Lady Gaga cleaned house at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards, while The Weeknd took home the top prize — and both pop stars sent important messages to viewers about the current state of the world: “Wear a mask” and “Justice for Jacob Blake and Breonna Taylor.” Gaga won five honors Sunday, most of them for her No. 1 hit with Ariana Grande, “Rain on Me,” which the pop stars performed live for the first time. “Wear a mask. It’s a sign of respect,” Gaga said during one of her several appearances onstage as she accepted awards like artist of the year, song of the year and the MTV Tricon award. With an electronic mask, Gaga performed a medley of her songs, including “Stupid Love,” “Chromatica II” and “911.” She and Grande were joined by a number of background dancers all wearing masks. The Weeknd, the first performer of the night, paid tribute to Blake and Taylor — two Black people who were shot by police officers — after winning video of the year and best R&B for “Blinding Lights.” “It’s really hard for me to celebrate right now and enjoy this moment, so I’m just going to say: justice for Jacob Blake and justice for Breonna Taylor,” he said. Keke Palmer performs during the 2020 MTV VMAs in this screen grab image made available on Aug. 30, 2020. (VIACOM/Handout via Reuters)The VMAs kicked off with another touching moment, as host Keke Palmer told viewers the show was dedicated to Chadwick Boseman, who died Friday at age 43 after privately battling colon cancer for four years. “We dedicate tonight’s show to a man whose spirit touched so many. He’s a true hero, not just on-screen,” Palmer said. “His impact lives forever.” The show also took moments to honor Juice WRLD and Pop Smoke, rappers who died in recent months though their current albums continue to dominate the pop charts and streaming services. The Black Eyed Peas perform during the 2020 MTV VMAs in this screen grab image made available on Aug. 30, 2020. (VIACOM/Handout via Reuters)The Black Eyed Peas, who closed the two-hour-plus show with Nicky Jam and Tyga, ended their set by saying, “Black Lives Matter.” And R&B star H.E.R. won the video for good award for her protest anthem about police brutality and systemic racism, “I Can’t Breathe.” “I’m super proud of everybody speaking out on social injustice,” H.E.R. said. But most of the show was dedicated to fun performances — some pre-taped, some filmed in various locations in New York City, though the performance locations weren’t always clear. The VMAs were originally supposed to be held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, but plans changed because of the pandemic. The Weeknd performs during the 2020 MTV VMAs in this screen grab image made available on Aug. 30, 2020. (VIACOM/Handout via Reuters)Colombian singer and best Latin winner Maluma sang from Brooklyn, while The Weeknd performed from Manhattan. Pop all-stars BTS, who won four awards including best pop and best group, performed from South Korea. They were top-notch during the pre-taped performance, which featured their signature, skilled choreography. The seven band members danced and sang in sharp suits, at some points with the backdrop of Times Square behind them. DaBaby, backed by the dance crew Jabbawockeez, ran through several of his hits, including “Rock Star.” During the latter track, he rapped while jumping on top of a police car, with a burning city as his backdrop. And Doja Cat, who was named Push best new artist, gave a futuristic performance of her hits “Say So” and “Like That.” Other performers included Latin boy band CNCO and Miley Cyrus, who ended her performance of “Midnight Sky” by sitting on top of a large disco ball, replicating her viral “Wrecking Ball” clip from 2013. Ariana Grande performs during the 2020 MTV VMAs in this screen grab image made available on Aug. 30, 2020. (VIACOM/Handout via Reuters)As for top honors, Grande tied BTS with four wins. Her No. 1 duet with Justin Bieber, “Stuck with U,” won best music video from home — one of two new awards MTV established as artists have made shifts because of the pandemic. CNCO won best quarantine performance for “MTV Unplugged at Home.” Megan Thee Stallion won best hip-hop for “Savage” and Taylor Swift won best direction for “The Man.” “This is the very first video that I’ve ever directed on my own. And I just I’m so grateful for this,” Swift said. “I wanted to take an opportunity to say thank to the team who believed in me as a first-time director and made this video with me.”  
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Kobe Bryant. Rep. John Lewis. And now, Chadwick Boseman.So far, 2020 has been marred with bad news and tragedy with the deaths of several popular Black icons including Bryant, Lewis and recently Boseman, who died Friday. All three were viewed as leaders in their respective fields of sports, politics and film — places where people, particularly in the Black community, have often looked for inspiration during a year of racial tension and protests against the police brutality of unarmed Black people.But for many, the loss of another major figure such as Boseman is taking a toll. The actor, who starred in the blockbuster superhero Marvel film “Black Panther,” shockingly died at the age of 43 in his home in Los Angeles after he privately battled colon cancer for four years.The Rev. Al Sharpton arrives to speak at the “Get Your Knee Off Our Necks March,” in Washington, Aug. 28, 2020, on the 57th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech.”These are pillars in our community,” Rev. Al Sharpton said. “In times of instability, you depend on pillars. It’s bad enough when there’s a storm outside and you hear the lightning and thunder. It gets worse when the pillars that you’re building and standing on (are) shaking. It’s like they’re chipping away at our foundation. The very building is shaking down, because the things that undergird and protect us from the storms are being removed.”Sharpton called Boseman an important pillar that humanized several Black historical trailblazers in his roles — including color-line breaking baseball star Jackie Robinson, legendary singer James Brown and the first African American U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Boseman’s family said he endured “countless surgeries and chemotherapy” while portraying King T’Challa of Wakanda in the Oscar-nominated “Black Panther,” a film that proved a person of color could lead in a successful superhero film.”For him to pass at this time when we are disproportionately affected by COVID and have all of these attacks by law enforcement, and him being the symbol bringing us to Wakanda, it’s just a blow,” Sharpton said. “To hear that our superhero who projected a positive light was now gone, it was a gut blow.”The Los Angeles Clippers kneel to pay respect to the Black Lives Matters movement while a photo of actor Chadwick Boseman is displayed on a screen being the team before their NBA first round playoff game against the Dallas Mavericks, Aug. 30, 2020.Boseman was elevated to a stage that many Black actors don’t get the chance to occupy, said Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James. And his ability to be “transcendent” on that stage brought a comic book character to life for many in the Black community.”Even though we knew that it was like a fictional story, it actually felt real. It actually felt like we finally had our Black superhero and nobody could touch us. So to lose that, it’s sad in our community,” James said, lamenting on the loss of “the Black Panther and the Black Mamba in the same year.”In January, Bryant died in a helicopter crash involving eight others including his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna. Lewis died in July after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year.Other notable deaths this year include actress Naya Rivera, civil rights leader C.T. Vivian, music executive Andre Harrell and Hall of Fame Georgetown basketball coach John Thompson, who was the first Black coach to lead a team to an NCAA championship and prioritized academics to his athletes.”The year 2020 has been up and down for everybody,” Milwaukee Bucks player Giannis Antetokounmpo said, adding that Boseman left “so much behind.””It’s a lot to unpack,” said Oklahoma City Thunder guard Chris Paul. “Chadwick was a special guy. I think everyone took it hard, especially the Black community. That was one of our black superheroes. I think ‘Black Panther’ was something so powerful, for myself along with my kids to see a superhero that looks like them and the way that he played it with such class and elegance. That was tough.”Activist Martin Luther King III called Boseman’s death another “great loss.” But he encourages people not to lose hope even in a year of tumult.”We could easily say ‘Oh my God. This is the most terrible year that existed.’ But I choose not to say that,” said the son of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “Our ancestors had to go through so, so much. And yet, we’re still here. We are nowhere where we need to be, but we are always making progress and moving ahead.”Gil Robertson, the co-founder and president of the African American Film Critics Association, said Black people are at a critical crossroads of their survival in America.”We’re getting it from all sides of the fort,” Robertson said. “We’re losing these strong men. These men who operated with a level of integrity. A level of authenticity. I find all of this alarming. I hope that our community can really come together. … Not just for one cause. Just to make a consistent effort to rehabilitate our community.”
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The 2020 Tango World Cup, an annual event held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was held virtually this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.For the champions of the stage category Valentín Arias Delgado and his dance partner, Diana Franco Durango of Colombia, training was a challenge because of COVID-19 restrictions.”For us it didn’t matter that it was virtual, but it was the world cup organized by the city of Buenos Aires so it was super important and worthy of respect,” he said. “Of course, we had to change a little our way of preparing because we had spent five months without dancing together due to the worldwide pandemic, but when we started training, we did it full speed.”Louise Junqueira Malucelli and Marcos Esteban Roberts of Argentina won the salon category.Instead of competing at the Luna Park stadium in Buenos Aires, where the event has been held each year since 2002, competitors were required to send a video of their dances to the organizers.Among the finalist were couples from Argentina, Colombia, the United States, Russia, Italy and Norway.More than 91,000 people from the general public voted online to crown the champs.
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The job losses in Kenya that resulted from the COVID-19 lockdown have also hurt Kenyan artists, who are trying to find different ways to promote their craft and make a living.  Some are using their art to spread health messages about the coronavirus, as Lenny Ruvaga reports from Nairobi.
