Robert De Niro received the Screen Actors Guild lifetime achievement award Sunday to praise for his illustrious career and thunderous applause from his fellow performers, but spent much of his acceptance speech on politics. “There’s right and there’s wrong, and there’s common sense and there’s abuse of power,” said De …

“Parasite” has officially infected Hollywood’s award season. Bong Joon Ho’s Korean class satire became the first foreign language film to take top honors from the Screen Actors Guild on Sunday, setting itself up as a legitimate best picture contender to the front-runner “1917” at next month’s Academy Awards.   The best ensemble …

What we now call soul food originally came out of black culture in the southern United States. At its core, soul food is a hearty, spicy food rich with the calories and protein African Americans needed to make it through long days of hard work, first as slaves on plantations …

Oprah Winfrey said Friday that Russell Simmons attempted to pressure her about her involvement with a documentary in which several women detail sexual abuse allegations against the rap mogul, but his efforts were not what prompted her to leave the project. “He did reach out multiple times and attempted to …

A jury of seven men and five women was selected Friday for Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial after an arduous two-week process, setting the stage for testimony to begin in the next week.The final tally mostly erased a gender imbalance that, just hours earlier, led to complaints by prosecutors that the …

More than two years after France promised to return colonial-era treasures to their African homes, Benin — ostensibly the first recipient of the groundbreaking policy — still awaits them. But on Friday, a small museum outside Cotonou celebrated the return of antique royal scepters gifted by a group of Paris …

Set in the 1933 Soviet Union, the historical movie drama “Mr. Jones,” director by Agnieszka Holland and first-time screenwriter Andrea Chalupa,  packs a powerful message. The movie tells a story of a young Welsh reporter searching for truth in the 1933 Soviet Union. Tatiana Vorozhko has the story, narrated by …

An unprecedented show for the people of Saudi Arabia, with a young girl taking center stage and representing the kingdom’s younger generation, was held at Riyadh’s King Fahd stadium on Jan. 16, 2020.The event, attended by thousands of enthusiastic Saudis, was the grand finale of the Riyadh Season, a huge …

The 2020s might be the decade faltering millennials finally roar to financial health after a tough start brought on by the Great Recession, which lasted from 2007 until 2009. Coming of age during the worst economic downturn in the United States since the 1930s meant that many of these young people, …

Two documentaries offering a female perspective on the death and destruction in the war-torn Syrian cities of Aleppo and Eastern Ghouta received Oscar nominations for Best Documentary. Waad al-Kateab’s film “For Sama” and Feras Fayyad’s film “The Cave” document civilians’ struggle for survival in devastated cities where doctors in makeshift …

Rapper Eminem once again dropped a surprise album, releasing of “Music to be Murdered By” on Friday.The follow-up to 2018’s “Kamikaze” – also released without warning – was announced on Twitter just after midnight.The Detroit rapper also released a new music video for one of the 20 tracks on the …

For almost two years, a group of dedicated young women in a conservative neighborhood of Pakistan has been working to beat the odds and change the culture around them. The women are doing it by cycling. VOA’s Ayesha Tanzeem reports from Pakistan’s largest city Karachi …

Today she travels the world, attends a red-carpet movie premiere and sits on panels with astronauts, former presidents and feminist icons.But in the years after 9/11, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, center, sits at the Islamic Center of New York University during Friday prayers, Dec. 27, 2019. At 17, she and a group …

Ohio’s Statehouse would join a small number of others around the country with outdoor monuments dedicated to real women in U.S. history under a proposal expected Thursday to create a memorial to Ohio women who fought for voting rights.Currently, all statues of historical figures outside the Statehouse are of men, …

The former pope Benedict XVI reportedly wants his name removed from a controversial book that appears to undermine his successor, Pope Francis, on issues of priestly celibacy. The book hit stores Wednesday in France, the first country to publish it. But despite the furor the book has stirred in the …

Posthumous inductees Whitney Houston and The Notorious B.I.G. will lead a new class into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, joined by Depeche Mode, the Doobie Brothers, Nine Inch Nails and T-Rex.The gospel-trained Houston, whose soaring voice transformed the Dolly Parton cover “I Will Always Love You” into a …

The estranged father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex  could be called as a defense witness in her lawsuit against the Mail on Sunday newspaper, court papers reveal.      Meghan is suing the newspaper and its parent company Associated Newspapers for publishing a letter she wrote to her father Thomas …

Greece’s government is extending its offer of citizenship to Tom Hanks to his wife and their two children, in recognition of the family’s help in assisting victims of a deadly wildfire near Athens in 2018.Last month, Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos signed an honorary naturalization order allowing the 63-year-old actor, who …

The Academy Award nomination for a Brazilian documentary about the impeachment of then-President Dilma Rousseff has once again laid bare the polarization of Latin America’s largest democracy.      In “The Edge of Democracy,” 36-year-old filmmaker Petra Costa uses her personal story to argue that Brazil’s democracy is at risk …

Jury selection resumed Monday at the trial of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who has pleaded not guilty to charges he raped a woman in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and sexually assaulted another in 2006.The initial screening process, now on its fifth day, has been stymied by a host …

Dark comic book tale “Joker” topped the Oscar nominations Monday, picking up 11 nods including best picture and best director, as women and ethnic minorities were largely shut out once again.The pre-dawn Academy Award announcement capped months of ceaseless campaigning by A-listers and studios, revealing which stars and movies have …

The nominees for the Academy Awards have been announced in Los Angeles. Issa Rae and John Cho announced nominees in 24 categories that honor the best achievements in films released in 2019.The nominees for best picture are: “Ford v. Ferrari”; “The Irishman”; “Jojo Rabbit”; “Joker”; “Little Women”; “Marriage Story”; “1917”; …

As part of a surprise announcement distancing themselves from the British royal family, Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, declared they will “work to become financially independent” — a move that has not been clearly spelled out and could be fraught with obstacles.The couple indicated in their statement Wednesday that …

Queen Elizabeth II has moved quickly to take control of the crisis surrounding the decision by Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, to distance themselves from the royal family, ordering royal courtiers to find a future role for the pair within days.Officials representing the most senior members of …

Two award-winning documentaries capture death and destruction in the war-torn Syrian cities of Aleppo and Eastern Ghouta through the eyes of women. Waad al-Kateab’s film “For Sama,” and Feras Fayyad’s film “The Cave,” document civilians’ struggle to survive in devastated cities where doctors in makeshift hospitals tend to throngs of …