Around half of Americans favor religion playing a greater role in U.S. society, while 18 percent oppose that idea, according to a Pew Research Center study published Monday.

Despite there being a separation of church and state, religion plays a significant part in daily U.S. life: the president traditionally is sworn in using a Bible, while “In God We Trust” is printed on bank notes.

France, Sweden and the Netherlands, meanwhile, posted almost opposite results: 47 percent, 51 percent and 45 percent respectively were opposed to religion playing a key role in society.

Among the 27 countries surveyed in 2018, France (20 percent) and Japan (15 percent) were the countries with the lowest proportion of citizens favoring strengthening religion’s role in society.

Indonesia (85 percent), Kenya (74 percent) and Tunisia (69 percent) came out as the countries most in favor of a bigger place for religion.

The study did not make a distinction between different religions.

In the U.S., the proportion rose to 61 percent among people aged 50 and over, but dropped to 39 percent among 18- to 29-year-olds.

The study was carried out with a representative sample of at least 1,000 people in each country.
…

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Around half of Americans favor religion playing a greater role in U.S. society, while 18 percent oppose that idea, according to a Pew Research Center study published Monday.

Despite there being a separation of church and state, religion plays a significant part in daily U.S. life: the president traditionally is sworn in using a Bible, while “In God We Trust” is printed on bank notes.

France, Sweden and the Netherlands, meanwhile, posted almost opposite results: 47 percent, 51 percent and 45 percent respectively were opposed to religion playing a key role in society.

Among the 27 countries surveyed in 2018, France (20 percent) and Japan (15 percent) were the countries with the lowest proportion of citizens favoring strengthening religion’s role in society.

Indonesia (85 percent), Kenya (74 percent) and Tunisia (69 percent) came out as the countries most in favor of a bigger place for religion.

The study did not make a distinction between different religions.

In the U.S., the proportion rose to 61 percent among people aged 50 and over, but dropped to 39 percent among 18- to 29-year-olds.

The study was carried out with a representative sample of at least 1,000 people in each country.
…

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It’s a cold, windy day in Washington, D.C., but that’s not stopping a group of about 20 girls from taking a 5-mile hike in Rock Creek Park.

As the girls in their khaki uniforms walk through the woods, they said they are happy to be in the first all-girls Boy Scout troop in the nation’s capital. Olivia Hurley, whose brother is a Boy Scout, said she always wanted to be one. 

“I think I’m going to get life skills and community service opportunities,” said the teenager. “I like being with all girls because it gives us an opportunity to learn and empower each other.”

The Washington troop was formed on Feb. 1, when the 109-year-old Boy Scouts of America allowed girls ages 11 to 17 to join all activities. Now called Scouts BSA, boys and girls are placed in separate troops. Girls were able to join the younger Cub Scouts program last year. 

​According to the Boy Scouts of America, approximately 15,000 girls have joined about 2,000 new Scouts BSA troops in the United States. There are about 40 troops in the Washington metropolitan area.​

Outdoor focus

The girls in the Washington troop said they like the challenge of learning and doing the same things as the boys, including leadership and outdoor activities. Today, they are learning to build a campfire, which Sophie Schell discovered is easier said than done as the wind kept extinguishing the flames. 

“I thought it would be a cool opportunity to practice my leadership skills, so I get better at leading and being more in the outdoors,” she said. “I also know some pocketknife safety, and I’ve swung an ax, which is pretty awesome.”

Dressed in a traditional Boy Scouts uniform, Scoutmaster Craig Burkhardt is leading the girls. Scouting is a tradition in his family, and he hopes it will continue with his daughter, who asked to join Scouts BSA. 

“Scouting is a very adaptable program for girls,” he said, despite critics who think girls should not be in the Boy Scouts. “The girls in my troop jumped into it with more enthusiasm than I’ve ever seen in any of the boy troops.”

Girl Scouts program

Perhaps not surprisingly, Girl Scouts of the USA is critical of the all-girl Scouts BSA troops, calling Girl Scouts the world’s single best leadership development program for girls. The group has a trademark infringement lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America for changing Boy Scouts to Scouts BSA.

Samantha Hermoza said she joined Scouts BSA because Boy Scouts do a lot more outdoor activities than Girl Scouts.

“The Girl Scouts is a good organization,” she said, “but I prefer being outdoors with nature.”

In the Washington suburb of Arlington, Virginia, another girls troop is reciting the Scouts BSA oath at their monthly meeting in a local church basement. Today, they are learning first aid, how to properly fold an American flag, and how to tie different kinds of knots.

‘Pioneers’

Scoutmaster Meghan Thomas said the girls have jumped into the program. 

“They’re excited to be pioneers by being part of an all-girl troop,” she said.

Her daughter Corbett joined Scouts BSA, but also remains in the Girl Scouts. 

“They both have different activities that they do, so I enjoy both of them,” Corbett explained. “And I didn’t want to quit one just to join the other.”

Her sister Sophie preferred Scouts BSA. 

“It gives more opportunity to show that just because we’re girls, we can go hiking or camping, and things like that,” Sophie said.

Assistant Scoutmaster Mark Sprulls hopes each of his three daughters will become a coveted Eagle Scout, which is the highest rank in scouting, like him. 

“I want them to have the same opportunity and learn the same types of skills that I learned. I would like them to be confident in themselves, and be able to handle any situation, and not think that they have to rely on a man to help them,” he said.
…

your ads here!

It’s a cold, windy day in Washington, D.C., but that’s not stopping a group of about 20 girls from taking a 5-mile hike in Rock Creek Park.

