Health experts in South Sudan are criticizing organizers of a weekend concert in Juba where tens of thousands of people gathered in clear violation of the health ministry’s COVID-19 protocols.Tanzanian music star Diamond Platnumz attracted all kinds of fans to the outdoor event at the Doctor John Garang Mausoleum, including President Salva Kiir.The vast majority of concert goers ignored health ministry and World Health Organization directives to social distance or wear masks, although President Kiir wore a face covering.Dr. Angelo Guop Kouch, director of South Sudan’s Public Health Emergency Operation Center, which manages COVID-19 cases in the country, said the gathering was not advisable, saying “health authorities should be involved when there are such activities in the country because of the crowd.”A World Health Organization epidemiologist in South Sudan, Dr. Joseph Wamala, said new strains of COVID-19 have emerged that can spread more easily in South Sudan.“The identification of this new strain is really a reason for countries to reinforce measures to limit spread through the recommended measures; using the mask, observing respiratory etiquette,” Dr. Wamala told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.To date, COVID-19 has had a relatively light impact on South Sudan, with just 3,511 confirmed cases and only …

French fashion designer Pierre Cardin, whose futuristic space-inspired looks upended catwalk styles in the 1960s and 70s, has died at the age of 98, France’s Fine Arts Academy said. Cardin, who cut his teeth working at top couture houses such as Christian Dior, went on to launch his own brand and pioneered the use of licensing in fashion, plastering his label’s name on products of all kinds. As well as shaking up fashion with bubble-dresses and geometrical designs, Cardin was also one of the first to bring high fashion to the masses by selling collections in department stores from the late 1950s. FILE – French fashion designer Pierre Cardin poses in front of his 1954-1956-1957 fashion creations in his museum called “Past-Present-Future” in Paris, Nov. 12, 2014.His savvy business sense brought him a mix of admiration but also scorn from fashion purists at the time. While he no longer presented runway collections, Cardin remained active in the industry, attending parties and events and taking young designers under his wing. He has previously been a mentor to prominent designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier.   …

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Americans increasingly seem to be tuning out warnings against travel during what is traditionally one of the busiest periods of the year.On Sunday, the Transportation Security Administration said it screened close to 1.3 million air travelers at U.S. airports Sunday. It was the highest number in more than nine months. The TSA also reported that more than 10 million people have flown since December 18.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Americans against travel during the holiday season, fearing that to do so would help spread the coronavirus.”The best thing for Americans to do in the upcoming holiday season is to stay at home and not travel,” Dr. Henry Walke, the CDC’s COVID-19 incident manager, said in a news briefing in early December. “Cases are rising. Hospitalizations are increasing, Deaths are increasing. We need to try to bend the curve, stop this exponential increase.”According to National Public Radio, it was unclear if a travel surge over Thanksgiving caused a spike in cases. It reported that in some areas, there appeared to be a surge, while in others, there wasn’t.The American Automobile Association, known as AAA, predicted that an estimated 85 million Americans would travel over …

The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way people work, dress and relax. Fashion was one of the first to adapt to the new house-bound reality, making sweatpants the new American go-to attire. Nina Vishneva has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.Camera: Vladimir Badikov, Max Avloshenko, Natalia Latukhina, Alexander Barash  …

As Monica Harvey watched, crowds flocked to a Sam’s Club in northern Arizona where she works, picking shelves clean of toilet paper and canned goods. Native American seniors couldn’t move fast enough, and Harvey saw their faces fall when they reached empty shelves.The Navajo woman wanted to help tribal elders get household staples without leaving their homes and risking exposure to COVID-19, so she started Defend Our Community, a group that delivers supplies.Tribes across the nation are working to protect elder members who serve as honored links to customs passed from one generation to the next. The efforts to deliver protective gear, meals and vaccines are about more than saving lives. Tribal elders often possess unique knowledge of language and history that is all the more valuable because tribes commonly pass down their traditions orally. That means losing elders to the coronavirus could wipe out irreplaceable pieces of culture.”When you lose an elder, you lose a part of yourself,” said Harvey, who lives in Leupp, Arizona, east of Flagstaff. “You lose a connection to history, our stories, our culture, our traditions.”Harvey remembers her own grandfather explaining the stories behind Navajo songs and teaching her Navajo words from the songs. She …

