Buckingham Palace confirmed Friday that Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, will not be returning to royal duties, and Harry will give up his honorary military titles — a decision that makes formal, and final, the couple’s split from the royal family.When Harry and Meghan stepped away from full-time royal life in early 2020, it was agreed the situation would be reviewed after a year.Now it has, and the palace said in a statement that the couple, also known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have verified “they will not be returning as working members of The Royal Family. “It said Queen Elizabeth II had spoken to Harry and confirmed “that in stepping away from the work of the Royal Family, it is not possible to continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service.”The palace said Harry’s appointment as captain general of the Royal Marines and titles with other military groups would revert to the queen before being distributed to other members of the family.Harry, who served in the British army for a decade and has a close bond with the military, founded the Invictus Games competition for wounded troops.”While all are saddened …

Millions of people in the United States are facing frigid, stormy weather, although the number of people without power in the southwestern state of Texas dropped below a half million on Thursday for the first time in four days. Electricity in Texas, the country’s second-biggest state, was restored to about 2.5 million people. The head of the cooperative that is responsible for most of the state’s electricity said there was progress Wednesday in boosting available power and that officials hoped that soon people would only have to deal with rolling blackouts before service is fully restored. But the state faced a new problem, with officials ordering 7 million people, about a quarter of its population, to boil tap water before drinking it because of damaged infrastructure and frozen pipes. Texas Governor Greg Abbott urged residents, if possible, to shut off water to their homes, to prevent pipes from bursting and preserve water pressure in municipal systems. The massive storm system has been blamed for at least 30 deaths in the U.S. this week. In the Houston area, the Associated Press reported that one family died from carbon monoxide poisoning due to car exhaust in their garage, while a grandmother and …

Canada’s cancellation of the 2021 Alaska cruise ship season due to the coronavirus pandemic has angered the U.S. state’s politicians and rattled the tourism industry in both countries. Those on the ground in both Alaska and the Canadian province of British Columbia are dealing with the fallout.Citing continuing concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian Transportation Ministry has extended the prohibition of any passenger cruise vessels carrying over 100 people between Canada and Alaska. The order extends through February 2022.    In a terse statement, Alaska’s U.S. congressional delegation complained that the decision was made arbitrarily by Canada with no consultation or advance notice. The statement, from the two U.S. senators and the state’s only representative, also says it was made without any consideration for Alaska or the state’s economy.   FILE – The Grand Princess cruise ship in Gastineau Channel in Juneau, Alaska, May 30, 2018.According to the Alaska Travel Industry Association, in 2019 the state welcomed more than 1.3 million visitors who arrived on cruise ships, comprising 60 percent of the state’s summer visitors.    The association’s CEO, Sarah Leonard, is urging a temporary waiver to the U.S. Passenger Vessel Services Act to allow cruise ships to sail from …

Former Japanese athlete Seiko Hashimoto has become the new president of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics organizing committee after Yoshiro Mori resigned following sexist remarks about women.   Hashimoto, a 56-year-old lawmaker in Japan’s ruling party, participated in seven Summer and Winter Olympics as a skater and a cyclist.     She was named president of the committee after a meeting with a male-dominated executive board.   Hashimoto replaced Mori, the 83-year-old former prime minister.     Mori said at a Feb. 3 Olympics board of trustees meeting that women talk too much, declaring that “board meetings with lots of women take longer” because “if one member raises her hand to speak, others might think they need to talk, too.”   Mori retracted his comments and apologized the next day and said he would not resign before stepping down last week.   His remarks, which were leaked to Japanese media, sparked public debate in the country about gender equality and fueled concerns over the feasibility of holding the games later this year.     Organizers previously made the risky decision to begin the Games on July 23 in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic with 11,000 athletes.   Hashimoto is tasked …

