Simone Biles will not defend her Olympic title. The American gymnastics superstar withdrew from Thursday’s all-around competition to focus on her mental well-being. USA Gymnastics said in a statement on Wednesday that the 24-year-old is opting to not compete. The decision comes a day after Biles removed herself from the team final following one rotation […]
Sparsely populated and isolated from most of the outside world, Turkmenistan has finally won its first Olympic medal since independence from the Soviet Union. Weightlifter Polina Guryeva won a silver medal for the Central Asian nation at the Tokyo Games on Tuesday, and then predicted she would go down in the country’s history. “I was […]
The Tokyo Olympics got off to a busy start Tuesday at the Tokyo Aquatics Center with a trio of high-profile finals in the men’s and women’s swimming. In the women’s 100-meter breaststroke, the highly anticipated race between Lilly King of the United States, who won the event in the 2016 Rio Olympics, and Tatjana Schoenmaker […]
China’s Jiang Ranxin and Pang Wei out-dueled their Russian rivals in a riveting contest to secure gold in the 10-meter air pistol mixed team event at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday. The Chinese pair scored a 16-14 victory against newly minted women’s Olympic champion Vitalina Batsarashkina and Artem Chernousov at the Asaka Shooting Range. Jiang and Pang, bronze winners in their individual events […]
Bermuda has been sending athletes to the Olympics since 1936. Until Tuesday, the Atlantic island’s highest honor was a bronze medal won 45 years ago. Flora Duffy changed that in just less than two hours, swimming, cycling and running through the wind and rain around Tokyo Bay to win the Olympic women’s triathlon for Bermuda’s […]
On the Olympic podium stood three teenage girls — 13, 13 and 16 — with weighty gold, silver and bronze medals around their young necks, rewards for having landed tricks on their skateboards that most kids their age only get to see on Instagram. After decades in the shadows of men’s skateboarding, the future for […]
The United States beat Japan 2-1 on Monday in an inconsequential game to end round-robin play. But the U.S. team’s failure to record a hit against a third-string Japanese pitcher until the sixth inning demonstrated the challenge it faces in the gold-medal matchup between the two teams. U.S. batters did race their way into three […]
First, the sun. Now: the wind and the rain. The Tokyo Olympics, delayed by the pandemic and opened under oppressive heat, are due for another hit of nature’s power: a typhoon arriving Tuesday morning that is forecast to disrupt at least some parts of the Games. “Feels like we’re trying to prepare for bloody everything,” […]
Madrid’s tree-lined Paseo del Prado boulevard and the adjoining Retiro park have been added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee, holding an online meeting from Fuzhou, China, backed the candidacy on Sunday that highlighted the green area’s introduction of nature into Spain’s capital. The influence the properties have had on the […]
Jackie Mason, a rabbi-turned-comedian whose feisty brand of standup comedy led him to Catskills nightclubs, West Coast talk shows and Broadway stages, has died. He was 93. Mason died Saturday at 6 p.m. ET at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan after being hospitalized for more than two weeks, celebrity lawyer Raul Felder told The Associated […]
A Somali-American fashion designer is launching a line of headscarves with a major North American retailer to give Muslim women more options and to make hijabs more visible to U.S. shoppers. VOA Somali’s Maxamud Mascadde has our story from the Midwest state of Minnesota, narrated by Radhia Adam. details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content […]
Known as the Indians since 1915, Cleveland’s Major League Baseball team will be called Guardians. The ballclub announced the name change Friday — effective at the end of the 2021 season — with a video on Twitter narrated by actor and team fan Tom Hanks. The decision ends months of internal discussions triggered by a […]
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on all warring parties to observe the traditional Olympic truce during the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games in Japan, and to pursue cease-fires and lasting peace after the competitions end. The U.N. chief said in a video message Thursday that athletes from around the world have had to overcome “enormous […]
A debate is brewing between former gold medalist Maya DiRado and some American swimmers over U.S. medal threat Michael Andrew’s decision not to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus as he prepares to compete at the Tokyo Olympics. DiRado sparked the discourse this week with a lengthy thread on Twitter in which she wrote that […]
Many Olympic nations are expected to demonstrate their support for gender equality and racial justice on Friday night with their selections of athletes to carry flags at the opening ceremony. The International Olympic Committee changed it rules and asked each nation to select two flagbearers in an effort to increase gender equality at the Tokyo […]
