Before Russia invaded in February 2022, American football was becoming popular in Ukraine. Today, most of the players are on the front lines. A gentler version of the game — flag football — is gaining ground in the meantime among kids and youth. Tetiana Kukurika has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Sergiy Rybchynski …

rome — Stars from Angelina Jolie to George Clooney will gather this week at the Venice Film Festival, bringing a high dose of Hollywood pizzazz back to the watery city’s sandy Lido.  With 21 films vying for the top Golden Lion prize, the 81st edition of the prestigious festival kicks off Wednesday, with Lady Gaga, Daniel Craig and Brad Pitt expected on the red carpet during the 10-day affair.  The dazzle is welcome after the Hollywood strikes last year kept most studio films and their A-lister stars away from the world’s longest-running festival, known as “La Mostra.”  In the spotlight, but out of competition, is “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” the long-anticipated sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 cult classic that opens the festival Wednesday, with Michael Keaton, Catherine O’Hara and Winona Ryder reprising their original roles.   High-profile contenders in the main competition include Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie a Deux,” the sequel to the U.S. director’s 2019 Venice-winning film that sees Joaquin Phoenix paired with Lady Gaga; and “Queer” from Italy’s Luca Guadagnino, starring Craig and based on the William Burroughs novel set in 1940s Mexico City.  Jolie headlines “Maria,” a Maria Callas biopic from Chile’s Pablo Larrain, who returns to Venice following his …

Los Angeles — In a sleepy summer weekend at the box office, holdovers reigned supreme as newcomers landed without a splash. “Deadpool & Wolverine” reclaimed first place at the North American box office in its fifth weekend with $18.3 million. Its cumulative international earnings now sit at over $1.2 billion. The Walt Disney Co., which owns 20th Century Studios, claimed the top two spots on the charts for the second weekend in a row with “Alien: Romulus” following close behind the foul-mouthed superhero movie. The latest installment in the 45-year-old franchise brought in $16.2 million in its second weekend after a promising opening. Disney’s “Inside Out 2” also remained on the charts, raking in $2.1 million domestically in its 11th weekend. Its global earnings are now over $1.6 billion. “This is an incredible turnaround for Disney, who almost fell off the radar, shockingly enough, last year and over the course of the pandemic,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “They got a couple of billion-dollar films out so far and ‘Moana 2’ is still up on the way. This is a huge comeback year for Disney – no question about it.” Romantic drama “It Ends With Us,” another …

Dubai, United Arab Emirates — U.S. rapper Macklemore has announced he is cancelling an upcoming show in Dubai over the UAE’s involvement in the conflict in Sudan, charges the Gulf state has denied. The rapper best known for hits like 2012’s “Thrift Shop” made the announcement in a post on social media on Saturday. “I have decided to cancel my upcoming show in Dubai this October,” he said. “Over the last several months I’ve had a number of people reach out to me, sharing resources and asking me to cancel the show in solidarity with the people of Sudan,” he said. “Until the UAE stops arming and funding the RSF I will not perform there,” Macklemore added, referring to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that have been battling the Sundanese army. War has raged since April 2023 between the Sudanese army, under the country’s de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, which is commanded by Burhan’s former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. For months, the army has accused the UAE of supporting the RSF. In June, Sudan’s ambassador to the United Nations Al-Harith Idriss al-Harith Mohamed called Abu Dhabi’s financial and military support for the RSF the “main reason behind …

Herat, Afghanistan — Seated in front of a searing furnace, Ghulam Sakhi Saifi teases forth sinews of molten blue glass — the guardian of an Afghan glassblowing trade refusing to break with tradition. “This is our art, our inheritance. It has fed us for a long time,” he told AFP, resting from the work that has singed his knuckles and calloused his palms. “We are trying to make sure it is not forgotten. If we do not pass it down, it will disappear from the whole world,” said Saifi, who guesses his age is around 50. Glassblowing in Afghanistan’s western city of Herat is an ancient craft. Saifi says it has run in his family for about three centuries. The last two furnaces in the windswept metropolis near the border with Iran are in his family home and a mud-and-straw shed with a holey roof in the shadow of Herat’s citadel. ‘Slow suffocation’ Saifi now lights one of the furnaces only once a month — eking out around $30 from his stock of cups, plates and candleholders after expensive wood for fuel, dyes and other raw materials are accounted for. He attributes the dramatic downturn to the exodus of already low …

