Category: Мистецтво

The Catskills village that calls itself “Trout Town USA” is all but a ghost town this spring.  Fishing shops in Roscoe, New York, that should be overflowing with anglers are empty, due to the coronavirus outbreak. Guide services are idled, since they are nonessential businesses.  Yet the region’s famed rivers remain open, mercifully.  Like many who love the outdoors, I’ve been pinned down lately by stay-at-home guidance along with work, house chores and storms that have struck during days off.  When I finally see a one-day window of clear weather, I leap through it.  ___I have always found spiritual connections in rivers. As a child in Erie, Pennsylvania, I caught chubs and suckers in a polluted creek down the block. Later there were trips with my older brother for Allegheny Mountain brook trout. During Army tours, I caught golden trout in the Sierra snowmelt, and rainbows in brawling Alaskan waters.There’s a tune by “The Band” entitled “The River Hymn,” a gospel reverie:”The voice of the rapids will echoAnd ricochet like an old water wellWho’d ever want to let goOnce you sit beneath its spell”___It’s noon when I park at the trailhead of a hike-in Catskills fishing spot. There’s not another soul. Social distancing will be easy. I head down the path under vaulting blue skies, and tranquility enters.  When I arrive at the shore, the river is high, cold and discolored from a storm. Mayflies hatch on the water and drift on the breeze, but no trout rise.  I rig up anyway and cast a dry fly, a bit of fur and feathers resembling natural bugs that trout eat. I cast for hours. Nothing.  Hope springs, so I tie on fly after oddball fly. Beadhead stone nymphs, partridge-and-orange wets, zonker streamers that mimic baitfish. If I had a Rat-Faced McDougal, I would throw it.  Nothing. The fish have lockjaw.  ___Out here in the woods, there is at least one reminder of the virus: This river is on a local airport’s approach path. Normally, commuter planes and military transports sometimes break the spell. Now the skies are still, no contrails, only mare’s tails.  ___It’s evening, the breeze has died. Mayflies fill the amber air.The river has pitched a shutout. The wise angler says catching trout is icing on the cake – the river is joy enough. Fact is, getting skunked hurts.  I break down my rod, kick off my waders.  I hear the sound my ears have been tuned for: a trout sipping mayflies.  I spot the rings of the rise that blossom in the evening current. The fish rises again. Shivering, I pull clammy waders back on, re-string my rod, knot on a fly.  ___I get into casting position, one suspender trailing, cold water slopping over my waders.  My achy shoulder balks. The line snags a branch and the fly snaps off. I grumble, tie on another.  I get a drift over the rise and this time the trout inhales. My brain catches fire.  The rod comes alive, the reel ratchets and the fish dives. It leaps, droplets spray.  I gain line and the trout tires. I net it.  It’s a wild brown, maybe 15 inches, silver sides flecked with black specks and faint red embers. I snap a photo and release it to become part of the river again.  A few more trout rise. I wade to shore and listen as I pack up at dark. All around, day creatures find shelter as night creatures stir. A beaver glides to its lodge. Wood ducks wing to nest. An owl calls, “who-cooks-for-you.” The current whispers.  That’s the river hymn. 
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The pandemic has kept many people quarantined at home with family and pets for weeks. A grassroots photography initiative called the Front Steps Project has inspired hundreds of photographers to document people in front of their homes during this extraordinary time. Matt Dibble follows one photographer connecting with neighbors in Oakland, California.
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The National Football League has announced its 2020 schedule and is already touting some matchups as “must-see” contests between Super Bowl contenders.But the country’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, is cautioning sports-hungry fans not to be overly eager.”The virus will make the decision for us,” Fauci told NBC-TV sports. “I think it’s feasible that negative testing players could play to an empty stadium.” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, April 17, 2020, in Washington.Fauci said the coronavirus is unpredictable, and there is no guarantee the NFL or any sports league will be able to resume normal play.  “Even if the virus goes down dramatically in June, July and August, as the virus starts returning in the fall, it would be in my mind, shame on us if we don’t have in place all of the mechanisms to prevent it from blowing up again,” Fauci said, adding that players and fans will “have to play it by ear” whether there will be a full NFL season this year. “If you really want to be absolutely certain, you’d test all the players before the game. … To be 100% sure, you’ve got to test every day. But that’s not practical, and that’s never going to happen.” All major U.S. sports leagues that play in the spring — basketball, hockey, soccer and baseball — have suspended their games, frustrating fans, players and especially those who work in and around stadiums. The Associated Press reports that Major League Baseball owners have approved a plan for a shortened season that would start the first week in July. The games would be played without fans, but the league hopes that restriction would be gradually lifted depending on cities and counties. The season would be 81 games instead of the usual 162. The annual All-Star Game would be canceled, but the playoffs would be extended. The MLB Players Association would have to approve the plan if it were to take effect. 
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Thousands of visitors in face masks Monday streamed into the Shanghai Disney Resort, the first of the Disney theme parks to reopen since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Disney is taking precautions to protect visitors and prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The number of visitors is limited. Face masks are required, and temperatures are checked at the gate.  Guests are also required to show government-issued identification and use a smartphone app issued by the Shanghai city government that tracks their health and contacts with anyone who might have been exposed to the virus. Andrew Bolstein, senior vice president of Disney operations in Shanghai, says maintaining social distance has been a high priority in the park. They have added markers to show guests where to stand, as well as where not to — outside restaurants, shops and all attractions, anywhere people will congregate. Visitors line up following social distancing markers at Shanghai Disney Resort as the Shanghai Disneyland theme park reopens following a shutdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak, in Shanghai, China, May 11, 2020.China, where the coronavirus was first detected in December, was the first country to reopen factories and other businesses after declaring the disease under control in March, even as infections rose and controls were tightened in other countries. Tourism was hit especially hard by restrictions imposed around the world that shut down airline and cruise ship travel, theme parks and cinemas.  Disney’s latest quarterly profit fell 91%, and the company said virus-related costs cut pretax profit by $1.4 billion.  Shanghai Disneyland and Disney’s park in Hong Kong closed in late January, as China isolated millions of people to try to contain the virus outbreak. Tokyo Disneyland closed in February, and parks in the United States and Europe closed in March. Headquartered in Burbank, California, Disney has yet to set a date for reopening its other parks worldwide.  
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Movie theaters have shut their doors to the public due to Covid -19. To offset lost revenues, some have teamed with distribution companies and created online platforms where viewers can watch new releases virtually. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with a distributor and a theater manager about the new viewing model
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Comedy star of stage, film and television Jerry Stiller has died at the age of 92.His son, actor Ben Stiller, said he died early Monday of natural causes.Stiller became famous in the 1960s as he teamed with wife Anne Meara in films, stage productions, commercials, and television programs, including the “Ed Sullivan Show.”He found renewed fame in the 1990s playing the cranky, loud Frank Costanza on the TV show “Seinfeld.”  He won his only Emmy award for the role.Stiller’s career also included roles in Broadway shows “The Ritz” and “Hurlyburly,” as well as hit movies “Hairspray” and “Zoolander.”  
