YCLOAK

Just outside of Washington, D.C., in Northern Virginia, there is a place where anyone can release their inner painter and splatter their stress away. Maxim Adams has the story. Videographer: Sergey Sokolov; Video editor: Sergey Sokolov, Anna Rice     
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A resounding thump breaks the silence as Jaulia Land drops a lump of grey-brown clay onto the slab roller before Ned Heywood cranks it through the machine once, twice, three times, creating a rectangle about an inch thick. 

Laying a pattern on top of the slab, Heywood slices through the clay to create a disc the size of an extra-large pizza that will become one of the blue plaques that dot the walls of buildings throughout London, marking the places where scientists, artists, politicians and activists have made history.

As English Heritage unveiled its 1,000th blue plaque on Tuesday, the charity was working to broaden the program to include more women, people from minority ethnic backgrounds and community groups so that it better reflects the diversity of the capital.

The latest installation marks the offices where the Women’s Freedom League “campaigned for women’s equality” in the early 20th century, satisfying at least two of those goals.

“The names are no longer just English names, which is significant because, you know, the people who’ve come to this country from all over the world have made a disproportionately large contribution,” Heywood said at his workshop, a converted 18th century pub in the Welsh town of Chepstow, 180 kilometers (110 miles) west of London. “It’s changing now, which is very much for the good.” 

The blue plaque program, which began in 1866 and is believed to be the first of its kind, provides an informal historical walking tour of London that commemorates notable people and their accomplishments by highlighting the places where they lived and worked.

The honorees include famous figures from wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill to communist pioneer Karl Marx, as well as lesser-known figures such as theatrical wigmaker Willy Clarkson and civil engineer William Lindley, who built water and sewage systems around the world. There are also plaques honoring foreigners including India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and American rock star Jimi Hendrix, who lived in London only briefly. 

But English Heritage, which has sponsored the program since 1986, is concerned that past honorees were overwhelmingly white and male. Just 15% of the plaques honor women and less than 5% celebrate people from Black and Asian backgrounds.

The charity, which manages some 400 monuments, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses around England, is trying to encourage more nominations of women and people from minority ethnic groups while retaining high standards for entry into the exclusive club, said Anna Eavis, the curatorial director.

Plaques unveiled recently include Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, a suffragette and critic of British rule in India; Ottobah Cugoano, a native of present-day Ghana who was enslaved in Grenada and campaigned against slavery after gaining his freedom; and Ada Salter, the first woman to be elected mayor of a London borough.

“London is hugely diverse and it has always been, hasn’t it?” Eavis said. “And so it is important to ensure that we’re reflecting that diversity, that richness of contribution on London streets.”

Diana Yeh, a senior lecturer in sociology at City University of London, said broadening the reach of programs like the blue plaques is “an essential part of remembering invisible histories.” But heritage organizations must do more to discuss the “troubling aspects” of English history, including slavery and colonialism, she added.

“In a way it’s very easy to celebrate well-known figures who are marginalized, but it’s much harder to do that difficult work of acknowledging Britain’s difficult past,” said Yeh, whose work focuses on race, racism and cultural politics. “But this needs to be done for the benefit of future generations.” 

English Heritage installs a dozen blue plaques each year, selected from about 100 nominations. A committee reviews the nominees to decide which ones warrant commemoration and to ensure there is a real connection between each honoree and the site where the plaque is to be installed.

Once a decision is made, the order goes out to Heywood’s studio, which has been making plaques for English Heritage since 2016.

Over a period of six weeks, Heywood and Land roll and cut the clay, inscribe the disc with the honoree’s name and accomplishments, then apply the characteristic blue glaze and fire it in a kiln. It’s a process that creates an almost indestructible monument that should last as long as the building to which it’s attached — as long as the plaques don’t crack when they’re baked at 1,300° C (2,370° F).

“We pray to gods of the kiln,” Heywood said.

While the first plaque, honoring the poet Lord Byron, was destroyed when the building it adorned was demolished, the second, installed in 1867, still marks the house where Napoleon III, the last French emperor, lived in exile.

Plaque number 1,000 honors the Women’s Freedom League, a suffragist organization that used 1 Robert Street in central London as its base of operations during its most active period.

The group, which had the motto “Dare to be free,” aimed for total emancipation for women. It advocated nonpayment of taxes and backed a boycott of the 1911 census as ways to pressure the government to allow women to vote.

Heywood and Land feel the responsibility of the blue plaques intensely.

Heywood has a soft spot for scientists, who he says are the real heroes in improving people’s lives. Politicians? Not so much. They come and go.

“Blue plaques are carefully considered, the people are thoroughly researched, and the plaques are there for a reason,” he added. “And will be there forever.”
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Hundreds of soccer fans stormed into a hotel in Tehran on Monday, hoping for a glimpse of star player Cristiano Ronaldo after he arrived with his Saudi teammates ahead of a game. 

Chanting “Ronaldo, Ronaldo,” the fans pushed past police, filling the corridors and public spaces of the Espinas Palace Hotel. 

Ronaldo arrived on his first visit to Iran with the Saudi football club Al-Nassr, which is set to play Iran’s Persepolis in Tehran on September 19. The return game will be played in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on November 27. 

Ronaldo was the first of several big-name players to accept lavish contracts to play for Saudi teams. The oil-rich kingdom is spending billions of dollars to try to transform itself into a sports and entertainment powerhouse. 

