Michelle Obama was joined by a famous fellow reader Monday on her popular online series “Mondays With Michelle Obama.” The former first lady first read “The Giraffe Problem,” by Jory John and Lane Smith. Then she was joined by Barack Obama, seen over the weekend addressing the country’s high school graduating class, as they took turns — the former president even barked at one point — on Julia Sarcone-Roach’s “A Bear Ate Your Sandwich.”  Michelle Obama has been reading midday Monday for the past several weeks in support of families with small children at home during the coronavirus pandemic. Books she has featured include Julia Donaldson’s “The Gruffalo” and Eric Carle’s “The Hungry Caterpillar.”  Next Monday, she will bring on a pair of non-readers — the family’s dogs, Bo and Sunny — for the canine-appropriate “Can I Be Your Dog?”, by Troy Cummings. The series can be viewed on the Facebook and YouTube pages of PBS Kids and on the Facebook page of the Obamas’ publisher, Penguin Random House.    …

Before the pandemic, Shalinder Singh spent Sundays at his gurdwara, helping serve a community meal for 300 people or more at the Sikh place of worship in suburban Detroit. Now, he’s all about pizza. Singh and his family have paid for and delivered hundreds of pies to hospitals, police stations and fire departments since the gurdwara suspended in-person services.   They wanted to carry on a tenet of their faith: helping others through langar, the communal meal shared by all who come. “It just popped up in my mind, this is the time to take care of the heroes in the front,” said Singh, the 40-year-old owner of a pet products company. “I spoke to a couple of doctors and they said pizza is the best because they’re working 12 to 16 hours and they don’t have time to sit and eat.” The Singhs, including 12-year-old Arjun and 14-year-old Baani, have delivered more than 1,000 pizzas since early April, with no plans to slow down. They drive as much as an hour to spread their pizza love once a week, as Singh continues to run his business, which is classified as essential. “We’re trying to go to areas that aren’t …

French actor Michel Piccoli, a prolific screen star who appeared in landmark films by directors such as Luis Bunuel – including in his Academy Award winning “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” —and Jean-Luc Godard, has died. He was 94.His family confirmed to French media Monday that he died last week, but they did not give a cause of death.Though less famous in the English-speaking world, in continental Europe and his native France Paris-born Piccoli was a stalwart of art house cinema.French movie star Michel Piccoli (L) stands next to prominent Egyptian movie critic Youssef Cherif Rizkallah at a press conference in Cairo, Egypt, Nov. 1987. (Photo: Diaa Bekheet)Beginning his career in the 1940s, he went on to make over 170 movies, working into his late eighties.His most memorable appearance came arguably during the French New Wave – starring opposite Brigitte Bardot in Godard’s 1963 masterpiece “Contempt,” with his dark hat and signature bushy eyebrows.But Piccoli’s performances for Europe’s most iconic directors will also be remembered, including for France’s Jean Renoir, Jacques Rivette and Jean-Pierre Melville, Britain’s Alfred Hitchcock and Spain’s Bunuel. For the Spanish director, Piccioli starred alongside Catherine Deneuve in the 1967 masterpiece “Belle de Jour” and in …

Elvis Presley’s Graceland says it will reopen Thursday after it shut down tours and exhibits due to the new coronavirus outbreak.The tourist attraction in Memphis, Tennessee, said Sunday that it has adjusted its tours, and restaurant and retail operations, since it closed in March.  The Memphis tourist attraction is centered on the life and career of the late rock n’ roll icon. It annually attracts about 500,000 visitors, including international travelers.Graceland said in a news release that it is reducing tours of Presley’s former home-turned-museum to 25% capacity, requiring employees and encouraging visitors to wear face masks, and limiting restaurant capacities to 50%.  Temperature checks for guests and employees will be implemented and hand sanitizing stations are being installed, Graceland said.”We are helping Memphis and Tennessee to get back to some sense of normality,” said Joel Weinshanker, managing partner of Graceland Holdings, in a statement.  …

