Author: Ohart

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Early on in their career, the country group Rascal Flatts often dealt with critics of their pop-country sound and being labeled a country music boy band. Bassist and producer Jay DeMarcus noted that one early review referred to their music as “bouncy, bouncy, flop.”

 

Seventeen years later with the release of their 10th studio album, “Back to Us,” the trio of DeMarcus, Gary LeVox and Joe Don Rooney say they’ve adapted their material to fit their lives.

 

“As husbands and fathers and everything, you have to write appropriate material and find appropriate material for where you are,” said DeMarcus.

 

“And not cutting as many songs about kicking at the club with the fellas,” LeVox joked. “One song is called ‘In Bed By 7.”

 

Still the group that has had several platinum records and No. 1 hits relies on young songwriters and artists to keep their music sounding fresh.

Grammy-winning pop singer Meghan Trainor’s earliest success as a songwriter came when she contributed to two songs on Rascal Flatts’ 2014 album, including the single “I Like the Sound of That.”

 

“Back to Us,” out May 19, has songs co-written by Shay Mooney of the rising duo Dan + Shay, a duet with 22-year-old “American Idol” alum Lauren Alaina and a song written by powerhouse performer Chris Stapleton.

 

“I think it’s important for all of us to help a younger generation of country music artists come along,” said DeMarcus. “And I think the more they have success, the more success there is for all of us. It’s really synergistic from that standpoint.”

 

But he joked that the band’s relationship with Dan + Shay was more like an internship than a mentorship.

 

“We made an agreement with Shay early on right when they got signed, if they were going to steal our sound, we had to get first pick of the songs he was writing,” DeMarcus said.
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Netflix, the U.S. video-on-demand company, will not be allowed to compete at the Cannes Film Festival after this year unless it changes its policy and gives its movies a cinema release, organizers said Wednesday.

The 2017 festival, which begins next week, has Netflix films in its competition for the first time, a decision that angered the French movie theater sector as the company said the films will only be streamed to subscribers and not shown in cinemas.

Festival Director Thierry Fremaux had said he believed Netflix would arrange some kind of cinema release for the two films in competition — The Meyerowitz Stories and Okja — both highly anticipated, with stars that include Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Stiller and Tilda Swinton.

But the festival said Wednesday that no such deal had been reached, and while the two films would be allowed to remain in competition this year, thereafter no film would be accepted that is not guaranteed distribution in French movie theaters.

“The Festival is pleased to welcome a new operator which has decided to invest in cinema,” the festival said on its website in response to rumors that the Netflix films would be excluded at the last minute from Cannes 2017.

“[Cannes] wants to reiterate its support to the traditional mode of exhibition of cinema in France and in the world,” it continued, adding that from next year its rules would explicitly state any film entered for competition would have to “commit itself to being distributed in French movie theaters.”

In France, which proudly defends its culture and language against the global dominance of the United States, the decision is a victory for the traditional cinema distribution sector.

Since its launch in France, according to French movie magazine Premiere, Netflix has “declared war on movie theaters.” Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings made a brief but defiant comment on his Facebook page: “The establishment closing ranks against us. See Okja on Netflix June 28th. Amazing film that theatre chains want to block us from entering into Cannes film festival competition.”

Another U.S. streaming service, Amazon, also has a film in competition, Todd Haynes’ Wonderstruck, but has not been subject to the same opposition as it does screen its films at cinemas as well as online.

The Cannes Film Festival runs from May 17 to May 28.
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Modern history. Political change. Urbanization, emotion, and the colors of Washington, DC. For Ukrainian-born photographer Val Proudkii, it’s all filtered through the lens of his camera. In his repertoire: numerous photography competition awards and one printed image signed by former president Barack Obama. After spending a day looking at the nation’s capital through his eyes, VOA’s Iuliia Iarmolenko and Dmytro Savchuk have more.
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It will be lights, camera, action with the Los Angeles 2024 Olympic bid in the spotlight when the International Olympic Committee visits Tinseltown this week as the race to host the Summer Games heats up.

The IOC’s Evaluation Commission will hear a well-worn sales pitch during a three-day visit that will provide a firsthand glimpse at the LA2024 vision.

What commission chief Patrick Baumann of Switzerland and his members discover will find its way into a report presented to IOC members who will decide between Los Angeles and Paris as 2024 host when a vote is held in Peru on Sept. 13.

While there will be no shortage of celebrity firepower and Hollywood pizzazz, starting with a visit to “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Tuesday and a Los Angeles Dodgers game on Wednesday, LA2024 officials will be out to impress but at the same time emphasize that this is no Olympic blockbuster, like those that have been ravaged by critics for their cost and white elephants.

In fact, the bid is more frugal than flashy with officials touting a proposal that will lean heavily on existing sporting venues such as the Rose Bowl, Forum and the Memorial Coliseum that was the centre piece of the 1932 Olympics and used again for the 1984 Summer Games.

The LA plan calls for no new venue construction and athletes to be housed in renovated student residences on the UCLA campus not far from Beverly Hills.

Casey Wasserman, the entertainment executive heading LA2024, and everyone connected with the bid have stayed on message throughout the process – that Los Angeles can deliver a cost conscious, low-risk Games.

“The report will address a wide range of relevant issues and technical matters, including the sustainability and legacy value of the proposal, its impact on the natural environment, and the experience for athletes, the media, spectators and other Games participants,” Baumann said in a letter to the media.

“It will offer a consensus opinion on the opportunities and strengths of the two candidatures, but will not endorse one over another.”

The report will be made available on July 5.

Los Angeles rescued the Olympics in 1984 by taking over a Games no one wanted and transforming them into the world’s biggest sporting extravaganza pouring billions into IOC coffers.

Cities, however, are no longer lining up to host an Olympics, the astronomical price tag of staging a two-week sporting festival now too extravagant for most tastes but Los Angeles could be in position to revitalise the franchise once again with a fiscal responsible bid.

Paris and LA are the only remaining cities left in the race to secure the 2024 Games, after a number of withdrawals from the process, including Boston, Hamburg, Rome and Budapest.

“We don’t think this campaign is only about the 2024 Games, we believe we have the responsibility to put forward a plan that will serve the Olympic movement long after the 2024 Games are over,” said Wasserman. “LA 2024 is about the future.”
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Visitors to Romania who yearn for a taste of communist-era kitsch now have an entire museum to enjoy.

From the mundane (wedding champagne flutes covered in sequins and bows) to the spectacular (a life-sized Dracula and flashing neon crucifixes), Bucharest’s Kitsch Museum celebrates questionable taste of the past and present.

“My favorite kitsch, which has unfortunately been damaged, is a statue of Christ with an incorporated room thermometer,” said Cristian Lica, who opened the museum to show off a collection he has amassed over two decades. “The creativity behind kitsch must be admired.”

The 215 exhibits are curated into several categories: communist, Dracula, Orthodox Church, contemporary and Gypsy kitsch, which, Lica said, was not meant to offend the Roma minority.

“We don’t want to insult anyone. We didn’t invent anything. We just picked up items from the reality around us,” he said.

Lica, who has traveled to over 100 countries and has written a travel book, said he thought Romania has been particularly prone to kitsch as it rushed to catch up with the aspirational living standards of its richer Western neighbors.

In the communism collection, plain cotton underwear hangs out to dry, a common sight on apartment balconies of the era. For Romanians, the tiny museum in the capital’s picturesque old town, is full of recognizable artifacts both from pre-1989 communist times and the present.

“It reminded me of my childhood, how I grew up, how the house looked,” said local visitor Simona Constantin. “I am glad such a museum has opened. Everything I have seen has made me nostalgic.”
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Jimmy Kimmel zinged his critics as he returned to late-night TV and resumed arguing that Americans deserve the level of health care given his infant son.

