The cast of characters for the 149th Kentucky Derby was rewritten in the days before the race. What didn’t change: Forte is the early 3-1 favorite on Saturday in a seemingly wide-open field of 19 horses.

Four horses were scratched — Practical Move, Lord Miles, Continuar and Skinner — and three horses waiting on the also-eligible list moved into the field. They are Cyclone Mischief, Mandarin Hero and King Russell.

Last year’s Derby was a stunner: 80-1 shot Rich Strike weaved his way through traffic and came rushing up the rail to win. NBC Sports’ overhead replay of the race was viewed more than 36 million times.

A crowd of about 150,000 is expected to jam Churchill Downs to wager and watch the 1 1/4-mile Derby. Post time is 6:57 p.m. EDT.

Forte breaks from the No. 15 post, which has produced six winners. The dark brown colt is trained by two-time Derby winner Todd Pletcher, who also has the second favorite in Tapit Trice, at 5-1.

The Todd Squad includes Kingsbarns, and it’s an impressive trio.

Forte was last year’s 2-year-old champion and has six wins in seven career starts, including five in a row. Tapit Trice is 4 for 5 and Kingsbarns is 3 for 3.

“You could say it’s the deepest squad we’ve brought so far,” Pletcher said.

Louisville-born Brad Cox won his first Derby belatedly when Mandaloun was elevated to first place after Medina Spirit’s disqualification nine months after the 2021 race.

“There’s no thrill of winning the Derby through a phone call,” he said. “There’s no celebration, there’s no winning picture.”

Cox has a leading four chances to make the winner’s circle in person this year: early 8-1 third choice Angel of Empire; Hit Show; Verifying; and Jace’s Road.

“I’m sure it would be a feeling like no other,” he said.

Gary and Mary West, who own Hit Show, are seeking retribution of their own.

Their horse, Maximum Security, crossed the Derby finish line first in 2019, but was disqualified for interference after a 22-minute delay while stewards reviewed video. Country House was awarded the garland of red roses. The Wests sued unsuccessfully to have the stewards’ decision reversed.

“They would like to cross the wire first and stay up,” Cox said. “They got a really live crack. This colt is really doing well.”

A couple of jockeys are looking for similar satisfaction.

Luis Saez rode Maximum Security in 2019 and received a 15-day suspension for interfering with others; he’s seeking his first Derby win aboard Tapit Trice. Florent Geroux, who was on Mandaloun, is on Jace’s Road.

For the second straight year, the Derby is without Bob Baffert. The Hall of Fame trainer with a record-tying six victories is soon to complete a two-year ban by Churchill Downs Inc. He was punished after Medina Spirit flunked a post-race drug test.

Baffert’s shadow still looms large over the Twin Spires. A colt previously trained by him, Reincarnate, will be in the starting gate.

Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. found himself on the sideline after being indefinitely suspended Thursday by Churchill Downs Inc. His Derby entry, Lord Miles, was scratched. Two of Joseph’s horses died after races at the track in the days leading up to the Derby. No cause of death has yet been found.

New antidoping and medication rules to be enforced by the sport’s new central governing body won’t take effect until May 22, after the Derby and the Preakness.

Japan is represented by Derma Sotogake and Mandarin Hero, giving the nation two chances to win the Derby for the first time.

Derma Sotogake and Two Phil’s are the most experienced runners in the field, having made eight career starts.

“He has a lot of experience and it has made him tougher and tougher,” said Christophe Lemaire, who will ride Derma Sotogake. “It is important to have that experience with 18 other horses in a high-level race.”

Confidence Game, a 20-1 shot, will try to win coming off an unheard of 10-week layoff.

Saturday’s forecast calls for partly sunny skies and a high of 25 Celsius.

 
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U.S. director Damien Chazelle, best known for the Oscar-winning La La Land, will lead the jury of the upcoming Venice Film Festival, organizers announced Friday.

The 80th edition of the prestigious festival will take place from Aug. 30-Sept. 9 on the swanky, beach-lined Lido island.

“For 10 days each year this city of the arts, of Tintoretto and Titian and Veronese, becomes a city of cinema, and I am humbled and delighted to be invited to lead this year’s jury,” said Chazelle, 38, whose most recent film is Babylon.

Chazelle’s musical about making it in Hollywood, La La Land, opened the Venice festival in 2016, and went on to win six Academy Awards, including for its director, the youngest ever to win the prize.

Heading the jury for Venice’s parallel competition, Orizzonti, will be Italy’s Jonas Carpignano, director of a trilogy (Mediterranea, A Ciambra, A Chiara) based in the Calabrian port city of Gioia Tauro.

Last year, the festival’s top Golden Lion prize went to U.S. director Laura Poitras for All the Beauty and the Bloodshed. The documentary traced the campaign by photographer and activist Nan Goldin to hold the rich Sackler family accountable for the U.S. opioid crisis.

U.S. actress Julianne Moore headed last year’s jury, with Spanish director Isabel Coixet at the helm of Orizzonti.
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Hong Kong police seized an exhibit Friday in connection with what they said was an attempt to incite subversion, with media reporting it was a statue commemorating Beijing’s Tiananmen Square crackdown on democracy protesters in 1989.

Media reported the exhibit was the “Pillar of Shame,” an 8-meter-tall statue depicting dozens of torn and twisted bodies that commemorates protesters killed in the crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square more than three decades ago.

Police did not give details of the exhibit they said they had seized in the Yuen Long district of the former British colony.

“The National Security Department … conducted searches with a warrant this morning. An exhibit related to an ‘incitement to subversion’ case was seized,” police said in a statement.

They did not say who was suspected of wanting to use the statue, which was being kept in storage, to incite subversion.

Tiananmen anniversary looming

The seizure came weeks ahead of the June 4 anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Hong Kong had traditionally held the largest annual vigils in the world to commemorate the crackdown.

The crackdown is taboo in the rest of China, and Hong Kong’s vigil, traditionally in a city park, was banned beginning in 2020, ostensibly because of coronavirus restrictions.

Statue first exhibited in 1997

The two-ton copper “Pillar of Shame” was first exhibited at a Tiananmen Square commemoration in Hong Kong in 1997, the same year Britain handed the city back to China.

In 2021, the University of Hong Kong dismantled and removed the statue “based on external legal advice and risk assessment for the best interest of the university.” It has since been kept in a cargo container on university-owned land.

Danish sculptor Jens Galschiot, who created the work, said he had not been informed about its seizure by police.

“This is outrageous. This is my sculpture, and nobody has consulted or informed me about anything,” he said in email response to Reuters.

It is not clear if the Tiananmen Square vigil will take place this year.

The city government said this week that sections of Victoria Park, where the rally is usually held, would be closed for maintenance.

The vigil organizer, the Hong Kong Alliance, was disbanded in 2021 after its leaders were arrested and charged with inciting subversion under a national security law imposed by China in 2020 after anti-government protests.

Authorities have been using the law to clamp down on pro-democracy activity in Hong Kong, and about 250 people, including opposition politicians, lawyers and journalists, have been arrested for suspected national security offenses.

Authorities say they are maintaining order necessary for the financial hub’s prosperity.
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Adidas is set to update investors Friday about the unsold Yeezy shoes that have put the German sportswear giant in a predicament since it cut ties with Kanye West over his antisemitic comments late last year.

