Diana Rigg, a British actress who became a 1960s style icon as secret agent Emma Peel in TV series “The Avengers,” has died. She was 82.
Rigg’s agent Simon Beresford said she died Thursday morning at home with her family. Daughter Rachael Stirling said she died of cancer that was diagnosed in March.
Rigg “spent her last months joyfully reflecting on her extraordinary life, full of love, laughter and a deep pride in her profession. I will miss her beyond words,” Stirling said.
Rigg starred in “The Avengers” alongside Patrick McNee’s bowler-hatted John Steed. The pair were an impeccably dressed duo who fought villains and traded quips in a show whose mix of adventure and humor was enduringly influential.
Rigg also starred in 1967 James Bond thriller “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” as the only woman ever to marry Agent 007.
In later life, she played Olenna Tyrell in “Game of Thrones” and the Duchess of Buccleuch in “Victoria,” and starred alongside her daughter in British sitcom “Detectorists.”
Rigg spent several years in the 1960s as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and combined screen work with an acclaimed stage career, in plays including Bertolt Brecht’s “Mother Courage” and Tom Stoppard’s “Jumpers” at the National Theatre in London.
Stoppard said Rigg was “the most beautiful woman in the room, but she was what used to be called a Trouper.”
“She went to work with her sleeves rolled up and a smile for everyone. Her talent was luminous.”
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NYC has always attracted creative people – those who are happy to wait tables in the evening as long as it pays the bills, only to run to auditions and have time for their art during the day. But the coronavirus pandemic has forced over a thousand Big Apple restaurants to close, and that means no jobs for the NYC bohemia. Anna Nelson looked into how New York’s art scene has been adapting to the new reality. Anna Rice narrates her story.
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Ronald “Khalis” Bell, a co-founder of the legendary group Kool and the Gang, died Wednesday at his home in the U.S Virgin Islands. He was 68 years old.Bell’s publicist did not disclose his cause of death.Bell sang and composed songs for the Grammy-winning group, which blended jazz, funk, R&B and pop.Kool and the Gang’s heyday during the ‘70s led a loyal following behind the group’s biggest hits written by Bell, including “Celebration,” “Jungle Boogie” and “Summer Madness.”Bell is credited with orchestrating the group’s decades-old popularity that was punctuated with a star for Kool and the Gang being placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 
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South African nature filmmaker Craig Foster was burned out. He had lost his passion for working on documentaries such as “Blue Planet 2.” To re-energize, he started free diving without an oxygen tank or wet suit near in the chilly waters off the Western Cape, where he’d grown up.The dives served as a form of therapy, comforting yet challenging the depths of his understanding of marine life. He remembered seeing indigenous San bushmen ply their tracking skills in southern Africa’s Central Kalahari Desert 20 years earlier.“These extraordinary men were just so close to nature and they were just so good at tracking and understanding the natural system,” Foster says. “I was deeply envious of their abilities. … And then I had this idea: Could I ever track animals underwater?”Over four years of diving every day, he learned how. It was a “very exciting, empowering process,” Foster says, “and that enabled me to get into the secret world of some of these special animals.”One tangible result is “My Octopus Teacher,” the first South African nature documentary to air as a Netflix Original. Released in early September on the pay channel, it tells the tender story of Foster befriending a small octopus in the icy Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Cape Town.Accruing honorsThe film, for which Foster did the underwater photography, has already won a prestigious award and has been nominated for a slew of others.It shows Foster diving every day to visit a female octopus he discovered when she burst from beneath a pile of shells. At first, the small cephalopod is wary. Over time, she reaches out to him with one tentacle and eventually trusts him enough to sit on his chest and let him stroke her.“She taught me humility. She taught me compassion. She opened my mind to just how precious wild creatures are and how complex,” says Foster, who, despite his familiarity with the creature, never gives her a name.“It’s quite incredible. You think: This is an animal that’s separated in evolution by hundreds of millions of years and it’s a mollusk, essentially a snail without a shell. But she’s got a huge mind and huge curiosity and a tremendous intelligence,” he says. “… That’s why I called her my teacher, because I did learn so much from her.”Foster in 2012 had co-founded the Sea Change Project, a nonprofit group meant to protect marine life by raising awareness of the South African kelp forest’s ecological importance.The film, too, has been years in the making. While Foster eventually had a big team, he and environmental journalist Pippa Ehrlich initially worked alone for a few years. It was her first movie, and she directed — with James Reed – wrote, filmed and edited.Building understandingEhrlich says she hopes the work will create awareness about the octopus’s home. The Great African Sea Forest stretches for 1,300 kilometers, or just over 800 miles, along South Africa and Namibia’s coastlines.In the last few decades, “40 percent of our world’s kelp forests have declined and some of them have disappeared completely,” mostly due to climate change, Ehrlich says. “And unlike coral bleaching, for example, it’s not something that’s getting a lot of attention. … In fact, a lot of people don’t know that there is such a thing as an underwater forest.”Ehrlich gave up a job diving to film sharks all over the world to work on “My Octopus Teacher,” even though it had no funding at the time. So she’s grateful for the positive response to the film.It has received eight award nominations for Jackson Wild — known earlier as the Jackson Hole (Wyoming) Wildlife Film Festival — including for best feature film and best ecosystem film.It has two nominations for the British-based Wildscreen Panda Awards, which recognize international wildlife film and TV content, and six for the German-based Green Screen Festival. And, says Ehrlich, “we were really, really excited to win the best feature” category for the Texas-based EarthX Film Festival in April.Awards or not, Foster says “My Octopus Teacher” has a lesson for mankind.“We are totally reliant on the natural world as our life support system. It keeps us breathing” and eating, the filmmaker says. “It’s easy to forget that in this industrial world, running around and trying to survive.“So it’s absolutely critical that we reconnect with nature, no matter where we are, and seriously get together to think about how we can regenerate the very system that is keeping us alive.”This report originated in VOA’s English to Africa service.