Phyllis George, the former Miss America who became a female sportscasting pioneer on CBS’s “The NFL Today,” has died. She was 70.A family spokesperson said George died Thursday at a Lexington hospital after a long fight with a blood disorder.Her children, Lincoln Tyler George Brown and CNN White House correspondent Pamela Ashley Brown, released a joint statement, saying:”For many, Mom was known by her incredible accomplishments as the pioneering female sportscaster, 50th Miss America and first lady. But this was all before we were born and never how we viewed Mom. To us, she was the most incredible mother we could ever ask for, and it is all of the defining qualities the public never saw, especially against the winds of adversity, that symbolize how extraordinary she is more than anything else. The beauty so many recognized on the outside was a mere fraction of her internal beauty, only to be outdone by an unwavering spirit that allowed her to persevere against all the odds.”Miss America in 1971, George got into television in 1974 at CBS on “Candid Camera” and joined Brent Musburger and Irv Cross in 1975 on “The NFL Today.” Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder later was added to …

The coronavirus pandemic lockdowns forced many bars and nightclubs across the United States to stand empty with their doors locked and chairs upside down on tables.One hundred years ago, taverns in the U.S. were also locked down and desolate when the Volstead Act, better known as Prohibition, in 1920 became the law of the land, making it a crime to manufacture, sell or transport alcohol.The drive to outlaw demon rum in the U.S. began in the 1850s. Churchwomen howled that whiskey was turning men into drunkards and barflies. Drink leads to violence and poverty and destroys families, they said.   Temperance movements, anti-saloon leagues and ladies storming into taverns to destroy bottles of whiskey grew from being an annoyance for the bartender into a legitimate political movement.“Prohibition was largely driven by a feeling among certain portions of the population, although no evidence that it was ever nearly a majority, that alcohol was a bad thing and should be eradicated from American life,” said Daniel Okrent, The New York Times best-selling author of Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition.Okrent said brewers and distillers campaigned hard to defeat anti-alcohol politicians, popularly known as “drys,” even to the point of rigging elections. …

The big budget musical “Frozen” will not reopen when Broadway theaters restart, marking the first time an established show has been felled by the coronavirus pandemic.The Disney show opened in March 2018 and placed among the top five Broadway productions for both gross and attendance over both years it ran, often pulling in over $1 million, and even $2 million, a week.Until now, only shows that were waiting to officially open have announced postponements or cancellations. Disney still has “The Lion King” and “Aladdin” on Broadway and five productions of “Frozen” worldwide.Citing the “global pandemic,” Thomas Schumacher, president and producer of Disney Theatrical Productions, said Thursday that running three Disney shows on Broadway was “untenable.”Caissie Levy, who originated the role of Elsa on Broadway, tweeted that the news was a “heartbreak,” adding “We will always be a family. Sending love to all the devoted fans of our beautiful show.”Broadway theaters sit closed during the COVID-19 lockdown in New York, May 13, 2020.Actors’ Equity Association, which represents 51,000 actors and stage managers, reacted with dismay to the news and urged New York and national politicians to rescue the arts sector. Mary McColl, executive director, called it an “all hands-on-deck moment” for …

A retired university philosophy professor who was, at one time, one of the most famous children in the United States but was frustrated and torn by his fame, has died of the coronavirus.The family of Joel Kupperman said Wednesday he died last month at a nursing home in Brooklyn at 83. He had been suffering from dementia for several years. From age 6 to 16, Chicago-born Kupperman was a regular panelist on “The Quiz Kids,” a radio game show in which a team of extraordinarily bright youngsters answered complex questions sent in by listeners.The audience won a prize if they stumped the panel and the kids were awarded savings bonds if they answered the difficult questions.The kids were dressed in robes and mortar boards. Kupperman spoke with a lisp and smiled brightly when reciting obscure facts and complicated mathematical equations, endearing him to the audience.He and the rest of the kids became major radio personalities, hobnobbing with movie stars and politicians and appearing in films and on radio comedy shows. Kupperman was even invited to address the United Nations.But when the show moved to television, Kupperman was no longer a cute little boy but a gangly and somewhat annoying teenager who …

The Catskills village that calls itself “Trout Town USA” is all but a ghost town this spring.  Fishing shops in Roscoe, New York, that should be overflowing with anglers are empty, due to the coronavirus outbreak. Guide services are idled, since they are nonessential businesses.  Yet the region’s famed rivers remain open, mercifully.  Like many who love the outdoors, I’ve been pinned down lately by stay-at-home guidance along with work, house chores and storms that have struck during days off.  When I finally see a one-day window of clear weather, I leap through it.  ___I have always found spiritual connections in rivers. As a child in Erie, Pennsylvania, I caught chubs and suckers in a polluted creek down the block. Later there were trips with my older brother for Allegheny Mountain brook trout. During Army tours, I caught golden trout in the Sierra snowmelt, and rainbows in brawling Alaskan waters.There’s a tune by “The Band” entitled “The River Hymn,” a gospel reverie:”The voice of the rapids will echoAnd ricochet like an old water wellWho’d ever want to let goOnce you sit beneath its spell”___It’s noon when I park at the trailhead of a hike-in Catskills fishing spot. There’s not another …