Artworks owned by the late artist Christo and his wife, Jean-Claude, a duo famed for wrapping landmarks in fabric, sold for $9.6 million at auction on Wednesday.The 28 lots under the hammer at Sotheby’s in Paris included drawings for the couple’s “The Umbrellas (Joint project for Japan and USA),” two spectacular installations by the couple in 1991 consisting of thousands of umbrellas erected simultaneously in Japan and Los Angeles.Less than a year after his death at the age of 84, Christo is evidently more in demand than ever, with more than three quarters of the works on sale selling above estimate.The works, snapped up by buyers in the United States, Asia and Europe, had been expected to sell for between $3 million and $4.5 million collectively.The preparatory drawings for the yellow Californian umbrellas set a new record for a work by the Bulgarian-born U.S. artist at $2 million, while the Japanese version sold for about $1.4 million.A second set of works from the couple’s private collection are due to go on sale Thursday.Christo collaborated with Jeanne-Claude, his wife of 51 years, until her death in 2009 and continued to produce dramatic pieces into his 80s.From Paris’s oldest bridge to Berlin’s …

Yoshiro Mori’s replacement as president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee is expected to be named very quickly. The 83-year-old former prime minister was forced to step down last week after making demeaning remarks about women. Basically, he said they talk too much.There is pressure to name a woman to replace Mori. But don’t bet on it happening with the Olympics opening in just over five months. Mori tried last week to work behind the scenes to appoint 84-year-old Saburo Kawabuchi, the former head of the governing body of Japanese soccer. Public opinion and social media quickly pushed back against the move and Kawabuchi withdrew from consideration. Some news reports in Japan say the front-runner might be 63-year-old Yasuhiro Yamashita, the head of the Japanese Olympic Committee and a judo gold medalist from the 1984 Olympics. Yamashita took over the Japanese Olympic body after his predecessor, Tsunekazu Takeda, was forced to step down in 2019 in a bribery scandal. Yamashita is also a member of the International Olympic Committee by virtue of his position in Japan. A panel to pick Mori’s replacement, set up by the organizing committee, met on Tuesday. It was expected to meet again Wednesday and come up with a list of candidates. It’s unclear when …

Black Americans attend church more regularly than Americans overall, and pray more often. Most attend churches that are predominantly Black, yet many would like those congregations to become racially diverse. There is broad respect for Black churches’ historical role in seeking racial equality, coupled with a widespread perception they have lost influence in recent decades. Those are among the key findings in a comprehensive report released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center, which surveyed 8,660 Black adults across the United States about their religious experiences. It is Pew’s first large-scale survey on the topic. Among Black adults who go to religious services, 60% attend churches where the senior clergy and most or all of the congregation are Black, Pew found. It said 25% are part of multiracial congregations, and 13% are part of congregations that are predominantly white or another ethnicity. Pew said patterns of worship are shifting across generations: Younger Black adults, born since 1980, attend church less often than their elders, and those who attend are less likely to do so in a predominantly Black congregation. FILE – Church parishioners sit socially distanced at a prayer vigil for racial justice at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Seattle, July 19, 2020.Among 30 Black …

South Africa has held (Feb 10-14) its annual International Public Art Festival (IPAF), despite the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing measures. Turnout was low but those attending welcomed the street festival as a chance to get out of the house. Vinicius Assis reports from Cape Town.Produced by: Jason Godman   Camera: Vinicius Assis …

Spanish rapper Pablo Hasél was arrested Tuesday after a 24-hour standoff between him and his free speech supporters on one side and Catalan anti-riot police on the other. Along with more than 50 supporters, Hásel barricaded himself in rectorate building of Lleida University, located some 160 kilometers west of Barcelona, to resist reporting to serve a prison sentence and to campaign for free speech.“We will win! They will not bend us with all their repression. Never!” the 32-year-old rapper yelled to TV news cameras during his arrest.Hasél, whose birth name is Pablo Rivadulla Duró, has gained attention across Spain for demanding a change to the country’s so-called “Gag Law.” The 2015 legislation, called the Citizen Safety Law, imposes fines for protesting in front of parliament or taking and sharing photographs of police officers. The law became more restrictive during Spain’s mandatory coronavirus quarantine, according to the country’s newspaper El País.Over 200 artists, including film director Pedro Almodóvar and actor Javier Bardem, signed a petition against his jail term. Amnesty International condemned Hasél’s arrest as “terrible news for freedom of expression in Spain.”Last week, the left-wing coalition government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced it would change Spain’s criminal code to eliminate …