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The organization that honors movies with the Academy Awards said Tuesday it will require films to meet new standards in order to promote diversity both on the screen and behind the scenes. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said the rules apply only to those films eligible for the best picture Oscar and will go into effect in 2024. Among the rules are requirements for the percentage or numbers of actors, production and marketing staff, and internships on a movie that must be filled by non-whites, women, people with disabilities or people from the LGBTQ community. “The standards are designed to encourage equitable representation on and off screen in order to better reflect the diversity of the movie-going audience,” the Academy said in a statement. The Academy has faced criticism in recent years for a lack of diversity among its Oscars honorees, including in 2016 when all of the nominees in the four acting categories were white.  
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Prince Harry has repaid 2.4 million pounds ($3.2 million) in British taxpayers’ money that was used to renovate the home in Windsor intended for him and his wife Meghan before they gave up royal duties and moved to California.A spokesman for the couple said Monday that Harry had made a contribution to the Sovereign Grant, the public money that goes to the royal family. He said the contribution “fully covered the necessary renovation costs of Frogmore Cottage,” near Queen Elizabeth II’s Windsor Castle home, west of London.He said Frogmore Cottage will remain the home of Harry and Meghan, also known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, when they visit the U.K.Royal accounts for 2019 show that 2.4 million pounds was spent renovating the house, including structural work, rewiring and new flooring. Harry and Meghan agreed to pay back the money and start paying rent as part of the plans drawn up when they quit as senior working royals in March.They recently bought a house in Santa Barbara, California, and last week announced a deal with Netflix to produce a range of films and series for the streaming service.
 
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Jiri Menzel, a Czech director whose 1966 movie Closely Watched Trains won the Academy Award for the best foreign language film has died. He was 82.Menzel’s wife, Olga, announced his death late Sunday, saying he died the previous day. No details were given. Three years ago, Menzel underwent a brain operation and was kept in an artificially induced coma for several weeks after it.”Dearest Jirka, I thank you for each and every day I could spend with you. Each was extraordinary,” his wife said on Facebook.Menzel made some 20 movies and was one of the leading filmmakers of the new wave of Czechoslovak cinema that appeared in the 1960s. His movies represented a radical departure from socialist realism, a typical communist-era genre focusing on realistically depicting the struggles of the working class.Unlike colleagues such as Milos Forman, Jan Nemec and Ivan Passer, Menzel didn’t emigrate after the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.Closely Watched Trains was his first feature movie. Based on a novel by Czech author Bohumil Hrabal, it tells the story of a dispatcher’s apprentice coming of age at a small train station during the Nazi occupation in World War II.His next collaboration with Hrabal, Larks on a String in 1969 was another tragicomic description of life under a totalitarian regime, this time under communism.The movie was immediately banned by the communist authorities. After the 1989 anti-Communist revolution led by Vaclav Havel, it won the Golden Bear award at the Berlin international film festival.Menzel’s other adaptations of Hrabal’s work include Cutting It Short (1980), The Snowdrop Festival (1984) and I served the King of England (2006).His 1985 comedy My Sweet Little Village was nominated for the Academy Award for best foreign film.A graduate of Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts in 1962, he was also known for directing plays and also as an actor.Among other awards, Menzel received the French Order of Arts and Literature. 
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In a litmus test for American moviegoing in the pandemic, Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” brought in an estimated $20.2 million through the holiday weekend in U.S. and Canadian theaters.
The result could be greeted as either the rejuvenation of U.S. cinemas — more Americans went to the movies this weekend than they have in nearly six months — or a reflection of drastically lowered standards for Hollywood’s top blockbusters given the circumstances.
About 70% of U.S. movie theaters are currently open; those in the country’s top markets, Los Angeles and New York, remain closed. Theaters that are operating are limiting audiences to a maximum of 50% capacity to distance moviegoers from one another. “Tenet” played in 2,810 North American locations, about three-fourths of what most major releases typically launch in.
