named Audible are owned by the China Horse Club, a group founded by Malaysian architect Keo Ah Khing six years ago. There are now about 200 members, club vice president Eden Harrington told The New York Times.

Teo discovered a passion for horse racing after designing a racetrack In Dubai.

“It forced me personally to understand not just the building, the regulations. It forced me to understand about the horse and to experience why so many horse owners are so crazy about this type of horses,” he said.

With little background in the sport, Teo partnered with Winstar Farm, one of the leading Thoroughbred racing and breeding operations in Kentucky, to gain expertise.

“China Horse Club has been a wonderful partner. They are very understanding of the horse business. They have realistic expectations; they understand what to expect,” said David Hanley, general manager of Winstar Farms.

Abby Sun contributed to this report.
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