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It starts with a boat ride in, and for the lucky few, ends with a kiss on the side of the trophy.The Venice Film Festival is an early stop for many stars and filmmakers on the path to the Academy Awards. In normal years, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Scarlett Johansson, Lady Gaga and more actors would converge on Lido to the snap of camera shutters and cheers from fans.This, of course, is not a normal year. The photographers will be fewer in numbers and the fans will be gone. Many top actors are staying away too, leaving the Venice festival as a smaller, more European cinema gathering.Even that is an achievement.Italy was among the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic — it has Europe’s second-highest confirmed coronavirus death toll after Britain with over 35,400 deaths. The festival, running Sept. 2-12, will serve as a celebration of its re-opening and a sign that the film world, largely on pause since March, is coming back as well.Despite virus precautions, some Venice mainstays will continue. Water taxis will deliver stars to press conferences and photo calls, where in years past actors like Ralph Fiennes have been compelled to dance and Johnny Depp gave giddy photographers a close-up shot.The red carpet will be rolled out and the Lido will once again play host to flashy premieres. At the end of it all, some actors and filmmakers will earn trophies.Whether they decide to kiss the cup remains to be seen. 
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The legendary Tour de France began Saturday, two months later than usual, and a day after France recorded its sharpest single-day coronavirus caseload since late March.The crowds, usually packing the start of the Tour de France, are absent this year. Just 100 spectators were allowed for the early afternoon kickoff at the Promenade des Anglais in Nice —where masks are now required for all outdoor spaces.  That’s just a taste of how the virus this year is upending the 3,500-kilometer race, which crosses mountains, vineyards and villages of France. Team riders will be tested regularly for COVID-19 — and wear masks when not competing.  Spectators take pictures of the pack during the first stage of the Tour de France cycling race in France, Aug. 29, 2020.The big question is whether the Tour will end as planned three weeks from now at the Champs Elyees in Paris, or be forced to cut off early.  There are other reasons why the world’s greatest bike race is very different this year.  Sixty-nine-year-old Francois Juillard, former head coach for the French track and field team, remembers following the Tour when he was young. The caravan came first, then the riders—who made difficult climbs seem easy. He says it was pretty spectacular.  That festive atmosphere — with candies showered at kids and tens of thousands of fans lining the roads — will be largely absent when the Tour passes Juillard’s home in central France. National coronavirus measures limit crowds to no more than 5,000.  The pack rides during the first stage of the Tour de France cycling race, Aug. 29, 2020.And with the French back at work, Juillard says, the Tour will be a lot more virtual — experienced by many fans via TV instead of in real life.  Eric Bouvat, longtime doctor for Tour team AG2R La Mondiale, says it’s unclear how that will affect the race. Part of the exceptional performances of Tour riders comes from the stimulation from those cheering crowds, he says, and it’s unclear whether they’ll find other ways to compensate.  So, like many other things during this time of the corornavirus, the 107th Tour de France will break new ground — possibly marking the beginning, and not the end, of a new normal.
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Chadwick Boseman, the star of the ground-breaking superhero movie “Black Panther,” has died from colon cancer, his publicist told AFP on Friday.Boseman, who was in his 40s, had not publicly discussed his condition — which was first diagnosed in 2016 — and continued to work on major Hollywood films.”It was the honor of his career to bring King T’Challa to life in Black Panther,” said a statement posted to Boseman’s social media accounts.”He died in his home, with his wife and family by his side.”Boseman became the first black superhero to get his own standalone film in the record-breaking Marvel franchise with 2018’s “Black Panther.”The movie, set in the fictional African kingdom of Wakanda, was adored by critics and audiences, becoming the first comic book film to be nominated for best picture at the Oscars and grossing over $1 billion worldwide.Earlier in his career, Boseman played black icons Jackie Robinson in “42” and James Brown in “Get on Up.”He recently appeared in Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods” and was set to appear in a sequel to “Black Panther” due in 2022.”A true fighter, Chadwick persevered through it all” and filmed projects “during and between countless surgeries and chemotherapy,” the family’s statement said. 
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The National Basketball Association playoffs are set to resume Saturday after players reached a deal with the league that includes increased access to voting in the U.S. presidential election.The deal follows a player-led protest sparked by the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin. NBA games were postponed beginning Wednesday as players protested what they see as police violence and injustice against Blacks.In addition to the NBA games, several Major League Baseball contests, Major League Soccer matches, Women’s National Basketball Association games and National Hockey League playoff games also were postponed.Additionally, play was halted at the Western and Southern Open tennis tournament in New York, while a number of National Football League teams refused to hold practices Thursday.Social justice coalitionNBA players and league officials reached their agreement to resume games following a Thursday meeting.The deal includes a plan to set up a social justice coalition, made up of players, coaches and owners, which would focus on a range of issues, including voting access and advocating for police and criminal justice reform.Under the terms of the agreement, team owners who control their arena property will work with local officials to allow their buildings to be used for voting stations during the 2020 general election.The players and the league also agreed to work with TV networks to create advertisements during the remaining playoff games that would encourage people to vote.”These commitments follow months of close collaboration around designing a safe and healthy environment to restart the NBA season, providing a platform to promote social justice, as well as creating an NBA Foundation focused on economic empowerment in the Black community,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Michele Roberts, executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, the players’ union, said in a joint statement.FILE – Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James sits on the bench during the first half of a preseason NBA basketball game against the Golden State Warriors, Oct. 14, 2019, in Los Angeles.Los Angeles Lakers basketball superstar LeBron James tweeted Thursday, “We Demand Change. Sick of It.”Change is the theme of what is being called a sports boycott, not a strike.The NBA season is already abbreviated because of the coronavirus. Games are being played in a single arena in Orlando without fans.President Donald Trump criticized the NBA walkout Thursday:”They’ve become like a political organization, and that’s not a good thing. I don’t think that’s a good thing for sports or for the country.”Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, told CNN the boycott was “absurd and silly.”But Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said athletes must not keep quiet.”This moment demands moral leadership. And these players answered by standing up, speaking out and using their platform for good. Now is not the time for silence,” Biden tweeted.His running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris, added in her own tweet, “It takes monumental courage to stand up for what you believe in. NBA and WNBA players, keep standing up and demanding change.”Began with Kaepernick The latest campaign of athletes speaking out against racial injustice began four years ago this week when quarterback Colin Kaepernick of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers refused to stand during the playing of the national anthem before a preseason game.There has been sharp criticism, including from Trump, from those who say the protests taking place during the anthem are disrespectful to the country and the military.
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Two films explore the cycle of violence, trauma and incarceration in the Black community of post Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with filmmakers and community organizers of the documentary “Freedia Got a Gun” and of the drama feature “RZA’s Cutthroat City.” They chronicle causes of systemic violence in the Big Easy which was devastated 15 years ago by a Category 5 hurricane.
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Players from the National Basketball Association’s Milwaukee Bucks opted not to play in a playoff game scheduled for Wednesday night in order to call attention to injustices against the African American community and call for lawmakers and law enforcement to institute meaningful changes.The decision had wide-ranging reverberations throughout the country, and by the end of the night the other two scheduled NBA games were postponed, as were all three Women’s National Basketball Association games, three Major League Baseball games and five Major League Soccer Games as players expressed the importance of protesting injustice over playing games.  Tennis player Naomi Osaka also announced she would not play her Thursday semifinal match at the Western & Southern Open, and officials later postponed all tournament play for Thursday.The Milwaukee Bucks’ action came in direct response to events in the city of Kenosha, about 60 kilometers away, where on Sunday police shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, as well as ongoing frustrations about the history of police brutality and racial inequality in the United States.“The past four months we’ve witnessed multiple injustices regarding the African American community,” the players said in a statement.  “Citizens around the country have used their voices and platforms to speak out against these wrongdoings.  Over the last few days in our home state of Wisconsin, we’ve seen the horrendous video of Jacob Blake being shot in the back seven times by a police officer in Kenosha, and the additional shooting of protesters.  Despite the overwhelming plea for change, there has been no action, so our focus today cannot be on basketball.”The Bucks called for the officers involved in Blake’s shooting to be held accountable, and for the Wisconsin legislature to take action to address “police accountability, brutality and criminal justice reform.”“When we take the court and represent Milwaukee and Wisconsin, we are expected to play at a high level, give maximum effort and hold each other accountable.  