YCLOAK

Every Lunar New Year without fail, Kat Lieu’s mother would make her steamed nian gao, which is a sweet rice — or mochi — cake. It was a tasty tradition of having dessert for breakfast.

The Seattle-based author of the “Modern Asian Baking at Home” cookbook and founder of the Subtle Asian Baking online group switches things up for her 9-year-old son. He gets mochi waffles made with bright green pandan the first morning of the new year.

“This year again I’m going to make the waffles,” said Lieu, who is half Chinese and half Vietnamese. “I’m also going to make the steamed nian gao and things like that, and try to have him appreciate it more, too.”

Unlike Thanksgiving, when pie is a given at many households, desserts and confections at Lunar New Year are as varied as the Asian diasporas around the world that celebrate it.

Families from China to the U.S. to Vietnam will mark the new year on Sunday with the usual customs such as elaborate dinners and red envelopes with money for children. There will be customary sweet snacks like nian gao. But in this age of social media, food savviness and cultural pride, younger generations of Asians also are getting more inspired to have dessert courses that are whimsical and creative — from black sesame financiers to peanut butter miso cookies.

In Beijing, residents have been flocking to the flagship store of Daoxiangcun, one of the city’s best-known bakeries, for new year-themed dessert gift boxes in which some of the pastries were shaped like a rabbit, the animal of the upcoming year’s Chinese zodiac.

On Saturday, people stood in line outside the store for hours for the chance to buy baked goods, according to a staffer. Even at a less popular branch half a block away, customers still had to wait 40 minutes.

For Lexi Li, it was about bringing a little something to loved ones even though it meant waiting in the line for seven hours in sub-freezing temperatures.

“I don’t really like desserts and pastries, but I just want to bring something home as a gift,” said the 30-year-old, who walked out with a stack of eight boxes for friends and family in her hometown Taiyuan, in central China’s Shanxi province.

Known for its diverse food culture, China offers a variety of Lunar New Year desserts that are usually rice-based or flour-based. They include tang yuan, which are mochi-esque rice balls with black sesame or peanut paste in soup, as well as sesame balls, almond cookies, candied lotus seeds and fat goh — steamed cakes also known as prosperity cakes.

Nian gao remains one of the most popular options. Its key ingredient is glutinous rice flour, along with other things such as taro, dates, jujube and red bean paste, depending on the variety. Its name is a homonym for “higher year” in Chinese, meaning a more prosperous year ahead and expressing wishes for children to grow taller.

The well-preserved tradition plays a vital role in passing on Chinese culture because it keeps alive a food culture honoring grains and reminding people of how festivals are celebrated going back to the seventh century, according to Siu Yan Ho, a Hong Kong-based expert in Chinese food culture.

“Food is memory, and this memory is connected with festivals,” Siu said.

In Vietnam, which is celebrating the Year of the Cat, sweets also differ by region. Vietnamese people eat nian gao, which they call banh to. They also eat che kho gao nep, a pudding made with sticky rice and a mixture of water, ginger and either sugar or molasses. Other delectables include che kho dau xanh — a mung bean pudding made with coconut milk and sugar — and banh tet chuoi, a glutinous rice cake with bananas.

“On Lunar New Year, for three days you go visit family, friends and teachers,” said Linh Trinh, a Vietnamese food historian who is getting a PhD in the subject at the University of Michigan. “So everybody has to store a lot of snacks in their house for people to come visit and have tea. It becomes like the pride of the household to serve their traditional snacks.”

More U.S. companies are finding a sweet spot in incorporating Lunar New Year elements. Cupcake chain Sprinkles, in collaboration with the pan-Asian cultural support nonprofit Gold House, is selling red velvet cupcakes with an almond cookie crust and almond cream cheese frosting. At Disney California Adventure Park, guests can order milk tea cheesecake with taro mousse.

Judging by the 150,000-plus membership of the Subtle Asian Baking Facebook group, a lot of Asians are more about showing off something they made for the holiday rather than bought. The community has come a long way from when Lieu started it in 2020. For the third year, there has been a virtual Lunar New Year bake-off on Facebook and Instagram where members share photos of stunning macarons, chiffon cakes and other pastries.

“You’re innovating. You’re bringing appreciation to all these amazing ingredients,” Lieu said. “And then you’re you’re making it your own traditions, which is amazing.”

Kelson Herman, of San Francisco, crafted a sourdough boule with an illustration of Miffy, a girl bunny from a popular Dutch children’s book series, for the Lunar New Year. Already an avid baker, the 44-year-old got inspired by seeing online what other people were doing.

“I see a lot of boundaries being pushed, people trying to not just one-up each other but be more creative,” Herman said. “I feel like it always comes down to flavors that bring back kind of familial memories. … It could be things that just evoke conversation and family.”

In Queens, New York, Karen Chin made a two-tier cake frosted in coconut buttercream topped with a white chocolate rabbit. One layer was vanilla with red bean paste. The other was spiced cake with cardamom and mango curd. It’s a far cry from the fat goh her grandmother makes.

“I told my grandma that I was going to make a cake. And she’s like, ‘Don’t make it too complicated,'” Chin said, chuckling.

Yet, Chin’s creativity yielded some special family moments.

“I was so touched because last time when she came and she ate something, she’s like ‘You make good food.’ I was like, ‘Wow, that’s the first time she complimented me,'” Chin said.

Sue Ng, who was born and raised in Canada but now lives in Hong Kong, loves to “cute-ify” pastries for special occasions. During the pandemic, she found a passion for combining baking and her love of Asian pop culture. Past Lunar New Year creations included a rolled cake that looked like a White Rabbit Creamy Candy, a Chinese brand as iconic as the Hershey bar.

Ng said that because her two school-age daughters have grown up in Hong Kong, they’ve learned the importance of the Lunar New Year, including the food. But she also likes to throw in something different, such as black sesame financiers and salted egg yolk cookies.

“A Lunar New Year dessert to me is something made using Asian elements with reference to traditionally-made goods during this time,” Ng said in an email. “Now we can be creative and make something like nian gao-filled cookies and the ideas are limitless! Sweet treats are a must during this time because it symbolizes a sweet life.”
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British actor Julian Sands, best known for his appearance in the film A Room with a View, has been missing for several days after hiking in a Southern California mountain range.

Search and rescue teams have looked for him, but their efforts have been called off because a series of storms has created adverse trail conditions and avalanche risks.

The Associated Press reports that drones and helicopters are being employed in the search for the actor when weather conditions allow.

Sands has also appeared in Warlock, 1990’s Arachnophobia, 1991’s Naked Lunch, 1993’s Boxing Helena, and 1995’s Leaving Las Vegas.
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David Crosby, one of the most influential rock singers of the 1960s and ’70s with the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, has died at age 81, Variety reported Thursday, citing a statement from Crosby’s wife.

“It is with great sadness after a long illness, that our beloved David (Croz) Crosby has passed away,” Variety quoted his wife, Jan Dance, as saying in the statement.

Crosby’s UK-based representatives could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters.

Crosby was a founding member of two revered rock bands: the country- and folk-influenced Byrds, for whom he co-wrote the hit “Eight Miles High,” and CSNY, who defined the smooth side of the Woodstock generation’s music. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of both groups.

Musically, Crosby stood out for his intricate vocal harmonies, unorthodox open tunings on guitar and incisive songwriting. His work with both the Byrds and CSN/CSNY blended rock and folk in new ways, and their music became a part of the soundtrack for the hippie era.

“I don’t know what to say other than I’m heartbroken to hear about David Crosby. David was an unbelievable talent — such a great singer and songwriter. And a wonderful person,” Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson said on Twitter.

Personally, Crosby was the embodiment of the credo “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll,” and a 2014 Rolling Stone magazine article tagged him “rock’s unlikeliest survivor.”

Tragedies, illnesses

In addition to drug addictions that ultimately led to a transplant to replace a liver worn out by decades of excess, his tumultuous life included a serious motorcycle accident, the death of a girlfriend, and battles against hepatitis C and diabetes.