Executives are expected to tackle the issue when the company reports first-quarter results Friday which will likely show a 4% decline in net sales to $5.07 billion, according to a company-compiled consensus.

Investors have high hopes new CEO Bjorn Gulden can turn Adidas around: the stock has gained around 65% since Nov. 4 when the former Puma CEO was first floated as a successor to Kasper Rorsted, despite Adidas warning it could make a $700 million loss this year if it writes the Yeezy shoes off entirely.

Adidas has been in discussions over the footwear, including with people who “have been hurt” by West’s antisemitic comments, Gulden said in March, but there are no easy fixes.

The value of Yeezy shoes in the resale market has rocketed since Adidas stopped producing them, with some models more than doubling in price, but the company has yet to decide what to do with its unsold stock.

If Adidas decides to sell the shoes, any proceeds should go towards efforts to fight antisemitism, said Holly Huffnagle, U.S. Director for Combating Antisemitism at the American Jewish Committee, a non-governmental organization.

“The challenge is if these shoes are going to be out there and be worn by people, we must ensure that the antisemitic messaging of the shoes’ creator doesn’t spread,” she said.

Gulden in March said the company could donate the proceeds of the Yeezy sale to charities, but Adidas has given no updates since. “We continue to evaluate options for the use of the existing Yeezy inventory,” an Adidas spokesperson said, declining to comment on the possible timeline for a decision.

The market would welcome a resolution, but it may be too early given the complexities involved, said Geoff Lowery, analyst at Redburn in London, who sees a donation to charities as the most likely outcome.

The Anti-Defamation League, an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in New York, told Reuters it “stands ready and prepared to work with Adidas.”

Adidas in November donated more than $1 million to the organization.

The American Jewish Committee met with Adidas executives in December to discuss their commitment to reject antisemitism.

Adidas said it continues to “stand with the Jewish community in the fight against antisemitism and with all communities around the world facing injustice and discrimination.”

Shareholders want Adidas to draw a line under the Yeezy episode and develop ways to reboot the brand.

“Being successful with Yeezy probably made Adidas lazy on finding other growth drivers,” said Cedric Rossi, nextgen consumer analyst at Bryan Garnier in Paris.
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The recording studios at Afghanistan national radio and television where generations of male and female musicians and singers produced songs and melodies have gone silent for nearly two years.

The country’s Islamist Taliban regime does not air music on the national broadcasting network because their extreme interpretation of Islam considers it forbidden. Instead, they run so-called singsongs, which sound like chants with no music.

Known as the Taliban songs and nasheeds, the singsongs, voiced only by men, are mostly tributes to Taliban leaders, Islamic jihad and Afghanistan as a graveyard of foreign interventionists.

Many Taliban listen to these singsongs on their phones, in their cars and elsewhere as a source of entertainment, attachment and inspiration.

“Since the Taliban are religious zealots, they use songs for entertainment as well. It’s a form of competition for young Taliban to show off their voices. Songs are also designed to add some pleasure to an otherwise puritanical way of life,” said Wahed Faqiri, an Afghan analyst.

“[The Taliban] play it on radios and so, if you are in your car at that time and it’s on the radio, you listen to it because it’s kind of a captive/trapped audience,” Ali Latifi, a Kabul-based independent journalist, told VOA by email. “When I see Taliban playing them it’s usually on their phones (even little Nokia ones) while they’re standing or walking down the street (less often).”

Since the Taliban’s ascent to power in Afghanistan, the group’s singsongs have increasingly found their way to digital platforms where they are accessible to global audiences. Social media companies often prohibit official Taliban accounts and groups, but the group’s sympathizers have maintained a presence under pseudonyms.

Given the group’s longstanding disapproval of television, pro-Taliban songs loaded to YouTube carry only still images of Taliban leaders and symbols. During their first reign in 1994-2001, the Taliban completely banned television and the group’s morality police broke down private TV sets and displayed them on poles to deter the public from watching television even in their homes.

As an insurgent group, the Taliban ran sophisticated digital propaganda campaigns including videos of violent attacks on Afghan and foreign soldiers.

‘Genocide of music’

The Taliban’s swift return to power in 2021 saw an exodus of artists, singers, musicians and journalists from Afghanistan.

Over the past 20 months, about 3,000 artists and singers have sought relocation outside Afghanistan, according to Artistic Freedom Initiative, an organization that offers free immigration and resettlement assistance for artists at risk.

The country’s National Institute of Music (ANIM) has been closed as all of its trainers, students and personnel were evacuated to Europe in 2021.

“We are witnessing a termination of the rich musical heritage of Afghanistan,” Ahmad Sarmast, ANIM director, told VOA while describing the many ways musicians and artists suffer under the Taliban rule.

While most popular Afghan musicians and singers reside abroad, those left in the country have reportedly quit music and have resorted to other jobs.

Sarmast said his ANIM staff and other artists are trying to keep the Afghan music alive in exile by organizing concerts and events in different parts of the world.

For many Afghans caught in recurring cycles of brutal wars, extreme and widespread poverty, and many social and cultural restrictions, music is a source of spiritual strength and a means to mental and psychological healing, experts say.

“The Taliban’s anti-music policies are turning Afghans into a mentally impaired nation,” warned Sarmast, who said the Taliban’s singsongs are praising and promoting violence.

A Taliban spokesperson received VOA’s request for comment on the regime’s policies about music but did not respond.
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The fountain pen is a writing instrument declared obsolete numerous times by technological innovations — the ballpoint pen, the typewriter, the computer keyboard, and now by rendering our voices into text on mobile phones. But the 19th-century invention is still evolving, thanks in part to an American mechanical engineer. VOA’s chief national correspondent Steve Herman reports from Philadelphia.
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Hollywood writers picketing to preserve pay and job security outside major studios and streamers braced for a long fight at the outbreak of a strike that immediately forced late-night shows into hiatus, put other productions on pause and had the entire industry slowing its roll.  

The first Hollywood strike in 15 years commenced Tuesday as the 11,500 members of the Writers Guild of America stopped working when their contract expired.  

The union is seeking higher minimum pay, more writers per show and less exclusivity on single projects, among other demands — all conditions it says have been diminished in the content boom of the streaming era.  

“Everything’s changed, but the money has changed in the wrong direction,” said Kelly Galuska, 39, a writer for “The Bear” on FX and “Big Mouth” on Netflix, who picketed at Fox Studios in Los Angeles with her 3-week-old daughter. “It’s a turning point in the industry right now. And if we don’t get back to even, we never will.” 

The last Hollywood strike, from the same union in 2007 and 2008, took three months to resolve. With no talks or even plans to talk pending between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents studios and productions companies, there is no telling how long writers will have to go without pay, or how many major productions will be delayed, shortened or scrapped.  

“We’ll stay out as long as it takes,” Josh Gad, a writer for shows including “Central Park” and an actor in films including “Frozen,” said from the Fox picket line.  

The AMPTP said in a statement that it presented an offer with “generous increases in compensation for writers as well as improvements in streaming residuals” and was prepared to improve its offer “but was unwilling to do so because of the magnitude of other proposals still on the table that the guild continues to insist upon.” 

