Jurors are still unable to reach a verdict in the trial of comedian Bill Cosby, who is charged with three counts of sexual assault. The trial near Philadelphia entered its fifth day of deliberations Friday, and the judge rejected calls by the defense for a mistrial. VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan reports that a conviction could send the 79-year-old entertainer to prison for decades.
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Carrie Fisher died from sleep apnea and a combination of other factors, but investigators were not able to pinpoint an exact cause, coroner’s officials said Friday.
Among the factors that contributed to Fisher’s death was buildup of fatty tissue in the walls of her arteries, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office said in a news release late Friday. The release states that the “Star Wars” actress showed signs of having taken multiple drugs, but investigators could not determine whether they contributed to her death in December.
Her manner of death would be listed as undetermined, the agency said.
The agency did not immediately respond to a request for additional details about whether a full autopsy report and toxicology results were available.
Sleep apnea is a condition in which a person’s breathing pauses during sleep. The pauses may be brief or last several minutes, according to information from the National Institutes of Health.
Results no surprise, brother says
Fisher, 60, suffered a medical emergency on an international flight Dec. 23 and died four days later. Her mother, longtime movie star Debbie Reynolds, died the following day.
The actresses were laid to rest together at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills, a cemetery where numerous celebrities are buried.
Fisher’s brother, Todd Fisher, said he was not surprised by the results. He added that his family did not want a coroner’s investigation of his sister’s death.
“We’re not enlightened. There’s nothing about this that is enlightening,” he said.
“I would tell you, from my perspective that there’s certainly no news that Carrie did drugs,” Todd Fisher said. He noted that his sister wrote extensively about her drug use, and that many of the drugs she took were prescribed by doctors to try to treat her mental health conditions.
Fisher long battled drug addiction and mental illness. She said she smoked pot at 13, used LSD by 21 and was diagnosed as bipolar at 24. She was treated with electroshock therapy and medication.
“I am not shocked that part of her health was affected by drugs,” Todd Fisher said.
He said his sister’s heart condition was probably worsened by her smoking habit, as well as the medications she took. “If you want to know what killed her, it’s all of it,” he said.
Todd Fisher said it was difficult to blame doctors who treated his sister because they were trying to help her.
“They were doing their best to cure a mental disorder. Can you really blame them?” Todd Fisher said. “Without her drugs, maybe she would have left long ago.”
Film career
Carrie Fisher made her feature film debut opposite Warren Beatty in the 1975 hit Shampoo. She also appeared in Austin Powers, The Blues Brothers, Charlie’s Angels, Hannah and Her Sisters, Scream 3 and When Harry Met Sally …
She will reprise her role as Leia Organa in the eighth installment of the core “Star Wars” franchise, The Last Jedi, which will be released in December.
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Apple has hired two longtime Sony Pictures Television executives to expand the iPhone maker’s push into original television programming, plunging deeper into a field crowded by Hollywood studios and online streaming services.
Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, responsible for hit shows such as “Breaking Bad,” “Better Call Saul” and “The Crown,” will join Apple in newly created positions to oversee all aspects of video programming, the technology company said Friday.
“Jamie and Zack are two of the most talented TV executives in the world and have been instrumental in making this the golden age of television,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of internet software and services.
“There is much more to come,” Cue said of Apple’s video effort.
No word on strategy
The new hires demonstrate a serious commitment by another deep-pocketed technology company to produce quality television shows. Erlicht and Van Amburg have served as senior Sony television executives since 2005.
But Apple did not elaborate on its strategy, leaving investors guessing how many shows it plans to distribute, how much it will spend and where the programming will be available.
The company is playing in an increasingly competitive field.
Amazon.com and Netflix have invested billions of dollars in award-winning comedies and dramas featuring A-list Hollywood stars. And social media company Facebook has signed deals with millennial-focused news and entertainment creators, including Vox and BuzzFeed, to make shows for its upcoming video service.
Apple began its move last week with reality program “Planet of the Apps,” an unscripted show about developers competing for venture capital funding. The series is available only to subscribers to Apple Music, a $10-a-month streaming service.
Apple has one huge advantage compared with other companies: 1 billion iPhones, iPads and other devices that run Apple’s mobile operating system and offer a broad distribution platform.
The company has widely promoted “Planet of the Apps” across iTunes, the App Store, Apple’s website and elsewhere.
Pressure on traditional outlets
As tech companies push further into the content business, pressure mounts on traditional media outlets that do not have the same amount of data on viewers or the ability for content to be a loss leader, said Rich Greenfield, an analyst with BTIG.
“These companies do not need to make money off video because they can make money other ways,” Greenfield said. “And they are going to have tons of data on their viewers.”
It is more cost-effective for Apple to pay for original content and secure licensing deals on its own than to buy a content company, said Moody’s analyst Gerald Granovsky.
“From a credit perspective, we’d much rather see Apple overpay to deliver original content than pay $50 billion to buy Netflix and basically compete for the same content,” he said. “They’ll definitely get a better bang for their buck by focusing on their Apple TV product.”
No Disney deal
Greenfield said news of Apple’s hires should put to rest rumors that Apple might acquire another content company, Walt Disney.
