Eleanor Reissa’s mother and father survived the Nazi Holocaust in Europe during the 1940’s. After the war but before they were married, they wrote letters to each other. Those letters led Eleanor on a journey to learn about her parents’ past. The result of that journey was just released in book form. Victoria Kupchinetsky has the story from Cold Spring, New York. Camera – Michael Eckels. …

The Cincinnati Bengals will face the Los Angeles Rams in the 56th edition of the Super Bowl, the championship game of the U.S. National Football League and one of the premier championship events in all of professional sports.    The visiting Cincinnati Bengals came back from a 21-10 halftime deficit to post a 27-24 overtime win over the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC (American Football Conference) Championship game. Kansas City appeared to be on their way to a third consecutive Super Bowl appearance when they posted 21 quick points in the first half, led by superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes. But the Bengals took command in the second half, thanks to a stellar defensive effort and clutch play by second-year quarterback Joe Burrow, taking a narrow 24-21 lead in the fourth quarter.  The Chiefs tied the game at the end of regulation after a 44-yard three-point field goal by placekicker Harrison Butker, and won the chance to get the ball to begin the overtime period. But Bengals defensive back Vonn Bell intercepted a Mahomes pass to receiver Tyreek Hill, allowing Burrows to lead Cincinnati on a long drive capped by the game-winning 31-yard field goal by placekicker Evan McPherson.  The Rams …

Olympic officials in China say 37 people, including athletes and team officials, tested positive for the coronavirus Sunday. On Saturday, 34 people connected with The Games also received positive results.   The Pacific Maritime Association says, according to a New York Times report, that more West Coast longshoremen “contracted the coronavirus in the last month than in all of last year.”  The newspaper said last year the association recorded 1,624 coronavirus infections among the dockworkers, while at least 1,850 cases have been reported within the last month.   Archbishop Chrystostomos II, the head of the Cyprus Orthodox Christian Church, said Sunday on state broadcaster CyBC, that he will suspend 12 priests in the diocese who have refused to adhere to his calls to get vaccinated.  The religious leader warned that the suspensions could last as long as six months and could possibly lead to the priests being defrocked.   Archbishop Chrystostomos said the priests’ insubordination was “unheard of,” according to an Associated Press report.   New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has tested negative for COVID-19 after being exposed to it on a flight to Auckland. A government spokesman said Ardern will remain in isolation until Tuesday to adhere to public health guidelines.   The …

Despite reports that he is retiring, Brady has told the Tampa Bay Buccaneers he hasn’t made up his mind, two people familiar with the details told The Associated Press. It’s not known when he’ll make an announcement, leaving his team guessing and fans hoping for one more run that seems unlikely considering his age and family obligations. ESPN first reported Brady’s retirement on Saturday, citing unidentified sources. Brady’s company posted a tweet indicating he’s retiring, and reaction came from around the world congratulating Brady on his career. Even the NFL’s Twitter account posted a series of congratulatory messages. But TB12sports deleted its tweet, and Brady’s agent, Don Yee, said the 44-year-old quarterback would be the only person to accurately express his future. Sources: No decision Brady informed Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht he has not made a decision, according to two people who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the conversations. Brady’s father, Tom Brady Sr., told multiple reporters that his son hasn’t made a firm decision yet. A seven-time Super Bowl champion and the NFL’s career leader in numerous passing categories, Brady is under contract for 2022, but he has cited a …

Ahead of a Cameroon-Gambia knockout match in the ongoing Africa Football Cup of Nations in Douala, a commercial hub and coastal city Saturday, Cameroon says it has deployed an additional 250 police officers to control an influx of tens of thousands of fans. The central African nation this week reported a stampede that killed eight people and injured 38 in an AFCON match in the capital, Yaoundé. Police have been struggling to contain the huge number of arriving fans.   This song, Go Lions Go, by the musical group Tribute Sisters, blasts through speakers at bus stations in Yaoundé and Douala. The song says if Cameroon’s national football team, the Indomitable Lions, wins the ongoing Africa Football Cup of Nations, Cameroon will be stronger and more united and its people will be proud. Host Cameroon is playing a quarter-final match Saturday against Gambia in Douala. Among the Cameroon fans in the city is Gilbert Ekosso, a 28-year-old teacher. Ekosso says if he misses this opportunity, he may never watch Cameroon play against Gambia in an AFCON match in his life.   “The last time Cameroon hosted an Africa Cup of Nations competition was about 50 years ago,” Ekosso said. “There …

