Daniel Craig will return for a fifth go-around as James Bond.   The actor confirmed reports he would reprise his role as the suave British spy for “Bond 25” during an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Tuesday night.   The announcement is a reversal for Craig, …

The Chinese action film Wolf Warrior 2 continues to set records at the box office and stir online debate in China. The film has raked in nearly $700 million in a little more than two weeks since its opening and looks all but set to become China’s biggest blockbuster. While …

Elvis Presley has been dead for 40 years, but the King’s legacy is alive and well in Las Vegas. Elvis impersonators remain a staple of Las Vegas kitsch, performing at casino venues and wedding chapels and on street stages while decked out in garish jumpsuits, sunglasses and sideburn wigs. At …

Elvis Presley has been dead for 40 years, but the King’s legacy is alive and well in Las Vegas. Elvis impersonators remain a staple of Las Vegas kitsch, performing at casino venues and wedding chapels and on street stages while decked out in garish jumpsuits, sunglasses and sideburn wigs. At …

Pop star Pink has been chosen to receive the 2017 Vanguard Award, MTV’s equivalent of a lifetime achievement honor for video music, the U.S. cable and satellite television channel said Tuesday. Pink, 37, known for her powerhouse vocals and acrobatic live shows, is being recognized for her impact on music, …

“Populist Pictures” reads the buzzer to Steven Soderbergh’s Tribeca office. You might easily mistake it as ironic. It’s a grand title for a little nameplate on an otherwise nondescript Manhattan building. But he means it. Four years after dramatically quitting moviemaking, Soderbergh is back with Logan Lucky. His hiatus — …

Pint by frothy pint, a hoppy revolution is brewing in Russia. This new generation of craft brewers began sprouting in the vodka capital of the world as foreign beers became too expensive and beer fans sought alternatives to mass-produced lagers. From juicy IPAs to velvety stouts and lip-smacking sours, beers …

Immediately after a jury determined that Taylor Swift had been groped by a radio station host before a concert in Denver, the singer-songwriter turned to one of her closest allies – her mother – and later said she hoped the verdict would inspire other victims of sexual assault.   Swift …

Young designers bring African-inspired color and ethical fashion to runways in London where fashionistas and industry professionals participated in this year’s Africa Fashion Week. Mariama Diallo reports. …

Taylor Swift won her trial against a Colorado radio personality on Monday after a jury found that the former DJ assaulted and battered the pop star by groping her bare bottom, and awarded her the symbolic $1 in damages she had sought. Swift cried and hugged her mother as the …

 A shade of purple named for the late superstar Prince was announced Monday by the icon’s estate.   The “Purple Rain” hue created by the Pantone Color Institute was dubbed “Love Symbol (hash)2,” paying tribute to his custom Yamaha piano and the squiggly graphic Prince began using as his name …

Grammy award-winner Petula Clark sang her global hit “Downtown” about as far from “where the neon signs are pretty” as she could at the weekend — to thousands in a field in rural England. It was the 84-year-old’s first outdoor festival in a career spanning, well, eight decades. “I’m always …

The bongs will soon be gone. Big Ben — the huge clock bell of Britain’s Parliament — will fall silent next week as a four-year restoration project gets underway. The bongs of the iconic bell will be stopped after chiming noon on Aug. 21 to protect workers during a 29-million-pound …

Four decades since his death, Elvis Presley still reigns as The King — for impersonators. Few artists inspire people all over the world to dress up and perform passionately on stage like Presley. Impersonators from different generations and various countries paid tribute to their idol recently at a gathering in …

In a small studio littered with empty cigarette packets in Egypt’s second city, Alexandria, Abdelrahman al-Habrouk sits hunched over a sheet of paper making portraits with tobacco. The cigarettes fuel his art; he breaks them in half, painstakingly traces out monochrome images of celebrities or animals with the fine flakes …

No American woman climber had sumitted the world’s second largest mountain called, K2, in Pakistan until July 28, 2017 when 52-year old Vanessa O’Brian led a team to the top of one the world’s most dangerous peaks. She described her adventurous trip to VOA’s Ayaz Gul upon her return to …

City of Ghosts is a new documentary that follows an underground group of citizen journalists from IS occupied Raqqa, Syria, risking their lives and using social media to expose the atrocities of the militants against civilians. The goal of the group, called Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, is to broadcast information online …

A new documentary follows an underground group of citizen journalists from ISIS occupied Raqqa Syria, risking their lives to expose the atrocities of the militants against civilians on social media. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Matthew Heineman as well as Abdul-Aziz al-Hamza, the co-founder of the group called …

A statue of the Beatles in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar could be at risk in an alleged land grab, protesters say, as rapid development turns a city once famed for wide open spaces into a cluttered metropolis. Residents are protesting plans to build commercial properties in an area known …

A judge on Friday threw out a Denver radio host’s case against Taylor Swift in a trial that delved into their dueling lawsuits over whether he groped her during a backstage meet-and-greet and whether she and her team ruined his career. U.S. District Judge William Martinez determined that the pop …

You won’t find any pictures of dogs playing poker at dOGUMENTA (I) NYC. A three-day art exhibition is attracting hundreds of canines to a marina in Lower Manhattan, where hounds and terriers are feasting their eyes, and in some cases their mouths, on nearly a dozen masterpieces created expressly for …

So close to death was blues rocker Gregg Allman when he was making his final album, the cover photographer did not get to his Savannah, Georgia, house in time. Instead, “Southern Blood,” Allman’s posthumous paean to his life and music to be released in September, is adorned with a sepia …

The International Olympic Committee said Thursday that it was closely monitoring rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula, less than 200 days before the 2018 Winter Olympics are set to begin in South Korea’s Pyeongchang. The games return to the country next year for the first time since the 1988 Summer …

A historical film about the last Russian czar’s affair with a ballerina has been cleared for release, the Culture Ministry said Thursday, despite passionate calls for its ban. “Matilda,” which describes Nicholas II’s relationship with Matilda Kshesinskaya has drawn virulent criticism from some Orthodox believers and hard-line nationalists, who see …

While the northern and southern U.S. states were engaged the civil war of the 1860s, a smaller war was playing out in the American southwest between the U.S. Army and the Mescalero Apache and Navajo peoples. Between 1864 and 1866, soldiers forced tens of thousands of men, women and children …