We hold ourselves to that standard, and in this moment, we are demanding the same from our lawmakers and law enforcement,” the players said.‘Sick of it’Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, among the most high-profile players in the league, tweeted: “WE DEMAND CHANGE. SICK OF IT.” Players from the WNBA joined to kneel, lock arms and raise their fists in a show of solidarity on the night they chose not to play.“We stand in solidarity with our brothers in the NBA, and will continue this conversation with our brothers and sisters across all leagues and look to take collective action,” Atlanta Dream player Elizabeth Williams read in a statement from all of the players.The WNBA players urged fans to use their voting power and to become engaged on the issues in order to make a difference.“Your voice matters.  Your vote matters.  Do all you can to demand that your leaders stop with the empty words and do something,” the players said.Wednesday’s actions were not as widespread in Major League Baseball.  The three games postponed included the Cincinnati Reds playing the Brewers in Milwaukee, the Seattle Mariners at the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers at the San Francisco Giants.Dodgers star Mookie Betts, who is Black, said he was prepared to sit out even if his team went ahead with Wednesday’s game, but that his teammates “all were by my side.”“For me, I think no matter what, I wasn’t going to play tonight,” Betts said.‘There are serious issues in this country’Dee Gordon, a Black man who plays for Seattle, said his entire team made the decision not to play.“There are serious issues in this country,” Gordon tweeted. “For me, and for many of my teammates, the injustices, violence, death and systemic racism is deeply personal. This is impacting not only my community, but very directly my family and friends. Our team voted unanimously not to play tonight.  Instead of watching us, we hope people will focus on the things more important than sports that are happening.”Osaka posted a statement saying that above being an athlete, she is a Black woman, and that there are more important things right now than her playing tennis.“I don’t expect anything drastic to happen with me not playing, but if I can get a conversation started in a majority white sport I consider that a step in the right direction,” Osaka said.  “Watching the continued genocide of Black people at the hand of the police is honestly making me sick to my stomach.  I’m exhausted of having a new hashtag pop up every few days and I’m extremely tired of having this same conversation over and over again.  When will it ever be enough?” U.S. President Barack Obama said he commends the Bucks “for standing for what they believe in,” as well Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers and the rest of the NBA and WNBA “for setting an example.”“It’s going to take all our institutions to stand up for our values,” Obama said.Wednesday marked four years since San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick gained national attention for not standing during the playing of the national anthem before his team’s preseason game.“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick said after the 2016 game.  His teammate, Eric Reid, said that in the weeks that followed, after consideration and speaking with a former player who had served in the U.S. Army, the two decided to kneel during the anthem as their form of protest.Other football players joined, as did those in other leagues, and the protests took altered forms including players not coming onto a field or court during the anthem or locking arms with teammates.  There has been sharp criticism from those who say the protests taking place during the anthem are disrespectful to the country and the military, including from President Donald Trump.Seven red dotsPlayers have repeatedly stressed that what they are doing is raising awareness of police brutality and racial inequality.Some athletes have also decided to forgo playing at all in order to focus their time on reform efforts.  WNBA star Maya Moore is skipping her second consecutive season as she works on criminal justice reform.  Natasha Cloud of the Washington Mystics took this season off to focus on social reform as well.Cloud posted a picture Wednesday night of her Mystics teammates who arrived at the arena where they were due to play wearing t-shirts that together spelled out Jacob Blake’s name.  On the back were seven red dots.Cloud wrote that she is proud her teammates and that athletes, whether they like it or not, have a responsibility to “use our platforms and be a voice for the voiceless.”“When we take those jerseys off WE ARE BLACK and because of that we are not valued and our lives are constantly threatened.  ENOUGH IS ENOUGH,” Cloud said.  “ You don’t get to sit and watch sports and ignore what’s happening in this country.  You don’t get to be entertained by black men and women on the court/field, and then NOT care what happens to us and our families off those surfaces.  HEAR US, SEE US, FEEL US WHEN WE SAY WE ARE TIRED.”The NBA, WNBA and MLS said the games not played Wednesday will be rescheduled at a time to be determined.  The three postponed MLB games were rescheduled for Thursday.  
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All three NBA playoff games scheduled for Wednesday have been postponed, with players around the league choosing to boycott in their strongest statement yet against racial injustice.Called off: Games between Milwaukee and Orlando, Houston and Oklahoma City, and the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland. The NBA said all three games would be rescheduled, yet did not say when.The dramatic series of moves began when the Bucks — the NBA’s team from Wisconsin, a state rocked in recent days by the shooting by police officers of Jacob Blake, a Black man — didn’t take the floor for their playoff game against the Magic. The teams were set to begin Game 5 of their series shortly after 4 p.m., with the Bucks needing a win to advance to the second round.Players had been discussing boycotting games in the bubble after the shooting of Blake by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin. More discussions among players on teams still in the bubble were scheduled Wednesday, presumably on how — or whether — to go forward, but even before that the Bucks apparently decided they would act.”Some things are bigger than basketball,” Bucks senior vice president Alex Lasry tweeted. “The stand taken today by the players and [the organization] shows that we’re fed up. Enough is enough. Change needs to happen. I’m incredibly proud of our guys and we stand 100% behind our players ready to assist and bring about real change.”Thursday scheduleThree other playoff games are scheduled Thursday. It was unclear whether they would be affected.Several NBA players, including the Lakers’ LeBron James, tweeted out messages demanding change, and the Boston Celtics’ official Twitter account did the same.”We weren’t given advance notice about the decision but we are happy to stand in solidarity with Milwaukee, Jacob, and the entire NBA community,” Orlando guard Michael Carter-Williams said. “Change is coming.”Magic players and referees were on the basketball court for the game but Milwaukee never took the floor. Eventually everyone else left and the arena staff soon took the balls, towels and tags that go on player chairs back inside.National Basketball Players Association President Chris Paul of the Oklahoma City Thunder and guard Russell Westbrook of the Houston Rockets were seen emerging from a conversation, not long before it became known that their teams also decided to not play their scheduled game Wednesday.”Today we stand united with the NBA Office, the National Basketball Players Association, the Milwaukee Bucks and the rest of the league condemning bigotry, racial injustice and the unwarranted use of violence by police against people of color,” the Magic and its ownership group, the DeVos family, said in a statement.A reporter sits beside an empty court after a postponed NBA basketball playoff game between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Orlando Magic, Aug. 26, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.Demanding societal change and ending racial injustice has been a major part of the NBA’s restart at Walt Disney World. The phrase “Black Lives Matter” is painted on the arena courts, players are wearing messages urging change on their jerseys and coaches are donning pins demanding racial justice as well.Many players wrestled for weeks about whether it was even right to play, fearing that a return to games would take attention off the deaths of, among others, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in recent months.Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was fatally shot when police officers burst into her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment using a no-knock warrant during a narcotics investigation in March. The warrant was in connection with a suspect who did not live there and no drugs were found. Then on May 25, Floyd died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into the Black man’s neck for nearly eight minutes — all captured on a cellphone video.Bucks guard George Hill said after Blake’s shooting that he felt players shouldn’t have come to Disney.Coach’s emotional speech”We’re the ones getting killed,” Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers, who is Black, said in an emotional postgame speech Tuesday night. “We’re the ones getting shot. We’re the ones that were denied to live in certain communities. We’ve been hung. We’ve been shot. And all you do is keep hearing about fear. It’s amazing why we keep loving this country and this country does not love us back. And it’s just, it’s really so sad.”The Celtics and Toronto Raptors met Tuesday to discuss boycotting Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series, which had been scheduled for Thursday. Members of the National Basketball Players Association were also part of those meetings, and Miami forward Andre Iguodala — a union officer — said around 2:15 p.m. that he did not believe a boycott plan had been finalized.Less than two hours later, the Bucks wouldn’t take the floor.”When you talk about boycotting a game, everyone’s antenna goes up,” Iguodala said. “It’s sad you have to make threats like that — I wouldn’t say threats — but you have to be willing to sacrifice corporate money for people to realize there’s a big problem out there.”The postponed NBA games came on the fourth anniversary of Colin Kaepernick’s very first protest of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before an NFL preseason game. Kaepernick sat through the anthem for his first protest, which he said was to protest racial inequality and police mistreatment of minorities. Then he famously kneeled during the anthem going forward.
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A group of athletes led by NBA star LeBron James will roll out a multimillion-dollar program in the next few weeks to recruit poll workers in heavily Black electoral districts for November’s election, a person familiar with the plans said on Monday.
 
