A roundup of some of the most popular, but completely untrue, headlines of the week. None of these stories are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. AP checked these out; here are the real facts:

 

NOT REAL: U.S. Department of State suspends New York Times license 

THE FACTS: The account claiming the State Department suspended the newspaper’s operational permit after it criticized Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is “completely false,” Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha says. There is no permit required for U.S. news organizations and there is no issue with the newspaper’s foreign press credentials, she said. A website made up to look like a CNN outlet says in a story published last month that the State Department accused The Times of “breaking communication code of ethics” in a matter that could cause diplomatic challenges between the two countries.

 

NOT REAL: Sarah Palin out of her coma, able to identify her attackers

 

THE FACTS: More than half a dozen sites have run the same verbatim account of a hit-and-run accident on California’s Pacific Coast Highway involving the former Alaska governor, followed up by stories alleging Palin emerged from her coma to identify her assailants. A spokesman for Palin tells the AP the reports are “as fake as fake can be.” The sites report that the accident happened April 28, when Palin’s Twitter and Facebook accounts were active. The 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate has been a target of hoax articles in the past.

 

NOT REAL: Hobby Lobby just announced plan to close ALL stores

 

THE FACTS: The arts and crafts retail chain has 700-plus stores and says it’s adding 60 more in 2017. A story published by Daily Info News, The Washington Feed and other outlets said the chain’s CEO said it could go out of business if it pays fines for violating a mandate under the Affordable Care Act to provide employees access to emergency contraception. Hobby Lobby won an exemption from the law based on religious preferences in a 2014 Supreme Court decision.

 

NOT REAL: 2 moms, 5 kids killed in car crash in (insert place here)

 

THE FACTS: Multiple websites have appropriated many details from a true account of a June 2016 minivan accident in Southern California that killed two mothers and four children while two fathers survived. The stories circulating with dozens of different headlines change the U.S. county where it occurred, and in some cases add the fathers’ names and varying ages of the children.

 

NOT REAL: Robertson: David Bowie is not dead, he was kidnapped by demons summoned by rock music

 

THE FACTS: This account first published by politicops.com last year and recently recycled by admitted hoax site uspoln.com began with an accurate answer by “700 Club” host Pat Robertson to a teenager’s written question on whether it was OK to listen to rock music. Robertson replied that some rock wasn’t “all that bad,” but some “is just evil.” A spokesman for Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network tells the AP that the evangelist made no mention of Bowie, who died Jan. 10, 2016. 
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Across the U.S., there are stores where people can play a musical instrument even if they have no intention of buying it. VOA’s Yahya Albarzinji spoke with music enthusiasts at one such store in the Washington suburb of Fairfax, Virginia.
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Five of the contestants vying for the Miss USA title have a message to immigrant girls and women watching the pageant this weekend: Set goals, work hard and don’t stay in the shadows.

The contestants know what they are talking about, as they were all born in other countries and immigrated to the U.S. at young ages as their families pursued their versions of the American Dream. The women are now all U.S. citizens.

“I want them to see that anything is possible if you work hard,” said Linette De Los Santos, who immigrated with her family from the Dominican Republic when she was 5 years old. “As Miss USA, I would love to be able to be that inspiration for our immigrant community. If I would have stopped following my dreams and working hard toward what I wanted, I wouldn’t be sitting here as Miss Florida USA or in law school ready to become an immigration attorney.”

The competition airs Sunday from Las Vegas.

De Los Santos, Miss North Dakota Raquel Wellentin, Miss Hawaii Julie Kuo, Miss Connecticut Olga Litvinenko and Miss New Jersey Chhavi Verg spoke to The Associated Press about the opportunities and challenges they’ve faced as immigrants. 

Their remarks stand in stark contrast to the scandal that enveloped the pageant in 2015, when part owner and now President Donald Trump offended Hispanics when he made anti-immigrant remarks in announcing his bid for the White House. Trump co-owned The Miss Universe Organization with NBCUniversal, but the network and the Spanish-language broadcaster Univision quickly cut ties with him, refusing to air the show. Trump sued both networks, eventually settling and selling off the entire pageant to talent management company WME/IMG.

Miss North Dakota Raquel Wellentin

Wellentin and her family left the Philippines over safety fears when she was 2 years old. Their first taste of American life was in the small community of Enderlin, North Dakota, where she and her siblings felt isolated.

“Nobody wanted to talk to me at all. I came home one day and I asked my dad ‘Why am I so different? Why isn’t anyone talking to me?”‘ Wellentin said. “My dad told me, ‘You know, you are not different. You are very unique yourself. You have to be strong and really accept this negativity from other people and have it motivate you.’ I still keep that in my mind.”

Their situation improved when they moved to the larger and more diverse Fargo, North Dakota.

Wellentin, 24, who wants to be a middle school teacher after she completes a student-teaching requirement, said her experiences have taught her to not take no for an answer.

“I want to tell people that they need to make sure that they should not allow anyone to tell them that they can’t do something because only you can determine your future,” she said.

