Jon Rahm turned the longest day into his sweetest victory, starting Sunday with a four-shot deficit in the morning chill and finishing in fading sunlight as the fourth Spaniard to become a Masters champion. 

Rahm closed with a 3-under 69 to pull away from mistake-prone Brooks Koepka. He won by four shots over Koepka and 52-year-old Phil Mickelson, who turned in a tournament-best 65. He is the oldest runner-up in Masters history. 

It was Mickelson who declared Rahm would be among golf’s biggest stars even before the Spaniard turned pro in 2016. Rahm now has a green jacket to go along with his U.S. Open title he won in 2021 at Torrey Pines. 

Rahm made up two shots on Koepka over the final 12 holes of the rain-delayed third round and started the final round two shots behind. He seized on Koepka’s collapse and then surged so far ahead that Mickelson’s amazing closing round — the best final round ever at Augusta National for the three-time Masters champion — was never going to be enough. 

Nothing was more satisfying than an uphill climb to the 18th green to claim the green jacket on a day when Spanish stars aligned. Sunday is the birthdate of his idol, the late Seve Ballesteros, and this is the 40-year anniversary of Ballesteros winning his second Masters title. 

Rahm embraced his wife and two children, and as he walked toward the scoring room, there was two-time Masters champion José María Olazábal in his green jacket for the strongest hug of all. 

Rahm won for the fourth time this year — just as Scottie Scheffler did a year ago when he won the Masters — and reclaimed the No. 1 world ranking from Scheffler. 

This Masters had a little bit of everything — hot and humid at the start, a cold front with wind that toppled three trees on Friday, putting surfaces saturated from rain on Saturday and a marathon finish Sunday as Rahm and Koepka went 30 holes. 

Koepka helped to pave the way with one miscue after another, losing the lead for the first time since Thursday afternoon when he chipped 20 feet past the hole from behind the par-3 sixth and made his second bogey. There would be more to come. 

Worse yet, Koepka went 22 consecutive holes Sunday without a birdie — from the par-5 eighth hole in the morning of the third round until the par-5 13th in final round. By then, he was three shots behind and Rahm all but sealed it with his next shot. 

He hit a low cut around a tree from right of the 14th fairway and it caught a slope just right on the 14th green and fed down to 3 feet for a birdie. When Koepka three-putted for bogey, it was a matter of finishing. 

Rahm hooked his tee shot into the trees on the final hole and didn’t reach the fairway. No matter. He played up the fairway, hit wedge to 3 feet and tapped in for the victory. 

The leaderboard was littered with major champions and a tinge of Saudi-funded LIV Golf. Mickelson and Koepka both are part of the rival circuit. Former Masters champion Patrick Reed, another player who defected to LIV, closed with a 68 and tied for fourth with Jordan Spieth (66) and Russell Henley. 
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Muslims across South Africa are observing Ramadan with prayer and fasting. But some also see the holy month as an opportunity to reach out to those in need within their communities. Zaheer Cassim spoke to residents in Johannesburg and has the story.
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Despite their country’s economic challenges, Muslims in Sudan are observing the holy month of Ramadan with customs that include sharing iftar with travelers. Sidahmed Ibraheem spoke to residents in Khartoum and has this story.
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China feels it has the “right to redefine the global world order,” Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei told AFP on Wednesday ahead of the opening in London of his first design-focused exhibition. 

The show at the Design Museum features hundreds of thousands of objects collected by the Chinese artist since the 1990s, from Stone Age tools to Lego bricks, and draws on his love of artifacts and traditional craftsmanship. 

The son of a poet revered by former communist leaders, Ai, 65, is perhaps China’s best-known modern artist and helped design the famous “Bird’s Nest” stadium for Beijing’s 2008 Olympics. 

But he fell out of favor after criticizing the Chinese government, was imprisoned for 81 days in 2011 and eventually left for Germany four years later. 

Among the artifacts in the new exhibition are thousands of fragments from Ai’s porcelain sculptures, which were destroyed when the bulldozers moved in to dismantle his studio in Beijing in 2018. 

In launching the show, Ai said he believed China was “not moving into a more civilized society, but [had] rather become quite brutal on anybody who has different ideas.” 

“Tension between China and the West is very natural,” added the artist, who has lived in Europe since 2015. 

“China feel they have their own power and right to redefine the global world order,” he said. “They think China can become an important factor in changing the game rules, basically designed by the West world.” 

And he said that even though Europe had been relatively peaceful for 70 years, there were many problems, including much less concern for “humanity” and threats to “freedom of speech.” 

The objects to go on display include 1,600 Stone Age tools, 10,000 Song Dynasty cannon balls retrieved from a moat, and donated Lego bricks that the artist began working with in 2014 to produce portraits of political prisoners. 

The exhibition will also feature large-scale works installed outside the exhibition gallery. 

They include a piece titled “Colored House” featuring the painted timber frame of a house that was once the home of a prosperous family during the early Qing Dynasty (1644–1912). 

Exhibition curator Justin McGuirk said the things Ai had been collecting over the years represented “a body of evidence about different histories, different cultural moments in China’s history [that]  maybe have been forgotten or not thought about enough.”  

