washington — President Joe Biden welcomed the reigning WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces to the White House on Thursday, celebrating what he called a “banner year” for women’s basketball. “It matters to girls and women, finally seeing themselves represented,” Biden said during the celebration held in the East Room of the White House. “It matters to all Americans. That’s why as a nation, we need to support women’s sports.” Both he and Vice President Kamala Harris were given the customary jerseys from the winning team. As he held his up, Biden yelled, “Put me in Coach, I’m ready to play!” In her own remarks, Harris praised the team for playing with “such joy” and being role models both on and off the basketball court. “You simply inspire people across our nation and around the world,” Harris said. The Las Vegas Aces defeated the New York Liberty in the WNBA championship last October to win their second consecutive WNBA title. As he began his remarks, Biden made a not-so-veiled reference to his own reelection prospects, noting, “I kind of like that back-to-back stuff.” …

MARSEILLE, France — Joyful crowds gathered along the streets of France’s southern port of Marseille on Thursday to see torchbearers carrying the Olympic flame through the city’s most emblematic sites, a day after it arrived on a majestic three-mast ship for a welcoming ceremony.  It was the first leg of an 11-week journey across the country for the torch, which will be carried by about 10,000 bearers as it passes through more than 450 towns until the Games’ opening ceremony in Paris on July 26.  Former soccer player Basile Boli, who played with the Marseille team in the 1990s, kicked off Thursday’s relay from the Notre Dame de la Garde basilica that overlooks Marseille and the Mediterranean.  “I’m very proud,” Boli said. “You feel like you’re on top of the world, because with an Olympic flame there’s a special fervor. … It’s the symbol of sport!”  Basketball player Tony Parker later took his turn in the relay, praising “a great honor.” On a nearby crowded beach, swimmers and sunbathers cheered the torch bearers as the flame passed.  “The enthusiasm of Marseille for the flame is phenomenal,” said Maurice Genevois, a local resident. “Honestly, I have rarely seen such a celebration.”  Magali …

…

Heavy metal music is controversial in some conservative societies but quite popular in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country. As VOA’s Dave Grunebaum reports, heavy metal has a home in Indonesia. …

Jakarta, Indonesia — The sounds from guitars strumming and drums beating sears through the air. Crowds dance in circles while thumping their heads back and forth. Some 38,000 fans attended Hammersonic this past weekend, according to organizers of Southeast Asia’s largest annual heavy metal music festival. Featuring 55 bands, the event is held in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim majority country. One of the groups performing, Lamb of God, was barred from performing in neighboring Malaysia in 2013 after Islamic leaders there said some of the band’s songs were blasphemous. Interestingly, the current president of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, talks openly about his passion for heavy metal and says he’s a fan of Lamb of God. “We’re a moderate Muslim country and that’s why we’re more open to foreign influence including heavy metal music than some more conservative countries” said Pri Ario Damar, dean of the performing arts faculty at the Jakarta Institute of Arts. Damar, 49, was a bass guitarist in a local heavy metal band back in the 1990s and currently plays with his students from time to time. “Heavy metal has been popular here for decades,” he says. “So there are several generations of listeners …

New York — It’s Met Gala time and the fashion parade of A-listers Monday included a swirl of flora and fauna looks on a green-tinged carpet surrounded by foliage. Jennifer Lopez went for silver leaves in a second-skin goddess gown and Zendaya was all vamp and fantasy. Both are co-chairs of the annual fundraiser at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. And both received cheers from the crowd of fashion enthusiasts packed behind barriers outside. Flowers were everywhere, in line with this year’s theme: “The Garden of Time.” Lopez (in Schiaparelli) was all va-va-voom in a near-naked gown that hugged like a second skin. She’s got the Meta Gala down: It’s her 14th. This year’s theme is inspired by J.G. Ballard’s 1962 short story of the same name. Zendaya put on her fashion face in hues of blue and green, with a head piece to match and leaf accents. It’s been five years since Zendaya last attended the Met Gala. Her look, in peacock colors, was by Maison Margiela. Lopez went with Tiffany & Co. diamonds, including a stunning bird motif necklace with a diamond of over 20 carats at its center. Mindy Kaling is sure to make the best-dressed lists in …