NEW YORK — It started a couple of years ago when Juliana Pache was doing a crossword puzzle and got stuck. She was unfamiliar with the reference that the clue made. It made her think about what a crossword puzzle would look like if the clues and answers included more of some subjects that she was familiar with, thanks to her own identity and interests — Black history and Black popular culture. When she couldn’t find such a thing, Pache decided to do it herself. In January 2023, she created blackcrossword.com, a site that offers a free mini-crossword puzzle every day. And Tuesday marked the release of her first book, Black Crossword: 100 Mini Puzzles Celebrating the African Diaspora. It’s a good moment for it, nearly 111 years after the first crossword appeared in a New York newspaper. Recent years have seen an increasing amount of conversation around representation in crossword puzzles, from who’s constructing them to what words can be used for answers and how the clues are framed. There’s been a push to expand the idea of the kinds of “common knowledge” players would have to fill them out. “I had never made a crossword puzzle before,” Pache, 32, …

LUGO, Spain — When Adiaratou Iglesias crossed the finish line at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, she did not know she had bagged a gold in the women’s 100-metre T13 race until she was told. The visually impaired Spanish athlete, who goes by Adi and also won a 400m silver in Tokyo, said she now dreamed of hearing her adoptive family shout “gold” when she completes her races at the Paris Games this week. Iglesias was born in Mali with albinism, a genetic condition that inhibits the production of melanin which pigments the skin, hair and eyes. Albinism impairs her visual perception by 90%, but thick corrective eyewear allows her to see around 20%. “I don’t know anything when I cross the finish line because I can’t see what’s on my sides,” the 25-year-old told Reuters. Iglesias said her biological parents decided to send her to Spain when she was 11 to prevent her from suffering attacks based on her albinism. In some countries in sub-Saharan Africa, people with albinism are sometimes killed for their body parts, which are prized in ritual witchcraft. As a child, Iglesias used to run errands for her mother in Bamako, and she invariably did it …

DALLAS, Texas — Nearly a century after Babe Ruth called his shot during the 1932 World Series, the jersey worn by the New York Yankees slugger when he hit the home run to center field could sell at auction for as much as $30 million. Heritage Auctions is offering up the jersey Saturday night in Dallas. Ruth’s famed, debated and often imitated “called shot” came as the Yankees and Chicago Cubs faced off in Game 3 of the World Series at Chicago’s Wrigley Field on October 1, 1932. In the fifth inning, Ruth made a pointing gesture while at bat and then hit a home run off Cubs pitcher Charlie Root. The Yankees won the game 7-5 and swept the Cubs the next day to win the series. That was Ruth’s last World Series, and the “called shot” was his last home run in a World Series, said Mike Provenzale, the production manager for Heritage’s sports department. “When you can tie an item like that to an important figure and their most important moment, that’s what collectors are really looking for,” Provenzale said. Heritage said Ruth gave the road jersey to one of his golfing buddies in Florida around 1940 and …

SINTRA, Portugal — The doorbell to Martinho de Almada Pimentel’s house is hard to find, and he likes it that way. It’s a long rope that, when pulled, rings a literal bell on the roof that lets him know someone is outside the mountainside mansion that his great-grandfather built in 1914 as a monument to privacy. There’s precious little of that for Pimentel during this summer of “overtourism.” Travelers idling in standstill traffic outside the sunwashed walls of Casa do Cipreste in Cintra sometimes spot the bell and pull the string “because it’s funny,” he says. With the windows open, he can smell the car exhaust and hear the “tuk-tuk” of outsized scooters named for the sound they make. And he can sense the frustration of 5,000 visitors a day who are forced to queue around the house on the crawl up single-lane switchbacks to Pena Palace, the onetime retreat of King Ferdinand II. “Now I’m more isolated than during COVID,” the soft-spoken Pimentel, who lives alone, said during an interview this month on the veranda. “Now I try to (not) go out. What I feel is: angry.” This is a story of what it means to be visited in 2024, …

Xolo Maridueña is currently starring in the sixth and final season of the hit karate series “Cobra Kai,” which premiered on Netflix in July. But he also made waves last year when he was cast as the first Latino superhero lead in “Blue Beetle.” The actor spoke with Veronica Villafañe about the impact of these roles in his career and the need for Latino representation in Hollywood. …