“It’s pretty clear now that Apple isn’t buying Disney,” he said.
Disney shares were down 0.5 percent at $105.40 on Friday afternoon. Apple shares were down 0.9 percent at $143.01.
For Sony, the departures come as the Japanese conglomerate revamps its movie and television studio under new Chief Executive Tony Vinciquerra. In a memo to staff, Vinciquerra suggested Apple could be a buyer of Sony programming.
“While we are sad to see them go, we are excited by the opportunity to work with them as partners in the future,” he said.
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Jurors in the sexual assault trial of celebrity comedian Bill Cosby have entered their fifth day of deliberation over charges that he drugged and then molested a woman in 2004.
On Thursday, jurors told a judge they were deadlocked and could not come to a unanimous decision on Cosby’s guilt in any of the three counts of aggravated indecent assault levied against him.
The jurors have deliberated for 40 hours already and it is unclear exactly what the deadlock is about. Judge Steven O’Neill has not said how long he is prepared to wait on the jury to make a decision.
The jury seemed exasperated at times over the course of the week as it repeatedly asked the judge for clarifications of evidence or to hear testimony from the trial again.
O’Neill told the jurors other judges may not have granted their six requests to revisit evidence from the trial, but since he granted their first request, he felt obligated to fulfill the rest because he didn’t want them to think some pieces of evidence were more important than others.
“From now on when you ask for testimony, I am compelled to give it to you,” he said Wednesday night.
O’Neill told the jurors Thursday to continue discussing the charges in the jury room after the panel told him they could not agree on Cosby’s guilt.
The 79-year-old Cosby is charged with drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand, a former director of operations of the Temple University women’s basketball team.
He allegedly gave her pills that paralyzed her and left her unable to resist when he started touching her in his Philadelphia home.
If found guilty, Cosby could go to prison for the rest of his life.
More than 50 women claim Cosby sexually assaulted them in incidents dating back to the 1960s, when he emerged as a major comedy star. Most of the alleged incidents occurred too long ago to be prosecuted now.
Constand’s complaint is the only one that has come to trial. Cosby has denied all the charges.
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In 2011, RollingStone magazine deemed it the “greatest song of all time,” cementing singer-songwriter Bob Dylan’s status as perhaps the most influential musician in American history.
“Like a Rolling Stone,” recorded 52 years ago on June 16, 1965, was considered the “moment” when rock music took the spotlight from traditional American folk songs, according to critics and fans.
Dylan plugged in, abandoning his usual acoustic sound by adding a gospel organ arrangement and the steely sounds of a Telecaster guitar. He also stretched convention in the master recording with the song’s six-minute length.
The impact was undeniable. To hard core folk fans, it was a betrayal. To others, it was a new, and positive, beginning in American music.
Rolling Stone magazine justified the importance of the song, writing:
“The most stunning thing about Like a Rolling Stone is how unprecedented it was: the impressionist voltage of Dylan’s language, the intensely personal accusation in his voice (“Ho-o-o-ow does it fe-e-e-el?”), the apocalyptic charge of (Al) Kooper’s garage-gospel organ and Mike Bloomfield’s stiletto-sharp spirals of Telecaster guitar, the defiant six-minute length of the June 16th master take. No other pop song has so thoroughly challenged and transformed the commercial laws and artistic conventions of its time, for all time.”
Of the song, rocker Bruce Springsteen was quoted as saying, “[it] sounded like somebody’d kicked open the door to your mind.”
Dylan was just 24 years old when he changed the sound of American music, and would go on to have many other crowning (and controversial) achievements, not the least of which was his 2016 win of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
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The greatest human swimmer of all time, Olympian Michael Phelps, is diving into his next competition – when he takes on the world’s greatest swimmer in a “race” during Shark Week on the Discovery Channel next month.
Shark Week is a popular event during which the American cable channel airs shark-related content. The annual programming began airing in 1988.
According to the Discovery Channel, the Olympic champion will be getting a “crash course on everything ‘shark.’”
“They’ll dispel the myths and common misconceptions, teach him how to safely dive with sharks – including how to stay calm when a hammerhead swims two feet above his face – and will get Michael Phelps up close and personal with the incredible power of a great white,” the company said in a news release.
Phelps retired from competitive swimming in 2016 after the Rio Summer Olympics. During his career, he won 23 Olympic gold medals and held 39 world records.
Still, that will not likely be enough to take on sharks, which can swim about 10 times faster than humans.
“They are one of the fastest and most efficient predators on the planet: Sharks,” Discovery wrote. “He is our greatest champion to ever get in the water: Michael Phelps. But he has one competition left to win. An event so monumental no one has ever attempted it before. The world’s most decorated athlete takes on the ocean’s most efficient predator: Phelps V Shark – the race is on!”
Discovery wasn’t clear exactly how Phelps, now 32, will take on the great white or what strokes he will use when he is in the water. It’s also unclear how Phelps will avoid ending up as a snack for the fierce predator.
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Jay Z, whose wife Beyonce is expecting twins soon, was absent from the 2017 Songwriters Hall of Fame, where he was inducted by a longtime fan: former U.S. President Barack Obama.