As the girls in their khaki uniforms walk through the woods, they said they are happy to be in the first all-girls Boy Scout troop in the nation’s capital. Olivia Hurley, whose brother is a Boy Scout, said she always wanted to be one. 

“I think I’m going to get life skills and community service opportunities,” said the teenager. “I like being with all girls because it gives us an opportunity to learn and empower each other.”

The Washington troop was formed on Feb. 1, when the 109-year-old Boy Scouts of America allowed girls ages 11 to 17 to join all activities. Now called Scouts BSA, boys and girls are placed in separate troops. Girls were able to join the younger Cub Scouts program last year. 

​According to the Boy Scouts of America, approximately 15,000 girls have joined about 2,000 new Scouts BSA troops in the United States. There are about 40 troops in the Washington metropolitan area.​

Outdoor focus

The girls in the Washington troop said they like the challenge of learning and doing the same things as the boys, including leadership and outdoor activities. Today, they are learning to build a campfire, which Sophie Schell discovered is easier said than done as the wind kept extinguishing the flames. 

“I thought it would be a cool opportunity to practice my leadership skills, so I get better at leading and being more in the outdoors,” she said. “I also know some pocketknife safety, and I’ve swung an ax, which is pretty awesome.”

Dressed in a traditional Boy Scouts uniform, Scoutmaster Craig Burkhardt is leading the girls. Scouting is a tradition in his family, and he hopes it will continue with his daughter, who asked to join Scouts BSA. 

“Scouting is a very adaptable program for girls,” he said, despite critics who think girls should not be in the Boy Scouts. “The girls in my troop jumped into it with more enthusiasm than I’ve ever seen in any of the boy troops.”

Girl Scouts program

Perhaps not surprisingly, Girl Scouts of the USA is critical of the all-girl Scouts BSA troops, calling Girl Scouts the world’s single best leadership development program for girls. The group has a trademark infringement lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America for changing Boy Scouts to Scouts BSA.

Samantha Hermoza said she joined Scouts BSA because Boy Scouts do a lot more outdoor activities than Girl Scouts.

“The Girl Scouts is a good organization,” she said, “but I prefer being outdoors with nature.”

In the Washington suburb of Arlington, Virginia, another girls troop is reciting the Scouts BSA oath at their monthly meeting in a local church basement. Today, they are learning first aid, how to properly fold an American flag, and how to tie different kinds of knots.

‘Pioneers’

Scoutmaster Meghan Thomas said the girls have jumped into the program. 

“They’re excited to be pioneers by being part of an all-girl troop,” she said.

Her daughter Corbett joined Scouts BSA, but also remains in the Girl Scouts. 

“They both have different activities that they do, so I enjoy both of them,” Corbett explained. “And I didn’t want to quit one just to join the other.”

Her sister Sophie preferred Scouts BSA. 

“It gives more opportunity to show that just because we’re girls, we can go hiking or camping, and things like that,” Sophie said.

Assistant Scoutmaster Mark Sprulls hopes each of his three daughters will become a coveted Eagle Scout, which is the highest rank in scouting, like him. 

“I want them to have the same opportunity and learn the same types of skills that I learned. I would like them to be confident in themselves, and be able to handle any situation, and not think that they have to rely on a man to help them,” he said.
…

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Sasha Joseph Neulinger knew that if he was going to work through the traumas of his childhood, he was going to have to watch the home movies. 

 

Growing up, Neulinger’s father was an avid videographer whose boxes of tapes took on a more chilling quality after it was uncovered that Neulinger, between the ages of three and seven, was sexually abused by not just one relative but several family members. In “Rewind,” which will premiere at the 18th annual Tribeca Film Festival , Neulinger, now 29, sifts through those tapes to help him piece together what he calls the puzzle of his life.

“A lot of the home videos weren’t labeled. So I’d be watching an incredible moment from my childhood that I had completely forgotten about,” Neulinger says. “This was an experience of reclaiming beautiful moments and understanding a new context to what happened. There were these moments and then there could be an in-tape cut and all of a sudden I’m staring at one of my abusers.”

At this year’s Tribeca, which will open Wednesday with the premiere of Roger Ross Williams’ HBO documentary “The Apollo,” several films use personal video footage as portals into tragic pasts.

From “Grizzly Man” to “Capturing the Friedmans,” documentaries have long plumbed personal archives for first-person investigations. This year, two of the biggest non-fiction hits — the moon mission recreation “Apollo 11” and the World War I documentary “They Shall Not Grow Old” — have breathed new life into recovered film.

But the sheer intimacy of the documentaries on display at Tribeca provides a private exhumation, reaching into a recorded past to reveal first-person experiences with sexual abuse, addiction and gun violence. For Neulinger, watching his father’s videos was a way to better understand both his abusers and himself.

“It allowed for a new context. It gave me an opportunity to rediscover myself and see this beautiful child,” says Neulinger, who also directed “Rewind.” “For a lot of victims of abuse, there’s shame around abuse. There’s this victim-mindset that the abuse must have occurred to me because I’m dirty, disgusting or unlovable. That was something I was still carrying deep down inside.” 

’17 Blocks’ 

 

“17 Blocks” began innocently. Davy Rothbart, then in his early 20s and living in Washington D.C., gave a video camera to a curious African American nine-year-old named Emmanuel Sanford-Durant, the younger brother to a friend of Rothbart’s. Emmanuel kept filming, on and off, for the next ten years. Sometimes his sister, Denice, or his then drug-dealing brother, Smurf, picked it up.

