POPGAZETA

Developers at the University of Maryland are using a holographic camera to capture people’s movements in three dimensions for what could be high-impact training, education and entertainment. It is technology with the power to transform how we learn and entertain ourselves. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more. VOA footage by Adam Greenbaum. …

A new campaign for Myanmar led by the son of imprisoned democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Kim Aris, is using tattoos as a publicity tool to raise humanitarian aid for the millions displaced following the 2021 military coup. People in Myanmar’s diaspora are getting tattoos of a Burmese water dragon as a symbol of solidarity with the ongoing resistance movement inside Myanmar. And they are sharing pictures and videos of their tattoos and the associated live fundraising events on social media to create a buzz around the symbolic tattoo, and drive participants to its GoFundMe page. A military junta overturned Myanmar’s election in February 2021 and arrested the leaders of the democratically elected government, including longtime democracy activist Suu Kyi. Thousands have been killed in the ensuing violence. Aris, who himself just got a tattoo of the Burmese water dragon and shared a video of the procedure on the campaign’s Facebook page, told VOA that the dragon motif is a traditional symbol from Burmese culture and was inspired by the tattoo worn by famous Burmese kickboxer Too Too, who lost his life in prison along with many other political prisoners arrested during anti-coup protests. “He represents a great deal …

Shane MacGowan, the boozy, rabble-rousing singer and chief songwriter of The Pogues, who infused traditional Irish music with the energy and spirit of punk, died Thursday, his family said. He was 65. MacGowan’s songwriting and persona made him an iconic figure in contemporary Irish culture, and some of his compositions have become classics — most notably the bittersweet Christmas ballad “Fairytale of New York,” which Irish President Michael D. Higgins said “will be listened to every Christmas for the next century or more.” “It is with the deepest sorrow and heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our most beautiful, darling and dearly beloved Shane MacGowan,” his wife Victoria Clarke, his sister Siobhan and father Maurice said in a statement. The singer died peacefully with his family by his side, the statement added. The musician had been hospitalized in Dublin for several months after being diagnosed with viral encephalitis in late 2022. He was discharged last week, ahead of his upcoming birthday on Christmas Day. The Pogues melded Irish folk and rock ‘n’ roll into a unique, intoxicating blend, though MacGowan became as famous for his sozzled, slurred performances as for his powerful songwriting. His songs blended the …

Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, who had been previously detained for showing support to anti-government protests and was released on bail earlier this month, was arrested again, Iran’s state media reported on Thursday. “Salehi has been arrested for publishing false information and disturbing public opinion, after being released upon an order by Iran’s supreme court to revise his case,” the judiciary news agency said. Following the death in custody of 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in September 2022, Iran has seen months of nationwide protests that represented one of the fiercest challenges to the Islamic Republic since its establishment in 1979. Salehi, who wrote songs about the protests, was initially sentenced to six years in prison on multiple charges, including “corruption on earth,” a ruling that was then rejected by Iran’s supreme court. The 33-year-old rapper spent one year and 21 days in prison, including 252 days in solitary confinement, during which he sustained physical injuries, according to his official page on the social media website X, formerly known as Twitter. …

The unlikely awards-season juggernaut “Everything Everywhere All at Once” marched on at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, and even gathered stream with wins not just for best ensemble, Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan but also for Jamie Lee Curtis. The SAG Awards, often an Oscar preview, threw some curve balls into the Oscars race in a ceremony streamed lived on Netflix’s YouTube page from Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles. But the clearest result of the SAG Awards was the overwhelming success of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s madcap multiverse tale, which has now used its hotdog fingers to snag top honors from the acting, directing and producing guilds. Only one film (“Apollo 13”) has won all three and not gone on to win best picture at the Oscars. After so much of the cast of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” had already been on the stage to accept awards, the night’s final moment belonged to 94-year-old James Hong, a supporting player in the film and a trailblazer for Asian-American representation in Hollywood. He brought up the ignoble yellowface history of the 1937 film “The Good Earth.” “The leading role was played with these guys with their …