Obama, appearing in a taped video, told the audience Thursday that he’s been listening to Jay Z since he was a “young and hungry state senator” and compared himself to the New York rapper.
“Nobody who met us as younger men would have expected us to be where we are today. You know what it’s like not to have a father around, you know what it’s like not to come from much, and to know people who didn’t get the same breaks that we did. So we try to prop open those doors of opportunity so that it’s a little easier for those who come up behind us to succeed as well,” Obama said, earning an applause from the audience in New York City.
“Jay and I are also fools for our daughters, although he’s going to have me beat once those two twins show up. And let’s face it, we both have wives who are significantly more popular than we are,” he added.
First rapper
Jay Z became the first rapper inducted into the prestigious organization and was the first hip-hop act nominated for the honor. The icon, who rarely tweets, posted multiple messages on Twitter around the time the ceremony took place, naming rappers who he admires, from veterans like Rakim and Nas to contemporaries such as Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole.
“Thank you to all the people that have inspired me,” Jay Z, born Shawn Carter, tweeted. “Salute to anybody who made a song to feed their family or just vent.”
2017 class
The 2017 Songwriters Hall class also included Motown founder Berry Gordy; R&B maestro Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds; songwriting duo Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis; pop music great Max Martin; and members of Chicago.
Jon Bon Jovi kicked off the multi-hour event at the Marriott Marquis Hotel with It’s My Life, his band’s 2000 hit that Martin co-wrote. Bon Jovi said that Martin, who has written monster hits for Taylor Swift, the Backstreet Boys and other pop stars, had been a part of 22 No. 1s, placing him only behind John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Martin, who rarely does interviews or appears in public, called the induction “unbelievable.”
Johnny Gill, the New Edition member and solo singer, earned the night’s loudest applause when he performed My, My, My, one of many hits written by Babyface.
Babyface, who wrote hits for Whitney Houston, Toni Braxton and others, said he’s amazed that “I, Kenny Edmonds, this little black kid from Indianapolis, Indiana, wrote a song and somebody in … Kansas is singing the words to right now.”
Pat Monahan of Train sang in honor of Robert Lamm and James Pankow of Chicago, while Rhonda Ross Kendrick, Gordy’s daughter with Diana Ross, performed for her father.
“Most people think I got this award many years ago,” said Gordy, who has written songs for Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, Stevie Wonder and the Jackson 5. “Songwriting was my first love.”
Usher performed a medley to pay homage to Jam and Lewis, the duo behind countless hits for Janet Jackson as well as George Michael, Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men.
“Without us the music doesn’t exist,” Jam said of songwriters.
Ed Sheeran, who performed his hit Castle on the Hill, was honored with the Hal David Starlight Award. The English singer, who writes his own music and has also written for Justin Bieber and One Direction, said the “happiest moments of my life” are when he’s writing songs.
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At one of the most treacherous and least restored stretches of China’s Great Wall, a line of pack mules halted upon emerging from the gloom of a dense forest draped in mist and dew.
Laden with 150 kg (330 pounds) of bricks each, the seven animals finally began moving in response to the coaxing and swearing of their masters, eager to gain altitude before the sun climbed high in the sky.
For more than a decade, mules have been crucial in the effort to restore Jiankou, a serpentine 20 km (12 mile) section of the wall about 70 km (44 miles) north of central Beijing that is notorious for its ridges and perilous slopes.
“The path is too steep and the mountains are too high, so the bricks can only be transported by mules,” said local mule owner Cao Xinhua, who has worked on Great Wall restoration projects in the mountains north of Beijing for 10 years.
Old bricks, new bricks
Where they could, workers used the original bricks that had broken off the wall over the centuries. When they found none, they used new bricks made to exacting specifications.
“We have to stick to the original format, the original material and the original craftsmanship, so that we can better preserve the historical and cultural values,” said Cheng Yongmao, the engineer leading Jiankou’s restoration.
Cheng, 61, who has repaired 17 km (11 miles) of the Great Wall since 2003, belongs to the 16th generation in a long line of traditional brick makers.
A government clampdown on pollution has forced the closure of almost all brick-making factories in Beijing and nearby provinces, Cheng said.
If he ran out of bricks, Cheng added, he would have to look for bricks left elsewhere or request the central government to consider reopening some brick factories.
Arrow’s nock
Famed for its rugged beauty, Jiankou, which is Chinese for an arrow’s nock, or notch for a bowstring, was built in the twilight years of the Ming dynasty in the 1600s, but is young compared with other sections dating back two millennia.
Intensive repairs on the Jiankou section in the past year have been led by the district government keen to preserve the wall’s natural beauty and shore up its disintegrating steps.
The restoration began in 2005 and is now in its third phase, making slow progress because the uneven terrain allows use only of basic tools such as chisels, hammers, pickaxes and shovels.
Authorities’ meticulous approach followed widespread outrage last year sparked by botched restoration efforts on some stretches.
Authorities in the northeastern province of Liaoning, home to a 700-year-old section of the wall, paved its ramparts with sand and cement, resulting in what critics said looked more like a pedestrian pavement.
Soon after, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage said it would investigate any improperly executed wall preservation projects.
A tenth of the wall built during the Ming dynasty has been repaired, said Dong Yaohui, vice president of the China Great Wall Association.
