Author: Ohart

Millions of Orthodox Christians are celebrating Easter Sunday, but many have been urged to observe the commemoration of Christ’s resurrection from their homes instead of their usual places of worship amid efforts to bring the COVID pandemic under control.There are more than 260 million Orthodox Christians according to U.S.-based An Orthodox priest blesses traditional Easter cakes and painted eggs prepared for Easter celebration at a church in Grozny, Russia, May 2, 2021.Orthodox pilgrims in Ethiopia attended Easter eve celebrations in one of the churches in Lalibela, located in the northern part of the country, on Saturday, where Reuters correspondents attended.Reuters posted a video taken at the rock-hewn St. Mary church on Sunday showing people observing an Easter service. Most worshipers in the video were not wearing masks. The country has reported 258,062 cases of infection and 3,709 deaths so far, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.The churches in Lalibela are a major tourist attraction and have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1978.Christians in western churches celebrated Easter last month on April 4.The orthodox and western churches have different dates for the observances because they use different calendars.Orthodox churches still use the Julian calendar, while western churches use the Gregorian calendar.
  
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Olympia Dukakis, the veteran stage and screen actress whose flair for maternal roles helped her win an Oscar as Cher’s mother in the romantic comedy “Moonstruck,” has died. She was 89.Allison Levy, her agent at Innovative Artists, said Saturday that Dukakis died Saturday morning in her home in New York City. A cause of death was not immediately released.Dukakis won her Oscar through a surprising chain of circumstances, beginning with author Nora Ephron’s recommendation that she play Meryl Streep’s mother in the film version of Ephron’s book “Heartburn.” Dukakis got the role, but her scenes were cut from the film. To make it up to her, director Mike Nichols cast her in his hit play “Social Security.” Director Norman Jewison saw her in that role and cast her in “Moonstruck.”Dukakis won the Oscar for best supporting actress and Cher took home the trophy for best actress.She referred to her 1988 win as “the year of the Dukakii” because it was also the year Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, her cousin, was the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. At the ceremony, she held her Oscar high over her head and called out: “OK, Michael, let’s go!”Studied physical therapyDukakis had yearned to be an actress from an early age and had hoped to study drama in college. Her Greek immigrant parents insisted she pursue a more practical education, so she studied physical therapy at Boston University on a scholarship from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.After earning her bachelor’s degree, she worked at an understaffed hospital in Marmet, West Virginia, and at the Hospital for Contagious Diseases in Boston.But the lure of the theater eventually led her to study drama at Boston University.It was a shocking change, she told an interviewer in 1988, noting that she had gone from the calm world of science to one where students routinely screamed at the teachers.”I thought they were all nuts,” she said. “It was wonderful.”Her first graduate school performance was a disaster, however, as she sat wordless on the stage.After a teacher helped cure her stage fright, she began working in summer stock theaters. In 1960, she made her off-Broadway debut and two years later had a small part in “The Aspen Papers” on Broadway.After three years with a Boston regional theater, Dukakis moved to New York and married actor Louis Zorich.During their first years of marriage, acting jobs were scarce, and Dukakis worked as a bartender, waitress and other jobs.She and Zorich had three children — Christina, Peter and Stefan. They decided it was too hard to raise children in New York with limited income, so they moved the family to a century-old house in Montclair, a New Jersey suburb of New York.Motherly rolesHer Oscar victory kept the motherly film roles coming. She was Kirstie Alley’s mom in “Look Who’s Talking” and its sequel “Look Who’s Talking Too,” the sardonic widow in “Steel Magnolias” and the overbearing wife of Jack Lemmon (and mother of Ted Danson) in “Dad.”But the stage had been her first love.”My ambition wasn’t to win the Oscar,” she said after her “Moonstruck” win. “It was to play the great parts.”She accomplished that in such New York productions as Bertolt Brecht’s “Mother Courage and Her Children,” Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” and Tennessee Williams’ “The Rose Tattoo.”For two decades she ran the Whole Theater Company in Montclair, specializing in classic dramas.While her passion lay in stage, a line from her Oscar-winning performance as Rose nonetheless seemed fitting: “I just want you to know no matter what you do, you’re gonna die, just like everybody else.”
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Medina Spirit stormed to victory Saturday in the Kentucky Derby to deliver trainer Bob Baffert a record seventh win in the Run for the Roses.Jockey John Velazquez and Medina Spirit jumped to an early lead and fended off challenges from Mandaloun, Hot Rod Charlie and Essential Quality down the stretch to cross the line first in front of 51,838 fans in the largest U.S. sporting event since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.Mandaloun finished second, with Hot Rod Charlie third.The win was Hall of Fame jockey Velazquez’s fourth in the Triple Crown race, which returned to its usual first-Saturday-in-May spot on the sport’s calendar after being pushed to September last year because of the pandemic.The Preakness Stakes, the second jewel of horse racing’s Triple Crown, will be run May 15 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.