The Asian Champions League games are made possible by the restoration of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia following an agreement brokered by China earlier this year. The longtime rivals had severed ties in 2016 after an angry crowd stormed Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran to protest Saudi Arabia’s execution of a popular Shiite cleric. 

The 2015 Asian Champions League edition was the last time Saudi and Iranian teams faced each other on home turf in the group stage or knockout rounds. 
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New York Fashion Week is generally known as a showcase for fashion designers, and the celebrities that wear their clothes. But several shows held on the sidelines are trying to call attention not only to fashion but to serious and difficult issues like sexual assault. VOA’s Rendy Wicaksana reports from New York
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Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction,” a biting satire starring Jeffrey Wright as a disillusioned academic, has won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, a much-watched bellwether in the Oscar race.

“American Fiction” is the directorial debut of Jefferson, the veteran TV writer of “Watchmen” and “Succession,” and an adaptation of Percival Everett’s 2001 novel “Erasure.” The film, about an author who resents that the literary industry is only interested in “Black books” that cater to the stereotypes of white audiences, emerged as a breakout hit at TIFF.

Toronto’s audience award winner, voted on by festival attendees, has historically nearly always signified a best-picture contender at the Academy Awards. Since 2012, every People’s Choice winner at TIFF has gone on to score a best-picture nod. In 2018, when “Green Book” won, it announced the film as a surprise awards contender. (Peter Farrelly’s film went on to win best picture at the Oscars.) Last year, Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” won Toronto’s top prize.

First runner-up went to Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers,” starring Paul Giamatti as a curmudgeonly boarding school teacher tasked with staying with a handful of students over Christmas break in the 1970s. Second runner-up was Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron,” the long-awaited latest Studio Ghibli film from the Japanese anime master.

“American Fiction,” which MGM will release in theaters Nov. 3, co-stars Sterling K. Brown, Issa Rae and Tracee Ellis Ross. In an interview, Jefferson said he immediately connected with Everett’s book.

“I was having the exact same conversations with Black colleagues in both professions: Why are we always writing about misery and trauma and violence and pain inflicted on Blacks?” said Jefferson. “Why is this what people expect from us? Why is this the only thing we have to offer to culture?”

The Toronto International Film Festival, which wraps Sunday, was diminished this year due to the ongoing actors and writers strikes. Red-carpet premieres were mostly without movie stars, detracting from some of the buzz that the largest film festival in North American typically generates. It followed a similarly strike-affected Venice Film Festival, where the festival’s top prize, the Golden Lion, went to Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things.” (That film skipped TIFF.)

The People’s Choice winner for documentary went to Robert McCallum’s “Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe” and the midnight madness award went to Larry Charles’ “Dicks: The Musical.” The festival’s juried competition awards were given to Tarsem Singh Dhandwar’s “Dear Jassi,” winner of the Platform section, and Meredith Hama-Brown’s “Seagrass,” which took the FIPRESCI award from international critics.
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A U.N. conference voted Sunday to list ruins of the ancient West Bank city of Jericho as a World Heritage Site, a decision likely to anger Israel, which controls the territory and does not recognize a Palestinian state.

Jericho is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities on earth, and is in a part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank that is administered by the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. The listing refers to the Tel es-Sultan archaeological site nearby, which contains ruins dating back to the 9th millennium B.C.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the U.N. World Heritage Committee in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, under the auspices of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO.

Israel quit UNESCO in 2019, accusing it of being biased against it and of diminishing its connection to the Holy Land. Israel also objected to UNESCO’s acceptance of Palestine as a member state in 2011. But Israel remains a party to the World Heritage Convention, and it sent a delegation to the meeting in Riyadh.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state. Israel views the West Bank as the biblical and cultural heartland of the Jewish people.

There have been no serious or substantive peace negotiations in over a decade, and Israel is currently led by the most nationalist and religious government in its history, making any move toward Palestinian statehood nearly unimaginable.

The modern city of Jericho is a major draw for tourism to the Palestinian territories, both because of its historical sites and proximity to the Dead Sea. In 2021, the Palestinian Authority unveiled major renovations to one of the largest mosaics in the Middle East, in a Jericho palace dating back to the 8th century.
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“The Nun 2” and “A Haunting in Venice” virtually tied for the No. 1 spot in U.S. and Canadian theaters over the weekend, with a slight edge carrying the horror sequel over the Hercule Poirot mystery, according to studio estimates Sunday.

In its second weekend of release, Warner Bros.’ “The Nun 2,” a spinoff from the studio’s lucrative “Conjuring” franchise, grossed $14.7 million. If numbers hold, that will give “The Nun 2” (up to $56.5 million total and $158.8 million worldwide) the top spot at the box office for the second straight week.

Very close behind was “A Haunting in Venice,” Kenneth Branagh’s third Agatha Christie adaptation following 2017’s “Murder on the Orient Express” and 2022’s “Death on the Nile.” It opened with $14.5 million.

Final box-office figures will be released Monday.

After the successful run of “Murder on the Orient Express” ($352.8 million worldwide against a production budget of $55 million) and the less-stellar global haul of “Death on the Nile” ($137.3 million against a $90 million budget), the sluggish start for “A Haunting in Venice” may have signaled the death knell for Branagh’s detective.

The 20th Century Studios film, released by the Walt Disney Co., grossed $22.7 million internationally. And it cost less than its predecessor, carrying a production budget of about $60 million.

“The Equalizer 3,” starring Denzel Washington, dropped to third place with $7.2 million. In three weeks, it grossed $73.7 million domestically and $132.4 million worldwide. Fourth place went to “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3” with $4.7 million in its second weekend of release. It’s grossed $18.5 million domestically.