“Our Big Chief told us he doesn’t want us out there this Mardi Gras because of COVID,” Aaron “Flagboy Giz” Hartley told VOA. “He said it wasn’t safe for our members or for the public watching us.”Until this year, Hartley took part in a festive New Orleans tradition dating back to the 1800s, the Mardi Gras Indian. In a unique intermingling of African American and Native American cultures, scores of Black paradegoers don colorful renditions of some elements of Native American garb.”There’s nothing like it in the world,” said Hartley.February 16 is Fat Tuesday, which literally translates to “Mardi Gras.” For Catholics in many parts of the world, the day represents one final celebration before the more solemn six-week period known as Lent.A festively-dressed dinosaurs greets visitors at this home in New Orleans. (Matt Haines/VOA)Perhaps no place in the world celebrates the day more raucously than New Orleans. In a normal year, you’d find Mardi Gras Indians like Hartley with their elaborate suits made of beads, feathers and sequins. You’d find colorful, thematic floats the size of small buildings rumbling down oak-lined avenues as masked “Krewe” members toss beads, cups, decorative coins (and just about everything else you can or …

“Our Big Chief told us he doesn’t want us out there this Mardi Gras because of COVID,” Aaron “Flagboy Giz” Hartley told VOA. “He said it wasn’t safe for our members or for the public watching us.”Until this year, Hartley took part in a festive New Orleans tradition dating back to the 1800s, the Mardi Gras Indian. In a unique intermingling of African American and Native American cultures, scores of Black paradegoers don colorful renditions of some elements of Native American garb.”There’s nothing like it in the world,” said Hartley.February 16 is Fat Tuesday, which literally translates to “Mardi Gras.” For Catholics in many parts of the world, the day represents one final celebration before the more solemn six-week period known as Lent.A festively-dressed dinosaurs greets visitors at this home in New Orleans. (Matt Haines/VOA)Perhaps no place in the world celebrates the day more raucously than New Orleans. In a normal year, you’d find Mardi Gras Indians like Hartley with their elaborate suits made of beads, feathers and sequins. You’d find colorful, thematic floats the size of small buildings rumbling down oak-lined avenues as masked “Krewe” members toss beads, cups, decorative coins (and just about everything else you can or …

More than 150 million people in the central and southern United States were under winter storm warnings or advisories Monday, with record-breaking cold temperatures gripping the nation from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border.   The south-central state of Texas may be takin g the worst of the winter weather.  Hit by ice storms last week that led to a deadly, 100-vehicle pileup on a freeway, on Sunday much of the state saw snow, more ice and unusually cold temperatures. The thermometer at Houston’s Intercontinental Airport early Monday read –8.3 degrees Celsius, the coldest temperature there in 32 years.   Officials in charge of the state’s electricity grid said the storms and frigid temperatures locked up wind turbines on Sunday, reducing power output.  Meanwhile, the cold weather created excessive energy demand prompting electric companies to implement rolling blackouts.   Officials say at least 2.5 million people were without power early Monday. Texas Governor Greg Abbott reached out to U.S. President Joe Biden, who, Sunday, declared a state of emergency for Texas, authorizing U.S. agencies to coordinate.   While forecasters say Texas and the rest of the central U.S. are likely to see more record-breaking cold into Tuesday, the …

To every sport, there’s a season, a spot on the calendar that fans mark for the big event. World Series, October. College hoops, March. Indy 500, Memorial Day. For dog owners, it’s right around Valentine’s Day. That’s when they normally cuddle up on the couch with their precious pooch to watch the Super Bowl of Dogs — the Westminster Kennel Club show. This year, they’ll have to wait for the coveted best in show. Because of coronavirus concerns, the competition was moved from Madison Square Garden this weekend to mid-June at an outdoor estate about 25 miles north of New York City. For now, AP Baseball Writer Ben Walker and wife Ginger Tidwell share their fondest memories from the green carpet over 20 paws-itively wonderful years covering Westminster: Uno, a 15-inch beagle, poses with his trophy after winning Best in Show at the 132nd Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden in New York, Feb. 12, 2008.He’s Numero Uno! Beagles had always been in the Westminster doghouse. No matter how cute, poor ol’ Snoopy had never, ever won the grand prize. Bow-wow bummer. That changed in 2008 when perhaps the greatest show dog of all time showed up. A …