Miss Connecticut Olga Litvinenko

Like thousands of immigrants, Litvinenko moved to the U.S. with her family after her mother won the lottery for a green card. She was 3 years old when they relocated from Ukraine a few years after the Soviet Union collapsed.

The 27-year-old business owner ventured into pageants when she could no longer play basketball after injuring a foot in high school. She won Miss Connecticut Teen on her first try, but had to compete five times to reach the Miss USA competition. Her persistence, Litvinenko said, shows that every effort counts.

“I want to showcase that no matter who you are, no matter what your background is, your size or what you have done in the past, through hard work and discipline, through perseverance and determination, you really can achieve what you put your heart toward.”
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Melissa McCarthy has gone into the streets of Manhattan to lampoon White House press secretary Sean Spicer.

The comedian was captured on video Friday morning riding a motorized podium in midtown while dressed as Spicer, presumably a sequence that will air when McCarthy hosts the next “Saturday Night Live.”

In the video, McCarthy is seen gliding in the middle of traffic in front of the Time Warner Center, not far from Rockefeller Center, the longtime home of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”

Spicer has been a frequent target of McCarthy, who has mocked him in the past in skits where she fires a water gun at the press corps and uses a lectern to ram a journalist.

 
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We’re launching the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart, for the week ending May 13, 2017.

The chart again rises to the occasion, giving us another big new hit.

Number 5: Future “Mask Off”

Future spends a second straight week in fifth place with “Mask Off.” Last week, Future’s self-titled fifth album was certified gold, signaling sales of half a million — that’s in addition to the single “Draco” also going gold.

That was the eighth plaque Future earned in the month of April from the Recording Industry Association of America. To top it all off, he’s currently on a headlining tour of North America.

Number 4: Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee Featuring Justin Bieber “Despacito”

For the past three weeks, fourth place has been where the action is. That’s the case today, as Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee jump five slots with “Despacito” – featuring Justin Bieber singing in Spanish for the first time.

How did this collaboration come about? Luis says Justin approached him about doing this track: it was already a global hit when Justin heard it in a Colombian club. Luis also says it was Justin’s idea to sing in Spanish. The same day this song appeared, Justin Bieber sang it in concert in Puerto Rico.

Number 3: Kendrick Lamar “Humble” 

Kendrick Lamar is no longer your Hot 100 champ, as “Humble” drops to third place.

A scam artist claiming to be Adele’s manager tried to cheat Kendrick’s label out of $250 concert tickets. Police say a man named Justin Jackson e-mailed Interscope Records claiming to be Adele’s manager. He requested three free tickets to the Rolling Loud Festival in Miami, where Kendrick was performing. Kendrick’s people promptly called Adele’s real rep and the deception was revealed.

Police arrested Jackson and his wife. It turns out Jackson has a lengthy arrest record and once impersonated Madonna’s manager.

Number 2: Ed Sheeran ” Shape Of You”

Ed Sheeran is an honest runner-up for the second straight week with “Shape Of You.” How does Ed keep sane on the road? He says he relies on 12 long-time friends to keep him grounded when fame and the rigors of touring get to be too much. In fact, he employs four of them.

Number 1: Bruno Mars “That’s What I Like”

We greet a familiar face at number one: Bruno Mars notches his seventh career Hot 100 title, as “That’s What I Like” jumps two slots.

This is the 1,063rd number one song in the chart’s 58-year history. It’s Bruno’s seventh number one single, and his first since “Uptown Funk” ruled for 14 weeks in 2015.

Can Bruno keep it going? We’ll find out in seven days!
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A rare Harry Potter prequel handwritten by author J.K. Rowling on a postcard was stolen during a burglary in central England, police said Friday as they appealed for help from fans of the wizard across the world.

The 800-word story, set three years before Harry Potter is born and which sold for 25,000 pounds ($32,152) at a charity auction in 2008, was stolen from a property in Birmingham between April 13-24.

Appeal to Potter fans

“Please don’t buy this if you’re offered it,” Rowling wrote on Twitter. “Originally auctioned for @englishpen, the owner supported writers’ freedoms by bidding for it.”

The proceeds of the auction were donated to English PEN, an organization that champions freedom of expression, and to Dyslexia Action.

“The only people who will buy this unique piece are true Harry Potter fans. We are appealing to anyone who sees, or is offered this item for sale, to contact police,” said Constable Paul Jauncey from West Midlands Police.

Untitled prequel

Handwritten over two sides of an A5 postcard, the untitled prequel features the characters Sirius Black and Harry’s father, James. It opens with a youthful Sirius and James cornered by two irate policemen at the end of a high-speed motorcycle chase.

After an exchange of words with the policemen, the two teenagers make their escape using a touch of magic. The card concludes with the words “From the prequel I am not working on — but that was fun!”

More than 450 million copies of the seven original Harry Potter books have been sold worldwide in 79 languages. The movie franchise has grossed more than $7 billion worldwide.
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The sympathy cards came from places like Germany and Italy, where Steven Holcomb was their bobsled enemy. Mourners flew in from all across the country. Generations of Olympians packed a ballroom, sharing in grief.

 

They wept. They hugged. They laughed.