Back on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Monday after a week’s absence, he said baby Billy is recovering well from open-heart surgery for a birth defect and thanked well-wishers. Then he charged back into the fraught topic.

“I made an emotional speech that was seen by millions, and as a result of my powerful words on that night, Republicans in Congress had second thoughts about repeal and replace” of the Affordable Care Act, he joked. “I saved health insurance in the United States of America!”

“What’s that? I didn’t save it? They voted against it anyway?” Kimmel said. The House approved the American Health Care Act last week.

He dismissed those who labeled him an elitist — as a youngster, his family bought powered milk because they couldn’t afford fresh, he said — and pretended to repent for his previous comments.

“I’d like to apologize for saying that children in America should have health care. It was insensitive, it was offensive, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me,” Kimmel said.

He took on former Rep. Newt Gingrich, saying his claim that all children would receive the same surgery as Kimmel’s son in an emergency fell short of addressing what follows.

“That’s terrific if your baby’s health problems are all solved during that one visit. The only problem is that never, ever happens. We’ve had a dozen doctor’s appointments since our son had surgery,” Kimmel said.

Kimmel brought on a current GOP lawmaker, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician, who had suggested that the Senate’s upcoming health care legislation should have a “Jimmy Kimmel test” of covering pre-existing conditions but in a fiscally conservative way.

During a satellite interview with Cassidy, Kimmel asked about his position on issues including uninsured workers and protection of children under a revised health care bill.

The senator called on viewers to contact their representatives and urge support of final legislation that fulfills President Donald Trump’s promise to lower premiums combined with coverage that passes the Kimmel standard.

Kimmel called for his namesake test to guarantee that no family be denied medical care, emergency or otherwise, because they can’t afford it.

“You’re on the right track,” Cassidy said, but the country has to be able to pay for it.

“Don’t give a huge tax cut to millionaires like me,” Kimmel replied.

On last Monday’s show, the host detailed how Billy’s routine birth April 21 suddenly turned frightening when he was diagnosed with a hole in the wall separating the right and left sides of the heart and a blocked pulmonary valve, a condition known as tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia. He successfully underwent surgery, but will face more as he grows.

Using his son as an example, Kimmel called for health care for all and for pre-existing conditions to remain covered as provided by the Affordable Care Act passed under President Barack Obama.

“If your baby is going to die and it doesn’t have to, it shouldn’t matter how much money you make. … Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat or something else, we all agree on that, right?” he said.

The video of Kimmel’s tearful monologue went viral, drawing praised by some, including Obama, and harsh criticism from others.
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Anne Morrissy Merick, who successfully fought for equal treatment of female reporters during the Vietnam War, has died. She was 83.

Morrissy Merick died May 2 of complications from dementia in Naples, Florida, said her daughter Katherine Anne Engleke.

ABC had assigned Morrissy Merick to cover the war in 1967 when U.S. commander Gen. William Westmoreland ordered that female reporters could not spend the night in the field with the troops. That made it impossible for the female reporters to go on most combat missions, as there would be no way for them to return to the base at night.

She and Overseas Weekly editor Ann Bryan Mariano organized the half-dozen female reporters covering the war to challenge Westmoreland’s order. They appealed to the Defense Department, which overrode Westmoreland.

“An edict like Westmoreland’s would prohibit women from covering the war. It was a knockout blow to our careers. We had to fight,” wrote Morrissy Merick in the book she co-authored in 2002 with eight colleagues, War Torn: Stories of War from the Women Reporters Who Covered Vietnam. Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer was one of the co-authors.

Morrissy Merick gained national attention in 1954 when she became the first female sports editor of Cornell University’s student newspaper. “This sports writing doll breached the last bastion of masculinity left standing this side of the shower room,” famed sports columnist Red Smith wrote.

After graduation, she became sports editor of the international edition of the New York Herald Tribune.

ABC hired her in 1961 as an associate producer, where she covered the civil rights movement and the space program. She worked for nine months for ABC in Vietnam. While there, she met her husband, U.S. News and World Report reporter Wendell “Bud” Merick. She stayed with him in Vietnam until 1973, when the magazine closed its bureau. He died in 1988.

She married Dr. Don R. Janicek and lived with him in Naples until his death in 2016. She is survived by her daughter, a sister and four granddaughters.
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It’s not a movie set, but visitors to Disney World’s new Pandora-World of Avatar land are in for a cinematic experience.

The 12-acre land, inspired by the “Avatar” movie, opens in Florida in late May at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom. It cost a half-billion dollars to build.

 

The marquee attraction is Flight of Passage, where a 3-D simulator plunges riders into a cinematic world. You feel like you’re riding on the back of a banshee, a bluish, gigantic, winged predator that resembles something out of the Jurassic era. Wearing 3-D glasses and straddling what resembles a stationary motorcycle, you’re strapped in, then the lights go out, a screen in front lights up and you’re swooped into a world of blue, gigantic aliens called Na’vi, with moon-filled skies, plunging waterfalls, jumping marine animals and towering ocean waves.

 

The ride provides an enchanting and intoxicating five minutes that touches all the senses. Blasts of air and spritzes of mist hit your face, and as you fly through a lush forest, a woodsy aroma wafts through your nostrils. A visitor could go on the ride 20 times and not catch half the visual details.

 

Disney designers are quick to say the new land is the star of the action, not the backdrop. “The character is being portrayed and played by the place itself and that’s different than a set,” said Joe Rohde, the design and production leader of Pandora — World of Avatar.

Flight of Passage is ride’s highlight

Other aspects of Pandora can’t quite compete with the excitement and immersion of Flight of Passage. Much of Pandora, at least during the daytime, is hard to distinguish from the rest of Animal Kingdom, Disney’s almost 20-year-old zoological-themed park with lush landscaping, an emphasis on conservation and a Noah’s ark range of animals.

 

At night, though, Pandora transforms into a sea of color with glowing lights on artificial plants and even in the pavement.

 

The enormous blue Na’vi aliens from the “Avatar” movie appear sparingly, really just on Flight of Passage and a second attraction called Na’vi River Journey. Before going on Flight of Passage, visitors walk through a tunnel in a faux mountain until they stumble upon a laboratory that includes a Na’vi floating in a tank.

 

“It’s not as simple as a guy in a costume painted blue walking around out here,” Rohde said of the aliens. “We know they are culturally present around us but we will meet them when we go on an excursion.”

Indoor river ride

The other main attraction, Na’vi River Journey, is an indoor river ride in the dark, lit up by glowing creatures and plants. The ride culminates with a Na’vi animatronic woman beating on drums as a chorus of voices reaches a crescendo. Images of the Na’vi riding horse-like creatures appear behind lush foliage, glimpsed in the distance from the river.

 

Disney has been building attractions themed on movies since Disneyland opened in 1955 with rides inspired by Snow White, Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland. Often, as with Pandora, the attractions open years after the movies debut. “Avatar” came out in 2009. Director James Cameron’s sequel isn’t due out until 2020. Lands based on “Star Wars” are scheduled to open in Disney parks in California and Florida in 2019.

 

Pandora-World of Avatar isn’t tied to a narrative from the film but rather tells a story set in the future, after humans degraded the jungle through industrial folly and a resurgence of nature overtakes the human-built environment. That theme is a recurring architectural motif, for example with a beverage stand and cantina made to look like they were built for industry by humans but then overrun by plant life.

A mix of real and artificial plants

 

Throughout Pandora, real plants intermingle with artificial plants that resemble alien pods or Dale Chihuly glass sculptures. It’s difficult to distinguish what is real.

