“Hadestown,” singer-songwriter Anais Mitchell’s Broadway debut, earned a leading 14 Tony Award nominations Tuesday, followed by the jukebox musical “Ain’t Too Proud,” built around songs by the Temptations, which received a dozen nominations.

The musical “Hadestown,” which intertwines the myths of Orpheus and Eurydice and Hades and Persephone, bested more familiar names, including stage adaptations of the hit movies “Tootsie” and “Beetlejuice,” which both also got best musical nods. The giddy, heartwarming “The Prom” rounds out the best new musical category.

“Hadestown” also was the only new musical on Broadway directed by a woman, Tony Award nominee Rachel Chavkin, who earned another one Tuesday.

“I’m trying not to swear, but I am so proud of the 14 nominations. There is just not a weak spot on the team. There is no place where we haven’t all been working our asses off to make this show feel as ancient and as `now’ as possible, simultaneously,” she said by phone.

 

The best-play nominees are the Northern Irish drama “The Ferryman,” from Jez Butterworth; James Graham’s “Ink,” about Rupert Murdoch; Taylor Mac’s Broadway debut, “Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus”; Tarell Alvin McCraney’s “Choir Boy”; and Heidi Schreck’s “What the Constitution Means to Me,” a personal tour of the landmark document at the heart of so many American divisions.

Des McAnuff, who directed “Ain’t Too Proud,” pointed to the timeliness of his musical, which charts the rise, sacrifices and challenges facing the 1950s group that sang “Baby Love” and “My Girl.”

“I think when people come to the Imperial Theatre, they’ll find that the story is as pertinent now as it was when they lived it,” he said. “It applies to Black Lives Matter and what’s going on in this country in terms of the tensions today.”

Theater veterans were surprised to see Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird”; “Hillary and Clinton,” about Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign; and the stage adaptation of the media satire film “Network” not getting best play nods, though they did earn recognition in other categories.

McAnuff said it has been a strong season for plays and wildly eclectic. “To me, that’s what the American theater’s about,” he said, adding he was surprised that Sorkin wasn’t recognized for his “brilliant” adaptation but “that speaks to the fact that there’s so many worthy works out there.”

The nomination for “Tootsie” means composer and lyricist David Yazbek could be one step closer to getting back-to-back wins. His show “The Band’s Visit” won best new musical last year.

Laurie Metcalf got an acting nod for “Hillary and Clinton” and if she wins the Tony this year, she will be the first person to win acting Tonys three years consecutively. (She won in 2018’s “Three Tall Women” and “A Doll’s House, Part 2” in 2017).

A sweet “Kiss Me, Kate” and a dark “Oklahoma!” make up the best musical revival category; they were the only eligible nominees. The best play revival nominees are “Arthur Miller’s All My Sons,” “The Boys in the Band,” “Burn This,” “Torch Song” and “The Waverly Gallery.”

Ali Stroker, the first actress who needs a wheelchair for mobility known to have appeared on a Broadway stage, earned a Tony nomination for “Oklahoma!”

Nominees for best actor in a play include Paddy Considine from “The Ferryman,” Bryan Cranston in “Network,” Jeff Daniels in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Adam Driver from “Burn This” and Jeremy Pope in “Choir Boy.” Pope is also up for a featured role in “Ain’t Too Proud — The Life and Times of the Temptations.”

The category of best actress in a play includes Annette Bening in “Arthur Miller’s All My Sons,” Laura Donnelly in “The Ferryman,” Elaine May in “The Waverly Gallery,” Janet McTeer in “Bernhardt/Hamlet,” Metcalf in “Hillary and Clinton” and Schreck from “What the Constitution Means to Me.”

Those nominated for best actor in a musical are Brooks Ashmanskas from “The Prom,” Derrick Baskin in “Ain’t Too Proud — The Life and Times of the Temptations,” Alex Brightman from “Beetlejuice,” Damon Daunno in “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!” and Santino Fontana in “Tootsie.”

Patrick Page, who has appeared in over a dozen Broadway shows including “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas!,” “The Lion King” and “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” earned his first Tony nomination for playing Hades in “Hadestown.”

“I think I just appreciate it more than I can say really. It’s something I wanted. It’s hard to want something,” he said. “There have been a lot of times where I have been in the mix and haven’t been nominated. So it’s just a wonderful feeling and frankly a bit of a relief. And especially for such a wonderful show.”

Nominees for best leading actress in a musical are Stephanie J. Block in “The Cher Show,” Caitlin Kinnunen and Beth Leavel both in “The Prom,” Eva Noblezada in “Hadestown” and Kelli O’Hara in “Kiss Me, Kate.”

Leavel, who earned a Tony in 2006 for “The Drowsy Chaperone,” joked by phone that she paced “about 4 miles” waiting for the live announcement: “I got my steps in!” Her musical, about four fading stars whose desperate need for a new stage leads them to protest a small-town prom, earned seven nods. She expects an especially fun performance Tuesday night following the nominations: “It’s just a special evening,” she said. “We get to share this moment. It’s really cool.”

Block, a veteran of Broadway shows such as “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” and “Falsettos,” got her third nomination for playing one of three actresses who portray the title character in “The Cher Show.”

“Stepping into the life of Cher each night and getting to tell her story eight times a week is a one-of-a-kind experience I will always cherish. This show has truly changed me,” she said in a statement.

