It starts with a boat ride in, and for the lucky few, ends with a kiss on the side of the trophy.The Venice Film Festival is an early stop for many stars and filmmakers on the path to the Academy Awards. In normal years, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Scarlett Johansson, …

The legendary Tour de France began Saturday, two months later than usual, and a day after France recorded its sharpest single-day coronavirus caseload since late March.The crowds, usually packing the start of the Tour de France, are absent this year. Just 100 spectators were allowed for the early afternoon kickoff …

Chadwick Boseman, the star of the ground-breaking superhero movie “Black Panther,” has died from colon cancer, his publicist told AFP on Friday.Boseman, who was in his 40s, had not publicly discussed his condition — which was first diagnosed in 2016 — and continued to work on major Hollywood films.”It was …

The National Basketball Association playoffs are set to resume Saturday after players reached a deal with the league that includes increased access to voting in the U.S. presidential election.The deal follows a player-led protest sparked by the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin. NBA games …

Two films explore the cycle of violence, trauma and incarceration in the Black community of post Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with filmmakers and community organizers of the documentary “Freedia Got a Gun” and of the drama feature “RZA’s Cutthroat City.” They chronicle causes of systemic violence in the Big Easy which was devastated 15 years ago by a Category 5 hurricane. …

Players from the National Basketball Association’s Milwaukee Bucks opted not to play in a playoff game scheduled for Wednesday night in order to call attention to injustices against the African American community and call for lawmakers and law enforcement to institute meaningful changes.The decision had wide-ranging reverberations throughout the country, …

All three NBA playoff games scheduled for Wednesday have been postponed, with players around the league choosing to boycott in their strongest statement yet against racial injustice.Called off: Games between Milwaukee and Orlando, Houston and Oklahoma City, and the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland. The NBA said all three games …

A group of athletes led by NBA star LeBron James will roll out a multimillion-dollar program in the next few weeks to recruit poll workers in heavily Black electoral districts for November’s election, a person familiar with the plans said on Monday.   More Than a Vote, a group of …

World-record sprinter and eight-time Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt is self-quarantining at home in Jamaica, after testing positive for the coronavirus following a party celebrating his 34th birthday attended by several sports stars. Jamaica’s health ministry confirmed late Monday that Bolt tested positive, after he posted a video on social media earlier Monday saying he was waiting …

Rapper and music producer Kanye West’s campaign ran into trouble Tuesday on his first day of trying to get on the presidential ballot in his home state of Wyoming. People gathering signatures on behalf of West and another presidential candidate got too close to polling locations during the state’s primary, …

Apple Music is launching several new radio shows hosted by A-list musical acts, including Snoop Dogg, Shania Twain and Carrie Underwood. The streaming service announced that it will debut two new radio stations Tuesday: Apple Music Hits, focused on popular songs of the ’80s, ’90s and 2000s, as well as …

Nearly two decades after the slaying of Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay, federal prosecutors said Monday they have solved one of New York City’s most enduring mysteries, charging two men from his neighborhood with murder and suggesting that the hip-hop artist — celebrated for his anti-drug stance — was ambushed …

Federal prosecutors urged a judge Monday to accept deals that call for “Full House” actor Lori Loughlin to spend two months in prison and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, to serve five months for paying half a million dollars to bribe their daughters’ way into college. Ahead of the famous …

Beyonce’s musical film, “Black is King,” is gaining global fans and critics for its portrayal of African culture.  In South Africa, where several scenes in the 85-minute feature were filmed, many say it’s more than just a movie.  VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Johannesburg. …

The only Black designer belonging to Italy’s influential fashion council is demanding a “long overdue cultural reform” from her colleagues under the slogan: Do Black Lives Matter in Italy? The conversation has gotten off to a rocky start. Stella Jean, a Haitian-Italian designer born and raised in Rome, launched her …

Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, on Thursday promised to show how Trump cheated in the 2016 election with Russian help in an upcoming book titled “Disloyal, A Memoir.”   “Trump had cheated in the election, with Russian connivance, as you will discover in these …

AMC Entertainment Holdings announced Thursday it is set to reopen many of its movie theaters starting August 20. Its first phase of reopening will include more than 100 of its locations. AMC is the largest movie theater chain in the U.S., and to mark the reopening, it will be selling …

The novel coronavirus pandemic continues to have an effect on the sporting world, as two major U.S. college athletic conferences announced Tuesday they are postponing their upcoming fall (gridiron) football seasons. Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said after consulting with the conference’s medical advisory board “it became abundantly clear that there was …

Annie Griffiths, One of National Geographic’s first female photographers, has traveled to more than 150 countries taking pictures. During her 45 year career, she has been to every continent documenting nature, and collecting the stories of women she has met along the way. Maxim Moskalkov has the story.VIDEOGRAPHER: Sergey Sokolov   …

Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” is officially a hit single again 39 years after its release, thanks to a pair of twins from Gary, Indiana, whose spontaneous reaction to the unexpected drum break in Collins’ ballad has caused it to be possibly the most memed song of August 2020. “In …

An Israeli jewelry company is working on what it says will be the world’s most expensive coronavirus mask, a gold, diamond-encrusted face covering with a price tag of $1.5 million. The 18-karat white gold mask will be decorated with 3,600 white and black diamonds and fitted with top-rated N99 filters at …

As the Trump administration orders retaliatory bans on Chinese tech companies such as Tik Tok and WeChat, officials and civic groups have growing concerns about the influence China has over Hollywood.A new report says that Hollywood companies have been censoring films to avoid losing access to China’s lucrative box office market, …

NYC’s famous Broadway shows were put on hold when the coronavirus pandemic hit the US. And though the bright signs with pictures of “Aladdin” and “The Lion King” are still there, the actors and audiences won’t come back into the beautiful halls to enjoy the performances until at least the …

Grammy Award-winning music producer Detail was arrested Wednesday on more than a dozen charges of sexual assault, authorities said. The 41-year-old producer was held on nearly $6.3 million bail, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Detail, whose real name is Noel Christopher Fisher, was charged …

When two strangers walking by stopped to accuse James “Jamie” Juanillo of defacing private property, the San Francisco man immediately took a defensive posture. He started recording the encounter, which eventually went viral, garnering more than 23 million views. “I came up recording not because I thought there was a potential for a viral …