Warner Bros. declined to split up U.S. and Canadian box office receipts. Theaters in Canada, where COVID-19 cases are much lower than in the U.S., began showing “Tenet” a week earlier. The film debuted stateside with nightly preview screenings Monday through Wednesday before the official opening on Thursday. Warner Bros. included all of the above in its estimated gross Sunday, along with expected returns for Monday’s Labor Day.
“Tenet” opened stronger in China. It debuted there with $30 million in ticket sales from Friday to Monday. Internationally, “Tenet” has exceeded expectations. In two weeks of release, its overseas total is $126 million, with a global tally thus far of $146.2 million.
Warner Bros. has emphasized that the usual opening-weekend calculus is out the window. Few onlookers felt it was possible to gauge how “Tenet” would open. The film, which cost $200 million to make and at least $100 million to market, will need to get close to $500 million to break even.
In the film’s favor: It currently has the big screen almost entirely to itself. Some multiplexes played “Tenet” as many as 100 times over the weekend. With little else on the horizon, Warner Bros. is counting on a long run for “Tenet.”
Not in the film’s favor: Audiences didn’t love Nolan’s latest time-bender. Moviegoers gave the thriller, starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson and Elizabeth Debicki, a “B” CinemaScore, the lowest grade for a Nolan release since 2006’s “The Prestige.” Reviews (75% positive on Rotten Tomatoes) have been good but far from overwhelming.
Warner Bros. declined to make executives available to discuss the opening but said in a statement that “Tenet” had to be judged differently. “We are in unprecedented territory, so any comparisons to the pre-COVID world would be inequitable and baseless,” said the studio.
Analyzing the film’s performance was virtually impossible, said senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian for data firm Comscore. He acknowledged North America remains a more challenged marketplace than Europe or Asia, but called it a solid start in what will be lengthy run for “Tenet.”
“It’s going to take a longer time to assess this,” said Dergarabedian. “The win is just to have movies open. To me, that says a lot.”
Hollywood is watching closely. With the majority of the studios’ top productions delayed until next year, the industry is experimenting with how to release its most expensive movies in the COVID-era. The Walt Disney Co. this weekend also debuted its $200 million live-action “Mulan” remake, but did so as a $30 purchase for Disney+ subscribers.
Disney on Sunday didn’t share digital returns for “Mulan” — a practice that’s been common among streaming companies and previous anticipated VOD releases like Universal’s “Trolls World Tour” and Disney’s own “Hamilton.” But “Mulan” is also playing in theaters in some overseas territories.
It began with $5.9 million in Thailand, Taiwan, the Middle East, Singapore and Malaysia. Next week, it debuts theatrically in its most important market: China.
The release of “Tenet” was also hotly debated, given the health risks associated with indoor gatherings. Several prominent film critics said they wouldn’t review “Tenet” over ethical concerns.
Theater chains, meanwhile, are struggling to remain solvent. Exhibitors have argued that they need new films to survive. Last weekend offered the first significant opportunity for U.S. cinemas to convince moviegoers to come back. Disney’s “The New Mutants,” a long delayed “X-Men” spinoff, collected about $7 million in 2,412 locations last weekend. Dipping significantly in its second weekend, its total is now up to $11.6 million.
Fittingly in an upside-down year, the palindromic “Tenet” — a thriller in which time is reversed — essentially began the summer movie season on the weekend it typically ends. Labor Day weekend, this year a historical one at the movies, is usually among the sleepiest weekends of the year at cinemas.
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Hall of Famer Lou Brock, who became baseball’s premier base stealer as he helped make the St. Louis Cardinals one of the sport’s dominant teams of the 1960s, died on Sunday at the age of 81. “Our hearts are broken,” the Cardinals said in a tweet. “Lou Brock was an amazing player and outstanding person.” Brock, who was born in Arkansas in 1939 and grew up in Louisiana, was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985 in his first year of eligibility. Hitting, defense and speed on the bases made Brock one of the most notable and popular players of the Cardinals, a team with a rich baseball history. He stole 118 bases in 1974, a single-season major league record until Rickey Henderson of the Oakland Athletics stole 130 in 1982. In 1977, Brock broke the legendary Ty Cobb’s mark for most steals in a career, a record that had stood for 49 years. That record was also eventually broken by Henderson in 1991. Brock led the National League in steals eight times and is still its career stolen-bases leader. He retired at age 40 in 1979 after 19 seasons, 16-1/2 of them with the Cardinals. With Brock as leadoff hitter and left fielder, the Cardinals won the World Series in 1964 and 1967. They also reached the Series in 1968 but lost. Brock’s career got off to a mediocre start with the Chicago Cubs in 1961 but turned around in the middle of the 1964 season when the Cardinals acquired him in a trade for pitcher Ernie Broglio in the hopes of adding speed to their lineup. Brock joined a team that was in sixth place, despite having stars such as pitcher Bob Gibson, a future Hall of Famer, along with Tim McCarver, Curt Flood and Ken Boyer, who would be named the National League’s most valuable player that season. Helped by Brock’s hitting and base stealing, they ended up winning the league championship on the last day of the season and defeated the New York Yankees in the World Series. The trade for Brock, which had initially stirred doubts among some Cardinals players, is widely considered one of the most one-sided in baseball history. With Brock as the catalyst, the Cardinals beat the Boston Red Sox to win another World Series championship in 1967 but lost to the Detroit Tigers the next season. Brock batted over .300 in eight seasons and finished his career with 3,023 hits and 938 steals. In 1978, the National League announced that the award it gives to the stolen-base leader each season would be named after Brock, and the Cardinals in 1979 retired his No. 20 jersey. “Lou was among the game’s most exciting players,” Major League Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement, adding that “he will be deeply missed.” During his career, Brock popularized what became known as the “brockabrella” – a small umbrella worn as a hat to help baseball fans get through rainy games. In later life, Brock battled serious health ailments, including diabetes and cancer. His lower left leg was amputated in 2015, but that did not stop him from throwing out the first pitch at the Cardinals’ first home game the next season, wearing a prosthetic leg. The Cardinals announced in April 2017 that Brock was being treated for multiple myeloma, a blood cancer. After months of treatment, Brock said several months later that his doctor told him he was cancer free.  