 

“Steven Holcomb was like no one else,” Olympic teammate Steven Langton said. “He was one of the finest to wear the red, white and blue.”

 

Sentiments like those came for hours Thursday in the tiny Olympic town of Lake Placid, New York, when friends and family gathered to celebrate the life of America’s most successful bobsled driver. The 37-year-old Holcomb was found dead in his sleep Saturday at the Olympic Training Center, the dorm where not only many of his teammates live but where the offices for USA Bobsled and Skeleton are housed.

 

“Steve was, and always will be, our champion,” said Tony Carlino, who manages the Mount Van Hoevenberg track where Holcomb dominated.

 

The celebration of Holcomb’s life was supposed to last an hour.

 

That proved impossible. Put simply, there was much to celebrate — including the 2010 Olympic four-man gold medal, which ended a 62-year drought for the U.S. in bobsled’s signature race, and a pair of bronze medals from the 2014 Sochi Games.

 

“I have no words to describe my sadness,” said International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation President Ivo Ferriani, who called Holcomb a brother in a recorded message. “The sadness is indescribable. We need to remember Stevie for what he gave to us all. … Stevie, you will stay always with us. I will never forget you, my friend.”

 

For the public memorial, hundreds of people packed a ballroom at a conference center attached the same building where Lake Placid’s signature moment — the “Miracle on Ice” from the 1980 Winter Olympics — happened. Photos of Holcomb played on a loop on the electronic message board outside the arena. Local police officers shooed people away from nearby parking meters near the building, saying no one needed to worry about such things on this day.

 

“Steve’s one of the most passionate, humble souls I’ve ever known,” said a teary USA Bobsled head coach Brian Shimer, who considered Holcomb the younger brother he never had. “He looked you in the eyes. He engaged you. And he did that with every person who was drawn to him by his charm … and by his greatness.”

The public ceremony was preceded by a private, intimate one for family, teammates and close friends atop the track at Mount Van Hoevenberg, not far from the start line and overlooking the magnificent Adirondack Mountains in the distance. His sleds were displayed on either side of the medal podium, the same one he stood atop of plenty of times in his career.

The U.S. flag — the colors he wore as an Eagle Scout, as a member of the Utah Army National Guard, and as a bobsledder — was at half-staff, rippling in the crisp breeze. Speakers read passages from Winnie The Pooh, from Dr. Seuss, from the Bible. They told stories of how he was the ultimate teammate. They told stories of how he was the ultimate jokester.

 

His mother, Jean Anne, wore Holcomb’s gold medal from the Vancouver Games. His father, Steve, wore one of the bronze medals from the Sochi Games. His sisters both spoke, one of them wearing his other Olympic bronze from Sochi. Many teammates wore or carried “Superman” shirts, like Holcomb used to wear under his speed suit on race days.

 

“He was a boy when he came here,” said Holcomb’s father, also named Steve, who thanked Lake Placid for playing such a role in his son’s life. “And he was a man when he left.”

 

USA Bobsled and Skeleton CEO Darrin Steele has lost count of how many times in recent days he’s been asked about how the team will go on — especially with the 2018 Pyeongchang Games looming in nine months — without Holcomb.

 

He doesn’t have an answer laden with specifics yet.

 

“As tough as it is, we have to,” Steele said, as he struggled to get the words out. “We have to continue his legacy and continue the work that he worked so hard to start. We owe it to him. We will push forward. We will find success again. He’s not the pillar of the organization any longer, but we are where we are because of Steven Holcomb.”
…

As national parks traveler Mikah Meyer continued exploring the numerous national park sites within the vast state of Texas, he’s been overwhelmed by the beauty of Big Bend National Park and the Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River.

Located in southwestern Texas, on the U.S. border with Mexico, the huge park is larger than Hong Kong. It’s 80 kilometers from east to west, and 200 kilometers of the Rio Grande River form its southern boundary.

Big Bend – named after a big bend in the river – was established as a national park in 1944, preserving the largest tracts of Chihuahuan Desert topography and ecology in the United States. Mikah spent several packed days exploring the vast terrain.

Magical landscape

“I didn’t have a lot of expectations going in, but it’s just kind of this magical landscape,” Mikah observed, one that he learned has evolved greatly over time.​

“Over the past two centuries, largely due to a lot of human influence, it used to be a very different climate with grass as high as a horse’s head. And essentially through ranching, through farming, through human interaction, we as humans have taken away a lot of the natural, green growth.”

But despite its harsh desert environment, the park boasts a spectacular landscape that’s home to more than 1,200 species of plants (including 60 types of cactus), 450 species of birds, 56 species of reptiles and 75 species of mammals.

The variety of life is largely due to the diverse ecology and changes in elevation, from the dry, hot desert, to the cool mountains, and the fertile river valley.

Flirting with fossils

Mikah’s first stop was the “incredible dinosaur exhibit” at the newly opened Fossil Discovery Exhibit.

“They had these amazingly huge fossils and did a really top-notch job at showing you the history of the area that is now Big Bend National Park that goes back a hundred million years,” he said.