Hollywood A-listers Cranston, Driver, May and Daniels made the cut but some of their starry colleagues did not, including Kerry Washington, Armie Hammer, Ethan Hawke, Joan Allen, Michael Cera, Lucas Hedges and Keri Russell.

For a few theater veterans behind the scenes, the nominations were doubly good: Ann Roth was nominated for creating the costumes for both “Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus” and “To Kill a Mockingbird,” while William Ivey Long earned nods for both “Beetlejuice” and “Tootsie.”

The awards will be presented June 9 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, airing on CBS. James Corden, the host of CBS’ “The Late Late Show” and a Tony winner himself, will host.
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Netflix announced Tuesday it is joining with the production company for the movie “Crazy Rich Asians” to make a film about last July’s dramatic rescue of 12 village boys in northern Thailand who were trapped with their soccer coach in a flooded cave for more than two weeks.

Netflix and SK Global Entertainment said in Bangkok they have acquired the rights to the story from 13 Thumluang Co. Ltd,, a company that Thailand’s government helped establish to represent the interests of the boys and their coach, who attended the news conference for the announcement.

Thailand’s Culture Ministry in March first unveiled the deal, announced as a miniseries. Deputy government spokesman Weerachon Sukoondhapatipakat was quoted then as saying that the families of the cave survivors would each be paid 3 million baht ($94,000).

The boys of the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach became a center of world attention after they became trapped in the cave on June 23 last year, with doubts they were able to find shelter from rising flood waters that poured in after unexpected rain. They were found by two British divers and brought out by an international crew of experienced cave divers who teamed up with Thai navy SEALs in a dangerously complicated mission that was successfully concluded on July 10.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to thank the people and organizations from Thailand and around the world who came together to perform a true miracle, by retelling our story,” said Ekapol “Ake” Chanthawong, the boy’s assistant coach who shared the ordeal with them. “We look forward to working with all involved parties to ensure our story is told accurately, so that the world can recognize, once again, the heroes that made the rescue operation a success.”

Tuesday’s announcement said 13 Thumluang “has committed to donating 15% of the revenues derived from bringing this story to global audiences to charity organizations that focus on disaster relief.”

Jon M. Chu, who helmed “Crazy Rich Asians,” and Nattawut “Baz” Poonpiriya, a Thai filmmaker, will be directors on the cave project.

“We are immensely proud to be able to support the retelling of the incredible story of the Tham Luang cave rescue,” Erika North, director of International Originals at Netflix, said in a statement. “The story combines so many unique local and universal themes which connected people from all walks of life, from all around the world. Thailand is a very important country for Netflix and we are looking forward to bringing this inspiring local but globally resonant story of overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds to life, once again, for global audiences.”

The rescue was a rare bit of feel-good news from Thailand, which has been mired in political conflict and heavy-handed military rule for more than a decade. The cave rescue also allowed the government of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who had seized power in a 2014 military coup, to share in some glory.

An independent film about the adventure, “The Cave,” was shot soon after the rescue and is supposed to be released later this year.
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Commemorations for Leonardo da Vinci’s 500th anniversary begin this week in Amboise, in the Loire Valley, with France and Italy setting aside recent tensions to honor the memory of the Renaissance genius in the town where he spent his final years.

In 1516, aged 64, Leonardo da Vinci left Italy to enter the service of King Francis I of France. Many of his masterpieces — St. John the Baptist, the Mona Lisa — followed him and were sold to the French monarch, forming a legacy now exhibited at the Louvre museum in Paris.

Amid diplomatic tensions between Rome and Paris, his legacy has become contentious, with Italy’s Culture undersecretary Lucia Borgonzoni in November telling Italian media she wanted to renegotiate the planned lending of his works to the Louvre for an anniversary exhibition, because “the French cannot have it all.”

It is unclear, for example, whether the iconic drawing of the “Vitruvian Man” will eventually leave Venice to join the Louvre for the display.

But on Thursday, in Amboise, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella will seek to ease strains between the two normally close allies that have grown more acute since mid-2018, mostly over migration policy.

They will gather at Leonardo’s tomb, a modest grave in a chapel of Amboise castle containing his presumed remains, and will pay a visit to his house nearby, the Clos Luce, where he died on May 2nd, 1519.

“It’s an extremely solemn gesture, showing that the two countries have this shared memory, this figure, a culture that binds our two countries,” the director of Amboise castle Jean-Louis Sureau told Reuters in an interview.

Da Vinci ‘s arrival in France was no accident, because King Francis I wanted him to join the Court to participate in its international influence and refinement, Sureau said.

“Leonardo da Vinci was unquestionably born in Italy, he’s Florentine, but beyond that, he led a career at the service of several powerful men. This career, and his life, end here, in France,” Sureau added.

During his three years in France, da Vinci focused on perfecting unfinished masterpieces, drawing and scientific writing, but also took part in organizing lavish parties for the King of France.

“This universal man, who, to be clear, was first and foremost Italian, can also be seen as the symbol of a European culture, built beyond traditional divisions,” Catherine Simon Marion, delegate general of the Clos Luce, said.
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Halima Aden is featured in the magazine’s 2019 swimsuit issue wearing swimwear that covers the entire body except the face, hands and feet.

“Young girls who wear a hijab should have women they look up to in any and every industry. We are now seeing politicians, business women, television reporters, and other successful hijabi women in visible roles and that is the message we need to be sending,” Aden told the BBC. “The response has been incredible and I’m so honored that Sports Illustrated has taken the step to showcase the beauty that modestly dressed women possess.”