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The coronavirus has revived a hairstyle in East Africa, one with braided spikes that echo the virus’ distinctive shape.  The style’s growing popularity is in part due to economic hardships linked to virus restrictions — it’s cheap, mothers say — and to the goal of spreading awareness that the coronavirus is real.The hairstyle had gone out of fashion in recent years as imported real and synthetic hair from India, China and Brazil began to flood the market and demand by local women increased. Pictures of the flowing or braided imported styles are tacked up in beauty salons across much of Africa.  But now, in a makeshift salon beside a busy road in Kibera, a slum in the heart of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, 24-year-old hairdresser Sharon Refa braids young girls’ hair into the antennae-like spikes that people call the “coronavirus hairstyle.” Girls shift in the plastic chairs as she tugs at their scalps.”Some grown-ups don’t believe that the coronavirus is real, but then most young children appear keen to sanitize their hands and wear masks. So many adults do not do this, and that is why we came up with the corona hairstyle,” Refa said, her face mask tucked under her chin.Kenya’s number of confirmed virus cases was nearing 700 as of Monday. With the widespread shortage of testing materials, however, the real number of cases could be higher. Health officials are especially worried about the possible spread of the virus in crowded slums.Mothers like Margaret Andeya, who is struggling to make ends meet, said the coronavirus hairstyle suits her daughters’ styling needs and her pocket. Virus-related restrictions have stifled the daily work for millions of people with little or no savings.  “This hairstyle is much more affordable for people like me who cannot afford to pay for the more expensive hairstyles out there and yet we want our kids to look stylish,” Andeya said.It costs 50 shillings, or about 50 U.S. cents, to get the braids while the average hairdo costs 300 to 500 shillings ($3 to $5). That’s money most people in Kibera cannot afford at the moment.  The technique used in braiding the coronavirus hairstyle is threading, which uses yarn instead of synthetic hair braids. This is the secret to making it affordable, residents said.”COVID-19 has destroyed the economy, taken our jobs from us, and now money is scarce. I therefore decided to have my child’s hair done up like this at an affordable 50 shillings, and she looks good,” said 26-year-old Mariam Rashid.  “The hairstyle also helps in communicating with the public about the virus.” 
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This is a story about books in an unlikely place, and their struggle to get into the hands of people during a national lockdown. South Africa’s eased lockdown means books are finally available for sale again, but in the nation’s biggest city, with its reputation for speed and hustle, do people care? VOA’s Anita Powell takes us on a literary journey through the unlikeliest of literary towns: Johannesburg.
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The National Football League has time on its side as the sports world prepares to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and will use some it to observe German soccer’s Bundesliga as a potential blueprint on how to deal with the outbreak.The NFL, which is due to kick off on Sept. 10 and has not yet seen its schedule affected by the novel coronavirus, is paying close attention to protocols other leagues, particularly the Bundesliga, are putting in place in a bid to restart play, according to a report in Newsday.The top-flight Bundesliga season will restart on May 16, making it the first European league to resume amid the pandemic that has infected more than 3.95 million people globally and killed more than 270,000.”We’ve been in contact with all domestic leagues, but also sports organizations around the world,” Brian McCarthy, the NFL’s vice president of communications, told Newsday.“We have a number of protocols, see what works, see what can translate into our sport.”We’re all in the sports business, but every sport has its own matters to attend to.”Germany’s top flight will resume under strict health protocols, with no fans allowed in stadiums.All teams have had to go into a seven-day training camp in complete isolation with players tested before their inclusion in the camps to reduce the risk of any infection.About 300 people, including players, staff and officials, will be in and around the stadiums during matchdays.The NFL unveiled its 2020 schedule on Thursday with the expectation of playing games with fans in the stadiums but is approaching the season with some caution.League commissioner Roger Goodell has informed teams they will be required to have a ticket refund policy in place for canceled or disrupted games.McCarthy told Newsday: “We’re looking at what we can adopt, what we can modify that is working in other sports, sharing best practices.”
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Treats made and delivered by neighbors. Fresh garden plantings dug from a safe 6 feet away. Trips around the world set up room-to-room at home.Mother’s Day this year is a mix of love and extra imagination as families do without their usual brunches and huggy meet-ups.As the pandemic persists in keeping families indoors or a safe social distance apart, online searches have increased for creative ways to still make moms feel special.Absent help from schools and babysitters, uninitiated dads are on homemade craft duty with the kids. Other loved ones are navigating around no-visitor rules at hospitals and senior-living facilities.Some medical facilities are pitching in by collecting voice and video recordings from locked-out relatives when patients are unable to manage the technology on their own.In suburban St. Louis, Steve Turner and his family hope to FaceTime with his 96-year-old mother, Beverly, but they plan something more, too. Her birthday coincides with Mother’s Day this year.”We’re going to create a big Mother’s Day-birthday banner signed by the kids and grandkids who live here,” Turner said. “She loves butterflies and we’ll draw some on. We’re working with the home to find a place where we can stand outside a window so she can see us.”Anna Francese Gass in New Canaan, Connecticut, is hunkered down with her husband and three children and will enjoy her usual Mother’s Day breakfast in bed of rubbery eggs, slightly burnt toast and VERY milky coffee. But the day won’t include her own mom, who lives nearby.”I ordered a bunch of daffodil and tulip bulbs online, and me and the kids are planning to plant them in her flowerbed. She can supervise from the window. I just know it will put a huge smile on her face,” Francese Gass said.In Alameda, California, 23-year-old Zaria Zinn is sheltering at home with her parents and younger sister. Knowing how much their mother loves and misses traveling, they’re turning their house and neighborhood into a trip around the world with help from decorations and virtual tours online.”We made a DIY passport for her and we’re creating stamps for each location,” she said.Their itinerary: Machu Picchu, Paris and Iceland, with some DIY spa time and a Hollywood-style movie night.Making the most of Mother’s Day in isolation is top of mind for Google search users. The company said the term “Mother’s Day gifts during quarantine” recently spiked by 600% in the U.S. Among Pinterest’s 335 million users, searches for “Mother’s Day at home” have jumped by 2,971%, the company said.In Rochester, New York, Melissa Mueller-Douglas and her 7-year-old daughter, Nurah, had planned to get together with mom and daughter friends at a hotel for a Mother’s Day sleepover. When it was canceled because of the pandemic, they got busy on Pinterest searching for ideas to bring the party home, just the two of them.They have eye masks with rhinestones to decorate, thread for mother-daughter bracelets, instant film for a photo shoot and a chocolate fountain purchased at Walmart. Dad and Nurah’s 3-year-old brother will paint together downstairs after a mom-son bike ride earlier in the day.”We’ve repurposed a shimmery tablecloth and made giant flowers out of tissue paper for a photo shoot backdrop. We’ll be creating a secret handshake and writing in top secret journals to each other,” Mueller-Douglas said. “We’re calling it The Best Day Ever Slumber Party.”Kayla Hockman, 26, in Los Angeles has been worried about her 77-year-old grandmother in Fontana, California, about 50 miles away. Usually, she and her sister treat her and their mom to brunch or an adventure out.”My grandma’s been quite depressed lately since she hasn’t left her house in two months, and she’s slowly losing hope,” Hockman said. “She and my grandpa have a lot of problems with walking now. This whole thing of not being able to see anyone has been really taking a hard toll on them.”To cheer her up, they’re planning a party on her lawn.”It’s going to be a surprise pop-up Mother’s Day brunch with momosas' and painting," Hockman said. "We're going to set it up for all of us to paint a sunflower, her absolute favorite. She'll paint on her porch and we'll be on the lawn, all 6 feet apart."Willie Greer in Memphis thought food, enlisting the help of a neighbor to make his mom's recipe for pecan pie and deliver it to her in Dallas to brighten her isolation Mother's Day. He said the neighbor was happy to do it after he sent her the recipe."My siblings and I will also create athank you’ video for mom. Since we can’t all be together, each of us will record a short message and at the end we’ll all sing `A Mother’s Love’ by Gena Hill,” he said. “I’m pretty sure this is the part where my mom cries her eyes out.”These days, virtual experiences are all we have, so Lisa Hill in Portland, Oregon, decided to embrace that notion for her 79-year-old mom in Stuart, Florida, after she met a cooking instructor while volunteering to prepare meals at a shelter.Hill has been cooking alongside Lauren Chandler, who has taken her usual in-home cooking sessions online with a twist: She’s throwing in a free 45-minute session for clients to donate.”I feel so far away from her. I can’t cook for her. I can’t visit,” Hill said. “She’s nervous about everything going on right now and it will be a good social interaction.” 