“I’m concerned that the time I’ve got here is so short, and I’m pissed at myself, deeply, for the 10 years — at least — of time that I wasted just getting smashed,” Crosby told the Los Angeles Times in July 2019. “I’m ashamed of that.”

He fell “as low as a human being can go,” Crosby told the Times.

He also managed to alienate many of his famous former bandmates for which he often expressed remorse in recent years.

His drug habits and often abrasive personality contributed to the demise of CSNY, and the members eventually quit speaking to each other. In the 2019 documentary “David Crosby: Remember My Name,” he made clear he hoped they could work together again but conceded the others “really dislike me, strongly.”

Crosby fathered six children — two as a sperm donor to rocker Melissa Etheridge’s partner and another who was placed for adoption at birth and did not meet Crosby until he was in his 30s. That son, James Raymond, would eventually become his musical collaborator.

“Thank you @thedavidcrosby I will miss you my friend,” Etheridge said on Twitter alongside a photo of the two of them.

Looking back at the turbulent 1960s and his life, Crosby told Time magazine in 2006: “We were right about civil rights; we were right about human rights; we were right about peace being better than war. … But I think we didn’t know our butt from a hole in the ground about drugs and that bit us pretty hard.”

 

Music was ‘joyous’

Crosby was born August 14, 1941, in Los Angeles. His father was a cinematographer who won a Golden Globe for “High Noon” in 1952, and his mother exposed him to the Weavers, a folk group, and to classical music.

As a teenager, Crosby wrote, playing music “was absolutely joyous to me. I always loved it. I always will love it.”

After a stay in New York’s Greenwich Village music scene, Crosby was back in California in 1963 and helped Roger McGuinn start the Byrds, whose first hit, a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man,” came in 1965, followed by “Turn! Turn! Turn!”

Crosby was kicked out of the Byrds because the band did not want to play his songs, with the flashpoint being “Triad,” about a menage a trois, and disputes over onstage political rants.

Crosby and Stephen Stills, whose band with Neil Young, Buffalo Springfield, had fallen apart, then began playing together. Graham Nash of the Hollies, who met Crosby in 1966 and went on to become his closest collaborator and a closer friend, joined them. Their first album, “Crosby, Stills and Nash,” was a big seller in 1969 with such songs as “Marrakesh Express,” “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” and “Guinnevere.”

Guitarist and singer-songwriter Young fell in with them that year, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young came to be considered one of the greatest amalgams of talent in rock history.

Their second performance together was the landmark Woodstock music festival in 1969, and their 1970 album “Deja Vu” contained the hits “Teach Your Children,” “Woodstock” and one of Crosby’s signature songs, “Almost Cut My Hair.”

Girlfriend’s death

As CSNY was taking off, Crosby was in a drug-fueled downward spiral caused by the 1969 death of girlfriend Christine Hinton in a car accident.

“I had no way to deal with that, nothing in my life had prepared me for that,” wrote Crosby, who had added cocaine and heroin to his drug repertoire.

The next decade was a blur of drug arrests, album releases and women. “I was not into being monogamous — I made that plain to everybody concerned. I was a complete and utter pleasure-seeking sybarite,” he wrote in his autobiography.

Crosby had a daughter with a girlfriend but soon left her for Jan Dance, who moved in with him in 1978. That relationship lasted and they had a son, Django, in 1995.

Crosby introduced Dance to heroin and the free-basing method of smoking cocaine. “We went down the tubes together, but we did it with our hearts intertwined,” he wrote.

There were several failed attempts at rehab, and Crosby developed a reputation as a bloated, hapless addict. In 1985, Nash told Rolling Stone: “I’ve tried everything — extreme anger, extreme compassion. I’ve gotten 20 of his best friends in the same room with him. I’ve tried hanging out with him. I’ve tried not hanging out with him.”

Crosby beat a series of drug charges but lost in Texas after being arrested with a drug pipe and gun at a club in Dallas and went to prison in 1985. The prison system required him to shave his trademark bushy mustache, but he found solace in playing in the prison band during his year of incarceration.

“Playing and singing straight was an unfamiliar feeling,” he wrote. “I hadn’t been onstage with a drug-free system in more than 25 years.”

After his release, Crosby told People magazine he had beaten his addictions.

“Most people who go as far as I did with drugs are dead,” he said. “Hard drugs will hook anyone. I don’t care who you are. … I have a Ph.D. in drugs.”

He was also arrested on gun and marijuana charges in New York in 2004.

In 2014 he released “Croz,” his first solo album since 1993, but his tour to promote the record was interrupted in February by heart surgery.

He continued recording and was an active presence on Twitter, in addition to writing an advice column in Rolling Stone.

In March 2021, The Guardian reported that Crosby sold the recorded music and publishing rights to his entire music catalog to Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group for an undisclosed sum. He was quoted as saying that the COVID-19 pandemic prevented him from playing concerts and that the widespread use of music streaming “stole my money.”
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The latest viral video capturing the hearts of millions of users on social media is of a 10-year-old Jamaican boy singing about beauty and gratitude.

The song, “Beautiful Day,” along with its myriad remixes, has been shared globally across Tik Tok, Instagram and YouTube.

While the video has only recently gone viral, the story of the song began nearly a decade ago when singer-songwriter Jermaine Edwards debuted “Beautiful Day” in Jamaica in 2014.

Several years later, 10-year-old Rushawn Ewears sang the song during lunchtime in 2017 at Top Hill Primary School in Jamaica. His teacher recorded the classroom performance in a video, which also captured Ewears’ classmates sweetly looking in from the next room.

Ewears croons in the chorus: “Lord, I thank you for sunshine / Thank you for rain / Thank you for joy / Thank you for pain / It’s a beautiful day!”

The video was posted to Facebook, where it was shared by users across Jamaica over the next several years.

However, it was not until recent weeks that the video went international with bands across the world creating their own remixes.

South African musician known as “The Kiffness” made a remix with a ukulele that has garnered more than 6 million views on YouTube.

Ewears is now 16 and is delighted by the worldwide interest in the video. He told the Jamaica Gleaner, “I don’t know how many people have viewed the song, but for me, music is an inspiration. Sometimes when you feel down, music helps you to motivate yourself.”

The song’s original creator, Edwards, has also benefited from the resurgence of his song, recently signing a deal with Song Music U.K., according to music website, DancehallMag.
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Italian film star Gina Lollobrigida, who achieved international film stardom during the 1950s and was dubbed “the most beautiful woman in the world” after the title of one her movies, died in Rome on Monday, her agent said. She was 95.

The agent, Paola Comin, didn’t provide details. But Lollobrigida had surgery in September to repair a thigh bone broken in a fall. She returned home and said she had quickly resumed walking.

A drawn portrait of the diva graced a 1954 cover of Time magazine, which in an article about Italian movie-making likened her to a “goddess.” More than a half-century later, Lollobrigida still turned heads with a head full of auburn curly hair and her statuesque figure.

“Lollo,” as she was lovingly nicknamed by Italians, began making movies in Italy just after the end of World War II, as the country began to promote on the big screen a stereotypical concept of Mediterranean beauty as buxom and brunette.

Besides “The World’s Most Beautiful Woman” in 1955, career highlights included Golden Globe-winner “Come September,” with Rock Hudson; “Trapeze;” “Beat the Devil,” a 1953 John Huston film starring Humphrey Bogart and Jennifer Jones; and “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell,” which won Lollobrigida Italy’s top movie award, a David di Donatello, as best actress in 1969.

In Italy, she worked with some of the country’s top directors following the war, including Mario Monicelli, Luigi Comencini, Pietro Germi and Vittorio De Sica.

Two of her more popular films at home were Comencini’s “Pane Amore Fantasia” (Bread Love Fantasy) in 1953, and the sequel a year later, “Pane Amore Gelosia” (Bread Love Jealousy). In each of them, her male foil was Vittorio Gassman, one of Italy’s most leading men on the screen.

Lollobrigida began her career in beauty contests, posing for the covers of magazines and brief appearances in minor films. But her sexy image quickly propelled her to roles in major Italian and international movies.