Aden, who was born in Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp, moved to the U.S. when she was 7. She said the photoshoot, which took place in Kenya, was an extremely emotional experience for her. 

“I keep thinking (back) to 6-year-old me who, in this same country, was in a refugee camp,” Aden told the Sports Illustrated. “So to grow up to live the American dream [and] to come back to Kenya and shoot for SI in the most beautiful parts of Kenya — I don’t think that’s a story that anybody could make up.”

Aden also made history last year, becoming the first hijab-clad woman featured on the cover of British Vogue. Last month she and two other Muslim models were first black hijab-wearing models to appear on the cover of Vogue Arabia. 

“Growing up in the states, I never really felt represented because I never could flip through a magazine and see a girl who was wearing a hijab,” Aden says in the video shared by the magazine on Twitter.

The Burkini was created by Australian designer Aheda Zanetti, who said it was made to provide Muslim women an ability to participate in the Australia’s beach lifestyle. 

Zanetti says burkinis have also found fans among non-Muslims, including “Jews, Hindus, Christians, Mormons, women with various body issues.”

But it has also garnered controversy. Several towns in France have banned the wearing of burkinis, especially in community pools. The officials justified the ban by pointing to laws that forbids swimming in street clothes. Bans have also been imposed in a town in Germany and resorts in Morocco. 
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U.S. actress Elle Fanning, French graphic novelist Enki Bilal and the Oscar-nominated director of “The Favourite,” Yorgos Lanthimos, will be among jury members at the Cannes Film Festival next month, organizers said on Monday.

The world’s biggest cinema showcase kicks off on the French Riviera on May 14th, with Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu presiding over the panel that decides on prizes, including the top Palme D’Or award.

Split between four men and four women, the jury for the festival’s 72nd edition will also include Pawel Pawlikowski, the Polish filmmaker and screenwriter named best director at Cannes last year for the impossible love story “Cold War.”

Maimouna N’Diaye, who has directed documentaries and acted in films such as Otar Iosseliani’s “Chasing Butterflies” will also sit on the panel, alongside two other female directors.

Kelly Reichardt of the United States, whose “Wendy and Lucy” starring Michelle Williams was a contender for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard award in 2008, directed 2016’s “Certain Women.”

Italy’s Alicia Rohrwacher won best screenplay at Cannes last year for her film “Happy as Lazzaro,” a satirical fable about a peasant family.

French filmmaker Robin Campillo, who took Cannes by storm in 2017 with “120 BPM – Beats Per Minute,” winning the Grand Prix for his movie about an AIDS activist, will complete the line-up.

Comic book creator Bilal, best known for his Nikopol trilogy of science fiction novels, has also directed feature films, including 2004’s “Immortal,” organizers said.

Fanning, who started working in movies as a child, has starred in several films in competition at Cannes in recent years, including “The Beguiled” by Sofia Coppola in 2017.

The May 14-25 festival will kick off with U.S. director Jim Jarmusch’s latest film, “The Dead Don’t Die.”
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A planned three-day concert marking the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock music festival was thrown into doubt on Monday after the lead investors said they had canceled the event but organizers said they had no right to do so.

Woodstock 50 was due to take place Aug. 16-18 at the Watkins Glen motor racing venue in upstate New York with a lineup that included rapper Jay-Z, singer Miley Cyrus and rockers the Killers.

It was promoted as a modern version of the August 1969 Woodstock festival, which was billed as “three days of peace and music” and is regarded as one of the pivotal moments in music history.

Investors Dentsu Aegis Network, a unit of Japanese company Dentsu, said in a statement on Monday they “don’t believe the production of the festival can be executed as an event worthy of the Woodstock Brand name while also ensuring the health and safety of the artists, partners and attendees.”

“Dentsu Aegis Network’s Amplifi Live, a partner of Woodstock 50, has decided to cancel the festival,” the statement added.

Dentsu had a clause in its contract that gave it the option to cancel the festival, a representative of the investors said.

The producers of Woodstock 50 said that was not the case.

“Woodstock 50 vehemently denies the festival’s cancellation and legal remedy will (be) sought,” Woodstock 50 said in a statement to the Poughkeepsie Journal in upstate New York.

“They do not have the right to unilaterally cancel the festival,” Michael Lang, the co-producer of the 1969 Woodstock festival and the man behind Woodstock 50, told the New York Times on Monday.

More than 80 musical acts, including 1969 festival veterans John Fogerty, Canned Heat and Santana, had been announced as taking part and some 100,000 fans were expected to attend and camp at the Watkins Glen site.

But the festival ran into trouble two weeks ago when the sale date for tickets was postponed. Ticket prices had not been announced.

The festival met delays in obtaining permits, arranging security, water supplies and sanitation, said a source close to the event. Capacity was reduced to around 75,000, cutting into the financial feasibility of the festival, the source added.

The nonprofit Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, the current owners of the field where the 1969 Woodstock festival took place, has also scaled back plans for a three-day anniversary event saying in February it will instead host separate concerts by Ringo Starr, Santana and the Doobie Brothers.
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As the north prepared for the battle of Winterfell, people in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi were surprised to see Tyrion Lannister serving flatbread at a local restaurant.