Last year, the top winners at the Screen Actors Guild Awards all corresponded exactly with the Academy Awards winners. Will Sunday’s SAGs offer the same preview? The 29th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will begin at 8 p.m. EST Sunday and be streamed live on Netflix’s YouTube page. After the awards, presented by the film and television acting guild SAG-AFRTA, lost their broadcast home at TNT/TBS, Netflix signed on to stream the ceremony. Though future editions will be streamed live directly on Netflix, this year’s show, at Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles, will be on the streaming service’s YouTube page and its social media channels. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “The Banshees of Inisherin” come in with a co-leading five nominations. Each film is up for the Guild’s top award, best ensemble, along with “Babylon,” “The Fabelmans” and “Women Talking.” The SAG Awards are considered one of the most reliable Oscar bellwethers. Actors make up the biggest percentage of the film academy, so their choices have the largest sway. Last year, “CODA” triumphed at SAG before winning best picture at the Oscars, while Ariana DeBose, Will Smith, Jessica Chastain and Troy Kotsur all won both a SAG Award …

Tom Cruise was honored for his nearly three decades of work as a producer, and “ Everything Everywhere All at Once ” solidified its status as the frontrunner for the best picture Oscar by taking the top prize at Saturday night’s Producers Guild of America Awards. “We love you! We love you!” another Oscar favorite and one of the film’s stars, Ke Huy Quan, shouted gleefully from the stage as Jonathan Wang and the other producers of the multiversal dramedy accepted the award for best theatrical motion picture. The award has proven to be perhaps the best indicator for what will win the top honor at the Oscars, with four of the past five and 11 of the past 14 PGA winners going on to win best picture. PGA wins by “ CODA ” last year and “ Nomadland ” in 2021 set each apart as frontrunners before winning best picture. The strong possibility of a big night at Sunday’s Screen Actors Guild Awards could further mark “Everything Everywhere” as the film to beat at the March 12 Academy Awards. Cruise the actor caused a stir inside and outside with his presence at the show at the Beverly Hilton in …

Angela Bassett won entertainer of the year at Saturday’s NAACP Image Awards on a night that also saw her take home an acting trophy for the television series “9-1-1.” The Bassett-led Marvel superhero sequel “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” won best motion picture at the ceremony, which was broadcast live on BET from Pasadena, California. Viola Davis won outstanding actress for the action epic “The Woman King,” a project she championed and starred in. Will Smith won for the slavery drama “Emancipation,” his first release since last year’s Academy Awards, where he slapped comedian Chris Rock on stage before winning his first best actor trophy. “I never want to not be brave enough as a woman, as a Black woman, as an artist,” Davis said, referencing a quote from her character in the film, which she called her magnum opus. “I thank everyone who was involved with ‘The Woman King’ because that was just nothing but high-octane bravery.” “Abbott Elementary” won for outstanding comedy series. Creator and series star Quinta Brunson invited her costars onstage and praised shows like “black-ish” for paving the way for her series. The 54 NAACP Image Awards were presented Saturday in Pasadena, California, with Queen Latifah …

The creator of the Dilbert comic strip faced a backlash of cancellations Saturday while defending remarks describing people who are Black as members of “a hate group” from which white people should “get away.” Various media publishers across the U.S. denounced the comments by Dilbert creator Scott Adams as racist, hateful and discriminatory while saying they would no longer provide a platform for his work. Andrews McMeel Syndication, which distributes Dilbert, did not immediately respond Saturday to requests for comment. But Adams defended himself on social media against those who he said “hate me and are canceling me.” Dilbert is a long-running comic that pokes fun at office-place culture. The backlash began following an episode this past week of the YouTube show, Real Coffee with Scott Adams. Among other topics, Adams referenced a Rasmussen Reports survey that had asked whether people agreed with the statement “It’s OK to be white.” Most agreed, but Adams noted that 26% of Black respondents disagreed and others weren’t sure. The Anti-Defamation League says the phrase was popularized in 2017 as a trolling campaign by members of the discussion forum 4chan but then began being used by some white supremacists. Adams, who is white, repeatedly …