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Orthodox Christians flocked to Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Saturday to celebrate the Holy Fire ceremony, gathering in far greater numbers than last year because coronavirus restrictions have eased.This season’s religious holidays in the Holy Land, home to religious sites sacred to Christians, Jews and Muslims, have been overshadowed by tragedy, as Israel mourns the death of 45 Jewish worshippers killed in a stampede overnight between Thursday and Friday at a religious festival in the north of the country. Children were among the casualties. read more”I listened to the radio, when the parents were talking, I was crying because I have a small son. I cried for the kids,” said Zaira Didmanidze, 40, one of the 2,500 people who attended the Holy Fire ceremony.The ceremony, symbolizing Jesus’s resurrection, is one of the most colorful spectacles of the Orthodox Easter season, usually attended by many pilgrims.With Jerusalem under lockdown last year’s Holy Fire ceremony was held in the near-empty church that is revered by Christians as the site of Jesus’s crucifixion, burial and resurrection.”Last year it was a sad year,” said Rosaline Manees, a pilgrim from Jaffa. “This year is better, though not like other years as pilgrims from all over the world are not visiting the country. Today it is only us who live in the country. But, sure, better than last year.”Israel’s swift vaccination drive has largely beaten back the pandemic in the past few months, allowing for restrictions on gatherings to be greatly eased as officials plan a resumption of international tourism in the coming months.The Holy Fire ceremony typically draws tens of thousands of worshippers to an imposing grey edicule in the Holy Sepulchre that is believed to contain the tomb where Jesus lay 2,000 years ago.Sunbeams that pierce through a skylight in the church’s dome are believed by worshippers to ignite a flame deep inside the crypt, a mysterious act considered a Holy Saturday miracle each year before Orthodox Easter Sunday.Jerusalem’s Greek Orthodox Patriarch then emerges from the crypt where Christians believe Jesus was buried, lights a candle with the Holy Fire and disperses it to the faithful.
 
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Gathered in a practice room, five generously proportioned young men in baggy black sweaters are patting their bellies and waggling their arms. Bearded with double chins, they shout “Hoo-Ha!” in time to upbeat African drums.The choreography is for the new song Good Belly, by Produce Pandas. DING, Cass, Husky, Otter and Mr. 17 weigh an average of 100 kilograms and proudly call themselves “the first plus-sized boy band in China.”That is a radical departure from the industry standard seen in South Korean super groups such as BTS, whose lanky young members are sometimes referred to in China as “little fresh meat.”Yet, it seems to be working for Produce Pandas, who rose to fame after making it about halfway through Youth with You, an idol talent competition hosted by iQiyi, one of the largest video platforms in China.On the show, mentors and audience voters pick nine finalists, either individuals or group members, to come together to form a new band.“The five of us may not have the standard look and shape of a boy band but we hope to use the term ‘plus-sized band’ to break the aesthetic stereotypes,” Cass said in an interview.The five, two of whom formerly sang in bars, are also unusual for their relatively advanced ages in an industry that worships youth and stamina. Most of their fellow contestants on Youth with You began South Korean-style training while in their teens.While Produce Pandas excited audiences and sparked discussion about how a pop idol should look, some taunting also appeared online.Users of China’s Weibo microblog seized on the Chinese word for panda, a homonym of which appears in the Chinese name for the Japanese horror movie Ring, suggesting that watching them dance was similarly frightening.Mr. 17, the band’s main dancer, was the oldest contestant in the competition at age 31. He had been discovered on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, where he posted clips of himself dancing in pajamas or while holding a bowl of rice.Otter, a member of the Chinese music group Produce Pandas, sings during rehearsals in Beijing, April 15, 2021.He nicknamed himself “17” after his favorite age. The former petroleum company worker said he does not feel old, but admits that after rehearsals, “I felt my energy was emptied.”The five were solicited from more than 300 hopefuls by Beijing-based DMDF Entertainment, which wanted to build a band that would be rotund and approachable as well as inspiring.Husky, who worked in information technology, thought he would fit in perfectly because he has been chubby since primary school and has failed repeatedly to lose weight.“I often work out one day then take a rest for the next three days, so the result is clear that I gained some weight instead,” he said. The point is “stay in shape (and) not to lose weight, but to lose fat.”Echoing Husky, Cass said the upside to being on such a team is that they do not need to abstain when it comes to food.“We don’t mind eating like a horse. I feel sorry for the ‘little fresh meat’ bands whose members must follow a diet to stay slim. I feel great whenever they look on enviously as we dig in!”Team leader DING quit plus-sized modeling when he heard about auditioning for an “XXL” boy band, saying, “I feel this is probably the closest I can get to being on a magazine cover.”The five are now working on a new album, with songs including Pursue Your Dreams.“Saddle up on the horse and pursue your dreams. Don’t idle your time away,” the lyrics go.Vocalist Otter, who has idolized the South Korean boy band Super Junior since he was 7, never thought he could be in a band that lives and performs together, and more importantly, encourages ordinary folk.“I hope people will feel encouraged when watching our performance,” he said. They can think, “If Produce Pandas can make a breakthrough and perform on a bigger stage, then why can’t I?”
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A medical board appointed to investigate the death of Diego Maradona has concluded that the soccer star’s medical team acted in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless manner,” according to a copy of the report shared with Reuters on Friday.Maradona’s death in November last year rocked the South American nation where he was revered, prompting a period of mourning and angry finger-pointing about who was to blame after the icon’s yearslong battle with addiction and ill health.Argentine prosecutors launched investigations shortly after Maradona’s death at age 60 from heart failure at a house near Buenos Aires, including ordering searches of properties of his personal doctor and probing others involved in his care.Maradona, nicknamed “D10S,” a play on the Spanish word for god, and “Pelusa” for his prominent mane of hair, had battled alcohol and drug addiction for many years and had undergone brain surgery in November.In March this year, a medical board appointed by the Justice Ministry met to analyze allegations that members of the health team who attended Maradona did not treat him adequately.”The action of the health team in charge of treating DAM [Diego Armando Maradona] was inadequate, deficient and reckless,” said the medical board report dated Friday and shared with Reuters by a source close to the investigation.The report said Maradona had become seriously unwell and was dying for around 12 hours before his death at around midday on November 25.”He presented unequivocal signs of a prolonged agonizing period, so we conclude that the patient was not properly monitored from 00:30 on 11/25/2020,” the report added.Reuters could not reach prosecutors and lawyers involved in the case for comment on Friday.Maradona, a champion with Argentina in the 1986 World Cup, played for Barcelona, Napoli, Seville, Boca Juniors and Argentinos Juniors, and is widely heralded as one of the greatest soccer players of all time.