Waiter Rozi Khan has taken social media in his homeland – where “Game of Thrones” has a strong following – by storm for his uncanny resemblance to U.S. actor Peter Dinklage, who plays Tyrion Lannister in the HBO fantasy series.

Until a few months ago, the 26-year-old had never heard of Dinklage. But his life changed when the son of the restaurant owner he works for spotted the resemblance and posted his picture on Facebook.

“In the beginning, they started calling me Peter Dinklage.

After that I saw his show, and then slowly, slowly I became famous,” Khan told Reuters.

The resemblance goes beyond facial features: both men are also 4 feet 5 inches (135 cms) tall.

“My wish is to work in movies. And my other wish is that I should meet Peter Dinklage,” Khan added.

The eighth and final season of the wildly popular Game of Thrones concludes on May 19.
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Director John Singleton, who made one of Hollywood’s most memorable debuts with the Oscar-nominated “Boyz N the Hood” and continued over the following decades to probe the lives of black communities in his native Los Angeles and beyond, has died. He was 51.  

Singleton’s family said Monday that he died after being taken off life support, about two weeks after the director suffered a major stroke.

Singleton was in his early 20s, just out of the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, when he wrote, directed and produced “Boyz N the Hood.” Based on Singleton’s upbringing and shot in his old neighborhood, the low-budget production starred Cuba Gooding Jr. and Ice Cube and centered on three friends in South Central Los Angeles, where college aspirations competed with the pressures of gang life.

“Boyz N the Hood” was a critical and commercial hit, given a 20-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival and praised as a groundbreaking extension of rap to the big screen, a realistic and compassionate take on race, class, peer pressure and family. Singleton would later call it a “rap album on film.”

For many, the 1991 release captured the explosive mood in Los Angeles in the months following the videotaped police beating of Rodney King. “Boyz N the Hood” also came out at a time when, thanks to the efforts to Spike Lee and others, black films were starting to get made by Hollywood after a long absence. Singleton became the first black director to receive an Academy Award nomination, an honor he would say was compensation for the academy’s snubbing Lee and “Do the Right Thing” two years earlier, and was nominated for best screenplay. (“The Silence of the Lambs” won in both categories). At 24, he was also the youngest director nominee in Oscar history.

“I think I was living this film before I ever thought about making it,” Singleton told Vice in 2016. “As I started to think about what I wanted to do with my life, and cinema became an option, it was just natural that this was probably gonna be my first film. In fact, when I applied to USC Film School they had a thing that asked you to write three ideas for films. And one of them was called Summer of ’84, which was about growing up in South Central LA.”

In 2002, “Boyz N the Hood’ was added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, which called it “an innovative look at life and the tough choices present for kids growing up in South Central Los Angeles.”

None of Singleton’s subsequent movies received the acclaim of “Boyz N the Hood” and he was criticized at times for turning characters into mouthpieces for political and social messages. But he attracted talent ranging from Tupac Shakur to Don Cheadle and explored themes of creative expression (“Poetic Justice”), identity (“Higher Learning”) and the country’s racist past, notably in “Rosewood,” based on a murderous white rampage against a black community in Florida in 1923. He also made the coming-of-age story “Baby Boy,” a remake of the action film “Shaft” and an installment in the “Fast and Furious” franchise, “2 Fast 2 Furious.” More recent projects included the FX crime drama “Snowfall,” which he helped create. Starring Damson Idris, “Snowfall” returned Singleton to the Los Angeles of his youth and the destructive effects of the rise of crack cocaine.

“Drugs devastated a generation. It gave me something to write about, but I had to survive it first,” Singleton told the Guardian in 2017. “It made me a very angry young man. I didn’t understand why I was so angry, but I wasn’t someone who took my anger and applied it inward. I turned it into being a storyteller. I was on a kamikaze mission to really tell stories from my perspective — an authentic black perspective.”

Singleton was married twice, and had five children. Besides his career in movies, Singleton also directed the video for Michael Jackson’s “Remember the Time,” which included Eddie Murphy and Magic Johnson. He cast hip-hop artists and other musicians in many of his films, including Ice Cube in “Boyz N the Hood,” Janet Jackson and Shakur in “Poetic Justice” and Tyrese Gibson in “Baby Boy.”

Singleton’s early success didn’t shield him from creative conflicts or frustration with Hollywood studios. He blamed the commercial failure of “Rosewood” on lack of support from Warner Bros. He fought with producer Scott Rudin during the making of “Shaft” and was furious when Rudin brought in Richard Price to revise the script. He had planned to direct a biopic about Shakur, but quit after clashing with Morgan Creek Productions. In 2014, he chastised the industry for “refusing to let African-Americans direct black-themed films,” but Singleton was pleased in recent years by the emergence of Ava DuVernay, Barry Jenkins, Jordan Peele and others.

 

“There are these stacks of (films by non-black filmmakers) where black people have had to say, ‘OK, at least they tried,”’ he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018, adding that now blacks were making the films themselves. “What’s interesting when you see ‘Black Panther’ is you realize it couldn’t have been directed by anybody else but Ryan Coogler. It’s a great adventure movie and it works on all those different levels as entertainment, but it has this kind of cultural through-line that is so specific that it makes it universal.”
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Felipe Lopez somehow forgot what all the attention was like.

That would have been impossible to imagine 25 years ago, back when he practically owned magazine covers and newspaper headlines. But he has been out of the spotlight for a while, at least until it came time to promote a film about him.