The French documentary On the Adamant (Sur l’Adamant) directed by Nicolas Philibert was named best film Saturday at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. The film takes viewers onto a Seine barge in Paris that serves as a floating day care center for adults suffering from mental disorders. “That a documentary is awarded and celebrated, that a documentary can be considered to be cinema in its own right touches me deeply,” said a visibly moved Philibert after the prize was announced by the seven-member jury headed by American actor, screenwriter and director Kristen Stewart. Philibert said that in the film he had tried to “reverse the image” that people have of those with mental illness and allow viewers to see “what unites us beyond our differences.” “As we all know, the craziest people are not those we think they are,” he added. The award for best director went to fellow French filmmaker Philippe Garrel for The Plough (Le grand chariot) about three siblings who are trying to keep alive the family puppeteering business. Best leading performance was awarded to Spanish actor Sofía Ortero, who plays an 8-year-old child searching for identity and acceptance in 20,000 Species of Bees. The award …

Most film festivals can be counted on to provide entertainment, laced with some introspection. The weeklong FESPACO that opened Saturday in violence-torn Burkina Faso’s capital goes beyond that to also offer hope, and a symbol of endurance: In years of political strife and Islamic extremist attacks, which killed thousands and displaced nearly 2 million in the West African country, it’s never been canceled. “We only have FESPACO left to prevent us from thinking about what’s going on,” said Maimouna Ndiaye, a Burkinabe actress who has four submissions in this year’s competition. “This is the event that must not be canceled no matter the situation.” Since the last edition of the biennial festival in Ouagadougou, the country’s troubles have increased. Successive governments’ failures to stop the extremist violence triggered two military coups last year, with each junta leader promising security — but delivering few results. At least 70 soldiers were killed in two attacks earlier this month in Burkina Faso’s Sahel region. The fighting also has sowed discord among a once-peaceful population, pitting communities and ethnicities against each other. Nevertheless, more than 15,000 people, including cinema celebrities from Nigeria, Senegal and Ivory Coast are expected in Ouagadougou for FESPACO, Africa’s biggest …

Sixty Ukrainian ballet dancers fled Ukraine to escape Russia’s invasion over the past year. They ended up in the Netherlands, where they continue to dance together. Mariia Ulianovska has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Kostiantyn Golubchyk  …

Ukrainians living in South Africa are marking one year since Russia’s invasion with a dance production titled ‘We Stand for Freedom.’ The performance, supported by the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, draws parallels between racial oppression under apartheid and Moscow’s war on Ukraine. Vicky Stark meets some Ukrainians who fled the war in this report from Cape Town, South Africa. …

A federal judge on Thursday handed singer R. Kelly a 20-year prison sentence for his convictions of child pornography and the enticement of minors for sex but said he will serve nearly all of the sentence simultaneously with a 30-year sentence imposed last year on racketeering charges.  U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber also ordered that Kelly serve one year in prison following his New York sentence.  The central question going into the sentencing in Kelly’s hometown of Chicago was whether Leinenweber would order that the 56-year-old serve the sentence simultaneously with or only after he completes the New York term for 2021 racketeering and sex trafficking convictions. The latter would have been tantamount to a life sentence.  Prosecutors had acknowledged that a lengthy term served only after the New York sentence could have erased any chance of Kelly ever getting out of prison alive. It’s what they asked for, arguing his crimes against children and lack of remorse justified it.  With Thursday’s sentence, though, Kelly will serve no more than 31 years. That means he will be eligible for release at around age 80, providing him some hope of one day leaving prison alive.  Leinenweber said at the outset of …

The man who shot dead Grammy-winning rapper Nipsey Hussle on a Los Angeles street in 2019 was jailed for at least 60 years Wednesday. Eric Holder had not denied killing Hussle — a fast-rising star whose death sent shockwaves through the music world — but his lawyers argued it was an impulsive crime that took place in the “heat of passion.” But a jury last year found Holder had acted with premeditation as he fired at Hussle at least 10 times following a dispute between the two men over claims the assailant was “snitching” to the police. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge H. Clay Jacke sentenced Holder to a minimum of 25 years for the killing, with an additional 25 years because a gun was used in the crime. Holder was given another 10 years for shooting and wounding two other men who were nearby. The violent killing of Hussle, a former gang member, in front of a clothing store he owned triggered widespread grief in his native Los Angeles and among his superstar peers, who hailed his musical talents and community activism. Raised in the city’s Crenshaw district, Hussle, who was 33 when he died, had transformed the …