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Stone by stone, digital artists and game developers from Mosul are rebuilding Nineveh’s heritage sites in the digital world.By looking through a virtual reality headset, a person can see the wonders of ancient Iraq. Via VR, it’s possible to fly over Nergal Gate, built 2,700 years ago, and see two winged bulls at its entrance.”Since we started the virtual reality lab, we tried to focus on Mosul’s archaeological sites,” said project co-ordinator Moyasser Nasseer. “It is an opportunity for people to discover archaeological sites that still exist as well as sites recently destroyed by Daesh (Islamic State) when they occupied Mosul.”QAF Media Lab designers want to create an immersive game, in which players solve mysteries to discover Nineveh’s heritage sites. They hope it might also draw tourists. (Reuters video screenshot)Nineveh was an Assyrian city in ancient Mesopotamia. It’s around where modern-day Mosul is located in northern Iraq.The designers want to create an immersive game in which players solve mysteries to discover Nineveh’s heritage sites. They hope it might draw tourists to an area recovering from recent conflicts, said artist Basma Qais.”First of all, we want to redefine the national identity of people living in Mosul, encourage tourism and also have people reconsider their perception of Mosul, especially those who don’t know Mosul,” she said.To build the 3-D models of Nineveh, the team from QAF Media Lab collected data from sites that still exist today. They also used archive material to rebuild sites damaged over the centuries, or more recently by Islamic State.With the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis and the boom of the online entertainment industry, the market for virtual reality games is expanding. People under lockdown enjoy being able to travel at least virtually, while students and researchers get access to the project data online, Nasseer said.
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Little Richard, the self-proclaimed “architect of rock n' roll" whose piercing wail, pounding piano and towering pompadour irrevocably altered popular music while introducing black R&B to white America, has died Saturday. He was 87.Pastor Bill Minson, a close friend of Little Richard's, told The Associated Press that Little Richard died Saturday morning. Minson said he also spoke to Little Richard's son and brother.Minson added that the family is not releasing the cause of death.Born Richard Penniman, Little Richard was one of rockn’ roll’s founding fathers who helped shatter the color line on the music charts, joining Chuck Berry and Fats Domino in bringing what was once called “race music” into the mainstream. Richard’s hyperkinetic piano playing, coupled with his howling vocals and hairdo, made him an implausible sensation — a gay, black man celebrated across America during the buttoned-down Eisenhower era.He sold more than 30 million records worldwide, and his influence on other musicians was equally staggering, from the Beatles and Otis Redding to Creedence Clearwater Revival and David Bowie. In his personal life, he wavered between raunch and religion, alternately embracing the Good Book and outrageous behavior.”Little Richard? That’s rock n' roll," Neil Young, who heard Richard's riffs on the radio in Canada, told biographer Jimmy McDonough. "Little Richard was great on every record."It was 1956 when his classic "Tutti Frutti" landed like a hand grenade in the Top 40, exploding from radios and off turntables across the country. It was highlighted by Richard's memorable call of "wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-lop-bam-boom."A string of hits followed, providing the foundation of rock music: "Lucille," "Keep A Knockin'," "Long Tall Sally," "Good Golly Miss Molly." More than 40 years after the latter charted, Bruce Springsteen was still performing "Good Golly Miss Molly" live.
The Beatles' Paul McCartney imitated Richard's signature yelps — perhaps most notably in the "Wooooo!" from the hit "She Loves You." Ex-bandmate John Lennon covered Richard's "Rip It Up" and "Ready Teddy" on the 1975 "Rock and Roll" album.
When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opened in 1986, he was among the charter members with Elvis Presley, Berry, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Sam Cooke and others.Few were quicker to acknowledge Little Richard's seminal role than Richard himself. The flamboyant singer claimed he paved the way for Elvis, provided Mick Jagger with his stage moves and conducted vocal lessons for McCartney."I am the architect of rockn’ roll!” Little Richard crowed at the 1988 Grammy Awards as the crowd rose in a standing ovation. “I am the originator!”Richard Wayne Penniman was born in Macon, Georgia, during the Great Depression, one of 12 children. He was ostracized because he was effeminate and suffered a small deformity: his right leg was shorter than his left.The family was religious, and Richard sang in local churches with a group called the Tiny Tots. The tug-of-war between his upbringing and rock `n’ roll excess tormented Penniman throughout his career.Penniman was performing with bands by the age of 14, but there were problems at home over his sexual orientation. His father beat the boy and derided him as “half a son.”
Richard left home to join a minstrel show run by a man known as Sugarloaf Sam, occasionally appearing in drag.In late 1955, Little Richard recorded the bawdy “Tutti Frutti,” with lyrics that were sanitized by a New Orleans songwriter. It went on to sell 1 million records over the next year.When Little Richard’s hit was banned by many white-owned radio stations, white performers like Pat Boone and Elvis Presley did cover versions that topped the charts.Little Richard went Hollywood with an appearance in “Don’t Knock the Rock.” But his wild lifestyle remained at odds with his faith, and a conflicted Richard quit the business in 1957 to enroll in a theological school and get married.Richard remained on the charts when his label released previously recorded material. And he recorded a gospel record, returning to his roots.A 1962 arrest for a homosexual encounter in a bus station restroom led to his divorce and return to performing.He mounted three tours of England between 1962 and 1964, with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones serving as opening acts. Back in the States, he put together a band that included guitarist Jimi Hendrix — and later fired Hendrix when he was late for a bus.
In 1968, Richard hit Las Vegas and relaunched his career. Within two years, he had another hit single and made the cover of Rolling Stone.By the mid-1970s, Richard was battling a $1,000-a-day cocaine problem and once again abandoned his musical career. He returned to religion, selling Bibles and renouncing homosexuality. For more than a decade, he vanished.”If God can save an old homosexual like me, he can save anybody,” Richard said.
But he returned, in 1986, in spectacular fashion. Little Richard was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and appeared in the movie “Down and Out in Beverly Hills.”A Little Richard song from the soundtrack, “Great Gosh A’Mighty,” even put him back on the charts for the first time in more than 15 years. Little Richard was back to stay, enjoying another dose of celebrity that he fully embraced.Macon, Georgia, named a street after its favorite son. And Little Richard was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In August 2002, he announced his retirement from live performing. But he continued to appear frequently on television, including a humorous appearance on a 2006 commercial for GEICO insurance.Richard had hip surgery in November 2009 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, and asked fans at the time to pray for him. He lived in the Nashville area at the time. 