Joni Mitchell said Friday she is seeking to remove all her music from Spotify in solidarity with Neil Young, who ignited a protest against the streaming service for airing a podcast that featured a figure who has spread misinformation about the coronavirus.    Mitchell, who like Young is a California-based songwriter who had much of her success in the 1970s, is the first prominent musician to join Young’s effort. “Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives,” Mitchell said Friday in a message posted on her website. “I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue.”    Following Young’s action this week, Spotify said it had policies in place to remove misleading content from its platform and has removed more than 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.    But the service has said nothing about comedian Joe Rogan, whose podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” is the centerpiece of the controversy. Last month Rogan interviewed on his podcast Dr. Robert Malone, an infectious disease specialist who has been banned from Twitter for spreading COVID misinformation.    Rogan is one of the streaming service’s biggest stars, with a contract …

Just days after the banning of Maus by a Tennessee school district made national news, two editions of Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust have reached the top 20 on Amazon.com and are in limited supply. Maus was No. 12 on Amazon as of early Friday evening and was not available for delivery until mid-February. The Complete Maus, which includes a second volume, was No. 9 and out of stock. Neither book was in the top 1,000 at the beginning of the week. Earlier this month, the McMinn County School Board in Tennessee voted to remove Maus due to “inappropriate language” and an illustration of a nude woman, according to minutes from a board meeting. Spiegelman’s autobiographical book, winner of a Pulitzer in 1992, tells of his father’s experiences as a Holocaust survivor. The board’s decision came amid a wave of conservative-sponsored legislation and other actions to pull books from schools, with other banned works including Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.    …

Every year during the Sundance Film Festival, the New Frontier exhibition introduces technologies in storytelling. This is the second year the festival and the exhibit have gone digital due to COVID-19. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with curator Shari Frilot on New Frontier’s visual platforms for art, film and performance. Video Editing: Penelope Poulou , Luis Da Costa …

Wednesday, January 26, 2022 Ivory Coast vs Egypt | 0-0 (4-5) Mali vs Equatorial Guinea | 0-0 (5-6)   …

Sunday, January 23, 2022 Burkina Faso vs Gabon | 1-1 ~ (7-6) Nigeria vs Tunisia | 0-1   …

Most countries have made little to no progress in bringing down corruption levels over the past decade, and authorities’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic in many places has weighed on accountability, a closely watched study by an anti-graft organization found Tuesday. Transparency International’s 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index, which measures the perception of public sector corruption according to experts and business people, found that “increasingly, rights and checks and balances are being undermined not only in countries with systemic corruption and weak institutions, but also among established democracies.” Among other issues over the past year, it cited the use of Pegasus software, which has been linked to snooping on human rights activists, journalists and politicians across the globe. The report said the pandemic has “been used in many countries as an excuse to curtail basic freedoms and sidestep important checks and balances.” In Western Europe, the best-scoring region overall, the pandemic has given countries “an excuse for complacency in anti-corruption efforts as accountability and transparency measures are neglected or even rolled back,” Transparency said. In some Asian countries, it said, COVID-19 “also has been used as an excuse to suppress criticism.” It pointed to increased digital surveillance in some nations and …

South Sudan has held a peace Olympics to help reconcile communities divided by conflict. The “Twic Olympics” this year marked its 20th anniversary in Twic County.  At this Olympics opening ceremony, a spiritual leader blesses athletes to protect them from injury while a goat represents the belief that power comes from nature.  This is not the winter Olympics in Beijing. It’s the Twic Olympics in northern South Sudan.  The annual two-weeks of games in January attracts athletes from six communities to compete in traditional Olympic and team sports.  The aim: to reduce communal conflict.  Volleyball player Ring Aguek Ring knows violence firsthand.  “In May they came to raid our cattle and in the process of protecting them I was shot and at last I succeeded to get my cows back. As I am still in the games, I am an injured person but who still can play because I see it as a unifying factor,” Ring said. More than 700 athletes participated in this year’s 20th anniversary games, which also promoted health issues such as preventing COVID, HIV, and waterborne diseases.    Twic Olympics founder Acuil Malith Banggol says the games have a mission.  “Peace does not come without agenda.  You cannot …

Several people are dead in Cameroon after football fans crammed the gates of a new stadium to watch the home country play a match in the African Cup of Nations tournament.  State broadcaster CRTV says eight people were killed as thousands of fans attempted to enter Yaounde Olembe Stadium in the capital Yaounde Monday to see Cameroon take on Comoros in a round of 16 game.  Scores of other people were injured in the stampede and taken to nearby hospitals.  The Confederation of African Football, which runs the African Cup, issued a statement saying it is “currently investigating the situation in order to obtain more details” about the stampede, and was in “constant communication” with Cameroonian authorities.  Officials had intended to cap the amount of people allowed inside the 60,000-seat stadium to around 80 percent capacity due to concerns about the COVID-19 concerns.   Monday’s tragedy comes just a day after at least 17 people were killed and eight others injured  in a nightclub fire in Yaounde.    Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.   …