New York — “The Fall Guy,” the Ryan Gosling-led, action-comedy ode to stunt performers, opened below expectations with $28.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday, providing a lukewarm start to a summer movie season that’s very much to be determined for Hollywood. The Universal Pictures release opened on a weekend that Marvel has regularly dominated with $100 million-plus launches. (In 2023, that was “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” with a $118 million debut.) But last year’s strikes jumbled this year’s movie calendar; “Deadpool & Wolverine,” originally slated to open this weekend, is now debuting in July. So in place of a superhero kickoff, the summer launch went to a movie about the stunt performers who anonymously sacrifice their bodies for the kind of action sequences blockbusters are built on. Going into the weekend, forecasts had the film opening $30 million to $40 million. “The Fall Guy,” directed by former stuntman and “Deadpool 2” helmer David Leitch, rode into the weekend with the momentum of glowing reviews and the buzz of a SXSW premiere. But it will need sustained interest to merit its $130 million production budget. It added $25.4 million in overseas markets. Working in its favor for a long …

…

RIO DE JANEIRO — Madonna put on a free concert on Copacabana beach Saturday night, turning Rio de Janeiro’s vast stretch of sand into an enormous dance floor teeming with a multitude of her fans. It was the last show of The Celebration Tour, her first retrospective, which kicked off in October in London. The “Queen of Pop” began the show with her 1998 hit Nothing Really Matters. Huge cheers rose from the buzzing, tightly packed crowd, pressed up against the barriers. Others held house parties in brightly lit apartments and hotels overlooking the beachfront. Helicopters and drones flew overhead, and motorboats and sailboats anchored off the beach filled the bay. “Here we are in the most beautiful place in the world,” Madonna, 65, told the crowd. Pointing out the ocean view, the mountains and the Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking the city, she added: “This place is magic.” Madonna performed her classic hits, including Like a Virgin and Hung Up. For the introduction to Like a Prayer, her head was completely covered in a black cape, a rosary gripped in her hands. The star paid an emotional tribute to “all the bright lights” lost to AIDS as she sang Live …

CHENGDU, China — In 2018, the censors who oversee Chinese media issued a directive to the nation’s entertainment industry: Don’t feature artists with tattoos and those who represent hip-hop or any other subculture. Right after that, a well-known rapper, GAI, missed a gig on a popular singing competition despite a successful first appearance. Speculation went wild: Fans worried that this was the end for hip-hop in China. Some media labeled it a ban. The genre had just experienced a banner year, with a hit competition-format TV show minting new stars and introducing them to a country of 1.4 billion people. Rappers accustomed to operating on little money and performing in small bars became household names. The announcement from censors came at the peak of that frenzy. A silence descended, and for months no rappers appeared on the dozens of variety shows and singing competitions on Chinese TV. But by the end of that year, everything was back in full swing. What had looked like the end for Chinese hip-hop was just the beginning. “Hip-hop was too popular,” says Nathanel Amar, a researcher of Chinese pop culture at the French Center for Research on Contemporary China. “They couldn’t censor the whole genre.” …

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY — Twenty horses stampeding toward the first turn in a battle for position. A screaming crowd of 150,000 and maybe some showers that dampen the Churchill Downs dirt strip. It’s the 150th Kentucky Derby. Beyond a couple early wagering favorites, it’s a wide-open race. Post time is 6:57 p.m. Saturday. The forecast calls for 27 Celsius (81 Fahrenheit) with a 60% chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms. That kind of weather could benefit six horses that have won in the mud or slop before, including early favorites Fierceness and Sierra Leone. The others with experience on messy surfaces are Dornoch, Just a Touch, Mystik Dan and Society Man. The Derby will answer the perennial question of which 3-year-old can best handle running 1¼ miles in front of the biggest crowd they will ever see and hear. Fierceness and jockey John Velazquez will break from the No. 17 post, which has never produced a derby winner. The costliest colt in the 20-horse field is Sierra Leone at $2.3 million. “A lot of times you buy an expensive horse like that, and they can’t run,” said Peter Brandt, one of the six owners. “We’ve very, very lucky he’s made it this …