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The U.N. Security Council reflected Friday on the lessons learned from World War II on the 75th anniversary of its end in Europe, as the world faces its biggest collective challenge since then — the coronavirus.“How we react to the new challenge before us — the COVID-19 pandemic — could be as significant as how the world rebuilt after fascism was vanquished,” U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo told a virtual meeting of more than 80 nations, including nearly 50 foreign ministers, organized by Estonia, which presides over the Security Council this month.The end of six brutal years of war, massive death and destruction in Europe marked a turning point. From the devastation, the European Union, the United Nations and NATO were born, along with a new world order. The European High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell attends a video conference with Europeans Foreign Ministers in Brussels, Belgium, April 22, 2020. 
“COVID-19 is a test of our humanity, but also of the multilateral system itself,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said of the disease caused by the coronavirus. “The rules-based international order — with the U.N. at its core — must be upheld and strengthened.”He expressed concern that the pandemic has rattled societies and exposed vulnerable nations to great peril.“It has the potential to deepen existing conflicts and generate new geopolitical tensions,” Borrell said. “It is a reminder that peace, democracy and prosperity must constantly be nurtured, expanded and made more inclusive.”Several diplomats warned that, 75 years after World War II, some of the characteristics that marked Nazi Germany are reemerging on the world stage.“The voices of populism, authoritarianism, nationalism and xenophobia are making themselves heard ever more loudly,” the U.N.’s DiCarlo said. “We must confront those who would drag the world back to a violent and shameful past.”Germany, which was an aggressor in World War II and is now a leading nation on the European and international stage, also expressed concern about rising nationalism.German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas addresses the media at the Foreign Ministry in Berlin on March 17, 2020, to comment on the situation concerning the spread of the novel coronavirus. (Photo by Tobias Schwarz / AFP)“In Germany, we have a saying: ‘He who closes his eyes to the past will be blind to the present,’ ” Foreign Minster Heiko Maas said. He urged political support for international institutions and multilateralism, and threw his government’s support behind the U.N. chief’s call for a global humanitarian cease-fire.On March 23, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the cease-fire to focus attention and resources on fighting the virus. Dozens of nations and at least 16 armed groups have signed on, but so far, the 15-nation Security Council has been unable to adopt a resolution supporting the truce.The United States, which accuses Beijing of lying and covering up the spread of the coronavirus early on, has butted heads with China at the Security Council over the language in the draft resolution.The Trump administration has blasted the World Health Organization for what it says is a bias favoring China and has suspended funding to the agency. Washington wants a reference to supporting the WHO in the fight against COVID-19 removed from the draft resolution. China wants it to remain.In this file photo taken on Feb. 8, 2020, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference at the African Union headquarters.France and Tunisia, which drafted the text, thought they found a way around it, changing the WHO reference to “specialized health agencies” of the United Nations — of which there is just one. Washington rejected that on Friday afternoon, ending yet another week without support from the U.N.’s most powerful body for Guterres’ now seven-week-old appeal.The feud between the two powers has frustrated diplomats who want to see strong support from the council for a global cease-fire, but fear the foot-dragging will further corrode the council’s credibility, which has found itself paralyzed on other important crises, including the war in Syria.Council resolutions require nine votes in favor and no vetoes from the five permanent members, which include China and the United States, to pass.
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If DNA is destiny, it took an unexpected turn when the grandson of legendary World War II commander General Claire Lee Chennault was growing up.General Claire Lee Chennault (1890-1958), who commanded the legendary Flying Tigers and later the 14th Air Force in China, landed on the covers of Time and Life magazines during WWII. (U.S. Air Force)New York-based jazz musician Paul Sikivie says he was brought up with “a sense of awe” regarding his grandfather, one of the most storied commanders in the Asia theater during that war. But “he belonged to the world at large and not so much to me.” Sikivie is one of two grandsons of Chennault and his second wife, Anna. His mother is a noted medieval Chinese literature specialist, his father a Belgian-American physicist. “I wanted to be a geneticist for a while after ‘Jurassic Park’ was made into a movie; I never thought about Chinese language and literature as something for me,” Sikivie, now 37, recalled as he looked back on his childhood aspirations. By age 14, Sikivie knew he wanted to be a musician. Four years later, he knew his calling was jazz. “St. Thomas by Sonny Rollins came on NPR and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing,” he said of jazz’s enduring appeal. Paul Sikivie plays the bass alongside vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant at a memorial concert for Lawrence Leathers held on Feb. 3, 2020, at Dizzy’s Club at Lincoln Center. (Frank. Stewart/Jazz at Lincoln Center)Would that have made sense to his grandfather, who landed on the covers of Life and Paul Sikivie, right, in a family photo with his parents, Pierre Sikivie and Cynthia Chennault, brother Michael, and grandmother Anna Chennault, in an undated photo. (Photo provided by Cynthia L. Chennault)Perhaps his grandfather would also understand the notion of the “band of brothers” that has also been central to Sikivie’s journey as a musician. Lawrence Leathers, a noted drummer on the New York jazz scene, was one of them.  Leathers, who died last year, “was like a brother to me. I learned a lot about being present and always reaching for the next level from being around him and playing music with him,” Sikivie said. Sikivie, Leathers and pianist Aaron Diehl often played as a band, traveling both in the United States and other parts of the world — including China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, where General Chennault had once set foot. Looking toward the future, the jazz bassist said, “I am continuing to learn how to organize my thoughts, feelings, values into music; there’s really no limit to the ways [in which] this can be accomplished.” 
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The U.N. Security Council reflected Friday on the lessons learned from World War II on the 75th anniversary of its end in Europe, as the world faces its biggest collective challenge since then — the coronavirus.“How we react to the new challenge before us — the COVID-19 pandemic — could be as significant as how the world rebuilt after fascism was vanquished,” U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo told a virtual meeting of more than 80 nations, including nearly 50 foreign ministers, organized by Estonia, which presides over the Security Council this month.The end of six brutal years of war, massive death and destruction in Europe marked a turning point. From the devastation, the European Union, the United Nations and NATO were born, along with a new world order. The European High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell attends a video conference with Europeans Foreign Ministers in Brussels, Belgium, April 22, 2020. 