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Marriage.  In these socially distanced times, even the ceremony itself can’t always bring couples – and their families – together.  In Africa, some digitally savvy couples are finding virtual workarounds to get them to the altar, including weddings where the bride and groom are thousands of kilometers apart.  VOA’s Anita Powell spoke to one African couple who solidified their bond while in two different countries, and brings us this story of love, longing and celebration from Johannesburg.VIDEOGRAPHER: Zaheer Cassim
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Authentic held off a late challenge by favorite Tiz the Law to win the Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs and give Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert a sixth win in the annual Run for the Roses.Authentic, ridden by John Velazquez, set the early pace and managed to maintain his speed down the stretch in the 1¼-mile classic, which was held without spectators because of the COVID-19 crisis.Belmont Stakes winner Tiz the Law was second, long shot Mr. Big News was third and Honor A.P. was fourth in the 15-horse race.
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Chadwick Boseman was remembered as a hometown hero who brought a sense of pride to his native Anderson, South Carolina.The city paid tribute to Boseman in a public memorial on Thursday evening. The actor, who became widely popular through “Black Panther,” was honored after he died last week at the age of 43 following a private four-year battle with colon cancer.A viewing of “Black Panther” was held at an outdoor amphitheater where people practiced social distancing. Most attendees wore masks, while others — mostly kids — dressed up in Black Panther costumes.Some artwork of Boseman was displayed onstage during the tribute.A man watches the movie “Black Panther” during a Chadwick Boseman tribute in Anderson, S.C., Sept. 3, 2020.”He is the epitome of Black excellence,” said Deanna Brown-Thomas, the daughter of legendary singer James Brown and president of her father’s family foundation. She remembered when Boseman visited her family in Augusta, Georgia, before the actor portrayed her father in the 2014 film “Get on Up.”Boseman was a playwright who acted and directed in theater before playing the Marvel Comics character King T’Challa in “Black Panther,” which became one of the top-grossing films in history. He also wowed audiences in his portrayal of other Black icons, including Jackie Robinson in “42” and Thurgood Marshall in “Marshall,” and shined in other films such as Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods.”Brown-Thomas joked about how her family teased Boseman for being too tall to play her father. But she said Boseman was perfect for the role, admiring his humility as a high-profile actor.”He wasn’t Hollywood, and that’s what I loved about him,” she said.Khloe Murray, 5, of South Carolina holds her Black Panther doll during a Chadwick Boseman tribute in Anderson, S.C., Sept. 3, 2020.Anderson mayor Terence Roberts said people around town always knew Boseman would be special.”You know, he was always reading and always trying to get better,” Roberts said. “So from a work ethic point of view, it just doesn’t happen overnight. He showed us that we’ve got to hone our skills and just persevere.”In Anderson, a city of about 28,000 people, “there’s deep sadness and grief, but it has a bounce out of it that is such inspiration,” city spokeswoman Beth Batson said. That’s because Boseman inspired so many people in the community, she said.”It has been amazing to watch the grief, so to speak, blossom,” she said. “Now young people say ‘what can I do, what can I be.'”Pastor Samuel Neely said Boseman was active in church, speech and debate. The pastor said he baptized Boseman. He also praised Boseman for having high character.”Even though he plays these different people, I still see the person I knew as a child,” said Neely, who was Boseman’s childhood pastor. “When I see him, it’s almost like seeing my own child. He’s still Chad.”Thursday’s tribute was not a funeral, and members of Boseman’s immediate family did not plan to be in attendance, Boseman’s publicist, Nicki Fioravante, said in a statement.”On behalf of the Boseman family, we appreciate the community’s outpouring of love and admiration for Chadwick,” Fioravante said. 