Then it all came flooding back.

“I forgot that we are the capital of media,” Lopez said with a laugh. “I’m going from 7 in the morning until like 7:30 at night for the past two days.

Imagine how it was when he was the biggest thing in New York basketball.

His story of a can’t-miss kid who turned out to be more of a miss than a hit is told in “The Dominican Dream,” which premiered over the weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival and debuts Tuesday night on ESPN.

Lopez was a heavily-hyped high school superstar from New York in the early-to-mid 1990s who stayed in the city to play at St. John’s, where he could never live up to the expectations that rivaled or surpassed anything Zion Williamson faced this year at Duke. He went on to a largely forgettable pro career, and he welcomed the opportunity to help people remember.

“People always wonder like, what happened to me? What happened to Felipe?” Lopez said in a phone interview. “A lot of people was able to get the story from the outside point of view, but not really get an in depth of everything and I think what the film is providing people is a little bit more of the in depth about not just my personal life, my triumphs and my lows, but also the story about perseverance and family.”

Lopez moved to New York from the Dominican Republic as a 14-year-old eighth grader, a basketball prodigy from a place where baseball is king. After just a couple years he was ranked above Allen Iverson as the top player in his high school class, led Rice High School to a city and state championship, and his press conference announcing he would stay home for college was must-see TV for his fans.

“I can’t think of anybody that got more publicity,” former St. John’s coach Lou Carnesecca says in the film. “He got eight pages in the Daily News. General Eisenhower, who won World War II, only got three.”

Those pages were filled with negative news in the ensuing years. It wasn’t until Lopez’s senior season in 1998 that he finally made the NCAA Tournament.

Perhaps he would have been better off leaving before then, as he was urged to do. Lopez would have been a high draft pick before his freshman season, when he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated, or even after it, before the years of college allowed scouts to pick apart his game.

“But we had no clue about what the impact of that meant,” Lopez said about leaving early. “So that’s the reason why some decisions were made, just based on what I believed coming from the Dominican Republic, of staying on St. John’s and forsaking the opportunity to go to the NBA.”

He got there eventually as a late first-round pick in 1998 and played five seasons, averaging 5.8 points before his career was cut short by a knee injury.

His pro career was largely unsuccessful but his life certainly hasn’t been. Lopez is active in the community through his nonprofit foundation and NBA Cares, president of a community center basketball team in the Dominican Republic, and has returned to St. John’s at times in the two decades since he became his family’s first college graduate to talk to players about how to be a professional.

“I think my story transcends to other people because this is the reason why we come here and this is the reason why we struggle to learn the language, so we can become a success story,” Lopez said.

So how would he answer that question he sometimes gets, about what happened to Felipe Lopez?

“Nothing. I’m alive. I’m good. I’m working,” Lopez said. “I’m running a nonprofit and trying to become the bridge to a lot of young talent I look at like myself, looking for an opportunity to make a difference for their family, for themselves, their community.

“And I know that I’m providing those opportunities for some kids.”
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A Frenchman who has spent four months floating across the Atlantic in a custom-made barrel has reached his goal.

“After 122 days and nine hours the meridian positions me in the Caribbean Sea. The crossing is over. Thank you all,” Jean-Jacques Savin, 72, posted on his Facebook page early Sunday.

Savin said that he was drifting toward the United States and looking for a vessel that would take him to the nearest port.

With no engine, sails or paddles, the unusual craft has relied on trade winds and currents to push Savin 4,800 kilometers from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean.

Savin spent months building his bright orange, barrel-shaped capsule of resin-coated plywood that is strong enough to withstand battering waves and other stresses.

The barrel is 3 meters long and 2.10 meters across, has a small galley area, and a mattress with straps to keep him from being tossed out of his bunk by rough seas.

Portholes on either side of the barrel and another looking into the water provide sunlight and a bit of entertainment. The unique craft also has a solar panel that generates energy for communications and GPS positioning. 

As he drifted along, Savin dropped markers in the ocean to help oceanographers study ocean currents. At the end of the journey, Savin himself will be studied by doctors for effects of solitude in close confinement.

He has also posted regular updates, including GPS coordinates that track his journey, on a Facebook page.

He has described his journey as a “crossing during which man isn’t captain of his ship, but a passenger of the ocean.”

Savin’s adventure, which is estimated to cost about $65,000, was funded by French barrel makers and crowdfunding.

Savin had hoped to end his journey on a French island, like Martinique or Guadeloupe. “That would be easier for the paperwork and for bringing the barrel back,” he told AFP when he started.
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Switzerland’s top prosecutor defended his handling of a high-profile investigation into soccer corruption on Saturday amid scrutiny of closed-door meetings he has held with FIFA President Gianni Infantino. 

Michael Lauber, who faces re-election by parliament in June as attorney general, has described two meetings with Infantino as ways to help coordinate his investigation, which treats the global soccer body as a victim rather than a suspect. 

But media reports of a third confidential meeting prompted a preliminary investigation by the watchdog that oversees Lauber’s agency. The head of the watchdog said this week that Lauber had denied any other such meetings as attorney general. 

In an interview with SRF radio, Lauber conceded that there must have been a third meeting that he could not recall. 

“We assume based on internal documents we have seen — diary entries and SMS texts — that it took place,” he said, but insisted this would not derail his bid for re-election. 

