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‘Dog Man’ bites off $36 million, taking No. 1 at box office

New York — DreamWorks Animation’s “Dog Man” fetched $36 million in ticket sales at the weekend box office, according to studio estimates Sunday, making it the biggest debut yet in 2025. It was a big opening for the Universal Pictures release adapted from the popular graphic novel series by author Dav Pilkey. The big-screen launch for the cartoon canine was produced for a modest $40 million, meaning it will easily coast through a profitable run. Audiences gave it an “A” CinemaScore. Only one animated film before has had a better January …


Beyonce competes for the big prize – again – at Sunday’s Grammys 

LOS ANGELES — The Grammy Awards take center stage in Los Angeles on Sunday at a celebration that will honor the best of music while acknowledging the deadly wildfires that scarred a hub of the industry.  Beyonce will compete for the top Grammy prize of album of the year with her country record “Cowboy Carter.” The superstar singer has never won the album trophy despite winning 32 career Grammys, more than any other musician.  Also in the running for album of the year are megastar Taylor Swift for “The Tortured Poets …


Couple challenges Vatican bank’s ban on workplace marriages

ROME — Pope Francis has long urged couples to marry and have babies rather than dogs. And he has long championed the rights of workers and held up labor itself as the foundation of human dignity. So it has come as something of a surprise to many in the Holy See that the Vatican bank fired a newlywed couple, with three young children between them, after a new internal bank regulation went into effect barring workplace marriages. The apparent contradiction between what the pope preaches and what his Vatican practices isn’t …


New Zealand mountain is granted personhood, recognizing it as sacred for Maori

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND — A mountain in New Zealand considered an ancestor by Indigenous people was recognized as a legal person on Thursday after a new law granted it all the rights and responsibilities of a human being. Mount Taranaki — now known as Taranaki Maunga, its Maori name — is the latest natural feature to be granted personhood in New Zealand, which has ruled that a river and a stretch of sacred land are people before. The pristine, snow-capped dormant volcano is the second highest on New Zealand’s North Island …


Dick Button, Olympic great and voice of skating, dies at 95

NEW YORK — Dick Button was more than the most accomplished men’s figure skater in history. He was one of his sport’s greatest innovators and promoters. Button, winner of two Olympic gold medals and five consecutive world championships, died Thursday, said his son, Edward, who did not provide a cause. He was 95. As an entrepreneur and broadcaster, Button promoted skating and its athletes, transforming a niche sport into the showpiece of every Winter Olympics. “Dick was one of the most important figures in our sport,” Scott Hamilton said. “There wasn’t …


Police say at least 30 died in stampede at India’s Maha Kumbh festival

PRAYAGRAJ, INDIA — At least 30 people were killed and many more injured in a stampede at the world’s largest religious gathering early Wednesday, police said, as millions of pilgrims rushed to dip in sacred waters during the Maha Kumbh festival in northern India. Police officer Vaibhav Krishna in Prayagraj city said another 60 injured were rushed to hospitals. Wednesday was a sacred day in the six-week Hindu festival, and authorities expected a record 100 million devotees to engage in a ritual bath at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna …


Year of the Snake is underway with Lunar New Year festivities

BEIJING — Lunar New Year festivals and prayers marked the start of the Year of the Snake around Asia and farther afield on Wednesday — including in Moscow. Hundreds of people lined up in the hours before midnight at the Wong Tai Sin Taoist temple in Hong Kong in a bid to be among the first to put incense sticks in the stands in front of the temple’s main hall. “I wish my family will be blessed. I hope my business will run well. I pray for my country and wish …


China sees boom in feasts for pets on Lunar New Year’s Eve

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — As pet parents in China usher in the Year of the Snake and host Lunar New Year’s Eve dinners with their loved ones, some are also making sure that their fur babies, or “mao hai zi,” are not left out. Over the past month, a growing number of consumers have been ordering pet-friendly versions of the traditional New Year’s Eve reunion dinner, ranging from freshly made meals to gift boxes of dried food. A search for “dogs’ and cats’ Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner” on Douyin, the Chinese …


Chiefs, Eagles reach Super Bowl

The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles are set to face off in the National Football League’s Super Bowl, with the Chiefs looking to become the first team to win three consecutive championships and the Eagles trying to avenge their loss from two years ago. The Chiefs reached the Feb. 9 championship game in New Orleans with a 32-29 win on Sunday night over the Buffalo Bills. Kansas City’s star quarterback Patrick Mahomes ran for two touchdowns and threw for another score to reach his fifth Super Bowl in six …