The writers were well aware that a stoppage was likely. Yet the breakoff of contractual talks hours before a deadline that negotiations in previous years have sailed past for hours or even days, and the sudden reality of a strike, left some surprised, some worried, some determined.  

“When I saw the refusals to counter and the refusing to even negotiate by the AMPTP, I was like on fire to get out here and stand up for what we deserve,” Jonterri Gadson, a writer whose credits include “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” said on a picket line at Amazon Studios as she held a sign that read, “I hate it here.”  

All of the top late-night shows, which are staffed by writers that pen monologues and jokes for their hosts, immediately went dark. NBC’s “The Tonight Show,” Comedy Central’s “Daily Show,” ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live,” CBS’ “The Late Show” and NBC’s “Late Night” all made plans for reruns through the week. 

NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” which had been scheduled to air a new episode Saturday, will also go dark and air a rerun, and the two remaining episodes in the season are in jeopardy.  

The strike’s impact on scripted series and films will likely take longer to notice — though some shows, including Showtime’s “Yellowjackets,” have already paused production on forthcoming seasons.  

If a strike persisted through the summer, fall TV schedules could be upended. In the meantime, those with finished scripts are permitted to continue shooting.  

Union members also picketed in New York, where less known writers were joined by more prominent peers like playwright and screenwriter Tony Kushner (“The Fabelmans”) and “Dopesick” creator Danny Strong. 

Some actors including Rob Lowe joined the picket lines in support in Los Angeles. Many striking writers, like Gad, are hybrids who combine writing with other roles.  

Speaking from his acting side, Gad said of his fellow writers, “We are nothing without their words. We have nothing without them. And so it’s imperative that we resolve this in a way that benefits the brilliance that comes out of each of these people.” 

The other side of his hyphenated role could be in the same space soon, with many of the same issues at the center of negotiations for both the actors union SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guild of America. Contracts for both expire in June.  

Streaming has exploded the number of series and films that are annually made, meaning more jobs for writers. But writers say they’ve been made to make less under shifting and insecure conditions that the WGA called “a gig economy inside a union workforce.” 

The union is seeking more compensation for writers up front, because many of the payments writers have historically profited from on the back end — like syndication and international licensing — have been largely phased out by the onset of streaming. 

Galuska said she is among the writers who have never seen those kind of once common benefits.  

“I’ve had the opportunity to write on great shows that are very, very popular and not really seen the compensation for that, unfortunately,” she said.  

The AMPTP said sticking points to a deal revolved around so-called mini-rooms — the guild is seeking a minimum number of scribes per writer room — and the duration of employment contracts.  

Writers are also seeking more regulation around the use of artificial intelligence, which the WGA’s writers say could give producers a shortcut to finishing their work.  

“The fact that the companies have refused to deal with us on that fact means that I’m even more scared about it today than I was a week ago. They obviously have a plan. The things they say no to, are the things they’re planning to do tomorrow.”  
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The union that represents U.S. film and television writers sent their members on strike Tuesday after failing to reach an agreement with studios and production companies over a new labor contract. 

The Writers Guild of America announced late Monday that their 11,500 members would put down their pens and turn off their computers at midnight Los Angeles time ((Tuesday 3:00 a.m. Washington time, 0700 GMT)) when their current contract expires.  

The union has been negotiating with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for increased pay and stronger employment guarantees on episodic television shows as more and more scripted series are being shown on Internet-based or “streaming” platforms.   

In a statement announcing the strike, the WGA said major studios such as Walt Disney and Netflix have “created a gig economy inside a union workforce,” a reference to the growing trend of people taking on freelance jobs as opposed to permanent, full-time work.  

Streaming television platforms have transformed the entertainment industry in recent years, offering more opportunities for writers but for lesser pay on shows that run fewer episodes per season than traditional broadcast networks.  

Artificial intelligence is another issue for WGA members. The union wants to prevent studios from using AI to create scripts based on writers’ previous work. It also doesn’t want writers to be asked to work on scripts generated by AI. 

SEE ALSO: A related video by VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan

The AMPTP issued a statement saying it was prepared to offer higher pay and better royalty payments for writers for streaming shows, but that it was “unwilling to do so because of the magnitude of other proposals still on the table.” The alliance says a major point of contention is a union proposal for a show to maintain a certain number of staff writers “whether needed or not.” 

The strike is the first by the WGA in 15 years. The last walkout began in late 2007 and stretched 100 days into the next year, costing the California economy an estimated $2.1 billion. Late night talk and variety shows such as “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” and “Saturday Night Live” will go off the air immediately as their writing staffs are members of the WGA.  

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.  
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Gordon Lightfoot, Canada’s legendary folk singer-songwriter whose hits including “Early Morning Rain” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” told a tale of Canadian identity that was exported worldwide, died on Monday. He was 84. 

Representative Victoria Lord said the musician died at a Toronto hospital. His cause of death was not immediately available. 

Considered one of the most renowned voices to emerge from Toronto’s Yorkville folk club scene in the 1960s, Lightfoot went on to record 20 studio albums and pen hundreds of songs, including “Carefree Highway” and “Sundown.” 

Once called a “rare talent” by Bob Dylan, dozens of artists have covered his work, including Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, Harry Belafonte, Johnny Cash, Anne Murray, Jane’s Addiction and Sarah McLachlan. 

Most of his songs are deeply autobiographical with lyrics that probe his own experiences in a frank manner and explore issues surrounding the Canadian national identity. 

His 1975 song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” chronicled the demise of a Great Lakes ore freighter, and 1966’s “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” depicted the construction of the railway. 

“I simply write the songs about where I am and where I’m from,” he once said. “I take situations and write poems about them.” 

Often described as a poetic storyteller, Lightfoot remained keenly aware of his cultural influence. It was a role he took very seriously. 

“I just like to stay there and be a part of the totem pole and look after the responsibilities I’ve acquired over the years,” he said in a 2001 interview. 

While Lightfoot’s parents recognized his musical talents early on, he didn’t set out to become a renowned balladeer. 

He began singing in his church choir and dreamed of becoming a jazz musician. At age 13, the soprano won a talent contest at the Kiwanis Music Festival, held at Toronto’s Massey Hall. 

“I remember the thrill of being in front of the crowd,” Lightfoot said in a 2018 interview. “It was a steppingstone for me…” 

The appeal of those early days stuck and in high school, his barbershop quartet, The Collegiate Four, won a CBC talent competition. He strummed his first guitar in 1956 and began to dabble in songwriting in the months that followed. Perhaps distracted by his taste for music, he flunked algebra the first time. After taking the class again, he graduated in 1957. 

By then, Lightfoot had already penned his first serious composition — “The Hula Hoop Song,” inspired by the popular kids’ toy that was sweeping the culture. Attempts to sell the song went nowhere so at 18, he headed to the U.S. to study music for a year. The trip was funded in part by money saved from a job delivering linens to resorts around his hometown. 

Life in Hollywood wasn’t a good fit, however, and it wasn’t long before Lightfoot returned to Canada. He pledged to move to Toronto to pursue his musical ambitions, taking any job available, including a position at a bank before landing a gig as a square dancer on CBC’s “Country Hoedown.” 