“This area used to be a shallow ocean, so there were massive gators, large fish with huge teeth that were big enough to eat sharks, and they have fossils of those fish that existed in this area that’s now a desert.”

Also on display at the site is “an insane amount of dinosaur bones,” Mikah added, including a massive T-Rex skeleton and one of the largest flying reptile skeletons in the world.

“It was incredible!” Mikah marveled. “I mean, what little kid doesn’t love dinosaurs and doesn’t geek out and squeal at seeing a giant T-rex skeleton? It really puts it in perspective when you can sit in a giant alligator or T-Rex mouth that they have right on the ground at this exhibit.”

Border beauty

Visitors to Big Bend can also enjoy the many recreational opportunities on and around the Rio Grande, which forms the 1600 kilometer long international boundary between Mexico and the United States.

Mikah immersed himself in nature at Rio Grande Village, the largest campground in the park, on the banks of the Rio Grande.

“The campground is in a little bend of Big Bend National Park that dips down, so basically if I look to my left or to my right I’m looking at Mexico, but straight in front of the United States.”

“There is a little nature trail hike which is right by the campgrounds which is gorgeous and gives you stunning views of the Rio Grande River,” Mikah said.

On day two of his visit, Mikah decided to cross the river into Mexico for lunch in the small border town of Boquillas in the Mexican state of Coahuila. “It’s shallow enough that it only goes up to your knees right now,” he observed as he waded across the warm water.

Once he crossed into Mexico, Mikah headed to town — about a kilometer and a half away down a dusty path — on a horse. It trotted along at a leisurely pace, allowing Mikah to soak up the beauty of the stark desert around him. After checking in with Mexican customs, he stopped for a tasty lunch of tacos and cold drinks at Jose Falcon’s, one of the town’s two restaurants.

While lunch was satisfying, he said the highlight of his little adventure was the sweeping vista around him. “You’re on this horse, so you’re a little higher than you get to be normally, and there’s mountains everywhere and desert trees.”

More to come…

Mikah has many more adventures in Big Bend National Park to share with VOA. They include stops at some of the most remote areas of the park, a surprising canoe ride on the Rio Grande, a visit to the historic hot springs and an exhilarating hike up to the highest peak of Chisos Mountains.  

In the meantime the young traveler, who hopes to visit all 400 plus sites within the U.S. National Park Service, invites you to learn more about his journey across the American southwest by visiting his website, Facebook and Instagram.
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Evaluating Los Angeles’ readiness to host the 2024 Olympic Games takes some imagination. That’s because a lot of the pitch still relies on images on a computer screen, or a blueprint of what’s to come on a dusty construction site.

Los Angeles Olympic organizers often say their plan for two weeks of international competition is virtually realized, stressing that it requires no new construction of permanent venues. The concept for the L.A. Games, they say, is ready to go because “it already exists.”

But there is a lot that International Olympic Committee members won’t see as they visit Los Angeles this week in the run-up to a September decision on whether L.A. or Paris will get the 2024 Games.

Some of the opening ceremonies, including the famous Parade of Nations, would take place in a $2.6 billion NFL stadium just outside Los Angeles that today is a gouged, fenced-in lot crisscrossed by tire tracks.

The city notorious for its clotted freeway traffic will make use of a “growing public transit system,” the L.A. proposal boasts. Indeed, Los Angeles has billions of dollars of planned rail lines, but how many will be ready for the Games in seven years is largely a guess, given the uncertainties that come with major construction projects. Some aren’t scheduled to be completed until 2023 and 2024.

City planners describe the Los Angeles International Airport as the “gateway” for the Olympics. But anyone familiar with the airport knows it inflicts daily misery on travelers, including knotted traffic in and out of terminals. An impressive new terminal opened several years ago for international flights, but many others feel like a walk into a grimy past. Billions of dollars in improvements are planned.

‘The ability to deliver’

L.A.’s bid is closer to completion than many in past years, but in many ways it comes down to a promise of what’s to come.

This week, IOC members are looking for “the ability to deliver,” said Chicago-based sports finance consultant Marc Ganis. They want to see “commitment and competence,” he said, not just sketches and mock-ups.

On Thursday, members of the IOC fanned out in several groups to privately tour the proposed venues, including the Rose Bowl, the site for soccer matches.

In the background is a looming question. The IOC is considering awarding two Olympics at its September meeting in Peru, 2024 and 2028, one for each city. Officials from both cities stress they are bidding on 2024.

On Wednesday, Patrick Baumann, chairman of the IOC evaluation committee, didn’t directly address a question about the possibility of awarding the 2024 and 2028 Games at the same time.

“We will be concentrating on the process that has started and these cities have been going through for the purpose of awarding the host of 2024,” Baumann told reporters.

In the Olympics, time is the enemy. As late as March 2000, the IOC considered moving the 2004 Olympics out of Athens, Greece, because of construction delays. Even so, work on the main stadium complex was ongoing just weeks before the Games began.

There are six events planned for Long Beach, a coastal city south of downtown L.A. However, most of them will require temporary facilities that don’t exist today, including a water polo pool.