While Lollobrigida played some dramatic roles, her characters were most popular in lighthearted comedies, like the “Bread Love” movies.

Lollobrigida also was an accomplished sculptor, painter and photographer, and eventually essentially dropped film for the fine arts. With her camera, she roamed the world from what was then the Soviet Union to Australia.

In 1974, Fidel Castro hosted her as a guest in Cuba for 12 days as she worked on a photo reportage.

She was born on July 4, 1927 in Subiaco, a picturesque hill town near Rome, where her father was a furniture maker.
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R’Bonney Gabriel, a fashion designer, model and sewing instructor from Texas who competition officials said is the first Filipino American to win Miss USA, was crowned Miss Universe on Saturday night.

Gabriel closed her eyes and clasped hands with runner-up Miss Venezuela, Amanda Dudamel, at the moment of the dramatic reveal of the winner, then beamed after her name was announced.

Thumping music rang out, and she was handed a bouquet of flowers, draped in the winner’s sash and crowned with a tiara onstage at the 71st Miss Universe Competition, held in New Orleans.

The second runner-up was Miss Dominican Republic, Andreina Martinez.

In the Q&A at the last stage of the competition for the three finalists, Gabriel was asked how she would work to demonstrate Miss Universe is “an empowering and progressive organization” if she were to win.

“I would use it to be a transformational leader,” she responded, citing her work using recycled materials in her fashion design and teaching sewing to survivors of human trafficking and domestic violence.

“It is so important to invest in others, invest in our community and use your unique talent to make a difference,” Gabriel continued. “We all have something special, and when we plant those seeds to other people in our life, we transform them, and we use that as a vehicle for change.”

According to Miss Universe, Gabriel is a former high school volleyball player and graduate of the University of North Texas. A short bio posted on the organization’s website said she is also CEO of her own sustainable clothing line.

Nearly 90 contestants from around the world took part in the competition, organizers said, involving “personal statements, in depth interviews and various categories including evening gown & swimwear.”

Miss Curacao, Gabriela Dos Santos, and Miss Puerto Rico, Ashley Carino, rounded out the top five finalists.

Last year’s winner was Harnaaz Sandhu of India.
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After COVID-19 restrictions had wiped out Vienna’s glamorous winter ball season for two years in a row, 50-year-old Wahyuni couldn’t wait any longer to get dolled up and put on her dazzling floral-patterned ballgown to once again waltz the night away.

“We love to come here, because the very nice decorations are made out of real flowers and it’s very lovely,” Wahyuni said, alongside her friend Deasy, who declined to give their full names, as both were attending the legendary Flower Ball in Vienna’s neo-Gothic city hall.

Admiring the riot of colors, 46-year-old Deasy, who originally hails from Indonesia, said she had been here a few years ago and “had to come back.”

Known for being one of the most beautifully decorated winter balls among about 450 hosted in the Austrian capital each season, the Flower Ball showcases mesmerizing floral arrangements skillfully crafted out of 100,000 blossoms.

Donning snow-white dresses and classy black evening suits, four first-time debutants said they were “quite nervous” about opening the ball.

“I think it is so beautifully decorated, and that makes me super happy,” 18-year-old Eduard Wernisch said.

The self-described rookies said they had attended dance classes for a couple of hours every week since September to be prepared.

The rhythm of the waltz can be tricky, and 17-year-old classmate Emma said she was particularly afraid of dropping her flower bouquet.

“People come here with the expectation of experiencing spring” as opposed to the gray, foggy winters so prevalent in Vienna, Peter Hucik, art director of the Flower Ball told Agence France-Presse.

Even though the ball is not sold out, Hucik said he is pleased that 2,400 visitors are attending Friday’s ball, kicking off the season as one of Vienna’s first big balls.

Most successful season

The COVID-related shutdown of Vienna’s famous ball season caused the city to lose at least $164 million in revenue per year.

This season, however, appeared to be on track to become one of Vienna’s most successful on record.

“The season is making a roaring comeback,” said Markus Griessler, chairman of the tourism and leisure division of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce.

Griessler said he expects the city to rake in 170 million euros this season.

“Every third Viennese aged 15 and older is planning to attend a ball this year,” compared with 1 in 4 in 2019, he added, noting that nearly 550,000 tickets have been sold.

About one-tenth of the ball-goers each year come from abroad. On average, every ball-goer spends around 320 euros per ball.

Too close for comfort

There are parallels between Vienna’s ball season and traveling in general, Norbert Kettner, director of the city’s tourist office told AFP, when asked about why balls remained a top priority.

“Clearly, people insist on traveling and dancing,” said Kettner while emphasizing the city’s age-old tradition of hosting such events.

The tradition dates to the 18th century, when the balls of the Habsburg royal court ceased to be reserved for the aristocracy alone.

The Viennese began adopting court customs for their own soirees, soon launching balls dedicated to hunters, cafe owners and florists.

The Viennese used the opportunity to approach the opposite sex, lavishly wine, dine, spy and dance.

“The Viennese ball season and the waltz had always been a thorn in the side of the Catholic Church,” Kettner said, because “waltzing was too close for comfort.”

Therefore the famous ball season “loosely follows the Christian calendar and wraps up before Ash Wednesday,” he added.

Thousands will earn their living in the flourishing sector, from hotels and restaurants to fashioning evening wear and hairdressing.

All businesses were as excited as the revelers to gear up and make this season a success.
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Iranian chess referee Shohreh Bayat says a gesture of solidarity with female compatriots at a tournament in Iceland has caused a feud with the game’s global body and seen her kicked off a commission.

Bayat wore a “Women, Life, Freedom” T-shirt at a prestigious tournament in October, soon after protests began in Iran over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in custody for breaking strict Islamic dress code.

“I don’t think it’s normal to stay quiet about this,” Bayat, 35, told Reuters in a video interview. She is among a string of sports figures to clash with authorities over the hijab policy and express solidarity with anti-government demonstrators.

“This is a big human rights matter. I think if we stay quiet about these things, we cannot forgive ourselves,” she added.

Bayat, who was also accused by Iran of violating hijab practice at a tournament in 2020, said the International Chess Federation (FIDE) had removed her from its arbiters’ commission after she angered its President Arkady Dvorkovich.

The Iranian said Dvorkovich asked her to change her attire in Iceland, after another chess official had raised the issue. She reappeared at the tournament in a yellow suit and blue blouse: the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

FIDE confirmed Dvorkovich had requested she not wear the shirt about women’s rights. The federation said it respected Bayat’s political activities but that she “disregarded direct instructions given to her to stop wearing slogans or mottos.”

“No matter how noble or uncontroversial the cause is, doing activism from that role is inappropriate and unprofessional,” it said in a statement to Reuters.

Tehran casts the protesters as pawns of a Western-led push to overthrow the government.

‘Beautiful message’

Bayat accused Dvorkovich, a Russian deputy prime minister from 2012 to 2018, of succumbing to geopolitics.

“Iran and Russia are very united in the war against Ukraine,” she said. “When I was told by Dvorkovich to take off my T-shirt, that was the reason probably.

“My T-shirt was not political at all … It’s one of the most beautiful women’s rights messages in the world.”

According to a message seen by Reuters, a senior FIDE official told Bayat she had been removed from the commission because Dvorkovich was “furious” with her.

Dvorkovich did not respond to a request for comment.

FIDE said it had not discussed any disciplinary action against Bayat and values her as an arbiter.

Bayat lives in London, fearing for her safety after photos of her at the 2020 tournament in Russia brought criticism in Iranian state media.

Bayat said at the time that she does not agree with the hijab, but that she had been wearing a headscarf during the championship’s first matches, although it had been loose and was not visible from some angles in photographs.

Since Iran’s Islamic Revolution, all women are required to wear a hijab in public, including sportswomen abroad. Women who break the dress code can be publicly berated, fined or arrested.

Bayat was awarded the International Women of Courage Award by the United States in 2021 and has since used her platform to advocate for Iranian women.