 
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Two stars at the Venice Film Festival, Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton, have praised the decision by the Berlin festival to award gender-neutral prizes, with Swinton predicting other award ceremonies will follow suit.
Organizers of the Berlin International Film Festival announced last month that they would stop awarding separate acting prizes to men and women starting next year. The best actor and actress Silver Bear prizes will now be replaced by best leading performance and best supporting performance awards.
Swinton, who received a Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement award at the Venice festival’s opening ceremony, said divisions by gender were a “waste of life.”
“And so I’m really happy to hear that about Berlin,” she told reporters Thursday. “And I think it’s pretty much inevitable that everybody will follow, because it’s just obvious to me.”
Blanchett, president of the Venice jury this year, said she instinctively calls herself an “actor.” She said it’s hard enough “to sit in judgment of other people’s work” and then even harder to break it down further along gender lines.
“I’m of a generation where the word “actress” was used always in a pejorative sense. So I think I claim the other space,” she said. “I think good performances are good performances, no matter the sexual orientation of the performers who are making them.”
The Venice festival has long been criticized for the lack of female directors in its in-competition films, with only four films made by women in the 62 films competing for the Golden Lion award between 2017 and 2019.
This year, the gender parity has improved, with 44% of the in-competition films directed by women.
Swinton was also in Venice to present a short film directed by Pedro Almodovar, “The Human Voice,” about a woman’s emotional response to being left by her lover over the phone.
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More than a dozen “60 Minutes” interviews with former President Barack Obama, beginning when he was a U.S. Senator, have been compiled into an audio release.
Simon & Schuster Audio announced Thursday that “Barack Obama: The 60 Minutes Interviews” will come out Oct. 13. The audiobook features CBS News journalist Steve Kroft, who first met with Obama in January 2007 and spoke with him throughout his presidency, culminating in a discussion shortly before Obama left office in 2017.
“Over the span of just a few years, Barack Obama evolved from inexperienced freshman senator into one of the most powerful people in the world,” Kroft said in a statement. “This audiobook collection allows listeners to hear that remarkable transformation in Obama’s own voice and words, as it is unfolding.”
The audiobook also includes joint interviews with Obama and his wife, Michelle, and former Vice President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
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A law firm with ties to prominent Democrats has filed a lawsuit attempting to keep rapper Kanye West off presidential ballots in Virginia.
Attorneys for Perkins Coie filed a lawsuit in Richmond on Tuesday on behalf of two people who say they were tricked into signing an “Elector Oath” backing West’s candidacy. Under state law, a candidate must have 13 electors pledge their support for a candidate as part of the criteria to appear on the ballot.
The lawsuit alleges that 11 of West’s 13 electors may be invalid and asks the court to block West’s name from appearing on ballots, which are set to be printed soon. Virginia will begin mailing absentee ballots later this month.
Lawyers for the West campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
West supported President Donald Trump for reelection until announcing his own presidential bid in July.
Democrats claim Republicans are pushing West’s candidacy in swing states to siphon Black votes from Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
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International rights groups and officials of the Tibetan government in exile say Chinese President Xi Jinping’s latest calls to “Sinicize” Tibetan Buddhism are a threat to Tibetan identity and culture.   FILE – Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the closing session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, May 28, 2020.Xi’s comments came at a recent senior Communist Party meeting on Tibet’s future governance, where the president said Beijing must build an “impregnable fortress” to maintain stability in Tibetan areas in Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces, which have strong Tibetan ties. He also called for enhancing China’s national security by educating the masses in the struggle against “splittism,” or deviating from the party’s official policies.   China has long viewed Tibetan Buddhism as a source of “separatist power,” which Beijing has targeted with “reeducational patriotism” campaigns that force Tibetan monks to denounce Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.   FILE – Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama greets devotees as he arrives to give a religious talk at the Tibetan Children’s Village School in Dharmsala, India, May 27, 2015.In the past decade or so, the Communist Party of China (CCP) officials have been posted in major TAR monasteries and communities closer to China, such as Larung Gar in Sichuan province, one of the world’s foremost centers of Tibetan Buddhist study.   Xi’s vow to build a “new modern socialist Tibet that is united, prosperous, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful” would be achieved primarily via secondary school reforms that “plant the seeds of loving China deep in the heart of every youth.” And by “actively [guiding] Tibetan Buddhism to adapt to the socialist society and promote the Sinicization of Tibetan Buddhism,” Xi said.   Disrespecting the faith Broadly defined, Sinicization is a campaign to reform or mold the belief systems and doctrine of any religious faith into compliance with CPC values.   In 2015, Xi discussed a plan to Sinicize the beliefs of the five largest religious groups in China: Buddhism, Daoism, Catholicism, Protestantism and Islam.   Human Rights Watch China Director Sophie Richardson told VOA’s Tibetan Service that Xi’s latest remarks on faith are a red flag for rights observers.   “Xi’s campaign of Sinicization is a model of anti-rights policies, especially as far as religious freedom is concerned,” Richardson said. “Individuals are free to believe what they like and worship as they like; these are not rights states can give, take away or otherwise dictate.   “No one is fooled by his claims that these policies respect Tibetans or Buddhism,” she said.   Dharamshala-based Karma Choeying, spokesperson for the Tibetan government in exile, said Xi’s remarks are just the latest in a decadeslong campaign to control not just Tibetan Buddhism, but Tibetan culture itself.   “This is to Sinicize Tibet,” he told VOA, speaking in Tibetan.   “They’ve been trying to do this for the past 60 years and now President Xi Jinping is saying that they need to put more effort on it,” Choeying said. “This is to Sinicize Tibetan identity, religion and culture.”   China seized control over Tibet in 1950 in what it described as a “peaceful liberation” that helped the remote Himalayan region throw off its “feudalist” past. But critics, led by the Dalai Lama, say Beijing’s rule amounts to “cultural genocide.”   FILE – Balloons are released during the celebration event at the Potala Palace marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region, in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, China, Sept. 8, 2015.“Xi Jinping’s plan to further tighten his grip over occupied Tibet is yet another desperate attempt to continue China’s decadeslong colonial exploitation,” Dorjee Tseten, executive director of the New York-based Students for a Free Tibet, said.   “China’s plan to further Sinicize Tibetan Buddhism threatens the existence of Tibetans’ unique identity and culture,” Tseten told VOA. “This plan will never be accepted by Tibetans and will lead to stronger resistance.”   Matteo Mecacci, director of the U.S.-based International Campaign for Tibet, recently told Reuters that Xi’s remarks are an indication of China’s failure to integrate Tibet into Chinese society.   “If Tibetans really benefited as much from Chinese leadership as Xi and other officials claim, then China wouldn’t have to fear separatism and wouldn’t need to subject Tibetans to political reeducation,” he said in an email, according to Reuters.   Remarks follow clashes China’s stepped-up efforts to integrate the TAR, which borders India and Bhutan, coincide with a recent spate of deadly border skirmishes with Indian troops. A clash in late June along a stretch of unmarked border in the Galwan Valley left 20 Indian troops dead and an undisclosed number of Chinese casualties.   FILE – Supporters of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or World Hindu Council, hold posters showing coffins of Indian army soldiers killed in clashes with China, during a protest in Ahmedabad, India, June 20, 2020.Military and diplomatic efforts to resolve the situation have so far proven fruitless.   China’s strategies to integrate Tibet have also targeted other cultural institutions, such as marriage. In 2014, Chen Quanguo, then-CPC secretary of TAR, said “the government must actively promote intermarriages,” between Tibetans and Chinese in order to promote “ethnic unity.”    Suppression ‘completely correct’ China has also used forced reeducation, detention, torture and intimidation as tools to achieve “stability.”  In 2019, VOA obtained a leaked journal of a Tibetan detainee from one of the “reform through re-education” camps that shows the use of torture in the camps is a regular practice. Beijing has employed similar tactics on Muslim Uighurs who are prisoners in Xinjiang. FILE – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gives a news conference in Washington, June 24, 2020.In July, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States would restrict visas for some Chinese officials involved in blocking diplomatic access to Tibet and engaging in “human rights abuses,” adding that Washington supported “meaningful autonomy” for Tibet. State Department sanctions targeting China also touched on documented human rights abuses in Hong Kong and against predominantly ethnic Uyghurs in Xinjiang.   In a retaliatory move, China said it would impose visa restrictions on U.S. citizens who have engaged in what it called “egregious” behavior over Tibet.   This story originated in VOA’s Tibetan Service. Some information is from Reuters.
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Masks, sanitizers, and the most shocking of all – no crowds. After almost six months of closure and strict lockdown, New York City museums are finally reopening. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA and Whitney Museum – among others – are welcoming visitors again, but with a few COVID-related restrictions in place. Nina Vishneva has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
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In their driveways or in their bedrooms, using little cardboard boxes or piles of backyard dirt, young fans of “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman paid their respects with lots of Wakanda salutes and mock funerals attended by action figures.
Soon after the shocking news of Boseman’s death Friday at age 43, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles began posting photos of funerals staged by kids for King T’Challa, the actor’s lead character from the Marvel blockbuster. Some of those posts have been shared thousands of times amid an outpouring of grief from admirers of all ages who were unaware he had been battling colon cancer for four years.
Other young fans mourned in more private ways, watching “Black Panther” and “42” for the umpteenth time with their families in Boseman’s honor.
To many kids, his passing was a life event, driven by the change-makers he portrayed but also by his heartfelt comments in awards speeches and interviews about the need for more opportunities for people of color.
Boseman’s King T’Challa, ruler of the fictional African nation of Wakanda, was introduced in 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War.” His “Wakanda Forever” salute reverberated around the world after the release of “Black Panther” two years ago. The actor’s turn as baseball great Jackie Robinson in “42” came out in 2013 and is now being discovered by younger fans.