“Ai Weiwei always makes something out of destruction and plays on the idea of construction,” he added.
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For many people in the U.S. holidays mean enormous lawn decorations. But generally, these decorations coincide with Western holidays. Now, some Muslim families are finding unique ways to celebrate Ramadan. VOA’s Dhania Iman reports. Videographer: Andri Tambunan 
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Cambodian communities in California organized a parade and cultural festival ahead of this month’s solar new year. For VOA, Genia Dulot has our story from Long Beach.
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After an extensive warmup, the dance students break into groups. The most experienced children — from 12 to 16 years old — show off complex jazz-funk and hip-hop routines to songs like K7’s “Come Baby Come.”

Outside the technical college hosting the class, snow falls over the mostly abandoned and heavily damaged city. Russian forces who occupied Izium were driven out in September, but the area is still laden with bombs and other explosives. Most families fled and haven’t returned.

During the occupation, the dance team didn’t practice, and all academic schools were closed. Water and electricity were cut off as Ukraine fought bitterly to win back the city. Remaining families had little to do but wait for the violence to end.

“In the first days of occupation, we spent our time counting the falling shells,” explained Ivan Pustelnik, a 12-year-old dancer in black sweatpants and kneepads. After seven years of training, he is a veteran of Izium’s dance team. “In one day, we counted 400 strikes.”

As the months of war dragged on, families tried to get back to a somewhat normal life, added Olesya Bilyaga, the dance coach.

“We knew Russia was in charge at that time,” she says. “But we always considered ourselves Ukrainian and waited for Ukraine to come back.”

Ukraine did come back, taking this strategic city and restoring a key supply line to their forces on the front lines. Some families began to rebuild their damaged homes.

“After Ukraine returned to Izium, water came back and we could clean the apartment,” said Milana Tytarenko, a 10-year-old student who started dance classes a month ago.

She speaks in a quick, stoic voice and wears a bright pink shirt that says “Chief Happiness Officer” in small, white letters.

“It was hard to live under Russia because our windows were covered with plastic sheets,” she said.

At that time, there was no point in repairing windows that would break again in the next inevitable blast, she said.

But some damage cannot so easily be fixed, added Bilyaga.

“If you watch the children in dance class, you can see which ones stayed during the occupation,” she explained. “You can see the trauma on their faces.”

After her dance class, Tytarenko’s face grows pale as she remembers the time, and those she lost.

“My grandpa. My grandma,” she said. She continues listing relatives as her eyes glaze with tears and her voice fades to silence.

Moving on

Before the war, the Izium dance team was competitive, winning medals in regional, national and international meets. Most of the dancers fled with their families, but some have come back. About 30% of the original members are now dancing again.

“This summer we are going to Odesa,” said Pustelnik, the 12-year-old boy with seven years of training.

He described what he expects to be a dance conference that includes a friendly competition in the southern port city.

“My teacher will choreograph a solo for me,” he adds, appearing just a little bit excited.

Dance classes began again in December, and they are still among the very few activities Izium children can do outside their homes with other children. School is online and almost all community facilities are damaged or destroyed.

A nearly hundred-year-old theater that used to host the dance classes, concerts and a library is now damaged beyond use. Blown out windows are covered with fraying plastic tarps, and shattered glass litters the floor. An explosion of index cards that catalogued the library books is scattered throughout the facility.

The books were packed into a storage room by Russian soldiers, locals say, but they were destroyed when the room caught fire after a bombing.

“We are going to rebuild the theater one day,” said Bilyaga, the dance coach. “But the municipality doesn’t have the money right now.”

For now, dance classes continue at the technical college, which is also starting to host their students in person for some classes, some of the time.

In the class, after the more experienced dancers demonstrate their routines, younger and newer students spread out on the dance floor. In brightly colored leotards, sweats and sneakers, the children learn a combination of stomping, clapping and twisting. Some dance with abandon, others focus on getting the steps right.

The war in Ukraine seems far from over, with both sides gearing up for spring battles after a long, brutal winter. Many people died, and neither side gained much ground.

But dancers in Izium say the fighting is now barely in earshot and they hope it will never return to their city. The nearest battle zone is now at least 60 kilometers away, which for children in Izium, seems far away.

“Not long ago we heard shelling,” said Alona Gurova, an 11-year-old who recently began dancing after a friend told her it was fun. “But it was a long way off.”

Oleksandr Babenko contributed to this report.
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As bloody, stalemated battles in Ukraine grind on, young dancers in the eastern city of Izium are training again, hoping to resume competition despite the destruction of their theater. VOA’s Heather Murdock reports from Izium, Ukraine. Camera: Yan Boechat.
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Seymour Stein, the brash, prescient and highly successful founder of Sire Records who helped launched the careers of Madonna, Talking Heads and many others, died Sunday at age 80.  

Stein, who helped found the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation and was himself inducted into the Rock Hall in 2005, died of cancer in Los Angeles, according to a statement by his family. 

Born in 1942, Stein was a New York City native who as a teenager worked summers at Cincinnati-based King Records, James Brown’s label, and by his mid-20s had co-founded Sire Productions, soon to become Sire Records.  