A decade later, a shooting brought heartbreak to the family. Emmanuel’s hundreds of hours of footage became a deeply personal close-up view of urban gun violence shattering the lives of an American family. Blood is seen being cleaned from the front hallway. 

 

“How do we capture an epidemic that’s so vast and yet keep it personal?” wondered Rothbart.

“17 Blocks,” which takes its name from the distance of the family’s home to the Capitol, includes further filmmaking in the years after the shooting. But Emmanuel’s footage is the heart of the film. Rothbart, who became an author, filmmaker and “This American Life” contributor, had stayed in touch with the family.

In the footage, Rothbart could see life — and the cost of gun violence — through Emmanuel’s eyes. “You’re kind of discovering somebody,” he says.

‘All I Can Say’

Documenting one’s life has, of course, become far more commonplace today. But Shannon Hoon, the late Blind Melon frontman, was extensively filming himself long before the days of Instagram and Facebook. “All I Can Say” is based almost entirely on the footage Hoon left behind when he died of an overdose in 1995 at age 28.

His tapes begin in 1990 while a not-yet-famous Hoon watched tractor competitions in Lafayette, Indiana, and run right up to the day of his death. Hoon obsessively chronicled himself while Blind Melon went from an upstart band to a rock sensation thanks largely to their hit video for “No Rain.” 

 

About six years ago, Hoon’s daughter, Nico, brought a box of her father’s High-8 tapes to Danny Clinch, a photographer-filmmaker who had shot the band.

“I knew Shannon often had a video camera with him,” says Clinch. “We realized that he basically filmed everything. It was overwhelming. We had a rough cut and all of a sudden [Hoon’s longtime girlfriend] Lisa would call us and say, ‘Hey, I found two more tapes.”‘

Often speaking directly into the camera, Hoon documents everything from hanging out with Axl Rose to the band arguing over a Rolling Stone cover to himself peeing in a urinal. He filmed his daughter being born. He filmed many of his interviews with journalists. It amounted to 250 hours of footage. The filmmakers — Clinch, Taryn Gould and Colleen Hennessy — opted to credit Hoon as co-director.

“The idea that he was documenting himself for the world to see is really interesting,” says Clinch. “Did he feel like his candle was burning really bright and it might fade out? I don’t know.”

Director Asif Kapadia extensively used personal film archives for his Amy Winehouse documentary “Amy.” But “All I Can Say” is almost entirely from Hoon’s point of view. Holding so much of Hoon’s life in his hands, Clinch grants, has been a heavy responsibility.

“It’s been a lot on my shoulders to be given the gift of these tapes,” says Clinch, exhaling.

But among the films at Tribeca, none bore a heftier load than Michael Metelits, the son of Marion Stokes. Matt Wolf’s “Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project” chronicles Stokes’ mad mission to record television 24 hours a day. She recorded on up to eight TVs, from the mid-70s until her death in 2012. A communist activist who became wealthy, she was fascinated by the rise of round-the-clock TV news.

She left behind 70,000 VHS tapes. The tapes chronicle not Stokes’ own life but a quarter century of American history as filtered through video.
…

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Sasha Joseph Neulinger knew that if he was going to work through the traumas of his childhood, he was going to have to watch the home movies. 

 

Growing up, Neulinger’s father was an avid videographer whose boxes of tapes took on a more chilling quality after it was uncovered that Neulinger, between the ages of three and seven, was sexually abused by not just one relative but several family members. In “Rewind,” which will premiere at the 18th annual Tribeca Film Festival , Neulinger, now 29, sifts through those tapes to help him piece together what he calls the puzzle of his life.

“A lot of the home videos weren’t labeled. So I’d be watching an incredible moment from my childhood that I had completely forgotten about,” Neulinger says. “This was an experience of reclaiming beautiful moments and understanding a new context to what happened. There were these moments and then there could be an in-tape cut and all of a sudden I’m staring at one of my abusers.”

At this year’s Tribeca, which will open Wednesday with the premiere of Roger Ross Williams’ HBO documentary “The Apollo,” several films use personal video footage as portals into tragic pasts.

From “Grizzly Man” to “Capturing the Friedmans,” documentaries have long plumbed personal archives for first-person investigations. This year, two of the biggest non-fiction hits — the moon mission recreation “Apollo 11” and the World War I documentary “They Shall Not Grow Old” — have breathed new life into recovered film.

But the sheer intimacy of the documentaries on display at Tribeca provides a private exhumation, reaching into a recorded past to reveal first-person experiences with sexual abuse, addiction and gun violence. For Neulinger, watching his father’s videos was a way to better understand both his abusers and himself.

“It allowed for a new context. It gave me an opportunity to rediscover myself and see this beautiful child,” says Neulinger, who also directed “Rewind.” “For a lot of victims of abuse, there’s shame around abuse. There’s this victim-mindset that the abuse must have occurred to me because I’m dirty, disgusting or unlovable. That was something I was still carrying deep down inside.” 

’17 Blocks’ 

 

“17 Blocks” began innocently. Davy Rothbart, then in his early 20s and living in Washington D.C., gave a video camera to a curious African American nine-year-old named Emmanuel Sanford-Durant, the younger brother to a friend of Rothbart’s. Emmanuel kept filming, on and off, for the next ten years. Sometimes his sister, Denice, or his then drug-dealing brother, Smurf, picked it up.

A decade later, a shooting brought heartbreak to the family. Emmanuel’s hundreds of hours of footage became a deeply personal close-up view of urban gun violence shattering the lives of an American family. Blood is seen being cleaned from the front hallway. 