“In the past, we would restore the walls so that they would be visited as tourist hot spots,” he said, by contrast with today’s objective of repairing and preserving them for future generations. “This is progress.”
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Strolling through a tranquil landscape of lush meadows and meandering streams in northern New Mexico, it was hard for national parks traveler Mikah Meyer to imagine that this area was once rocked by a violent force of nature.
1.25 million years ago, a supervolcano blew its top, creating a 21-kilometer wide circular depression now known as the Valles Caldera.
“It really is this gorgeous bowl of pure grass, with mountains on every side, and it’s a stunning thing to look at, [especially] coming from the rest of New Mexico that is so mountainous everywhere, and so dry,” Mikah said.
The ancient land where ancestral natives once lived is one of the newest sites to be protected by the National Park Service. Today, Valles Caldera National Preserve is home to an abundance of wildlife, including the second largest elk population in New Mexico as well as Gunnison prairie dogs, coyotes, badgers, black bears, Eastern mountain bluebirds, golden eagles and bobcats.
Grueling journey to engineering wonders
People often say that it’s the journey that matters more than the destination, but that certainly wasn’t the case as Mikah made his way northwest to the Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
According to the young traveler, who’s one-third of the way through his quest to visit all 417 national park sites within the U.S., this was the hardest park to get to so far.
“It was 20-some miles of rough, rough gravel roads — I mean I easily was going 4-5 miles per hour and even then the van was shaking and it was probably the worst experience I’ve had accessing a park.”
But he realized the rough ride was worth it, once he arrived at his destination.
“The park itself was really gorgeous…beautiful canyons with valleys, lots of ancient ruins, lots of historical and cultural and spiritual significance of the Chaco culture and the Chaco people and the natives of today and how they got there.”
Chaco has approximately 4,000 prehistoric archaeological sites, including 16 “great houses” — the largest, best preserved, and most complex prehistoric architectural structures in North America. Altogether, the park’s prehistoric and historic archaeological sites represent more than 10,000 years of human cultural history in Chaco Canyon.
In addition to its remarkably well-preserved structures, the park is also known for its spectacular night skies. On August 19, 2013, Chaco Culture distinguished itself by becoming the world’s newest International Dark Sky Park (IDSP), one of only four National Park sites to receive this distinction.
According to the International Dark-Sky Association, the designation is given to “a land possessing an exceptional or distinguished quality of starry nights and a nocturnal environment that is specifically protected for its scientific, natural, educational, cultural heritage, and/or public enjoyment.”
In recognition of its rich archaeological resources, Chaco Culture National Historical Park is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
Ancient footprints
Aztec Ruins National Monument, also in northwestern New Mexico, was not as spectacular as Chaco Culture. But Mikah said it was easy to get to.
“It’s just a very tiny site with an old ruins of the native people that lived there, so not the most magnificent site but a nice addition to help better understand the native culture that is shared partially by the historical park.”
While it may be small, the National Park Service refers to the site as “the footprint of Ancestral Pueblo society,” because it was one of the largest communities in this region.
One of the excavated buildings is the large, 900-year-old ancestral Pueblo Great House, which many believe was used for ceremonial or social purposes. It has more than 400 rooms.
Mikah strolled the kilometer-long trail through the ruins, exploring intact doorways and rooms, and visited a reconstructed Great Kiva, a room Puebloans would have used for religious rituals and political meetings.
As he reflected on his multi-day journey through this stark but charming area of the American southwest, Mikah said he enjoyed learning about the region’s rich and ancient history through the many natural and man-made wonders that are being preserved for all to enjoy.
“The name of New Mexico is Land of Enchantment and it’s a really great moniker because it is a state of such varied landscapes,” he said. “From Carlsbad Caverns to White Sands National Monument, to the Gila Cliffs…” and the 12 others that he visited, “it’s just such a diverse state with so much candy for the eye that it really should not be overlooked by any traveler.”
Mikah invites you to learn more about his travels across America by visiting him on his website, Facebook and Instagram.
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The electronic bleeps and squawks of “Tetris,” “Donkey Kong” and other generation-shaping games that you may never have thought of as musical are increasingly likely to be playing at a philharmonic concert hall near you.
From the “ping … ping” of Atari’s 1972 ground-breaking paddle game “Pong,” the sounds, infectious ditties and, with time, fully-formed orchestral scores that are an essential part of the sensory thrill for gamers have formed a musical universe. With its own culture, sub-cultures and fans, game music now thrives alone, free from the consoles from which it came.
When audiences pack the Philharmonie de Paris’ concert halls this weekend to soak in the sounds of a chamber orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra performing game music and an homage to one of the industry’s stars, “Final Fantasy” Japanese composer Nobuo Uematsu, they will have no buttons to play with, no characters to control.
Music triggers nostalgia
They’re coming for the music and the nostalgia it triggers: of fun-filled hours spent on sofas with a Game Boy, Sonic the Hedgehog and the evergreen Mario.
“When you’re playing a game you are living that music every day and it just gets into your DNA,” says Eimear Noone, the conductor of Friday’s opening two-hour show of 17 titles, including “Zelda,” “Tomb Raider,” “Medal of Honor” and other favorites from the 1980s onward.