“I reject accusations of lying or keeping silent and I see no reason to withdraw my candidacy,” he said, noting that Infantino was at no time a target of the FIFA probe. 

​Lack of records criticized

The watchdog found no fault with Lauber for meeting Infantino in what it calls a complex case, but criticized him for not properly documenting meetings that could one day become subject of lawsuits. Its probe could lead to disciplinary proceedings against Lauber. 

Lauber’s office has been investigating several cases of suspected corruption surrounding Zurich-based FIFA after it filed a criminal complaint in November 2014, when the soccer body’s president was Sepp Blatter. 

FIFA has the status of a private plaintiff in the probe into suspected breach of trust, fraud, embezzlement and money laundering. Lauber’s office is conducting around 25 criminal investigations alongside 15 foreign law enforcement agencies. 

More than 40 entities and individuals have been charged by U.S. prosecutors in connection with the FIFA investigation. Lauber’s office has filed no charges yet in the case. 

In a statement, FIFA said it was interested in the outcome of the investigations and was keen for those who damaged the organization to be held to account. 

“The fact that the FIFA president met the general prosecutor in open circumstances and in full transparency to discuss these matters is simply an illustration of FIFA’s willingness to cooperate and to assist the Office of the Attorney General with its work,” it said. 

FIFA said Infantino, who also did not recall a third meeting with Lauber, and other senior FIFA officials were willing to meet authorities in Switzerland and other countries as many times as necessary until the investigations wrap up. 
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In these days, when so much of the news is of fighting and mistrust, it’s nice to hear a story of care and compassion between two groups who are not known to be friends. Here’s Faith Lapidus.
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Sunshine and Santana: Both will be welcome sights on the second day of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

There have been some disappointments in the run-up to the 50th annual Jazz Fest. Both the Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac had to cancel for health reasons. Storms then delayed Thursday’s opening, though not for long: By closing time, fans were two-stepping in the mud and a huge crowd was on hand for Earth, Wind & Fire. 

 

Among them was Zack Buda, 25, of Manhattan who came to New Orleans with his parents, Scott and Hillary Buda, and their friends, Amy and Jamie Bernstein of Brooklyn. 

 

“They’re exposing me to the music of their time,” said Buda, who used binoculars for a better view of the stage.

Friday’s forecast called for warm, dry weather for the dozens of acts playing on 10 stages, with Santana closing out a main stage in the evening. 

 

Other highlights include high school choirs raising spirits in the Gospel Tent, Grammy winner Terence Blanchard at the WWNO Jazz Tent and home-grown R&B artist P.J. Morton, known for his solo work and his keyboarding with Maroon 5.
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Sunshine and Santana: Both will be welcome sights on the second day of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

There have been some disappointments in the run-up to the 50th annual Jazz Fest. Both the Rolling Stones and Fleetwood Mac had to cancel for health reasons. Storms then delayed Thursday’s opening, though not for long: By closing time, fans were two-stepping in the mud and a huge crowd was on hand for Earth, Wind & Fire. 

 

Among them was Zack Buda, 25, of Manhattan who came to New Orleans with his parents, Scott and Hillary Buda, and their friends, Amy and Jamie Bernstein of Brooklyn. 

 

“They’re exposing me to the music of their time,” said Buda, who used binoculars for a better view of the stage.

Friday’s forecast called for warm, dry weather for the dozens of acts playing on 10 stages, with Santana closing out a main stage in the evening. 

 

Other highlights include high school choirs raising spirits in the Gospel Tent, Grammy winner Terence Blanchard at the WWNO Jazz Tent and home-grown R&B artist P.J. Morton, known for his solo work and his keyboarding with Maroon 5.
…

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Marvel Studios superhero spectacle “Avengers: Endgame” hauled in a record $60 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices during its Thursday night debut,

distributor Walt Disney Co said.

Global ticket sales for the film about Iron Man, Hulk and other popular characters reached $305 million for the first two days, Disney said.
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Marvel Studios superhero spectacle “Avengers: Endgame” hauled in a record $60 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices during its Thursday night debut,

distributor Walt Disney Co said.

Global ticket sales for the film about Iron Man, Hulk and other popular characters reached $305 million for the first two days, Disney said.
…

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“Avengers: Endgame” marks the culmination of Marvel’s superhero universe since its first “Iron Man” film in 2008. Critics have hailed the three-hour movie as a super spectacle and a befitting ending, harkening back to the beginnings of the Avengers franchise. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with critics and industry insiders about the significance of the film, about its franchise and the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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“Avengers: Endgame” marks the culmination of Marvel’s superhero universe since its first “Iron Man” film in 2008. Critics have hailed the three-hour movie as a super spectacle and a befitting ending, harkening back to the beginnings of the Avengers franchise. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with critics and industry insiders about the significance of the film, about its franchise and the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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John Havlicek, the Boston Celtics great whose steal of Hal Green’s inbounds pass in the final seconds of the 1965 Eastern Conference final against the Philadelphia 76ers remains one of the most famous plays in NBA history, has died. He was 79.

The Celtics said the Hall of Famer died Thursday in Jupiter, Florida. The cause of death wasn’t immediately available. The Boston Globe said he had Parkinson’s disease. 

Gravel-voiced Johnny Most’s radio call of the 1965 steal – “Havlicek stole the ball! Havlicek stole the ball!” – helped make the play one of the most enduring moments in NBA history.