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The woman who returned Lady Gaga’s stolen French bulldogs was among five people arrested in connection with the theft and shooting of the music superstar’s dog walker, Los Angeles police said Thursday.
Detectives do not believe that the thieves initially knew the dogs belonged to the pop star, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement. The motive for the Feb. 24 robbery, investigators believe, was the value of the French bulldogs — which can run into the thousands of dollars.
The dog walker, Ryan Fischer, is recovering from a gunshot wound and has called the violence “a very close call with death” in social media posts. He was walking Lady Gaga’s three dogs — named Asia, Koji and Gustav — in Hollywood just off the famed Sunset Boulevard when he was attacked.
Video from the doorbell camera of a nearby home shows a white sedan pulling up and two men jumping out. They struggled with Fischer and one pulled a gun and fired a single shot before fleeing with two of the dogs, Koji and Gustav.  
The video captured Fischer’s screams of, “Oh, my God! I’ve been shot!” and “Help me!” and “I’m bleeding out from my chest!”  
Lady Gaga offered a $500,000 reward — “no questions asked” — to be reunited with the dogs. The singer had been in Rome filming a movie at the time.
The dogs were returned two days later to an LAPD station by a woman who originally appeared to be “uninvolved and unassociated” with the crime, police initially said. The woman, identified Thursday as 50-year-old Jennifer McBride, had reported that she’d found the dogs and responded to an email address associated with the reward, police said.  
McBride turned out to be in a relationship with the father of one of the suspects, the LAPD said Thursday. It was not immediately clear if she had received the reward.
Police arrested James Jackson, 18, Jaylin White, 19, and Lafayette Whaley, 27, in connection with the violence. They are charged with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit robbery and second-degree robbery, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Jackson, who authorities say was the shooter, also faces charges of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and a felon carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle. White faces one count of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury.
White’s father, 40-year-old Harold White, and McBride were arrested and accused of being accessories to the attack. The elder White also was charged with one count of possession of a firearm and McBride faces a charge of receiving stolen property.
Jackson, Whaley and the Whites are all documented gang members, according to the LAPD.
The five suspects were scheduled to be arraigned Thursday, according to the  Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. It was not immediately clear if they had attorneys who could speak on their behalf.
All five were being held on $1 million bail each, online jail records show.
Lady Gaga did not immediately address the arrests on her social media accounts Thursday afternoon. Fischer and Lady Gaga’s representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
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Videos of kids having fun are among the most popular on YouTube. They are also a fast-growing business, one that critics say comes with little regulation and oversight to protect children on either side of the screen. Michelle Quinn reports.
Producer: Michelle Quinn
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The Pew Research Center released Thursday an analysis of 2019 U.S. Census Bureau data showing the population of Asian Americans reached 24 million people.
 
The Washington-based research group previously projected that population will reach 46 million people by 2060, and that by that time Asian Americans will be the largest immigrant group in the United States.
 
It said Thursday nearly all the Asian American population comes from 19 Asian origin groups, and that Chinese Americans account for 23% of the Asian population.
 
In terms of geographical distribution, Pew said 45% percent of Asian Americans live in western states, while 24% live in southern states.
 
Pew reported that in 2017, about 14% of the 10.5 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States were people from Asia.
 
It said overall 57% of Asian Americans were born in another country.
 
Between 2000 and 2019, according to Pew, the number of people with Bhutanese, Nepalese and Burmese origin grew at the fastest rates, while the number of Laotians and Japanese grew at the slowest rates.
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Pope Francis has issued an anti-corruption decree requiring Vatican managers, including cardinals, to sign a declaration attesting they are not being investigated or have not been found guilty of terrorism, money-laundering or tax evasion. The new regulations are part of the pope’s long battle against corruption inside Vatican’s walls.Since his election in 2013, Pope Francis has been battling corruption inside the Vatican and his decree issued Thursday mandates full economic disclosure and controls for all managers working for the city state, including cardinals.  They will be required to sign a declaration when they are appointed attesting that they have never been convicted of a crime. They will also be required to declare that they are not under investigation for offenses including money laundering, corruption, fraud, exploitation of minors or tax evasion.Vatican managers will also have to declare they are investing funds that are consistent with the Catholic Church’s social doctrine. In addition, the decree states that they will not be allowed to use tax havens or accept any work-related gifts that are worth more than $48. They also cannot hold real estate obtained with illegal funds.FILE – Police officers patrol an empty St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, April 10, 2020.Last May, Pope Francis issued another decree tightening the rules on Vatican departments to secure contracts. But the pope’s latest anti-corruption crackdown is the toughest since he took office eight years ago to ensure Vatican City employees are not involved in illegal financial activity.For the past two years, prosecutors have been investigating allegations of corruption in a Vatican investment into a London property deal. The Vatican has been involved in numerous financial scandals and the pope has made clear he would battle corruption from the outset of his pontificate.Pope Francis has spoken out about the issue of corruption on many occasions. One of those times was during a trip to Kenya, two years after being elected.Cases of corruption, he said, are found not only in politics, but in all institutions and inside the Vatican as well. Corruption, he added, is something that hits us inside. It’s like sugar, it’s sweet, we like it. It’s easy. But then, the pope concluded, it ends badly.The pope’s new decree made clear that Vatican employees must adhere to “internationally accepted regulations and best practices” that require transparency to fight “conflicts of interest, patronage practices and corruption in general.”  Moneyval, the Council of Europe’s Committee that evaluates anti-money laundering measures and the financing of terrorism, is expected to publicly release its report soon, which also includes details on the Holy See’s adherence to combat those practices. 