“When people hear those themes they are right back there. And people get really emotional about it. I mean REALLY emotional. It’s incredible.”
Dating the birth of game music depends on how one defines music. Game music scholars — yes, they exist — point to key milestones on the path to the surround-sound extravaganzas of games today.
Game music remix
The heartbeat-like bass thump of Taito’s “Space Invaders” in 1978, which got ever faster as the aliens descended, caused sweaty palms and was habit-forming.
Namco’s “Pac-Man,” two years later, whetted appetites with an opening musical chirp. For fun, check out the 2013 remix by Dweezil Zappa, son of Frank, and game music composer Tommy Tallarico. Their take on the tune speaks to the sub-culture of remixing game music, with thousands of redos uploaded by fans to sites like ocremix.org — dedicated, it says, “to the appreciation and promotion of video game music as an art form.”
Based on the Russian folk song “Korobeiniki,” the music of the 1984 game “Tetris” has similarly undergone umpteen remixes — including “Tetris Meets Metal,” with more than 2.2 million views on YouTube.
Fame for Kondo
By 1985, the can’t-not-tap-along-to-this theme of “Super Mario Bros.,” the classic adventure of plumber Mario and his brother Luigi, was bringing fame for composer Koji Kondo, also known for his work on “Legend of Zelda.” Both are on the bill for the “Retrogaming” concert in Paris. Kondo was the first person Nintendo hired specifically to compose music for its games, according to the 2013 book, “Music and Game.”
Noone, known herself for musical work on “World of Warcraft,” “Overwatch” and other games, says the technological limitations of early consoles — tiny memories, rudimentary chips, crude sounds — forced composers “to distill their melodies down to the absolute kernels of what melodic content can be, because they had to program it note by note.”
But simple often also means memorable. Think “da-da-da-duh” — the opening of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
‘It speaks to people’
“That is part of the reason why this music has a place in people’s hearts and has survived,” Noone says of game tunes. “It speaks to people.”
She says game music is where movie music was 15 years ago: well on its way to being completely accepted.
“I predict that in 15 years’ time it will be a main staple of the orchestral season,” she says. “This is crazy to think of: Today, more young people are listening to orchestral music through the medium of their video game consoles than have ever listened to orchestral music.”
She still sometimes encounters snobbism from orchestras: “They saw ‘Pong’ once and that’s video game music to them, you know?”
‘The Rolling Stones’
But “halfway through the first rehearsal, their attitude has changed,” she adds. “And then when they walk out on stage and the audience treats them like they’re The Rolling Stones.”
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the first game-music concert: The Tokyo Strings Ensemble performed “Dragon Quest” at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall in August 1987. Now there are six touring shows of symphonic game music, Noone says.
“This is just the best way, the most fun way to introduce kids to the instruments of the orchestra,” she adds. “It may be the first time ever they are that close to a cellist, and that’s really exciting for me.”
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Facebook has revealed it is using artificial intelligence in its ongoing fight to prevent terrorist propaganda from being disseminated on its platform.
“We want to find terrorist content immediately, before people in our community have seen it,” read the message posted Thursday. “Already, the majority of accounts we remove for terrorism we find ourselves. But we know we can do better at using technology — and specifically artificial intelligence — to stop the spread of terrorist content on Facebook.”
The company has been under increasing pressure from governments around the world to do a better job of removing posts made by terrorists
Some of the roles AI plays involve “image matching” to see if an uploaded image matches something previously removed because of its terrorist content.
“Language understanding,” the company says, will allow it to “understand text that might be advocating for terrorism.”
AI, Facebook says, is also useful for identifying and removing “terrorist clusters.”
“We know from studies of terrorists that they tend to radicalize and operate in clusters,” according to the blog post. “This offline trend is reflected online as well. So when we identify pages, groups, posts or profiles as supporting terrorism, we also use algorithms to “fan out” to try to identify related material that may also support terrorism.”
Facebook said AI has helped identify and remove fake accounts made by “repeat offenders.” It says it has already reduced the time fake accounts are active.
However, the company does not rely completely on AI.
“AI can’t catch everything,” it said. “Figuring out what supports terrorism and what does not isn’t always straightforward, and algorithms are not yet as good as people when it comes to understanding this kind of context.
“A photo of an armed man waving an ISIS flag might be propaganda or recruiting material, but could be an image in a news story. Some of the most effective criticisms of brutal groups like ISIS utilize the group’s own propaganda against it. To understand more nuanced cases, we need human expertise.”
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Russia’s hosting of FIFA’s (International Federation of Association Football) Confederations Cup from June 17 to July 2 and the World Cup championship in 2018 is reigniting hopes in the country for football (soccer).
The last time Russia made the world’s top four was in 1966 when it was part of the Soviet Union.
Watch: Russia’s Hosting of FIFA Tournaments Reignites World Cup Hopes
Russian football gained global recognition during the 1966 World Cup when the Soviet Union defeated Italy, Chile, and Hungary to take fourth place.
Half-a-century later, the few living players from that championship have yet to see Russia return to the top four.