 

“How do we capture an epidemic that’s so vast and yet keep it personal?” wondered Rothbart.

“17 Blocks,” which takes its name from the distance of the family’s home to the Capitol, includes further filmmaking in the years after the shooting. But Emmanuel’s footage is the heart of the film. Rothbart, who became an author, filmmaker and “This American Life” contributor, had stayed in touch with the family.

In the footage, Rothbart could see life — and the cost of gun violence — through Emmanuel’s eyes. “You’re kind of discovering somebody,” he says.

‘All I Can Say’

Documenting one’s life has, of course, become far more commonplace today. But Shannon Hoon, the late Blind Melon frontman, was extensively filming himself long before the days of Instagram and Facebook. “All I Can Say” is based almost entirely on the footage Hoon left behind when he died of an overdose in 1995 at age 28.

His tapes begin in 1990 while a not-yet-famous Hoon watched tractor competitions in Lafayette, Indiana, and run right up to the day of his death. Hoon obsessively chronicled himself while Blind Melon went from an upstart band to a rock sensation thanks largely to their hit video for “No Rain.” 

 

About six years ago, Hoon’s daughter, Nico, brought a box of her father’s High-8 tapes to Danny Clinch, a photographer-filmmaker who had shot the band.

“I knew Shannon often had a video camera with him,” says Clinch. “We realized that he basically filmed everything. It was overwhelming. We had a rough cut and all of a sudden [Hoon’s longtime girlfriend] Lisa would call us and say, ‘Hey, I found two more tapes.”‘

Often speaking directly into the camera, Hoon documents everything from hanging out with Axl Rose to the band arguing over a Rolling Stone cover to himself peeing in a urinal. He filmed his daughter being born. He filmed many of his interviews with journalists. It amounted to 250 hours of footage. The filmmakers — Clinch, Taryn Gould and Colleen Hennessy — opted to credit Hoon as co-director.

“The idea that he was documenting himself for the world to see is really interesting,” says Clinch. “Did he feel like his candle was burning really bright and it might fade out? I don’t know.”

Director Asif Kapadia extensively used personal film archives for his Amy Winehouse documentary “Amy.” But “All I Can Say” is almost entirely from Hoon’s point of view. Holding so much of Hoon’s life in his hands, Clinch grants, has been a heavy responsibility.

“It’s been a lot on my shoulders to be given the gift of these tapes,” says Clinch, exhaling.

But among the films at Tribeca, none bore a heftier load than Michael Metelits, the son of Marion Stokes. Matt Wolf’s “Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project” chronicles Stokes’ mad mission to record television 24 hours a day. She recorded on up to eight TVs, from the mid-70s until her death in 2012. A communist activist who became wealthy, she was fascinated by the rise of round-the-clock TV news.

She left behind 70,000 VHS tapes. The tapes chronicle not Stokes’ own life but a quarter century of American history as filtered through video.
…

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From wine to clothing to tours, HBO and retailers have cashed in through the years with “Game of Thrones” merchandise.  “Thrones” is not only a huge international show but also a massive business, with all sides hoping to pad the bank during the show’s eighth and final season.

“It’s thousands of products, just a lot of stuff all around the world,” said Jeff Peters, HBO’s vice president of licensing and retail. ’’We’re so busy we don’t stop and count.”

Products include makeup, beer, toy collectibles and even high fashion collaborations. 

But while the show itself is a TV phenomenon, that doesn’t guarantee fans will flock to stores.

“It’s certainly good to be lucky. But you don’t get to where the merchandising programs are with HBO and what they’ve done with ‘Game of Thrones’ unless you have a true, point-by-point marketing and merchandising and retail strategy,” said product and licensing expert Tony Lisanti. 

“This is a global property and every country may resonate a little different,” he said. 

California-based Vintage Wine Estates has been making the official “Game of Thrones” wine for three years now, said Pat Roney, the company’s CEO.  “Just the excitement all over the world with the calls that we get from almost 40 different countries to sell wine — it’s just amazing,” he said.

Popular tours of “Game of Thrones” filming locations in Croatia and Ireland have boosted small, local economies there, according to TripAdvisor’s Andrew Aley.

“Some really positive examples like Northern Ireland, for example, where it’s not somewhere that’s always been on every tourist’s radar and it’s now become one of the major pillars of tourism in that local economy,” he said. “But it’s one of those factors that’s then driving tourism to other attractions as well, like at Belfast Titanic or Giant’s Causeway.”

It wasn’t always this easy for HBO to find retailing partners for “Game of Thrones,” Peters said.

“At the beginning, nobody really knew what it was,” he said. “So, we were the ones making phone calls and we were saying, ‘Hey, you got to get in on this. We think there’s a great opportunity.’ As the show got established and got big, then all the calls came to us and people were just throwing ideas and pitches.”

Some of those ideas resulted in fashion collaborations with companies like Adidas, who created the now hard-to-find “Adidas x Game of Thrones Ultra Boosts” shoes, as well as a collection with men’s fashion designer John Varvatos.

 “The one thing that always stands out in my mind from the first season was all the textures, all the way the leathers are finished, the artisan fabrics, and it’s a lot of what we do,” said Varvatos. “But I also didn’t want to make ‘Game of Thrones’ (clothes) where someone felt like they were wearing a costume around town. … So what you wanted to do is take that inspiration with a lot of the great details from the wardrobe from the show and put that into product that people actually could wear.”