 
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Diplomacy can be fraught at the best of times. Serious, high-level events are regularly punctuated with physical gaffes, miscues, awkward handshakes, strained laughter and cultural misunderstandings of varying scope and severity.   Like the time President Donald Trump appeared to shove the prime minister of Montenegro at a NATO summit. Or when President Barack Obama got caught on a hot mic complaining to then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy about the prime minister of Israel, a key U.S. ally. Or when Russia’s foreign minister awkwardly explained to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, on live TV, that the “reset” button she handed him actually read, in Russian, “overcharge.”   Or, perhaps most spectacularly — even more so than his performance later that year when he vomited on Japan’s prime minister — the time President George H.W. Bush visited U.S. ally Australia and flashed the crowd what he may have thought was a sign for victory, or peace.   That two-fingered salute does not mean either of those things in Australia.   At the worst of times — like in the middle of a pandemic, when leaders can’t meet in person to hash out important issues — diplomacy can be excruciating. Like the agonizingly long pause during a recent virtual U.S.-led climate summit, when the French president was cut off mid-speech and the screen cut to a silent Russian president as leaders shifted in their chairs and waited for someone to speak.   By now, millions of people around the world have suffered through the awkwardness of virtual meetings and their many technical hazards. Like video glitches, missed cues, hot mics, and — oops — when you accidentally use that one Zoom filter that turns your face into a cat.  But in meetings of global importance, going virtual raises serious concerns.   Before the coronavirus pandemic began, major summits were a hub of human activity, commonly drawing civil society groups and protesters into the same space as major decision-makers.   Now, with everything online, more people can watch the proceedings. And whereas activists may not have been able to travel to major summits because of cost and visa restrictions, now anyone can log on and tune in.   But, says Mandeep Tiwana of CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance, the closed nature of virtual summits — in which moderators limit who can speak — means fewer ordinary people and outsiders can actually participate and enjoy freedom of assembly and expression.   “Online, these rights should be as equally available as they are offline,” he told VOA from New York via Google Hangouts. “That’s critical. Secondly, we are also urging that when meetings are being organized by intergovernmental institutions and multilateral bodies and so on, that they try to reach a vast swath of people.   “But most importantly,” he said, “I think internet should be recognized as a very important human right.”   Virtual diplomacy is likely here to stay, even after the pandemic, says Brooks Spector, a former American diplomat-turned-journalist who has lived in South Africa for decades. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken went fully virtual for his first Africa trip this week, spending a day going electronically between high-level meetings in Kenya and Nigeria. Blinken adapted quickly to the screen, Spector said. “The extent to which Tony Blinken shows the same kind of ability and warmth through the camera that the president can … [will] stand him in good stead,” he said. “Because this, I suspect, is going to be the way of the world for quite a while.   “There’ll be a lot fewer international visits and a whole lot more international consultations by way of the electronics.”   But, Spector warns, don’t conflate the novel format with fresh, new, or even honest, content. One thing remains essential to diplomacy, no matter the medium: preparation. These engagements are just as rehearsed as they ever were, he says, because they have to be.   “Virtual diplomacy, it’s like anything else,” he said. “It’s only as good as the staff work that precedes it. If it’s entirely an open-ended discussion in which a dozen or more people are participating, the result is something approaching chaos.”   Or whatever that was last week, when the world watched global leaders sit helplessly for 88 agonizing seconds as President Vladimir Putin stared blankly into the middle distance, fidgeting and gesturing mutely off camera as Blinken mutters under his breath about technical problems.   It could have been worse: So far, the Zoom cat face filter has yet to make its diplomatic debut. 
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America’s re-engagement with the world coincides with a weird new era: that of virtual diplomacy. Since the pandemic made travel unsafe, world leaders have taken their diplomacy digital, opening up new possibilities for engagement — but also, new concerns about fairness and transparency, and the occasional awkward moment. VOA’s Anita Powell follows this story — virtually, of course — and reports from Johannesburg.Camera: Zaheer Cassim/Nike Ching (cellphone video)   
Producer: Jon Spier 
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Zimbabwean sculptor David Ngwerume is gaining attention for works inspired by the pandemic. One of his collections urges people to get vaccinated and another reminds people to take health measures hammering home a message to curb the spread of the virus. Ngwerume’s latest piece is called “Michael Jackson,” named after the late U.S. pop icon who was well-known for wearing masks and a glove. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare.Camera: Blessing Chigwenhembe      
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With the rail still open and Kentucky Derby post positions dwindling, Brad Cox grew anxious about the most notable of his two horses drawing the least desired spot. The homegrown trainer soon breathed easier. Essential Quality got something more palatable, though the hardest part awaits with the target firmly on his back. Essential Quality is the 2-1 morning line favorite and will start from the No. 14 post for Saturday’s 147th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. “It got a little nerve-wracking with both horses still to go and the rail still being out there,” Cox said Tuesday. “I think it’ll be a good spot. He’s got good tactical speed that he’ll be able to get into a good position from there.”  The $3 million, 1 1/4-mile marquee race for 3-year-old colts is back on the first Saturday of May after being delayed to Labor Day weekend last fall because of the pandemic. About 45,000 spectators are expected at the track.  Rock Your World is the 5-1 second choice from the No. 15 slot, with Known Agenda the 6-1 third choice despite drawing the rail in the 20-horse field. Hot Rod Charlie drew 8-1 odds as the fourth choice from the No. 9 slot. Kentucky Derby hopeful Rock Your World works out at Churchill Downs, in Louisville, Ky., April 27, 2021.The obvious focus is on Essential Quality, the reigning 2-year-old champion who enters the Run for the Roses having won all five races and with Luis Saez aboard. His haul of graded stakes victories includes a gutsy Blue Grass victory at Keeneland on April 3 that vaulted the gray son of Tapit to the top of the Derby standings with 140 points and cemented him as the projected favorite.  