“When I can, when there is an opportunity, I have to raise the voice of Iranian people,” she said.
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After three years of isolation and financial struggles in Chinese soccer, the country is reopening its borders and economy to the outside world. With it, frustrated fans, financially challenged clubs and unpaid players in the Chinese Super League might receive some long-awaited good news.

The 2022 season was unrecognizable from the 2019 edition, the last before COVID-19 hit. Then the league had an average attendance of over 24,000, the highest in Asia, and a number of big-name foreign imports.

From 2020 onwards, Beijing’s “zero-COVID” policy, designed to stamp out the virus, meant that teams mostly played in empty stadiums at centralized venues. Players were stuck in bio-secure bubbles for months on end and international stars, unable to enter the country, were released from contracts.

It also meant little ticket, broadcast or sponsorship revenue for clubs. In 2021, defending champion Jiangsu FC folded and several other clubs have struggled to pay players.

Opening up the country may not mean a return to the carefree spending of the previous decade, but it is a prerequisite to starting the journey back to pre-pandemic levels. It is reported that clubs will play home and away games in the 2023 season.

“It almost feels like there has been no league in the past three years with delays, months without games and strange schedules,” Shanghai Shenhua supporter Wang Yi told The Associated Press. “Some fans have lost interest, but I think that will change when we can all get together at the stadium again.”

Due to the government’s strict policies, foreign teams were unable to enter the country, forcing China to play 2022 World Cup qualifiers in neutral venues. It finished next to last in its final qualification group, eight points behind Oman. The country was scheduled to host the 2023 Asian Cup in June but last May, Beijing relinquished its staging rights.

“It remains to be seen if and how quickly Chinese football can return to its ambitions and plans of 2019, and prior to that.” Simon Chadwick, professor of Sport and Geopolitical Economy at Skema Business School, told the AP, adding that state help will be needed.

“It is important that the sport doesn’t just restart, but that it is kick-started . . . there must be a worry that unless both the government and Chinese football commit themselves to refreshing and relaunching it, then the sport could get stuck in the international doldrums.”

The pandemic also exacerbated a downturn in China’s overheated property market. With more than half of the clubs in the top tier owned, at least in part, by real estate companies, it has been a major soccer issue.

Evergrande, the property developer, saw its club Guangzhou, who won eight titles in the previous decade, relegated in December after the team’s stars left and were replaced by young domestic players.

Opening up the country is expected to boost the housing market especially as, in December, Chinese state banks opened up a line of credit worth around $460 billion for real estate companies. It remains to be seen if this will ease the financial strain on clubs.

“One suspects that the Chinese government will be keen to decouple football from its previous unhealthy relationship with property investors,” added Chadwick. “Both sectors need to discover some market discipline whilst being subject to the state’s appropriate guidance.”

For now though, fans just want to go and see their teams play.

“I won’t believe it until it happens,” said Wang. “It is when something disappears that you know how much it means. It will be very exciting.”
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Lisa Marie Presley, a singer-songwriter, Elvis’ only daughter, and a dedicated keeper of her father’s legacy, died Thursday after being hospitalized for a medical emergency. She was 54.

Her death in a Los Angeles hospital was confirmed by her mother, Priscilla, a few hours after her daughter was rushed to the hospital after having a medical emergency at home.

“It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” Priscilla Presley said in a statement. “She was the most passionate, strong and loving woman I have ever known.”

Presley, the only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley, shared her father’s brooding charisma — the hooded eyes, the insolent smile, the low, sultry voice — and followed him professionally, releasing her own rock albums in the 2000s, and appearing on stage with Pat Benatar and Richard Hawley among others.

She even formed direct musical ties with her father, joining her voice to such Elvis recordings as “In the Ghetto” and “Don’t Cry Daddy,” a mournful ballad that had reminded him of the early death of his mother (and Lisa Marie’s grandmother), Gladys Presley.

“It’s been all my life,” she told The Associated Press in 2012, speaking of her father’s influence. “It’s not something that I now listen to and it’s different. Although I might listen closer. I remain consistent on the fact that I’ve always been an admirer. He’s always influenced me.”

Famous from the start

Her birth, nine months exactly after her parents’ wedding, was international news and her background was rarely far from her mind. With the release last year of Baz Luhrmann’s major musical feature “Elvis,” Lisa Marie and Priscilla Presley had been attending red carpets and award shows alongside stars from the film.

She was at the Golden Globes on Tuesday, on hand to celebrate Austin Butler’s award for playing her father. Just days before, she was in Memphis at Graceland — the mansion where Elvis lived and died — on January 8 to celebrate her father’s birth anniversary.

Presley lived with her mother, an actor known for “Dallas” and the “Naked Gun” movies, in California after her parents split up in 1973. She recalled early memories of her dad during her visits to Graceland, riding golf carts through the neighborhood, and seeing his daily entrances down the stairs.

“He was always fully, fully geared up. You’d never see him in his pajamas coming down the steps, ever,” she told The Associated Press in 2012. “You’d never see him in anything but ‘ready to be seen’ attire.”

Elvis Presley died in August 1977, when he was just 42, and she 9 years old. Lisa Marie was staying at Graceland at the time and would recall him kissing her goodnight hours before he would collapse and never recover. When she next saw him, the following day, he was lying face down in the bathroom.

“I just had a feeling,” she told Rolling Stone in 2003. “He wasn’t doing well. All I know is I had it (a feeling), and it happened. I was obsessed with death at a very early age.”

Life in the spotlight

She would later make headlines of her own. Struggles with drugs and some very public marriages. Her four husbands included Michael Jackson and Nicolas Cage.

Jackson and Presley were married in the Dominican Republic in 1994, but the marriage ended two years later and was defined by numerous awkward public appearances, including an unexpected kiss from Jackson during the MTV Video Music Awards and a joint interview with Diane Sawyer when she defended her husband against allegations he had sexually abused a minor.

Her other celebrity marriage was even shorter: Cage filed for divorce after four months of marriage in 2002.

“I had to sort of run into many walls and trees,” she told the AP in 2012. “But now I can also look back at it and tell you all the stuff that was going on around me and all the different people around me and all the awww — and it was not a good situation anyway. That wasn’t helping. Either way, it was a growing process. It was just in a different way. It was just out in front of everybody all the time. Because it’s all documented of course.”

Lisa Marie became involved in numerous humanitarian causes, from anti-poverty programs administered through the Elvis Presley Charitable Foundation to relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina. She would receive formal citations from New Orleans and Memphis, Tennessee for her work.

Presley had two children, actor Riley Keough and Benjamin Keough, with her former husband Danny Keough. She also had twin daughters with ex-husband Michael Lockwood.

Benjamin Keough died by suicide in 2020 at the age of 27. Presley was vocal about her grief, writing in an essay last August that she had “been living in the horrific reality of its unrelenting grips since my son’s death two years ago.”

“I’ve dealt with death, grief and loss since the age of 9 years old. I’ve had more than anyone’s fair share of it in my lifetime and somehow, I’ve made it this far,” she wrote in an essay shared with People magazine.

“But this one, the death of my beautiful, beautiful son? The sweetest and most incredible being that I have ever had the privilege of knowing, who made me feel so honored every single day to be his mother? Who was so much like his grandfather on so many levels that he actually scared me? Which made me worry about him even more than I naturally would have?” the essay continued. “No. Just no … no no no no …”

Graceland

Lisa Marie became the sole heir of the Elvis Presley Trust after her father died. Along with Elvis Presley Enterprises, the trust managed Graceland and other assets until she sold her majority interest in 2005. She retained ownership of Graceland Mansion itself, the 13 acres around it, and items inside the home. Her son is buried there, along with her father and other members of the Presley family.

Lisa Marie Presley is a former Scientologist — her son was born in 1992 under guidelines set by Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, according to an AP story at the time — but later broke with Scientology.

Lisa Marie and Priscilla Presley would make regular trips to Graceland during huge fan celebrations on the anniversaries of Elvis’ death and birthday. One of the two airplanes at Graceland is named the Lisa Marie.

After her first album “To Whom It May Concern,” in 2003, some fans came out to see her perform just out of curiosity given her famous family, she told the AP in 2005.