“When there was the world championship in England, the coach said, ‘Thank you guys, we won’t achieve such a success for the next 50 years.’ So, 50 years passed,” said Vladimir Ponomarev, USSR defender in the 1966 championship.
Fans have high hopes
Despite Russian football’s struggle since, die-hard fans have high hopes for the tournaments.
“That’s why we are faced with big problems when they show negative results,” said Lokomotiv Football Club’s Maksim “Loko” Shataylo. “Sometimes it may result in such extraordinary situations because the fans become too upset. They believe too much, they hope too much! I believe in the better. We’ll definitely be in the top eight,” adds Shataylo.
As host of the FIFA tournaments, Russia’s national team automatically qualifies to compete.
Russia’s star players say their goal is clear.
“Of course, it is to get to the final game, step by step,” said Spartak Moscow Football Club Captain Denis Glushakov in May comments to the press. “We’ll play the first and the second match and only then I may tell you whether we get to the final or not.”
Passion is lacking
Ponomarev says Russian football lacks the passion it had during Soviet times.
“But we’ll keep working and growing. We’ll keep training and that will allow us to get on the same level as great European teams,” said Ponomarev. “So far, we are not much valued. The Confederations Cup matches will show us the level of Russian football.”
The Confederations Cup will also test how well Russia itself is prepared for next year’s World Cup championship.
“As for the world championships and the idea that so much effort is put into winning them without a result, I think that after the world championship of 2018 there will be a breakthrough in football here,” says Shataylo. “It will become more popular. New stadiums, new infrastructure are under construction. It will be more convenient to move around the country to see the matches. The fans will love this country and football, and all will be well.”
Meanwhile, Ponomarev continues to support Russian football and the next generation of players by offering advice to amateur teams and coaches.
“We must start small. We must start with our small footballers who train here,” he said.
But as for hosting the upcoming FIFA tournaments, he adds optimistically, “For me it will be a success. Fifty years have passed. It’s time to get to fourth place. It would be superb for all Russian fans! They would be absolutely happy.”
Field is set
For the host Russian team, its Confederations Cup Group A opener will be played on Saturday (June 17) against New Zealand in St. Petersburg. Wednesday (June 21) the Russians play in Moscow against Portugal, and the hosts final group match is against Mexico in Kazan on June 24.
The other four teams in the tournament — Cameroon, Chile, Australia and Germany — are in Group B. After round-robin play, the first and second-place teams in each group advance to the semifinals, with the championship match in St. Petersburg July 2. The tournament winner will receive $5 million, and the runner-up $4.5 million.
Olga Pavlova and Ricardo Marquina Montañana contributed to this report.
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Russia’s role as host of FIFA’s (International Federation of Association Footballs’) Confederations Cup from June 17 to July 2 and the World Cup championship in 2018 is reigniting hopes for Russian football (soccer). The last time Russia made the world’s top four was 1966, when it was part of the Soviet Union. VOA’s Daniel Schearf spoke with one of the few living players from that game and has this report from Moscow.
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An eye-catching Los Angeles hot dog stand designed in the 1940s to look like a giant wiener on a bun has found a home a decade after closing.
The Tail o’ the Pup, which fed working people and Hollywood stars for 60 years, will be moved Thursday for permanent display at Valley Relics Museum, home to many pop culture items. The unique structure, which appeared in TV shows and movies and was named a Los Angeles cultural landmark, has been in a storage yard since its walk-up window shut for the final time in 2005.
Nicole Miller, whose husband Jay’s family has owned the Pup since the 1970s, said they’d hoped to find a new location to serve its famous all-beef franks once again, but couldn’t secure permits.
The family is glad the museum “is willing to take it, restore it, and put it on display,” she told the Los Angeles Daily News.
The chicken wire and stucco dog measured 18 feet from nose to tail with a line of mustard running across its service window.
Designed by architect Milton Black and opened in 1946, the Tail o’ the Pup was built to catch the attention of passing motorists during an era when cars were king.
It’s a rare surviving example of when giant doughnuts, chili bowls and coffee cups dotted Los Angeles curbs from the 1920s to after World War II, the newspaper said.
“The Tail o’ the Pup was clearly among the best known of the `programmatic’ buildings — buildings that often looked like products sold inside,” said Cindy Olnick of the Los Angeles Conservancy, a preservation group. “The whole building, besides the sign, was an advertisement.”
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The cost of last year’s Rio Olympics has risen to 43.3 billion reais ($13.2 billion), around 14.5 billion reais more than originally planned, according to figures published by the federal agency for Olympic legacy (AGLO) on Wednesday.
The original budget when Brazil won the right to host the Games in 2009 was around 28.8 billion reais.
The total announced on Wednesday could still rise further, but it was in keeping with expectations that had been revised during the countdown to South America’s first Olympics.
The cost is below the 8.92 billion pounds ($14.3 billion) spent on London 2012, but still more than twice the $5.2 billion average cost of hosting the Summer Games, according to a 2015 study by the University of Oxford and Said Business School.
Some 7.23 billion reais was spent on venues, AGLO said.
The Globo sports website reported that the cost of infrastructure projects rose to 26.7 billion reais and another 9.2 billion reais was spent on operating costs.