He’s one of two entries trained by Cox, who grew up a few blocks from Churchill Downs and will make his Derby debut trying to become the first Louisville native to win the race. The Eclipse Award winner will also saddle Mandaloun from the No. 7 post as a 15-1 choice, with the bay colt looking to bounce back from a disappointing sixth in the Louisiana Derby. At least their starting spots are no longer an issue. “That was more than I wanted to experience this early, but it worked for us,” Cox added. Rock Your World, trained by John Sadler, has won all three starts this year after not racing as a 2-year-old. But he rolled to a 4-1/4-length victory in the Santa Anita Derby over favorite Medina Spirit, trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, and looks for another marquee win. “It’s a good post, and we’re happy with it,” Sadler said.  Medina Spirit will start from the No. 8 post at 15-1 odds. Kentucky Derby hopeful Medina Spirit works out at Churchill Downs, in Louisville, Ky., April 27, 2021.Known Agenda leads Todd Pletcher’s four-horse contingent that includes Bourbonic, who drew the outside No. 20 post, Dynamic One (No. 11, 20-1 odds), and Sainthood (No. 5, 50-1). The chestnut colt has won two of three starts this season and has three wins, a second and a third in six career starts. Even with Churchill Downs introducing a new 20-stall starting Derby gate last fall to replace the standard 14-slot and auxiliary six-slot gates, Known Agenda has his work cut out for him to avoid being bunched inside and out of contention in a crowded field. “Obviously, it’s not what we were hoping for,” Pletcher said. “Of course, this is one of the things you can’t control. With the new gate, we’re hopeful that things will be better than they were in the past, and the post won’t be that bad.” Hot Rod Charlie’s post draw in the middle brought a loud cheer from his contingent in the otherwise sedate setting as the colt avoided being bunched inside out of the gate. Trainer Doug O’Neill’s horse won the Louisiana Derby by two lengths and was second to Essential Quality with 110 Derby points. “We decided we were going to give it a pump no matter what post we drew,” O’Neill said. “But we’re delighted with the nine. It’s a real good post.” 
 
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Different races and religions sharing space is part of America’s melting pot ethos. Indonesian-American Christians and Muslims in Philadelphia are doing just that. VOA’s Alam Burhanan has more in this report narrated by Nova Poerwadi.Camera: Alam Burhanan, Irfan Ihsan, Ronan Zakaria
 
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Zimbabwean sculptor David Ngwerume is gaining attention for works inspired by the coronavirus pandemic. One of his collections urges people to get vaccinated. Another reminds people to take health measures, as he hammers home a message to curb the spread of the virus. Ngwerume’s latest piece is “Michael Jackson,” named after the late U.S. pop icon who was well known for wearing masks and a glove.Forty-year-old Zimbabwean sculptor David Ngwerume is making what he calls a “COVID-19 Gallery.” Forty-year-old Zimbabwean sculptor David Ngwerume in front of his exhibit, called “Arms,” in what he calls a “COVID-19 Gallery” in Harare, April 23, 2021. He encourages people to take the COVID jab to help the country reach its vaccination target of 60 percent by the end of the year. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)His exhibit, called “Arms,” encourages people to take the COVID jab to help the country reach its vaccination target of 60 percent by the end of the year.Another one, called “We are torn,” encourages people to sneeze into their elbows.And the most talked about one encourages people to mask up in an exhibit called: “MJ” – named after the late U.S. pop icon “Michael Jackson.”“The iconic Michael Jackson was the first celebrity to move around wearing a mask and gloves. When he was asked, he stood his ground and said the air is somehow polluted,” Ngwerume said. “Michael Jackson used his public figure position to highlight what he was seeing as what would come with the times; that we have the COVID pandemic. We are now wearing masks. At that time people thought he was trying to show off. He warned us. Now I am using his figure around this COVID pandemic on my art to show that Michael Jackson gave us a warning that: Mask up. His figure shows a finger pointing to us as a people to say: Mask Up.”Ngwerume has posted his pieces online to keep most people from coming to his studio and potentially spreading the coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease.New York-based art dealer Shingirai Mafara says he wants to hold an art exhibition to display the work of his fellow Zimbabwean David Ngwerume for a wider reach, April 23, 2021.  (Columbus Mavhunga/SKYPE/VOA) Speaking via Skype, New York-based art dealer Shingirai Mafara says he wants to hold an art exhibition to display the work of his fellow Zimbabwean for a wider reach.”I find his pieces very, very pivotal not only putting Zimbabwean art sculpture on the map, because we are already back on the map but also sending to the entire world: let’s get vaccinated, let’s wear masks, let’s social distance, hold hands and try to see this together,” Mafara said. “These pieces are going to sit in the permanent collection of the United Nations World Health Organization or at a private collector’s residence. The work that David has created: a 100, 200 years from now you can look back and say in 2020/2021, we had a pandemic that killed millions and millions of people.”Ngwerume’s work has also caught the attention of a Zimbabwe government official.Josiah Kusena is the acting director of the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe. Josiah Kusena, the acting director of the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe, says the government appreciates artists who think outside the box, April 23, 2021.  (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)“The situation has taught our artists to be resilient, to be imaginative and creative in terms of sustenance – how do you eke a livelihood in such an environment which is not easy to operate when sources of income have been closed totally,” Kusena said. “So that creativity is not a surprise at all. It is also an appreciation by the artist that COVID-19 has destroyed livelihoods, but it is also an appreciation that there has been progress in research in terms of how do you contain COVID-19.”Zimbabwean Doctors Worried about Low Acceptance of COVID-19 VaccineFewer than 36,000 people received shots since 200,000 doses arrived in February Ngwerume says he hopes to work with art auctioneers and use part of the proceeds to get personal protective equipment or PPEs for Zimbabwe’s health workers.Zimbabwe’s doctors and nurses have struggled due to lack of adequate resources while working in the front lines of prevention and treatment during the coronavirus pandemic. Zimbabwe has more than 38,000 confirmed coronavirus infections and 1,550 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the global outbreak.