It was one of the quietest weekends in movie theaters this year, as Hollywood — which has spent much of the last two weeks promoting its films at the Venice, Telluride and Toronto film festivals — treads water in between the summer smashes of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” and awaits its top fall movies. Some of those, like “Dune: Part Two,” have already been postponed until next year due to the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes.

One anticipated fall film, Sony’s “Dumb Money,” opted for a platform release, debuting in eight theaters over the weekend before expanding next weekend and going wide Sept. 29. The film, a rollicking dramatization of the GameStop stock frenzy, grossed $217,000, for a per-location average of about $27,000.

And “Barbie” also remains in the picture. For the ninth straight weekend, Greta Gerwig’s box-office sensation ranked in the top five films. It added $4 million to bring its domestic total to $625 million and its global haul to $1.42 billion. Meanwhile, “Oppenheimer” has reached $912.7 million, making it the highest grossing biopic ever, passing “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “The Nun II,” $14.7 million.

2. “A Haunting in Venice,” $14.5 million.

3. “The Equalizer 3,” $7.2 million.

4. “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3,” $4.7million.

5. “Barbie,” $4 million.

6. “Jawan,” $2.5 million.

7. “Blue Beetle,” $2.5 million.

8. “Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story,” $2.4 million.

9. “Oppenheimer,” $2.1 million.

10. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” $2 million.
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A U.N. conference voted Sunday to list ruins of the ancient West Bank city of Jericho as a World Heritage Site in Palestine, a decision likely to anger Israel, which controls the territory and does not recognize a Palestinian state.

Jericho is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities on earth, and is in a part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank that is administered by the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. The listing refers to the Tel es-Sultan archaeological site nearby, which contains ruins dating back to the 9th millennium B.C.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the U.N. World Heritage Committee in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, under the auspices of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO.

Israel quit UNESCO in 2019, accusing it of being biased against it and of diminishing its connection to the Holy Land. Israel also objected to UNESCO’s acceptance of Palestine as a member state in 2011. But Israel remains a party to the World Heritage Convention, and it sent a delegation to the meeting in Riyadh.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state. Israel views the West Bank as the biblical and cultural heartland of the Jewish people.

There have been no serious or substantive peace negotiations in over a decade, and Israel is currently led by the most nationalist and religious government in its history, making any move toward Palestinian statehood nearly unimaginable.

The modern city of Jericho is a major draw for tourism to the Palestinian territories, both because of its historical sites and proximity to the Dead Sea. In 2021, the Palestinian Authority unveiled major renovations to one of the largest mosaics in the Middle East, in a Jericho palace dating back to the 8th century. 
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The beer is flowing and millions of people are descending on the Bavarian capital to celebrate the official opening of Oktoberfest.

With the traditional cry of “O’zapft is” — “It’s tapped” — Mayor Dieter Reiter inserted the tap in the first keg at noon on Saturday, officially opening the 18 days of festivities.

Revelers decked out in traditional lederhosen and dirndl dresses trooped to Munich’s festival grounds Saturday morning, filling the dozens of traditional tents in anticipation of getting their first 1-liter mug of beer.

Minutes before the first keg was tapped, to cheers from the crowd, Bavarian Gov. Markus Soeder asked festivalgoers if they were ready for Oktoberfest to begin.

“I can only say one thing: This is the most beautiful, biggest, most important festival in the world,” he said.

The Oktoberfest has typically drawn about 6 million visitors every year. The event was skipped in 2020 and 2021 as authorities grappled with COVID-19, but it returned in 2022.

A 1-liter mug costs between 12.60 euros and 14.90 euros ($13.45 to $15.90) this year, an increase of around 6% from last year.

This year’s Oktoberfest, the 188th edition, runs through Oct. 3. 
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Jann Wenner, who co-founded Rolling Stone magazine and also was a co-founder of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, has been removed from the hall’s board of directors after making comments that were seen as disparaging toward Black and female musicians.

“Jann Wenner has been removed from the Board of Directors of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation,” the hall said Saturday, a day after Wenner’s comments were published in a New York Times interview.

A representative for Wenner, 77, did not immediately respond for a comment.

Wenner created a firestorm doing publicity for his new book, The Masters, which features interviews with musicians Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townshend and U2’s Bono — all white and male.

Asked why he didn’t interview women or Black musicians, Wenner responded: “It’s not that they’re inarticulate, although, go have a deep conversation with Grace Slick or Janis Joplin. Please, be my guest. You know, Joni [Mitchell] was not a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll. She didn’t, in my mind, meet that test,” he told the Times.

“Of Black artists — you know, Stevie Wonder, genius, right? I suppose when you use a word as broad as ‘masters,’ the fault is using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn’t articulate at that level,” Wenner said.

Wenner co-founded Rolling Stone in 1967 and served as its editor or editorial director until 2019. He also co-founded the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which was launched in 1987.

In the interview, Wenner seemed to acknowledge he would face a backlash. “Just for public relations sake, maybe I should have gone and found one Black and one woman artist to include here that didn’t measure up to that same historical standard, just to avert this kind of criticism.”

Last year, Rolling Stone magazine published its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and ranked Gaye’s What’s Going On No. 1, Blue by Mitchell at No. 3, Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life at No. 4, Purple Rain by Prince and the Revolution at No. 8 and Ms. Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill at No. 10.