 

“We were trying to get as close as possible to fool the eye,” said Zsolt Hormay, a Disney creative executive.

 

At the entrance, visitors hear a cacophony of bird chirps and animal cries. A circle of drums connected to faux tree roots allows visitors to drum and then get a response of drumming or pulsing lights.

 

The focal points are a 135-foot (41-meter) mountaintop where Flight of Passage is located as well as “floating mountains” that appear to be suspended in air but are actually made of concrete. Engineers use tricks to make the park appear bigger than it is. The artificial foliage gets smaller as it goes higher on the mountain to give it the illusion of distance.

 

 

New way to order food

Disney also is testing out a new way to order food at Pandora. Before going to the park, visitors can pull up a menu on the My Disney Experience mobile app, order lunch and go about visiting the park. When it’s time to eat hours later, they can go to the canteen, tap on an app a button that notifies the cooks they are present. Several minutes later their food will be ready in a special line.

 

Jon Landau, the executive producer of the original movie, says he hopes Pandora does for visitors what the film did for movie-goers.

 

“I hope when people come to Pandora and their eyes will be open and they will look at the world a little differently when they go back across the bridge,” Landau said.

 
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Neither Bill Clinton nor James Patterson has ever tried something like this before.

 

The former president and the best-selling novelist are collaborating on a thriller, “The President is Missing,” to come out June 2018 as an unusual joint release from rival publishers — Alfred A. Knopf and Little, Brown and Co. In a statement Monday provided to The Associated Press, the publishers called the book “a unique amalgam of intrigue, suspense and behind-the-scenes global drama from the highest corridors of power. It will be informed by details that only a president can know.”

Knopf has long been Clinton’s publisher, and Patterson has been with Little, Brown for decades. “The President is Missing” is the first work of fiction by Clinton, whose best-known book is the million-selling “My Life.” For Patterson, it’s the chance to team up with a friend who knows as well as anyone about life in the White House.

 

“Working with President Clinton has been the highlight of my career, and having access to his firsthand experience has uniquely informed the writing of this novel,” Patterson said in a statement. “I’m a storyteller, and President Clinton’s insight has allowed us to tell a really interesting one. It’s a rare combination — readers will be drawn to the suspense, of course, but they’ll also be given an inside look into what it’s like to be president.”

 

“Working on a book about a sitting president — drawing on what I know about the job, life in the White House and the way Washington works — has been a lot of fun,” Clinton said in a statement. “And working with Jim has been terrific. I’ve been a fan of his for a very long time.”

 

A political release from the 1990s had a similar arrangement: Random House and Simon & Schuster jointly published the nonfiction “All’s Fair” by husband-and-wife campaign consultants James Carville and Mary Matalin.

 

Knopf and Little, Brown declined to offer any more details about the book, including whether it refers to President Donald Trump, who last fall defeated Clinton’s wife, Hillary Clinton. Financial terms for the novel, which the authors began working on late in 2016, were not disclosed. Clinton and Patterson share the same literary representative, Washington attorney Robert Barnett, who negotiated the deal. “The President is Missing” will be co-written, co-published and co-edited — Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group chairman Sonny Mehta is working on the manuscript with CEO Michael Pietsch of Hachette Book Group, the parent company of Little, Brown.

 

“This is a blockbuster collaboration between two best-selling authors,” Mehta and Pietsch said in a joint statement, “and the pages we’ve read to date are riveting, full of intricate plotting and detail. This is a book that promises to entertain and delight millions of readers around the world, and we are thrilled to be working on it together and with our esteemed houses supporting us.”

 

Presidents and ex-presidents have been turning out books for a long time, but novels are rare. Jimmy Carter, a prolific and wide-ranging author since leaving the White House in 1981, released the historical novel “The Hornet’s Nest” in 2003. A presidential daughter, Margaret Truman, had a successful career with her “Capital Crime” mystery series.

 

Clinton’s other books include “Giving” and “Back to Work.” Patterson and various co-authors complete several works a year, ranging from young adult novels to the Alex Cross crime series.

 

Penguin Random House — which has published both Clinton and Patterson — has U.K., Commonwealth and European rights to the collaboration.

 

“This unprecedented collaboration with its compelling mix of insider knowledge and edge-of-the-seat suspense is utterly irresistible,” said Susan Sandon, divisional managing director at Penguin Random House in a statement.

 
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An Iranian student who happens to look uncannily like soccer great Lionel Messi, nearly ended up in jail for disrupting public order.

A photo event in Reza Paratesh’s home town of Hamedan attracted so many fans that police had to close it down, according to AFP.

Paratesh’s brush with fame came after his father convinced him to pose for a photo wearing Messi’s number 10 Barcelona jersey and send it to a sports website.

That worked out well as Paratesh became a popular television guest and even got a modeling job.

“Now people really see me as the Iranian Messi and want me to mimic everything he does. When I show up somewhere, people are really shocked,” he said. “I’m really happy that seeing me makes them happy and this happiness gives me a lot of energy.”

Paratesh is not a professional soccer player, but he’s reportedly working on some dribbling tricks to make his impersonation more realistic.

He said he’d like to meet Messi face to face someday.

“Being the best player in footballing history, he definitely has more work than he can handle. I could be his representative when he is too busy,” he said.
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Steven Holcomb was simultaneously ordinary and remarkable.

America’s best bobsled pilot was a self-described computer geek who would rub elbows with Hollywood stars. He was never exactly in the best of shape, yet was a world-class athlete. He attempted suicide years ago, then revealed his story with hopes of helping others. He was a man who nearly went blind, then became an Olympic gold medalist.

His life was the epitome of a bobsled race, filled with twists and turns.

‘Huge loss, huge loss’

It came to a most unexpected end Saturday in Lake Placid, New York, when he was found dead in his room at the Olympic Training Center, sending shock waves through the U.S. Olympic community, and devastating those who had known Holcomb for the entirety of his two-decade career in sliding.

The three-time Olympian, three-time Olympic medalist and five-time world champion was 37.

“The only reason why the USA is in any conversation in the sport of bobsled is because of Steve Holcomb,” said U.S. bobsled pilot Nick Cunningham, who roomed next to Holcomb in Lake Placid. “He was the face of our team. He was the face of our sport. We all emulated him. Every driver in the world watched him, because he was that good at what he did. It’s a huge loss, huge loss, not just for our team but for the entire bobsled community.”

No cause of death was immediately announced. However, officials said there were no indications of foul play after the preliminary parts of an ongoing investigation were completed.

An autopsy was scheduled for Sunday. Funeral arrangements are expected to be finalized in the coming days.

“USA Bobsled and Skeleton is a family and right now we are trying to come to grips with the loss of our teammate, our brother and our friend,” federation CEO Darrin Steele said.

Vancouver moment

Holcomb was a native of Park City, Utah, and his signature moment came at the 2010 Vancouver Games when he piloted his four-man sled to a win that snapped a 62-year gold-medal drought for the U.S. in bobsled’s signature race.

Holcomb also drove to bronze medals in both two- and four-man events at the Sochi Games in 2014, and was expected to be part of the 2018 U.S. Olympic team headed to the Pyeongchang Games.

“The entire Olympic family is shocked and saddened by the incredibly tragic loss today of Steven Holcomb,” U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun said. “Steve was a tremendous athlete and even better person, and his perseverance and achievements were an inspiration to us all. Our thoughts and prayers are with Steve’s family and the entire bobsledding community.”

Holcomb was still one of the world’s elite drivers, finishing second on the World Cup circuit in two-man points and third in four-man points this past season.