Projected costs

The cost of making it a reality can be substantial. Erecting and removing the temporary pool and bleachers, for example, is projected at nearly $14 million. A mountain biking track in the hills east of Los Angeles will cost over $13 million. A temporary outdoor stadium would rise next to the famous Santa Monica pier for volleyball. Cost: $23.4 million.

Even sites that do exist, like the iconic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, home to the 1932 and 1984 Olympics, are works in progress.

It’s slated to have a $270 million renovation completed by 2019, but transforming a football stadium into a venue for Olympic track events, then back again, will cost over $100 million, according to projections.

A little stagecraft can help fill in what’s missing. At the Rose Bowl, organizers emblazoned the field with the Olympic rings for their IOC guests. Hollywood studios were illuminated with the colors of an L.A. sunset and the logo for the city’s bid to mark the arrival of the IOC. Committee members attended a celebrity-studded dinner Wednesday where guests included retired Lakers great Kobe Bryant, Spanish tenor Placido Domingo and actor Sylvester Stallone.

“A lot of the stadiums for the Olympics are being envisioned for the future. They would not even be built if it wasn’t for the Olympics,” said Jules Boykoff, a professor at Pacific University in Oregon who has written widely on the Olympics movement.

“If you have existing venues, you don’t have to envision as much. It still takes some imagination,” he said.
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A watercolor by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis is being auctioned along with a Cartier watch she wore for years.

Christie’s said Thursday that the then-first lady, who painted as a hobby, created the artwork in 1963 as a gift for her brother-in law, Stanislaw Radziwill.

Radziwill gave her the watch.

Both commemorate a 50-mile hike that Radziwill undertook as part of President John F. Kennedy’s physical fitness initiative. The first lady briefly joined the hike.

The painting depicts Radziwill walking with a Kennedy family friend.

The items are being offered as a single lot at a June 21 sale in New York. The presale estimate is $60,000 to $120,000. 

The seller is anonymous. Part of the proceeds will benefit the National Endowment for the Arts.
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Sprinkle the sequins, spark up the disco lights and get ready for battle — it’s time for the Eurovision Song Contest , a celebration of kitsch and cheesy pop with an undercurrent of politics and patriotism. More than a singing contest, it’s diplomacy in dancing shoes.

This week musical acts from more than 40 countries are taking the stage in Kyiv to vie for the Eurovision crown, watched by some 200 million television viewers. The 62nd annual contest has clean-cut crooners, electro beats, yodeling Romanians and even a dancing gorilla. But there is also a big absence: Russia, whose participation has been scuttled by the country’s diplomatic and military conflict with neighbor Ukraine.

 

Russia is one of Eurovision’s heavy hitters, tied with Sweden for the most top-five finishes this century. But this year’s Russian entrant, Yuliya Samoylova, was blocked by host Ukraine because she had toured in Crimea after Russia’s 2014 annexation of the peninsula.

 

In response, Russia’s state-owned Channel 1 television is refusing to broadcast the contest, replacing Saturday’s final with a screening of the film “Alien.”

 

Russia has been angry since last year, when Ukrainian singer Jamala won the contest with “1944.” The song described the deportations of Crimean Tatars to Central Asia under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, but also hinted at their recent treatment under Russian President Vladimir Putin.

 

As the 2016 winner, Ukraine is this year’s Eurovision host.

 

John Kennedy O’Connor, author of Eurovision’s official history, said Ukraine has long used Eurovision as a way to annoy Russia.

 

“Last time the contest was in Kyiv it was a song about the Orange Revolution and it was allowed to compete,” he said. “Ukraine has been needling away for a long time and now the contest is going to be in a real crisis.”

 

The Moscow-Kyiv split is a headache for Eurovision’s producer, the European Broadcasting Union, which strives mightily to keep pop and politics separate. Overtly political flags and banners are banned, and lyrics are monitored for provocative content. In 2009 the EBU nixed the Georgian entry “We Don’t Wanna Put In,” a dig at Putin. The union has been criticized for not barring “1944” last year, allowing Russia-Ukraine tensions to fester.

 

The acrimony is ironic, since Eurovision was founded in 1956 to bring the recently warring countries of Europe together. It launched a year before the foundation of the European Economic Community, forerunner of the European Union.

 

“Eurovision, like the EEC, was born out of this passionate belief that we mustn’t have another war in Europe,” said Chris West, author of “Eurovision!” — a history of the contest and the continent. “Both institutions were driven by this sense of ‘never again.'”

 

From its launch with seven countries, Eurovision has grown to include more than 40, including non-European nations such as Israel and — somewhat controversially — far-off Australia.

 

The contest helped launch the careers of Sweden’s ABBA — victors in 1974 with “Waterloo” — Canada’s Celine Dion, who won for Switzerland in 1988, and Irish high-steppers Riverdance, the half-time entertainment in 1994.

 

Eurovision has a huge gay following and has become a symbol of optimistic liberalism — this year’s motto is “celebrate diversity.” Victories by transgender Israeli singer Dana International in 1998 and bearded Austrian drag queen Conchita Wurst in 2014 were hailed by liberals and condemned by conservatives — notably in Russia, where nationalist politicians cited the contest as evidence of Western degeneracy.