Rio de Janeiro, which hosted the Olympics in August and the Paralympics in September, has been criticized for a lack of legacy planning, with some of the venues abandoned soon after the closing ceremony.
Other infrastructure projects, including a new metro line that does not extend all the way to the main Olympic Park, have had their effectiveness questioned.
Officials said that legacy planning was a major challenge but that they intended to hold an average of three events a month at the Olympic venues starting this June, a number they hope will increase to 10 events a month by December.
“It’s not easy to manage the legacy,” AGLO president Paulo Marcio Dias Mello told reporters. “London, for example, took two years to deliver the legacy and even today there is public investment in that legacy.”
“Even if it doesn’t meet everyone’s expectations, it will be a relief that what we have here will not be white elephants.”
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They’re homeless, but a group of men and women from Texas has made it to Carnegie Hall.
The storied New York City concert hall is the venue Wednesday evening for a performance by the Dallas Street Choir, all singers recruited from urban streets and homeless shelters that has been performing since 2015.
About 20 members of the choir were to be joined by 17 residents of a Manhattan homeless shelter.
The singers include Michael Brown, who lives under a bridge in Dallas when it rains and on a hilltop in sunny weather.
“We may be homeless, but we’re not voiceless,” he said at a rehearsal Tuesday, “so let’s use our effort to remind people that we still have hope and it will never die.”
Dallas Street Choir conductor Jonathan Palant has also brought in some world-class luminaries for the performance: mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, soprano Harolyn Blackwell, composer Jake Heggie and composer Stephen Schwartz, who wrote the Broadway hits “Godspell,” “Pippin” and “Wicked.”
Palant said he got the idea for the choir a few years ago while volunteering with a homeless services organization. It started out as a Christmas event – a big meal at a homeless shelter with entertainment by a group of singers that rehearsed with Palant for just a few hours. But that inspired Palant to start a weekly musical session open to anyone who wanted to sing.
Members of the choir come and go frequently. They don’t always produce perfect sounds, and there are moments of slight cacophony, “but our members sing with heart like no other choir I’ve ever worked with,” said Palant.
Never in its 126-year history has a musical ensemble of homeless performers appeared at Carnegie, said the hall’s archivist, Gino Francesconi.
Brown got his first shower and haircut in weeks for the tour. Normally, he survives going to soup kitchens, and aims to get a job as a waiter.
He’s an energetic, bright-eyed choir member, while some others are physically frail; one woman relies on a walker, another uses a cane.
In Dallas, they rehearse each Wednesday morning, learning melodies by rote, with printed lyrics. They leave with snacks and a public transportation voucher.
The evening at Carnegie Hall, starting at 8 p.m., is titled “Imagine a World – Music for Humanity.”
Von Stade will premiere Heggie’s new setting of Hub Miller’s “Spinning Song,” with Heggie at the piano.
With the choir, Schwartz will perform “For Good” from “Wicked,” along with Blackwell and von Stade. Rounding out the evening will be the homeless choir offering Broadway songs, capped by personal stories.
Tickets are $25 for any Carnegie seat, with proceeds going to organizations that support the homeless.
The New York City Department of Homeless Services has donated some tickets so members of the homeless community can attend.
The choir is also performing Thursday at Washington National Cathedral in Washington D.C.
About $200,000 needed for the New York and Washington trips came from previous concerts in Texas, plus a private grant. Carnegie’s Weill Music Institute pulled in the homeless singers from Manhattan. The New Yorkers are members of a community choir and will sing two numbers on the program.
At least while they’re in New York, the singers have a roof over their heads – a hotel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side near the Valley Lodge shelter where the local performers live.
“This is serious, man – Carnegie Hall in New York City,” says Brown. “We have to show people that we didn’t come from Texas for no reason.”
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Typewriter enthusiasts gather at an Albuquerque restaurant to experiment with vintage Smith Coronas. Fans in Boston kneel in a city square and type stories about their lives during a pro-immigration demonstration. A documentary on typewriters featuring Tom Hanks and musician John Mayer is set for release this summer.
In the age of smartphones, social media and hacking fears, vintage typewriters that once gathered dust in attics and basements are attracting a new generation of fans across the U.S.
From public “type-ins” at bars to street poets selling personalized, typewritten poems on the spot, typewriters have emerged as popular items with aficionados hunting for them in thrift stores, online auction sites and antique shops. Some buy antique Underwoods to add to a growing collection. Others search for a midcentury Royal Quiet De Luxe — like a model author Ernest Hemingway used — to work on that simmering novel.
The rescued machines often need servicing, leading fans to seek out the few remaining typewriter repair shops.
“I haven’t seen business like this in years,” said John Lewis, a typewriter repairman who has operated out of his Albuquerque shop for four decades. “There’s definitely a new interest, and it’s keeping me very busy.”
Renewed interest began around 10 years ago when small pockets of typewriter enthusiasts came together online, said Richard Polt, a philosophy professor at Xavier University in Cincinnati and author of The Typewriter Revolution: A Typist’s Companion for the 21st Century. Since then, the fan base has grown dramatically, and various public events have been organized around the typewriter.
“It’s beyond the phase where this is just a fad,” Polt said.