KATHMANDU, Nepal — Hundreds of LGBTQ+ people and their supporters rallied in Nepal’s capital Tuesday during the annual Pride parade, the first since gay couples were able to register same-sex marriages officially in the Himalayan nation. The event brought together the sexual minority community and its supporters in Kathmandu during the Gai Jatra festival. A government minister, diplomats and officials participated in the rally, which began at the city’s tourist hub and went around its main streets. “Gai Jatra festival is a festival that is a long tradition that has been carried for years, and we all are here to help preserve and continue the tradition, and as a sexual minority are doing our part to save the tradition. We also celebrate the day as a Pride parade,” said Bhumika Shrestha, a gay rights activist who was at the parade. The Gai Jatra festival is celebrated to remember family members who have passed away during the year but has long had colorful parades that brought in sexual minorities. After years of struggle, gay couples were able to register same-sex marriages for the first time in November 2023 following a Supreme Court order. Rights activists had long sought to amend laws and …

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NEW YORK — In 1974, Harlem’s deserted streets and tumbledown tenements told the story of a neighborhood left behind. Decades of disinvestment had culminated in a mass exodus known as urban flight and residents watched as their wealthier, more educated counterparts left the New York City neighborhood in droves. But the tide turned when Percy Sutton, then the Manhattan borough president and New York City’s highest-ranking Black elected official, launched a campaign to bring back vitality to the historically African American neighborhood that had been known as a global Black mecca of arts, culture and entrepreneurship. It became known as Harlem Week and would go on to draw back those who had departed. On Sunday, organizers celebrated Harlem Week’s 50th anniversary after 18 days of free programming that showcased all the iconic neighborhood has to offer. Harlem Week stands as “the constant line through the last 50 years of America’s most historic Black neighborhood,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, whose National Action Network is headquartered in the neighborhood. “The dream of Percy Sutton and his peers in government, arts, the church and other elements of Harlem lives on, stronger than ever.” In the 1970s, Harlem demanded more than an ordinary festival, …

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paris — French actor Alain Delon, who melted the hearts of millions of film fans whether playing a murderer, hoodlum or hitman in his postwar heyday, has died, French media reported on Sunday. He was 88. Delon had been in poor health since suffering a stroke in 2019, rarely leaving his estate in Douchy, in France’s Val de Loire region. With his striking blue eyes, Delon was sometimes referred to as the “French Frank Sinatra” for his handsome looks, a comparison Delon disliked. Unlike Sinatra, who always denied connections with the Mafia, Delon openly acknowledged his shady pals in the underworld. In a 1970 interview with The New York Times, Delon was asked about such acquaintances, one of whom was among the last “Godfathers” of the underworld in the Mediterranean port of Marseille. “Most of them, the gangsters I know … were my friends before I became an actor,” he said. “I don’t worry about what a friend does. Each is responsible for his own act. It doesn’t matter what he does.” Delon shot to fame in two films by Italian director Luchino Visconti, Rocco and His Brothers in 1960 and The Leopard in 1963. He starred alongside venerable French elder …

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia — With its reindeer sleigh rides, camel racing and stunning landscapes with room to roam, Mongolia is hoping to woo visitors who are truly looking to get away from it all. Like most countries, its tourism industry was devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and it has launched a “Welcome to MonGOlia” campaign to win people back. The government has added flights and streamlined the visa process, offering visa-free visits for many countries. At least 437,000 foreign tourists visited in the first seven months of this year, up 25% over the same period last year, including increasing numbers from Europe, the U.S. and Japan. Visitors from South Korea nearly doubled, thanks in part to the under-four-hour flight. Despite the gains, Mongolia’s government is still short of its goal of 1 million visitors per year from 2023-25 to the land of Genghis Khan, which encompassed much of Eurasia in its 13th-century heyday and is now a landlocked nation located between Russia and China. With a population of 3.3 million people, about half of them living in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, there’s plenty of open space for the adventure tourist to explore, said Egjimaa Battsooj, who works for a tour company. Its customized …