“John Havlicek is one of the most accomplished players in Boston Celtics history, and the face of many of the franchise’s signature moments,” the Celtics said in a statement. “He was a champion in every sense, and as we join his family, friends, and fans in mourning his loss, we are thankful for all the joy and inspiration he brought to us.”

Nicknamed “Hondo” for his resemblance to John Wayne, Havlicek was drafted in the first round in 1962 out of Ohio State by a Celtics team stocked with stars Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, K.C. Jones, Sam Jones, Tom Sanders, Tom Heinsohn and Frank Ramsey.

Boston won NBA championships in his first six years with the team.

Then, as the veteran players gradually moved on, Havlicek became the team’s elder statesman and moved up to become a starter. The team won championships in 1973-74 and 1975-76 with Havlicek leading teams that included Dave Cowens and Jo Jo White. 

Havlicek went on to win eight NBA championships and an NBA Finals MVP award, setting Celtics career records for points and games. He was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History and enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1984. At Ohio State, he helped lead the Buckeyes to the 1960 national championship.

As much as his deadly jump shot or his heroics in Boston’s triple-overtime NBA finals victory over Phoenix in 1976, Havlicek was known for his durability. He played at least 81 games in each of his 15 seasons with the Celtics and he didn’t just play: He was on the run constantly and was perpetually in motion. 

In his NBA career he scored 26,395 points in 1,270 games. He seldom rested. 

“The Boston Celtics are not a team, they are a way of life,” Red Auerbach once said. And no one personified the Celtic way more than Havlicek. 

His No.17 was raised to the rafters in old Boston Garden and now resides in TD Garden, retired soon after he retired in 1978. 

Born April 8, 1940, in Martins Ferry, Ohio, Havlicek became a standout athlete at Bridgeport High School in a small coal-mining town of 2,500 near Wheeling, West Virginia. 

The 6-foot-5 Havlicek was also an outstanding football and baseball player in high school and was given a tryout by the Cleveland Browns after graduating from college. 

As a sophomore at Ohio State, he scored 12.2 points a game as the Buckeyes won the national championship, beating California 75-55 in the final. His junior and senior years, Ohio State again won the Big Ten titles and made it to the NCAA title game but lost to Cincinnati each time. During Havlicek’s three years at Ohio State, the Buckeyes went 78-6, dominating most games unlike any team up to that time. 

All five starters from Ohio State’s title team in 1960 – which included Jerry Lucas and future Celtic teammate Larry Siegfried – played in the NBA. Backup Bob Knight went to a Hall of Fame coaching career.

Havlicek remained in Boston after his retirement, managing investments. He later split time between New England and Florida. He occasionally returned to Ohio State for reunions of the championship team and Celtics events. His Ohio State number was retired during ceremonies in the 2004-2005 season. 
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John Havlicek, the Boston Celtics great whose steal of Hal Green’s inbounds pass in the final seconds of the 1965 Eastern Conference final against the Philadelphia 76ers remains one of the most famous plays in NBA history, has died. He was 79.

The Celtics said the Hall of Famer died Thursday in Jupiter, Florida. The cause of death wasn’t immediately available. The Boston Globe said he had Parkinson’s disease. 

Gravel-voiced Johnny Most’s radio call of the 1965 steal – “Havlicek stole the ball! Havlicek stole the ball!” – helped make the play one of the most enduring moments in NBA history.

“John Havlicek is one of the most accomplished players in Boston Celtics history, and the face of many of the franchise’s signature moments,” the Celtics said in a statement. “He was a champion in every sense, and as we join his family, friends, and fans in mourning his loss, we are thankful for all the joy and inspiration he brought to us.”

Nicknamed “Hondo” for his resemblance to John Wayne, Havlicek was drafted in the first round in 1962 out of Ohio State by a Celtics team stocked with stars Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, K.C. Jones, Sam Jones, Tom Sanders, Tom Heinsohn and Frank Ramsey.

Boston won NBA championships in his first six years with the team.

Then, as the veteran players gradually moved on, Havlicek became the team’s elder statesman and moved up to become a starter. The team won championships in 1973-74 and 1975-76 with Havlicek leading teams that included Dave Cowens and Jo Jo White. 

Havlicek went on to win eight NBA championships and an NBA Finals MVP award, setting Celtics career records for points and games. He was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History and enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1984. At Ohio State, he helped lead the Buckeyes to the 1960 national championship.

As much as his deadly jump shot or his heroics in Boston’s triple-overtime NBA finals victory over Phoenix in 1976, Havlicek was known for his durability. He played at least 81 games in each of his 15 seasons with the Celtics and he didn’t just play: He was on the run constantly and was perpetually in motion. 

In his NBA career he scored 26,395 points in 1,270 games. He seldom rested. 

“The Boston Celtics are not a team, they are a way of life,” Red Auerbach once said. And no one personified the Celtic way more than Havlicek. 

His No.17 was raised to the rafters in old Boston Garden and now resides in TD Garden, retired soon after he retired in 1978. 

Born April 8, 1940, in Martins Ferry, Ohio, Havlicek became a standout athlete at Bridgeport High School in a small coal-mining town of 2,500 near Wheeling, West Virginia. 

The 6-foot-5 Havlicek was also an outstanding football and baseball player in high school and was given a tryout by the Cleveland Browns after graduating from college. 