“First I had to overcome a pre-speculated idea of me,” she said of the barriers to becoming a singer-songwriter.

“I had to sort of burst through that and introduce myself, and that was the first hurdle, and then now sing in front of everybody, and then that was the second one, and I’m the offspring of — you know, who I’m the offspring of — I had a few hurdles to get through, no doubt about it,” she continued. “But the scales never tipped in the other direction too much.”
…

A statue in Benin of one of the female warriors of Dahomey, which appeared in the Hollywood film ‘The Woman King,’ was likely built by a sanctioned North Korean company, according to evidence discovered by VOA’s Korean Service. In an exclusive interview with VOA, the Beninois government denies the statue was constructed by North Korea. Henry Wilkins reports from Cotonou, Benin.
…

Jeff Beck, a guitar virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, influencing generations of shredders along the way and becoming known as the guitar player’s guitar player, has died. He was 78. 

Beck died Tuesday after “suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis,” his representatives said in a statement released Wednesday. The location was not immediately known. 

“Jeff was such a nice person and an outstanding iconic, genius guitar player — there will never be another Jeff Beck,” Tony Iommi, guitarist for Black Sabbath, wrote on Twitter. 

Beck first came to prominence as a member of the Yardbirds and then went out on his own in a solo career that incorporated hard rock, jazz, funky blues and even opera. He was known for his improvising, love of harmonics and the whammy bar on his preferred guitar, the Fender Stratocaster. 

“Jeff Beck is the best guitar player on the planet,” Joe Perry, the lead guitarist of Aerosmith, told The New York Times in 2010. “He is head, hands and feet above all the rest of us, with the kind of talent that appears only once every generation or two.” 

Beck was among the rock-guitarist pantheon from the late 1960s that included Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix. Beck won eight Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice — once with the Yardbirds in 1992 and again as a solo artist in 2009. He was ranked fifth in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.” 

Beck played guitar with vocalists as varied as Luciano Pavarotti, Macy Gray, Chrissie Hynde, Joss Stone, Imelda May, Cyndi Lauper, Wynonna Judd, Buddy Guy and Johnny Depp. He made two records with Rod Stewart — 1968’s “Truth” and 1969’s “Beck-Ola” — and one with a 64-piece orchestra, “Emotion & Commotion.” 

“I like an element of chaos in music. That feeling is the best thing ever, as long as you don’t have too much of it. It’s got to be in balance. I just saw Cirque du Soleil, and it struck me as complete organized chaos,” he told Guitar World magazine in 2014. “If I could turn that into music, it’s not far away from what my ultimate goal would be, which is to delight people with chaos and beauty at the same time.” 

Beck’s career highlights include joining with bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice to create the power trio that released “Beck, Bogert and Appice” in 1973, tours with Brian Wilson and Buddy Guy and a tribute album to the late guitarist Les Paul, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul).” 

Geoffrey Arnold Beck was born in Surrey, England, and attended Wimbledon Art College. His father was an accountant, and his mother worked in a chocolate factory. As a boy, he built his first instrument, using a cigar box, a picture frame for the neck and string from a radio-controlled toy airplane. 

He was in a few bands — including Nightshift and the Tridents — before joining the Yardbirds in 1965, replacing Clapton but only a year later giving way to Page. During his tenure, the band created the memorable singles “Heart Full of Soul,” “I’m a Man” and “Shapes of Things.” 

Beck’s first hit single was 1967’s instrumental “Beck’s Bolero,” which featured future Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, and future Who drummer Keith Moon. The Jeff Beck Group — with Stewart singing — was later booked to play the 1969 Woodstock music festival, but their appearance was canceled. Beck later said there was unrest in the band. 

“I could see the end of the tunnel,” he told Rolling Stone in 2010. 

Beck was friends with Hendrix, and they performed together. Before Hendrix, most rock guitar players concentrated on a similar style and technical vocabulary. Hendrix blew that apart. 

“He came along and reset all of the rules in one evening,” Beck told Guitar World. 

Beck teamed up with legendary producer George Martin — a.k.a. “the fifth Beatle” — to help him fashion the genre-melding, jazz-fusion classic “Blow by Blow” (1975) and “Wired” (1976). He teamed up with Seal on the Hendrix tribute “Stone Free,” created a jazz-fusion group led by synthesizer player Jan Hammer and honored rockabilly guitarist Cliff Gallup with the album “Crazy Legs.” He put out “Loud Hailer” in 2016. 

Beck’s guitar work can be heard on the soundtracks of such films as “Stomp the Yard,” “Shallow Hal,” “Casino,” “Honeymoon in Vegas,” “Twins,” “Observe and Report” and “Little Big League.” 

Beck’s career never hit the commercial highs of Clapton. A perfectionist, he preferred to make critically well-received instrumental records and left the limelight for long stretches, enjoying his time restoring vintage automobiles. He and Clapton had a tense relationship early on but became friends in later life and toured together. 

Why did the two wait some four decades to tour together? 

“Because we were all trying to be big bananas,” Beck told Rolling Stone in 2010. “Except I didn’t have the luxury of the hit songs Eric’s got.” 

Beck is survived by his wife, Sandra. 
…

U.S. filmmaker Steven Spielberg was among the honorees at the annual Golden Globes awards ceremony Tuesday night. 

The director of such classics as “Jaws,” “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan” won the best director trophy for his autobiographical film “The Fabelmans,” which was named best movie drama. It was the third Golden Globes award for the 76-year-old Spielberg, who previously won for “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan.” 

“The Banshees of Inisherin,” a dark story about two feuding Irishmen, was named the best movie musical or comedy.  Director Martin McDonagh won for best screenplay, while star Colin Farrell won for best actor in a comedy.  

In the best actor for a movie drama category, Austin Butler won for his performance as the King of Rock and Roll in “Elvis,” while Cate Blanchett won the Golden Globe for best actress in a movie drama for her performance as a troubled symphony conductor in “Tár.”   

Angela Bassett made history when she won for best actress in a supporting role in any motion picture for her performance in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” making her the first actor from a Marvel Comics film to win a Golden Globes. Ke Huy Quan won the best actor in a supporting role in any movie for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” while co-star Michelle Yeoh won best performance by an actress in a movie musical or comedy. 

The annual Golden Globes ceremony, which also honors television shows and performances, normally begins Hollywood’s yearly awards season which is capped by the Academy Awards.  But the NBC television network took the show off the air last year after it was revealed that its parent organization, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, had no Black journalists in its membership ranks, along with ethical issues involving its finances. 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. 
…

The Blumhouse evil-doll horror film “M3gan” got off to a killer start, debuting with $30.2 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates, while “Avatar: The Way of Water” continued its box-office reign in the top spot. 

Universal Pictures’ “M3gan,” about a robot companion built for a young girl after her parents are killed in a car accident, rode strong buzz and viral dancing memes to an above-expectations debut. In the low-budget slasher, starring Allison Williams, Blumhouse and producer James Wan crafted Hollywood’s first hit of the new year, likely spawning a new high-concept horror franchise. 

Audiences gave the PG-13 film a “B” CinemaScore — though reviews (94% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) were stronger for the modern, techy twist on a “Child’s Play”-like thriller. It added $10 million internationally. 

But while “M3gan” drew audiences largely in 2D showings, large-format screens continued to be soaked up by James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water.” The 3-D three-hour sequel remained No. 1 for the fourth straight week in U.S. and Canadian theaters with $45 million in sales. 

Cameron’s sci-fi spectacle has now surpassed $500 million domestically and $1.7 billion globally. After dominating the otherwise lackluster holiday corridor, the “Avatar” sequel is nearly matching the original’s pace; the 2009 “Avatar” scored $50.3 million in its fourth weekend. “The Way of Water” already ranks as the seventh highest grossing film ever, not accounting for inflation — a total particularly owed to its strong overseas performance. The film’s $1.2 billion in international ticket sales exceeds that of any film released since the start of the pandemic. 