A mass of medals

The final victory of his career was last December in Lake Placid. He won 60 World Cup medals in his career, 10 more at the world championships and three in the Olympics, making him one of the most decorated pilots in the world.

“You will be loved, missed and remembered forever,” U.S. women’s pilot Jamie Greubel Poser wrote on Twitter.

Holcomb was cherubic, almost always happy in public, someone whose sense of humor was well-known throughout the close-knit bobsled world. Teammates even spent a season chronicling his “Holcy Dance,” a little less-than-rhythmic shuffle that he would do at each stop on the World Cup circuit to make fellow sliders laugh.

Troubled side

But there was also a troubled side, including battles with depression and alcohol, plus a failed hotel-room suicide attempt involving sleeping pills in 2007 which he wrote about in his autobiography, “But Now I See: My Journey from Blindness to Olympic Gold.”

“After going through all that and still being here, I realized what my purpose was,” Holcomb told the AP in a 2014 interview.

The depression, he believed, largely stemmed from his fight with a disease called keratoconus. Holcomb’s vision degenerated to the point where he was convinced that his bobsled career was ending, and his mood quickly started going dark as well.

His eyesight was saved in a surgery that turned his 20-500 vision into something close to perfect, and his sliding career took off from there.

Winning gold with push athletes Steve Mesler, Curt Tomasevicz and Justin Olsen at the Vancouver Olympics turned Holcomb into a full-fledged star. 

In the months that followed, Holcomb met President Barack Obama, played golf with Charles Barkley, hung out with Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes — they were then a couple — visited the New York Stock Exchange, threw the ceremonial first pitch at a Cleveland Indians game and went to the Indianapolis 500.

In the bobsled world, he was larger than life.

“We’re all still in shock,” Cunningham said. “I don’t know if mourning will happen for a long time, because the shock part will take a while.”
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Always Dreaming splashed through the slop to win the Kentucky Derby by 2¾ lengths Saturday, giving trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey John Velazquez their second victories in the race but their first together.

Pletcher and Velazquez have teamed up often over the years and are the sport’s leading money winners. On their own, they were a combined 2 for 63 coming into America’s greatest horse race. Pletcher won in 2010 with Super Saver; Velazquez won the following year with Animal Kingdom.

Together, they were unbeatable on a cool and rainy day at Churchill Downs.

Sent off at 9-2 odds, Always Dreaming made it the fifth straight year that a Derby favorite has won, the longest such stretch since the 1970s.

Always Dreaming was followed across the finish line by a pair of long shots: 33-1 Lookin At Lee and 40-1 Battle of Midway.

Always Dreaming ran 1¼ miles in 2:03.59 and paid $11.40, $7.20 and $5.80.

Lookin At Lee returned $26.60 and $18.20, while Battle of Midway was another five lengths back in third and paid $20.80 to show.

Classic Empire finished fourth, followed by Practical Joke, Tapwrit, Gunnevera, McCraken, Gormley and Irish War Cry. Hence was 11th, followed by Untrapped, Girvin, Patch, J Boys Echo, Sonneteer, Fast and Accurate, Irap, and State of Honor.

Pletcher also trains Tapwrit and Patch.

Thunder Snow, the Dubai-based entry, didn’t finish. He broke poorly out of the starting gate and began bucking. He was caught by the outrider and he walked back to the barn on his own.
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Thunderstorms and wind had delayed the Hindenburg’s arrival in New Jersey from Germany on May 6, 1937. The father of 8-year-old Werner Doehner headed to his cabin after using his movie camera to shoot some scenes of Lakehurst Naval Air Station from the airship’s dining room.

“We didn’t see him again,” recalled Doehner, now 88 and the only person left of the 62 passengers and crew who survived the fire that killed his father, sister and 34 other souls 80 years ago Saturday.

Doehner and his parents, older brother and sister were returning from a vacation in Germany and planned to travel on the 804-foot-long Hindenburg to Lakehurst, then fly to Newark and board a train in nearby New York City to take them home to Mexico City, where Doehner’s father was a pharmaceutical executive.

The children would have preferred the decks and public rooms of an ocean liner because space was tight on the airship, Doehner said in a rare telephone interview this week with The Associated Press from his home in Parachute, Colorado.

Their mother brought games to keep the children busy. They toured the control car and the catwalks inside the hydrogen-filled Hindenburg. They could see an ice field as they crossed the Atlantic Ocean, he remembered.

As the Hindenburg arrived at its destination, flames began to flicker on top of the ship.

Hydrogen, exposed to air, fueled an inferno. The front section of the Hindenburg pitched up and the back section pitched down.

“Suddenly the air was on fire,” Doehner said.

“We were close to a window, and my mother took my brother and threw him out. She grabbed me and fell back and then threw me out,” he said.

“She tried to get my sister, but she was too heavy, and my mother decided to get out by the time the zeppelin was nearly on the ground.”

His mother had broken her hip.

“I remember lying on the ground, and my brother told me to get up and to get out of there.” Their mother joined them and asked a steward to get her daughter, whom he carried out of the burning wreckage.

A bus took the survivors to an infirmary, where, Doehner said, a nurse gave him a needle to burst his blisters.

From there, the family was taken to Point Pleasant Hospital. Doehner had burns to his face, both hands and down his right leg from the knee. His mother had burns to her face, both legs and both hands. His brother had several burns on his face and right hand.

His sister died early in the morning.

He would remain in the hospital for three months before going to a hospital in New York City in August for skin grafts. He was discharged in January, and the boy, a German speaker, had learned some English.

“Burns take a long time to heal,” he said.

The family returned to Mexico City, where funerals were held for Doehner’s father and sister, who were among the 35 fatalities of the 97 passengers and crew aboard the airship. A worker on the ground also died.

The U.S. Commerce Department determined the accident was caused by a leak of the hydrogen that kept the airship aloft. It mixed with air, causing a fire. “The theory that a brush discharge ignited such mixture appears most probable,” the department’s report said.

Eight decades later, Doehner is the only one left to remember what it was like on the Hindenburg that night. A ceremony commemorating the disaster will take place at the crash site Saturday night.

“Only two others who ever flew on the airship are alive,” said Carl Jablonski, president of the Navy Lakehurst Historical Society. “But they weren’t on the last flight.”

Interest in the disaster remains strong as ever, Jablonski said.

“The internet and social media has exposed and attracted the interest of a younger generation,” he said.

The Hindenburg, Doehner said, is “something you don’t forget.”
…

It is what every aspiring baseball player strives for: a Major League appearance.

“This is what you’ve been working hard for all the years,” 27-year-old South African Gift Ngoepe said. “This is what you dreamed of since you were a little kid.”

Ngoepe’s dream came true April 26 with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

At the top of the fourth inning at PNC Park, Ngoepe got the call to take the field, playing second base. He had just been added to the Pirates roster, promoted from their minor league affiliate Indianapolis Indians.

Watch: First Players from Africa, Lithuania Mark New Era for Major League Baseball

“My heartbeat was very hard,” he said in an interview with VOA.

Game day footage shows teammates Josh Harrison and Francisco Cervelli placing their hands over his heart as he took his position on the field.

“And I felt like it was beating a little bit out of my chest,” he said.

Facing All-Star pitcher

Ngoepe said the intensity increased at the bottom of the inning when he was the leadoff hitter facing All-Star pitcher John Lester of the Chicago Cubs.

But Ngoepe did more than just step up to the plate.

With a 3-1 count (three balls, one strike), his bat connected with the ball, driving it into the outfield for a single. With a recorded hit for his first at-bat, Ngoepe entered the history books as the first Major League Baseball player from the African continent.