His first gig was at Fran’s Restaurant, a downtown family-owned diner that warmed to his folk sensibilities. It was there he met fellow musician Ronnie Hawkins. 

The singer was living with a few buddies in a condemned building in Yorkville, then a bohemian area where future stars including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell would learn their trade at smoke-filled clubs. 

Lightfoot made his popular radio debut with the single “(Remember Me) I’m the One” in 1962, which led to a number of hit songs and partnerships with other local musicians. When he started playing the Mariposa Folk Festival in his hometown of Orillia, Ontario that same year, Lightfoot forged a relationship that made him the festival’s most loyal returning performer. 

By 1964, he was garnering positive word-of-mouth around town and audiences were starting to gather in growing numbers. By the next year, Lightfoot’s song “I’m Not Sayin'” was a hit in Canada, which helped spread his name in the United States. 

A couple of covers by other artists didn’t hurt either. Marty Robbins’ 1965 recording of “Ribbon of Darkness” reached No. 1 on U.S. country charts, while Peter, Paul and Mary took Lightfoot’s composition, “For Lovin’ Me,” into the U.S. Top 30. The song, which Dylan once said he wished he’d recorded, has since been covered by hundreds of other musicians. 

That summer, Lightfoot performed at the Newport Folk Festival, the same year Dylan rattled audiences when he shed his folkie persona by playing an electric guitar. 

As the folk music boom came to an end in the late 1960s, Lightfoot was already making his transition to pop music with ease. 

In 1971, he made his first appearance on the Billboard chart with “If You Could Read My Mind.” It reached No. 5 and has since spawned scores of covers. 

Lightfoot’s popularity peaked in the mid-1970s when both his single and album, “Sundown,” topped the Billboard charts, his first and only time doing so. 

During his career, Lightfoot collected 12 Juno Awards, including one in 1970 when it was called the Gold Leaf. 

In 1986, he was inducted into the Canadian Recording Industry Hall of Fame, now the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. He received the Governor General’s award in 1997 and was ushered into the Canadian Country Music Hall Of Fame in 2001. 
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Negotiators for Hollywood writers and film and television studios engaged in 11th-hour contract talks on Monday to try to avert a strike that would disrupt TV production across an industry grappling with seismic changes. 

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) could call a work stoppage as early as Tuesday if it cannot reach a deal with companies such as Walt Disney Co. and Netflix Inc. A strike would be the first by the WGA in 15 years. 

Writers say they have suffered financially during the streaming TV boom, in part due to shorter seasons and smaller residual payments. They are seeking pay increases and changes to industry practices that they say force them to work more for less money. 

Half of TV series writers now work at minimum salary levels, compared with one-third in the 2013-14 season, according to Guild statistics. Median pay for scribes at the higher writer/producer level has fallen 4% over the last decade. 

“The way that it’s looking now is that there won’t be a middle class in Hollywood,” said Caroline Renard, a Guild liaison and writer whose credits include the Disney Channel’s “Secrets of Sulphur Springs.”  

Artificial intelligence is another issue at the bargaining table. The WGA wants safeguards to prevent studios from using AI to generate new scripts from writers’ previous work. Writers also want to ensure they are not asked to rewrite draft scripts created by AI.  

SEE ALSO: A related video by VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan

The negotiations take place against a difficult economic backdrop for the industry. Entertainment conglomerates are under pressure from Wall Street to make their streaming services profitable, after investing billions of dollars in content to attract subscribers.  

They also are contending with declining television ad revenue, as traditional TV audiences shrink and advertisers go elsewhere. The threat of a recession also looms. 

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents Comcast Corp., Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, Netflix and hundreds of production companies, has said it is committed to reaching a fair agreement. 

“It’ll affect every part of the industry and people beyond the industry,” actor and director Olivia Wilde said on the red carpet at the star-studded Met Gala, just hours ahead of the midnight Pacific time expiration of the current Writers Guild contract. “But you know, we have to stand up for our rights.” Wilde added.  

“They’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what they deserve,” Wilde said. “I wish it didn’t have to come to this, but tonight at midnight, we’ll see.” 

Actor Penelope Cruz, also at the Met Gala, offered a similar sentiment: “It will affect the rhythm of things, but sometimes things have to be done to be heard.” 

Late night will take a hit  

If a strike is called, late-night shows such as “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” and “Saturday Night Live,” which use teams of writers to craft topical jokes, are expected to immediately stop production. 

That means new episodes will not be available during their traditional TV time slots or on the streaming services that make them available the next day. 

Soap operas and other daytime shows such as “The View” will likely be disrupted. News programs would not be interrupted because those writers are members of a different union. 

Further ahead, the strike could lead to a delay of the fall TV season. Writing for fall shows normally starts in May or June. If the work stoppage becomes protracted, the networks will increasingly fill their programming lineups with unscripted reality shows, news magazines and reruns.  

Netflix may be insulated from any immediate impact because of its global focus and access to production facilities outside of the U.S.  

The last WGA strike in 2007 and 2008 lasted 100 days. The action cost the California economy an estimated $2.1 billion as productions shut down and out-of-work writers, actors and producers cut back spending. 

Studios do not want another disruption after the COVID-19 pandemic halted production worldwide for months. But budgets are tight, and a new era of fiscal austerity has dawned in Hollywood, with studios laying off thousands of employees and curtailing spending on content.  

“The writers have legitimate issues here,” said one talent agent close to the bargaining process. “But the studios and the producers have very legitimate issues also. Their stock prices are down. They’ve overspent on content. They need to show profits to their shareholders.” 
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Aerosmith will be touring a city near you for the last time to celebrate the rock band’s 50-plus years together. 

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band announced Monday the dates for their farewell tour called “Peace Out” starting Sept. 2 in Philadelphia. The 40-date run of shows, which includes a stop in the band’s hometown of Boston on New Year’s Eve, will end Jan. 26 in Montreal. 

“I think it’s about time,” guitarist Joe Perry said in an interview with The Associated Press. 

Perry said the group, with frontman Steven Tyler, bassist Tom Hamilton, drummer Joey Kramer and guitarist Brad Whitford, learned from the staging and production from their recent Las Vegas residency shows. 

Perry believes the time to say goodbye is now, especially with every founding band member over the age of 70. Tyler, 75, is the oldest in the group. 

“It’s kind of a chance to celebrate the 50 years we’ve been out here,” Perry said. “You never know how much longer everybody’s going to be healthy to do this. … It’s been a while since we’ve actually done a real tour. We did that run in Vegas, which was great. It was fun, but (we’re) kind of anxious to get back on the road.” 

Tyler and Perry said the band is looking forward to digging into their lengthy catalog of the group’s rock classics including “Crazy,” “Janie’s Got a Gun” and “Livin’ on the Edge.” 

Over the years, Aerosmith, which formed in 1970, has collected four Grammys. The band broke boundaries intersecting rock and hip-hop with their epic collaboration with Run-DMC for “Walk This Way.” 

Aerosmith performed the Super Bowl halftime show in 2001 and even had their own theme park attraction in 1999 at Disney World in Florida and later in Paris with the launch of the “Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith” ride. 