LONDON — A fire broke out Saturday at Somerset House, a large arts venue on the River Thames in central London. Smoke billowed from the building and flames could be seen coming from the roof as firefighters on tall ladders showered it with water. The cause of the fire was not yet known, the London Fire Brigade said. Fifteen engines and about 100 firefighters were deployed. Somerset House said all staff and the public were safe and the site was closed. The venue had been scheduled to host a breakdancing event. The neoclassical building, which is nearly 250 years old, houses the Courtauld Gallery that features works by Van Gogh, Manet and Cezanne. …

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los angeles — A prosecutor says five people have been charged in connection with Matthew Perry’s death from a ketamine overdose last year, including the actor’s assistant and two doctors. U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada announced the charges Thursday, saying the doctors supplied Perry with a large amount of ketamine and even wondered in a text message how much the former “Friends” star would be willing to pay. “These defendants took advantage of Mr. Perry’s addiction issues to enrich themselves. They knew what they were doing was wrong,” Estrada said. Perry died in October due to a ketamine overdose and received several injections of the drug on the day he died from his live-in personal assistant. The assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, is the one who found Perry dead later that day. The actor went to the two charged doctors in desperation after his regular doctors refused to give him ketamine in the amounts he wanted. DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in one instance the actor paid $2,000 for a vial of ketamine that cost one of the physicians about $12. Two of the people, including one of the doctors charged, were arrested Thursday, Estrada said. Two of the defendants, including Iwamasa, have pleaded …

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WASHINGTON — The ancient ritual meaning of Stonehenge is still a mystery, but researchers are one step closer to understanding how the famous stone circle was created. The unique stone lying flat at the center of the monument was brought to the site in southern England from near the tip of northeast Scotland, researchers reported Wednesday in the journal Nature. It’s not clear whether the 5-meter (16-foot) stone was carried by boat or over land — a journey of more than 740 kilometers (460 miles). “It’s a surprise that it’s come from so far away,” said University of Exeter archaeologist Susan Greaney, who was not involved in the study. For more than a hundred years, scientists believed that Stonehenge’s central sandstone slab — long called the “altar stone” — came from much-closer Wales. But a study last year by some of the same researchers showed that the stone didn’t match the geology of Wales’ sandstone formations. The actual source of the stone remained unknown until now. For the study, the team was not permitted to chip away rocks at the site, but instead analyzed minerals in bits of rock that had been collected in previous digs, some dating back to the …

london — Street artist Banksy on Monday unveiled a new mural of a rhinoceros that looks like it is climbing on top of a car in London — the eighth animal-themed artwork he has posted in the past week in a collection that includes elephants, a goat, a wolf, pelicans and more. The elusive graffiti artist, who has never confirmed his full identity, has been posting the new work on his Instagram account every day since last Monday. The latest piece in Charlton, southeast London, features a rhino on a wall and gives the impression the animal is mounting a broken-down car parked in front of the building. On Sunday, the artist claimed another artwork depicting piranhas that appeared on a police box near the Central Criminal Court, known as the Old Bailey, in London. A small crowd of people flocked to the fish tank-themed artwork Monday, taking photos and selfies as workmen placed barriers around it. A spokesperson for the City of London Corporation said it was looking at options to preserve it. Other pieces unveiled last week included pelicans that appeared on the side of a fish shop in Walthamstow, east London, and a silhouette of a howling wolf …

New York — In the Ryan Reynolds-Blake Lively box-office showdown, both husband and wife came out as winners.  Reynolds’ Marvel Studios smash “Deadpool & Wolverine” remained the top movie in North American theaters for the third straight week with $54.2 million in ticket sales according to studio estimates Sunday. Worldwide, it’s now surpassed $1 billion. “Deadpool & Wolverine,” though, was closely followed by “It Ends With Us,” the romance drama starring Lively, which surpassed expectations with a stellar $50 million debut.  Together, the films created a kind of family edition of “Barbenheimer,” in which a pair of very different movies thrived in part due to counterprogramming. Only this time, the opposite movies were fronted by one of Hollywood’s most famous couples. The films’ one-two punch wasn’t entirely unprecedented. In 1990, Bruce Willis’ “Die Hard 2” led the box office while Demi Moore’s “Ghost” came in second.  The weekend also featured a high-priced flop. “Borderlands,” the long-delayed $120-million videogame adaptation directed by Eli Roth, launched with a paltry $8.8 million for Lionsgate. The film, starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart and Jack Black, was shot all the way back in 2021. After delays and reshoots, it finally landed in theaters effectively dead-on-arrival; it …