More Than a Vote, a group of prominent athletes fighting voter suppression, will collaborate with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund on the program in a dozen states, including battlegrounds such as Georgia, Michigan, Florida and Wisconsin, where disenfranchisement affects Black voters, the source said.
 
 The New York Times first reported the effort, which will recruit young people as poll workers and include a paid advertising program and corporate partnership to encourage employees to volunteer as poll workers.
 
 A shortage of poll workers to staff in-person voting sites amid worries about the coronavirus pandemic has led to dramatically fewer polling locations in some states that held primaries earlier this year, including Georgia and Wisconsin. That led to long lines, hours-long waits and widespread confusion, particularly in hard-hit African-American communities that felt the brunt of the cutbacks.
 
 The problems, and worries about what they could mean for the Nov. 3 election between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden, led to the formation of More Than a Vote by James, star of the Los Angeles Lakers, and other athletes.
 
 The program will begin in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina and Texas, the source said.
 
 The group previously partnered with teams in Los Angeles and Atlanta to turn stadiums into polling places, and worked on an effort to help the formerly incarcerated restore their voting rights in Florida.
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World-record sprinter and eight-time Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt is self-quarantining at home in Jamaica, after testing positive for the coronavirus following a party celebrating his 34th birthday attended by several sports stars. Jamaica’s health ministry confirmed late Monday that Bolt tested positive, after he posted a video on social media earlier Monday saying he was waiting for the results.  Bolt, who took the test Saturday after his party said, he did not have any symptoms of the coronavirus, but he urged anyone who came in contact with him to quarantine just to be safe. Bolt has received well wishes and some have accused him of being careless in the midst of a pandemic. Bolt is part of the uptick in infections in Jamaica that officials blame on the reopening of international borders as well as recent celebrations marking Independence Day and Emancipation Day. Officials also say people are ignoring measures to keep themselves and others safe, including wearing masks and social distancing.  Jamaica has confirmed more than 1,600 infections and at least 16 deaths. “I’m having no symptoms so I am going to quarantine myself and wait on the confirmation, to see what is the protocol and how I should go about quarantining myself,” Bolt added. “Until then, I am saying anyone who has had contact with me should quarantine by themselves just to be safe, and just to take it easy.” 
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Rapper and music producer Kanye West’s campaign ran into trouble Tuesday on his first day of trying to get on the presidential ballot in his home state of Wyoming.
People gathering signatures on behalf of West and another presidential candidate got too close to polling locations during the state’s primary, election officials said.
The signature-gatherers for West and candidate Brock Pierce refused to keep at least 100 yards (91 meters) away, prompting election workers to call police and sheriff’s deputies at five of the seven polling locations in and around Cheyenne, Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee said.
“Some of them became quite aggressive and refused to leave,” said Lee.
Election officials at Laramie County Community College confiscated a handwritten sign that read “registered voters sign here” on one side and “Kanye West” on the other, potentially causing people to falsely believe they needed to sign West’s petition in order to vote, Lee said.
A man standing outside a polling place in Cheyenne said he worked for Pierce’s national campaign and was gathering signatures for both candidates. He declined to provide his full name. He said he was 100 yards away from the polling place entrance but he actually appeared to be closer.
Social media messages seeking comment from West agent Trevian Kutti and Pierce weren’t immediately returned Tuesday. Election officials in Casper, where a state elections official said similar violations occurred, didn’t immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
West, who once backed Republican President Donald Trump, announced last month that he had broken with Trump and would launch his own presidential bid. His campaign filed paperwork on July 15 with the Federal Election Commission.
West has so far qualified in several states including Arkansas, Oklahoma, Utah and Colorado. His effort to get on the ballot has been challenged in Wisconsin.
The reported incidents in Wyoming don’t affect whether signatures count as valid, said secretary of state’s office spokesman Will Dinneen.
Widespread problems with people electioneering too close to polling places haven’t been reported in the state in at least 20 years.
“This has been really beyond anything we’ve ever seen,” Lee said.
West announced in July he’s running for president on a ticket he calls the “Birthday Party.” West has since been gathering signatures to get on the ballot in several states.
West filed with state officials on Monday to begin collecting signatures in Wyoming. He has until next Monday to submit 4,025 valid signatures to get on the ballot.
West bought a ranch and has lived in the Cody area in northwestern Wyoming since last year.
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Nearly two decades after the slaying of Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay, federal prosecutors said Monday they have solved one of New York City’s most enduring mysteries, charging two men from his neighborhood with murder and suggesting that the hip-hop artist — celebrated for his anti-drug stance — was ambushed over a cocaine deal.
The suspects were identified in court papers as Ronald Washington, 56, who is currently serving a federal prison sentence stemming from a string of robberies while on the run from police after Jay’s 2002 death, and Karl Jordan Jr., 36, who is also charged with engaging in a cocaine distribution conspiracy in 2017.
Jason “Jay” Mizell, known professionally as Jam Master Jay, formed Run-DMC with Joseph “Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniel in the early 1980s. Together, they helped take hip-hop mainstream with hits like “It’s Tricky” and the Aerosmith remake collaboration “Walk This Way.”
Jay’s death, following the long unsolved slayings of rappers Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas in 1996 and Christopher “Biggie Smalls” Wallace in Los Angeles in 1997, shook the hip-hop world. Chuck D of Public Enemy compared his death to that of John Lennon. More than $60,000 in rewards was offered, but witnesses refused to come forward and the case languished.
“This is a case about a murder that for nearly two decades had gone unanswered,” Acting U.S. Attorney Seth DuCharme said at a news conference announcing the charges. “Today, we begin to answer that question of who killed Jason Mizell, and why, and we’re confident that we can prove those charges beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Washington, who had reportedly been living on a couch at Jay’s home in the days before the killing, was publicly named as a possible suspect or witness as far back as 2007. Prosecutors allege he waved a handgun and ordered another person at the recording studio to lie on the ground while Jordan shot Jay in the head Oct. 30, 2002.
According to prosecutors, Jay would bring in bulk amounts of cocaine to sell retail and was killed as retribution for cutting Washington out of a plan to distribute 10 kilograms in Maryland.
“They walked in and murdered him in cold blood,” DuCharme said.