“M3gan” was the only new film in wide release, though Sony Pictures’ “A Man Called Otto,” starring Tom Hanks, played in 637 theaters after first launching in four theaters. The film, a remake of the Swedish film “A Man Called Ove,” managed a solid $4.2 million ahead of its nationwide release on Friday. 

Third place went to “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” with $13.1 million in its third week of release. The animated Universal Pictures sequel has tallied $87.7 million in three weeks, plus $109.7 million internationally. 

While many awards contenders have struggled in recent months at the box office, Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” is proving a modest exception. The A24 indie starring Brendan Fraser ranked seventh in its fifth week of release with $1.5 million and a cumulative total of $8.6 million — a good return for a film that cost an estimated $3 million to make. 

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

"Avatar: The Way of Water," $45 million. 
"M3gan," $30.2 million. 
"Puss in Boots: The Last Wish," $13.1 million. 
"A Man Called Otto," $4.2 million. 
"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," $4 million. 
"Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody," $2.4 million. 
"The Whale," $1.5 million. 
"Babylon," $1.4 million. 
"Violent Night," $740,000. 
"The Menu," $713,000. 

…

Nature photographers from around the world expressed their sentiments about an ever-changing planet in a contest sponsored by The Nature Conservancy, a U.S.-based environmental nonprofit. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more on the winning images.
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It was uplifting enough for the Buffalo Bills staff and players to see Damar Hamlin appear on the video screen in the team’s meeting room Friday — “larger than life,” as coach Sean McDermott put it — for the first time since the safety collapsed and had to be resuscitated on the field.

What sent everyone’s emotions over the top was hearing Hamlin, his mouth and throat still raw shortly after having a breathing tube removed, softly say: ” Love you, boys.”

“Amazing. Touching. To see Damar, No. 1, through my own eyes, I know it’s something I’ve been looking forward to, kind of needing to see,” McDermott said. “And to see the players’ reaction. They stood up right away and clapped for him and yelled some things at him. It was a pretty cool exchange.”

Four days since his heart stopped after making what appeared to be a routine tackle in a game, the 24-year-old Hamlin from his hospital room in Cincinnati and the Bills enjoyed a moment of jubilation in celebrating the next step in what his doctors have termed a remarkable recovery.

“We got our boy, man. It’s all that matters,” left tackle Dion Dawkins said.

“To see the boy’s face, to see him smile and to see him go like this in the camera,” Dawkins said, flexing his muscles to mimic Hamlin, “it was everything. And then to hear him talk, it was literally everything. That’s what we needed.”

Hamlin is now breathing and walking on his own and traded in the writing pad he had been using to communicate. Though there is no timetable for his release, Hamlin’s doctors said Thursday that both breathing on his own and showing continued signs of improvement are the final steps for him to be discharged from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

Hamlin spent his first two days in the hospital under sedation. Upon being awakened Wednesday evening, Hamlin was able to follow commands and grip people’s hands. The breathing tube was removed, the team said Friday, and Hamlin’s “neurologic function remains intact.”

The team did not say whether Hamlin’s status remains critical or whether he’s been moved from intensive care.

“The hair on the back of my neck stood up when he said, ‘I love you boys,'” said general manager Brandon Beane, who returned to Buffalo Thursday after spending the three days at Hamlin’s bedside along with the player’s family.

The turning point in Hamlin’s recovery, for Beane, anyway, came Thursday morning when the two exchanged hugs.

“Just to be able to hug him and the grip strength that he had,” Beane said, before recalling what he told Hamlin’s father, Mario. “I told him, I’m not a crier, but man it was emotional and a lot of grown men in there [were] crying yesterday. Something I’ll never forget.”

The sight of Hamlin collapsing, which was broadcast to a North American TV audience on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” has led to an outpouring of support from fans and players from across the league. Fans, team owners and players — including Tom Brady and Russell Wilson — have made donations to Hamlin’s Chasing M’s Foundation, which had raised just short of $8 million by Friday afternoon.
…

Jordynn Cromartie entered her senior year of high school facing a daunting choice, one countless other Black gymnasts have faced for decades.

The teenager from Houston wanted to attend a historically Black college or university. And she wanted to compete in the sport she’s dedicated most of her life to.

One problem. She knew she couldn’t do both, something Cromartie brought up over Thanksgiving dinner while talking to her uncle, Frank Simmons, a member of the Board of Trustees at Fisk University, a private HBCU of around 1,000 students in Nashville, Tennessee.

“He and my aunt were like, ‘Oh you haven’t made a decision, you should come to Fisk,’” Cromartie said. “I’m like, ‘Well, they don’t have a gymnastics team.’ To go to a college that doesn’t have what I would be working for forever was crazy to me.”

Simmons, stunned, made a promise to his niece.

“Watch,” he told her. “I’ll make it happen.”

In the span of a few weeks, Simmons connected Derrin Moore — the founder of Atlanta-based Brown Girls Do Gymnastics, an organization that’d been trying to drum up support for an HBCU for years — with Fisk’s trustees. One trustee listened to Moore’s pitch and offered to make a $100,000 donation on the spot if Fisk adopted the sport.

And seemingly in a flash, all the roadblocks and misconceptions Moore had encountered while spending the better part of a decade trying to persuade an HBCU to take the leap on an increasingly diverse sport evaporated.

On Friday afternoon at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, barely 14 months after Fisk committed to building a program from the ground up, Cromartie — now a freshman at her uncle’s alma mater — and the rest of her teammates will make history when they become the first HBCU to participate in an NCAA women’s gymnastics meet. The Bulldogs will compete against Southern Utah, North Carolina and Washington as part of the inaugural Super 16, an event that also includes perennial NCAA powers like Oklahoma, UCLA and Michigan.

“I feel like it’s nice to show that Black girls can do it, too,” Cromartie said. “We have a team that’s 100% of people of color and you’ve never seen that before anywhere. … I feel like we have a point to prove.”

The face of high-level women’s gymnastics is changing. While athletes of color have excelled at the sport’s highest level for decades, participation among Black athletes has spiked over the last 10 years thanks in part to the popularity of Olympic champions Gabby Douglas and Simone Biles.

Black gymnasts account for around 10% of scholarships at the NCAA Division I level, an increase from 7% in 2012, when Douglas became the first Black woman win to Olympic gold. More than 10% of USA Gymnastics members self-identify as Black.

It’s a massive jump from when Corrinne Tarver became the first Black woman to win an NCAA all-around title at Georgia in 1989.

“When I first went to school, there were a scattering of (Black gymnasts),” said Tarver, now the head coach and athletic director at Fisk. “One on this team, one on that team … there wasn’t a lot of African-American gymnasts around back then compared to today.”

Still, it caught Umme Salim-Beasley off guard when she began exploring her college options in the early 1990s. Salim-Beasley grew up in the Washington, D.C., area and competed in the same gym as four-time Olympic medalist Dominique Dawes. Salim-Beasley wanted to go to an HBCU. When she approached an HBCU recruiter at a college fair and told the recruiter she was a gymnast, the response she received shocked her.

“They didn’t see it as a sport for women of color,” said Salim-Beasley, who ended up competing at West Virginia and is now the head coach at Rutgers. “And that was the perception, that gymnastics was not a sport that was welcoming or had enough interest from women of color.”

Which has made the response to Fisk’s inaugural class even more rewarding.

For years, Moore and Salim-Beasley — a member of the advisory council at Brown Girls Do Gymnastics — would struggle just to set up exploratory interviews with HBCU athletics officials. In the months since Fisk’s program launched, Moore and Salim-Beasley have talked to presidents at nine HBCUs.

“People are really interested,” Moore said. “They still have a lot of questions and still not pulling the trigger, but they are reaching out.”

All of which puts Fisk in an enviable if challenging spot. The program is a beta test of sorts as other HBCUs watch from afar to see how Fisk handles the massive logistical and economic hurdles that come with launching a program.

The Bulldogs don’t have an on-campus facility and are currently training at a club gym a few miles from campus, though they are fundraising in hopes of remedying that soon. They are competing this year as an independent while waiting to get their NCAA status sorted out.

And Tarver immediately threw the program into the deep end of the pool. Their inaugural schedule includes meets at Michigan, Georgia and Rutgers.