The line between politics and entertainment is increasingly blurred in America, where a former reality TV star recently served as president and entertainment has become more political. The content people choose to watch and listen to reflects a politically divided country, and as VOA’s Elizabeth Lee shows, the division often cuts across families.Produced by: Elizabeth Lee …

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expecting their second child, their office confirmed Sunday. A spokesperson for Prince Harry, 36, and Meghan, 39, said in a statement: “We can confirm that Archie is going to be a big brother. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are overjoyed to be expecting their second child.”Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are pictured in this undated handout photo supplied to Reuters, following an announcement that they are expecting their second child.In a black-and-white photo of themselves, the couple sat near a tree with Harry’s hand placed under Meghan’s head as she lies on his lap with her hand resting on her bump. The baby will be eighth in line to the British throne. A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “Her Majesty, Duke of Edinburgh, Prince of Wales and the entire family are delighted and wish them well.” The duke told chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall in 2019 that he would only have two children for the sake of the planet. Goodall said: “Not too many,” and Harry replied: “Two, maximum.”   Harry and American actor Meghan Markle married at Windsor Castle in May 2018. Their son Archie …

Larry the cat, a four-legged inhabitant of London’s 10 Downing St., is marking a decade as Britain’s mouse-catcher in chief on Monday.   The tabby cat was recruited by then-Prime Minister David Cameron to deal with a pack of rats seen scuttling close to the British leader’s official residence and entered Downing Street on Feb. 15, 2011.   The former stray, adopted from London’s Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, was given the title Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, an unofficial pest control post. He was the first cat to hold the rat-catching portfolio since the retirement of Humphrey in 1997 and has loyally served three prime ministers.   But it seems like yesterday that Larry was just another cat — as opposed to a media superstar — said Lindsey Quinlan, the head of cattery of Battersea.     “Throughout his time at Number 10, Larry has proven himself to not only be a brilliant ambassador for Battersea but also demonstrated to millions of people around the world how incredible rescue cats are,” she said. “His rags to riches tale is yet more proof of why all animals deserve a second chance — one minute they may be an overlooked …

The search for three climbers, who went missing on Pakistan’s K2 mountain earlier this month, has found no trace of them.Iceland’s John Snorri, 47, Chile’s Juan Pablo Mohr, 33, and Pakistan’s Muhammad Ali Sadpara, 45, lost contact with base camp on February 5 during their ascent of what global mountaineers describe as the killer mountain. K2 is the world’s second-highest mountain at 8,611 meters.”An unprecedented search in the history of mountaineering has been ongoing,” Vanessa O’Brien, the first British-American mountaineer to climb K2, said Sunday.She is assisting the search effort as part of the virtual base camp comprising family members in Iceland, Chile, and specialists from around the world, including in Pakistan.”It has been nine long days. If climbing the world’s second-tallest mountain in winter is hard, finding those missing is even more of a challenge,” said O’Brien.When asked whether the men could still be alive despite harsh winter conditions, O’Brien told VOA, “That I don’t know. But on Valentine’s Day, I guarantee you they were loved by their families and their nations.”She explained that specialists, with “devoted support” from Pakistani, Icelandic and Chilean authorities, have scrutinized satellite images, used synthetic aperture radar technology, scanned hundreds of pictures, and checked …

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expecting their second child, their office confirmed Sunday.A spokesperson for the couple said in a statement: “We can confirm that Archie is going to be a big brother. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are overjoyed to be expecting their second child.”  The baby will be eighth in line to the British throne.Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle married at Windsor Castle in May 2018. Their son Archie was born a year later.In early 2020, Meghan and Harry announced they were quitting royal duties and moving to North America, citing what they said were the unbearable intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media. They recently bought a house in Santa Barbara, California.In November, Meghan revealed that she had a miscarriage in July 2020, giving a personal account of the traumatic experience in hope of helping others. …