There are also “Thrones”-themed board games like “Monopoly,” “CLUE” and “Risk”; Danielle Nicole’s “Game of Thrones” handbags; and beer made by upstate New York’s Brewery Ommegang.

Just how much money is being made? No one really knows except HBO. And the number’s hard to estimate, for a reason.

“HBO wants to get as high a licensing fee as possible. It will not want the companies that license ‘Game of Thrones’ to know what deals HBO is striking so that those companies seek to obtain a lower fee,” wrote Dr. Larry Chiagouris, professor of marketing at Pace University, in an email to the Associated Press.

His broad guess of how much HBO is bringing in: “It’s a lot!”

Aside from the chance to make money, there have been other benefits to retailers joining forces with HBO. Take Urban Decay’s new makeup collection, for example.

“A couple of these products didn’t even exist in our line before. So the lipsticks were reimagined and have new casings and everything else,” said Wende Zomnir, founding partner and chief creative officer of Urban Decay (the company previously worked with HBO on the show “Vinyl”). 

There’s been a push to get new “Thrones” products out in time for the last season, but Lisanti thinks that even when the show ends, the products will stay in demand thanks to streaming and planned spinoffs. 

 “As long as there’s new content, then the franchise will continue to be popular. And that content doesn’t have to be another series,” said Lisanti. It could be events such as a “traveling exhibition, concerts series, and events in cities and around the world.”

HBO isn’t worried.

“We’re striking right now while the iron is hot,” said Peters. “But we’re pretty confident that there will be interest in ‘Game of Thrones’ for a long time.”
…

your ads here!

From wine to clothing to tours, HBO and retailers have cashed in through the years with “Game of Thrones” merchandise.  “Thrones” is not only a huge international show but also a massive business, with all sides hoping to pad the bank during the show’s eighth and final season.

“It’s thousands of products, just a lot of stuff all around the world,” said Jeff Peters, HBO’s vice president of licensing and retail. ’’We’re so busy we don’t stop and count.”

Products include makeup, beer, toy collectibles and even high fashion collaborations. 

But while the show itself is a TV phenomenon, that doesn’t guarantee fans will flock to stores.

“It’s certainly good to be lucky. But you don’t get to where the merchandising programs are with HBO and what they’ve done with ‘Game of Thrones’ unless you have a true, point-by-point marketing and merchandising and retail strategy,” said product and licensing expert Tony Lisanti. 

“This is a global property and every country may resonate a little different,” he said. 

California-based Vintage Wine Estates has been making the official “Game of Thrones” wine for three years now, said Pat Roney, the company’s CEO.  “Just the excitement all over the world with the calls that we get from almost 40 different countries to sell wine — it’s just amazing,” he said.

Popular tours of “Game of Thrones” filming locations in Croatia and Ireland have boosted small, local economies there, according to TripAdvisor’s Andrew Aley.

“Some really positive examples like Northern Ireland, for example, where it’s not somewhere that’s always been on every tourist’s radar and it’s now become one of the major pillars of tourism in that local economy,” he said. “But it’s one of those factors that’s then driving tourism to other attractions as well, like at Belfast Titanic or Giant’s Causeway.”

It wasn’t always this easy for HBO to find retailing partners for “Game of Thrones,” Peters said.

“At the beginning, nobody really knew what it was,” he said. “So, we were the ones making phone calls and we were saying, ‘Hey, you got to get in on this. We think there’s a great opportunity.’ As the show got established and got big, then all the calls came to us and people were just throwing ideas and pitches.”

Some of those ideas resulted in fashion collaborations with companies like Adidas, who created the now hard-to-find “Adidas x Game of Thrones Ultra Boosts” shoes, as well as a collection with men’s fashion designer John Varvatos.

 “The one thing that always stands out in my mind from the first season was all the textures, all the way the leathers are finished, the artisan fabrics, and it’s a lot of what we do,” said Varvatos. “But I also didn’t want to make ‘Game of Thrones’ (clothes) where someone felt like they were wearing a costume around town. … So what you wanted to do is take that inspiration with a lot of the great details from the wardrobe from the show and put that into product that people actually could wear.”

There are also “Thrones”-themed board games like “Monopoly,” “CLUE” and “Risk”; Danielle Nicole’s “Game of Thrones” handbags; and beer made by upstate New York’s Brewery Ommegang.

Just how much money is being made? No one really knows except HBO. And the number’s hard to estimate, for a reason.

“HBO wants to get as high a licensing fee as possible. It will not want the companies that license ‘Game of Thrones’ to know what deals HBO is striking so that those companies seek to obtain a lower fee,” wrote Dr. Larry Chiagouris, professor of marketing at Pace University, in an email to the Associated Press.

His broad guess of how much HBO is bringing in: “It’s a lot!”

Aside from the chance to make money, there have been other benefits to retailers joining forces with HBO. Take Urban Decay’s new makeup collection, for example.

“A couple of these products didn’t even exist in our line before. So the lipsticks were reimagined and have new casings and everything else,” said Wende Zomnir, founding partner and chief creative officer of Urban Decay (the company previously worked with HBO on the show “Vinyl”). 

There’s been a push to get new “Thrones” products out in time for the last season, but Lisanti thinks that even when the show ends, the products will stay in demand thanks to streaming and planned spinoffs. 

 “As long as there’s new content, then the franchise will continue to be popular. And that content doesn’t have to be another series,” said Lisanti. It could be events such as a “traveling exhibition, concerts series, and events in cities and around the world.”

HBO isn’t worried.