A message seeking comment was left with a publicist for Run-DMC. The group performed anti-drug concerts, established scholarships and held voter registration drives at its live shows. In Hollis, the Queens neighborhood where he grew up, Jay was seen as a role model. Friends were puzzled by his death, thinking him an unlikely target for violence.
If convicted, Washington and Jordan each face a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison, or the death penalty. Prosecutors said in court papers that Attorney General William Barr had not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty.
Jordan pleaded not guilty at an arraigned held Monday by teleconference because of coronavirus-related precautions. His lawyer declined comment. Washington, who is imprisoned in Kentucky, will be arraigned later this week, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors have asked that both be jailed pending trial.
The 37-year-old Jay was shot once in the head with a .40-caliber bullet by a masked assailant at his studio in Hollis. Police identified at least four people in the studio with Jay when he was killed, including the two armed gunmen.
At Jay’s funeral, McDaniels remembered his friend and fellow Run-DMC star as “the embodiment of hip-hop.” He was also a husband and a father of three children.
“Jam Master Jay was not a thug,” McDaniels said. “Jam Master Jay was not a gangster. Jam Master Jay was a unique individual.”
Prosecutors, though, now say Jay had been bringing cocaine into the New York area since 1996.
At the time, Jay’s acquaintance with Washington — a repeat offender with convictions dating in 1982 — worried and upset his family.
Before ending up on Jay’s couch, Washington served prison time for grand larceny, assault, criminal use of a firearm, heroin possession and other charges. He was been linked to the 1995 fatal shooting of Randy Walker, a close associate of the late Tupac Shakur.
Afterward, prosecutors said, Washington hopped from motel-to-motel and robbed businesses including supermarkets and a Burger King while detectives pursued him in connection with Jay’s killing. He remained at large for nearly three months until police on Long Island nabbed him for robbing a motel.
Last month, as prosecutors were preparing to seek a grand jury indictment against him for Jay’s death, Washington filed a handwritten petition asking to immediately be released to home confinement, arguing his medical history put him at risk for complications from coronavirus. Federal prosecutors responded by asking for more time to respond, delaying any decision until after Washington was charged.
Jordan, just a teenager when Jay was killed, was declared a juvenile delinquent after a 1999 robbery arrest and had a firearm case dismissed when the complaining witness refused to cooperate with law enforcement. In recent years, prosecutors said, he’s been caught on audio and video surveillance six times selling cocaine to an undercover federal agent.
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Apple Music is launching several new radio shows hosted by A-list musical acts, including Snoop Dogg, Shania Twain and Carrie Underwood.
The streaming service announced that it will debut two new radio stations Tuesday: Apple Music Hits, focused on popular songs of the ’80s, ’90s and 2000s, as well as Apple Music Country, dedicated to the country music genre. Both channels will have daily on-air hosts but will also include several shows hosted by well-known musicians.
Apple Music Hits will include shows hosted by Snoop Dogg, Twain, Alanis Morissette, Backstreet Boys, Meghan Trainor, Ciara, blink-182’s Mark Hoppus and Huey Lewis.
More than a dozen country acts will debut shows on Apple Music Country, including Underwood, Luke Combs, Florida Georgia Line, Luke Bryan, Rissi Palmer, Morgan Wallen, Kelsea Ballerini, Breland, Dierks Bentley, Jimmie Allen and “This Is Us” actress and singer Chrissy Metz.
Apple Music also announced Tuesday that its popular Beats 1 radio station — featuring shows hosted by Billie Eilish, Elton John and Lil Wayne — will be renamed to Apple Music 1. It will launch new shows hosted by Nile Rodgers, J Balvin, Young M.A and other acts.
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Federal prosecutors urged a judge Monday to accept deals that call for “Full House” actor Lori Loughlin to spend two months in prison and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, to serve five months for paying half a million dollars to bribe their daughters’ way into college. Ahead of the famous couple’s scheduled sentencing hearings Friday, prosecutors said in court filings that the proposed prison terms are comparable to the sentences other prominent parents charged in the case have received, while accounting for Loughlin and Giannulli’s “repeated and deliberate conduct” and their “decision to allow their children to become complicit in crime.”  Prosecutors called Giannulli “the more active participant in the scheme,” while they said Loughlin “took a less active role, but was nonetheless fully complicit.” The famous couple pleaded guilty in May to paying $500,000 to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California as crew recruits even though neither girl was a rower. The defense had insisted for more than a year that they believed their payments were legitimate donations and accused prosecutors of hiding crucial evidence that could prove the couple’s innocence because it would undermine their case. The judge said at their plea hearings that he would decide whether to accept or reject the deals after considering the presentencing report, a document that contains background on defendants and helps guide sentencing decisions. Unlike most plea agreements, in which the judge remains free to decide the sentence, Loughlin and Giannulli’s were built into their deals so if the judge accepts the agreements, he cannot change the prison term.  FILE – William “Rick” Singer founder of the Edge College & Career Network, departs federal court in Boston on March 12, 2019, after he pleaded guilty to charges in a nationwide college admissions bribery scandal.Loughlin and Giannulli have not publicly commented since their arrest last year in the case authorities call “Operation Varsity Blues.” The scheme, led by admissions consultant Rick Singer, involved including top businessmen, lawyers and others prominent parents paying huge sums to have people take entrance exams on behalf of their kids or get them into school as fake recruits, authorities said. Under the plea deal, Giannulli has also agreed to pay a $250,000 fine and perform 250 hours of community service. Loughlin would pay a $150,000 fine and perform 100 hours of community service. Prosecutors say they funneled money through a sham charity operated by Singer to get their two daughters admitted to USC. Singer, who has also pleaded guilty, began cooperating with investigators in September 2018 and secretly recorded his phone calls with parents to build the case against them. Giannulli “engaged more frequently with Singer, directed the bribe payments to USC and Singer, and personally confronted his daughter’s high school counselor to prevent the scheme from being discovered, brazenly lying about his daughter’s athletic abilities,” prosecutors told the judge.  In that instance, Giannulli angrily confronted the counselor after after the counselor began questioning the girls’ involvement in crew, prosecutors said. Giannulli demanded that the counselor explain what he was telling USC about his daughters and asked the counselor why he was “trying to ruin or get in the way of their opportunities,” the counselor wrote in notes detailed in court documents.  After the couple successfully bribed their younger daughter’s way into USC, Singer forward them an email saying she was let in because of her “potential to make a significant contribution to the intercollegiate athletic program,” prosecutors wrote. Loughlin responded: “This is wonderful news! (high-five emoji),” according to court filings. Others parents who’ve been sent to prison for participating in the scam include “Desperate Housewives” actress Felicity Huffman. She served nearly two weeks behind bars late last year after she admitted to paying $15,000 to have someone correct her daughter’s entrance exam answers. 
 