It’s almost impossible to gauge recent typewriter sales. Almost all of the original manufacturers are out of business or have been bought out and become different companies. Moonachie, New Jersey-based Swintec appears to be one of the last typewriter makers, selling translucent electronic machines largely to jails and prisons.
But operators of thrift stores and estate sales say typewriters are some of the quickest items to go.
“That’s part of the fun: the hunt,” said Joe Van Cleave, an Albuquerque resident who owns more than a dozen typewriters and runs a popular YouTube channel on restoring the machines. “Sometimes, like a little luck, you might find something from the 1920s in great condition.”
Link to the past
Doug Nichol, director of the upcoming documentary California Typewriter, said the interest stems from “digital burnout” and people wanting a connection to the past. That interest seems to transcend age, he said.
“Kids who grew up knowing only mobile phones and the computer are excited to see a letter typed with your own hand,” Nichol said. “It’s a one-on-one interaction that doesn’t get interrupted by Twitter alerts.”
In his film, set for release in August, Nichol interviews Hanks, who said he uses a typewriter almost every day to send memos and letters.
“I hate getting email thank-yous from folks,” Hanks says in the film. “Now, if they take 70 seconds to type me out something on a piece of paper and send to me, well, I’ll keep that forever. I’ll just delete that email.”
Hanks owns about 270 typewriters but often gives them to people who show an interest.
One way the typewriter craze is growing is through organized “type-ins” — meet-ups in public places where typewriter fans try different vintage machines. Such events have been held in Phoenix, Philadelphia, Seattle, Los Angeles and Cincinnati.
During a recent type-in at Albuquerque soul food restaurant Nexus Brewery, around three dozen fans took turns clicking the keys of an Italian-made 1964 Olivetti Lettera 32 and a 1947 Royal KMM, among others.
‘Real refreshing’
Rich Boucher spent most of his time on a 1960s-era Hermes 3000 crafting poetry.
“I haven’t used a typewriter in forever,” he said. “This is a real refreshing way to spend a summer afternoon.”
After finishing his work, Boucher grabbed his phone and sent a Facebook status update about the experience. He then started looking online for a Hermes 3000.
“That’s the typewriter I want,” he said. “I’m going to find one.”
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Activists behind an app designed to assist doctors document evidence of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo aim to go beyond obtaining justice for rape victims and collect data that could help secure prosecutions for war crimes.
Developed by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), MediCapt allows clinicians to record medical examination results digitally and photograph victims’ injuries, store them online and send them directly to law enforcement officials and lawyers.
In a vast nation plagued by militant violence and poor roads that restrict access to remote areas, PHR hopes the mobile app will lead to more convictions for sexual violence and help Congo shake off its tag as “rape capital of the world.”
Looking for patterns of abuse
By recording data about both victims and assailants, the app — which is currently in field testing — could also be used to detect mass violence and crimes against humanity and provide evidence for war crimes investigators, according to PHR.
“It has the power to be used as an early-warning system or rapid response tool, as the data could show patterns of abuses and violence,” said Karen Naimer, director of the U.S.-based PHR’s program on sexual violence in conflict zones.
MediCapt could help prosecutors map trends or patterns of locations attacked, victims targeted and languages spoken and the uniform worn by assailants, Naimer told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“The app may also be used to push for war crime prosecutions with evidence of crimes that are widespread or systematic,” she said.
Ethnic violence in Congo, Africa’s second-largest nation, has worsened since December, when President Joseph Kabila refused to step down at the end of his mandate.
Recent acts of violence between local militia and Congolese forces in central Congo, including the killing of civilians and foreign U.N. experts, could constitute war crimes, the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor said in April.
Priority is aiding victims
Yet the priority for PHR with MediCapt — which will be rolled out for use by doctors in eastern Congo this summer — is to ensure that it gives victims of sexual violence the security and confidence to come forward and speak out, Naimer said.
Sexual violence is often seen as a byproduct of years of fighting in Congo, where atrocities were blamed on soldiers and armed groups, but rape is also rife beyond the conflict zones.
“While the app has the potential to highlight mass violence and human rights violations, protecting victims of sexual violence has to come first,” Naimer said.
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Facebook said Wednesday that it would soon allow its U.S. users to raise and donate money using its “Safety Check” feature, to make it easier for people affected by natural disasters and violent attacks to receive help.
“Safety Check,” launched in 2014, allows Facebook users to notify friends that they are safe. The feature was used for the first time in the United States last year after a gunman massacred 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
The fundraising tool in “Safety Check” will roll out in the coming weeks in the United States, Facebook said in a blog post.
The social network, which has about 1.94 billion users worldwide, activated “Safety Check” for users in London on Wednesday following a fire in a housing block that killed at least six people and injured more than 70.
It also made the tool available earlier this month following deadly attacks on London Bridge.
Facebook also said its “Community Help” feature, which helps people affected by disasters find each other locally to provide and receive assistance, would soon expand to include desktop users.
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Musicians tend to talk about their instruments in terms of tone and sound as often as the brand. Electric guitarists are no different, and they can expound on the ‘bright’ sound of the Fender or the bass heavy Gibsons. But now there is a 3-D-printed electric guitar, and that could just be the beginning for 3-D-printed musical instruments. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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