We’re up close with the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending June 16, 2018. Although we shuffle the deck this week, we don’t get any new titles. No. 5: Zedd, Maren Morris and Grey “The Middle” Zedd, Maren Morris and …

While American soccer fans lament that Team USA didn’t qualify for World Cup play for the first time since 1986, they’ve still got plenty of interest in the tournament. Some of those fans shared their disappointment, enthusiasm and predictions during a U.S. Major League Soccer match at New York’s Yankee …

Apple Inc on Friday announced a multiyear deal with Oprah Winfrey to create original programming, a coup in the battle for A-list talent and projects in the booming digital entertainment market. “Together, Winfrey and Apple will create original programs that embrace her incomparable ability to connect with audiences around the …

Iranian fans at the national team’s first match at the World Cup unfurled a banner protesting Iran’s ban on women attending soccer matches back home. The banner read “#NoBan4Women” and “Support Iranian Women to Attend Stadiums” and it was held aloft during the match against Morocco in the Russian city …

With Iran banning open-air screenings of its World Cup opening match at the last minute Friday, Tehran’s cinemas turned into the venues for fans to vent their passion. Supporters thronged the steps of the Azadi cinema in central Tehran ahead of the match, chanting and deafening passers-by with blasts of …

World Cup fever hit the United Nations Thursday as ambassadors and staffers gathered to watch the opening match and celebrate the link between peace and sport. Our U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer was there. …

World Cup fever hit the United Nations Thursday as ambassadors and staffers gathered to watch the opening match and celebrate the link between peace and sport. Our U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer was there. …

Republican and Democratic lawmakers took to the field Thursday night for the annual congressional charity baseball game. It fell on the first anniversary of a shooting spree at a practice last year that almost killed U.S. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. Jill Craig was in the stands for the first …

As soccer’s top stars arrive in Russia to chase World Cup glory, their fans from around the world have also made their way there to participate in the fun and hopefully see their team win. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports. …

Most international visitors to New Zealand will have to pay a little more to see Middle Earth.  Starting next year, tourists will pay between $23 and $33 to enter the country, the government announced Friday.  The government estimates the tax will bring in as much as $55 million a year, …

A first edition of John James Audubon’s The Birds of America, one of the most celebrated books of natural history, sold for $9.65 million at auction Thursday in New York, Christie’s said. The richly illustrated 19th-century book, featuring more than 400 hand-colored illustrations of 1,037 life-size birds, was one of …

Watching men in exaggerated makeup parade down a busy Washington street in high heels and big-hair wigs, Thuien Nguyen commented that this was not likely to happen in his native Vietnam. Nguyen, who moved to the United States as a child, said LGBTQ+ persons — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and others …

Much like the rest of the world, Muslims in America are in the midst of the holy month of Ramadan — praying, fasting, giving to charity and breaking their monthlong fast every day at sunset. But as VOA’s Urdu, Kurdish and Turkish services reports, Muslims get together to enjoy the …

Up to a million football fans from around the world are expected to travel to Russia over the coming weeks for the World Cup, which kicks off Thursday. They include hundreds of thousands of supporters from South America and Africa, who are famous for bringing their passion and partying to …

An Indian chess champion announced she will not be participating in a tournament in Iran, as the country’s law requiring women to wear headscarves is a violation of her human rights, she said. Soumya Swaminathan, a 29-year-old grandmaster, wrote on Facebook, “It seems that under the present circumstances, the only …

Comcast made a $65 billion bid Wednesday for Fox’s entertainment businesses, setting up a battle with Disney to become the next mega-media company. The bid comes just a day after a federal judge cleared AT&T’s takeover of Time Warner and rejected the government’s argument that it would hurt competition in …

Football’s governing body has awarded the 2026 World Cup to a joint hosting bid by Canada, Mexico and the United States. FIFA member countries voted 134-65 in favor of the three-nation group over runner-up Morocco. President Donald Trump praised the selection for the 2026 World Cup. The 2018 World Cup …

Belgium is celebrating the 60th birthday of the Smurfs by giving fans the chance to experience living in their village and take a virtual reality ride through mystical forests and caves. Cartoonist Pierre Culliford, who wrote under the pseudonym Peyo, struck gold with the incidental creation of the Smurfs in …

When filmmaker Bernadett Tuza-Ritter met 52-year-old Marish, a Hungarian factory worker and maid, she was drawn to her haggard face – one that seemed as if it belonged to a much older woman. Tuza-Ritter asked if she could film Marish’s life, factory by day and househelp by night, for a …

A score by Mozart and a letter from Vincent Van Gogh are among hundreds of lots up for grabs this month in auctions of items by composers, artists and writers. They are going under the hammer in Paris as part of a series of sales aimed at liquidating a 130,000-item …

If the football federations follow FIFA’s guidance, the 2026 World Cup should be awarded to the North American bid on Wednesday. Success for Morocco relies on the electorate to follow the trend of recent hosting decisions and vote for a risky bid facing doubts about the ability to pull off …

Country duo Florida Georgia Line has built its career one hit song at a time thanks to key collaborations, while also taking quiet steps to establish a lasting songwriting legacy in Nashville.   Since blasting into the music scene in 2012 with “Cruise,” featuring Nelly, the duo of Tyler Hubbard …

A century and a half before the #MeToo movement gave women a bold, new collective voice, Louisa May Alcott was lending them her own. Society had far different expectations of women in 1867, when publisher Thomas Niles asked Alcott to write a “girls’ story.” At a time when women were …

Indonesia is rich in commodities such as oil, gas, gold and tin, but a handful of government officials think its most powerful resources are cultural.  They belong to a dynamic young body called the Creative Economy Agency, or BEKRAF (an acronym derived from its Indonesian name) that was created in …

Eighth-grade teacher Ari Mascarenhas could have picked high-tech gadgets or modern apps to help his students learn Portuguese, but he instead went old school with the World Cup sticker book. He’s been a fan since 1986 — when he was 8 — and the attraction for the collectibles has trickled …