Barry Lopez, an award-winning writer who tried to tighten the bonds between people and place by describing the landscapes he saw in 50 years of travel, has died. He was 75.Lopez died in Eugene, Oregon, on Friday after a years-long struggle with prostate cancer, his family said.Longtime friend Kim Stafford, former Oregon poet laureate, said Lopez’s books “are landmarks that define a region, a time, a cause. He also exemplifies a life of devotion to craft and learning, to being humble in the face of wisdom of all kinds.”An author of nearly 20 books on natural history studies, along with essay and short story collections, Lopez was awarded the National Book Award in 1986 for Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape. It was the result of almost five years of traveling the Arctic.His final work was Horizon, an autobiography that recalls a lifetime of travel in more than 70 countries.’Desire simply to go away’Born in 1945 in Port Chester, New York, Lopez grew up in California’s San Fernando Valley and, after his mother remarried, New York City. In Horizon, he wrote that in those formative years, he developed “a desire simply to go away. To find what the skyline has …

COVID-19 was the main protagonist of the film industry during 2020. This nefarious character dominated the saga of Hollywood’s struggles at the box office with moviegoers staying home and theater chains going bust. On the plus side, films focused on stories about minorities and gender equality, reflecting the diversity of moviegoing audiences. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.  …

Among the celebrity philanthropists who donate extreme amounts of money to education and lifting others, Chuck Feeney’s name is not as well-known as Bloomberg, Gates or Buffett.Those billionaires — Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett — are highly recognizable names of great wealth, and their efforts are well-known.But Feeney, 89, has donated more than $8 billion in the past 38 years more quietly, espousing the slogan “Giving While Living” through his Men look at cosmetic products in a Duty Free store at the Fraport airport in Frankfurt, Germany, Nov. 14, 2012.Numerous educational programs have benefited from Atlantic Philanthropies, but none more than Cornell, where Feeney graduated from its vaunted hotel management program. Cornell has received $1 billion from Feeney’s generosity.“Physical markers of his giving are sprinkled around all corners of Cornell’s campus, funding everything from student scholarships to North and West Campus living facilities, hospitality research support, the Martin Y. Tang Welcome Center and athletics programs,” the university reported to the Cornell Daily Sun. Feeney’s giving was “transformative,” said Cornell President Martha Pollack, and “deserves the highest recognition we can give,” the Cornell Daily Sun reported.Feeney has been giving internationally, too.“While his generosity towards Ireland and Cornell University is well-known, …

Stella Tennant, the aristocratic British model who was a muse to designers such as Karl Lagerfeld and Gianni Versace, died suddenly at the age of 50, her family said Wednesday. Tennant, the granddaughter of a duke, rose to fame in the 1990s while walking the runway for Versace, Alexander McQueen and other designers. FILE – Model Stella Tennant poses during a photocall before Chanel Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2018 fashion collection presented in Paris, Jan. 23, 2018.In a statement, her family said: “It is with great sadness we announce the sudden death of Stella Tennant on Dec. 22.”  “Stella was a wonderful woman and an inspiration to us all. She will be greatly missed,” it said.  The family asked for privacy and said arrangements for a memorial service would be announced later. They did not disclose her cause of death.  Police Scotland said officers were called to an address in the Scottish Borders town of Duns on Tuesday following the sudden death of a 50-year-old woman. Police said there were no suspicious circumstances.  The granddaughter of the 11th Duke of Devonshire Andrew Cavendish and his wife Deborah Mitford of a glamorous, unconventional aristocratic family, Tennant was one of the leading British models of …

Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona did not consume alcohol or illicit narcotics in the days before his death, an autopsy released on Wednesday said.Maradona, who died in November at age 60, had taken seven different medicines to treat depression, anxiety and other ailments but “there was no presence of [illegal] drugs,” a judicial official told Reuters.The autopsy, which was based on blood and urine samples and was released by the Buenos Aires Scientific Police, said Maradona had problems with his kidneys, heart and lungs.Investigators are looking into various facets of his death, which rocked Argentina and the wider footballing world, and they have not ruled out wrongful death.The more detailed autopsy confirmed the results of one carried out immediately after his death that said the former Boca Juniors and Napoli player died from “acute pulmonary edema secondary to exacerbated chronic heart failure with dilated cardiomyopathy.”In an angry broadside at her father’s critics, Maradona’s daughter Gianinna said the autopsy showed “a result compatible with cirrhosis of the liver.”The charismatic 1986 World Cup winner, regarded as one of the greatest soccer players of all time, had battled alcohol and drug addiction for much of his life.A judge last week ruled that Maradona’s …

To many people classical music evokes images of European musical masters like Mozart slaving over their symphonies. But the world of classical music is much wider, as Warangkana Chomchuen reports. …

A crisis in South Africa’s competitive chess world has demanded the attention of the nation’s parliament and Olympic committee, with Parliament saying the pair of dueling chess factions in the nation’s chess federation are holding back eager players from playing in major events — and in doing so, holding back the trajectory of an African chess powerhouse. As VOA’s Anita Powell found in this report, from Johannesburg, the issues in the sport cut to the very core of South Africa’s own struggles to build as a fair society. Camera: Zaheer Cassim     Producer: Alessandro Parodi   …