Obsessed with the Billboard music charts since childhood, he was known for his deep knowledge and appreciation of music and would prove an astute judge of talent during the 1970s era of New Wave, a term he helped popularize, signing record deals with Talking Heads, the Ramones and the Pretenders.  

“Seymour’s taste in music is always a couple of years ahead of everyone else’s,” Talking Heads manager Gary Kurfirst told the Rock Hall around the time of Stein’s induction.  

His most lucrative discovery happened in the early 1980s, when he heard the demo tape of a little-known singer-dancer from the downtown New York club scene, Madonna.  

“I liked Madonna’s voice, I liked the feel, and I liked the name Madonna. I liked it all and played it again,” he wrote in his memoir “Siren Song,” published in 2018, the same year he retired. Stein was hospitalized with a heart infection when he first learned of Madonna but was so eager to meet that he had her brought to his room. 

“She was all dolled up in cheap punky gear, the kind of club kid who looked absurdly out of place in a cardiac ward,” he wrote. “She wasn’t even interested in hearing me explain how much I liked her demo. ‘The thing to do now,’ she said, ‘is sign me to a record deal.'” 

Sire artists also included Ice T, the Smiths, Depeche Mode, the Replacements and Echo and the Bunnymen, along with the more-established Lou Reed and Brian Wilson, who recorded with Sire later in their careers.  

Stein was married briefly to record promoter and real estate executive Linda Adler, with whom he had two children: filmmaker Mandy Stein and Samantha Lee Jacobs, who died of brain cancer in 2013. Sidney Stein and his wife divorced in the 1970s and years later he came out as gay.  

“I am beyond grateful for every minute our family spent with him, and that the music he brought to the world impacted so many people’s lives in a positive way,” Mandy Stein said in a statement Sunday. 
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Riding terrific reviews and a strong word-of-mouth, the role-playing game adaptation “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” opened with $38.5 million in U.S. and Canadian movie theaters over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, stealing the top box-office perch from “John Wick: Chapter 4.”

The Paramount Pictures and eOne release appealed to more moviegoers than many expected a film based on a notoriously niche tabletop game to interest. “Game Night” directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley turned in a rollicking comic action-adventure, with a cast including Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page and Hugh Grant, that’s bringing in ticket buyers less familiar with “D&D.” Audiences gave “Honor Among Thieves,” which launched with a raucous opening-night premiere at SXSW, an A- CinemaScore. It scored 91% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. 

“We know how good our movie is,” said Chris Aronson, distribution chief for Paramount. “I know it’s been said before, but I think opening to $38-39 million is just the start. These kind of exits polls translate to playability.” 

“Dungeons & Dragons” was also a big roll of the dice. The film, co-produced and co-financed by Paramount with eOne, which is owned by Hasbro, cost $150 million to make. With a production cost like that, “Dungeons & Dragons” will be looking for sustained sales through April and similar success overseas to potentially kickstart a new franchise. It launched internationally with $33 million. 

“The challenge with this film is convincing everyone that this film is for you,” said Aronson. “Jonathan and John, these guys are really talented and great collaborators. We’re going to work more with them. Hopefully, this will be the start of a franchise.” 

“John Wick: Chapter 4,” which launched last weekend with a franchise-best $73.5 million, slid to second place in its second weekend with $28.2 million. While a sizeable dip, the assassin action film, starring Keanu Reeves, has already accrued $122.8 million domestically and, after adding another $35 million internationally over the weekend, $245 million worldwide. Lionsgate has no shortage of plans for further expansion in the franchise. 

“While it may not be the highest grossing March ever, this is one of the best months of March for the industry in its history, coming off of three years of a pandemic-challenged marketplace,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm Comscore. “March is not the summer, but it’s sure felt like the summer, with hit after hit.” 

Those films have helped push the 2023 box office well ahead of last year’s pace, up 28.7%, according to David A. Gross, who runs Franchise Entertainment Research. Still, overall ticket sales aren’t yet up to pre-pandemic levels, trailing the 2017-2019 average by 28.8%. 

Games and toys are also proving to be dependable big-screen resources. “Dungeons & Dragons” will be followed this year by Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and a new “Transformers” movie. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is expected to extend a rising trend for the once-derided video game adaptation. 

“Dungeons & Dragons” had little competition from new releases. The Christian drama “His Only Son” debuted with $5.3 million. A.V. Rockwell’s Sundance Film Festival grand jury prize winner “A Thousand and One,” about a mother (Teyana Taylor) who kidnaps her son from foster care, opened with $1.8 million at 926 theaters for Focus Features. 

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

1. “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” $38.5 million. 

2. “John Wick, Chapter 4,” $28.2 million. 

3. “Scream VI,” $5.3 million. (Tie) 

4. “His Only Son,” $5.3 million. (Tie) 

5. “Creed III,” $5 million. 

6. “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” $4.7 million. 

7. “A Thousand and One,” $1.8 million. 

8. “65,” $1.6 million. 

9. “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” $1.2 million. 