KASHAN, Iran — The historic Kashan bazaar in central Iran once sat on a major caravan route, its silk carpets known the world over. But for the weavers trying to sell their rugs under its ancient arches, their world has only unraveled since the collapse of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers and wider tensions with the West. Rug exports, which exceeded $2 billion two decades ago, have plummeted to less than $50 million in the last year in the Persian calendar that ended in March, according to government customs figures. With fewer tourists coming and difficulties rising in making international transactions, Iranian rugs are going unsold as some weavers work for as little as $4 a day. “Americans were some of our best customers,” said Ali Faez, the owner of one dusty carpet shop at the bazaar. “Rugs are a luxury product and they were eager to buy it and they used to make very good purchases. Unfortunately, this has been cut — and the connection between the two countries for visitors to come and go has gone away.” Kashan’s rug-weaving industry has been inscribed in UNESCO’s list of the world’s “intangible cultural heritage.” Many of the weavers are women, …

PARIS — Freshly cooked bread, select cheeses and a broad veggie offer will be among the meals to be offered to athletes and visitors during the 2024 Paris Olympics — including, of course, gourmet dishes created by renowned French chefs. About 40,000 meals are expected to be served each day during the Games to the more than 15,000 athletes from 200 different countries housed at the Olympic village. Visitors, too, will be able to enjoy some specially created snacks at the different venues. French food services company Sodexo Live!, which was selected to oversee the catering at the athletes’ village and 14 venues of the Paris Games, said it has created a total of 500 recipes, which will notably be offered at a sit-down eatery for up to 3,500 athletes at the village, meant to be the “world’s largest restaurant.” “Of course, there will be some classics for athletes, like pasta,” said Nathalie Bellon-Szabo, global CEO of Sodexo Live! But the food will have a “very French touch.” Athletes will also have access to “grab and go” food stands, including one dedicated exclusively to French cuisine cooked up by chefs. Renowned French chef Amandine Chaignot, who runs a restaurant and a …

LYPIVKA, Ukraine — This Orthodox Easter season, an extraordinary new church is bringing spiritual comfort to war-weary residents of the Ukrainian village of Lypivka. Two years ago, it also provided physical refuge from the horrors outside. Almost 100 residents sheltered in a basement chapel at the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary while Russian troops occupied the village in March 2022 as they closed in on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, 60 kilometers to the east. “The fighting was right here,” the Rev. Hennadii Kharkivskyi said. He pointed to the churchyard, where a memorial stone commemorates six Ukrainian soldiers killed in the battle for Lypivka. “They were injured and then the Russians came and shot each one, finished them off,” he said. The two-week Russian occupation left the village shattered and the church itself — a modern replacement for an older structure — damaged while still under construction. It’s one of 129 war-damaged Ukrainian religious sites recorded by UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural organization. “It’s solid concrete,” the priest said. “But it was pierced easily” by Russian shells, which blasted holes in the church and left a wall inside pockmarked with shrapnel scars. At the bottom of the basement staircase, …

…

Egypt’s eighth annual Aswan International Women Film Festival took place from April 20 to 25. This year’s focus was on the resilience of women, with Egypt’s economic turmoil and the war in neighboring Gaza as a backdrop. Cairo-based photojournalist Hamada Elrasam captured scenes around the festival in Aswan, Egypt’s southernmost city known as the country’s ancient gateway. Captions by Elle Kurancid. …

Barcelona, Spain — French Iranian artist Marjane Satrapi, whose graphic novel “Persepolis” tells the story of a girl growing up in post-revolutionary Iran, was awarded Spain’s prestigious Princess of Asturias Prize for Communication and Humanity on Tuesday.  The prize jury praised the 54-year-old as “one of the most prominent names in international comics, author of what is, for many, one of the best graphic novels ever published.”  “Satrapi is a symbol of civic engagement led by women,” the jury said, calling her “an essential voice in the defense of human rights and freedom.”  Born in Iran, Satrapi recounts in “Persepolis” her years as an outspoken teenager chafing at the Islamic revolution and its restrictions imposed on women, especially for one from a progressive family like hers. It also tells of the hardships of the Iran-Iraq war.  At 14, her parents sent her to school in Vienna to avoid arrest over her defiance of the regime. She later returned to Tehran but left for France in 1994, embarking on her career as an author, film director and painter.  Her animated film adaptation of “Persepolis” won her a nomination at the Academy Awards in 2008.  Satrapi said it was “a great honor” to …