 

Onstage, many Eurovision-watchers expect this year to bring resurgence for western Europe after years of eastern and Nordic dominance. The bookies’ favorites are Portuguese balladeer Salvador Sobral with the syrupy “Amar Pelos Dois” (”Love For Both of Us”) and Italy’s Francesco Gabbani , who is accompanied by a dancer in a gorilla suit on “Occidentali’s Karma,” (”Westerner’s Karma”), a cheekily sardonic look at human evolution.

 

O’Connor says the Italian song has the qualities of a Eurovision classic.

 

“It’s so out there and it’s so outrageous and it’s so silly,” he said. “But it’s also very, very catchy.”

 

One country not expecting a first-place finish is Britain. The U.K. has not won since 1997, and many Britons suspect politics lies behind the country’s poor showing. Winners are decided by the votes of viewers and national juries, and regional alliances are often evident. Greece and Cyprus routinely give each other maximum points, as do the Nordic and Baltic states.

 

Britain is seen as having few allies, and some worry the country’s decision to leave the EU may further harm the chances of U.K. contestant Lucie Jones , performing the ballad “Never Give Up On You.”

 

West says the truth is simpler: Recent British entries just haven’t been very good.

 

“Bloc voting won’t make a rubbish song win,” he said. “I think a song’s got to be decent in order to win.

 

“It’ll be helped by bloc voting, and that is a problem for Britain because we don’t really have a bloc. But I think if Adele or Ed Sheeran entered the competition they could still win it.”
…

…

Early on in their career, the country group Rascal Flatts often dealt with critics of their pop-country sound and being labeled a country music boy band. Bassist and producer Jay DeMarcus noted that one early review referred to their music as “bouncy, bouncy, flop.”

 

Seventeen years later with the release of their 10th studio album, “Back to Us,” the trio of DeMarcus, Gary LeVox and Joe Don Rooney say they’ve adapted their material to fit their lives.

 

“As husbands and fathers and everything, you have to write appropriate material and find appropriate material for where you are,” said DeMarcus.

 

“And not cutting as many songs about kicking at the club with the fellas,” LeVox joked. “One song is called ‘In Bed By 7.”

 

Still the group that has had several platinum records and No. 1 hits relies on young songwriters and artists to keep their music sounding fresh.

Grammy-winning pop singer Meghan Trainor’s earliest success as a songwriter came when she contributed to two songs on Rascal Flatts’ 2014 album, including the single “I Like the Sound of That.”

 

“Back to Us,” out May 19, has songs co-written by Shay Mooney of the rising duo Dan + Shay, a duet with 22-year-old “American Idol” alum Lauren Alaina and a song written by powerhouse performer Chris Stapleton.

 

“I think it’s important for all of us to help a younger generation of country music artists come along,” said DeMarcus. “And I think the more they have success, the more success there is for all of us. It’s really synergistic from that standpoint.”

 

But he joked that the band’s relationship with Dan + Shay was more like an internship than a mentorship.

 

“We made an agreement with Shay early on right when they got signed, if they were going to steal our sound, we had to get first pick of the songs he was writing,” DeMarcus said.
…

Netflix, the U.S. video-on-demand company, will not be allowed to compete at the Cannes Film Festival after this year unless it changes its policy and gives its movies a cinema release, organizers said Wednesday.

The 2017 festival, which begins next week, has Netflix films in its competition for the first time, a decision that angered the French movie theater sector as the company said the films will only be streamed to subscribers and not shown in cinemas.

Festival Director Thierry Fremaux had said he believed Netflix would arrange some kind of cinema release for the two films in competition — The Meyerowitz Stories and Okja — both highly anticipated, with stars that include Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Stiller and Tilda Swinton.

But the festival said Wednesday that no such deal had been reached, and while the two films would be allowed to remain in competition this year, thereafter no film would be accepted that is not guaranteed distribution in French movie theaters.

“The Festival is pleased to welcome a new operator which has decided to invest in cinema,” the festival said on its website in response to rumors that the Netflix films would be excluded at the last minute from Cannes 2017.

“[Cannes] wants to reiterate its support to the traditional mode of exhibition of cinema in France and in the world,” it continued, adding that from next year its rules would explicitly state any film entered for competition would have to “commit itself to being distributed in French movie theaters.”

In France, which proudly defends its culture and language against the global dominance of the United States, the decision is a victory for the traditional cinema distribution sector.

Since its launch in France, according to French movie magazine Premiere, Netflix has “declared war on movie theaters.” Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings made a brief but defiant comment on his Facebook page: “The establishment closing ranks against us. See Okja on Netflix June 28th. Amazing film that theatre chains want to block us from entering into Cannes film festival competition.”

Another U.S. streaming service, Amazon, also has a film in competition, Todd Haynes’ Wonderstruck, but has not been subject to the same opposition as it does screen its films at cinemas as well as online.