“It feels great to be a part of history with the Pirates,” Ngoepe said, reflecting on another moment in his remarkable journey in a sport he was born into. His mother, Maureen, worked for the South African Randberg Mets baseball club, and their family lived in a small apartment near the field.

“I rolled out of bed and I was on first base,” he said. “I started playing baseball at the age of 3. I was throwing the ball against the wall. And the coach came up to me and said, ‘Hey, you’ve got a pretty good arm, why don’t you think about joining the team?’” 

Ngoepe moved through the ranks of a sport unfamiliar to many in South Africa.

“Baseball’s not very popular,” he said, “because we compete against three other sports, cricket, rugby and soccer, so the youth development for baseball is not going to be as strong.”

Pirates contract

He developed enough to catch the attention of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who offered Ngoepe a contract at the age of 18. It brought him into the organization’s minor league system, where he formed a friendship with teammate Josh Bell.

“Having the courage to make that first step, to say, ‘Hey, I’m coming over to the states. I’m going to try to learn this game the best I can,’ it’s incredible,” Bell told VOA.

While Ngoepe is the first from the continent of Africa, he is in good company this season. Another minor league teammate, Indianapolis Indians relief pitcher Dovydas Neverauskas, was called up April 24 to join the Pirates in the bullpen at PNC Park, where they faced the Chicago Cubs.

“I got there during the game, and I got to pitch in the game at the same time,” Neverauskas said. “I didn’t have time to think once I got to the field.”

By the time he reached the mound, the Pirates were already losing and never recovered. But Neverauskas pitched two solid innings. He is the first Lithuanian player to appear in a Major League Baseball game.

Born in Vilnius, where his family still lives, Neverauskas learned the game from his father, Virmidas, who played for Lithuania’s first baseball club formed in the 1980s. The elder Neverauskas now coaches the country’s youth national teams, where Dovydas sees the next generation of talent coming up behind him, reinforcing the importance of his career.

“Because if I do good,” he said, “maybe the team will see that there’s potential in Lithuania, and maybe will send more people to look for players.”

Waiting on another chance

But Dovydas Neverauskas pitched one game for the Pirates and is now back with the Indianapolis Indians, waiting for another chance.

“It’s tough knowing that as you play today, there’s another player in every organization trying to take your spot,” said Bell, Neverauskas’s teammate. “I guess it makes it a little bit easier for us to just focus on winning, and focus on the now. And I feel like Gift is a perfect example of that.”

Bell added that he isn’t just a teammate and friend, he’s also a fan.

“I’m sure he’s got shirts being made. I know the moment I have an opportunity to put on a ‘Gift from Africa’ shirt I’m going to buy one for me and my family,” he said.

The Pittsburgh Pirates “gift from Africa” remains with the team, for now, and continues to perform well, both on the field and at the plate, exceeding even his own expectations.

“It’s been unbelievable for me,” Ngoepe said, coming off a stretch of games where he continued to get on base and help the Pirates score runs. “The story just keeps on growing bigger.”

While Gift looks to write the next chapter, another Ngoepe hopes to have his own storybook career. Nineteen-year-old Victor is following in his older brother’s footsteps, also securing a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and playing on a minor league team in Florida where he waits for his own chance to prove himself on baseball’s biggest stage.
…

J.K. Rowling is launching a free online book club for fans and newcomers to her “Harry Potter” series.

The Wizarding World Book Club will launch in June in celebration of the 20th anniversary of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” the first in what would become a seven-book series.

The online community “aims to surprise and delight those who have never read a Harry Potter book, as well as returning readers who want to join the conversation,” says Pottermore, Rowling’s digital publishing arm.

The club says its goal is to “create a global community of Harry Potter readers who are communicating with each other as they are reading the same book, at the same time.”
…

Eliud Kipchoge was 26 seconds from making history Saturday but the Olympic champion finished just short of becoming the first person to run a marathon in less than two hours. 

 

Kipchoge ran the 26.2 miles (42.2 kilometers) in 2 hours, 26 seconds, beating Dennis Kimetto’s world mark of 2:02:57.

 

The 32-year-old Kenyan did break his personal best time of 2:03:05, which was set at the London Marathon last year.

 

Organizers first listed his time as a second faster, then changed it to 26 seconds off the 2-hour mark.

The attempt at Monza’s Formula One race course did not go down as an official world record, sanctioned by the IAAF, because of variables like pacers entering midrace and drinks being given to runners via mopeds. 

 

And, after three years of planning, Nike’s audacious attempt at breaking the two-hour barrier remained just that, despite the aid of a shoe that designers say will make runners 4 percent more efficient.

 

Two-time Boston Marathon winner Lelisa Desisa, from Ethiopia, and Eritrean half-marathon world-record holder Zersenay Tadese were also part of the Breaking2 project, which started at 5:45 a.m., but finished well off the pace.

The 32-year-old ran his trademark relaxed style and passed the halfway mark in 59:54, but his average pace of 4:36 per mile was just not enough, despite his final sprint to the tape.
…

In Aleppo, Syria, even as Bashar al-Assad’s regime destroys the city and its inhabitants with barrel bombs and airstrikes, many civilians risk their lives to rescue the injured and pull the dead from the rubble. Since 2013, these volunteers from all walks of life have created the Syrian Civil Defense, known to the world as The White Helmets. 

In his documentary, Last Men in Aleppo, Syrian filmmaker Feras Fayyad delivers an unprecedented testimonial of their sacrifices and love for their besieged city. While bombs explode all around, White Helmets set off in their makeshift van, siren on, speeding to the latest site of destruction.

Khaled is the main character, and though by no means the only hero, one gets attached to his stoic persona. Khaled is calm, a rock of strength to his community, a loving father to his two lively children. 

We follow his gaze as he looks to the sky, eyeing the approaching bombers. Sometimes, they are Assad’s, other times, they are Russian. The locals can tell them apart easily. Every sighting portends new attacks and death. 

After the bombs drop

In the middle of a city in ruins, Khaled is one of the last men left in Aleppo to drag the injured and the dying from under tons of concrete.

They dig with shovels, with their hands, with everything they’ve got. One of the most emotionally draining scenes is the gentle pulling of an infant from under the debris. The White Helmets drag the child out, head first, through a sharp jagged hole of a collapsed building. The baby is bleeding and powdered with dust, but he’s alive. 

Other children are not that lucky. The camera focuses steadily as they are dragged out, while people scream, sob and rush to cradle the small, limp bodies.

Sundance award

Filmmaker Feras Fayyad won one of the top awards at the Sundance Film Festival for Last Men in Aleppo. But he does not take full credit. The recording of these scenes was the work of a group of cinematographers, The Aleppo Media Center, who followed the White Helmets day and night under relentless bombings. 

Fayyad said he wanted to call attention to the crimes against humanity committed in the city. He also wanted to show the world that these civilians who face death every day and live their lives in constant fear are no different than the rest of us.

“There are markets, houses with families, people who fight for common values,” he said. “No one is acting and the Syrians feel despondent. People did not choose this life. These people did not join ISIS. These people try to live,” he said.

Last Men in Aleppo focuses on those Syrians who chose to stay. Like Khaled.

He is very aware of the dangers his wife and children face daily. But he doesn’t want to run. He tells his friend Abu Yousef, another White Helmet, that refugees are treated inhumanely and fears that if he sends his kids away they could face a dire fate without him, and that he might never see them again. 

“This is my city. I was born and raised here. Should I leave it to some stranger? I will not leave,” he said.

Fayyad’s documentary is an indictment of crimes against humanity. But it is also about compassion and resilience. In the middle of destruction, people still find joy among friends and family.