“We’re striking right now while the iron is hot,” said Peters. “But we’re pretty confident that there will be interest in ‘Game of Thrones’ for a long time.”
…

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Nigeria’s women’s football [soccer] team, the Super Falcons, has dominated the African Women’s Championship, winning nine titles since 1991. But the players have complained of low salaries, delayed paychecks, and being treated as second-class players to the men’s team.

Thirty-one-year-old Toochukwu Oluehi is the Number One goalkeeper on the Nigerian women’s national team – the Super Falcons. 

The team has won almost every African Women’s Championship since 1991, taking nine out of 11 recognized titles. 

But despite their record, Oluehi and her teammates say they are too often overlooked and underpaid. 

“We’re the people bringing glory to the land. So, they should look into the females and try and concentrate more on the females and leave the boys. The boys are earning more than the girls,” Oluehi said.

The women’s team is more dependent on government funding than the men’s team, the Super Eagles, which has won three African titles. The men receive more corporate sponsorships and higher attendance at matches.

Even so, the women are not happy with the pay inequity. 

Players on the men’s team receive bonuses of up to $5,000 each for winning a big match, while members of the women’s team rarely see bonuses of more than $1,500. The men also receive higher daily stipends.

The Sports Ministry’s Usman Haruna says while public demand and corporate sponsorship affect salaries, the women are better paid than they used to be. 

“I know what it used to be for the Falcons in terms of remuneration after a game. But this present administration, to be sincere with you, has lifted them from nowhere to where they are, which is by far more comfortable and better in the African context,” Haruna said.

Despite the challenges at home, Nigeria’s Super Falcons are preparing for this summer’s Women’s World Cup in France, says head coach Thomas Dennerby.

“Everything is good, all players are fit, no injuries at all, and that is a good start,” Dennerby said.

Nigeria’s women’s team has been to every World Cup since 1991, but only once made it to the quarterfinals. 
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Nigeria’s women’s football [soccer] team, the Super Falcons, has dominated the African Women’s Championship, winning nine titles since 1991. But the players have complained of low salaries, delayed paychecks, and being treated as second-class players to the men’s team.

Thirty-one-year-old Toochukwu Oluehi is the Number One goalkeeper on the Nigerian women’s national team – the Super Falcons. 

The team has won almost every African Women’s Championship since 1991, taking nine out of 11 recognized titles. 

But despite their record, Oluehi and her teammates say they are too often overlooked and underpaid. 

“We’re the people bringing glory to the land. So, they should look into the females and try and concentrate more on the females and leave the boys. The boys are earning more than the girls,” Oluehi said.

The women’s team is more dependent on government funding than the men’s team, the Super Eagles, which has won three African titles. The men receive more corporate sponsorships and higher attendance at matches.

Even so, the women are not happy with the pay inequity. 

Players on the men’s team receive bonuses of up to $5,000 each for winning a big match, while members of the women’s team rarely see bonuses of more than $1,500. The men also receive higher daily stipends.

The Sports Ministry’s Usman Haruna says while public demand and corporate sponsorship affect salaries, the women are better paid than they used to be. 

“I know what it used to be for the Falcons in terms of remuneration after a game. But this present administration, to be sincere with you, has lifted them from nowhere to where they are, which is by far more comfortable and better in the African context,” Haruna said.

Despite the challenges at home, Nigeria’s Super Falcons are preparing for this summer’s Women’s World Cup in France, says head coach Thomas Dennerby.

“Everything is good, all players are fit, no injuries at all, and that is a good start,” Dennerby said.

Nigeria’s women’s team has been to every World Cup since 1991, but only once made it to the quarterfinals. 
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Prominent Iranian artist Monir Farmanfarmaian has died in her home in Tehran at the age of 97, the semiofficial ISNA news agency reported Sunday.

Farmanfarmaian, known for her mirror mosaics and reverse glass paintings, had her first solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2015.

The Monir Museum, devoted to her life and work, opened in the Iranian capital in 2017 at the historic Negarestan Museum Park Gardens. The museum displays 51 works by Farmanfarmaian.

“All my inspiration has come from Iran. It has always been my first love,” Farmanfarmaian told The Guardian in 2017 on the eve of the opening of the museum.

“When I traveled the deserts and the mountains, throughout my younger years, all that I saw and felt is now reflected in my art,” she said.

Born in Ghazvin in northwestern Iran, she studied at the Faculty of Fine Art of Tehran University.

She later traveled to New York, where she attended Parsons School for Design and Cornell University.

Farmanfarmaian’s art has been exhibited in Iran, Europe, the United States and in the Middle East.

She was forced into exile following the 1979 revolution, when some of her works and art collection were confiscated.

She returned permanently to Iran in 2004.

With reporting by The Guardian, ISNA, The New York Times and Harper’s Bazaar.
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Prominent Iranian artist Monir Farmanfarmaian has died in her home in Tehran at the age of 97, the semiofficial ISNA news agency reported Sunday.

Farmanfarmaian, known for her mirror mosaics and reverse glass paintings, had her first solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2015.

The Monir Museum, devoted to her life and work, opened in the Iranian capital in 2017 at the historic Negarestan Museum Park Gardens. The museum displays 51 works by Farmanfarmaian.

“All my inspiration has come from Iran. It has always been my first love,” Farmanfarmaian told The Guardian in 2017 on the eve of the opening of the museum.

“When I traveled the deserts and the mountains, throughout my younger years, all that I saw and felt is now reflected in my art,” she said.

Born in Ghazvin in northwestern Iran, she studied at the Faculty of Fine Art of Tehran University.