10. “Jesus Revolution,” $1 million. 
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A warrior-themed circus begins a tour of England on Friday with Ukrainian performers determined that the show should go on even though their hearts are very much still in their war-torn homeland.

Although the warrior idea behind the show was conceived in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the theme has inspired its Ukrainian artists to carry on, said Russian circus boss Irina Archer.

“Every day they are worried for their relatives. On stage, they perform, they entertain, but deep inside … they are so worried,” she said.

“But they love entertaining people. It gives them strength,” she added.

Fifteen of the circus’s 23 performers are Ukrainian, said Archer, who set up the Circus Cortex with her husband, Paul, in 2021.

“Before the war, there was no divide. I’ve worked with a lot of Ukrainian artists over the years,” she said.

The Archers, who used to run the Moscow State Circus, took the Circus Cortex on tour in the U.K. in 2021 and had hoped to restart performances in 2022.

After the war broke out in February 2022, however, they found performers stranded in Ukraine or signing up to fight.

Irina Archer described the show, titled “Warriors,” as an “epic magical production” with lots of dancing and traditional circus acts such as juggling and unicycles.

Some of the performers, such as Tetiana Lotiuk from Kharkiv, only recently left Ukraine.

Trapped in the city at the start of the war, she left two weeks later, traveling to Hungary and then the U.K.

Others include circus family Viktor Gorodetskiy, wife Yulia and son Valdis. The three were forced to leave their home three weeks after the start of the war.

They took refuge with Viktor’s parents, also circus performers, before spending several months in Lviv and finally traveling to the U.K.

The tour, which runs until October, begins Friday in the northern city of Sheffield.
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French daredevil Philippe Petit showed off his gravity-defying skills at the National Building Museum in Washington. At 73, Petit still walks the wire without a safety net or harness. Maxim Moskalkov talked with the famous wire walker. Video: Artyom Kokhan, Aleksadr Bergan
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Indonesia was stripped Wednesday of its hosting duties for the 2023 FIFA Under-20 World Cup, sending shock waves through the soccer world just weeks before the tournament was scheduled to begin.

FIFA, the international soccer federation, did not spell out the reasons for its decision, saying only on its website that it decided, “due to the current circumstances, to remove Indonesia as the host of the FIFA U-20 World Cup 2023.”

The decision followed a meeting between FIFA President Gianni Infantino and President of the Football Association of Indonesia (PSSI) Erick Thohir, where the topics under discussion included demands from some Indonesian officials that the Israeli team not be allowed to participate in the tournament.

However, the FIFA statement also alluded to “the tragedy that occurred in October 2022,” an apparent reference to a riot at an Indonesian soccer match that killed 125 people in Kanjuruhan, East Java.

FIFA said a new host will be announced as soon as possible, and the dates of the tournament — May 20-June 11 — are currently unchanged. Potential sanctions against the PSSI also may be decided at a later stage.

Earlier this week, officials postponed the draw, which had been scheduled to be held Friday in Bali to determine the matchups in the first round of the tournament. That came after the governor of Bali refused to host Israel’s team.

Governor I Wayan Koster sent a letter early this month to the Youth and Sports Ministry asking it to “adopt a policy forbidding the Israeli team from competing in Bali.” Ganjar Pranowo, the governor of Central Java and the front-runner for the 2024 presidential election, subsequently joined calls to block the Israeli team from playing in the tournament.

The Israel-Palestinian conflict is a key issue for Indonesia as the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, which broadly supports the Palestinian cause for religious reasons and in keeping with an anti-colonial sentiment dating to its independence.

In his written statement, Thohir said, “I have tried my best. After delivering a letter from [Indonesian] President Joko Widodo, and having a long discussion with FIFA President Gianni Infantino, we must accept FIFA’s decision to remove Indonesia as the host of FIFA U-20 World Cup 2023.”

Widodo on Tuesday asked those who protested the Israeli team not to mix sports and politics, underscoring that Israel’s participation in the U-20 meant no change to Indonesia’s foreign policy position toward Palestine.

The loss of hosting rights is a major setback in Indonesia, where football has a huge following, despite the lack of international success since qualifying for the 1938 World Cup as the Dutch East Indies.

Protesters marched in the capital, Jakarta, this month waving Indonesian and Palestinian flags and demanding that Israel not be allowed to participate.

As hosts, Indonesia automatically qualified for the U-20 World Cup, but the country has not played in the tournament since 1979.

Some information from Reuters was used in this report.
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Protesters gathered underneath Rio de Janeiro’s famed Sugarloaf Mountain earlier this week to protest construction of four cable lines that will carry tourists over the surrounding forest.

The cables, commonly known as zip lines, will carry individuals connected to them by safety harnesses at least 755 meters over the forest to the nearby peak of Urca Hill at speeds of 100 kilometers an hour.

But demonstrators who gathered near Sugarloaf Mountain Sunday say the zip lines will cause environmental damage to the mountain and the surrounding area. Opponents are also concerned the zip lines will lead to an expansion of the visitors center at Sugarloaf’s summit. An online petition against the zip lines has collected more than 11,000 signatures.