The Antidote, a documentary by filmmakers Kahane Cooperman and John Hoffman, offers stories about acts of kindness in communities across America. The filmmakers tell VOA’s Penelope Poulou that their film reflects Americans’ collective humanity and empathy.  Camera: Penelope Poulou   Produced by: Penelope Poulou   …

Graffiti, part of New York’s history for more than 50 years, is flourishing during the coronavirus pandemic, a sign of decadence for some, but vitality for others.As dusk becomes nightfall, graffiti artist Saynosleep takes a quick look around and then gets to work on a luxury store closed since it was looted in June during protests over George Floyd’s death.”If you’re not painting right now, I don’t know what you’re doing,” the 40-year-old said, adding an expletive. “There has never been a time like this.”The facades of hundreds of stores that have shut because of the pandemic are “an invitation” to artists, Marie Flageul, curator at New York’s Museum of Street Art (MoSA) said.Walls, bridges, sidewalks and subway cars — 34 of which have been painted since the beginning of the month — are canvases.”It’s a big surge, a renaissance of graffiti,” said Saynosleep, who uses a different pseudonym for his legal artwork.Graffiti was first accepted by the art world in the 1980s when it moved into galleries.Expressive street art then captured the imagination of the general public in the 2000s when it went from illegal to legal spaces.FILE – In this Feb. 22, 2006, photo, the 7 Train passes …

In what is usually a festive Hanukkah holiday season, Israelis are facing a tough reality. The country may be heading toward a third COVID-19 lockdown and a fourth national election within the past two years. But even in these troubled times, Israelis enjoy their Hanukkah tradition of elaborate and fancy doughnuts. Linda Gradstein reports for VOA from Jerusalem.Videographer: Ricki Rosen …

Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians will be changing the team’s name after years of criticism and objections from Native American groups. The team has not officially announced the move, but multiple news organizations cited people familiar with the matter saying that could happen as early as this week. Cleveland had already taken the step of eliminating its use of a Native American caricature as the team’s logo during the 2019 season. In July, it pledged to examine the issue of the team name in light of local and national social justice protests. Renaming teams and ending the use of Indigenous mascots in both professional and scholastic sports in the United States have drawn praise from those saying their use is racist. The National Football League’s team in Washington changed its name this year, becoming the Washington Football Team after ending its use of the long-criticized Redskins name and logo. “Redskin” is a pejorative term for a Native American commonly used during America’s frontier period when settlers and Native Americans competed for land and resources. Such changes have drawn some criticism from people who defended the use of Indigenous names and imagery, and said the changes served to eliminate team history. President Donald Trump tweeted his objection to Cleveland’s change, calling it “Cancel culture at work!” Cleveland has used the …

A beloved meeting spot for generations of New Yorkers, the Waldorf Astoria clock has recently undergone a meticulous restoration and is on view at the New York Historical Society. Vladimir Lenski has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.Camera: Max Avloshenko  …

John le Carre, the spy-turned-novelist whose elegant and intricate narratives defined the Cold War espionage thriller and brought acclaim to a genre critics had once ignored, has died. He was 89.Le Carre died Saturday in Cornwall, southwest England, Saturday after a short illness, his literary agency, Curtis Brown, said Sunday. The death was not related to COVID-19.In such classics as “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold,” “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy” and “The Honorable Schoolboy,” Le Carre combined terse but lyrical prose with the kind of complexity expected in literary fiction. His books grappled with betrayal, moral compromise and the psychological toll of a secret life. In the quiet, watchful spymaster George Smiley, he created one of 20th-century fiction’s iconic characters — a decent man at the heart of a web of deceit.For le Carre, the world of espionage was a “metaphor for the human condition.”Born David Cornwell, le Carre worked for Britain’s intelligence service before turning his experience into fiction in works including “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy” and “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.””I’m not part of the literary bureaucracy if you like that categorizes everybody: Romantic, Thriller, Serious,” le Carre told The Associated Press in …

Charley Pride, country music’s first Black star whose rich baritone on such hits as “Kiss an Angel Good Morning” helped sell millions of records and made him the first Black member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, has died. He was 86.Pride died Saturday in Dallas of complications from COVID-19, according to Jeremy Westby of the public relations firm 2911 Media.”I’m so heartbroken that one of my dearest and oldest friends, Charley Pride, has passed away. It’s even worse to know that he passed away from COVID-19. What a horrible, horrible virus. Charley, we will always love you,” Dolly Parton tweeted.Pride released dozens of albums and sold more than 25 million records during a career that began in the mid-1960s. Hits besides “Kiss an Angel Good Morning” in 1971 included “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone,” “Burgers and Fries,” “Mountain of Love” and “Someone Loves You Honey.”FILE – Charley Pride poses with the Pioneer Award he received at the 29th Academy of Country Music Awards show in Universal City, Calif., May 3, 1994. In 2000, Pride was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.He received three Grammy Awards, had more than 30 No. 1 hits between 1969 and …

