This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to three recipients: Ales Bialiatski, one of the initiators of the democracy movement that emerged in Belarus in the mid-1980s; and two human rights groups – Memorial, a Russian organization, and the Center for Civil Liberties, a Ukrainian group. Last year’s Peace Prize …

Fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, two mothers find themselves in an unusual place, Nu Boyana Film Studios, in Sofia, Bulgaria. Eastern Europe’s largest film company, it has participated in the production of over 400 Hollywood films. This moving work, Kyiv-Sofia-Hollywood, follows these two women as they rebuild their lives …

The Swedish Academy Thursday awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature to French author Annie Ernaux for “the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory.” The academy made the announcement at a news conference in Stockholm. Ernaux, 82, is known …

A tender and touching letter that author John Steinbeck penned to his teenage son, offering fatherly advice after the young man confided that he was in love for the first time, is going up for auction. Boston-based RR Auction says the handwritten draft of a letter to his eldest son, …

Oscar-winning actors Marion Cotillard and Juliette Binoche, as well as other French stars of screen and music, filmed themselves chopping off locks of their hair in a video posted Wednesday in support of protesters in Iran. “For freedom,” Binoche said as she hacked a large handful of hair off the …

Loretta Lynn, the Kentucky coal miner’s daughter whose frank songs about life and love as a woman in Appalachia pulled her out of poverty and made her a pillar of country music, has died. She was 90. In a statement provided to The Associated Press, Lynn’s family said she died …

Native American actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather, who declined the best-actor award on behalf of Marlon Brando during an Oscars protest in 1973, has died aged 75, the motion picture Academy said on Monday. Littlefeather, who the Hollywood Reporter said died at her home in California on Sunday surrounded by …

Kim Kardashian has agreed to settle charges of unlawfully touting a crypto security and to pay $1.26 million in penalties, disgorgement and interest, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Monday. The SEC said in a statement that reality television star and influencer Kardashian failed to disclose that she …

The remains of dozens of Indigenous Maori and Moriori people were officially received at New Zealand’s national museum in Wellington Sunday, completing a repatriation process from Austria, where the bones have resided for more than 130 years. The repatriation “powhiri,” or welcoming ceremony, in bitterly cold, wet conditions at Te …

The nearly 400-year-old-year Passion play performed by the people of the German alpine village of Oberammergau comes to a close after a nearly five-month run, with viewers saying this year was especially meaningful as the play was delayed by two years by the COVID-19 pandemic. Villagers kept their vow to …

While European Union nations are still mulling a cap on gas prices, some businesses are more in a hurry for solutions to the continent’s energy crisis. In Brussels, the epicenter of the EU, restaurant owners have imagined how a future without gas and electricity would look like for gourmets. The …

Irpin, a city in the Kyiv region, was under Russian occupation in March. Officials say over 70% of its infrastructure was damaged. When the Russians retreated, several residents started returning from abroad to help rebuild their city. Anna Kosstutschenko has the story. …

The past and future of film mingle like a pair of moviegoers huddled in debate outside a movie theater at the New York Film Festival, which on Friday launches its 60th edition with the premiere of Noah Baumbach’s Don DeLillo adaptation “White Noise.”  In those six decades, the Lincoln Center …

Comedian Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, said he was going to leave the program after hosting it for seven years, indicating he wanted to dedicate more time to stand-up comedy. The 38-year-old comedian — who was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and moved to the …

A Spanish court on Tuesday formally ordered Colombian superstar Shakira to stand trial on accusations that she failed to pay $14.31 million in income taxes, a court document released on Tuesday showed. The ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ singer, 45, whose full name is Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, rejected in July a …

Kenyan marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge is spurring young athletes to follow in his footsteps after breaking his own world record Sunday in Berlin.  Cheers erupted from the crowd Sunday at Nairobi’s Karura Forest as they watched Kipchoge race on TV. The watch party followed an amateur marathon organized by the …

Rihanna will take center stage at February’s Super Bowl halftime show. The singer, who declined to perform in the 2019 Super Bowl halftime show out of solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, will headline the 2023 Super Bowl, the NFL announced Sunday along with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and Apple Music. Rihanna posted …

Haitian Italian designer Stella Jean returned to the Milan runway after a two-year hiatus with a tour de force that highlighted the talents of 10 new designers of color whose design history is tied to Italy. Jean pledged in 2020 not to return to Milan Fashion Week, which opened Wednesday, …

This day, this match, had to come, of course, for Roger Federer, and for tennis, just as it inevitably must for every athlete in every sport. Federer bid adieu Friday night with one last contest before he heads into retirement at age 41 after a superlative career that included 20 …

A movie portraying an all-female warrior unit that centuries ago defended the West African kingdom of Dahomey, what is today the country of Benin, is drawing both praise and criticism. VOA’s Penelope Poulou reports, “The Woman King” has an all-black and mostly female cast, a first for a major Hollywood …

Australia is investigating claims by First Nations groups that mining and manufacturing industries are threatening significant cultural sites.    Indigenous settlement of Australia dates back an estimated 65,000 years. This vast history is documented in ancient songs, stories, dance and art, but development threatens part of the culture. The federal government …

President Joe Biden met Friday with family members of WNBA star Brittney Griner and another American detained in Russia, Paul Whelan, the first face-to-face encounter that the president has had with the relatives. In a statement after the meetings, which were held separately, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said …

A federal jury on Wednesday convicted R. Kelly of several child pornography and sex abuse charges in his hometown of Chicago, delivering another legal blow to a singer who used to be one of the biggest R&B stars in the world. Kelly, 55, was found guilty on three counts of …

A look at the fashion and passion of the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Monday. …

Emmy Awards host Kenan Thompson and the ceremony’s producers are promising a feel-good event — a phrase not applicable to several of the top nominated shows. The best drama contenders include the violently dystopian “Squid Game,” bleak workplace satire “Severance” and “Succession,” about a powerful and cutthroat family. Even comedy …