Sugarloaf, known in Portuguese as Pao de Acucar, attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each who take cable cars to the peak to take in breathtaking views of Rio’s famed beaches and the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue. UNESCO ((the U.N.’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)) named Sugarloaf a World Heritage Site in 2012.

Parque Bondinho, the company that operates the 110-year-old cable car system, is installing the four zip lines. It says the lines will have limited impact on the environment, even as it brings in even more tourists to Rio. The company says it has obtained all necessary permits for the project.

The zip lines are scheduled to be completed by the middle of this year.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse.
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Artist Danielle SeeWalker says she is attempting to paint an accurate and insightful representation of contemporary Native American life. Her work is on exhibit in the Western U.S. state of Colorado. VOA’s Scott Stearns gives us a look.

Camera: Scott Stearns
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When Morocco stunned Spain – and the world – with a dramatic penalty shootout victory in last year’s World Cup, authorities feared riots would break out.  

None did and Morocco made history by becoming the first African nation to reach the semi-finals in what is arguably the world’s biggest sporting event. 

Now, with the dust barely settled, Morocco has launched a joint bid with Spain and Portugal to stage the same competition in 2030.   

Close neighbors who at times fall out over issues like immigration and autonomy, Madrid and Rabat want to join forces to host the World Cup, in a move analysts say signals closer relations between the two countries.  

“The Kingdom of Morocco announced, together with Spain and Portugal, a joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup,” Rabat announced in a statement on March 15. “This joint bid, which is unprecedented in football history, will bring together Africa and Europe, the northern and the southern Mediterranean, and the African, Arab and Euro-Mediterranean worlds. It will also bring out the best in all of us – in effect a combination of genius, creativity, experience and means.”  

Relations improving 

The move to share the bid between Spain and Morocco comes after Madrid last year changed its policy on the disputed territory of Western Sahara and backed Morocco’s claim to create an autonomous region under its control.   

Co-hosted bids from either Latin America or Europe are likely to be picked in 2024.  

Haizam Amirah-Fernandez, a senior analyst for the Mediterranean and Arab world at the Real Institute Elcano, a think tank in Madrid, said the idea for the three-country bid was not new.  

“This has been an idea since 2018. (Spanish prime minister) Pedro Sánchez suggested the idea. But at that time FIFA (football’s world governing body) did not admit joint bids by different countries, so they discounted it,” he told VOA.   

He said if the joint bid proves successful, it could bring dividends.  

“For neighboring countries, with very tense relations on so many levels, it is always positive to have joint projects, especially projects which have an emotional level like football,” Amirah-Fernandez said.  

He said it was “interesting” that the announcement was made separately by both Morocco and Spain, but it was not clear why this happened.  

If part of the 2030 World Cup is held in Morocco, it remains to be seen whether any matches are played in the disputed territories of Western Sahara.  

Any games in a territory which has been subject to military action and political controversy may risk prompting security risks and attracting the wrong kind of headlines for FIFA.  

Political, economic advantages 

Paul Brannagan, a professor of sports management at Manchester Metropolitan University, jointly wrote a book examining Qatar’s bid for the 2022 World Cup, with Danyel Reiche, visiting professor at Georgetown University in Qatar.  The book is called Qatar and the 2022 FIFA World Cup: Politics, Controversy, Change.  

“You cannot ever take out politics from sport. For countries to survive these days, they must operate like businesses. Of course, to stage the World Cup, they are going to look at the political advantages,” Brannagan told VOA.  

“What we are seeing now is a drive to co-host these World Cups. In part this is to try to limit political controversy. If Qatar had shared the World Cup with the United Arab Emirates, it would have taken the heat off Qatar.” he noted.  

World Cups spread over three countries, like the 2026 competition in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, may not be very easy for fans to enjoy given the logistical problems of attending games.  

“Fans are not at the forefront of FIFA’s mind. (FIFA) will go where there is new markets and new money. (For FIFA) this idea of sharing is great because you get a lot more for your money,” Brannagan said.  

He said the bid by Morocco, Spain and Portugal may appeal to FIFA because they would see it as an opportunity to improve political and trade relations between Rabat and Madrid.  
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The arrest of actor Jonathan Majors has upended the Army’s newly launched advertising campaign that was aimed at reviving the service’s struggling recruiting numbers. 

Majors, who authorities said was arrested Saturday in New York on charges of strangulation, assault and harassment, was the narrator of two ads at the heart of a broader media campaign that kicked off at the start of the NCAA’s March Madness college basketball tournament. 

Army leaders were hopeful that the popularity of the star of the recently released “Creed III” and “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania,” would help them reach the youth audience. 

In a statement Sunday, the Army’s Enterprise Marketing Office said that the Army was aware of Majors’ arrest and was “deeply concerned by the allegations.” It added that while Majors “is innocent until proven guilty, prudence dictates that we pull our ads until the investigation into these allegations is complete.” 

New York City police said the actor was involved in a domestic dispute with a 30-year-old woman. “The victim informed police she was assaulted,” a police spokesperson said in a statement. 

A lawyer for Majors, Priya Chaudhry, said in a statement Sunday there was evidence clearing Majors and that the actor “is provably the victim of an altercation with a woman he knows.” 