Targeting civilians 

“This was one of the reasons that motivated me to make the story, the killings of civilians,” Fayyad said. “I started with the idea that the war brings out the worst in humans but also brings the best in humans.”

Fayyad started filming the siege of Aleppo in 2013. He said he was arrested and imprisoned twice and had to leave the city. He could not return because, “a huge number of people were being killed then by Russian bombings.” 

After that, he employed the help of others, such as The Aleppo Media Center, video journalists and citizen journalists, who under his instructions would pick up a camera and document life and death in Aleppo. Nowadays, he lives in exile. He would face death should he return to Syria.

“I have the feeling of anger for the Russians, of course. I have the feeling of anger for the regime killing the Syrians every day. Now I’m sitting here in the studio and there are bombings in places next to my family that is still living in Syria and I could lose my family any time,” he said. 

When asked if he was surprised by reports that Assad had gassed his own people, he said, “not at all.”

The film may be hard to watch but it must be watched. And though painful, it is also uplifting, depicting the altruism that cannot be smothered. 

While Last Men in Aleppo focuses on those Syrians who choose to stay in their war-torn country, it also helps us empathize with those who leave. During the filming of this documentary, Khaled, like countless others, was killed saving his neighbors.
…

In Aleppo, Syria, while the Assad regime destroyed the city and its inhabitants, many civilians risked their lives to rescue the injured and pull the dead from the rubble. Since 2013, these volunteers have created the Syrian Civil Defense, known as The White Helmets. Syrian filmmaker Feras Fayyad delivers a testimonial of their sacrifices. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with Fayyad.
…

Donkey Kong, the iconic 1980s video game, has been inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame.

According to the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, the arcade game quickly sold over 100,000 units in the United States alone, in addition to unknown quantities of home versions.

Donkey Kong was the creation of Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, who was a relatively unknown employee when he came up with the idea in 1981.

The game centered around a hero who must jump barrels, climb ladders, smash fireballs and battle a monster ape in order to save his love.

The hero, originally called Jumpman, was a particularly popular aspect of the game and later morphed into Mario, a character featured in dozens of games today.

“His telltale outfit, bristling mustache, and joyous jumps made Mario an icon of popular culture,” the museum said in a news release.

Donkey Kong was joined by Halo: Combat Evolved and Street Fighter II, which were also given places in the museum’s permanent exhibit. Other games honored in the past include Sonic the Hedgehog, The Sims, Doom, Pong and World of Warcraft. Microsoft’s iconic solitaire was nominated, but did not win a spot.

Anyone can nominate games for consideration, but the final choice is made by journalists, academics and gaming experts.
…

May the 4th be with you, Laura Dern, and darn all the mystery surrounding the character you’ll play as one of the latest additions to the Star Wars galaxy.

The actress, in New York on Thursday to support a family health-focused global initiative, was tight-lipped about her role in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which opens in December.

“What I can say is I had the time of my life,” Dern told The Associated Press. “I felt like an 8-year-old every day at work, to go to work and be in makeup and hair and walk out in this community of people and, you know, be in a studio where you look down the corridor and you see Chewbacca!”

The mind, Dern said, “melts and you feel like you’re at play.”

Academy position

Dern, who has twice been nominated for Oscars, offered no resolution on another front: a Variety report that she’s among the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences board members under consideration to run for president after the term of Cheryl Boone Isaacs expires in July.

Variety cited sources it did not identify as saying Dern is interested. And Dern’s take?

“It was news to me. If it came from anyone at the academy, what a gorgeous compliment,” she said.

Dern joined the board last July amid industry tumult over diversity. She would be the fourth woman to serve in the top spot, after Isaacs, Bette Davis and Fay Kanin. Candidates usually don’t campaign for the unpaid, four-year post.

“I would love to be more and more involved for the rest of my life but don’t know that that should have any predefined title,” Dern said. “I’m definitely learning on the fly a great deal.”

Support for women, families

When it comes to motherhood — Dern has a 15-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter — she’s a font of support for women and families, serving as an ambassador for the annual Johnson & Johnson and United Nations Foundation digital fundraising campaign called the Global Moms Relay.

From May 3 to June 16, parents, community leaders, experts and celebrities are sharing personal stories about issues impacting families, with J&J donating a $1 — up to $500,000 — for every social media tweet, share or like. Among five causes that benefit are UNICEF and nonprofits that help girls and provide nets in the fight against malaria in Africa and elsewhere.

“A child’s right to their own health and well-being should be their birthright,” Dern said. “It’s a nonpartisan issue.”

Dern was especially touched by TV talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel’s recent outpouring of emotion and support for health care for all when he revealed his newborn son’s heart surgery. Dern’s own son required surgery soon after birth.

“Once you’ve gone through anything where you’re afraid as a parent and you’re in a community of other parents in terror, like at a neonatal intensive care unit,” she said, “you realize the fragility and the good fortune that we have to have a healthy family, or to have the privilege of health care when you need it.”
…

Laura Poitras announces early in her Julian Assange documentary Risk: “This is not the film I thought I was making.”

“I thought I could ignore the contradictions,” the Oscar-winning Citizenfour filmmaker says in a voiceover. “I thought they were not part of the story. I was so wrong. They are becoming the story.”

Decoding “the story” when it comes to the WikiLeaks founder has never been easy. It’s evolving even now, just as Poitras’ six-years-in-the-making documentary — one made with rare access to an explosively controversial figure under ever-increasing international pressure — is hitting theaters. 

Following WikiLeaks publishing of a trove of CIA hacking documents in March, the Department of Justice is reportedly preparing to seek the arrest of Assange, who has been holed away in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for nearly five years to avoid extradition to Sweden. On Tuesday, Hillary Clinton blamed “Russian WikiLeaks” for swaying November’s election by publishing hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee. (Assange, responding Wednesday on Twitter, told Clinton to “Blame yourself.”)

Also on Wednesday, FBI director James Comey, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the FBI had “high confidence” Russia was behind the DNC hacking. Comey said WikiLeaks was publishing damaging “intelligence porn.” Assange responded Thursday on Twitter, accusing Comey of lying during his testimony.

‘Very complex picture’

Poitras, whose Citizenfour went behind the headlines to reveal NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, initially hoped that Risk would do something similar for Assange. She was making an intimate documentary about a brave visionary who risks everything in his crusade to make governments transparent. But, like many others who have been confounded by the WikiLeaks founder, Poitras underwent an evolution in her opinion of Assange. It’s a journey she documents in the film, running right up until now.

“The ambivalence and struggle, I share that. I did try to let the audience see a very complex picture. And I grapple with it,” Poitras said in an interview Tuesday. “For me, I absolutely support and defend their right to publish and I think that they have brought forward extraordinarily important information through their publishing. And I’m also disturbed by some of the things that are said in the film and I didn’t want to exclude those things. That’s not my job, to paint a simplistic portrait.”

Poitras first contacted Assange in 2010 after WikiLeaks published the Collateral Murder video, which showed a U.S. helicopter in Iraq shooting several men, including two Reuters journalists. Poitras, who became focused on making films about post-9/11 surveillance, was welcomed into Assange’s inner circle. Risk captures some of the inside drama behind many earth-shattering WikiLeaks publications; it opens with Assange trying to reach Clinton at the State Department ahead of the imminent leak of thousands of diplomatic cables.

It also shows Assange in a bracingly intimate, sometimes surreal way: getting his hair cut by his loyal followers; disguising himself before fleeing to Ecuador’s embassy; being interviewed by Lady Gaga. There are hints, too, of the accusations that have often followed him, like that he runs WikiLeaks like its own intelligence agency.