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Beyonce’s musical film, “Black is King,” is gaining global fans and critics for its portrayal of African culture.  In South Africa, where several scenes in the 85-minute feature were filmed, many say it’s more than just a movie.  VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Johannesburg.
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“Black is King” stunned Beyonce fans when it dropped suddenly last month.  The visual album, which was filmed last year in the U.S., South Africa, West Africa and Europe, is based on music from her album “The Lion King: The Gift” and features an array of African artists, musicians and dancers. Like all Beyonce products, this album has its detractors. Some accuse the Houston native of cultural appropriation for using African aesthetics.But in South Africa, where she filmed many of the scenes, those involved in the production were rapturous. Sibusiso Mathebula worked on some Johannesburg-based scenes as part of his film studies. He spoke to VOA via Google Hangouts from his hometown, Middelburg. “I’m really really honored to have become part of the crew that put together this film. I really love the film,” he said. ” It went into a lot of things that we haven’t been told in our in our schools about Black history. When I saw the film, that’s when I started to see that the stories and the attires and the outfits that she was putting and that whole scene, really represented something deeper than what people were expecting.”Reaction is coming slowly from the continent because the film’s distributor, Disney Plus, is not widely available here. But South Africa’s largest cable distributor aired the film days after it debuted in late July, and is making it available on demand for premium subscribers. Beyonce fan Kgosi Motsoane, who founded a project to tell queer narratives in Africa, says he believes the African diaspora – which includes Black Americans – has every right to reference and use what some may see as “African” culture. He told VOA via Google Hangouts he loved the film, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a few critiques.”Like, there are areas where I thought that “Black is King’ could have been improved. For example, as a queer person I would have loved to see more — I know she worked with a lot of queer people — but I would have liked to see that representation on camera,” he said. “But ultimately, like, there was no representation of transwomen there. There was no representation of, you know, of like, butch lesbians, of non- … it’s just like, a lot of those types of expressions in like the women experience, were quite sort of … silenced in a way.”And, Motsoane says, it’s important, especially now, to elevate the power and position of Black women — especially after as U.S. Democratic Senator Kamala Harris became the first Black woman vice-presidential pick.  “You have a pop star who has the biggest platform in the world and is using it to sort of push Black politics. And then you have this vice president candidate that is a Black woman, taking space,” he said. “It’s really interesting to see these things happen now, considering how when we understand the politics, Black women have always been on the lowest sort of like strata of social hierarchy. And to have them occupy these really key, critical, profoundly influential platforms, that is really heartening and it’s encouraging. But also, I cannot think of a better time that we need something like this to happen.”Mathebula agrees, and says Beyonce’s film inspired him to work on his own project that will help tell more African stories. On one thing, her African supporters agree: If Black is King, Beyonce is the Queen. So whether you’re in Accra or Atlanta, they say: bow down. 
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The only Black designer belonging to Italy’s influential fashion council is demanding a “long overdue cultural reform” from her colleagues under the slogan: Do Black Lives Matter in Italy?
The conversation has gotten off to a rocky start.
Stella Jean, a Haitian-Italian designer born and raised in Rome, launched her appeal this summer. She asked the Italian National Fashion Chamber and the global powerhouses steering it, including Prada, Ferragamo and Zegna, to back their social media pledges supporting the Black Lives Matter movement  with concrete, transparent commitments toward greater racial diversity.
In response, Jean received a letter from the council president saying that addressing racial disparity within Italian fashion was not within the body’s area of responsibility, despite the fact that members had backed a diversity manifesto in December. According to the letter, such initiatives “pertain instead to parliament, the government or any other bodies.”
Exasperated, Jean has decided not to preview a runway collection at Milan Fashion Week until “they demonstrate awareness of the problem.”
”When you talk with them, they have no bad intentions, I know them. But they say something like ‘What are you talking about, Stella? We have never heard about racism in Italy. It is not an Italian story, it is about the U.S., the U.K., other countries. Not Italy,”’ Jean told The Associated Press. “My response is: ‘Why do you see all these people filling squares from the north to the south of this country for Black Lives Matter, this entire generation of invisible new Italians?”
Soccer, another important Italian cultural institution, recognized that Italy has a problem with racism and worked to eliminate it.
Racially charged gaffes by Italian fashion houses have been well-documented, from Gucci’s Blackface sweater to Prada’s Little Black Sambo bag charm to Dolce&Gabbana videos that were seen by many as mocking Asians. This summer, Marni, another major fashion house, apologized after being called out for its images of a Black man with chains around his ankles.
Jean and the co-author of her appeal, Milan-based U.S. designer Edward Buchanan, said in interviews that the issue is deeper than just culturally insensitive designs. But they say those gaffes highlight the lack of diversity in Italian fashion houses and the “pervasive racism and prejudice” in the industry despite ”significant funds allocated to provide sensitive training.”
“These ‘mistakes’ can be better recognized, labeled and addressed as ‘decisions,'” Jean asserts.
Their push is to open doors to Black Italians who would like to work in fashion but don’t see themselves represented and don’t see a way in. They also are demanding data on Black personnel employed in decision-making roles in fashion houses — not models or marketing staff who they say “are sadly more often than not displayed for show.”
”We want to send a resume to a headhunter and not have it shut down because you are a Black designer,” Buchanan said.
In their appeal, they spoke for dozens more whose names did not appear but include Italian and Italy-based Black creators like Michelle Ngonmo, who launched an AFRO Fashion Week Milano on her own after failing to get the backing of the fashion industry, and Louis Pisano, a writer and influencer who has worked in Italian fashion for a decade. Pisano cites incidents like having his fashion show invitations scrutinized while white influencers are waved into events.
Many more “are hesitant to speak out for fear of a professional lynching,” Jean said.
A frequent refrain from Black creatives in Italian fashion is that they are often the only person of color in the workplace. They also see their opportunities and access limited by their skin color.
Buchanan, the designer of his own luxury knitwear label, Sansovino 6, started out in Italy more than 25 years ago launching ready-to-wear at Bottega Veneta, and has worked with Calvin Klein and Donna Karan. Now when he is called for consulting jobs, it is exclusively for streetwear or urban brands, despite his luxury credentials. Meanwhile, white colleagues with similar resumes now hold creative director positions at major brands.
”I am absolutely happy with the scale of my career. But I can say honestly that opportunity has not come to me because of the color of my skin,” Buchanan said.
Stella chafes at the Africa Hub, which promoted five brands during Milan Fashion Week in February. She says it gave a market space but no runway visibility to brands including Ghana-based Studio 189, co-founded by Rosario Dawson and Abrima Erwiah, which has previously shown at New York Fashion Week.
“Why do we need a special area like you are visiting a safari?” Jean asked.
The president of Italy’s fashion council, Carlo Capasa, defended the Africa Hub, saying it was set up alongside a section to support China, which was mostly missing from Milan Fashion Week due to the coronavirus pandemic, and some young Italian brands. The only Black designer to present a runway show at Milan that round, which Jean skipped, was the British brand A-COLD-WALL.
Capasa told AP that the council would produce data on diversity inside fashion houses, and that a progress report on the diversity manifesto would be made in December. He said the global Black Lives Matter protests had created a sense of urgency behind diversity pledges but added that “making deep cultural changes requires time,” citing the need for multi-year programs “to include all minorities.”
“What happens inside a fashion house mirrors the social construction of the country. Italy is different from the United States,” Capasa said. “In every country, inclusion and diversity assumes a slightly different meaning.”
Jean emphasized that she is trying to prompt change from within as the only Black designer to belong to the council since its formation in 1958. Her eponymous brand, rooted in multiculturalism, has grown steadily since her Milan runway debut seven years ago.
While she won’t show in September, she has asked Capasa to host a Black Lives Matter event to kick off “the immediate launch of a long-overdue fashion cultural reform.”
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Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, on Thursday promised to show how Trump cheated in the 2016 election with Russian help in an upcoming book titled “Disloyal, A Memoir.”
 