Archaeologists have discovered a 5,000-year-old brewery that could produce thousands of liters of beer in the ancient Egyptian city of Abydos, Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Ministry said. The site in Egypt’s Sohag Governorate likely dates back to the reign of King Narmer around 3,100 BC, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday. Dr. Matthew Adams, one of the leaders of the Egyptian-American mission that made the discovery, said they believe the beer was used in royal burial rituals for Egypt’s earliest kings. The brewery, which had a production capacity of 22,400 liters, was split into eight sections each containing 40 clay pots used to warm mixtures of grain and water. Officials are keen to show off newly discovered artefacts as they try to revive visitor numbers after Egypt’s tourism industry received a painful blow during the coronavirus pandemic. The number of tourists visiting the country dropped to 3.5 million last year from 13.1 million in 2019.  …

Diamond cloning is said to be a vocation, an artform and a rare skill. New York artist John Hatleberg creates precise reproductions of famous diamonds, but one copy became his life’s work – the Blue Diamond of the French Crown. Vladimir Lenski has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Aleksandr Barash and Natalia Latukhina …

As 17-year-old Darius Jackson watched TV, listening in rapt attention to 22-year-old Amanda Gorman recite her poem The Hill We Climb at the inauguration of U.S. President Joe Biden last month, he was struck by the “powerful words” of the young Black woman.It was a “defining moment in history,” said Jackson, who is a high school senior at Central Visual and Performing Arts School in St. Louis, Missouri.With her reading on Jan. 21, televised nationally and around the globe, Gorman has sparked additional interest in an art form that spans millennia, now drawing a new generation of enthusiasts.Jackson told VOA he saw some similarities in her poem to Martin Luther King Jr.’s stirring I Have a Dream speech in 1963 that called for an end to racism.One of two books by Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman that are set to be released in September.“There’s been tension and racial divide in America,” Jackson explained, “and in this poem I feel she was trying to put a Band-Aid on the wound we’ve been going through” to try to bring the country together.His English teacher, Maggie Schuh, said the inspirational poems Gorman recited at the inauguration and, more recently, at the Super …

After Navy veteran Maxwell Moore returned home to Los Angeles following numerous tours to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, the local Veterans Affairs office urged him to find a hobby to help him deal with his post-traumatic stress disorder. His therapy eventually turned into a business, as reporter Angelina Bagdasaryan found in this story narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Vazgen Varzhabetian .  …

More than 180 human rights groups are calling for diplomatic boycott of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games to protest Beijing’s abuses of racial and ethnic minorities.  The coalition of FILE – International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound, Nov. 1, 2010.”The games are not Chinese Games, the games are the IOC Games,” FILE – Extending gloved hands skyward in racial protest, U.S. athletes Tommie Smith, center, and John Carlos stare downward during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” in the 1968 Mexico City Games.Since then, South Africa was expelled from the 1970 Games for the country’s policy of apartheid. It was not readmitted to competition until the 1992 Barcelona Games. In 1980, 66 countries, led by the United States, boycotted the Moscow Games because of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. Daryl Adair, an associate professor of sports management at the University of Technology Sydney, told VOA via email that the IOC has a responsibility to be sure that the principles that underpin the Olympics are appropriately reflected in countries that host the games.  “For example, would the IOC and the international sporting community be comfortable with an Olympics hosted by Myanmar, given its treatment of the Rohingya people, followed more recently by a …

“Ailey,” a documentary about the life and creative spirit of iconic African American dancer, director and choreographer Alvin Ailey, weaves an immersive portrait of Ailey as a creative genius and a complex individual, who emoted his life experience through movement. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. VOA’s Penelope Poulou spoke with the filmmaker about how Ailey’s modern dance reflected the Black cultural experience.  Camera: Penelope Poulou   Produced by: Penelope Poulou      …