“It would have been really easy to just put in schools that were not as strong and then make our whole schedule like that and then just hope for the best,” Tarver said. “But I didn’t want to do that. I wanted them to realize that they belong on that stage.”

In that way, Tarver is following through on her recruiting pitch last spring, when she spent hours on Zoom asking young women of color to believe in something that had never existed before.

“Basically, I pitched them on the dream,” Tarver said. “I told them they’ll be a part of history. Their names will go down in history as the first HBCU ever.”

It proved to be a far easier sell than Tarver imagined.

Morgan Price initially committed to Arkansas so she could compete with her older sister, Frankie. Yet once Fisk announced it was going to take the ambitious step of competing in 2023, Price felt drawn to the opportunity.

“Since we are the first, it’s kind of special,” Price said. “We get to build it from the ground up.”

And yes, the perks of being the first don’t hurt. Several Bulldogs appeared on Jennifer Hudson’s talk show in the fall. An Emmy-winning documentarian is following them throughout the season. The splash on social media has been sizable.

So has the splash in real life. When Price returned to her club gym in Texas shortly after committing to Fisk, the energy she felt from younger gymnasts of color as they peppered her with questions was palpable.

“They were telling me, ‘I can’t wait until I can be recruited so I can be an HBCU gymnast as well,’” Price said.

That’s the big-picture plan. Moore is optimistic several HBCU schools will follow in Fisk’s footsteps soon.

They just won’t be the first. That honor will go to the women in the blue-and-gold leotards who will salute the judges for the first time Friday, as the team filled with athletes who “come from backgrounds where they were kind of told that they weren’t as good,” as Tarver put it, makes history.

Athletes who no longer have to choose between heritage and opportunity.

“Already being an HBCU, we’re the underdogs,” Cromartie said. “We haven’t had much time to practice. We don’t have the resources of other schools yet … but we are eager to prove we can keep up with everyone else. That we belong.”
…

Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin has shown what physicians treating him are calling “remarkable improvement over the past 24 hours,” the team announced Thursday, three days after the player went into cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated on the field. 

“While still critically ill, he has demonstrated that he appears to be neurologically intact,” the Bills said in a statement. “His lungs continue to heal and he is making steady progress.” 

Bills rookie cornerback Kaiir Elam also posted a message on his Twitter account that said Hamlin “is doing better, awake and showing signs of improvement.” 

The developments came as the Bills were scheduled to return to practice on Thursday for the first time since Hamlin collapsed after his heart stopped after making a tackle and was rushed to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center during the first quarter of Buffalo’s game against the Bengals on Monday night.

The second-year player has spent the past two days sedated and listed in critical condition.

The Bills’ announcement comes as they prepare to play a home game against the New England Patriots on Sunday, and with the team still dealing with the shock of seeing their teammate collapse on the field, his heart not beating.

After returning home early Tuesday once the game was suspended, the Bills held meetings and a walkthrough practice without any media availability on Wednesday. On Thursday, players were spotted arriving at the facility, though the team has not yet released a practice schedule.

The chilling sight of Hamlin collapsing, which was broadcast to a North American TV audience on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football,” has led to an outpouring of support from fans and players from across the league.

Numerous players — former teammates and those who didn’t know Hamlin until Monday — voiced their support, while saying they were shaken by what happened.

Colts safety Rodney Thomas made the two-hour drive from Indianapolis to Cincinnati on Tuesday just to be by the side of his former high school teammate.

“He’s a fighter. I know he’s a fighter and there’s no other thought in my mind other than him walking out under his own power,” Thomas said Wednesday.

Minnesota Vikings defensive tackle Harrison Phillips, who spent the previous four seasons playing for Buffalo, had dinner delivered to the hospital for Hamlin’s family and medical staff.

Hamlin’s marketing representative Jordon Rooney said Wednesday that the player’s family was buoyed by the words and acts of kindness.

“They are elated right now,” Rooney said. “Damar is still their first concern. But for them, they always look at how they can turn a somewhat troubling situation into a good one. The bounce back from this, for him and his family, is going to be incredible.”

What remains unclear is whether the NFL will reschedule the Bills’ game against the Bengals, which has major implications in determining the top spot in the AFC. The playoffs are set to open on January 14.

The Chiefs (13-3) have a half-game lead over Buffalo (12-3), with the Bills owning the tiebreaker after beating Kansas City this season. The Bengals (11-4) are currently the third seed and have also defeated the Chiefs.

Hamlin was hurt in the first quarter when he was struck squarely in the chest while making what appeared to be routine tackle of Bengals receiver Tee Higgins. Hamlin briefly got up and adjusted his facemask before collapsing backward.

Hamlin was selected by Buffalo in the sixth round of the 2021 draft out of Pitt. He spent his rookie season limited to special teams roles, and took over the starting safety job in Week 3 in place of veteran Micah Hyde, who remains sidelined by a neck injury.

Fans, team owners and players — including Tom Brady and Russell Wilson — have made donations to Hamlin’s Chasing M’s Foundation, which had raised more than $7 million by Thursday morning. 

 
…

Iran released a prominent actress from an Oscar-winning film on Wednesday, nearly three weeks after she was jailed for criticizing a crackdown on anti-government protests, local reports said.

Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency said Taraneh Alidoosti, the 38-year-old star of Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-winning “The Salesman,” was released on bail. Her mother, Nadere Hakimelahi, had earlier said she would be released in a post on Instagram.

After her release from the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran on Wednesday, Alidoosti posed with flowers among her friends. No further details have been released about her case.

Alidoosti was among several Iranian celebrities to express support for the nationwide protests and criticize the authorities’ violent clampdown on dissent. She had posted at least three messages in support of the protests on Instagram before her account was disabled.

One message had expressed solidarity with the first man to be executed on charges linked to the protests, which were triggered by the death of a woman in police custody and have escalated into widespread calls for the overthrow of Iran’s ruling clerics.

The protests mark one of the biggest challenges to the Islamic Republic since it was established after the 1979 revolution. Security forces have used live ammunition, bird shot, tear gas and batons to disperse protesters, according to rights groups.

Mohsen Shekari was executed Dec. 9 after being charged by an Iranian court with blocking a street in Tehran and attacking a member of the country’s security forces with a machete. A week later, Iran executed a second prisoner, Majidreza Rahnavard, by public hanging. He had been accused of stabbing two members of the paramilitary Basij militia, which is leading the crackdown.

Activists say at least a dozen people have been sentenced to death in closed-door hearings over charges linked to the protests.

“His name was Mohsen Shekari,” Alidoosti wrote on an account with some 8 million followers before her arrest. “Every international organization who is watching this bloodshed and not taking action, is a disgrace to humanity.”

At least 516 protesters have been killed and over 19,000 people have been arrested, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has closely monitored the unrest. Iranian authorities have not provided an official count of those killed or detained.

Hengameh Ghaziani and Katayoun Riahi, two other famous Iranian actresses, were arrested in November for expressing solidarity with protesters on social media. Voria Ghafouri, an Iranian soccer star, was also arrested that month for ”insulting the national soccer team and propagandizing against the government.” All three have been released.

The protests began in mid-September, when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died after being arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code. Women have played a leading role in the protests, with many publicly stripping off the compulsory Islamic headscarf, known as the hijab.

The protesters say they are fed up after decades of political and social repression. One of the main slogans has been “Death to the dictator,” referring to Iran’s 83-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has held the country’s highest office for more than three decades.

Iranian officials blame the protests on the U.S. and other foreign powers. State-linked media have highlighted attacks on security forces, while authorities have imposed heavy restrictions on coverage of the demonstrations, including periodically cutting off internet access.

Khamenei, who has said little about the protests, spoke about Islamic dress on Wednesday in a meeting with women, saying the hijab is necessary but that those who do not “completely observe” the practice “should not be accused of being non-religious or against the revolution.”

Even before the protests, many Iranian women wore the headscarf loosely, and authorities sometimes eased off on enforcing it, particularly during the presidency of Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate who governed from 2013 to 2021. His successor, the hard-liner Ebrahim Raisi, had moved to tighten the restrictions.