The Cannes Film Festival runs from May 17 to May 28.
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Modern history. Political change. Urbanization, emotion, and the colors of Washington, DC. For Ukrainian-born photographer Val Proudkii, it’s all filtered through the lens of his camera. In his repertoire: numerous photography competition awards and one printed image signed by former president Barack Obama. After spending a day looking at the nation’s capital through his eyes, VOA’s Iuliia Iarmolenko and Dmytro Savchuk have more.
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It will be lights, camera, action with the Los Angeles 2024 Olympic bid in the spotlight when the International Olympic Committee visits Tinseltown this week as the race to host the Summer Games heats up.

The IOC’s Evaluation Commission will hear a well-worn sales pitch during a three-day visit that will provide a firsthand glimpse at the LA2024 vision.

What commission chief Patrick Baumann of Switzerland and his members discover will find its way into a report presented to IOC members who will decide between Los Angeles and Paris as 2024 host when a vote is held in Peru on Sept. 13.

While there will be no shortage of celebrity firepower and Hollywood pizzazz, starting with a visit to “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Tuesday and a Los Angeles Dodgers game on Wednesday, LA2024 officials will be out to impress but at the same time emphasize that this is no Olympic blockbuster, like those that have been ravaged by critics for their cost and white elephants.

In fact, the bid is more frugal than flashy with officials touting a proposal that will lean heavily on existing sporting venues such as the Rose Bowl, Forum and the Memorial Coliseum that was the centre piece of the 1932 Olympics and used again for the 1984 Summer Games.

The LA plan calls for no new venue construction and athletes to be housed in renovated student residences on the UCLA campus not far from Beverly Hills.

Casey Wasserman, the entertainment executive heading LA2024, and everyone connected with the bid have stayed on message throughout the process – that Los Angeles can deliver a cost conscious, low-risk Games.

“The report will address a wide range of relevant issues and technical matters, including the sustainability and legacy value of the proposal, its impact on the natural environment, and the experience for athletes, the media, spectators and other Games participants,” Baumann said in a letter to the media.

“It will offer a consensus opinion on the opportunities and strengths of the two candidatures, but will not endorse one over another.”

The report will be made available on July 5.

Los Angeles rescued the Olympics in 1984 by taking over a Games no one wanted and transforming them into the world’s biggest sporting extravaganza pouring billions into IOC coffers.

Cities, however, are no longer lining up to host an Olympics, the astronomical price tag of staging a two-week sporting festival now too extravagant for most tastes but Los Angeles could be in position to revitalise the franchise once again with a fiscal responsible bid.

Paris and LA are the only remaining cities left in the race to secure the 2024 Games, after a number of withdrawals from the process, including Boston, Hamburg, Rome and Budapest.

“We don’t think this campaign is only about the 2024 Games, we believe we have the responsibility to put forward a plan that will serve the Olympic movement long after the 2024 Games are over,” said Wasserman. “LA 2024 is about the future.”
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Visitors to Romania who yearn for a taste of communist-era kitsch now have an entire museum to enjoy.

From the mundane (wedding champagne flutes covered in sequins and bows) to the spectacular (a life-sized Dracula and flashing neon crucifixes), Bucharest’s Kitsch Museum celebrates questionable taste of the past and present.

“My favorite kitsch, which has unfortunately been damaged, is a statue of Christ with an incorporated room thermometer,” said Cristian Lica, who opened the museum to show off a collection he has amassed over two decades. “The creativity behind kitsch must be admired.”

The 215 exhibits are curated into several categories: communist, Dracula, Orthodox Church, contemporary and Gypsy kitsch, which, Lica said, was not meant to offend the Roma minority.

“We don’t want to insult anyone. We didn’t invent anything. We just picked up items from the reality around us,” he said.

Lica, who has traveled to over 100 countries and has written a travel book, said he thought Romania has been particularly prone to kitsch as it rushed to catch up with the aspirational living standards of its richer Western neighbors.

In the communism collection, plain cotton underwear hangs out to dry, a common sight on apartment balconies of the era. For Romanians, the tiny museum in the capital’s picturesque old town, is full of recognizable artifacts both from pre-1989 communist times and the present.

“It reminded me of my childhood, how I grew up, how the house looked,” said local visitor Simona Constantin. “I am glad such a museum has opened. Everything I have seen has made me nostalgic.”
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Latin pop star Prince Royce will tour 21 U.S. cities this summer to showcase his new music, which he says has a bit of a new twist.

Known for his Dominican bachata hits, Royce released his fifth studio album, “FIVE,” in February, collaborating with musicians Chris Brown, Zendaya and Shakira. Bachata is a style of romantic music originating in the Dominican Republic.

“I think it’s important to always try new things,” Royce, 27, told Reuters on Tuesday. “On this album, we got Chris Brown singing bachata, he did a little bit of Spanish, Zendaya also singing in Spanish,” he said.

Royce said it was “a pleasure to work with” Shakira, adding that he shares a lot in common with the “Hips Don’t Lie” singer.

“She’s very involved with every detail,” said Royce. “I identify with her a lot because that’s the way I am. I like to listen to a song 1,000 times.”

Since launching his career in 2009, Royce, who was born in the New York City borough of The Bronx, has garnered 15 No. 1 hits on Latin radio charts, 21 Latin Billboard Awards and 9 Latin Grammy nominations.