“We’re opening up Pandora’s Box one last time to present our fans with the Peace Out tour,” Tyler said in a statement to the AP. His “Pandora’s Box” reference calls out Aerosmith’s 1991 three-disc compilation album that covered the band’s output from the 1970s to the early 1980s. 

“Be there or beware as we bring all the toys out of the attic. Get ready,” Tyler added. 

The band said Kramer decided to not take part in the current dates on the upcoming tour. He’s still a part of the group, but the drummer has been on leave to “focus his attention on his family and health” since their Vegas residency last year. Drummer John Douglas will continue to play in his place. 

Perry called Kramer their brother. The band said his “legendary presence behind the drum kit will be sorely missed.” 

Before the 40-date tour wraps, Perry said other cities domestically and internationally could be added. 

“It’s the final farewell tour, but I have a feeling it will go on for a while,” he said. “But I don’t know how many times we’ll be coming back to the same cities. It could very possibly be the last time.” 
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Ten years ago, Native American photographer Matika Wilbur embarked on a road trip with an ambitious goal to document all 562 federally recognized Indigenous tribes. Her multiyear work culminated in a new book aiming to change the way people see Native Americans. She launched her book tour in her home state of Washington. VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya has more from Seattle.
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“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” led ticket sales for the fourth straight weekend in U.S. and Canadian theaters with $40 million as the global haul for the Universal Pictures release surpassed $1 billion, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The Nintendo videogame adaptation dominated the month of April in theaters, smashing records along the way. Over the weekend, it faced little new competition, though that will change next week when Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” kicks off the summer movie calendar and is expected to move Mario to the side. Studios spent the last week at CinemaCon in Las Vegas promoting coming blockbusters and promising big returns at the summer box office.

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was estimated to easily cross $1 billion in worldwide box office Sunday, making it the 10th animated film to reach that milestone and the first since 2019. With a domestic total thus far of $490 million, international sales are even stronger. The Illumination-animated release took in $68.3 million overseas over the weekend, pushing its international haul to $532.5 million.

Second place went to “Evil Dead Rise.” The horror sequel from Warner Bros. held well in its second week, especially for a horror film, dipping 50% with $12.2 million.

Among the weekend’s newcomers, the Judy Blume adaptation “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” fared the best. The Lionsgate release grossed $6.8 million in 3,343 locations, a decent start for the $30 million-budgeted coming-of age tale written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig (“The Edge of Seventeen”).

As expected, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” about an 11-year-old (Abby Ryder Fortson) going through puberty, drew an overwhelming female audience. With stellar reviews (99% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and strong audience scores (an “A” CinemaScore), “Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret,” should play well through Mother’s Day.

Lionsgate also released the Finnish action movie “Sisu” in 1,006 locations. The film, about a prospector (Jorma Tommila) whose gold is stolen by Nazis, grossed an estimated $3.3 million. That was a solid result for the rare international film to receive a nationwide opening. Reviews have been good (93% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) for writer-director Jalmari Helander’s film.

“Sisu” managed to surpass the weekend’s most heavyweight new release: “Big George Foreman: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World.” The film, from Sony’s Christian production company Affirm Films, gives a faith-based twist to the sports biopic. But after getting dinged by bad review, it didn’t punch very hard, with $3 million in 3,054 theaters.

Nida Manzoor’s “Polite Society,” about a British-Pakistani high-schooler (Priya Kansara) with dreams of becoming a stuntwoman, debuted with $800,000 in 927 theaters. The Focus Features film, one of the standouts of January’s Sundance Film Festival, blends kung-fu with Jane Austen in a story about London sisters.

One of the weekend’s biggest successes was a familiar box-office force. The Walt Disney Co.’s rerelease of “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” grossed $4.7 million in just 475 theaters. Disney put “Jedi” (the 1997 special edition version) back into theaters to commemorate the 1983 film’s 40th anniversary.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” $40 million.

2. “Evil Dead Rise,” $12.2 million.

3. “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret,” $6.8 million.

4. “John Wick: Chapter 4,” $5 million.

5. “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi,” $4.7 million.

6. “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” $4.1 million.

7. “Air,” $4 million.

8. “Ponniyin Selvan: Part Two,” $3.6 million.

9. “The Covenant,” $3.6 million.

10. “Sisu,” $3.3 million.
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The American Library Association says there were a record number of demands to censor U.S. library books last year, nearly double the challenges from the previous year. For VOA, Deana Mitchell takes us to a Texas town that is considering closing its library to block a court ruling ordering the return of banned books.
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Ever since missionaries started building churches out of mud 400 years ago in what was the isolated frontier of the Spanish empire, tiny mountain communities like Cordova relied on their own resources to keep the faith going.

Thousands of miles from religious and lay seats of power, everything from priests to sculptors to paint pigments was hard to come by. Villagers instituted lay church caretakers called “mayordomos,” and filled chapels with elaborate altarpieces made of local wood.

Today, threatened by depopulation, dwindling congregations and fading traditions, some of their descendants are fighting to save these historic adobe structures from literally crumbling back to the earth they were built with.

“Our ancestors put blood and sweat in this place for us to have Jesus present,” said Angelo Sandoval on a spring day inside the 1830s church of St. Anthony, where he serves as mayordomo. “We’re not just a church, we’re not just a religion — we have roots.”

These churches anchor a uniquely New Mexican way of life for their communities, many of which no longer have schools or stores, and struggle with chronic poverty and addiction. But it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find the necessary resources to preserve the estimated 500 Catholic mission churches, especially since most are used for only a few services each year.

“When the faithful generation is gone, are they going to be a museum or serve their purpose?” said the Rev. Rob Yaksich, pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows in Las Vegas, New Mexico, which oversees 23 rural churches. “This old, deep-rooted Spanish Catholicism is experiencing serious disruption.”

‘It’s our job now’

In the hamlet of Ledoux, Fidel Trujillo is mayordomo of the pink-stucco San Jose church, which he keeps spotless even though few Masses are celebrated here regularly.

“Our ‘antepasados’ (ancestors) did a tremendous job in handing over the faith, and it’s our job now,” Trujillo said in the characteristic mix of Spanish and English that most speak in this region. “I much prefer coming to these ‘capillas’ (chapels). It’s a compass that guides where your heart really belongs.”

Each mission church is devoted to a particular saint. When New Mexico’s largest wildfire last spring charred forests less than 100 yards from San Jose church, and Trujillo was displaced for a month, he took the statue of St. Joseph with him.

“Four hundred years ago, life was very difficult in this part of the world,” explained Felix Lopez, a master “santero” — an artist who sculpts, paints and conserves saint figures in New Mexico’s unique devotional style. “People needed these ‘santos.’ They were a source of comfort and refuge.”

In intervening centuries, most were stolen, sold or damaged, according to Bernadette Lucero, director, curator and archivist for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.

“Saints are the spiritual go-to, they can be highly powerful,” said Victor Goler, a master santero who just completed conserving the altarpieces, or “reredos,” in Las Trampas’ mid-18th century church.

On a recent Sunday at Truchas’ 1760s Holy Rosary church, Lopez pointed out the rich decorative details that centuries of smoke and grime had hidden until he meticulously removed them with the absorbent inside of sourdough bread.