Rolling Stone’s niche in magazines was an outgrowth of Wenner’s outsized interests, a mixture of authoritative music and cultural coverage with tough investigative reporting. 
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The U.N.’s World Heritage Committee on Friday placed two major historical sites in Ukraine on its list of such sites that it considers to be in danger.

The iconic St. Sophia Cathedral in the capital, Kyiv, and the medieval center of the western city of Lviv, are UNESCO World Heritage Sites central to Ukraine’s culture and history. The decision Friday to put those two on the body’s list of sites “in danger” has no enforcement mechanism but could help deter Russian attacks.

Neither site has been directly targeted since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Lviv has largely been spared from the fighting. But Russia has unleashed waves of strikes on Kyiv and other cities, hitting residential areas and critical infrastructure with Iranian-made attack drones.

The decision was made at the 45th session of the World Heritage Committee, which is being held in Saudi Arabia. The committee maintains UNESCO’s World Heritage List and oversees conservation of the sites.

A Ukrainian government official welcomed the move.

“We are very happy to have a very rich history and culture of our country, and we would like to say that it has been over thousands of years, and we try to preserve it for our future generations,” Deputy Culture Minister Anastasia Bondar said. “So it’s very much important that the whole world community will join us also.”

The gold-domed St. Sophia Cathedral, located in the heart of Kyiv, was built in the 11th century and designed to rival the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. The monument to Byzantine art contains the biggest collection of mosaics and frescoes from that period, and is surrounded by monastic buildings dating back to the 17th century.

The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, also known as the Monastery of the Caves, is a sprawling complex of monasteries and churches — some underground — that were built from the 11th to the 19th century. Some of the churches are connected by a labyrinthine complex of caves spanning more than 600 meters.

The two sites on the Dnipro River, a 15-minute drive from one another, are “a masterpiece of human creative genius,” according to UNESCO.

The other site is the historic center of Lviv, near the Polish border. A fifth-century castle overlooks streets and squares built between the 13th and 17th centuries. The site includes a synagogue as well as Orthodox, Armenian and Catholic religious buildings, reflecting the city’s diversity.

“In its urban fabric and its architecture, Lviv is an outstanding example of the fusion of the architectural and artistic traditions of Eastern Europe with those of Italy and Germany,” UNESCO said. “The political and commercial role of Lviv attracted to it a number of ethnic groups with different cultural and religious traditions.”

Lviv is more than 500 kilometers from Kyiv and even further from any front lines, but it hasn’t been spared. Russian cruise missiles slammed into an apartment building in the city in July, killing at least six people and wounding dozens.

UNESCO added Ukraine’s Black Sea port city of Odesa to its list of endangered heritage sites in January. Russian forces have launched multiple attacks on the city, a cultural hub known for its 19th-century architecture. Russia says that it only strikes military targets.

Under the 1972 UNESCO convention, ratified by both Ukraine and Russia, signatories undertake to “assist in the protection of the listed sites” and are “obliged to refrain from taking any deliberate measures” which might damage World Heritage sites.

Inclusion on the List of World Heritage in Danger is meant to rally urgent international support for conservation efforts. The list includes more than 50 sites around the world.
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A four-year absence of elite women’s tennis in China is set to end with the Women’s Tennis Association holding seven tournaments in the next six weeks as part of the tour’s Asian swing.

After tournaments in China were canceled due to COVID-19 travel restrictions in 2020, the WTA suspended events in the country in December 2021 over concerns about Grand Slam doubles champion Peng Shuai’s well-being after the Chinese player made sexual assault accusations against a high-ranking Chinese government official.

Peng dropped out of sight after the accusation against former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli briefly appeared on her verified Weibo social media before being swiftly removed. Screen shots of the post were shared across the internet, drawing widespread concern about Peng’s safety from politicians, fellow tennis stars and the WTA.

The WTA said at the time it would not return until someone from the tour could meet with Peng and her allegations were properly investigated.

Despite neither of those two conditions being met, the WTA announced in April that it intended to return to China this season after assurances were received from those close to Peng that she was safe and well, and that “more progress could be made” by returning to China than by staying away.

In doubles, Peng won major championships at Wimbledon in 2013 and the French Open in 2014. Her best Grand Slam showing in singles was a run to the semifinals at the U.S. Open in 2014. She won 23 WTA titles in doubles and two in singles and represented China at three Summer Olympics.

WTA Chairman and chief executive Steve Simon said in April that the organization’s decision to return to China included discussion and feedback with players and tournament officials.

“We’ve got players from over 80 countries, so there’s no shortage of different views of the world and positions on issues and topics we have,” he said. “Through reach-out to us, as well as our reaching out to athletes to find out their positions, the great majority of the athletes were supportive and wanted to see a return back to the region and felt it was time to go back. … There’s certainly some that didn’t agree but the great majority did.”

One of those who don’t agree is tour veteran Alize Cornet, who was one of the first players to back Peng under the hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai, and has said on her social media accounts she will not be heading to China this year.

“Staying true to my convictions and careful about my health, I decided I will not be playing in China this year,” Cornet said.

In the past, about 10 women’s tournaments were held each year in China, generating millions of dollars in revenue for the WTA and offering some of the highest prize money purses on the tour for the players.

This season there will be seven events held across China, starting with WTA 250 tournaments at the Guangzhou Open from Sep. 18 followed by the Ningbo Open from Sep. 25.