FILE – Joni Mitchell arrives at the Hammer Museum’s “Gala In The Garden,” in Los Angeles, Oct. 11, 2014. Mitchell, 77, emerged from the Canadian coffee shop circuit to become one of the standard-bearers for multiple generations of singer-songwriters. In 2020, Rolling Stone magazine declared her 1971 album “Blue” to be the third-best album of […]
Barring another postponement, Friday’s opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics will launch competitions overshadowed by a pandemic that has already forced a major delay, has interfered with the pageantry ahead of the Games, and will keep spectators from the stands and prevent some athletes from competing at all. For casual observers in the United States, […]
Brisbane was picked Wednesday to host the 2032 Olympics, the inevitable winner of a one-city race steered by the IOC to avoid rival bids. The Games will go back to Australia 32 years after the popular 2000 Sydney Olympics. Melbourne hosted in 1956. “We know what it takes to deliver a successful Games in Australia,” […]
Since the last Summer Olympics in 2016, a global Black Lives Matter protest movement has resurfaced. The “Me Too” movement sprung up in support of women’s rights. And both may influence the Tokyo Games, which are expected to be a major platform for athlete activism. Several high-profile athletes competing at the Games have been at […]
Giannis Antetokounmpo had the Larry O’Brien Trophy in one arm, the NBA Finals MVP trophy in the other and there was a cigar on the table in front of him. All the work it took to lift the Milwaukee Bucks from a team that won 15 games when he was a rookie to one with […]
U.S. first lady Jill Biden heads to Alaska Wednesday on the first stop of a trip that will see her lead the official U.S. delegation at the Olympics in Tokyo. In Alaska, Biden is scheduled to tour a medical center and call attention to the need for access to health care in rural areas. The White House said […]
Muslims around the world were observing Tuesday yet another major Islamic holiday in the shadow of the pandemic and amid growing concerns about the highly infectious delta variant of the coronavirus. Eid al-Adha, or the “Feast of Sacrifice,” is typically marked by communal prayers, large social gatherings, slaughtering of livestock and giving meat to the […]
Bushra Shah, a 35-year-old Pakistani, says she is realizing a childhood dream by making the great pilgrimage to Mecca, and under new rules she’s doing it without a male guardian. The hajj ministry has officially allowed women of all ages to make the pilgrimage without a male relative, known as a “mehrem,” on the condition […]
Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, whose image of the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb as a turban was at the center of widespread anti-Danish anger in the Muslim world in the mid-2000s, has died. He was 86. Westergaard’s family announced his death to Danish media late Sunday and told the newspaper Berlingske that Westergaard died in […]
Pastry chef Shimi Aaron fell in love with babkas — a dessert that originated in Eastern Europe in the 19th century. Aaron started making his own, and today he is teaching others how to make this unusual pastry. Genia Dulot met with the chef to hear his story. Camera: Genia Dulot details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal […]
More than half of the Kenyan capital’s nearly 5 million people live in slums, where many young people are lured by drugs and crime. In one neighborhood, a group is using the game of chess to help transform the lives of young people. Lenny Ruvaga reports from Nairobi. Camera: Amos Wangwa details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com […]
More than half of the Kenyan capital’s nearly five million people live in slums, where many young people are lured by drugs and crime. In one neighborhood, a group is using the game of chess to help transform the lives of young people. We are in Mukuru Kwa Njenga an informal settlement that is […]
An alternate on the United States women’s gymnastics team has tested positive for COVID-19 in an Olympic training camp in Japan. Olympic champion Simone Biles was not affected, nor were any of the other favorites to win the team gold, but another alternate was placed into isolation because of contact tracing, USA Gymnastics said Monday. […]
Cavernous, empty stadiums. Do-it-yourself medal presentations. A prohibition on athlete high-fives and hugs. Those are just a few of the ways the Summer Olympics will look different this year, as the pandemic forces organizers to forgo many Olympic traditions. The Tokyo Games, which start Friday, will instead rely on technological innovations, including fan selfies and […]
Tens of thousands of vaccinated Muslim pilgrims circled Islam’s holiest site in Mecca on Sunday but remained socially distanced and wore masks as the coronavirus takes its toll on the hajj for a second year running. The hajj pilgrimage, which once drew about 2.5 million Muslims from all walks of life around the globe, is […]