As a sophomore at Ohio State, he scored 12.2 points a game as the Buckeyes won the national championship, beating California 75-55 in the final. His junior and senior years, Ohio State again won the Big Ten titles and made it to the NCAA title game but lost to Cincinnati each time. During Havlicek’s three years at Ohio State, the Buckeyes went 78-6, dominating most games unlike any team up to that time. 

All five starters from Ohio State’s title team in 1960 – which included Jerry Lucas and future Celtic teammate Larry Siegfried – played in the NBA. Backup Bob Knight went to a Hall of Fame coaching career.

Havlicek remained in Boston after his retirement, managing investments. He later split time between New England and Florida. He occasionally returned to Ohio State for reunions of the championship team and Celtics events. His Ohio State number was retired during ceremonies in the 2004-2005 season. 
…

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A 17th century Geneva Bible, one of the hundreds of rare books authorities said were stolen from a Pittsburgh library as part of a 20-year-long theft scheme, is back home.

The Bible, published in 1615, was traced to the American Pilgrim Museum in Leiden, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) from Amsterdam in the Netherlands, said FBI agent Robert Jones.

It was among more than 300 rare books, maps, plate books, atlases and more that were discovered missing from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh last year. A former archivist at the library and a rare book dealer are accused of stealing books valued at more than $8 million.

The Bible “is more than a piece of evidence” Jones said Thursday at a news conference in Pittsburgh. “I am happy to say it has finally made its way back to its rightful owner here in Pittsburgh.”

There are several similar Bibles, Jones said afterward. “From a dollar-figure sense, it is not priceless,” he said. “From a history perspective, it is priceless.”

The Dutch museum had paid $1,200 for the Bible, District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. said.

The first edition of the Geneva Bible was published in 1560. This particular edition, published in London four years after the first King James version, is similar to a Bible known to have been brought over by the Pilgrims in 1620, Jones said.

The FBI will hand over the Bible to Allegheny County prosecutors, who will return it to the library, Zappala Jr. said.

After charges were filed last year, Zappala said, the director of the Dutch museum contacted police in The Hague and the Carnegie Library, which in turn contacted the FBI in Pittsburgh. 

The FBI in The Hague worked with the museum and then shipped the Bible to FBI offices in Pittsburgh, said FBI agent Shawn Brokos.

Wearing blue latex gloves, she displayed the Bible, carefully opening its weathered pages.

The FBI hopes news of the recovery of this Bible will prompt others to look at their collections for any possible items stolen from the Pittsburgh library. “Some probably are in private collections,” he said.

Prosecutors in Pittsburgh have so far recovered 18 of the books stolen from the library, Zappala said. They have been found in the U.S. and abroad.

One copy of Isaac Newton’s “Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica,” a watershed of science valued at $900,000, and John Adams’ “A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America,” valued at $20,000, are among the items prosecutors have recovered, Zappala’s spokesman said.

One of the books not yet recovered is “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” the magnum opus by philosopher Adam Smith, valued at $180,000.

The room at the Carnegie Library where the stolen items were on display remains closed. Zappala said he will discuss with the Carnegie Library on displaying this Bible to the public. 
…

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A 17th century Geneva Bible, one of the hundreds of rare books authorities said were stolen from a Pittsburgh library as part of a 20-year-long theft scheme, is back home.

The Bible, published in 1615, was traced to the American Pilgrim Museum in Leiden, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) from Amsterdam in the Netherlands, said FBI agent Robert Jones.

It was among more than 300 rare books, maps, plate books, atlases and more that were discovered missing from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh last year. A former archivist at the library and a rare book dealer are accused of stealing books valued at more than $8 million.

The Bible “is more than a piece of evidence” Jones said Thursday at a news conference in Pittsburgh. “I am happy to say it has finally made its way back to its rightful owner here in Pittsburgh.”

There are several similar Bibles, Jones said afterward. “From a dollar-figure sense, it is not priceless,” he said. “From a history perspective, it is priceless.”

The Dutch museum had paid $1,200 for the Bible, District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. said.

The first edition of the Geneva Bible was published in 1560. This particular edition, published in London four years after the first King James version, is similar to a Bible known to have been brought over by the Pilgrims in 1620, Jones said.

The FBI will hand over the Bible to Allegheny County prosecutors, who will return it to the library, Zappala Jr. said.

After charges were filed last year, Zappala said, the director of the Dutch museum contacted police in The Hague and the Carnegie Library, which in turn contacted the FBI in Pittsburgh. 

The FBI in The Hague worked with the museum and then shipped the Bible to FBI offices in Pittsburgh, said FBI agent Shawn Brokos.

Wearing blue latex gloves, she displayed the Bible, carefully opening its weathered pages.

The FBI hopes news of the recovery of this Bible will prompt others to look at their collections for any possible items stolen from the Pittsburgh library. “Some probably are in private collections,” he said.

Prosecutors in Pittsburgh have so far recovered 18 of the books stolen from the library, Zappala said. They have been found in the U.S. and abroad.

One copy of Isaac Newton’s “Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica,” a watershed of science valued at $900,000, and John Adams’ “A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America,” valued at $20,000, are among the items prosecutors have recovered, Zappala’s spokesman said.

One of the books not yet recovered is “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” the magnum opus by philosopher Adam Smith, valued at $180,000.

The room at the Carnegie Library where the stolen items were on display remains closed. Zappala said he will discuss with the Carnegie Library on displaying this Bible to the public. 
…

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