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While some mosques have opened to prayer during this second Ramadan during the COVID-19 pandemic, religious studies continue online. And in at least one mosque near Washington, D.C., a local teen is trying to keep the lessons entertaining and engaging, as VOA’s Dhania Iman reports.Camera: Dhania Iman Produced by:    Bronwyn Benito 
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With diversity at center stage, minority Oscar nominees took home many coveted golden statuettes, but the three major awards for best actor, best actress and best cinematography went to white nominees. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.
Camera: Penelope Poulou      Producer: Penelope Poulou  
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Chinese filmmaker Chloe Zhao became only the second woman, and the first woman of color, to win the Academy Award for best director as her film Nomadland also captured the award for best picture at Sunday’s Oscars.The film follows a woman who leaves her small town to wander the American West, meeting along the way others who have sought an itinerant life away from conventional society.“I have always found goodness in the people I’ve met everywhere I went in the world,” Zhao said as she accepted her directing award. “This is for anyone who has the faith and the courage to hold onto the goodness in themselves and hold onto to the goodness in each other, no matter how difficult it is to do that.”Nomadland star Frances McDormand won the Oscar for best actress. It was her second time winning the award, following her recognition in 2018 for her role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.The award for best actor went to Anthony Hopkins for his role as a man battling dementia in the film The Father, which also won for best adapted screenplay. Hopkins first won an Oscar nearly 30 years ago.Best original screenplay went to Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman, a thriller in which a woman seeks revenge against predatory men.Daniel Kaluuya, winner of the award for best actor in a supporting role for “Judas and the Black Messiah,” poses in the press room at the Oscars on Sunday, April 25, 2021, at Union Station in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, Pool)Winners at the 2021 OscarsHere’s a look at the winners at the 93rd annual Academy Awards, which took place April 25, 2021, in Los Angeles.Typically a glamor-filled event held at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, the award show shifted to the city’s Union Station transit hub due to the coronavirus pandemic. Nominees were seated at lamp-lit tables around an amphitheater.The list of nominees featured more women and more actors of color than ever before.South Korean actress Yuh-Jung Youn won the best supporting actress award for her portrayal as the matriarch in the film Minari. She is the first Asian actress to win an Academy Award since 1957.Best supporting actor went to Britain’s Daniel Kaluuya, who played Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah.Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson made history as the first Black women to win the Oscar for makeup and hairstyling for their work, along with Sergio Lopez-Rivera, in the film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.The award for best international film went to Danish director Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round. 
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The red carpet is back. After the coronavirus pandemic forced awards shows to be canceled or go virtual over the past year, movie stars and Hollywood A-listers returned Sunday to strut their stuff, live and in person, on perhaps the most iconic red carpet of all: at the Oscars.It was a smaller-than-usual affair with fewer celebrities and cameras — and strict COVID-19 protocols in place. But there was no less glamour to grace the carpet set up at Los Angeles’ Union Station, where the 93rd annual Academy Awards will take place this year.Wearing a double-breasted black tuxedo, actor Paul Raci, 73, was among the first to step in front of the microphones on the carpet.”I don’t think I could have it any other way; it means a lot. It’s perfect,” said Raci, who has been nominated for best supporting actor for his role in the movie “The Sound of Metal.”TV hosts and personalities described a pent-up red carpet energy, with stars and spectators alike eager to forget, albeit temporarily, the rigors of 2020.”Minari” star Steven Yeun, one of the nominees for best actor, said it felt strange to be out and interacting with people.”I haven’t talked to random people in a while, so this is crazy,” said Yeun, 37.Glenn Close, nominated for the eighth time for an Oscar for her portrayal of tough-love parent Mamaw in “Hillbilly Elegy,” walked the red carpet in a blue tunic and pants by Armani Prive.”It’s not two miles long, so that’s lovely,” Close, 74, joked, referring to this year’s shortened red carpet.”I’m very excited, I think it will be very, very different,” she said of the ceremony.”It feels like a special season, like a special time to remember,” said best supporting actor nominee Leslie Odom Jr., 39, who wore one of the more eye-catching outfits of the night, a head-to-toe gold Brioni suit.Andra Day arrives at the Oscars on Sunday, April 25, 2021, at Union Station in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, Pool)2021 Oscars Red CarpetThe red carpet makes a comebackChina native Chloe Zhao, who is nominated for best director for “Nomadland,” brought two the van dwellers who appeared as themselves in the movie.  Fashion commentators hailed the baby blue gown with butterflylike shoulders worn by Regina King, director of the Oscar-nominated movie “One Night in Miami,” as one of the red carpet’s showstoppers.Zendaya also drew praise for her Oscars style, a yellow midriff cutout dress.Gold proved to be a popular choice among nominees. Mulligan of “Promising Young Woman” stunned in a gold gown on the red carpet, and Andra Day, star of biopic “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” wore a midriff-baring gold dress.”I really can’t believe we’re around people,” said best supporting actress nominee Amanda Seyfried, who appeared in a bright red dress with a plunging neckline.Some of the others on the red carpet aside from the actors and actresses wore masks, and interviewers kept their social distance from their subjects.Some of the nominees and other celebrities took to social media ahead of the ceremony to share preparations for this year’s awards show.On Instagram, Close silently toasted in front of the camera while getting ready for the show.A mask-wearing Laura Dern held what looked like a swab for a COVID-19 test in a shot the actress shared with her Instagram followers and captioned “Oscars prep!” 