The Army ads, titled “Overcoming Obstacles” and “Pushing Tomorrow,” are part of the plan to revive the Army’s “Be All You Can be” motto. They highlighted the history of the Army and some of the many professions that recruits can pursue. 

The “Be All You Can Be” slogan dominated its recruiting ads for two decades starting in 1981. A nearly two-minute preview video, made available before the campaign rollout in early March, featured soldiers jumping out of airplanes, working on helicopters, climbing obstacle courses and diving underwater. A voiceover said: “We bring out the best in the people who serve, because America calls for nothing less.” 

In the Army’s worst recruiting year in recent history, the service fell 25% short of its goal to enlist 60,000 recruits in 2022. The new ads were a key element in the Army’s drive to find creative new ways to attract recruits and ensure that the service has the troops it needs to help defend the nation.

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said the Army has set a difficult goal for this year: aiming to bring in 65,000 recruits, which would be 20,000 more than in 2022. 
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“John Wick: Chapter 4,” the fourth installment in the Keanu Reeves assassin series, debuted with a franchise-best $73.5 million at the box office, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The Lionsgate film, starring Reeves as the reluctant-but-not-that-reluctant killer John Wick, exceeded both expectations and previous opening weekends in the R-rated franchise. Since first launching in 2014 with “John Wick” ($14 million on its opening weekend), the Chad Stahelski-directed series has steadily grown as a ticket-seller with each sequel. The 2017 follow-up opened with $30.4 million, and the 2019 third chapter, “Parabellum,” debuted with $56.8 million.

But “Chapter 4,” running two hours and 49 minutes and costing at least $100 million to produce, is the biggest film yet in the once-lean action series. Critics also said it was a franchise high point, scoring 95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. The film, which drew a 69% male audience, added $64 million overseas. It’s Lionsgate’s biggest success of the pandemic era.

“When you make a fourth in an action franchise, you have to expect it to go down. That is the nature of these franchises,” said Joe Drake, chairman of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group. “But we kept seeing signals and it was wonderful to see the movie they delivered. We saw the audience wanting more.”

Though “John Wick” has been bigger at the box office with each new release — an enviable and rare trajectory among Hollywood franchises — “Chapter 4” brings some finality to Reeves’ character. The actor hasn’t entirely dismissed continuing the series, telling interviewers, “Never say never.”

Regardless, the franchise is set to keep humming. A spin-off titled “Ballerina” starring Ana de Armas and co-starring Reeves has already been shot. The miniseries “The Continental,” with Mel Gibson, is upcoming on Peacock.

“Chad and Keanu have created this world and that world continues to expand. I don’t know what all the edges of that world are, still,” said Drake. “As best they can, they’ll continue to try to seduce Keanu to come back and do things. He gets beat up in these shows. He really does. And at the end he’s like, ‘I’m not doing it anymore.’ Then you watch him sit in the theater and feel that audience.”

“So, we’re going to continue to look for ways to meet that demand.”

The release of “John Wick: Chapter 4,” which included a surprise premiere at SXSW, was also bittersweet. Lance Reddick, who plays the Continental Hotel concierge, Charon, in the films, unexpectedly died at the age of 60 a week before the film’s release.

But the success of “John Wick: Chapter 4” adds to a strong start in 2023 for Hollywood. After ticket sales rebounded to about 67% of pre-pandemic levels last year, the release lineup is steadier and more packed this year. Sequels have led the way, including “Creed III” and “Scream VI.” Ticket sales are up 28% from last year, according to the data firm Comscore.

But there have been some exceptions. After its disappointing $30.5 million debut last weekend, the superhero sequel “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” slumped to second place with $9.7 million in its second weekend. The Warner Bros. release dropped steeply, tumbling 68% from its launch.

“Scream VI” took third place with $8.4 million in its third weekend, bringing its total thus far to $90.4 million domestic and $139.3 million worldwide. “Creed III” followed in fourth with $8.4 million. Michael B. Jordan’s sequel is up to $140.9 million domestic.

The weekend’s other new releases were more modest.

Zach Braff’s “A Good Person,” starring Florence Pugh and Morgan Freeman, opened at 530 theaters. The MGM release grossed $834,000. IFC Films’ “The Lost King,” with Sally Hawkins and Steve Coogan, debuted with $575,000 in 753 locations.

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

1. “John Wick: Chapter 4,” $73.5 million.

2. “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” $9.7 million.

3. “Scream VI,” $8.4 million.

4. “Creed III,” $8.4 million.

5. “65,” $3.3 million.

6. “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” $2.4 million.

7. “Cocaine Bear,” $2.1 million.

8. “Jesus Revolution,” $2 million.

9. “Champions,” $1.5 million.

10. “Avatar: The Way of Water,” $1.4 million.
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Choirs from across the world joined their voices to sing for peace in Ukraine Sunday, with nearly 300 singers gathering in Madrid where the initiative began a year ago. 

Under cloudless blue skies, singers from 46 choirs in and around the Spanish capital gathered outside the Reina Sofia art museum and began singing at midday (1000 GMT) in an event involving thousands of others across Europe and Latin America.