Although he is proud of his accomplishments, Royce said he chooses to live in the present.

“I think it’s always good to focus on today,” Royce said. “I think that’s what always keeps that hunger, keeps that motivation.”

He will kick off his summer tour on June 29 in Laredo, Texas and end it on July 30 in Miami.
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Three women stare down from the gallery wall — colorful, defiant and imbued with a spirit of working for the many not the few.

They are a brigadier, a factory worker and a youth volunteer with a hoe. They are paintings of socialist realism. They are also all Albanian women from the time of Enver Hoxha, who created one of the world’s most closed societies until his death in 1985.

Visitors to Greece’s capital have a relatively rare opportunity to see Hoxha-era art on display outside its regular home in Tirana’s National Gallery of Art.

The portraits are part of documenta 14, the Kassel, Germany-based exhibition of Western European modern art that this year is being hosted both in Kassel and Athens.

Hundreds of documenta 14 displays are to be found in museums across the Greek city until July, with the three women portraits among the offerings at EMST, the National Museum of Contemporary Art located in the old but renovated Fix brewery building.

The paintings — by Spiro Kristo (1976), Zef Shoshi (1969) and Hasan Nallbani (1968) — draw you in and can inspire.

But they were also political, more than acceptable to Hoxha, who saw threats from the West, Russia, the then-Yugolavia and just about everywhere.

In a sense, they are modernist icons for the only society in the world that was officially atheist.

As Edi Muka, an Albanian art critic and curator, notes of Shoshi’s factory worker, “representations of motherhood as constitutive of women’s central role in religious art are carefully removed.”

Hoxha-era paranoia was to be found everywhere from spikes in vineyards to deter potential enemy paratroopers to more than 700,000 concrete bunkers across the country, housing soldiers on guard for potential attack.

So it was not all easy for painters. Not far from the three women, documenta 14 has hung a 1971 painting “Planting of Trees” by Edi Hila.

It depicts blissfully happy young people planting trees for their country.

Too blissfully happy, perhaps. Almost “expressive dancing,” in the words of the painter.

“My work stepped out of the contours of socialist realism,” Hila told Reuters in Tirana. “Generally in those works the positive, the hero, is in the center. … The compositional structure was different so this hurt their taste.”

Hila, deemed to be in need of re-education, ended up being sentenced to work as a loader on a chicken farm. His drawings from that time — showing a different kind of realism — are also on display in Athens.
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Jimmy Kimmel zinged his critics as he returned to late-night TV and resumed arguing that Americans deserve the level of health care given his infant son.

Back on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Monday after a week’s absence, he said baby Billy is recovering well from open-heart surgery for a birth defect and thanked well-wishers. Then he charged back into the fraught topic.

“I made an emotional speech that was seen by millions, and as a result of my powerful words on that night, Republicans in Congress had second thoughts about repeal and replace” of the Affordable Care Act, he joked. “I saved health insurance in the United States of America!”

“What’s that? I didn’t save it? They voted against it anyway?” Kimmel said. The House approved the American Health Care Act last week.

He dismissed those who labeled him an elitist — as a youngster, his family bought powered milk because they couldn’t afford fresh, he said — and pretended to repent for his previous comments.

“I’d like to apologize for saying that children in America should have health care. It was insensitive, it was offensive, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me,” Kimmel said.

He took on former Rep. Newt Gingrich, saying his claim that all children would receive the same surgery as Kimmel’s son in an emergency fell short of addressing what follows.

“That’s terrific if your baby’s health problems are all solved during that one visit. The only problem is that never, ever happens. We’ve had a dozen doctor’s appointments since our son had surgery,” Kimmel said.

Kimmel brought on a current GOP lawmaker, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician, who had suggested that the Senate’s upcoming health care legislation should have a “Jimmy Kimmel test” of covering pre-existing conditions but in a fiscally conservative way.

During a satellite interview with Cassidy, Kimmel asked about his position on issues including uninsured workers and protection of children under a revised health care bill.

The senator called on viewers to contact their representatives and urge support of final legislation that fulfills President Donald Trump’s promise to lower premiums combined with coverage that passes the Kimmel standard.

Kimmel called for his namesake test to guarantee that no family be denied medical care, emergency or otherwise, because they can’t afford it.

“You’re on the right track,” Cassidy said, but the country has to be able to pay for it.

“Don’t give a huge tax cut to millionaires like me,” Kimmel replied.

On last Monday’s show, the host detailed how Billy’s routine birth April 21 suddenly turned frightening when he was diagnosed with a hole in the wall separating the right and left sides of the heart and a blocked pulmonary valve, a condition known as tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary atresia. He successfully underwent surgery, but will face more as he grows.

Using his son as an example, Kimmel called for health care for all and for pre-existing conditions to remain covered as provided by the Affordable Care Act passed under President Barack Obama.

“If your baby is going to die and it doesn’t have to, it shouldn’t matter how much money you make. … Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat or something else, we all agree on that, right?” he said.

The video of Kimmel’s tearful monologue went viral, drawing praised by some, including Obama, and harsh criticism from others.
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