The China Open, a WTA and ATP 1000 event, follows from Sept. 28 and will see 2023 U.S. Open finalist, Aryna Sabalenka, debut as the new world No. 1. The woman she replaced at No. 1 after 75 weeks, Iga Swiatek will also be competing at the event, alongside newly crowned U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina, Ons Jabeur and Jessica Pegula.

The 2019 champion, Naomi Osaka will be absent with the former No. 1-ranked player currently on maternity leave after the birth of her first child in July. The four-time Grand Slam winner has said she intends to return to action at the Australian Open in January, where she won in 2019 and 2021.

In October, the tour moves to the WTA 500 Zhengzhou Open and WTA 250 Hong Kong with both tournaments starting Oct. 9. The WTA 250 Jiangxi Open is the following week before the Asia swing concludes at the season-ending WTA Elite Trophy tournament in Zhuhai from Oct. 24, which Sabalenka won when it was last played in 2019. 
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Chinese tourists used to flock to Hong Kong before the pandemic, bringing empty suitcases to fill with everything from baby milk powder, to cosmetics and nonprescription drugs. Large tour groups would descend on the city, sparking complaints from some locals.

When Hong Kong reopened its borders earlier this year, many people were expecting an influx of tourists from mainland China once again, but the past three years have changed the traveling and shopping behavior of Chinese people. 

Since reopening in January, Hong Kong has seen 20.5 million tourists as of the end of August, 80% of whom are from the mainland. That is a big jump from the little over 600,000 last year but is still just half the level seen in the first eight months of 2018, the year before the city was hit by widespread protests and two years before the coronavirus closed borders.

Moreover, those who are coming are buying less, according to industry experts and shop owners. 

“I used to be so busy that I couldn’t keep up with the tourists,” said Kenneth Fung, owner of Fung’s Co., a shop in the popular beachside neighborhood of Stanley, where he sells handwritten colorful depictions of auspicious Chinese characters.

“I would sell 100 of these characters a day, but now I can only sell 10,” he told VOA.

Some shops have had to close, unable to stay in business.

The slow rebound in Chinese outbound travel – one of the biggest sources of tourists for the world – is affecting other destinations around the world as well but it is especially noticeable and worrying in Hong Kong, where 80% of tourists have traditionally been from the mainland.

Before the pandemic, tourism was one of the main pillars of the economy, accounting for nearly 5% of its economic growth and more than 6% of its jobs.

“Other than financial [services], tourism is really a main source of income for Hong Kong. It supplies a lot of jobs for everybody, especially those medium-education workers, so we need tourism in Hong Kong,” said Paul Leung, chairman of the Hong Kong Inbound Travel Association, whose members include 100 travel agencies and tour bus companies.

Tourists interviewed told the VOA that mainlanders have grown used to shopping online during the pandemic, and Hong Kong no longer offered cheaper prices for luxury or other goods.

“Now we can buy whatever we want in the mainland,” said Lin Ping from Beijing. “The price difference isn’t great. … The prices of some online direct sales are more discounted than that of Hong Kong, from what I’ve seen in the past couple of days.”

Lin said she had done very little shopping and was simply enjoying the scenic attractions in the city, including on The Peak, a popular tourist destination that offers breathtaking views of Victoria Harbor.

Mainland China’s consumers also have more options for duty-free shopping now, with such centers opening on the mainland, rivaling Hong Kong.

A bigger underlying reason may be China’s slower economic growth, high youth unemployment and massive property bubble, which has seen housing values fall and made people hesitant to spend, economists said.

“They’re not into showy stuff like LV bags like before, and they don’t go to so many places outside of China anymore,” said independent Shanghai-based economist Andy Xie. “The mentality that you consume to show off to other people, that’s down sharply.”

Anti-Chinese sentiment, which exists in Hong Kong as elsewhere, may also have discouraged some people from traveling outside the mainland, Xie said.

“If people don’t like you, what’s the point of going there? The world doesn’t like you; Chinese people know that. You look at Europe and the United States, very few go there. The market has not caught on yet,” Xie said.

Cecilia Wang, a recent college graduate from neighboring Guangdong province, said she was worried about visiting Hong Kong prior to this trip because the last time she was here, the protests made her feel unsafe. She had also heard about discrimination against mainlanders, including rude service by shopkeepers of those speaking Mandarin Chinese rather than the local Cantonese dialect.

“After coming here, I feel that Hong Kong people are quite warmhearted. I didn’t feel any discrimination,” Wang said.

In a statement issued to VOA, the Hong Kong Tourism Board, in charge of promoting inbound travel, said the outlook for tourism recovery in the second half of the year was stable and gradual. 

“We are optimistic that the arrivals could reach 30 million for the full year 2023,” it said. 

That is about 50% of the pre-pandemic level. Industry officials believe it could take another year or longer before Hong Kong’s tourism and retail sectors bounce back. 

“The pace of recovery in the future will still be highly affected by varied factors, including air capacity, [the] global economy, and regional tourism competition, especially the exchange rate,” the board said.

It also said, though, that the latest visitor survey it conducted shows “Hong Kong continues to captivate visitors with its shopping, culinary offerings, theme parks, and excellent connectivity.” 

The agency also said visitors are increasingly interested in more comprehensive and diverse experiences in Hong Kong, particularly its arts, culture, and outdoors, such as its museums, neighborhoods, photographic opportunities, and outlying islands’ natural attractions.

To attract more tourists, the board began giving out 500,000 free plane tickets this year, as well as gifts to tourists, and has invited over 1,000 travel industry personnel, media, celebrities and influencers from mainland China and overseas to visit Hong Kong. 