Early reaction to film

Poitras first premiered the film a year ago at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was received largely positively. But some questioned whether Poitras was too closely aligned with her subject. Variety wondered if it was a “glorified fan film.” The Guardian labeled it “an embedded report that sacrifices impartiality for access.”

“I never define myself as an activist. I define myself as a journalist and a filmmaker,” said Poitras. “There’s a long tradition of journalism that’s first-person perspective. I don’t think that journalism is by definition activism. I think it’s just stories that are told from a subjective point of view.”

But developments that followed that premiere led Poitras to recut her film. She added the voiceovers that question and occasionally distance herself from Assange. She updated the film to include the DNC leak and allegations of a Russian connection, and even late last month went back in to include Attorney General Jeff Sessions vow to make Assange’s arrest “a priority.”

Numerous alleged victims also came forward to accuse Jacob Appelbaum, a WikiLeaks insider and significant personality in the film, of sexual harassment and bullying. (Appelbaum has denied it.) Poitras added to the film her acknowledgement of a previous relationship with Appelbaum and said he was abusive to someone close to her after their relationship ended. A representative for Appelbaum didn’t respond to a request for comment about the film or abuse allegations.

Slate, however, still criticized the updated Risk as “what happens when a filmmaker gets too close to her subject.” Yet Risk also repeatedly shows questionable behavior by Assange. In one scene he calls the rape allegation in Sweden, which he has denied, “a thoroughly tawdry radical feminist political positioning thing.”

Assange calls film ‘a threat’

Poitras has shown him multiple cuts of the film. Before the Cannes screening, he texted her that he considers Risk “a threat” to him personally.

“There were pressuring demands that I remove scenes from the film — that I didn’t — that involved what he was talking about in terms of the Swedish case,” said Poitras. “I don’t think he has legitimate reason to [perceive the film as a threat].” 

Assange and WikiLeaks also did not respond to requests for comment.

Citizenfour came about while Poitras was working on Risk. She was contacted by Snowden, who said he wanted to leak NSA documents to her, and she put him in touch with reporter Glenn Greenwald and documented their clandestine meetings in a Hong Kong hotel room.

“I got pulled into the story in a way that I never anticipated. Being pulled into the story led to all different types of conflicts and shifting relationships that happened that are in the film,” said Poitras. “I’m part of the story now.”

She nearly abandoned the Assange project but, convinced of its value to history, eventually returned to it.

“This is a moment of shifting power dynamics and how the internet is impacting that, for better and for worse,” said Poitras. “We have a president now who communicates through Twitter. The film, I think, is trying to capture that historical moment.”
…

The National Basketball Association opened its first training academy in Africa on Thursday in a push to expand its presence on the continent and prepare more African players to enter the league, its vice president for Africa said.

The academy is in Senegal, where a sports development program in partnership with the NBA has already produced professional players including Minnesota Timberwolves center-forward Gorgui Dieng.

“The goal of the NBA Academy Africa is to create a more direct path for young people who have talent so that their future is not determined by chance,” Amadou Gallo Fall told reporters in Senegal’s capital, Dakar.

The academy is part of a push to expand recruitment worldwide and follows three academies launched in China last year. Two more are slated to open in India and Australia.

The number of international players in the NBA has been increasing, with a record 113 on opening-night rosters for the 2016-17 season. But most are European, with only 14 from Africa.

Soccer more popular

Basketball has long been eclipsed by soccer on the continent. Even former basketball superstars such as Nigeria’s Hakeem Olajuwon did not learn to play the game until their late teens.

“If you could find a kid from Africa that can shoot the ball, that’s kind of special. Why? Because he doesn’t have the resources,” said academy technical director Roland Houston, as 20 lanky teenagers practiced at a training camp in the Senegalese city of Thies this week.

The NBA academy will build on the Sports for Education and Economic Development (SEED) Project, which has trained young players in Senegal since it was founded in 2002.

Twelve players will be selected to join the inaugural class. All will receive scholarships to the academy, which will also provide academic courses and mentoring.

“I see basketball as something that … has already taken me places. Basketball has made me meet people I never expected to meet, people I never wished I could even shake hands with,” said Timothy Ighoeffe, 17, one of the hopefuls from Nigeria.

The NBA is also counting on the move to help it reach new audiences in Africa, where it has slowly been building its brand. It held its first African exhibition game in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2015 and signed a major trans-African broadcast deal last year.
…

Major League Baseball is reviewing its security protocols in all 30 stadiums after Orioles outfielder Adam Jones complained of fans shouting racial slurs in Boston this week and other black players reacted by saying it’s a common reality.

League officials are starting by figuring out how individual clubs handle fan issues and complaints.

“We have reached out to all 30 clubs to assess what their in-ballpark announcement practices are regarding fan behavior,” MLB spokesman Pat Courtney said. “We are also reviewing text message and other fan security notification policies that are operating in the event there is an incident.”

Each stadium is different

All MLB teams have a mechanism for fans to alert security to issues, but individualized ballparks mean different protocols and practices in each stadium.

The Red Sox on Wednesday said another fan had been ejected from the previous game for using a racial slur toward another spectator.

“The offending individual was promptly ejected from the ballpark, and has since been notified they are no longer welcome at Fenway Park,” the team said.

The team turned the matter over to police.

“The Red Sox organization will not tolerate the use of racial slurs at Fenway Park, and we have apologized to those affected,” the team said. “There is no place for racial epithets at Fenway Park, in baseball, or in our society.”

Jones complained Monday night that he was racially abused, then a fan threw peanuts toward him in the dugout. Boston Red Sox officials apologized and said that only one of 34 fans kicked out of the game was ejected for using foul language toward a player, and it wasn’t clear whether that was toward Jones. Boston police said the peanuts hit a nearby police officer and Fenway security kicked out the man who threw them before he could be identified by authorities.

Commissioner Rob Manfred quickly condemned the incidents.

On Wednesday night, Jones was ejected in the fifth inning after striking out swinging against the Red Sox. He was upset about a late strike call during the at-bat.

Nothing new, black players say

Earlier this week, black players around the majors made it clear that what he experienced is an ongoing experience during road trips, varying by ballpark.

“Everybody knows what those cities are. It’s bad. You’ve got security guards there and people there and they just sit there and let it happen,” Braves outfielder Matt Kemp said. “That to me is just crazy.”

Kemp said the vitriol in some parks has become a talking point among the dwindling fraternity of black players.

According to the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, the number of African-American or African-Canadian players dipped from 62 each of the previous four years to 58, or 7.7 percent, on MLB’s opening day active rosters.

Dusty Baker, the Nationals manager who played 19 seasons, said Jones’ complaints weren’t surprising because he’s been targeted with racial slurs in almost every city he played in.

“Minor leagues, big leagues … from L.A. to New York, it’s more apparent in some places than other places,” Baker said.

Adding security guards

Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia said he heard racial slurs from fans when he pitched for the Indians in Boston, but has never had a problem with New York, where security guards follow players out to the bullpen and maintain a visible presence.

“It’s easier for us because we have our security guards,” Sabathia said. “Maybe teams should travel with security guards. That’s made a huge difference since I’ve been here.”

Kemp said he spoke to security officials about a week ago about how things were getting out of hand.

“I don’t know what kind of precautions or what they’re doing to get things under control but I hope something is going to get done,” he said. “Of course the racial slurs are out of line, and that’s big, but there’s a lot of other big things happening as far as people threatening other people’s families.”

Soccer a possible model

One solution could be to adopt the model used in some European soccer leagues, where clubs are held responsible for the actions of their fans. Soccer authorities have spent decades trying to eradicate racism from stadiums, with limited success. Sanctions were strengthened in 2013 after a high-profile incident in Italy saw Kevin-Prince Boateng lead his AC Milan team off a field after facing abuse from fans.