Alidoosti had previously criticized the Iranian government and its police force before this year’s protests.

In June 2020, she was given a suspended five-month prison sentence after she criticized the police on Twitter in 2018 for assaulting a woman who had removed her headscarf.

Other well-known movies Alidoosti has starred in include “The Beautiful City” and “About Elly.”
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The suspected mastermind behind the removal of a Banksy mural in a Ukrainian town could face up to 12 years in prison if found guilty, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said Monday.

The artwork, depicting a woman in a gas mask and a dressing gown holding a fire extinguisher, was taken off a wall in the town of Hostomel on December 2, according to officials.

The ministry announced on its website that the man it believes orchestrated the operation had been handed a “suspicion notice.”

The artwork by the renowned British artist had been valued at $243,900, the ministry statement said.

“The criminals tried to transport this graffiti with the help of wooden boards and polyethylene,” it said.

“Thanks to the concern of citizens, the police and other security forces managed to arrest the criminals.”

The mural was retrieved.

Banksy confirmed he had painted the mural and six others in places that were hit by heavy fighting after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February. 

 
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The Brazilian coastal city of Santos, which sporting giant Pele turned into a byword for soccer brilliance during a glittering club career, started bidding goodbye to its hero on Monday with a 24-hour wake.

Mourners lined up to see Pele’s body in an open casket in the center of the field at the Vila Belmiro stadium, home of the Santos Football Club. Pele died on Thursday at 82 after battling colon cancer.

“Pele leaves millions of Santos fans across our country. He was the creator of Brazilian soccer,” said Antonio da Paz, a fan outside the stadium for the memorial that began at 10 a.m. (1300 GMT). 

FIFA President Gianni Infantino was among the first to arrive for the service and said he would ask every country to name a stadium after Pele, the only man to win the World Cup three times as a player.

“Pele is eternal,” Infantino told reporters. “FIFA will certainly honor the ‘king’ as he deserves. We have asked all football associations in the world to pay a minute of silence before every game and will also ask them, 211 countries, to name a stadium after Pele. Future generations must know and remember who Pele was.”

Edson Arantes do Nascimento – Pele’s given name – was born in 1940 in the small country town of Tres Coracoes, but moved to Santos in 1956 and lived there for most of his life.

In the early hours Monday, his body arrived under fireworks in the city of about 430,000 people from Sao Paulo’s Albert Einstein Hospital.

Former Brazil midfielder Ze Roberto and Pele’s son Edinho helped placing his coffin in the field, TV footage showed. Floral wreaths were sent by the likes of Neymar, Vinicius Junior and Real Madrid.

On Tuesday, a procession carrying Pele’s coffin will pass through the streets of Santos, ending at the Ecumenical Memorial Necropolis cemetery, where he will be buried in a private ceremony.

Santos’ press office said some 5,000 journalists from all over the world had been accredited to cover the wake of Pele, who scored more than 1,000 goals for Santos.

Several government officials are expected to attend the memorial, including newly sworn-in Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, a longtime Santos supporter.

Sao Paulo state military police said in a statement they had prepared a special operation called the “King Pele Operation” to ensure public order.

“I’ll be here all day, 24 hours, from 10 a.m. to 10 a.m.,” fan Roberto Santos said. “Pele deserves it.”
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An ancient wooden sarcophagus that was featured at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences was returned to Egypt after U.S. authorities determined it was looted years ago, Egyptian officials said Monday.

The repatriation is part of Egyptian government efforts to stop the trafficking of its stolen antiquities. In 2021, authorities in Cairo succeeded in getting 5,300 stolen artifacts returned to Egypt from across the world.

Mostafa Waziri, the top official at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the sarcophagus dates back to the Late Dynastic Period of ancient Egypt, an era that spanned the last of the Pharaonic rulers from 664 B.C. until Alexander the Great’s campaign in 332 B.C.

The sarcophagus, almost 3 meters (9.5 feet) tall with a brightly painted top surface, may have belonged to an ancient priest named Ankhenmaat, though some of the inscription on it has been erased, Waziri said.

It was symbolically handed over at a ceremony Monday in Cairo by Daniel Rubinstein, the U.S. charge d’affaires in Egypt.

The handover came more than three months after the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office determined the sarcophagus was looted from Abu Sir Necropolis, north of Cairo. It was smuggled through Germany into the United States in 2008, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg.

“This stunning coffin was trafficked by a well-organized network that has looted countless antiquities from the region,” Bragg said at the time. “We are pleased that this object will be returned to Egypt, where it rightfully belongs.”

Bragg said the same network had smuggled a gilded coffin out of Egypt that was featured at New York’s Metropolitan Museum. Met bought the piece from a Paris art dealer in 2017 for about $4 million. It was returned to Egypt in 2019.
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Anita Pointer, one of four sibling singers who earned pop success and critical acclaim as The Pointer Sisters, died Saturday at the age of 74, her publicist announced.

The Grammy winner died while she was with family members, publicist Roger Neal said in a statement. A cause of death was not immediately revealed.

“While we are deeply saddened by the loss of Anita, we are comforted in knowing she is now with her daughter Jada and her sisters June & Bonnie and at peace. She was the one that kept all of us close and together for so long,” her sister Ruth, brothers Aaron and Fritz and granddaughter Roxie McKain Pointer said in the statement.

Anita Pointer’s only daughter, Jada Pointer, died in 2003.

Anita, Ruth, Bonnie and June Pointer, born the daughters of a minister, grew up singing in their father’s church in Oakland, California.

The group’s 1973 self-titled debut album included the breakout hit, “Yes We Can Can.” Known for hit songs including “I’m So Excited,” “Slow Hand,” “Neutron Dance” and “Jump (For My Love),” the singers gained a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994.

The 1983 album “Break Out” went triple platinum and garnered two American Music Awards. The group won three Grammy Awards and had 13 U.S. top 20 hit songs between 1973 and 1985, Neal said.

The Pointer Sisters also was the first African American group to perform on the Grand Ole Opry program and the first contemporary act to perform at the San Francisco Opera House, Neal said.

Bonnie Pointer left the group in 1977, signing a solo deal with Motown Records but enjoying only modest success. “We were devastated,” Anita Pointer said of the departure in 1990. “We did a show the night she left, but after that, we just stopped. We thought it wasn’t going to work without Bonnie.”

The group, in various lineups including younger family members, continued recording through 1993.

June Pointer died of cancer at the age of 52 in 2006.

Anita Pointer announced Bonnie Pointer’s death resulting from cardiac arrest at the age of 69 in 2020. “The Pointer Sisters would never have happened had it not been for Bonnie,” she said in a statement. 
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Avatar: The Way of Water” is the box office king for a third straight week and shows no sign of slowing down.

James Cameron’s long-awaited sequel to the first “Avatar” film brought in an estimated $63 million over the holiday weekend, roughly the same as the previous week, and now has made more than $400 million domestically and more than $1.3 billion globally. “The Way of Water” is already the 15th highest global release ever, just behind the first “Black Panther.”

Numbers released Sunday by Comscore showed “Avatar” far ahead of the runner-up, Universal’s “Shrek” spinoff “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” which made an estimated $16 million, and Disney’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” which brought in around $4.8 million.

The Sony biopic “Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody” made $4.2 million in its second week of release. “Babylon,” the epic of early Hollywood starring Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, continued to fare badly despite its five Golden Globe nominations. The Paramount release earned just $2.7 million in its second week, a 24% drop, and averaged just $815 per location. By comparison, the new “Avatar,” a 20th Century Studios film, averaged more than $15,000.

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

1. “Avatar: The Way of Water,” $63 million.

2. “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” $16 million.

3. “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” $4.8 million.

4. “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” $4.2 million.

5. “Babylon,” $2.7 million.

6. “Violent Night,” $2.1 million.

7. “The Whale,” $1.3 million.

8. “The Fabelmans,” $1.1 million.

9. “The Menu,” $1.1 million.

10. “Strange World,” $538,000.
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