Some of the city’s quarter of a million travel industry workers, however, have had to change careers as tourist arrivals fell from 65 million in 2018 to 56 million in 2019 during the protests, and then plunged to 3.5 million in 2020 when the pandemic hit. Arrivals dropped to just 91,398 in 2021, before starting to climb in 2022, but only to 604,564. 

Leung said his travel agency and other businesses, including hotels, face difficulties finding workers. 

“If you’re going to have it back to 70 million, I think it will take quite some time,” Leung said. “We need time to recover. No. 1 is the hotel, the manpower, the transportation.”

But he added: “We really have confidence that Hong Kong will bounce back.” Sitting in his empty shop, Fung, the artistic calligrapher, draws the Chinese word for “good fortune” in bright colors. He refuses to shut down his business, despite a lack of customers.

“I’ve been working here for nearly 40 years. At my age, I won’t be able to switch to a different career,” Fung said, before closing for the day.  
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The giant pandas that have been living at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington for 23 years will return to China by the end of this year. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias takes a look at the diplomatic moves that brought them to the United States and how politics and new conservation strategies could impact the species’ future.
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A Ukrainian composer has been commissioned to write an opera about mothers from that country going into Russia to rescue their forcibly detained children.

The Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater said Monday that 42-year-old Maxim Kolomiiets will compose the work to a libretto by George Brant, whose “Grounded,” with composer Jeanine Tesori, premieres at the Washington National Opera on October 28 and travels to the Met in autumn 2024. Met general manager Peter Gelb hopes the company can present the new work by 2027 or ’28.

The story is fictional but based on events in Ukraine and The Hague. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on March 17 for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of abducting children from Ukraine.

“It will be a story of motherhood and childhood, about this strange, very difficult situation where mothers rescue their children and met with many difficulties,” Kolomiiets said in a telephone interview. “For people, for listeners, it will be a good understanding.”

He was living in Kyiv when the war started last year, then three months later moved to Leipzig, Germany, where he had a project and decided to stay.

Gelb said discussions began last fall with Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska when she visited New York and Kolomiiets was picked from among 72 applications after vetting by Met dramaturge Paul Cremo, Gelb and the Met’s artistic staff.

A story framework has been created. A piano-vocal score and libretto will be written in the next year or two and a workshop prepared.

“I felt it was important to have an English-language librettist working with the composer so that story would have the broadest possible audience,” Gelb said.

Gelb has been an advocate of support for Ukraine, banning Russian star soprano Anna Netrebko from the opera house and assisting Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra tours led by his wife, Canadian-Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson.

Works in the joint commissioning program can appear at either house.

“It’s my hope it will end up as a full-blown opera and hopefully on our stage,” Gelb said.
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Jane Rosenberg started her courtroom sketch artist career drawing prostitutes in New York’s night court in 1980. Four decades later, she is still making court sketches, but these days some of her portraits are of much more well-known people. Nina Vishneva met with the artist to talk about her work. Anna Rice narrates the story. Camera: Natalia Latukhina, Vladimir Badikov
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A 2022 film highlighting the plight of a person with albinism in Zambia is streaming on Netflix. “Can You See Us” is based on the true story of a boy who becomes a successful musician despite obstacles caused by his genetic condition. Kathy Short reports from Lusaka. VOA footage by Richard Kille.
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Like many horrors before it, bad reviews didn’t scare off moviegoers from buying tickets for ” The Nun II.” The sequel to the 2018 hit, released in 3,728 theaters by Warner Bros., topped the box office in its first weekend in North American theaters earning an estimated $32.6 million, the studio said Sunday.

AP’s Mark Kennedy wrote in his one-star review that it’s “a movie that seems destined to pound a nail into this franchise’s undead coffin” and audiences gave it a C+ CinemaScore. But it hardly matters: Horror is perhaps the most reliably critic-proof genre, at least when it comes to opening weekend.

The Michael Graves-directed sequel starring Taissa Farmiga and Storm Reid fell far short of the debut for the first film ($53.8 million), but it’s still a solid launch. “The Nun” movies are part of the so-called Conjuring universe, which now has nine films, and $2.1 billion in box office, to its name. The sequel also played well internationally, picking up $52.7 million from 69 markets (Mexico being the strongest with $8.9 million) and boosting its global debut to $85.3 million.

“To have a horror universe is really powerful in terms of the revenue generating potential,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “It’s a great bet that Warners made on the horror moviegoing experience never waning.”

And there are many more scary movies on the calendar through the fall including “A Death in Venice,” which opens next week, “Saw X” on Sept. 29 and “The Exorcist: Believer” on Oct. 6.

“The Nun II” bumped Denzel Washington’s ” Equalizer 3 ” to second place in its second weekend. The Columbia Pictures release added $12.1 million, bringing its domestic grosses to $61.9 million and its worldwide earnings to $107.7 million.

Third place went to another new movie: The third installment of Nia Vardalos’s “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” which arrives 21 years after the first film became a massive sleeper hit earning some $369 million against a $5 million production budget. Released by Focus Features in 3,650 theaters, the third film earned an estimated $10 million, overwhelmingly driven by female audiences (71%) who were 25 or older (83%).

Vardalos wrote, directed and stars in “Greek Wedding 3,” which brings back John Corbett and takes the gang to Greece. AP’s Jocelyn Noveck wrote in her review that the movie, which has gotten mostly poor marks, is “like a thrice-warmed piece of baklava.”