This year, choirs joined from 81 locations in nine countries, with 1,000 singers from Ukraine joining their voices with others from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Portugal and Venezuela.

Standing in the museum square, they sang “Dona Nobis Pacem,” the Hebrew slaves’ chorus from Verdi’s Nabucco and finally “Sing an Anthem for Our Peace,” which was written specially by U.S. composer Jim Papoulis. 

The simultaneous event, which was broadcast live on YouTube, was organized by Choirs for Peace, an initiative started by Madrid choir a month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine whose first event drew over 25,000 singers. 

“We are here to support Ukraine and say we need peace now, that we have to stop this war,” said Elvira Polyenova, a 48-year-old Ukrainian soprano who used to perform at the Odesa opera house, and who sang the opening solo in “There is Peace.” 

“Music unites people, so the choir is a perfect instrument for spreading messages of peace and unity,” said Mariano Garcia, choir director at Santiago Apostol church which started Choirs for Peace last year.

“Although its power of influence is limited, we believe all choral music has the capacity to make us all a little more aware … and might even reach those with the capacity to decide,” he told AFP.

After seeing last year’s event, Elena Redondo, 54, decided to join a choir so she could be part of this year’s initiative.

“We all forget there’s not only this war in Ukraine but others all over the world, and we seem to get used to it. So, events like this are an important wake-up call,” she said. “Music changes many things, not only on a global level, but also on an individual level, it really changes the way you see things. I think it’s important to join together with other voices.”
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A former Formula One champion has been fined nearly $1 million in damages for racist and homophobic remarks about Lewis Hamilton, the sport’s only Black driver.

Nelson Piquet, 70, a three-time Formula One champion, used a Brazilian racial and homophobic slur in a 2021 television interview about a crash, involving Hamilton and Max Verstappen, who is in a relationship with Piquet’s daughter.

Piquet’s comments went viral, and he has since apologized.

World champion Hamilton called for “archaic mindsets” to change after footage of the interview emerged.

A court statement noted that Piquet has apologized, but it also said his words “affect not only the individual rights of the victim, but the values of the entire community, and of the black population and the LGBTQIA+ community in particular.”

Judge Pedro Matos de Arrudo said the nearly $1 million fine was allotted “so that, as a society, we can someday be free from the pernicious acts that are racism and homophobia.”

Four human rights groups brought the charges to court.
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Years ago, skateboarding was branded as a hobby for rebels or stoners in city streets, schoolyards and back alleys. Those days are long gone.

Skateboarding, which has Native Hawaiian roots connected to surfing, no longer is on the fringes. It became an Olympic sport in 2020. There are numerous amateur and professional skateboarding competitions in the U.S. And on Friday, the U.S. Postal Service issued stamps that laud the sport — and what Indigenous groups have brought to the skating culture.

Di’Orr Greenwood, 27, an artist born and raised on the Navajo Nation in Arizona whose work is featured on the new stamps, says it’s a long way from when she was a kid and people always kicked her out of certain spots just for skating.

“Now it’s like being accepted on a global scale,” Greenwood said. “There’s so many skateboarders I know that are extremely proud of it.”

The postal agency debuted the “Art of the Skateboard” stamps at a Phoenix skate park. The stamps feature skateboard artists from around the country, including Greenwood and Crystal Worl, who is Tlingit Athabascan. William James Taylor Jr., an artist from Virginia, and Federico “MasPaz” Frum, a Colombian-born muralist in Washington, D.C., round out the quartet of featured artists.

The stamps underscore the prevalence of skateboarding, especially in Indian Country where the demand for skate parks is growing.

The artists see the stamp as a small canvas, a functional art piece that will be seen across the U.S. and beyond.

“Maybe I’ll get a letter in the mail that someone sent me with my stamp on it,” said Worl, 35, who lives in Juneau, Alaska. “I think that’s when it will really hit home with the excitement of that.”

Antonio Alcalá, USPS art director, led the search for artists to paint skate decks for the project. After settling on a final design, each artist received a skateboard from Alcalá to work on. He then photographed the maple skate decks and incorporated them into an illustration of a young person holding up a skateboard for display. The person is seen in muted colors to draw attention to the skate deck.

Alcalá used social media to seek out artists who, besides being talented, were knowledgeable about skateboarding culture. Worl was already on his radar because her brother, Rico, designed the Raven Story stamp in 2021, which honored a central figure in Indigenous stories along the coast in the Pacific Northwest.

The Worl siblings run an online shop called Trickster Company with fashions, home goods and other merchandise with Indigenous and modern twists. For her skate deck, Crystal Worl paid homage to her clan and her love of the water with a Sockeye salmon against a blue and indigo background.

She was careful about choosing what to highlight.

“There are certain designs, patterns and stories that belong to certain clans and you have to have permission even as an Indigenous person to share certain stories or designs,” Worl said.

The only times Navajo culture has been featured in stamps is with rugs or necklaces. Greenwood, who tried out for the U.S. Women’s Olympic skateboarding team, knew immediately she wanted to incorporate her heritage in a modern way. Her nods to the Navajo culture include a turquoise inlay and a depiction of eagle feathers, which are used to give blessings.