“COVID-19 is a test of our humanity, but also of the multilateral system itself,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said of the disease caused by the coronavirus. “The rules-based international order — with the U.N. at its core — must be upheld and strengthened.”He expressed concern that the pandemic has rattled societies and exposed vulnerable nations to great peril.“It has the potential to deepen existing conflicts and generate new geopolitical tensions,” Borrell said. “It is a reminder that peace, democracy and prosperity must constantly be nurtured, expanded and made more inclusive.”Several diplomats warned that, 75 years after World War II, some of the characteristics that marked Nazi Germany are reemerging on the world stage.“The voices of populism, authoritarianism, nationalism and xenophobia are making themselves heard ever more loudly,” the U.N.’s DiCarlo said. “We must confront those who would drag the world back to a violent and shameful past.”Germany, which was an aggressor in World War II and is now a leading nation on the European and international stage, also expressed concern about rising nationalism.German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas addresses the media at the Foreign Ministry in Berlin on March 17, 2020, to comment on the situation concerning the spread of the novel coronavirus. (Photo by Tobias Schwarz / AFP)“In Germany, we have a saying: ‘He who closes his eyes to the past will be blind to the present,’ ” Foreign Minster Heiko Maas said. He urged political support for international institutions and multilateralism, and threw his government’s support behind the U.N. chief’s call for a global humanitarian cease-fire.On March 23, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the cease-fire to focus attention and resources on fighting the virus. Dozens of nations and at least 16 armed groups have signed on, but so far, the 15-nation Security Council has been unable to adopt a resolution supporting the truce.The United States, which accuses Beijing of lying and covering up the spread of the coronavirus early on, has butted heads with China at the Security Council over the language in the draft resolution.The Trump administration has blasted the World Health Organization for what it says is a bias favoring China and has suspended funding to the agency. Washington wants a reference to supporting the WHO in the fight against COVID-19 removed from the draft resolution. China wants it to remain.In this file photo taken on Feb. 8, 2020, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference at the African Union headquarters.France and Tunisia, which drafted the text, thought they found a way around it, changing the WHO reference to “specialized health agencies” of the United Nations — of which there is just one. Washington rejected that on Friday afternoon, ending yet another week without support from the U.N.’s most powerful body for Guterres’ now seven-week-old appeal.The feud between the two powers has frustrated diplomats who want to see strong support from the council for a global cease-fire, but fear the foot-dragging will further corrode the council’s credibility, which has found itself paralyzed on other important crises, including the war in Syria.Council resolutions require nine votes in favor and no vetoes from the five permanent members, which include China and the United States, to pass.
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While the White House looks ahead to reopening houses of worship, most Americans think in-person religious services should be barred or allowed only with limits during the coronavirus pandemic — and only about a third say that prohibiting in-person services violates religious freedom, a new poll finds.
The survey by the Center for Public Affairs Research suggests that, even as President Donald Trump projects eagerness to reopen, many religious Americans are fine with waiting longer to return to their churches, synagogues and mosques.
Among that group is 54-year-old Andre Harris of Chicago, a onetime Sunday school teacher who has shifted his routine from physical worship to the conference calls his church is holding during the pandemic.
Harris, a Methodist, said that until “either there’s a vaccine, or if we know that things have calmed down, I am not comfortable going back to the actual building.”
Just 9% of Americans think in-person religious services should be permitted without restrictions, while 42% think they should be allowed with restrictions and 48% think they should not be allowed at all, the poll shows. Even among Americans who identify with a religion, 45% say in-person services shouldn’t be allowed at all.
White evangelical Protestants, however, are particularly likely to think that in-person services should be allowed in some form, with just 35% saying they should be completely prohibited. Close to half – 46% — also say they think prohibiting those services violates religious freedom.
That constituency’s support for some form of in-person worship underscores the political importance of Trump’s public calls to restore religious gatherings as a symbol of national recovery from the virus, as energizing evangelical voters remains a key element of the president’s reelection strategy. Trump won praise from some evangelical leaders for citing the aspirational ideal of “packed churches” on Easter during the first weeks of the pandemic, though his goal didn’t materialize on Christianity’s holiest day.
Trump has since consulted with religious leaders on a phased-in return to in-person worship.
“It’s wonderful to watch people over a laptop, but it’s not like being at a church,” Trump said during a Fox News town hall on Sunday. “And we have to get our people back to churches, and we’re going to start doing it soon.”
Vice President Mike Pence is set to meet with faith leaders Friday in Iowa to talk about their reopening of worship. Iowa is one of several states, including Tennessee and Montana, where restrictions on in-person services are starting to ease as stay-home orders imposed to stop the virus run their course.
That’s in line with the preference of Patrick Gideons, 63, of Alvin, Texas, who said worshipers “should be able to do what they want.”
“If they want to be able to hold church the way they normally do, they should be able to do that,” said Gideons, a self-described born-again Baptist.
As houses of worship wrestle with when to reopen, draft guidance by a team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that offered recommendations for faith gatherings has been shelved by the Trump administration. While those guidelines aimed to help religious organizations use best practices to protect people from the virus, leaders in various denominations have already initiated their own internal discussions.
“Churches are very aware of the implications of people gathering in their buildings,” Kenneth Carter, president of the United Methodist Church’s Council of Bishops, said in a recent interview about the draft CDC guidance.
Compared with in-person religious services, Americans are more likely to favor allowing drive-through services, although most still say there should be limits. Overall, 25% think that those services should be allowed without any limits, and 62% say they should be allowed with limits.  
The Justice Department last month sided with a Mississippi church in its legal challenge to local limits on drive-in worship. Still, the poll found 56% of Americans say prohibiting drive-in services does not violate religious freedom.  
White evangelical Protestants were more likely than those of other faiths to favor allowing drive-through services without restriction, at 40%. In total, those who identify with a religious faith are more likely than those who do not to favor no restriction on drive-through religious services, 28% to 15%.  
As many houses of worship have paused in-person services during the virus, a sizable share of religious Americans have used technology to connect with their faith. One-fifth of religious Americans said they watched live streaming religious services online at least weekly in 2019 — but since the outbreak began, that has risen to 33%.  
About a third of evangelical Protestants streamed services at least weekly in 2019, but about half do now. Among Catholics, the share streaming services weekly has increased from 11% to 22%.
For members of the Southern Baptist Convention, when and how to resume in-person worship “would be a congregation-by-congregation decision,” Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said in a recent interview about the draft CDC guidance.
Moore predicted that some virtual worship would continue even as different areas transition back to in-person gatherings. Part of his work in offering resources to inform decisions, Moore said, involves “preparing churches for the fact that reopening probably won’t be one Sunday when everything goes back to the status quo.”
“Instead, there’s going to be probably a lengthy period of time where multiple things are happening at once,” Moore said.
 
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Mandopop superstar Jay Chou is bringing a little magic into viewers’ lives with his Netflix show “J-Style Trip.”  
Part travelogue, part magic performance, the show has Chou diving into adventures around the world with his A-lister friends.  
“Magic is actually like music. It is a universal language,” Chou told The Associated Press in Taiwan recently.  
Chou and his friends take their magic tricks everywhere – from Pompidou in Paris to a local food court in Singapore – taking homebound viewers on virtual trips amid pandemic shutdowns.
 
“I wanted to show the warmness and friendliness of people around the world, and how people connect with each other in different ways,” Chou said.  
Each episode features a special guest like Taiwanese singer Jam Hsiao, Singaporean singer Wayne Lim Junjie, better known as JJ Lin, and classical pianist Lang Lang.  
Chou’s especially excited about Lang Lang’s upcoming appearance. “Lang Lang, in fact, is a very humorous and really fun person,” Chou said of the classical superstar who has a whopping 15 million followers on his social media.  
He couldn’t resist giving a sneak peek, revealing that Lang Lang will show up in hip-hop attire and fake mustache to surprise people.
 
Meanwhile, the singer-songwriter has another surprise in stored for his fans.  
“I haven’t released any albums for a very long time. That’s because I have been spending more time with my family,” said Chou, who got married in 2015 and has two children.  
Chou recently updated his Instagram with a picture of a piano painting by German artist Albert Oehlen.  
“I’ve started producing,” the caption said, with a piano emoji. Chou confirmed that he’s working on new songs. “I know my fans are excited. Seems like everyone’s been waiting for a long time,” Chou said.  
“Many people think my past songs are great and can’t be surpassed,” Chou said. He thinks his songs, albeit similar in some ways, cannot be compared because people project their own “memories” to each track.  
With more than 10 albums, Chou, who describes himself as “workaholic,” is still leveling up.  