…

houston — Time marches on and all good things must come to an end. But don’t tell that to The Rolling Stones. What many believe to be the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world showed no signs of slowing down anytime soon as they kicked off their latest tour Sunday night at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas. The Stones have been touring for more than 60 years. Frontman Mick Jagger and lead guitarist Keith Richards are both 80, with guitarist Ronnie Wood not far behind at 76. Their tour is being sponsored in part by AARP. But during a vibrant two-hour show, the Stones played with the energy of a band that was on tour for the first time. “It’s great to be back in the Lone Star State,” Jagger told the packed stadium, filled with longtime fans, many wearing faded concert shirts from previous tours. Jagger often strutted up and down the stage with seemingly boundless energy while Richards and Wood played many familiar guitar riffs beloved by fans. Jagger often led the audience in sing-alongs. “The energy level is up and it’s always up with them. The age doesn’t show,” Dale Skjerseth, the Stones’ production director, said …

new york — The U.S. Soccer Federation and its Mexican counterpart dropped their joint bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup on Monday and said they instead will focus on trying to host the 2031 tournament. The decision left a proposal from Brazil and a joint Germany-Netherlands-Belgium plan competing to be picked for 2027 by the FIFA Congress that meets May 17 in Bangkok. The USSF said the 2031 bid will call for FIFA to invest equally in the men’s and women’s World Cups. FIFA said last year it planned to spend $896 million in prize money for the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada. The governing body devoted $110 million in prize money for last year’s Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. “Hosting a World Cup tournament is a huge undertaking — and having additional time to prepare allows us to maximize its impact across the globe,” USSF President Cindy Parlow Cone said in a statement. “I’m proud of our commitment to provide equitable experiences for the players, fans and all our stakeholders. Shifting our bid will enable us to host a record-breaking Women’s World Cup in 2031 that will help to grow …

Tehran, Iran — Iranian authorities have banned an Egyptian TV series depicting a medieval Persian figure over historical “distortions” and “a biased approach,” state media reported Sunday. “The Assassins,” or “El-Hashashin” in Arabic, recounts the story of Hassan-i Sabbah, the controversial founder of an offshoot Shiite Muslim sect known for bloody political assassinations during the 11th century. The 30-episode series about Sabbah and his band of assassins, who operated out of mountain bases in northern and western Iran, was first broadcast during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan which ended earlier this month. The show has since gained popularity across the Middle East, but the head of Tehran’s audiovisual media regulatory body, Mehdi Seifi, said that “the broadcast of ‘El-Hashashin’ series… is no longer approved in Iran.” “Its narrative of Islamic history includes many distortions, and it seems to have been produced with a biased political approach,” Seifi was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency, without elaborating. IRNA said the series shows “a false image of Iranians” and quoted experts who argued it sought to link Iranians to the “inception of terrorism.”   Another news agency, ISNA, said the series was a “perfect example” of the “modification and …

London — Prince Harry will return to Britain to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his Invictus Games in May, before joining his wife Meghan on a visit to Nigeria, his spokesperson said Sunday.  Harry, the youngest son of King Charles, lives in the United States with Meghan and their two children after he gave up working as a member of the royal family in 2020.  He has only returned to Britain on a few occasions since his departure from royal life, arriving for major events such as the funeral of Queen Elizabeth in 2022 and his father’s coronation in May 2023.  His spokesperson said Harry would attend a service at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London on May 8 to celebrate the Invictus Games, the international sporting event that he founded for military personnel wounded in action.  Harry served as a military helicopter pilot in Afghanistan and Invictus organizers said the service was designed to mark “a decade of changing lives and saving lives through sport.”  It will include readings by Harry and the British actor Damian Lewis. Wounded veterans and members of the Invictus community will also attend.  Harry will then be joined in Nigeria by Meghan, a former American actress …

…

VENICE, Italy — Venice has always been a place of contrasts, of breathtaking beauty and devastating fragility, where history, religion, art and nature have collided over the centuries to produce an otherworldly gem of a city. But even for a place that prides itself on its culture of unusual encounters, Pope Francis’ visit Sunday stood out. Francis traveled to the lagoon city to visit the Holy See’s pavilion at the Biennale contemporary art show and meet with the people who created it. But because the Vatican decided to mount its exhibit in Venice’s women’s prison, and invited inmates to collaborate with the artists, the whole project assumed a far more complex meaning, touching on Francis’ belief in the power of art to uplift and unite, and of the need to give hope and solidarity to society’s most marginalized. Francis hit on both messages during his visit, which began in the courtyard of the Giudecca prison where he met with the women inmates one by one. As some of them wept, Francis urged them to use their time in prison as a chance for “moral and material rebirth.” “Paradoxically, a stay in prison can mark the beginning of something new, through the …