Tina Fey shed tears after announcing that more than $115 million was raised toward supporting New Yorkers impacted by COVID-19 during a virtual telethon.   “Thank you, thank you,” said a tearful Fey, the host of the Rise Up New York! event Monday evening. The Emmy-winning actress along with other A-list celebrities from Barbra Streisand, Jennifer Lopez and Michael Strahan asked for donations to help relief and recovery efforts. “Our city is under attack, but we’ve been here before,” Robert De Niro said. “In the last 20 years, both 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy. You can take your best shot but you cannot break our spirit.” The one-hour benefit was presented by the New York-based poverty fighting organization, Robin Hood, and iHeartMedia.   Robin Hood said all the donations will provide support for food, shelter, cash assistance, mental health, legal services and education.   “If you had breakfast today, you are better off than 2 million of your neighbors who woke up hungry,” Fey said. Mariah Carey performed her 1992 song “Make It Happen.” She sang while her backup singers and pianist performed on separate screens to the upbeat tune.   “We can make it through this together,” Carey said.   …

The pandemic has kept many people quarantined at home with family and pets for weeks. A grassroots photography initiative called the Front Steps Project has inspired hundreds of photographers to document people in front of their homes during this extraordinary time. Matt Dibble follows one photographer connecting with neighbors in Oakland, California. …

The National Football League has announced its 2020 schedule and is already touting some matchups as “must-see” contests between Super Bowl contenders.But the country’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, is cautioning sports-hungry fans not to be overly eager.”The virus will make the decision for us,” Fauci told NBC-TV sports. “I think it’s feasible that negative testing players could play to an empty stadium.” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, April 17, 2020, in Washington.Fauci said the coronavirus is unpredictable, and there is no guarantee the NFL or any sports league will be able to resume normal play.  “Even if the virus goes down dramatically in June, July and August, as the virus starts returning in the fall, it would be in my mind, shame on us if we don’t have in place all of the mechanisms to prevent it from blowing up again,” Fauci said, adding that players and fans will “have to play it by ear” whether there will be a full NFL season this year. “If you really want to be absolutely certain, you’d test all the …

Thousands of visitors in face masks Monday streamed into the Shanghai Disney Resort, the first of the Disney theme parks to reopen since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Disney is taking precautions to protect visitors and prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The number of visitors is limited. Face masks are required, and temperatures are checked at the gate.  Guests are also required to show government-issued identification and use a smartphone app issued by the Shanghai city government that tracks their health and contacts with anyone who might have been exposed to the virus. Andrew Bolstein, senior vice president of Disney operations in Shanghai, says maintaining social distance has been a high priority in the park. They have added markers to show guests where to stand, as well as where not to — outside restaurants, shops and all attractions, anywhere people will congregate. Visitors line up following social distancing markers at Shanghai Disney Resort as the Shanghai Disneyland theme park reopens following a shutdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak, in Shanghai, China, May 11, 2020.China, where the coronavirus was first detected in December, was the first country to reopen factories and other businesses after declaring the disease under control in March, even as infections rose …

Movie theaters have shut their doors to the public due to Covid -19. To offset lost revenues, some have teamed with distribution companies and created online platforms where viewers can watch new releases virtually. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with a distributor and a theater manager about the new viewing model …

The coronavirus has revived a hairstyle in East Africa, one with braided spikes that echo the virus’ distinctive shape.  The style’s growing popularity is in part due to economic hardships linked to virus restrictions — it’s cheap, mothers say — and to the goal of spreading awareness that the coronavirus is real.The hairstyle had gone out of fashion in recent years as imported real and synthetic hair from India, China and Brazil began to flood the market and demand by local women increased. Pictures of the flowing or braided imported styles are tacked up in beauty salons across much of Africa.  But now, in a makeshift salon beside a busy road in Kibera, a slum in the heart of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, 24-year-old hairdresser Sharon Refa braids young girls’ hair into the antennae-like spikes that people call the “coronavirus hairstyle.” Girls shift in the plastic chairs as she tugs at their scalps.”Some grown-ups don’t believe that the coronavirus is real, but then most young children appear keen to sanitize their hands and wear masks. So many adults do not do this, and that is why we came up with the corona hairstyle,” Refa said, her face mask tucked under …