Molly Smith, who is the artistic director of the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., has been highlighting American plays for over 20 years. Liliya Anisimova has her story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Yuriy Zakrevskiy …

Just as studios were resuming theatrical releases at the end of last year, the omicron variant of the coronavirus rolled in, forcing a return to streaming or a theater release-streaming hybrid. Now that the traditional way of viewing new releases has changed, the film industry faces a crucial question: In the era of COVID-19, how does one measure box office success? Penelope Poulou has more. …

French designer Thierry Mugler, who reigned over fashion in the 1980s and died on Sunday, was as famous for his fantastical couture as for his blockbuster fashion shows. He was 73. Mugler’s daring collections came to define the decade’s power dressing, with his clothes noted for their structured and sophisticated silhouettes, showcased by his extravagant shows. “I always thought that fashion was not enough on its own and that it had to be shown in its musical and theatrical environment,” he once said. In later years, he dressed Beyonce and Lady Gaga — and in 2019 came out of retirement to create Kim Kardashian’s Met Gala look. “We are devastated to announce the passing of Mr Manfred Thierry Mugler on Sunday January 23rd 2022,” said a post on the designer’s official Facebook account. His agent Jean-Baptiste Rougeot, who said the designer had died of “natural causes,” added he had been due to announce new collaborations early this week. Born in Strasbourg in December 1948, as a young teen Mugler joined the Opera du Rhin’s ballet company before studying at the School of Decorative Arts. From a young age he created his own clothes, adapting items bought at nearby flea markets. …

For thousands of years, wooden sailboats allowed the peoples of Northern Europe to spread trade, influence and sometimes war across seas and continents. In December, the U.N.’s culture agency added Nordic “clinker boats” to its list of traditions that represent the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden jointly sought the UNESCO designation. The term “clinker” is thought to refer to the way the boat’s wooden boards were fastened together. Supporters of the successful nomination hope it will safeguard and preserve the boat-building techniques that drove the Viking era for future generations as the number of active clinker craftsmen fades and fishermen and others opt for vessels with cheaper glass fiber hulls. “We can see that the skills of building them, the skills of sailing the boats, the knowledge of people who are sailing … it goes down and it disappears,” said Søren Nielsen, head of boatyard at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, west of Copenhagen. The museum not only exhibits the remains of wooden vessels built 1,000 years ago, but also works to rebuild and reconstruct other Viking boats. The process involves using experimental archaeological methods to gain a deeper, more practical understanding of …

George Chen’s high-end China Live restaurant in San Francisco’s Chinatown has lost 90% of its Lunar New Year bookings made by company parties and big families fearing the spread of COVID-19 as the omicron variant rampages across the United States. Three of his 100 employees have gotten the disease since the omicron surge began.    But his three-floor restaurant is not turning away dine-in customers like a year ago. No state or local government has ordered shutdowns. Smaller parties can still come in for informal, private meals, and Chen hopes to see more of those gatherings ahead of the global Chinese population’s major annual holiday, which falls on February 1 this year.    “Last year I think we were in the middle of a shutdown – during that time we couldn’t even [be] allowed to do outdoor seating, forget indoors,” Chen told VOA on Tuesday. “This year is tough. … We’ll keep our fingers crossed and hopefully people will feel more comfortable, get vaccinated and come out and enjoy themselves.”    The 64-year-old career restaurateur’s story serves as a microcosm for San Francisco, keeper of the best-known Chinatown in the United States, as the Year of the Tiger approaches.  Countless …

A proposal to overhaul New Mexico’s social studies standards has stirred debate over how race should be taught in schools, with thousands of parents and teachers weighing in on changes that would dramatically increase instruction related to racial and social identity beginning in kindergarten.  The revisions in the state are ambitious. New Mexico officials say they hope their standards can be a model for the country of social studies teaching that is culturally responsive, as student populations grow increasingly diverse.  As elsewhere, the move toward more open discussion of race has prompted angry rebukes, with some critics blasting it as racist or Marxist. But the responses also provide a window into how others are wrestling with how and when race should be taught to children beyond the polarizing debates over material branded as “critical race theory.”  The responses have not broken down along racial lines, with Indigenous and Latino parents among those expressing concern in one of the country’s least racially segregated states. While debates elsewhere have centered on the teaching of enslavement of Black people, some discussions in New Mexico, which is 49% Hispanic and 11% Native American, have focused on the legacy of Spanish conquistadors.  “We refuse to …