The Indian revenge thriller, “Jawan,” starring Shah Rukh Khan, opened in fourth place with $6.2 million from only 813 locations. It was released in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. Khan, a Bollywood superstar, also led another box office sensation this year, “Pathaan,” which has made $130 million worldwide.

“Barbie,” which comes to VOD on Tuesday, dropped to No. 5 after 8 triumphant weeks with $5.9 million from 3,281 locations. The Warner Bros. film has now made $620.5 million domestically.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “The Nun II,” $32.6 million.

2. “The Equalizer 3,” $12.1 million.

3. “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3,” $10 million.

4. “Jawan,” $6.2 million.

5. “Barbie,” $5.9 million.

6. “Blue Beetle,” $3.8 million.

7. “Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story,” $3.4 million.

8. “Oppenheimer,” $3 million.

9. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” $2.6 million.
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An Israeli delegation arrived in Saudi Arabia on Sunday to attend a U.N. conference on world heritage sites, in the first public visit by government officials to the kingdom, an Israeli official said. 

The delegation is led by the head of Israel’s Antiquities Authority and includes diplomats, the official said. It is not a bilateral visit, and it was unclear whether they would meet with Saudi officials. 

The official was not authorized to discuss the matter with media and spoke on condition of anonymity. The official noted that Israel took part in a video game competition in Saudi Arabia earlier this year. 

The visit comes as Washington is pushing to broker normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which are believed to have quietly cultivated ties in recent years over their shared suspicion of Iran. A formal agreement would be a historic step toward integrating Israel into the wider region, but it faces major challenges. 

The Saudis are reportedly demanding major progress on resolving the conflict with the Palestinians — a hard sell for the most right-wing government in Israel’s history — as well as U.S. defense guarantees and aid in establishing a civilian nuclear program. 

Saudi Arabia is hosting the 45th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, which begins Sunday and runs until Sept. 25. 
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The Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival was awarded Saturday to a hilarious and shockingly explicit reworking of Frankenstein, Poor Things, starring Emma Stone as a sex-mad reanimated corpse.

An ongoing Hollywood strike may have robbed Venice of its usual bevy of stars, but its strong selection showed the world’s oldest film festival could still boast of its status as a launchpad for Oscar contenders.

Poor Things by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos was labelled an “instant classic” by critics. It looks set to repeat the success he had with his 2018 film, The Favourite, which after two awards at Venice won a string of international prizes.

Stone plays Bella, a woman brought back to life with an infant’s brain by a mad scientist (Willem Dafoe).

Accepting the award, Lanthimos said the film “couldn’t exist without another incredible creature, Emma Stone,” who could not appear due to the strike.

The film features some of the most explicit sex ever seen in an A-list Hollywood film as Stone’s character discovers — and very much enjoys — her sexuality.

The film brilliantly skewers the way men try and fail to control the innocent Bella — particularly a roguish Mark Ruffalo — triggering bursts of spontaneous applause and riotous laughter from audiences in Venice.

‘Terrifying’ AI threat

The Volpi Cup for best actress went to 25-year-old Cailee Spaeny for her portrayal of Elvis Presley’s wife in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla.

Best actor went to Peter Sarsgaard for his performance as a man suffering from dementia in the drama, Memory, in which he played alongside Jessica Chastain.

He used his speech to back the Hollywood strike and warn of the “terrifying” threat from artificial intelligence, one of the key issues in the dispute.

“If we lose that battle in the strike, our industry will be the first of many to fall,” Sarsgaard said.

The runner-up Silver Lion went to Japan’s Ryusuke Hamaguchi for Evil Does Not Exist, a quiet and eerie eco-fable that follows his Oscar-winning Drive My Car.

Venice audiences were floored by two brutal migrant dramas, and both went home with awards.

Io Capitano, the epic story of Senegalese teenagers crossing Africa to reach Europe, won best director for Italy’s Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah) and a best newcomer prize for its star, Seydou Sarr, in his first-ever film.

Green Border, a harrowing account of refugees trapped between Belarus and Poland, took the third-place Special Jury Prize.

One of the stranger entries in competition, El Conde, which reimagined Chile’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet as a blood-sucking vampire, won best screenplay for writer-director Pablo Larrain.

The winners were chosen by a jury led by director Damien Chazelle (La La Land) and included Jane Campion and Laura Poitras, who won last year with Big Pharma documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.

Strike impact

Hollywood stars with independent films were allowed to attend Venice by striking unions, including Chastain and Adam Driver, who starred in Michael Mann’s racing biopic Ferrari.

Both backed the strikes, with Chastain saying actors had been silenced for too long about “workplace abuse” and “unfair contracts.”

But director David Fincher, who premiered his assassin movie The Killer starring Michael Fassbender and has been closely associated with Netflix, triggered controversy by saying he understood “both sides.”

The strong line-up helped distract from the controversy around the inclusion of Roman Polanski in the out-of-competition section.

As a convicted sex offender, the 90-year-old director was already struggling to find distribution in the U.S. and other countries for his slapstick comedy The Palace.

The response from Venice will not have helped: it currently holds a resounding zero percent on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, variously described as a “laugh-less debacle” and “soul-throttling crap” by critics.

Another director effectively blacklisted in the U.S., Woody Allen, had a better time with his 50th film (and first in French), Coup de Chance. Some critics considered it his best film in years.