Titane, a wildly imaginative film about a serial killer by French director Julia Ducournau, won the top Palme d’Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival, jury head Spike Lee told a ceremony Saturday before the award was slated to be revealed. In a moment of confusion when asked in French to reveal what one of the prizes […]
Suzanne Firstenberg is a self-described social issues artist who finds inspiration in America — economic inequality, racism and climate change, among other issues. She doesn’t limit herself to any particular medium but instead uses whatever she thinks works best to draw attention to the most pressing issues of our time. Maxim Moskalkov talked to the artist […]
Biz Markie, a hip-hop staple known for his beatboxing prowess, turntable mastery and the 1989 classic Just a Friend, has died. He was 57. Markie’s representative, Jenni Izumi, said the rapper-DJ died peacefully Friday evening with his wife by his side. The cause of death has not been released. “We are grateful for the many calls […]
Over a century after its big sister made its way from France to New York City, a miniature version of the Statue of Liberty has made the same journey, but this time to Washington, D.C. Karina Bafradzhian has the story. Camera: David Gogokhia details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from […]
The Nigerian D’Tigers basketball team’s stunning victories this past week in friendly matches with the United States and Argentina has pushed it further into the Olympic spotlight. D’Tigers beat the United States NBA stars 90-87 on Saturday in Las Vegas, making international basketball history as the first African country to beat the U.S. On Monday, […]
World Emoji Day, celebrating technology users’ favorite emoticons, is Saturday. Jeremy Burge, the founder of the icon reference site Emojipedia, created the holiday in 2014. The day is intended to celebrate the beloved icons that are increasingly used in online messaging. World Emoji Day organizers are asking the public to vote in the World Emoji […]
Global inequality in the distribution of vaccines continues to hamper efforts to end the pandemic worldwide. But for those able to travel to wealthier countries with an abundance of vaccines, they are now willing to travel the distance and bear the high cost of “vaccine tourism”. VOA’s Virginia Gunawan explains. Camera: VIDEOGRAPHER: Rendy Wicaksana, Ahadian […]
Briana Mariah, founder of We Speak model agency, believes models should reflect the world, and her agency finds and promotes a unique and diverse group of people. Karina Bafradzhian reports from Washington D.C. Camera: David Gogokhia details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from this noted web source: VOANews.Com
Roger Federer may have seen his dreams of Olympic gold dashed this week, but he can celebrate that t-shirts, racquets, and shoes from his trophy-laden tennis career proved a treasure trove at auction. The sports legend saw every single item that went under the hammer at a two-phased Christie’s auction sold, raking in $4.7 million. […]
Singer Britney Spears on Wednesday won the right to choose her own lawyer to help her end a 13-year-long conservatorship and tearfully pleaded for the court to oust her father immediately from the role of controlling her business affairs. Her father, Jamie Spears, has been a major figure in the conservatorship since he set it […]
Guernsey’s Auction House in New York is auctioning off pieces of music history this week. Evgeny Maslov has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Michael Eckels Producer: Barry Unger details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from this noted web source: VOANews.Com
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed Wednesday to enact measures to protect British professional soccer players from online abuse. Punishment for someone found guilty of such abuse could include banishment from games. The move comes after online abuse, some of it racist, was directed at three Black players for the English national team who missed […]
In less than two weeks, Courtney Frerichs will face off in Tokyo against some of the world’s fastest runners. But like every elite athlete preparing for the Summer Olympics, her focus is not only on preparing to compete. Frerichs, a middle-distance runner from the United States, is also using the final days of her training to make sure she complies with the elaborate set […]
“The Crown” tied with “The Mandalorian” for the most Emmy nominations Tuesday with 24 apiece, but the Marvel universe also got bragging rights with runner-up “WandaVision.” The nominations reinforced the rapid rise of streaming, with the top-nominated scripted shows on services that largely emerged in the past two years. In the top three categories — […]
A new and unique park opened in New York City in late May and since then it has become a city gem and tourist magnet. For VOA, Evgeny Maslov reports from “Little Island” in New York City. Anna Rice narrates. Camera: Vladimir Badikov, Vladimir Tolkachev details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from this noted […]