Cameroon says that within four days, at least 1,500 football supporters have entered the country from neighboring Equatorial Guinea and Gabon to support their teams that have advanced to Round 16 in the Africa Football Cup of Nations, or AFCON. Gabon battles Burkina Faso Sunday, while Equatorial Guinea plays against Mali Wednesday. Tournament organizers require all fans to have COVID-19 tests before entering stadiums.] Cameroon’s immigration police said Saturday that buses carrying at least 900 football fans from Gabon and Equatorial Guinea have entered the central African state within 48 hours. Gabon and Equatorial Guinea are Cameroon’s southern neighbors.  The immigration police said about 600 other football fans from Gabon and Equatorial Guinea arrived in Cameroon by sea and by air this week. Cameroon says the influx came after Gabon and Equatorial Guinea qualified for the knockout stage of the Africa Football Cup of Nations, or AFCON, in Cameroon. Gabon played a 2-2 draw Tuesday against Morocco in Yaoundé, and both teams advanced. Equatorial Guinea sealed their place after a 1-0 win against Sierra Leone in a group  match played at Limbes Omnisport Stadium in Cameroon’s English-speaking South West region Thursday.  Thirty-year-old Prosper Ebang is among the 1,500 supporters from …

Government and business leaders have urged cooperation on the world’s biggest issues — climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and the economic recovery — at the World Economic Forum’s virtual gathering.  Speeches and discussions from the likes of Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres moved online this week after COVID-19 concerns delayed the forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Critics regularly fault the Davos event for hosting elites touting high-minded but often empty goals deemed out of touch with regular people.  As usual, big ideas were debated, but no concrete deals emerged. The forum announced Friday that it plans to have its in-person gathering May 22-26 after two years of delays.  Here are some takeaways from the online event:  Climate change  German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed to use his country’s Group of Seven presidency to have industrial nations lead a “paradigm shift in international climate policy.”  The new head of Europe’s biggest economy said Wednesday that the “climate club” would agree on “joint minimum standards.” Its goals are already part of the Paris climate accord, including limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.  Scholz said the club could seek to achieve those goals …

Louie Anderson, whose four-decade career as a comedian and actor included his unlikely, Emmy-winning performance as mom to twin adult sons in the TV series “Baskets,” died Friday. He was 68. Anderson died at a hospital in Las Vegas of complications from cancer, said Glenn Schwartz, his longtime publicist. Anderson had a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Schwartz said previously. “‘Baskets’ was such a phenomenal ‘second act’ for Louie Anderson. I wish he’d gotten a third,” Michael McKean said on Twitter. George Wallace wrote: “You’ll be missed, Louie. What an awesome friend. One in a million.” Gilbert Gottfried posted a photo of himself, Anderson and Bob Saget, who died Jan. 9, with the caption: “Both good friends that will be missed.” “You were as gracious and kind as you were funny. Rest well!! Keep ’em laughing in Heaven,” Viola Davis said on Twitter. The portly, round-faced Anderson used his girth and a checkered childhood in Saint Paul, Minnesota, as fodder for his early stand-up routines. In a 1987 interview with The Associated Press, Anderson compared himself to another comedian who mined his childhood for comedy. “Bill Cosby and I had similar goals,” Anderson told AP. “I wanted parents to be able to …

Meat Loaf, the U.S. rock star who rose to global fame with his Bat Out of Hell album, has died at the age of 74. The American singer and actor, otherwise known as Michael Lee Aday, had a career spanning six decades, and sold more than 100 million albums worldwide. His hits included the near 10-minute-long title track from Bat Out of Hell, Paradise by the Dashboard Light from the same album, and I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) from 1993 album Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell. “From his heart to your souls … don’t ever stop rocking!” the statement posted on his own Facebook page said. “Our hearts are broken to announce that the incomparable Meat Loaf passed away tonight with his wife Deborah by his side.”      …

Elza Soares, one of the most revered singers in Brazilian samba music, died at her home in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday, aged 91. She died of natural causes, her press representative said in a statement. “An icon of Brazilian music, considered one of the best artists in the world, the singer chosen as Voice of the Millennium [by the BBC] had a tremendous, intense life, who moved the world with her voice, her strength and her determination,” said the statement. Born in a favela slum in Rio de Janeiro to a washerwoman and a factory worker in 1930, Soares rose from poverty to record 36 albums and perform at the 2016 Olympic opening ceremony in Rio. The mayor of Rio has declared three days of mourning for the legendary singer. Her raspy voice struck a chord with audiences around the world in concert hall performances of songs that touched on the hardship of life in Rio, justice for women and racism in Brazilian society. She became a fierce champion of Black feminism and an outspoken voice against violence against women. “Racism still continues, but we are going to fight it and we will make progress. Racism is a sickness,” …