“I always feel like only I can outperform myself!” 
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The Bundesliga soccer season will resume on May 16 in empty stadiums, picking up right where it left off two months ago amid the coronavirus pandemic.Thursday’s announcement comes one day after clubs were told the season could restart following a meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country’s 16 state governors.”Everyone has to be clear. We’re playing on probation,” German soccer league managing director Christian Seifert said. “I expect everyone to live up to this responsibility. Our concept is designed to catch infections early.”Seifert said the return of soccer was because of the success the country’s leaders and health officials have had in response to the outbreak.Germany has had a high number of COVID-19 infections — nearly 170,000 by Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University — with about 7,000 deaths, a lower number compared to elsewhere.The country’s relative success in combating the virus has been attributed to early testing, a robust health service and strict lockdown measures that are now being loosened.”That we’re allowed to play again boils down to German politics for managing this crisis, and the health system in Germany,” Seifert said. “If I were to name the number of tests that I was asked about in teleconferences with other professional leagues, with American professional leagues, with clubs from the NFL, the NHL, Major League Baseball and others, and I tell them how many tests are possible in Germany, they generally check, or there’s silence, because it’s just unimaginable in the situation over there.”Only about a third of Germany’s massive testing capacity of almost 1 million a week is being currently used, said Lars Schaade, the deputy head of the Robert Koch Institute.Seifert said the season will restart with the 26th round of games, including the Ruhr derby between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke on the opening Saturday. That match will test local authorities who hope to keep groups of fans from gathering around the stadium or at bars to watch on television.Pay-TV broadcaster Sky said it will show all games on the first two weekends for free in Germany.Seifert, who was speaking in Frankfurt after a video conference with members from each club, warned that everyone involved will need to maintain strict hygiene measures to ensure another suspension will not be necessary.The Bundesliga was suspended on March 13 with nine rounds remaining. Seifert said the last round is now planned for the weekend of June 27-28. He said the second division will also begin on May 16.”The decision means economic survival for some clubs,” Seifert said.Seifert said there have been 10 positive cases of COVID-19 in the first two waves of tests among the 36 professional clubs, with another two positive cases found in a third wave.It was initially planned that teams would spend two weeks in quarantine before games could resume, but a compromise on shorter training camps in isolation for each team was reached because players have been undergoing regular tests.Seifert said a decision on whether to temporarily allow five substitutions per match depends on FIFA rules. FIFA made the proposal to help players cope with game congestion but it is still subject to approval from the International Football Association Board, soccer’s law-making body.
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Photographers and models typically go from one photo shoot to another. COVID-19 pandemic restrictions are making their jobs challenging, but just like thousands of people around the world, they are finding a way to work. Iacopo Luzi reports in this piece adapted by Cristina Smit.
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Dancer and choreographer Nicolas Maloufi has not worked since France went into lockdown in mid-March, and his daily yoga sessions in a borrowed Paris apartment are his only form of training.  Although France will begin easing its unprecedented curbs on public life from Monday, with shops re-opening and some pupils returning to primary school, the doors to the country’s cinemas, theaters and concert halls will remain closed.   For Maloufi, 49, who has collaborated with venues including the Philharmonie de Paris and the Etoile du Nord theater, that means his productions are on hold. Nor is it easy to line up any more projects.   “I’m waiting for responses from about 20 bookers who are not available. I don’t dare chase them, it’s almost indecent given how many things they have to handle,” he told Reuters.   Maloufi is among those in France’s creative industry known as “intermittents” — the dancers, singers, comedians and technicians who work from gig to gig and receive state stipends to help cover costs between jobs if they work at least 507 hours per year.  French President Emmanuel Macron, wearing a protective face mask, speaks with schoolchildren during a class at the Pierre Ronsard elementary school, May 5 2020 in Poissy, outside Paris.With the entertainment industry shut down by the virus, President Emmanuel Macron promised to guarantee their stipends, as well as money for filmmakers whose productions have been cancelled, as part of a wider bailout for the arts.   Maloufi said the stipends were a lifeline.  “We live a precarious existence,” he said.  Jean-Marc Dumontet owns several venues across Paris including the Bobino on Rue de la Gaite, a street in the Montparnasse district famous for its theaters. Singers including Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel and Amy Winehouse all performed there, but now its auditorium and dressing rooms are empty, its family-friendly program of comedy, circus and musical theatre halted.   Macron encouraged artists to think of new, more intimate ways of performing, but Dumontet said it was not clear how that would work in his 900-seater Bobino.  “It’s not easy when you’re at the helm of big ships like we are to imagine smaller formats, for the very simple reason that it wouldn’t be profitable,” he said.   Nonetheless, he welcomed Macron’s announcements. “Today it’s about trying to face down this very difficult time,” he said.  Others were less positive. Jean-Michel Ribes, the respected head of the Rond-Point theatre off the Champs Elysees, said he was irked by the president’s calls for the industry to “reinvent” itself.   Ribes said the 41 shows for his next season, due to start in September, were decided on 18 months in advance. Delaying shows now was a logistical nightmare, he said. 
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Atlanta’s new archbishop will be installed Wednesday in a socially-distant Mass, adapting some Catholic traditions in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Inside the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta, a small number of priests will look on from a choir loft, while a handful of others in attendance will be seated strategically in the church’s main nave, well away from the altar, Deacon Dennis Dorner said.
And instead of hugs, priests will applaud as Archbishop Gregory J. Hartmayer becomes the new leader of the Catholic Church in Atlanta.
“One of the challenges was just keeping the tradition but figuring out how to do that without having all the people there who are typically there,” said Maureen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Atlanta.
Typically, the cathedral would be packed for such an occasion. Guests would include Pope Francis’ representative, the papal nuncio, who would present Hartmayer with the papal bull, a document inscribed in Latin appointing Hartmayer to his post. Rather than traveling to Atlanta, the nuncio will appear by video for that portion of Wednesday’s service.
“We would typically have a full cathedral, a couple of hundred priests,” who would come up to the altar to greet the new archbishop. In the midst of a pandemic, “that’s just not going to happen,” Dorner said.
However, the Mass will be live-streamed for the faithful, and aired on the Catholic cable networks EWTN and The Catholic Television Network starting at 12:30 p.m.
“The end result will still be the same and wonderful,” Dorner said. “While we won’t have a full crowd in the cathedral, we’ll have a lot of people obviously watching the live-stream,” he said.
Pope Francis named Hartmayer, the bishop of Savannah, Georgia, since 2011, to the lead the Atlanta diocese in March.  
As a Conventual Franciscan, Hartmayer, 68, pledged to serve his vows of chastity, poverty and obedience in service to society. The Buffalo, New York, native worked as a guidance counselor, school director and teacher in Catholic schools in Baltimore, New York and Florida.
He replaces Archbishop Wilton Gregory, who took over in Washington, D.C., amid leadership changes in response to the global church’s sex abuse and cover-up scandals.
Hartmayer has held video calls with some of the priests and others he will be working with, and he’s been able to have some one-on-one, personal meetings.
“Fortunately he has a large conference room with a very long table, and they can separate from one another,” Dorner said. 