Comedy star of stage, film and television Jerry Stiller has died at the age of 92.His son, actor Ben Stiller, said he died early Monday of natural causes.Stiller became famous in the 1960s as he teamed with wife Anne Meara in films, stage productions, commercials, and television programs, including the “Ed Sullivan Show.”He found renewed fame in the 1990s playing the cranky, loud Frank Costanza on the TV show “Seinfeld.”  He won his only Emmy award for the role.Stiller’s career also included roles in Broadway shows “The Ritz” and “Hurlyburly,” as well as hit movies “Hairspray” and “Zoolander.”   …

This is a story about books in an unlikely place, and their struggle to get into the hands of people during a national lockdown. South Africa’s eased lockdown means books are finally available for sale again, but in the nation’s biggest city, with its reputation for speed and hustle, do people care? VOA’s Anita Powell takes us on a literary journey through the unlikeliest of literary towns: Johannesburg. …

The National Football League has time on its side as the sports world prepares to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and will use some it to observe German soccer’s Bundesliga as a potential blueprint on how to deal with the outbreak.The NFL, which is due to kick off on Sept. 10 and has not yet seen its schedule affected by the novel coronavirus, is paying close attention to protocols other leagues, particularly the Bundesliga, are putting in place in a bid to restart play, according to a report in Newsday.The top-flight Bundesliga season will restart on May 16, making it the first European league to resume amid the pandemic that has infected more than 3.95 million people globally and killed more than 270,000.”We’ve been in contact with all domestic leagues, but also sports organizations around the world,” Brian McCarthy, the NFL’s vice president of communications, told Newsday.“We have a number of protocols, see what works, see what can translate into our sport.”We’re all in the sports business, but every sport has its own matters to attend to.”Germany’s top flight will resume under strict health protocols, with no fans allowed in stadiums.All teams have had to go into a seven-day training …

Treats made and delivered by neighbors. Fresh garden plantings dug from a safe 6 feet away. Trips around the world set up room-to-room at home.Mother’s Day this year is a mix of love and extra imagination as families do without their usual brunches and huggy meet-ups.As the pandemic persists in keeping families indoors or a safe social distance apart, online searches have increased for creative ways to still make moms feel special.Absent help from schools and babysitters, uninitiated dads are on homemade craft duty with the kids. Other loved ones are navigating around no-visitor rules at hospitals and senior-living facilities.Some medical facilities are pitching in by collecting voice and video recordings from locked-out relatives when patients are unable to manage the technology on their own.In suburban St. Louis, Steve Turner and his family hope to FaceTime with his 96-year-old mother, Beverly, but they plan something more, too. Her birthday coincides with Mother’s Day this year.”We’re going to create a big Mother’s Day-birthday banner signed by the kids and grandkids who live here,” Turner said. “She loves butterflies and we’ll draw some on. We’re working with the home to find a place where we can stand outside a window so she …

Stone by stone, digital artists and game developers from Mosul are rebuilding Nineveh’s heritage sites in the digital world.By looking through a virtual reality headset, a person can see the wonders of ancient Iraq. Via VR, it’s possible to fly over Nergal Gate, built 2,700 years ago, and see two winged bulls at its entrance.”Since we started the virtual reality lab, we tried to focus on Mosul’s archaeological sites,” said project co-ordinator Moyasser Nasseer. “It is an opportunity for people to discover archaeological sites that still exist as well as sites recently destroyed by Daesh (Islamic State) when they occupied Mosul.”QAF Media Lab designers want to create an immersive game, in which players solve mysteries to discover Nineveh’s heritage sites. They hope it might also draw tourists. (Reuters video screenshot)Nineveh was an Assyrian city in ancient Mesopotamia. It’s around where modern-day Mosul is located in northern Iraq.The designers want to create an immersive game in which players solve mysteries to discover Nineveh’s heritage sites. They hope it might draw tourists to an area recovering from recent conflicts, said artist Basma Qais.”First of all, we want to redefine the national identity of people living in Mosul, encourage tourism and also have …