Nick Cummings, 11, of Louisville, Kentucky, loves both films. He stumbled on word of Boseman’s death on TikTok, before his mother had broken the news.
“At first when I heard it I didn’t believe it,” he said Monday. “I felt like a part of me got erased.”
A little too old for action figure funerals, Nick, who is Black, donned his baseball jersey emblazoned with Robinson’s “42” and had no plans to take it off any time soon.
Twins Lenny and Bobby Homes in Mesa, Arizona, are 10. Their mom, Annalie, had no intention of telling the boys, who are Filipino American, about Boseman’s death, but they found out on their own Sunday on YouTube. They went the funeral route, using a black car seat for their prone Black Panther.
Dad David Homes is a big Marvel enthusiast. He began schooling his sons in both the comics and films when they were little. How many times have they seen “Black Panther”?
“A lot!” the two chimed in unison.
Of Boseman’s death, Lenny said: “We were really sad. He was one of our favorite actors. When we heard, we were like, the Panther needs a funeral. He was a good king. He was very nice and kind, and he followed the rules.”
Annalie said she wanted to shield the boys from the news because they lost a grandfather less than a month ago.
The twins have more than 100 action figures and their own YouTube channel. They gathered up 13 of their favorite characters for the funeral Sunday, including Thor, Black Widow, Rocket Raccoon, Hulk and Spider-Man. The toys’ arms can’t bend into the Wakanda salute, so the boys arranged them with arms extended, reaching out to T’Challa.
Djoser Burruss, 12, of San Diego took the news hard. One of his grandmothers died of the same type of cancer. Djoser, who is African American, posted a tribute to Boseman on Instagram: “R.I.P. Chadwick Boseman, the one and only Black Panther. We mourn your passing but you will forever live in our hearts. Thank you for showing us what KINGs do.”
In an interview Tuesday, Djoser added: “I saw it on my phone and I was devastated. We kind of owe it to ourselves to be better every day because not every day is guaranteed, just like Chadwick, but he did so much in those four years.”
His mother, Christina, said the family rewatched “Black Panther” last weekend, along with videos of Boseman speaking out on behalf of Black people to “soak up all of his energy and his wisdom.”
Gavyn Batiste, 7, in Lafayette, Louisiana, has seen “Black Panther” a half dozen times. He invited Captain America, Thor and Hulk, among other Avengers, to the funeral he held. He also wrote a song for T’Challa that goes like this:
“Black Panther is gone. I don’t know what to say. I never thought this would happen in my day. This is sad. I am mad. I don’t know how to feel. It still feels unreal. Wakanda Forever!”
Sonya Antoine, Gavyn’s mom, said the film offers Black children a “sense of hope, a sense of dreaming, and to just embrace who you are in your culture and what that culture can mean to you and your family.”
Nick’s mother, Deedee Cummings, writes children’s books with diverse characters and knows how rare it is to find afrocentric fare for children like the futuristic world in “Black Panther.” She recalled how happy her son was to see the film in a theater with a neighbor when it first came out. Both wore Wakanda gear.
The family watched the movie again on TV after Boseman’s death. Nick sat solemnly this time around.
“He never sits still,” Deedee said. “This time he did.”
Deedee thinks parents shouldn’t keep the news of Boseman’s death from their young kids.
“It’s so important to acknowledge this loss to children, especially Black children,” she said.
Susan Nicholas in Atlanta also writes for children. Her book, “The Death of Cupcake,” is out in November and focuses on grief among kids. Boseman’s death, she said, may be difficult for parents to discuss because they’re reluctant to burst the larger-than-life bubble created in movies.
“But kids actually have insights that are quite profound,” she said. “We can all elevate our perspectives around death to really heal from that. At the end of the day, those are human beings in those costumes and they succumb to death, too, even if Hollywood doesn’t allow them to die.”
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With the coronavirus outbreak, people worldwide have become preoccupied with a threat so physically small that it can’t be seen. The invisible world of viruses has long fascinated multi-media artist Laura Splan, who is artist in residence at a biotech lab researching Covid-19. Matt Dibble takes a closer look.
Camera, Producer: Matt Dibble
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American singer Akon says he is moving ahead with plans to break ground on a $6 billion futuristic self-named city in Senegal next year. On Monday, Akon traveled with government officials to the site of the planned project in the rural community of Mbodienne, well outside the capital, Dakar. Akon, whose real name is Aliuane Thiam, said he sees Akon city becoming the beginning of Africa’s future, with the latest technologies, cryptocurrencies. Akon, the son of Senegalese parents who spent his early childhood in the West African nation, also hopes the project will provide much needed jobs for Senegalese and be a refuge for Black Americans and others facing racial prejudice. Akon’s project, which was first announced two years ago, has won him favor with Senegalese authorities who praise him for investing in Africa at a time of uncertainty in global tourism. Akon said his idea for the city precedes the blockbuster movie “Black Panther,” but he likened his city as a “real-life Wakanda,” the technologically advanced fictional African place portrayed in the movie. 