Two 16th-century sculptures, jewels of French Renaissance art, have been on display since 1908 at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. But thanks to modern technology and an unusual agreement, precise 3D copies will be made and installed in the French castle where the originals long resided. The facsimiles plan is the fruit of a rare partnership between the Met, as the New York museum is known, and the Dordogne department in southwestern France. The statues, both from the early 1500s and by an anonymous sculptor, represent Biblical scenes entitled “Entombment of Christ” and “Pieta With Donors.” A tourism promotion agency in the Dordogne, Semitour, will be working with the Atelier of Fac-Similes Perigord (AFSP) to make the replicas over the coming months. For nearly 400 years, the originals graced the chapel of the Biron chateau in the Dordogne. Built on a strategic promontory, the sprawling fortress comprises buildings from different eras, including a dungeon dating to the 12th century. Damaged and rebuilt repeatedly through the centuries, the chateau has belonged since 1978 to the Dordogne department, which declared it a historic monument, Dordogne president Germinal Peiro said during a visit to the Met. Digital copy The technology to be …

Antiwar German movie “All Quiet on the Western Front” won seven prizes, including best picture, at the British Academy Film Awards on Sunday, building the somber drama’s momentum as awards season rolls toward its climax at next month’s Oscars.  Irish tragicomedy “The Banshees of Inisherin” and rock biopic “Elvis” took four prizes each.  “All Quiet,” a visceral depiction of life and death in the World War I trenches, based on Erich Maria Remarque’s classic novel, won Edward Berger the best director award. Its other trophies included adapted screenplay, cinematography, best score, best sound and best film not in English.  Austin Butler was a surprise best actor winner for “Elvis.” Baz Lurhmann’s flamboyant musical also won for casting, costume design and hair and makeup. Cate Blanchett won the best actress prize for orchestral drama “Tár.”  Martin McDonagh’s “Banshees,” the bleakly comic story of a friendship gone sour, was named best British film.  “Best what award?” joked McDonagh of the film, which was shot in Ireland with a largely Irish cast and crew. It has British funding, and McDonagh was born in Britain to Irish parents.  “Banshees” also won for McDonagh’s original screenplay, and awards for Kerry Condon as best supporting actress …

Richard Belzer, the longtime stand-up comedian who became one of TV’s most indelible detectives as John Munch in “Homicide: Life on the Street” and “Law & Order: SVU,” has died. He was 78.  Belzer died Sunday at his home in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, in southern France, his longtime friend Bill Scheft said. Scheft, a writer who had been working on a documentary about Belzer, said there was no known cause of death, but that Belzer had been dealing with circulatory and respiratory issues. The actor Henry Winkler, Belzer’s cousin, tweeted, “Rest in peace Richard.”  For more than two decades and across 10 series — even including appearances on “30 Rock” and “Arrested Development” — Belzer played the wise-cracking, acerbic homicide detective prone to conspiracy theories. Belzer first played Munch on a 1993 episode of “Homicide” and last played him in 2016 on “Law & Order: SVU.”  Belzer never auditioned for the role. After hearing him on “The Howard Stern Show,” executive producer Barry Levinson brought the comedian in to read for the part.  “I would never be a detective. But if I were, that’s how I’d be,” Belzer once said. “They write to all my paranoia and anti-establishment dissidence and conspiracy theories. …

Andrew Lloyd Webber, the English composer who created the scores for blockbuster musicals such as “Cats,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Evita,” has written the anthem for King Charles III’s coronation, adapting a piece of church music that encourages singers to make a “joyful noise.” The work by Webber is one of a dozen new pieces Charles commissioned for the grand occasion taking place May 6 at Westminster Abbey. It includes words adapted from Psalm 98 and is scored specifically for the abbey’s choir and organ. “I hope my anthem reflects this joyful occasion,” Webber said in a statement distributed by Buckingham Palace.  The program for the king’s coronation ceremony includes older music and new compositions as the palace seeks to blend traditional and modern elements that reflect the realities of modern Britain. New pieces were composed by artists with roots in all four of the United Kingdom’s constituent nations, as well as in the Commonwealth and foreign countries that have sent so many people to its shores. The service will include works by William Byrd (1543–1623), George Frideric Handel (1685–1759), Edward Elgar (1857–1934), Henry Walford Davies (1869–1941), William Walton (1902–1983), Hubert Parry (1848–1918) and Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958), …