“I’m a devout Catholic, and I do this as meditation, as a form of prayer,” said Lopez, who’s been a santero for five decades and whose family hails from this village perched on a ridge at 7,000 feet (2,100 meters).

Faith that support will come

For the Rev. Sebastian Lee, who as administrator of the popular Santuario de Chimayo complex a few miles away also oversees these mission churches, fostering local attachment is a daunting challenge as congregations shrink even faster since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I want missions to be where people can taste culture and religiosity. They’re very healing, you’re soaked with people’s faith,” Lee said. “I wonder how to help them, because sooner or later one mission is not going to have enough people.”

The archdiocese’s Catholic Foundation provides small grants, and several organizations have been founded to help conservation efforts.

Exposed to rain and snow, adobe needs a fresh replastering of dirt, sand and straw every couple of years lest it dissolve.

That makes local buy-in and some kind of ongoing activity, even just funerals, fundamental to long-term preservation, said Jake Barrow, program director at Cornerstones, which has worked on more than 300 churches and other structures.

But with fewer priests and fewer faithful, taking some rural missions off the church’s roster might be inevitable, said the Rev. Andy Pavlak, who serves on the archdiocese’s commission for the preservation of historic churches.

Not everyone agrees. Running his hand over the smooth adobe walls he restored at the 1880s Santo Nino de Atocha chapel in Monte Aplanado, a hamlet nestled in a high mountain valley, Leo Paul Pacheco argued that the answer might hinge on the faith of future generations of lay people like him.

“They still have access to the same dirt,” Pacheco said as the adobe walls’ sand particles and straw sparkled in the sun. “They will provide.”
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A U.S.-sponsored youth festival opened Saturday in Ethiopia with the theme “Be Inspired, Own Your Future.” The two-day festival is being held just months after a bloody two-year civil war ended in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and as peace talks begin with the rebel Oromo Liberation Army (OLA).

Nearly 20,000 youth from around the country are expected to take part over two days.

U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Tracey Ann Jacobson spoke about the importance of the festival during her opening remarks.

“The point of it is to provide job opportunities, to provide access to loans, to provide better opportunities for leadership and health care for young people throughout Ethiopia,” she said, “and I have seen it grow from a tiny seed that we started in March to this amazing program that we have today.”

Ethiopian Minister for Women and Social Affairs Ergoge Tesfaye spoke at the event about addressing the vulnerabilities of young people.

“Government and non-governmental institutions, other members of the community, as well as the youth themselves, need to understand that they are exposed to a variety of problems along with this untapped potential and providing necessary solutions and steps is expected from all of us,” she said.

Last week, the Ethiopian government started talks with representatives of the OLA in Tanzania after years of protracted communal conflict in Ethiopia’s Oromia region.

Entrepreneurs and creative individuals from across 17 cities in Ethiopia are showcasing their work at the Addis Ababa festival, but the event did not have representatives from the Tigray region because of the war’s impact.

Boni Bekele, from the Oromia region, had a booth for a clothing design shop at the market fair within the festival.

He said that he used to be able to work across the country in previous years but not anymore.

The government has made millions of young people lose hope, he said. But their strengths should be used, he said, and not just as soldiers, because that won’t transform a country. It’s philosophy, science and skills that can change a country, he said, adding that this must be a priority.

The youth festival also featured a tech village and an art gallery.

One of the artists presenting her work was 23-year-old Melat Shiferaw, who came from Dire Dawa in the eastern part of Ethiopia.

For her, though the current environment in the country is not encouraging, she hopes things will soon fall into place.

As humans, she said, we live not just thinking about today, but what we hope for tomorrow, hoping tomorrow will be better.

The festival, supported by USAID for five years, is expected to include participants from Tigray in coming years, as organizers finalize a post-conflict assessment in the region.
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Jerry Springer, the onetime mayor and news anchor whose namesake TV show featured a three-ring circus of dysfunctional families willing to bare all on weekday afternoons including brawls, obscenities and blurred images of nudity, died Thursday at 79.

At its peak, “The Jerry Springer Show” was a ratings powerhouse and a U.S. cultural pariah, synonymous with lurid drama. Known for chair-throwing and bleep-filled arguments, the daytime talk show was a favorite American guilty pleasure over its 27-year run, at one point topping Oprah Winfrey’s show.

Springer called it “escapist entertainment,” while others saw the show as contributing to a dumbing-down decline in American social values.

“Jerry’s ability to connect with people was at the heart of his success in everything he tried whether that was politics, broadcasting or just joking with people on the street who wanted a photo or a word,” said Jene Galvin, a family spokesperson and friend of Springer’s since 1970, in a statement. “He’s irreplaceable and his loss hurts immensely, but memories of his intellect, heart and humor will live on.”

Springer died peacefully at home in suburban Chicago after a brief illness, the statement said

On his Twitter profile, Springer jokingly declared himself as “Talk show host, ringmaster of civilization’s end.” He also often had told people, tongue in cheek, that his wish for them was “may you never be on my show.”

After more than 4,000 episodes, the show ended in 2018, never straying from its core salaciousness: Some of its last episodes had such titles as “Stripper Sex Turned Me Straight,” “Stop Pimpin’ My Twin Sister,” and “Hooking Up With My Therapist.”

In a “Too Hot For TV” video released as his daily show neared 7 million viewers in the late 1990s, Springer offered a defense against disgust.

“Look, television does not and must not create values, it’s merely a picture of all that’s out there — the good, the bad, the ugly,” Springer said, adding: “Believe this: The politicians and companies that seek to control what each of us may watch are a far greater danger to America and our treasured freedom than any of our guests ever were or could be.”

He also contended that the people on his show volunteered to be subjected to whatever ridicule or humiliation awaited them.

Gerald Norman Springer was born Feb. 13, 1944, in a London underground railway station being used as a bomb shelter. His parents, Richard and Margot, were German Jews who fled to England during the Holocaust, in which other relatives were killed in Nazi gas chambers. They arrived in the United States when their son was 5 and settled in the Queens borough of New York City, where Springer got his first Yankees baseball gear on his way to becoming a lifelong fan.

He studied political science at Tulane University and got a law degree from Northwestern University. He was active in politics much of his adult life, mulling a run for governor of Ohio as recently as 2017.

He entered the arena as an aide in Robert F. Kennedy’s ill-fated 1968 presidential campaign. Springer, working for a Cincinnati law firm, ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1970 before being elected to city council in 1971.

In 1974 — in what The Cincinnati Enquirer reported as “an abrupt move that shook Cincinnati’s political community” — Springer resigned. He cited “very personal family considerations,” but what he didn’t mention was a vice probe involving prostitution. In a subsequent admission that could have been the basis for one of his future shows, Springer said he had paid prostitutes with personal checks.

Then 30, he had married Micki Velton the previous year. The couple had a daughter, Katie, and divorced in 1994.

Springer quickly bounced back politically, winning a council seat in 1975 and serving as mayor in 1977. He later became a local television politics reporter with popular evening commentaries. He and co-anchor Norma Rashid eventually helped build NBC affiliate WLWT-TV’s broadcast into the Cincinnati market’s top-rated news show.

Springer began his talk show in 1991 with more of a traditional format, but after he left WLWT in 1993, it got a sleazy makeover.