Concert trade publication Pollstar says the live events industry’s revenue is off more than $30 billion in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.Pollstar released its year-end report Friday, explaining that the live events industry should have hit a record-setting $12.2 billion this year but instead incurred $9.7 billion in losses. The company added that the projected $30 billion figure in losses includes “unreported events, ancillary revenues, including sponsorships, ticketing, concessions, merch, transportation, restaurants, hotels and other economic activity tied to the live events.” Those losses accounted for more than $8 billion.In March, hundreds of artists announced their current or upcoming tours would need to be postponed or canceled because of the pandemic. While a small number of performers have played drive-in concerts and others have held digital concerts, the majority of artists have not played live in 2020.With just a few months on the road, Elton John’s “Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour” tops the year’s Top 100 Worldwide Tours list with $87.1 million grossed from November 30 through March 7. John’s tour ranked No. 2 last year with $212 million grossed.Celine Dion came in second this year with $71.2 million, followed by Trans-Siberian Orchestra ($58.2 million), U2 ($52.1 million) and …

Time magazine has jointly named President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris its 2020 “Person of the Year.”   Time’s editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal says Biden and Harris won the honor for “changing the American story, for showing that the forces of empathy are greater than the furies of division, for sharing a vision of healing in a grieving world.” Felsenthal notes, “Every elected President since FDR has at some point during his term been a Person of the Year, nearly a dozen of those in a presidential election year. This is the first time we have included a Vice President.” Time’s other Person of the Year candidates were President Donald Trump; frontline health care workers and Dr. Anthony Fauci; and the movement for racial justice.   Time named Trump Person of the Year for 2016, the year he won the presidency, writing that Trump had “upended the leadership of both major political parties and effectively shifted the political direction of the international order.” Also Thursday, Time named the Korean boy band BTS its Entertainer of the Year and named Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James its Athlete of the Year. …

As a way to wrap up 2020, Washington’s Artechouse – the first US museum of digital and experiential art – transformed its space into a unique exhibition designed to help people combat COVID-19 anxiety. Maxim Moskalkov has the story.Camera: Artyom Kokhan, Sergey Sokolov    …

Players have taken a knee, unfurled slogans and demanded tougher action only to find soccer — their working environment — remains infected with racism. The tipping point might just have come, with elite players in Paris taking the extraordinary step of refusing to continue playing. At the end of a year of striking gestures against racial injustice and discrimination, the Champions League produced one of soccer’s most powerful shows of solidarity against racism on Tuesday when players from Paris Saint-Germain and Istanbul Basaksehir left the field and didn’t return. “The walk off by both Basaksehir and PSG together lays down a marker in Europe,” Piara Powar, executive director of the anti-discrimination Fare network, told The Associated Press. “Many players are fed up with half measures to tackle racism and are more prepared than ever to exercise their right to stop a match.” The flashpoint came 14 minutes into the game when the fourth official — Sebastian Coltescu of Romania — was accused of using a racial term to identify Basaksehir assistant coach Pierre Webo before sending him off for his conduct on the sidelines. Webo is Black. “You are racist,” Basaksehir coach Okan Buruk said to Coltescu. An enraged Webo …

Athari Alkhaldi stands out amid a sea of men and falcons at the Middle East’s top falconry competition: the first Saudi woman to qualify and participate in the event. “With my participation … I proved I am here, that women can join this field, that it’s not only restricted to men,” she said, alongside her falcon Ma’aned. Falconry is an important part of the desert heritage of Arabs of Saudi Arabia and neighboring countries going back thousands of years. The two-week King Abdulaziz Falconry Festival, which gathers more than 4,000 falcons from the Gulf and further afield, honored Alkhaldi’s presence with an award for the first female to make a qualifying competition flight with her bird. Alkhaldi first participated last year, but her bird refused to take flight. Determined, she returned this year and her bird successfully flew. “Dealing with the birds, it is not easy … they are sensitive and need special treatment,” she said, adding that it requires patience and persistence. “Falconry has been a well-known heritage since ancient times. We take pride in it.” she said. The government-backed festival, in its third-year, has 22.7 million Saudi riyals ($6 million) in prize money to give out during beauty …