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Soccer players in Spain returned to their team’s training camps Wednesday for the first time since the country entered a lockdown nearly two months ago because of the coronavirus pandemic.Players for Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid and other clubs started preparing for the return to training this week. They were all expected to be tested for COVID-19 and should be cleared to practice once the results are back. Most clubs are expected to resume practicing by the end of the week.The majority of players did not wear masks or gloves when they arrived, according to Spanish media. Lionel Messi, Gerard Piqué and Luis Suárez were among those without masks when they drove into Barcelona’s training center. Antoine Griezmann, Arturo Vidal and Ivan Rakitic did wear masks. Sergi Roberto arrived without a mask but had one on when he left.Real Madrid players Gareth Bale, Luka Modric and Karim Benzema arrived without masks, as did most of their teammates.Atlético Madrid posted some photos of its players arriving for tests wearing gloves and masks.Our first team players continue to carry out tests before training resumes.➡ https://t.co/3aipyTKfkX🔴⚪ #AúpaAtletipic.twitter.com/GxXgU1tV9Z— Atlético de Madrid (@atletienglish) May 6, 2020In general, players didn’t stay long at the club facilities, usually less than 30 minutes.Coaches also went to training camps and were tested. Barcelona coach Quique Setién was wearing gloves and a mask when he arrived.The training centers of all clubs were disinfected over the last couple of days. In addition to the players, all members of the coaching staff and other employees involved in training have to be tested for COVID-19 before the practice sessions can resume.The league wants the clubs to test all players daily after they start training.Players will initially practice individually. Smaller group sessions and full squad sessions will be allowed in upcoming weeks. The league sent clubs a protocol with safety guidelines on how to return to practice, detailing all measures that the players and the clubs must adopt.The league wants a training period of about a month before it can restart. It hopes to resume sometime in June with games without fans.Spain this week began easing some of the lockdown measures that were put in place in mid-March. Soccer players have been among the few athletes allowed to return to training facilities.However, players and coaches of Spanish club Eibar released a statement on Tuesday saying they were concerned about playing again amid the pandemic.
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A California appeals court on Tuesday overturned most of a 2017 jury verdict awarding Quincy Jones $9.4 million in royalties and fees from the Michael Jackson estate over the use of Jones-produced Jackson hits in the concert film “This Is It” and two Cirque du Soleil shows.The state’s 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that the jury misinterpreted a contract that was the judge’s job to interpret anyway. It took away $6.9 million that jurors had said MJJ Productions owed Jones for his work on “Billie Jean,” “Thriller,” and more of Jackson’s biggest hits.The appeals court found that the jury wrongly granted Jones money from licensing fees, wrongly went beyond the 10% royalty rate Jones was owed for record sales, and incorrectly granted Jones money for remixes of Jackson’s master recordings.The court kept intact $2.5 million of the award, which Jones said he was owed for the use of his masters in “This Is It” and other fees.The court also rejected a counter-appeal from the 87-year-old Jones arguing that the trial court should have allowed him to make a claim of financial elder abuse.”While we disagree with portions of the Court’s decision and are evaluating our options going forward, we are pleased that the Court affirmed the jury’s determination that MJJP failed to pay Quincy Jones more than $2.5M that it owed him,” Jones’ attorney J. Michael Hennigan said in a statement.Jones, who was already a music business giant when he produced the classic Jackson albums “Off the Wall,” “Thriller” and “Bad,” had sought $30 million from the estate when he first filed the lawsuit in 2013.”Quincy Jones was the last person we thought would try to take advantage of Michael Jackson by filing a lawsuit three years after he died asking for tens of millions of dollars he wasn’t entitled to,” Jackson attorney Howard Weitzman said in a statement. “We knew the verdict was wrong when we heard it, and the court of appeal has completely vindicated us.”On the stand during the trial, Jones was asked by Weitzman whether he realized he was essentially suing Jackson himself.Jones angrily disagreed.”I’m not suing Michael,” he said. “I’m suing you all.”The trial centered on the definitions of terms in the two contracts Jackson and Jones signed in 1978 and 1985.Under the deals, for example, Jones is entitled to a share of net receipts from a “videoshow” of the songs. The Jackson attorneys argued that the term was meant to apply to music videos and not feature films like “This Is It.”The film was created from rehearsal footage for a comeback tour that Jackson was working toward when he died in 2009 at age 50.”So many people have tried to take advantage of Michael and mischaracterize him since his death,” Jackson estate co-executor John Branca said in a statement Tuesday. “It’s gratifying that in this case the court in an overwhelmingly favorable and just decision, recognizes that Michael Jackson was both an enormous talent and an extremely fair business executive.” 
 
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Danny Lin cruised his white sports car down Broadway, the bright lights of Times Square gleaming off his sharply detailed Audi R8. He looped through the tourist hotspot again and again, navigating around Corvettes, Mercedes, Mustangs and BMWs — a parade of high-priced vehicles gathered for a rare photo-op.”I never bring my car here,” said the 24-year-old from Queens. “Only for today, to get some cool shots.”From a star turn in “Taxi Driver” to the Naked Cowboy to the million people who crowd its streets on New Year’s Eve, the “Crossroads of the World” has for generations been an iconic New York backdrop in movies, culture and the arts. Now, Times Square has taken a turn toward Tokyo Drift, just without the “Fast and the Furious,” as car-loving New Yorkers flock to the barren streets of the theater district.Car mavens normally wouldn’t dare rev their engines in gridlocked Midtown, but they’re eagerly driving into Manhattan to take photos and show off for sparse crowds walking through the famed streets.  With the weather turning toward summer and restlessness settling in after six weeks of mandated social distancing, hundreds of automobile aficionados rolled down Broadway on Saturday night.”This is the only time we could come down here and take photos,” Lin said.  At least 100 pedestrians were wandering the area when the cars began roaring down Times Square’s main drag Saturday, along with dozens of motorcycles in one crew that created a deafening buzz. Police — some in cars, some on horseback — were mostly patient with the procession and only intervened if cars remained parked for too long.Some families with young children also drove through in minivans and SUVs, taking in Times Square as if touring neighborhood Christmas lights.Onlookers, mostly keeping six feet apart and wearing facemasks, cheered and took video from the sidewalks as suped-up cars and bikes went by.The area maintained some of its touristy quirks. A violinist with a glowing wand and blue hair played for tips, and a salsa-dancing couple put a camera phone on a tripod to record their performance. One woman wearing a leather leotard biked down Broadway a few times, cycling next to a giant van with a cameraman hanging out the passenger window to record as she sang and danced.By 11 p.m., sports cars were backed up for blocks along Broadway, and police closed the road from 47th Street down through Times Square, effectively ending the party.Car collectors have been driving into the area for weeks in smaller packs. Mike Hodurski and Steve Cruz brought their Chevrolet pickup trucks Wednesday night and took photos in front of a light-up American flag at the corner of Broadway and 43rd Street.  It was already Hodurski’s second trip to Midtown amid the outbreak. This time, the MTA bus driver brought a blue 1977 Chevy C10 pickup that he’d purchased earlier that day.”It’s a lot of fun. Might as well take advantage of it now, while nobody’s over here,” Hodurski said. “The streets are dead. You’d never get to see the streets like this. So we said, ‘You know what, screw it,’ and we all got together.”Hodurski is from Queens and Cruz from Brooklyn, and both said they usually avoid Times Square as much as possible — too many tourists and too much traffic. There was hardly anyone in the area when they cruised through Wednesday. They spent about five minutes in front of the flag before a cop asked them to keep moving.Andre Godfrey has driven his 2018 Ford Mustang — with glowing red shark teeth embedded in the grill — into Times Square twice. He and a buddy came around 3 a.m. last Thursday, when the area was completely empty, and pulled his car up onto a sidewalk for a glamour shot.  “Nobody bothered us,” Godfrey said. “There was one police officer down the street, like a crossing agent, and they didn’t really seem bothered by us on the sidewalk.”He came back Saturday after hearing from a friend that a crew of over 100 BMWs was heading toward the area. That caravan never got into Times Square — it arrived in Midtown shortly after police blocked off Broadway.”This is crazy,” Godfrey said. 