 
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Chloé Zhao has made history at the Academy Awards.Zhao won the Oscar for best director for Nomadland, becoming just the second woman and the first woman of color to win the award.”My entire Nomadland company, what a crazy, once-in-a-lifetime journey we’ve all been on together,” Zhao said.Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman to win, for The Hurt Locker, in 2009.This was the only year in Oscar history with two female nominees, Zhao and Promising Young Woman director Emerald Fennell. Only seven women have ever been nominated.It was the first Oscar for the 39-year-old Zhao, who was born in Beijing and went to college and film school in the United States. Nomadland is her third feature.The other nominees were Lee Isaac Chung for Minari, Thomas Vinterberg for Another Round, and David Fincher for Mank.Best animated featurePixar’s Soul has won the Oscar for best animated feature.The film stars the voices of Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey.Soul follows an aspiring musician and middle-school band teacher who loses his life — but attempts to escape the afterlife during his quest to help an infant soul.Pixar has now won the award 11 times in the 20 years since the category was established.Best supporting actorDaniel Kaluuya used a lead role to win a best supporting actor Oscar. He’ll take it.Kaluuya won his first Academy Award on Sunday night for playing one of the two title roles in Judas and the Black Messiah.”I’d like to thank my mom,” Kaluuya said, as his mother teared up while watching. “You gave me everything. You gave me your factory settings. So I could stand at my fullest height.”Kaluuya played Chicago Blank Panther leader Fred Hampton, who was killed in an FBI raid in 1969.The other nominees were Paul Raci, Leslie Odom Jr. and Sacha Baron Cohen.Best international feature filmRaise a glass for Another Round.The film from Denmark, directed by Thomas Vinterburg, has won the Oscar for best international feature film.”This is beyond anything I could ever imagine,” Vinterburg said from the stage at Union Station in Los Angeles on Sunday night. “Except this is something I’ve always imagined.”It is the fourth time a film from Denmark has won in the category. The last was In a Better World in 2010.Vinterberg teared up when he told the audience his daughter died four days into shooting. “An accident on the highway took my daughter away,” he said. “We ended up making this movie for her, as her monument. So, Ida, this is a miracle that just happened.”Vinterburg was also nominated for best director Sunday night.Best original screenplayThe first Oscar of the night went to Emerald Fennell, writer and director of Promising Young Woman.It’s the first Oscar for Fennell, a 35-year-old British actor and screenwriter.
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Singer Matiu Walters grinned as he gazed out over 50,000 damp but delirious fans and said those magic words: “So, what’s up Eden Park?”While much of the world remains hunkered down, the band Six60 has been playing to huge crowds in New Zealand, where social distancing isn’t required after the nation stamped out the coronavirus. The band’s tour finale on Saturday night was billed as the largest concert in the world since the pandemic began.Equally momentous for a band which met while playing rugby at university was getting to play the first concert ever held at the storied Eden Park rugby stadium. And finding themselves at the apex of world music came as a twist for Six60, which has enjoyed unparalleled success in New Zealand but whose forays abroad have ended without the breakthroughs they sought.Saturday’s set by the five-piece band included powerful cameos by military musicians ahead of the nation honoring its war dead on Sunday, and Maori performers who stretched across the stage while the band switched to singing in the Indigenous language.One fan, Lucy Clumpas, found it a surreal experience to be surrounded by so many people after she spent last year living through endless lockdowns in Britain. “It’s very important for us as humans to be able to get together and sing the same songs together,” she said. “It makes us feel like we’re part of something,” Walters, the lead singer, said they desperately want their musician friends around the world to be able to play live shows again.”We know what it’s like to be in lockdown. It sucked. And we didn’t know if we’d be able to play gigs again,” he said in an interview before the show. “But we are fortunate, for a few reasons, here in New Zealand.”Guitarist Ji Fraser said the reception they received while on the road for their summer tour had been incredible.”It was amazing to see how fanatical people were, and excited about being out and seeing live music, and seeing something to drag them out of a long, brutal year,” he said. “It was very special.”Walters said they did worry that something could have gone wrong — that their gigs could have turned into super-spreader events. But he said there was not much to do other than play by the rules and follow the government guidelines.The band formed thirteen years ago after they started jamming in their rugby changing rooms, making their concert at the hallowed ground of the nation’s All Blacks rugby team feel like completing a circle.