“I was born and raised with my great-grandmother, who looked at a stamp kind of like how a young kid would look at an iPhone 13,” Greenwood said. “She entrusted every important news and every important document and everything to a stamp to send it and trust that it got there.”

Skateboarding has become a staple across Indian Country. A skate park opened in August on the Hopi reservation. Skateboarders on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation in eastern Arizona recently got funding for one from pro skateboarder Tony Hawk’s nonprofit, The Skatepark Project. Youth-organized competitions take place on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Dustinn Craig, a White Mountain Apache filmmaker and “lifer” skateboarder in Arizona, has made documentaries and short films on the sport. The 47-year-old remembers how skateboarding was seen as dorky and anti-establishment when he was a kid hiding “a useless wooden toy” in his locker. At the same time, Craig credits skateboarding culture as “my arts and humanities education.”

So he is wary of the mainstream’s embrace, as well as the sometimes clique-ish nature, of today’s skateboarding world.

“For those of us who have been in it for a very long time, it’s kind of insulting because I think a lot of the popularity has been due to the proliferation of access to the visuals of the youth culture skateboarding through the internet and social media,” Craig said. “So, I feel like it really sort of trivializes and sort of robs Native youth of authenticity of the older skateboard culture that I was raised on.”

He acknowledges that he may come off as the “grumpy old man” to younger Indigenous skateboarders who are open to collaborating with outsiders.

The four skateboards designed by the artists will eventually be transferred to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum, said Jonathan Castillo, USPS spokesperson.

The stamps, which will have a printing of 18 million, are available at post offices and on the USPS website. For the artists, being part of a project that feels low-tech in this age of social media is exciting.

“It’s like the physical thing is special because you go out of your way to go to the post office, buy the stamps and write something,” Worl said.
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A Hong Kong department store took down a digital artwork that contained hidden references to jailed dissidents, in an incident the artist says is evidence of erosion of free speech in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.

It was unclear whether the government played a role in the decision to remove the artwork, it came just days after a slasher film featuring Winnie the Pooh, a figure often used in playful taunts of China’s President Xi Jinping, was pulled from local cinemas.

Patrick Amadon’s “No Rioters” was put on display on a billboard at the SOGO Causeway Bay Store for an exhibition that started last Friday, as the city was promoting its return as a vibrant cultural hub following years of pandemic travel restrictions. Art Basel Hong Kong, a prominent art fair in Asia, began this week, alongside other art events.

Hong Kong is a former British colony that returned to China’s rule in 1997, promising to retain its Western-style freedoms. The city was rocked by a massive pro-democracy protest movement in 2019, which ended after China imposed a “National Security Law” that criminalized much dissent. The city’s government has since jailed and silenced many activists.

Amadon said he had followed the protests in Hong Kong closely, and he wanted his work to show solidarity with the protesters and remind people about the new reality of the city.

“It was too much watching Art Week in Hong Kong pretend the Chinese government didn’t crush a democracy and turn Hong Kong into a vassal surveillance state… because it’s a convenient location for a good market,” the Los Angeles-based artist said.

Amadon said he knew the work would be controversial and was surprised it had been displayed in public for days. It featured a panning surveillance camera.

Flashes of Matrix-like text showcased the names and prison sentences of convicted activists and other prominent figures in the pro-democracy movement, including legal scholar Benny Tai and former student leader Joshua Wong, who were both charged with subversion in the biggest case brought under the National Security Law.

These details were shown too fast to be seen by the naked eyes Amadon said, but viewers could see the details if they used a camera to capture stills. It also referred to journalist-turned activist Gwyneth Ho who was assaulted when she was live-streaming a mob attack in July 2019 during the massive protests sparked by an extradition bill.

The gallery that arranged the exhibit did not know whether the government ordered the work taken down, Francesca Boffetti, CEO at Art Innovation Gallery said in an email.

“Our intermediary told us that the owners of SOGO were concerned about the sensitive political content hidden behind Patrick’s work, so they decided to remove the work from the exhibition immediately,” Boffetti said.

No one mentioned any law or threatened them with fines, she added, but SOGO’s legal team asked the gallery whether it was aware of the content and message of Amadon’s work.

Local police and SOGO did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau told the Associated Press that it did not contact SOGO.

Amadon said the gallery told him in an urgent call that it was very concerned about its legal exposure after a conversation with SOGO.

Since the passage of the National Security Law, the city’s art and media communities have learned to be wary of crossing vaguely defined red lines. Pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily was forced to close after authorities arrested its top editors and executives and accused them of foreign collusion. Some artists known for their political work left Hong Kong under the shadow of the law. Some filmmakers have stopped showing their work in the city. Even those producing non-political content have become cautious. But the government insisted that its residents continue to enjoy promised freedoms after the enactment of the law.

Amadon said what happened to his work showed that the city had lost its freedom of expression and artistic freedom.

“This objectively shows that they are no longer here in the same way that they once were,” he said. “From a narrative standpoint, I mean, it did have to get censored and taken down, I feel like, to be a completed piece.”
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