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South Korea reported just three new coronavirus cases Tuesday, while the country’s professional baseball league returned to action with a slate of games played in stadiums without fans.    Two months ago, South Korea was adding around 500 new cases each day, but used a series of measures, including aggressive testing and a smartphone app alerting people to nearby infections, to push down the spread of the virus.    Sports leagues all over the world were forced to put their seasons on hold amid stay-at-home orders and limits on public gatherings.    The Korea Baseball Organization is one of the first to resume play, and in a sign of the appetite for watching sports at this time, the league struck a deal to have some of its games broadcast on the U.S. cable sports giant ESPN in the middle of the night, U.S. time.    The U.S. National Football League is set to announce its schedule Thursday, but has decided to abandon plans to hold games this season in London and Mexico City.  New Zealand is also reporting promising progress with its second consecutive day of zero new cases.  Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Tuesday they were working on a plan to reopen travel between the two countries, but cautioned it would take some time to put in place. New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern briefs the media about the COVID-19 coronavirus at the Parliament House in Wellington, April 27, 2020.Monday brought cooperation from all over the globe on a European Union-led effort to raise more than $8 billion to fund the development of treatments and vaccines for COVID-19.  About 40 countries, philanthropic organizations and individuals pledged donations, including $1 billion from the European Commission, $1 billion from Norway, $800 million from Japan and more than $500 million each from France, Saudi Arabia and Germany.    The World Health Organization (WHO) praised the effort as a sign of international solidarity in the fight against the virus.    “This virus will be with us for a long time, and we must come together to develop and share the tools to defeat it,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.   Notably absent was any participation from the United States.  French President Emmanuel Macron said he has held talks with President Donald Trump on the issue and that he is confident the United States will join the effort.    A senior State Department official said the United States is closely partnering with European allies, G-20 nations and the G-7 to respond to the coronavirus.  “The United States is in the process of providing $2.4 billion in global health, humanitarian, and economic assistance towards the COVID-19 response, and we continue to ensure that the substantial U.S. funding and scientific efforts on this front remain an essential and coordinated part of this worldwide effort against COVID-19,” the official told reporters in a briefing.    About 3.6 million people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 worldwide, and more than 250,000 have died. Britain’s Office of National Statistics reported the death toll Tuesday had surpassed 30,000.  That is roughly equal to Italy as the highest reported in Europe.  Globally, only the United States has reported more COVID-19 deaths with about 69,000.  In India, a day after the government eased lockdown restrictions in some areas, thousands of people flocked to liquor stores, prompting authorities to institute a special 70% tax starting Tuesday to deter the crowds. 
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Players for the U.S. women’s national team may have been dealt a blow by a judge’s ruling in their gender discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation but the case is far from over.  The women have vowed to keep up the fight, encouraged by the likes of Joe Biden, Billie Jean King and even the men’s national team.  “This is just a setback,” King said when asked what she would tell the team. “There’s so many of these ups and downs. Just keep learning from it, keep going for it. You’re still such a great influence, not only in soccer, but for equality for everyone.”  King, who was calling for equitable prize money in tennis in the 1970s, once famously proclaimed: “Everyone thinks women should be thrilled when we get crumbs, and I want women to have the cake, the icing and the cherry on top, too.” The players sued the federation last year, claiming they have not been paid equally under their collective bargaining agreement to what the men’s national team receives under its labor deal. They asked for more than $66 million in damages under the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  The federal judge threw out the players’ claim of discriminatory pay Friday in a surprising loss for the defending World Cup champions. U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner said the women rejected a pay-to-play structure like the men’s agreement and accepted greater base salaries and benefits.  But he allowed aspects of their allegations of discriminatory working conditions to go forward. The trial remains scheduled for June 16 in federal court in Los Angeles. Players have vowed to appeal the judge’s decision.  There are several legal options. Players could seek to overturn Friday’s decision at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and could even discuss with the USSF the possibility of a joint application for a stay pending appeal. They could proceed with a trial limited to working conditions such as flights, hotels and medical staff, then appeal Friday’s ruling. Or the sides could seek to settle, perhaps as part of a deal to replace and extend the current collective bargaining agreement, which expires on Dec. 31, 2021. On Feb 7, 2020 in Los Angeles, California, USA; Mexico defender Jimena Lopez (5) passes the ball while US midfielder Samantha Mewis (3) defends during the second half of the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying soccer tournament.Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, went to Twitter this weekend to encourage the players.  “To @USWNT: don’t give up this fight. This is not over yet. To @ussoccer: equal pay, now. Or else when I’m president, you can go elsewhere for World Cup funding,” he posted, referring to the 2026 men’s World Cup, set to be hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada. The players’ association for the men’s national team also released a statement Monday expressing support. “For a year and a half the USMNT players have made proposals to the federation that would achieve equal pay for the USMNT and USWNT players,” the statement said. “We understand the WNT players plan to appeal last week’s decision and we support them.” Steven A. Bank, a professor at UCLA, said he was expecting Klausner’s decision on the summary judgment to focus the case but not to the degree it did.  “Frequently, judges will do that in order to narrow down the issues, but because it also spurs the parties to settle by essentially using a heavy hand and saying, ‘Hey, a lot of these things you have is fluff, so let’s get rid of this, and neither of you have as great a case that you think you do.’ So I’m not surprised that there was some level of summary judgment granted and some level denied,” he said. “But I was surprised that the judge came down with what is a fairly complete victory for U.S. Soccer.” In an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Monday, Megan Rapinoe said she was shocked by the decision. She pointed out the women’s team was far more successful than the men, winning consecutive World Cup titles and playing more games.  “If I earn $1 every time I play, and a man earns $3, just because I win 10 games and he only wins three games, so I made $10 and he made $9, I’m not sure how that’s me making more money, while having to essentially win everything we could’ve possibly won over these last two years: two World Cups and just about every game we’ve played,” Rapinoe said. “For me, it missed the point, and was very disappointing, to be honest.” Arguments could be made that the team has already made its case in the court of public opinion. Following the U.S. victory in the World Cup final last year in France, the crowd chanted “Equal Pay” as the players celebrated on the field.  The women also drew support from some of U.S. Soccer’s most high-profile sponsors when the federation argued in court documents that the women lacked the skills and responsibilities of their male counterparts. The so-called scorched earth argument led to the resignation of USSF President Carlos Cordeiro, who was replaced by former national team player Cindy Parlow Cone.  “I think it’s great that they brought the case forward, because I think any visibility into this issue is just going to help further the cause, because it’s going to make more people sensitive and aware that the issue of unequal pay persists in all spectrums of our economy,” said Mary Ellen Carter, an associate professor of accounting at Boston College. “I happen to know it well in the executive space, but it’s not only there. So I think the courage that they had to come forward with the suit keeps the issue at the forefront, and I think that that’s important.” 
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