“Trump had cheated in the election, with Russian connivance, as you will discover in these pages, because doing anything — and I mean anything — to ‘win’ has always been his business model and way of life,” Cohen writes in the book’s foreword, which was published online on Thursday.
 
The 3,700-word foreword does not reveal anything new about Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, and it was not clear if the book would.
 
Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller last year concluded that Russia waged a major campaign to help Trump to victory in 2016.
 
Mueller did not find evidence of a criminal conspiracy between Trump’s campaign and Russia, but he did detail extensive contacts between the campaign and Russian operatives.
 
Cohen worked closely with Trump for years before turning against him, most publicly in testimony to Congress last year prior to Trump’s impeachment.
 
Cohen said he knows where Trump’s metaphorical “skeletons” are buried because he buried them.
 
White House spokesman Brian Morgenstern responded by attacking Cohen’s credibility.
 
“He readily admits to lying routinely but expects people to believe him now so that he can make money from book sales. It’s unfortunate that the media is exploiting this sad and desperate man to attack President Trump,” Morgenstern said.
 
Trump has called Cohen “a rat,” and a liar, and Cohen said he faced repeated death threats from Trump supporters.
 
Cohen, 53, is serving a three-year sentence for tax evasion, false statements and campaign finance violations, the last related to payments to silence women who alleged affairs with Trump before the 2016 presidential election.
 
Cohen was released to home confinement in May given the risks of catching COVID-19 in prison, but then was briefly imprisoned again last month.
 
A federal judge last month ruled Cohen had been subjected to retaliation for planning to publish his book, and ordered him released again.
 
A lawyer for Cohen declined to comment.  
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AMC Entertainment Holdings announced Thursday it is set to reopen many of its movie theaters starting August 20. Its first phase of reopening will include more than 100 of its locations.
AMC is the largest movie theater chain in the U.S., and to mark the reopening, it will be selling tickets for 15 cents on opening day, marketing the sale as “movies in 2020 at 1920 prices.”
 
AMC says it intends to continue opening more locations throughout the month, with plans to have two-thirds open by the September 3 release of the new Christopher Nolan film “Tenet.”
 
The company will ensure a variety of new safety precautions in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. All guests will be required to wear masks, theater capacity will be decreased, and ventilation systems will be updated.
 
Tickets will be available at reduced prices even after opening day, including films such as “Inception,” “Black Panther,” “Back to the Future,” and “The Empire Strikes Back,” all of which will be $5. AMC plans to show several older films because the release of most new movies was delayed due to the coronavirus.
 
“We are thrilled to once again open our doors to American moviegoers who are looking for an opportunity to get out of their houses and apartments and escape into the magic of the movies,” Adam Aron, AMC’s CEO, said Thursday in a statement.
 
AMC shuttered all of its theaters in the U.S. in March during the COVID-19 pandemic. Plans to reopen have been delayed several times. 
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The novel coronavirus pandemic continues to have an effect on the sporting world, as two major U.S. college athletic conferences announced Tuesday they are postponing their upcoming fall (gridiron) football seasons. Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said after consulting with the conference’s medical advisory board “it became abundantly clear that there was too much uncertainty regarding potential medical risks to allow our student-athletes to compete this fall.”  Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said the presidents and chancellors of all of the member schools agreed their individual programs “are a part of broader campuses in communities where in many cases the prevalence of COVID-19 is significant.”   The Big Ten includes such legendary collegiate football programs as Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State, while the Pac-12 conference, based primarily in the western United States, includes such traditional powerhouses as Stanford, the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).  In addition to football, the Big Ten says it is postponing all of its fall sports activities, including men and women’s track and field and American-style soccer. The Pac-12 said it will not hold any sports competitions for the remainder of 2020. The two conferences, along with the Atlantic Coast, Southeastern and Big 12, make up the so-called “Power Five” major college athletic conferences, whose football programs are not only among the best in the nation, but also bring in billions of dollars in revenue from ticket sales and national television contracts.  The prospect of any U.S. college football being played during the traditional fall season amid the COVID-19 pandemic was thrown into doubt well before the Big Ten and Pac-12 postponed their seasons.  Three other lesser conferences, including the Ivy League, which represents such prestigious schools as Harvard, Yale and Princeton, have either postponed or outright canceled their football seasons.  Medical experts have expressed concern that otherwise young and healthy athletes could develop long term health problems if they contract COVID-19, including heart and lung damage.In this May 20, 2020 photo provided by the University of Alabama, football head coach Nick Saban and the school’s elephant mascot, Big Al, wear masks on the university campus in Tuscaloosa, AL.But U.S. President Donald Trump has been one of the leading figures urging college football to begin its season as normal, telling reporters at the White House Tuesday the players are “young, strong people” who will be able to fight off the virus.    The pandemic has forced the National Basketball League and National Hockey League to resume their seasons in centralized locations, dubbed “bubbles,” where players and coaching staffs must remain during competition.  Major League Baseball’s shortened 60-game season has been marred with several players from the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals testing positive for COVID-19, forcing the league to postpone dozens of games and putting the truncated season at risk of being canceled. Also on Tuesday, President Trump announced an agreement between the federal government and an American biotechnology company to manufacture and deliver 100 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate.      The company, Moderna, is to manufacture the vaccine while clinical trials are underway.  The company developed the vaccine in a joint initiative with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Three vaccine candidates in the United States are in the final stage of human trials.     “We’re on track to rapidly produce 100 million doses as soon as the vaccine is approved and up to 500 million shortly thereafter,” said Trump during a White House news conference.  The Trump administration’s latest actions are “increasing the likelihood that the United States will have at least one safe, effective vaccine by 2021,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar in a statement.     The president has recently stated he is optimistic a vaccine for the coronavirus could be ready by the time of the U.S. presidential election in early November.   Trump did not comment on an announcement earlier in the day by Russian President Vladimir Putin that his country has become the first in the world to formally approve a new COVID-19 vaccine, despite a lack of data to back up his claims that the drug is safe to administer to humans.Russian President Putin Says Country is First to Formally Approve Coronavirus VaccinePutin claims new vaccine “works quite effectively…forms a stable immunity”The Russian president also said his daughter has been inoculated in an early testing phase. She ran a slight fever on the first day, but her temperature dropped to normal the following day, according to Putin.      Production of the new Russian vaccine — which has been dubbed Sputnik V, in honor of the world’s first man-made satellite launched by the then-Soviet Union in 1957 — will begin next month, with mass vaccinations starting as early as October.   The new vaccine is one of more than 100 possible vaccines being developed in a global race by governments and biomedical firms to blunt a pandemic that has now infected more than 20 million people worldwide.      But it is not among the handful that reached the third and final phase of testing in human trials, which usually involve thousands of people and lasts for months, according to the World Health Organization.   Scientists within Russia have also questioned the move to register the vaccine before Phase 3 trials are complete, which are needed to prove it is not harmful to patients.    Russia has also been accused by the United States, Britain and Canada of using hackers to steal vaccine research from labs in their countries. 
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Annie Griffiths, One of National Geographic’s first female photographers, has traveled to more than 150 countries taking pictures. During her 45 year career, she has been to every continent documenting nature, and collecting the stories of women she has met along the way. Maxim Moskalkov has the story.VIDEOGRAPHER: Sergey Sokolov  
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Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” is officially a hit single again 39 years after its release, thanks to a pair of twins from Gary, Indiana, whose spontaneous reaction to the unexpected drum break in Collins’ ballad has caused it to be possibly the most memed song of August 2020. “In the Air Tonight” currently sits at No. 3 on the iTunes song sales chart, trailing only the brand-new releases “WAP” by Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion and “Beers and Sunshine” by Darius Rucker. It’s not just a passing single-day phenomenon, either. Numbers provided by Alpha Data show that “In the Air Tonight” was the fourth biggest selling song of the week ending Aug. 8, up from No. 185 the week before. The Collins song may not make the same kind of splash on the overall songs chart, since its streaming numbers remain out of the league of those enjoyed by today’s top current artists. The fact that it’s making more of an impact on sales than streaming may indicate that it’s appealing to an older audience that is rediscovering its love for the song more than reaching a new one that, like the twins, is hearing it for the first time. But, of course, none of these charts take into account the number of listens that “In the Air Tonight” is getting just from fascinated viewers enjoying Tim and Fred Williams’ reaction video, which, as of this writing, is up to 3.2 million views. The 22-year-old brothers are certainly a hit unto themselves, as viewers entranced by their reaction to the Collins song, which was posted July 27, visit their YouTube channel to check out the hundreds of reaction videos they’ve posted before this. Their similar video reacting to Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” took on lesser meme status, with Parton herself tweeting about it Aug. 7, writing, “No point in begging. … Jolene already stole these two.” (Collins has not publicly responded so far.) “TwinsthenewTrend” now have 350,000 subscribers for their YouTube channel, which is about a year old. They told CNN they initially stuck with hip-hop reaction videos, then took a suggestion to try out Frank Sinatra, and have delved into multiple genres since then. They’ve reacted to everything from Kansas’ “Dust in the Wind” to Pantera, Lauryn Hill, Rage Against the Machine, the Carpenters, A-ha, the Allman Brothers Band, Marvin Gaye and Queens of the Stone Age. “Because we’re Black,” Fred Williams told CNN about the popularity of their videos, “and they don’t expect us to listen to that type of music.” Added Tim, “It’s just rare to see people open these days. People don’t open to step outside their comfort zone and just react to music they don’t know.” 
 