The band had pushed for changes to civic rules to allow concerts at Eden Park, but not all the neighbors were happy.One who objected was former Prime Minister Helen Clark, who said at the time that the concerts would represent a “home invasion” of noise.”But the people wanted it. And the people spoke,” Walters said. The singer added that Clark would have been welcomed at the concert. “Six60 is for everyone. And maybe if she came and enjoyed herself, she’d have a change of heart.”Promoter Brent Eccles said they got permission to use the venue only at the last moment.”And we thought to ourselves, well, how crazy are we?” he said. “And the answer was, well, pretty crazy. So let’s do it.” It’s been a heady rise for a group which began as a hard-partying student covers band. Their style has evolved and remains difficult to define, blending elements of reggae, pop, rock and soul.Bass guitarist Chris Mac said their fans now span rich and poor, young and old. “We’re pretty lucky to have become the soundtrack of people’s lives. Weddings, funerals, birthdays, engagements,” he said, before breaking into laughter. “You know, gender-reveal parties, which are all the rage.”As the band’s popularity grew in New Zealand, it became a kind of sport for critics to knock them for being too bland. Walters said criticism of success remains a problem in New Zealand, and was something that annoyed him at the time. But he said it also energized the band. “We are very serious about the music,” he said. “It’s important for us to express an emotion and tell a story, and for our songs to be healing and magnetic for people. Because, it’s not a fluke that we’re playing to 50,000 people.”The band has been trying to get more recognition abroad, although six months spent in Germany and a U.S. record deal both ended in disaster, as recounted in a behind-the-scenes documentary about the band “Six60: Till The Lights Go Out.”But the band is ready to give it another shot, with a tour of Europe and the U.K. planned for November. They hope that by then, there will be many more places around the world where huge crowds can gather in song.
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A piece of copper that was struck by the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in 1794 and  was a prototype for the fledgling nation’s money was auctioned off for $840,000, considerably more than expected, an official said.Heritage auctions spokesman Eric Bradley said the “No Stars Flowing Hair Dollar” opened at $312,000 when it was put up Friday evening but “in less than a minute, intense bidding quickly pushed the coin to its final auction price of $840,000.”The coin, formerly owned by businessman and Texas Rangers co-chairman Bob Simpson, had been expected to sell for $350,000 to $500,000, Bradley said.This is the back of a piece of copper that was struck by the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in 1794 and was a prototype for the fledgling nation’s money. The item, which is known as the “No Stars Flowing Hair Dollar,” sold for nearly $1 million.While it closely resembles silver dollars that were later minted in Philadelphia, it gets its name because it is missing stars. Jacob Lipson of Heritage Auctions said earlier that starless coins are considered by collectors and institutions as “one-of-a-kind prototypes for the silver examples that would follow.” Known as a pattern, the front features the flowing hair portrait of Liberty and the date 1794, while the reverse side shows a small eagle on a rock within a wreath. Similar starless examples are part of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Numismatic Collection. The pattern was forgotten as the Mint continued the process of creating the nation’s first silver dollars. “Coin collecting lore states the unique rarity was excavated from the site of the first Philadelphia Mint before 1876,” Lipson said. That was how the coin’s first owner described its history at its first auction appearance in 1890.The pattern is corroded and not in perfect condition, Lipson said, likely because it was buried at the site of the original Mint. There are some scratches and other marks on its brown surfaces. It has traded hands eight times, according to the auction house.Simpson, 73, purchased it along with other patterns in 2008 to add to his large collection. “I think coins should be appreciated almost as artwork,” he said. “I have gotten more than enough joy from them.”
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Old machines are transformed into new robots in an exhibition that makes viewers think twice about the machines they use. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details. 
Camera: Roy Kim  Producer: Elizabeth Lee 
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Old machines are transformed into new robots in an exhibition that makes viewers think twice about the machines they use. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details. 
Camera: Roy Kim  Producer: Elizabeth Lee 
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Now that plans to create a European Super League comprising 12 of the continent’s elite clubs have collapsed, officials from the English, Italian and Spanish leagues are considering what to do in the aftermath.Six clubs from Britain (Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea), three from Spain (Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid) and three from Italy (AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus) signed up for the breakaway European Super League, whose formation was announced Monday.Hours after that announcement, however, several English teams announced they were no longer going to take part. The idea was completely dropped within 48 hours, driven largely by fan outrage.’Dirty dozen’Fans called the 12 teams in the Super League “the dirty dozen.” They were upset that teams would not have to win games to play in the league’s tournament — their places would be guaranteed. To play in the Champions League, teams must do well the year before.England’s Premier League is looking at possibly sanctioning club officials in the breakaway teams, The Associated Press reported. Officials are also looking at removing club executives from key league positions.The league could also consider expelling teams that try to break away.Tottenham fans protest the planned creation of a European Super League, outside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium ahead of the English Premier League football match between Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton in London, April 21, 2021.Most of the British teams have apologized to fans.The Italian soccer federation said it would not punish Italian teams involved in the breakaway, saying it could not punish something that didn’t happen.The president of Spain’s LaLiga said Spanish teams would probably not be punished.”The most important thing is these clubs have been sanctioned by their own fans,” Javier Tebas said in Madrid on Thursday. “Rather than sanctions, we are looking at protective measures so that this doesn’t happen again. They haven’t abandoned LaLiga. They abandoned the idea of European competition.”European Super League organizers said the new competition would rival but not replace existing domestic leagues and European tournaments, such as the UEFA Champions League.Motivation? MoneySports finance analyst Borja Garcia of Britain’s Loughborough University said the primary motivation for the new league was money.”Football has never been a very good business for club owners until a few years ago,” Garcia told VOA. “But now, of course, comes the pandemic. Manchester United, Manchester City, Real Madrid — almost every club in Europe and around the world — are in massive debt. But the big clubs are in more debt because they have more salaries to pay. They depend more on audiences.”So, if I had to pick one [reason], I think it is indeed the level of debt that the pandemic has created in European football. But probably it is fair to say that that is not the cause of everything, but rather, an accelerator.”
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