Little Richard, the self-proclaimed “architect of rock `n’ roll” whose piercing wail, pounding piano and towering pompadour irrevocably altered popular music while introducing black R&B to white America, has died Saturday. He was 87.Pastor Bill Minson, a close friend of Little Richard’s, told The Associated Press that Little Richard died Saturday morning. Minson said he also spoke to Little Richard’s son and brother.Minson added that the family is not releasing the cause of death.Born Richard Penniman, Little Richard was one of rock `n’ roll’s founding fathers who helped shatter the color line on the music charts, joining Chuck Berry and Fats Domino in bringing what was once called “race music” into the mainstream. Richard’s hyperkinetic piano playing, coupled with his howling vocals and hairdo, made him an implausible sensation — a gay, black man celebrated across America during the buttoned-down Eisenhower era.He sold more than 30 million records worldwide, and his influence on other musicians was equally staggering, from the Beatles and Otis Redding to Creedence Clearwater Revival and David Bowie. In his personal life, he wavered between raunch and religion, alternately embracing the Good Book and outrageous behavior.”Little Richard? That’s rock `n’ roll,” Neil Young, who heard Richard’s riffs …

The U.N. Security Council reflected Friday on the lessons learned from World War II on the 75th anniversary of its end in Europe, as the world faces its biggest collective challenge since then — the coronavirus.“How we react to the new challenge before us — the COVID-19 pandemic — could be as significant as how the world rebuilt after fascism was vanquished,” U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo told a virtual meeting of more than 80 nations, including nearly 50 foreign ministers, organized by Estonia, which presides over the Security Council this month.The end of six brutal years of war, massive death and destruction in Europe marked a turning point. From the devastation, the European Union, the United Nations and NATO were born, along with a new world order. The European High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell attends a video conference with Europeans Foreign Ministers in Brussels, Belgium, April 22, 2020.  “COVID-19 is a test of our humanity, but also of the multilateral system itself,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said of the disease caused by the coronavirus. “The rules-based international order — with the U.N. at its core — must be upheld and strengthened.”He expressed concern that the pandemic has rattled societies and exposed vulnerable nations to great peril.“It has the potential to deepen existing conflicts and generate …

The U.N. Security Council reflected Friday on the lessons learned from World War II on the 75th anniversary of its end in Europe, as the world faces its biggest collective challenge since then — the coronavirus.“How we react to the new challenge before us — the COVID-19 pandemic — could be as significant as how the world rebuilt after fascism was vanquished,” U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo told a virtual meeting of more than 80 nations, including nearly 50 foreign ministers, organized by Estonia, which presides over the Security Council this month.The end of six brutal years of war, massive death and destruction in Europe marked a turning point. From the devastation, the European Union, the United Nations and NATO were born, along with a new world order. The European High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell attends a video conference with Europeans Foreign Ministers in Brussels, Belgium, April 22, 2020.  “COVID-19 is a test of our humanity, but also of the multilateral system itself,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said of the disease caused by the coronavirus. “The rules-based international order — with the U.N. at its core — must be upheld and strengthened.”He expressed concern that the pandemic has rattled societies and exposed vulnerable nations to great peril.“It has the potential to deepen existing conflicts and generate …

If DNA is destiny, it took an unexpected turn when the grandson of legendary World War II commander General Claire Lee Chennault was growing up.General Claire Lee Chennault (1890-1958), who commanded the legendary Flying Tigers and later the 14th Air Force in China, landed on the covers of Time and Life magazines during WWII. (U.S. Air Force)New York-based jazz musician Paul Sikivie says he was brought up with “a sense of awe” regarding his grandfather, one of the most storied commanders in the Asia theater during that war. But “he belonged to the world at large and not so much to me.” Sikivie is one of two grandsons of Chennault and his second wife, Anna. His mother is a noted medieval Chinese literature specialist, his father a Belgian-American physicist. “I wanted to be a geneticist for a while after ‘Jurassic Park’ was made into a movie; I never thought about Chinese language and literature as something for me,” Sikivie, now 37, recalled as he looked back on his childhood aspirations. By age 14, Sikivie knew he wanted to be a musician. Four years later, he knew his calling was jazz. “St. Thomas by Sonny Rollins came on NPR and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing,” he said of jazz’s enduring appeal. Paul Sikivie plays the bass …