Here’s the complete list of winners from the 23 entries in the main competition:

Golden Lion for best film: Poor Things by Yorgos Lanthimos
Silver Lion - Grand Jury Prize: Evil Does Not Exist by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Silver Lion for best director: Matteo Garrone for Io Capitano
Volpi Cup for best actress: Cailee Spaeny for Priscilla by Sofia Coppola
Volpi Cup for best actor: Peter Sarsgaard for Memory by Michel Franco
Best screenplay: Guillermo Calderon and Pablo Larrain for El Conde by Pablo Larrain
Special Jury Prize: Green Border by Agnieszka Holland
Marcello Mastroianni Prize for best newcomer: Seydou Sarr for Io Capitano by Matteo Garrone 

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Budget for new public buildings includes allotment for original artworks
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Since its founding, the United States has incorporated art into its federal buildings. These days, one-half of one percent of a new building’s budget usually goes to funding original art designed specifically for that structure. As VOA’s Dora Mekouar reports, it’s a tradition that helps preserve American culture for future generations. Camera: Adam Greenbaum
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Rescuers from across Europe rushed to a cave in Turkey on Thursday, launching an operation to save an American researcher who became trapped almost 1,000 meters below the cave’s entrance after suffering stomach bleeding.

Experienced caver Mark Dickey, 40, suddenly became ill during an expedition with a handful of others, including three other Americans, in the Morca cave in southern Turkey’s Taurus Mountains, the European Association of Cave Rescuers said.

While rescuers, including a Hungarian doctor, have reached and treated Dickey, it could be days and possibly weeks before they are able to get him out of the cave, which is too narrow in places for a stretcher to pass through.

In a video message from inside the cave and made available Thursday by Turkey’s communications directorate, Dickey thanked the caving community and the Turkish government for their efforts.

“The caving world is a really tight-knit group and it’s amazing to see how many people have responded on the surface,” said Dickey. ” … I do know that the quick response of the Turkish government to get the medical supplies that I need, in my opinion, saved my life. I was very close to the edge.”

Dickey, who is seen standing and moving around in the video, said that while he is alert and talking, he is not “healed on the inside” and will need a lot of help to get out of the cave. Doctors will decide whether he will need to leave the cave on a stretcher or if he can leave under his own power.

Dickey, who had been bleeding and losing fluid from his stomach, has stopped vomiting and has eaten for the first time in days, according to a New Jersey-based cave rescue group he’s affiliated with. It’s unclear what caused his medical issue.

The New Jersey Initial Response Team said the rescue will require many teams and constant medical care. The group says the cave is also quite cold — about 4-6 degrees Celsius.

Communication with Dickey takes about five to seven hours and is carried out by runners, who go from Dickey to the camp below the surface where a telephone line to speak with the surface has been set up.

Experts said it will be a challenge to successfully rescue Dickey.

Yusuf Ogrenecek of the Speleological Federation of Turkey said that one of the most difficult tasks of cave rescue operations is widening the narrow cave passages to allow stretcher lines to pass through at low depths.

Stretcher lines are labor intensive and require experienced cave rescuers working long hours, Ogrenecek said. He added that other difficult factors range from navigating through mud and water at low temperatures to the psychological toll of staying inside a cave for long periods of time.

Marton Kovacs of the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service said that the cave is being prepared for Dickey’s safe extraction. Passages are being widened and the danger of falling rocks is also being addressed.

Turkish disaster relief agency AFAD and rescue team UMKE are working with Turkish and international cavers on the plan to hoist Dickey out of the cave system, the European Cave Rescue Association said.

The rescue effort currently involves more than 170 people, including doctors, paramedics who are tending to Dickey and experienced cavers, Ogrenecek said, adding that the rescue operation could take up to two to three weeks.

The operation includes rescue teams from Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Turkey.

Dickey was described by the association as “a highly trained caver and a cave rescuer himself” who is well known as a cave researcher, or speleologist, from his participation in many international expeditions. He is secretary of the association’s medical committee.

Dickey was on an expedition mapping the 1,276-meter-deep Morca cave system for the Anatolian Speleology Group Association (ASPEG) when he ran into trouble about 1,000 meters down, according to Ogrenecek. He initially became ill on Saturday, but it took until Sunday morning to notify others who were above ground.

Justin Hanley, a 28-year-old firefighter from near Dallas, Texas, said he met Dickey a few months ago when he took a cave rescue course Dickey taught in Hungary and Croatia. He described Dickey as upbeat and as someone who sees the good in everyone.

“Mark is the guy that should be on that rescue mission that’s leading and consulting and for him to be the one that needs to be rescued is kind of a tragedy in and of itself,” he said.

A team of rescuers from Italy’s National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Team will be flying to Turkey on Thursday night. A total of around 50 rescuers will be at the entrance of the cave early Friday ready to participate in the operation directed by Turkish authorities.

The rescue teams hope that the extraction can begin on Saturday or Sunday. Kovacs said that lifting Dickey will likely take several days, and that several bivouac points are being prepared along the way so that Dickey and rescue teams can rest.

The cave has been divided into several sections, with each country’s rescue team being responsible for one section.

The Hungarian Cave Rescue Service, made up of volunteer rescuers, was the first to arrive at Dickey’s location and provided emergency blood transfusions to stabilize his condition. 
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It has been nearly five months since civil war erupted in Sudan. The U.N. refugee agency estimates that by year’s end, 1.8 million people will have fled to neighboring countries. VOA’s Nairobi Bureau Chief Mariama Diallo reports on a group of Sudanese artists who came together recently to deal with the trauma of the war by showcasing their work in the Kenyan capital
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