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American singer Akon says he is moving ahead with plans to break ground on a $6 billion futuristic self-named city in Senegal next year. On Monday, Akon traveled with government officials to the site of the planned project in the rural community of Mbodienne, well outside the capital, Dakar. Akon, whose real name is Aliuane Thiam, said he sees Akon city becoming the beginning of Africa’s future, with the latest technologies, cryptocurrencies. Akon, the son of Senegalese parents who spent his early childhood in the West African nation, also hopes the project will provide much needed jobs for Senegalese and be a refuge for Black Americans and others facing racial prejudice. Akon’s project, which was first announced two years ago, has won him favor with Senegalese authorities who praise him for investing in Africa at a time of uncertainty in global tourism. Akon said his idea for the city precedes the blockbuster movie “Black Panther,” but he likened his city as a “real-life Wakanda,” the technologically advanced fictional African place portrayed in the movie. 
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Hong Kong’s booksellers and publishers, long known as champions of freedom of expression in the Chinese territory, are now under greater threat following the new National Security Law enacted in July.Now, booksellers could run afoul of laws that carry strict punishments for vague offenses such as “separating the country” and “subverting state power.”Hillway Press, an independent publishing house in Hong Kong, has been mainly publishing online novels and textbooks. After last year’s anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill movement, it began publishing books on social issues. The publisher said authorities are looking for an excuse to publicly punish someone as an example to others.”The printing house has received the information that politicians are looking for publishers of political books to kill the chickens to scare the monkeys,” said a Hillway Press executive who requested anonymity and is referred to as Mr. C.He said the chilling effect had appeared long before the adoption of the national security law. The company’s latest publication, “To Freedom,” which included articles about the anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill movement, was rejected by six printing houses.Bookseller Lam Wing-kee waves to supporters outside his Causeway Bay Books bookstore before taking part in a protest march in Hong Kong, June 18, 2016.The book’s planning and drafting began in April. When the draft was finished at the end of May, China’s Communist Party put the Hong Kong version of the national security law on the National People’s Congress Standing Committee’s agenda. A long-term printing house partner of the publishing house suddenly changed its mind and declined to print the book because of the sensitive content. Hillway Press had to have the book printed and bound at different companies so it could be published.”To Freedom” contains many words that criticize the Communist Party of China. To protect interviewees and business partners, the publishing house deleted the sensitive content. “Liberate” has been changed to “free” and “reconstruct.” “Anti-CCP” has been taken out. Paragraphs discussing “Hong Kong independence” have been deleted, and illustrations with the words “Liberate Hong Kong” on the cover have been reduced in transparency.”I am deeply saddened by this self-castration,” said Mr. C. “Under the new legal framework, the publishing industry’s biggest concern is where the red line is.”The blurry legal definition leads to white terror, which leads to fewer social issues that can be explored and, as a result, fewer books that can be published. Mr. C expects Hong Kong’s publishing industry to shrink.”The most frightening thing about the national security law is that there have been no official and clear instructions as to which words and subject matters can be published and which cannot be mentioned. Under such circumstances, we are actually very worried that we will break the law by accident,” he said.On the fourth day of the legislation becoming law, the Hong Kong Public Library immediately took at least nine political books off its shelves, including the works of Chen Yun, a scholar, Joshua Wong, an activist, and Tanya Chan, a Legislative Council member.”All along, what best reflected freedom of speech in Hong Kong is our freedom of the press,” said Mr. C. “For a long time, Hong Kong was a place where a hundred flowers bloomed, a hundred schools of thought contended. The books that are banned in Taiwan and mainland China could be bought in Hong Kong. With the national security law, some subjects can no longer be discussed, and some words will not be able to get published.”A column of books on the 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy movement, with a tag which reads “Don’t forget June 4th”, are displayed inside a bookstore in Hong Kong which sells books that banned in mainland China, Nov. 6, 2012.Hong Kong Reader Bookstore is an independent bookstore that sells books on humanities and social sciences, with political books accounting for about 30% of the bookstore’s sales. Daniel Lee, the store’s director, also said the terrible thing about the national security law was the blurring of the redlines.”The usual practice in Hong Kong is that as long as the government does not specify what is illegal, we can do it. However, it has always been the practice in the mainland that you do not know that you have broken the law until the moment you are arrested.”Lee pointed out that there was no clear list of which titles would be officially banned from sale, causing problems for bookstores.”Maybe until one day when the national security police suddenly show up at the bookstore, we won’t know that a book is forbidden. But we will have already broken the law by accident.”Lee said that when he opened the bookstore, he only wanted to promote Hong Kong’s reading culture and never thought that selling books would become a political mission.”We didn’t choose to be on the front line of freedom of speech,” he said. “But in the end, freedom of expression in Hong Kong is endangered, and as bookstores, we have become the reluctant center of this matter.”Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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