She later traveled to New York, where she attended Parsons School for Design and Cornell University.

Farmanfarmaian’s art has been exhibited in Iran, Europe, the United States and in the Middle East.

She was forced into exile following the 1979 revolution, when some of her works and art collection were confiscated.

She returned permanently to Iran in 2004.

With reporting by The Guardian, ISNA, The New York Times and Harper’s Bazaar.
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Nigeria’s women’s football team, the Super Falcons, dominate the African Women’s Championship – winning 9 out of 11 recognized titles. But the players complain of low salaries, delayed paychecks, and being treated as second class players to the men’s team, as Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja.
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It is a tradition in some families for boys to join the Boy Scouts of America. And now it’s becoming a tradition for girls, too. In February, girls were officially allowed to join all activities in the Boy Scouts, now called Scouts BSA to reflect the change. But the girls and boys are in separate troops. VOA’s Deborah Block visited two all-girl troops in the Washington area to see how they are liking scouts so far.
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Adele and her husband, Simon Konecki, have separated.

The pop singer’s representatives Benny Tarantini and Carl Fysh confirmed the news Friday in a statement to The Associated Press.

“Adele and her partner have separated,” the emailed statement said. “They are committed to raising their son together lovingly. As always they ask for privacy. There will be no further comment.”

Adele gave birth to their son, Angelo, in 2012.

The Grammy-winning British superstar has been private about her relationship, but confirmed she married Konecki when she won album of the year at the 2017 Grammys. In her acceptance speech, she said: “Grammys, I appreciate it. The Academy, I love you. My manager, my husband and my son — you’re the only reason I do it.”

Konecki co-founded Life Water, an eco-friendly brand of bottled water in the U.K. Funds from the company assists the charity that Konecki runs, Drop4Drop, which provides clean water to countries in need.

A representative for Konecki could not be reached.
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Adele and her husband, Simon Konecki, have separated.

The pop singer’s representatives Benny Tarantini and Carl Fysh confirmed the news Friday in a statement to The Associated Press.

“Adele and her partner have separated,” the emailed statement said. “They are committed to raising their son together lovingly. As always they ask for privacy. There will be no further comment.”

Adele gave birth to their son, Angelo, in 2012.

The Grammy-winning British superstar has been private about her relationship, but confirmed she married Konecki when she won album of the year at the 2017 Grammys. In her acceptance speech, she said: “Grammys, I appreciate it. The Academy, I love you. My manager, my husband and my son — you’re the only reason I do it.”

Konecki co-founded Life Water, an eco-friendly brand of bottled water in the U.K. Funds from the company assists the charity that Konecki runs, Drop4Drop, which provides clean water to countries in need.

A representative for Konecki could not be reached.
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An iconic temple central to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints faith will close for four years for a major renovation to help it withstand earthquakes and be more welcoming to visitors, leaders said Friday. 

Authorities are also keeping a careful eye on construction plans after a devastating fire this week at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.

The Salt Lake Temple will close Dec. 29 to update the stately granite building and surrounding square, including elements that emphasize the life of Jesus Christ, church President Russell M. Nelson said. 

“We promise that you will love the results,” he said.

​Like The Vatican, Jerusalem

The building and square at the heart of Utah’s capital city is one of the state’s top tourist destinations, though only church members in good standing can go inside the building used for marriages and other religious ceremonies. 

When the project is done in 2024, the faith widely known as the Mormon church will host an open house to give outsiders the first glimpse of the 126-year-old temple’s interior in more than a century. 

A new visitors’ center and removal of a wall around the square in favor of a fence will also visually open up the flower-lined space to visitors walking by. 

 

“We want to them to think of Salt Lake just as easily as they think of Jerusalem or The Vatican as a place where Christianity really has its heart,” Bishop Dean M. Davies said.

Increased risk of fire

The work that will bring scaffolding, cranes and occasional road closures to downtown Salt Lake City also carries increased fire risk. Authorities are taking extra caution in light of the damage to Norte Dame by crafting a plan that includes a 24-hour fire watch, limiting welding and grinding to certain areas, and plenty of fire extinguishers. 

Investigators are still determining the exact cause of the fire at Notre Dame, which was under renovation when the blaze started on Monday. 

The Salt Lake Temple’s earthquake-mitigation project will be a major undertaking, and involve excavating underneath the temple to install a base-isolation system that will prevent damage by largely decoupling the building from the earth. 

The area sees seismic activity, including a series of small quakes that have occurred in recent months. Plans for this project, though, stretch back more than a decade.

Much of the square will remain open during the construction, including the building where the faith’s famed Tabernacle Choir sings.

​Serving 86 languages

In a nod to the 16-million-member church’s increasingly global membership, the project will also allow the temple to serve people in over 86 languages, rather than only English. 

Leaders declined to say how much the project will cost.

Temples aren’t used for regular Sunday services, but thousands of church members visit every year. It is one of the most popular destinations for weddings. While it’s closed, local members will go to a number of other nearby Utah temples. 

More colorful palette

After it reopens, changes will include a return to a more colorful Victorian-era palette rather than the mostly white style adopted during another extensive renovation in the 1960s.

The faith’s temples have rooms where couples are “sealed” in marriage, chambers for ceremonies on theology and morality and celestial rooms used for prayer and reflection. 

They also have ornate baptismal fonts designed for use in ceremonies to baptize dead relatives, though there’s been occasional controversy over members posthumously baptizing public figures against church policy. The faith teaches proxy baptisms give the deceased the choice to join the faith in the afterlife. 