TV Guide ranked it No. 1 on a list of “Worst Shows in the History of Television,” but it was ratings gold. It made Springer a celebrity who would go on to host a liberal radio talk show and “America’s Got Talent,” star in a movie called “Ringmaster,” and compete on “Dancing With the Stars.”

“With all the joking I do with the show, I’m fully aware and thank God every day that my life has taken this incredible turn because of this silly show,” Springer told Cincinnati Enquirer media reporter John Kiesewetter in 2011.

Well in advance of Donald Trump’s political rise from reality TV stardom, Springer mulled a Senate run in 2003 that he surmised could draw on “nontraditional voters,” people “who believe most politics are bull.”

“I connect with a whole bunch of people who probably connect more to me right now than to a traditional politician,” Springer told the AP at the time. He opposed the war on Iraq and favored expanding public healthcare, but ultimately did not run.

Springer also spoke often of the country he came to age 5 as “a beacon of light for the rest of world.”

“I have no other motivation but to say I love this country,” Springer said to a Democratic gathering in 2003.

Springer hosted a nationally syndicated “Judge Jerry” show in 2019 and continued to speak out on whatever was on his mind in a podcast, but his power to shock had dimmed in the new era of reality television and combative cable TV talk shows.

“He was lapped not only by other programs but by real life,” David Bianculli, a television historian and professor at Monmouth University, said in 2018.

Despite the limits Springer’s show put on his political aspirations, he embraced its legacy. In a 2003 fund-raising infomercial ahead of a possible U.S. Senate run the following year, Springer referenced a quote by then National Review commentator Jonah Goldberg, who warned of new people brought to the polls by Springer, including “slack-jawed yokels, hicks, weirdos, pervs and whatnots.”

In the informercial, Springer referred to the quote and talked about wanting to reach out to “regular folks … who weren’t born with a silver spoon in your mouth.”
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From discussing nuclear war to belting out a beloved hit: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s White House visit ended on a high note when he sang Don McLean’s “American Pie” to great applause.   

Yoon is on a six-day state visit to Washington, where he discussed with U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday “the end” of any North Korean regime that used nuclear weapons against the allies.   

But the two leaders had more cheerful topics on the agenda at the White House state dinner in Yoon’s honor later that day, with the South Korean leader — who is known at home to be something of a karaoke buff — sharing his love of American music.   

“We know this is one of your favorite songs, ‘American Pie,'” Biden said to Yoon, having pulled him up onto the stage at the end of the evening to listen to singers perform the classic.   

“Yes, that’s true,” the 62-year-old Yoon admitted, saying that he had loved the Don McLean song, released in 1971, since he was at school.   

“We want to hear you sing it,” said Biden.   

“It’s been a while but…” Yoon responded, offering only token resistance as he took the microphone.   

Yoon belted out the first few lines of the song a cappella, triggering rapturous applause from the crowd and delighting Biden and the First Lady.   

“The next state dinner we’re going to have, you’re looking at the entertainment,” Biden told the crowd, referring to Yoon.    

Then he turned to the South Korean president and said: “I had no damn idea you could sing.”   

Biden told Yoon that McLean could not be at the White House to join them but had sent a signed guitar, which the U.S. president gave to the South Korean leader.   

“Yoon literally tore up the stage and White House!” one Twitter user wrote in Korean in reply to a video of the president singing.   

“Yoon has revealed his hidden singing talent,” another commenter wrote, also in Korean, resharing the video.   

It is not Yoon’s first time singing in public.   

On the campaign trail in 2021, he appeared on the famous South Korean TV show “All the Butlers”, wowing its celebrity hosts with a sparkling rendition of the K-pop ballad “No One Else” by Lee Seung-chul. 
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Actor Angelina Jolie, home improvement duo Chip and Joanna Gaines and Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim headlined the list of big names from politics, business, sports and entertainment glamming up a fancy black-tie dinner that U.S. President Joe Biden hosted Wednesday for South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Broadway’s Lea Salonga, one of the night’s entertainers, confessed as she arrived that she was “freaking out” over the whole experience, allowing, “It feels like being in the middle of a fairy tale.” Kim, for her part, served up a classic understatement as she strolled in, telling reporters, ”I heard the food’s going to be very good.” Jolie wasn’t inclined to chat as she arrived in a vintage Chanel jacket and a flowing cream gown, but her date, 21-year-old son Maddox, at least offered that his favorite thing about Seoul was “the people.”

A smattering of politicians made the guest list, too, and most were determinedly on message, talking a lot of shop. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., held forth on infrastructure, debt reduction and the budget. Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., talked abortion rights. Former Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, a big Democratic donor from Illinois, talked up plans for the Democratic convention in Chicago in 2024, promising, “of course” it will go well.

Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, proudly showed off her traditional hanbok gown, saying it was important to showcase cultural diversity. She added that the big challenge was “not to trip over it.”

Also among the nearly 200 guests were Arthur Blank, a co-founder of Home Depot; Pachinko author Min Jin Lee; and former Major League Baseball pitcher Chan Ho Park. Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah also attended, as did the governors of Delaware, New Jersey and Vermont.

On a perfect spring evening, guests entered the White House by strolling through the Jacqueline Kennedy garden in the East Wing and being directed to a cocktail reception before dinner in the East Room, where tables were topped with towering centerpieces of cherry tree boughs in full bloom. On the menu: crabcakes, beef ribs and banana splits.

While most guests were strolling in through the garden, Biden and wife Jill welcomed Yoon and wife Kim Keon Hee on a red carpet on the steps of the North Portico, where the president flashed a thumbs-up for the assembled cameras. Kim wore a cream-colored jacket over her gown, which was also creamy. Jill Biden wore a mauve sheath gown by Reem Acra.

In their toasts before dinner, President Biden said he believed Yoon’s visit had “brought two nations even closer together.”

Yoon, for his part, nodded to Biden’s Irish heritage and love of Irish poets.

“There’s an old saying, and Mr. President, this one is also Irish, that goes: A good friend is like a four-leaf clover, hard to find and lucky to have,” Yoon said, offering a toast to our “ironclad alliance.”

A state visit, including an arrival ceremony on the South Lawn and a sparkly state dinner, is the highest diplomatic honor the U.S. bestows on its closest allies. Yoon was visiting as the U.S. and South Korea mark the 70th year of an alliance that began at the end of the Korean War and committed the U.S. to help South Korea defend itself, particularly from North Korea. Approximately 28,500 U.S. troops are currently based in South Korea.

Biden’s first invitation for a state visit went to France last year and President Emmanuel Macron was toasted at a black-tie dinner last December with more than 300 guests inside a heated pavilion erected on the south grounds of the White House.
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A Fugees rapper accused in multimillion-dollar political conspiracies spanning two presidencies was convicted Wednesday after a trial that included testimony from such witnesses as actor Leonardo DiCaprio and former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. 

Prakazrel “Pras” Michel was accused of funneling money from a now-fugitive Malaysian financer through straw donors to Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, then trying to squelch a Justice Department investigation and influence an extradition case on behalf of China under the Trump administration. 

A jury in Washington, D.C., federal court found him guilty of all 10 counts, including conspiracy and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. 