Parts of stadiums can be closed during matches after a first instance of abuse, while repeated abuse can result in fans being locked out of games completely.

Still, during a Serie A game in Italy on Sunday, Pescara player Sulley Muntari complained he was being racially abused by Cagliari supporters and the referee’s only action was to penalize Muntari for his protests and show him a second yellow card as he walked off the field, which amounted to a red card kicking him out of the game and his team’s next game. The league didn’t punish Cagliari because it said only 10 fans were hurling the abuse, despite a clear sliding scale of punishments for four years.

FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, has also given leagues the power to dock points or relegate teams for serious repeated racist incidents. Players also face a minimum 10-game ban in Europe if they racially abuse opponents.

But FIFA has been criticized for disbanding its anti-racism task force even as it prepares to take the World Cup in 2018 to Russia, where racism continues to blight matches.

Hall of Famer and Yankees senior adviser Reggie Jackson said improving security at ballparks might not be a magic wand.

“I don’t know how you control that,” he said. “You throw someone out of the stadium, you have them leave. And it would be interesting to see if fans really cheered.”
…

In a dimly lit university auditorium in the Colombian capital, not far from where the country’s largest rebel group once launched bomb attacks, Julian Conrado sings to eager-eyed students about the pain of war.

“Instead of a rifle in my hands I’d like to carry a flower,” he croons, wearing wire-rimmed glasses and an olive green fedora that make him look more like a geeky dad than someone who spent over three decades as a guerrilla fighter in Latin America’s longest-running armed conflict.

“Call me the singer of unity,” Conrado told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “I like that.”

The setting is a new one for the man known as the “singer of the FARC,” the Spanish acronym for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which last year reached a landmark peace agreement with the government to end a half century of fighting.

Rather than singing battle hymns to fellow rebels in the mountains, Conrado is now living in a demobilization camp and gradually venturing out for shows that have not only enthralled idealistic college kids but also drawn the ire of opponents who say he shouldn’t be performing at all.

“It’s unacceptable that FARC terrorists are giving concerts in Bogota without even having confessed their crimes or made reparations to their victims,” conservative lawmaker Daniel Palacios said.

Just a distraction

Conrado said such criticisms are a temporary distraction from a larger mission of transforming himself into a messenger of peace and forgiveness.

However the ballad he performs most these days is one he wrote in 1984 during a previous, failed peace attempt. He has been struggling to compose new material in the early days of the post-conflict era, wary that his frank, socially critical lyrics might cause more discord than his performances already have.

“I wrote a song but I don’t want to sing it,” Conrado said while driving through Bogota in an SUV with tinted windows. “I see the looks in people’s faces . and there is like a glow of peace.”

“But then I see other people .” he continued, his voice trailing off. “Hopefully, I am wrong.”

Born in a small city near Colombia’s Caribbean coast, Conrado, whose birth name is Guillermo Torres, learned to read by reading the lyrics to ballads known as “corridos.” From an early age he found himself drawn toward leftist causes, and he began organizing neighbors to improve access to water and electricity and incorporating politics into his music, drawing rebukes from officials and also death threats.

After narrowly escaping gunfire that he believes was aimed at him while exiting a building, Conrado decided to join the rebels in the mountains. Just shy of 30 years old, he had never fired a weapon.

His acoustic guitar was among the few belongings he took with him.

In rebel encampments and later in jail, he wrote folksy tunes in the “vallenato” style paired with cheerful accordions, flutes and acoustic guitar. His songs vary from lighthearted professions of love to darker themes decrying social inequality and paramilitary violence or paying homage to fallen guerrilla comrades.

“For our dead, not a minute of silence,” one goes. “A whole life of combat.”

A guitar and a gun

Conrado’s songs were played at rebel parties and shared through videos and CDs — the cheerful, seemingly out-of-place rebel playing guitar while his AK-47 leaned against a wall.

“If there is anyone who made music in the middle of the conflict, it’s him,” said spokesman Fabian Ramirez of the Bogota artist collective Independencia Records, which recently invited Conrado to perform. “And if there is a cultural reference of the FARC, it is him.”

Being a musician wasn’t always easy in the jungle. Three times Conrado was forced to abandon guitars while fleeing bombs or soldiers. But he was never more than a few days without a new one.

One of the two he uses today was delivered by guerrillas who traveled by canoe to find it. The other was given to him in a Venezuelan jail where he says he shared a cell with several bankers. He calls the first guitar the “the guerrilla” and the latter “the oligarch.”

“But ‘the oligarch’ sings revolutionary songs, too,” he said.

The U.S. State Department at one time offered a $2.5 million reward for information leading to Conrado’s arrest, identifying him as a member of the FARC’s top leadership and accusing him of helping set and implement its cocaine policies. Colombian authorities have investigated him on allegations of terrorism, forced displacement of civilians and recruiting minors.

Captured in Venezuela

For a time Conrado was believed to have been killed in a 2008 army attack, but he was captured in 2011 in Venezuela while reportedly living at a farm under an Ecuadorian alias. He remained behind bars until 2013, when he was released to travel to Cuba to participate in peace negotiations.

These days Conrado, now 62, lives beneath a plastic tarp at a demobilization camp near the northern coast. Independencia Records invited him and two other former guerrillas to perform at a peace concert, arguing it was time for Colombians in cities far removed from the armed conflict to hear “the other side.”

“They are coming to sing, not to shoot,” Ramirez said. “And we believe that if they have their hands busy playing a guitar, painting a picture, writing a poem or acting in a play, they will never have to return to war.”

Conrado also gave talks and small performances that were mostly unannounced in an attempt to keep a low profile. But at the National University, he packed an auditorium with several hundred students who sang along to songs that for years were considered taboo — best listened to only in private or with like-minded friends.

“The FARC were part of the insurgency,” said Lorena Parra, a 21-year-old political administration student. “Now that we are in a more open environment. It’s the perfect opportunity to discover that ‘other’ who was in the mountains.”
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Alec Baldwin welcomes the chance to share the screen with President Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live.

“I think if he came it would be a great show,” Baldwin said in an interview Wednesday. “I think it would be better for everybody. It’s always fun to defuse some of the tensions and unpleasantness of all this because we are mocking him — by no means with more frequency or more maliciousness, if you will, than other people.”

But he will have to wait. The actor, whose Trump impersonations became a staple this season and helped propel SNL to its best ratings in years, said the president recently turned down an invitation to appear on the NBC show.

“We invited him to come when I hosted recently, but he refused to come, which is fine,” Baldwin said. “I’m hoping SNL was the one thing he chose to ignore so he could actually do his job.”

Trump has repeatedly bashed SNL and Baldwin’s impersonations on Twitter, but the actor said his performance is driven by Trump’s words and actions.

“Trump himself is responsible for nearly all of the content,” he said. “Trump is the head writer at SNL. Nearly everything, every consonant and every vowel, is something that Trump himself has rendered in some way. So I think Trump is even more frustrated because he has only himself to blame for that.”

He also praised ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who on Monday night detailed how his son was born last month with a heart defect and required surgery. Kimmel’s tearful monologue included a plea for all families to have access to lifesaving medical care.

“Good for him to get real about that,” said Baldwin, who’s a father of four. “I’d love to see this country turn in a direction where it makes things easier for moms and dads.”

Baldwin said he has reached out to Kimmel, who was his co-star in the animated film The Boss Baby.

“I can’t imagine any time in your life when you buckle down more and kind of batten down the hatches more than when you’re going through that with your wife,” Baldwin said. “That’s just mind-blowing. Mind-blowing. And I hope everything is great for his son.”
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