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An Israeli jewelry company is working on what it says will be the world’s most expensive coronavirus mask, a gold, diamond-encrusted face covering with a price tag of $1.5 million. The 18-karat white gold mask will be decorated with 3,600 white and black diamonds and fitted with top-rated N99 filters at the request of the buyer, said designer Isaac Levy. Levy, owner of the Yvel company, said the buyer had two other demands: that it be completed by the end of the year, and that it would be the priciest in the world. That last condition, he said, “was the easiest to fulfill.” He declined to identify the buyer, but said he was a Chinese businessman living in the United States.Isaac Levy, owner of Israeli jewelry company Yvel looks at a worker and parts of a mask in Motza near Jerusalem, Aug. 9, 2020. An Israeli jewelry company is working on what it says will be the world’s most expensive coronavirus mask.The glitzed-up face mask may lend some pizzazz to the protective gear now mandatory in public spaces in many countries. But at 270 grams — nearly 100 times that of a typical surgical mask — it is not likely to be a practical accessory to wear. In an interview at his factory near Jerusalem, Levy showed off several pieces of the mask, covered in diamonds. One gold plate had a hole for the filter. “Money maybe doesn’t buy everything, but if it can buy a very expensive COVID-19 mask and the guy wants to wear it and walk around and get the attention, he should be happy with that,” Levy said. Such an ostentatious mask might also rub some the wrong way at a time when millions of people around the world are out of work or suffering economically. Levy said that while he would not wear it himself, he was thankful for the opportunity. “I am happy that this mask gave us enough work for our employees to be able to provide their jobs in very challenging times like these times right now,” he said. 
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As the Trump administration orders retaliatory bans on Chinese tech companies such as Tik Tok and WeChat, officials and civic groups have growing concerns about the influence China has over Hollywood.A new report says that Hollywood companies have been censoring films to avoid losing access to China’s lucrative box office market, adding that China was effectively influencing movies released in cinemas around the world.The 94-page report, published Wednesday, was compiled by the New York-based free speech organization Pen America, and said key players in Hollywood are increasingly making decisions about their films “based on an effort to avoid antagonizing Chinese officials who control whether their films gain access to the booming Chinese market.”It said that in some instances, filmmakers or directors have directly invited Chinese government censors onto their film sets to advise them on “how to avoid tripping the censors’ wires.”A new normThe report concluded that appeasing Chinese government investors and gatekeepers has “become a way of doing business in Hollywood.”Hao Jian, a visiting scholar at Harvard’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and a former professor at the Beijing Film Academy, told VOA he agrees with that conclusion.“Because of long-term censorship, many production companies choose not to cross the red line when considering films for the Chinese market,” he said, “The Great Famine in 1959, the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989, the (Cultural) Revolution that lasted 10 years…all taboo topics.”According to the report, even if a foreign film has been released China, if the government doesn’t like certain lines or actors in the film, it could be banned, leaving the producers with no avenue for appeal.Hao used the 2012 Quentin Tarantino movie, “Django Unchained,” as an example. “One day after it was released in Chinese theaters, the American production company received a notice from China’s National Radio and Television Administration that the film would be immediately removed from theaters. No reasons given,” Hao told VOA.Actors Harrison Ford, Richard Gere, Selena Gomez and Sharon Stone are presumed to be blacklisted for participating in films critical of China, the report says.  According to Hao, Hollywood companies will avoid casting these actors when preparing a movie for the Chinese market.Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at Heritage Foundation who has done extensive research on China’s attempt to infiltrate American culture, said Hollywood studios should insist that any version of a film adapted for the Chinese market does not become the default version issued for global release.”At least to our audiences, Hollywood studios should be able to say to China, ‘No, we are not going to censor our content,’” Gonzalez said. “Especially when Hollywood feeds itself so much on its support of freedom in this country. It’s constantly saying it’s fighting for justice here in America, but then went along with injustice in China.”Banned, censored and cutChina has world’s second-largest market behind the U.S.According to the authoritative Hollywood Reporter, American films earned $2.6 billion in China last year, with “Avengers: Endgame,” making $629 million. Based on the Marvel Comics superhero team, the Avengers, the movie, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, earned $2.795 billion worldwide.But not every film is welcomed in China. In 2016, “Deadpool” was banned for “excessive graphic violence and nudity [that] could not be removed without affecting the plot.” Two years later, “Christopher Robin” was banned because the main character, Winnie the Pooh, is a figure that Chinese netizens use to mock China’s President Xi Jinping. The list goes on.For favorable treatment by Chinese censors, Hollywood movies sometimes incorporate elements to appeal to Chinese audiences, altering characters and story lines, and casting Chinese actors in secondary roles.In 2012, the producers “Red Dawn” planned to feature Chinese troops invading the United States. Then China’s largest newspaper published editorials accusing Hollywood of “demonizing China” and the North Korean army invaded instead.In 2017, producers cut a kiss between two male androids in the 2017 movie, “Alien: Covenant.”Gonzalez said it is unacceptable that American audiences watch movies censored by a foreign power.“I would like to see a call for Hollywood studios to have, for best practices, to say in their credit, this movie has been submitted to Chinese censors, and we made changes” to conform to with their requests, he said.Meanwhile, U.S. officials are also speaking out about China’s attempt to spread pro-China propaganda in the world’s entertainment center.“In Hollywood, not too far from here – the epicenter of American creative freedom, and self-appointed arbiters of social justice – self-censors even the most mildly unfavorable reference to China,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a recent China-focused speech at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California.U.S. Attorney General William Barr last month blasted the movie business in a speech at the Gerald Ford Presidential Library and Museum in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He accused the industry of giving the Chinese Communist Party a “massive propaganda coup” by self-censoring content to appease Beijing censors.Meanwhile, Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas introduced legislation in June that would cut off U.S. government cooperation to American filmmakers unless they agree not to censor their movies to gain entry into the Chinese market.   
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NYC’s famous Broadway shows were put on hold when the coronavirus pandemic hit the US. And though the bright signs with pictures of “Aladdin” and “The Lion King” are still there, the actors and audiences won’t come back into the beautiful halls to enjoy the performances until at least the winter of 2021. Evgeny Maslov has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
Camera: Michael Eckels
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