The career of Boris Beecker, whose thunderous delivery earned him the nickname “Boom Boom” as a young tennis player, took him from the greatest heights of sporting achievement aged 17 to prison at 54, and he is unsure if it could have gone any other way. “It’s very difficult to win Wimbledon at 17,” the German former tennis champion said ahead of the premiere on Sunday at the Berlin Film Festival of a documentary on his life. “You have to be a bit crazy to cross the line and do things nobody else has ever achieved before.” One of the greatest tennis players in history who won six Grand Slam titles, Becker’s on-court brilliance was matched by an inability to manage his affairs off it, that saw him pile up personal disasters from sleeping pill addictions to a prison sentence. “You expect world champions in a sport to be like everyone else but we aren’t,” he told a news conference. “To have that mindset … in real life that’s a problem.” Alex Gibney’s “Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker” is the work of an unashamed fan, blending court highlights with interviews with a stellar cast of tennis greats, including …

Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu has been found dead under the building where he lived in southern Turkey after last week’s massive earthquake, the ex-Chelsea winger’s Turkish agent said. “Atsu’s lifeless body was found under the rubble,” Murat Uzunmehmet told reporters in Hatay, where the athlete’s body was found. “Currently, more items are still being taken out. His phone was also found.” Atsu had been scheduled to fly out of southern Turkey hours before the quake, but Hatayspor’s manager said on Friday the Ghanaian opted to stay with the club after scoring the game-winning goal in a Feb. 5 Super Lig match. …

Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, his family said on Thursday, nearly a year after the “Die Hard” franchise star retired from acting because of aphasia that had hampered his cognitive abilities.   “Since we announced Bruce’s diagnosis of aphasia in spring 2022, Bruce’s condition has progressed, and we now have a more specific diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia (known as FTD),” his family said in a statement posted on The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration website.   “Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces. While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis.”   The statement, to which the family attached a photo of a smiling Willis at the beach, said there are no current treatments for the disease. The family members said they hoped Willis’ diagnosis at age 67 would bring more focus to battling FTD.   “As Bruce’s condition advances, we hope that any media attention can be focused on shining a light on this disease that needs far more awareness and research,” the statement said.  Frontotemporal degeneration is caused by progressive nerve cell loss in the brain’s frontal lobes or its temporal lobes.  Willis’ family believes that if the retired …

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will join Hollywood actor Sean Penn by video link on Thursday at the opening of the Berlinale, Europe’s first major film festival of the year, as it spotlights the fight for freedom in Ukraine and Iran. The 73rd annual event, traditionally the most politically minded of the three big European cinema showcases, will mark the Russian invasion’s first anniversary as well as anti-regime protests in Iran with new feature films and documentaries. U.S. actor Kristen Stewart (“Spencer”), head of the jury for the Golden and Silver Bear top prizes, told reporters it was “an enormous opportunity to have a hand in highlighting beautiful things” in the face of global turmoil. “It’s the job of an artist to take a disgusting and ugly thing and sort of transmute it and put it through your body and pump out something more beautiful…in response to the world that’s falling apart around us,” she said. Artistic director Carlo Chatrian said the festival stood with “the suffering population, the millions who left Ukraine and the artists (who) have remained defending the country and continue filming the war,” adding that it was a “special honour” to welcome Zelenskyy digitally. Penn will appear …

The UK is working on a new arrangement with Greece through which the Parthenon Sculptures could be seen both in London and in Athens, British Museum chair George Osborne said on Thursday, describing it as a win-win situation. Osborne, a former finance minister, reiterated that the museum was having constructive talks with the Greek government about the marbles which have been a source of dispute between the two European countries for centuries. “It’s a very hard problem to solve,” Osborne told BBC Radio. “But I think there is a way forward where these sculptures, the Elgin Marbles, the Parthenon Sculptures, could be seen both in London and in Athens, and that will be a win-win for Greece and for us.” When asked if that meant loans, he said: “we’re talking to the Greek government about that, about a new arrangement and what I didn’t want to do is force the Greeks to accept things that they find impossible, and equally they can’t force on us things that we would find impossible.”  The Greek government has said it was in talks over repatriation of the sculptures, which were removed by British diplomat Lord Elgin from the imposing Parthenon temple in Athens …