New temples are typically open to the public for a brief time before being dedicated, after which they’re reserved for members only. 

Republican Gov. Gary Herbert said the renovation will likely bring more congestion downtown, but he’s hoping curious tourists will keep visiting during construction.

“People think of The Church of Jesus Latter-day Saints and most people think of this temple,” said Herbert, who is a member of the faith. The renovation “shows the vitality of Salt Lake City. We’re not closing things down. We’re expanding and growing.”
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A new film called “The Burial of Kojo” is a tale of family tensions with an overlay of magical realism. Set in Ghana, it is the first feature from Blitz Bazawule, a Ghana-born rapper and director. As Mike O’Sullivan reports from Los Angeles, the film got its start as a crowd-funded project and is being widely distributed on Netflix.
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A new film called “The Burial of Kojo” is a tale of family tensions with an overlay of magical realism. Set in Ghana, it is the first feature from Blitz Bazawule, a Ghana-born rapper and director. As Mike O’Sullivan reports from Los Angeles, the film got its start as a crowd-funded project and is being widely distributed on Netflix.
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A new film called “The Burial of Kojo” is a tale of family tensions with an overlay of magical realism. Set in Ghana, it is first feature from Samuel “Blitz” Bazawule, an Ghana-born musician and director who wanted to avoid the cliches of many films set in Africa, themes of war and famine. 

Bazawule maintained creative control of the project by using the crowd-funding site Kickstarter, and he hired a Ghanaian cast and local crew. The Burial of Kojo is now reaching a global audience on Netflix.

Bazawule lives in Brooklyn but says the story is reminiscent of the tales that he heard as a child in Ghana. It concerns a girl, Esi, her father, Kojo, and his brother, Kwabena.

“One of the brothers goes missing on a mining expedition,” Bazawule explains, “and his daughter has to go on the magical journey to rescue him.” The quest lands Esi in a dreamlike world.

Rapper and filmmaker

Bazawule, known as Blitz from his days as a rapper, wanted to move from musical to visual storytelling, and this film includes both. He wrote its script and composed the film’s soundtrack. With several short films already under his belt, this was his feature debut.

The project was initially self-funded, and he completed the film by raising $78,000 through the website Kickstarter. That “gave us the autonomy that we needed,” Bazawule said. “We didn’t have anyone looking over our shoulder, we didn’t have anyone telling us what to do, what not to do. It was always us deciding with ourselves, does this make sense for this narrative?”

Showing on Netflix

The film is being shown on the streaming service Netflix as part of a distribution deal with ARRAY, a Hollywood company founded by filmmaker Ava DuVernay, that highlights the work of filmmakers of color and women directors.

“Netflix is in 190 countries, so that’s a lot of places where you can find beautiful work,” said ARRAY’s Tilane Jones.

It’s good for movie lovers, Bazawule added, and international filmmakers are also finding an audience. 

“You build credibility for the stories that you’re telling,” he said, with fresh faces and new voices bringing art from countries like Ghana to the screen.
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A new film called “The Burial of Kojo” is a tale of family tensions with an overlay of magical realism. Set in Ghana, it is first feature from Samuel “Blitz” Bazawule, an Ghana-born musician and director who wanted to avoid the cliches of many films set in Africa, themes of war and famine. 

Bazawule maintained creative control of the project by using the crowd-funding site Kickstarter, and he hired a Ghanaian cast and local crew. The Burial of Kojo is now reaching a global audience on Netflix.

Bazawule lives in Brooklyn but says the story is reminiscent of the tales that he heard as a child in Ghana. It concerns a girl, Esi, her father, Kojo, and his brother, Kwabena.

“One of the brothers goes missing on a mining expedition,” Bazawule explains, “and his daughter has to go on the magical journey to rescue him.” The quest lands Esi in a dreamlike world.

Rapper and filmmaker

Bazawule, known as Blitz from his days as a rapper, wanted to move from musical to visual storytelling, and this film includes both. He wrote its script and composed the film’s soundtrack. With several short films already under his belt, this was his feature debut.

The project was initially self-funded, and he completed the film by raising $78,000 through the website Kickstarter. That “gave us the autonomy that we needed,” Bazawule said. “We didn’t have anyone looking over our shoulder, we didn’t have anyone telling us what to do, what not to do. It was always us deciding with ourselves, does this make sense for this narrative?”

Showing on Netflix

The film is being shown on the streaming service Netflix as part of a distribution deal with ARRAY, a Hollywood company founded by filmmaker Ava DuVernay, that highlights the work of filmmakers of color and women directors.

“Netflix is in 190 countries, so that’s a lot of places where you can find beautiful work,” said ARRAY’s Tilane Jones.

It’s good for movie lovers, Bazawule added, and international filmmakers are also finding an audience. 

“You build credibility for the stories that you’re telling,” he said, with fresh faces and new voices bringing art from countries like Ghana to the screen.
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“Real Housewives of New Jersey” husband Joe Giudice has lost his appeal to avoid deportation to Italy.

His attorneys said Thursday they are “extremely disappointed” by the Board of Immigration’s decision and have appealed to the federal circuit court in Philadelphia.

Giudice and his wife, Teresa, pleaded guilty in 2014 to financial fraud. Giudice is an Italian citizen who was brought to the U.S. as a baby and says he wasn’t aware he wasn’t an American citizen. 

 

Teresa Giudice served nearly a year in prison and was freed in December 2015. Joe Giudice was released from prison last month and was sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in southeast Pennsylvania.

 
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