The defense argued the Grammy-winning rapper from the Fugees, a 1990s hip-hop group, simply wanted to make money and got bad legal advice as he reinvented himself in the world of politics. 

Michel declined to comment after the verdict, but his attorney said he’s “extremely disappointed” in the outcome of the case and plans to appeal. 

“This is not over,” attorney David Kenner said. “I remain very, very confident we will ultimately prevail.” 

Michel met Malaysian financer Low Taek Jho in 2006, when the businessman usually known as Jho Low was dropping huge sums of money and hobnobbing with the likes of media personality Paris Hilton. Low helped finance Hollywood films, including “The Wolf of Wall Street.” DiCaprio testified Low had appeared to him as a legitimate businessman and had mentioned wanting to donate to Obama’s campaign. 

Michel also testified in his own defense. He said Low wanted a picture with Obama in 2012 and was willing to pay millions of dollars to get it. Michel agreed to help and used some of the money he got to pay for friends to attend fundraising events. No one had ever told him that was illegal, he said. 

Prosecutors said Michel was donating the money on Low’s behalf, and later tried to lean on the straw donors with texts from burner phones to keep them from talking to investigators. 

After the election of Donald Trump, prosecutors say Michel again took millions to halt an investigation into allegations Low masterminded a money laundering and bribery scheme that pilfered billions from the Malaysian state investment fund known as 1MDB. Low is now an international fugitive and has maintained his innocence. 

Michel also got paid to try to persuade the U.S. – without registering as a foreign agent – to extradite back to China a government critic suspected of crimes there, prosecutors said. 

On that charge, the defense pointed to testimony from Sessions, who was Trump’s top law enforcement officer until he resigned in 2018. Sessions said he’d been aware the Chinese government wanted the extradition but didn’t know Michel. The rapper’s ultimately futile efforts to arrange a meeting on the topic didn’t seem improper, the former attorney general said.
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Pope Francis has decided to give women the right to vote at an upcoming meeting of bishops, an historic reform that reflects his hopes to give women greater decision-making responsibilities and laypeople more say in the life of the Catholic Church.

Francis approved changes to the norms governing the Synod of Bishops, a Vatican body that gathers the world’s bishops together for periodic meetings, following years of demands by women to have the right to vote.

The Vatican on Wednesday published the modifications he approved, which emphasize his vision for the lay faithful taking on a greater role in church affairs that have long been left to clerics, bishops and cardinals.

Catholic women’s groups that have long criticized the Vatican for treating women as second-class citizens immediately praised the move as historic in the history of the church.

“This is a significant crack in the stained glass ceiling, and the result of sustained advocacy, activism and the witness” of a campaign of Catholic women’s groups demanding the right to vote, said Kate McElwee of the Women’s Ordination Conference, which advocates for women’s ordination.

Ever since the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that modernized the church, popes have summoned the world’s bishops to Rome for a few weeks at a time to debate particular topics. At the end of the meetings, the bishops vote on specific proposals and put them to the pope, who then produces a document taking their views into account.

Until now, the only people who could vote were men.

But under the new changes, five religious sisters will join five priests as voting representatives for religious orders.

In addition, Francis has decided to appoint 70 non-bishop members of the synod and has asked that half of them be women. They too will have a vote.

The aim is also to include young people among these 70 non-bishop members, who will be proposed to the pope by regional blocs, with Francis making a final decision.

“It’s an important change, it’s not a revolution,” said Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, a top organizer of the synod.

The next meeting, scheduled for Oct. 4-29, is focused on the very topic of making the church more reflective of, and responsive to, the laity, a process known as “synodality” that Francis has championed for years.

The October meeting has been preceded by an unprecedented two-year canvassing of the lay Catholic faithful about their vision for the church and how it can better respond to the needs of Catholics today.

So far only one women is known to be a voting member of that October meeting, Sister Nathalie Becquart, a French nun who is undersecretary in the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops office and will participate in the meeting thanks to her position. When she was appointed to the position in 2021, she called Francis “brave” for having pushed the envelope on women’s participation.

By the end of next month, seven regional blocs will propose 20 names apiece of nonbishop members to Francis, who will select 10 names apiece to bring the total to 70.

Cardinal Mario Grech, who is in charge of the synod, stressed that with the changes, some 21% of the gathered representatives at the October meeting will be non-bishops, with half of that group women.

Acknowledging the unease within the hierarchy of Francis’ vision of inclusivity, he stressed that the synod itself would continue to have a majority of bishops calling the shots.

Hollerich declined to say how the female members of the meeting would be known, given that members have long been known as “synodal fathers.” Asked if they would be known as “synodal mothers,” he responded that it would be up to the women to decide.

Francis has upheld the Catholic Church’s ban on ordaining women as priests, but has done more than any pope in recent time to give women greater say in decision-making roles in the church.

He has appointed several women to high-ranking Vatican positions, though no women head any of the major Vatican offices or departments, known as dicasteries.
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Harry Belafonte, the civil rights and entertainment giant who began as a groundbreaking actor and singer and became an activist, humanitarian and conscience of the world, has died. He was 96.

Belafonte died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his New York home, his wife Pamela by his side, said Paula M. Witt, of public relations firm Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis.

With his glowing, handsome face and silky-husky voice, Belafonte was one of the first Black performers to gain a wide following on film and to sell a million records as a singer; many still know him for his signature hit “Banana Boat Song (Day-O),” and its call of “Day-O! Daaaaay-O.” But he forged a greater legacy once he scaled back his performing career in the 1960s and lived out his hero Paul Robeson’s decree that artists are “gatekeepers of truth.”

He stands as the model and the epitome of the celebrity activist. Few kept up with Belafonte’s time and commitment and none his stature as a meeting point among Hollywood, Washington and the civil rights movement.

Belafonte not only participated in protest marches and benefit concerts, but helped organize and raise support for them. He worked closely with his friend and generational peer the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., often intervening on his behalf with both politicians and fellow entertainers and helping him financially. He risked his life and livelihood and set high standards for younger Black celebrities, scolding Jay Z and Beyonce for failing to meet their “social responsibilities,” and mentoring Usher, Common, Danny Glover and many others. In Spike Lee’s 2018 film “BlacKkKlansman,” he was fittingly cast as an elder statesman schooling young activists about the country’s past.

Belafonte’s friend, civil rights leader Andrew Young, would note that Belafonte was the rare person to grow more radical with age. He was ever engaged and unyielding, willing to take on Southern segregationists, Northern liberals, the billionaire Koch brothers and the country’s first Black president, Barack Obama, whom Belafonte would remember asking to cut him “some slack.”

Belafonte responded, “What makes you think that’s not what I’ve been doing?”

Belafonte had been a major artist since the 1950s. He won a Tony Award in 1954 for his starring role in John Murray Anderson’s “Almanac” and five years later became the first Black performer to win an Emmy for the TV special “Tonight with Harry Belafonte.”

In 1954, he co-starred with Dorothy Dandridge in the Otto Preminger-directed musical “Carmen Jones,” a popular breakthrough for an all-Black cast. The 1957 movie “Island in the Sun” was banned in several Southern cities, where theater owners were threatened by the Ku Klux Klan because of the film’s interracial romance between Belafonte and Joan Fontaine.

 
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