Percival Everett’s ‘James’ awarded Carnegie Medal for fiction

NEW YORK — For author Percival Everett, libraries have long been a source of knowledge and discovery and pleasure, even of the forbidden kind. “I remember making friends at age 13 with the librarian at the University of South Carolina, and she used to let me go through the stacks when I wasn’t supposed to,” Everett, who spent part of his childhood in Columbia, said during a telephone interview Sunday. “One of the wonderful things about libraries is that when you’re looking for one book, it’s surrounded by other books that …


Mel Gibson’s ‘Flight Risk’ is No. 1 at box office, ‘The Brutalist’ expands 

New York — Critics lambasted it and audiences didn’t grade it much better. But despite the turbulence, Mel Gibson’s “Flight Risk” managed to open No. 1 at the box office with a modest $12 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.  On a quiet weekend, even for the typically frigid movie-going month of January, the top spot went to the Lionsgate thriller starring Mark Wahlberg as a pilot flying an Air Marshal (Michelle Dockery) and fugitive (Topher Grace) across Alaska. But it wasn’t a particularly triumphant result for Gibson’s directorial follow-up to …


Taipei pet shop strives to break down anti-snake prejudice

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — As the Year of the Snake approaches, a pet store in Taipei is offering adventurous customers an opportunity to enjoy the company of snakes while sipping coffee, hoping to break down some of the prejudice against the animal. Taiwan has been plastered with images of the reptile ahead of the start of the Lunar New Year, which starts on Wednesday and whose zodiac animal this year is the snake. The snake has a mixed reputation in traditional Taiwanese and Chinese culture as a symbol of either good or …


Indonesia showcases returned artifacts it had sought for decades from Netherlands

JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Centuries-old stone Buddha statues and precious jewelry repatriated by the Dutch government to its former colony are on display at Indonesia’s National Museum, providing a glimpse into the country’s rich heritage that the government had struggled to retrieve. The collection is part of more than 800 artifacts that were returned under a Repatriation Agreement signed in 2022 between Indonesia and the Netherlands, said Gunawan, the museum’s head of cultural heritage. The objects are not just those looted in conflict but also those seized by scientists and missionaries or …


How the oldest known Hebrew book landed in a Washington museum

In 2016, Herschel Hepler was browsing Google Images to practice his paleography — the study of historical writing systems — when he stumbled upon an eerily familiar photo that would lead to a groundbreaking discovery. “I recognized it immediately and said, ‘That’s a manuscript in our collection,’” Hepler, a curator at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, recalls. The museum had recently acquired the manuscript — a rare Jewish prayer book — believing it to be part of the famous Cairo Geniza, a trove of ancient Jewish documents uncovered …


Young rodeo riders compete in mutton bustin’

In the Rocky Mountain state of Colorado, the National Western Stock Show hosts nearly 30 professional rodeo events. VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns takes us to a stock show competition for younger riders. And sheep. …


VOA Mandarin: Chinese actor Hu Ge enters politics

Hu Ge, a Chinese actor who is well-known in China for dramas including Flowers, was recently confirmed to serve as the deputy director of the Central Propaganda Committee of the China Democratic League. He was invited to Taiwan in June 2024 to participate in a film exchange activity. Click here for the full story in Mandarin. …


‘Emilia Perez’ tops Oscar nominations in fire-hit Hollywood

LOS ANGELES — Transgender cartel musical “Emilia Perez” topped this year’s Oscar nominations, earning 13 nods in an announcement on Thursday postponed by the devastating Los Angeles wildfires. French director Jacques Audiard’s Mexico-set musical, released by Netflix, shattered the record for the most Academy Award nominations for a non-English-language movie. It was followed by epic immigrant saga “The Brutalist” and show-stopping musical adaptation “Wicked,” which each picked up 10 nominations. Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” and Vatican thriller “Conclave” bagged eight nods apiece. Voting deadlines had to be extended this …


Historical novel offers lessons to next generation, says Afghan writer

An Afghan author’s latest book is a generational call to remember the country’s recent violent past, he says. But Taliban rules mean publishers and bookstores are wary of stocking it. From Peshawar, Pakistan, Muska Safi has the story, narrated by Bezhan Hamdard. Roshan Noorzai contributed to this report. …


Starry Sundance fest moves ahead in wake of LA fires

Los Angeles — The U.S. film industry’s first big gathering since fires devastated Los Angeles will begin Thursday at the Sundance festival, where highlights include a glitzy new Jennifer Lopez musical and a dark Benedict Cumberbatch drama. Hollywood’s annual pilgrimage to the Rocky Mountains to premiere the coming year’s most-anticipated indie films is taking place in somber circumstances, after the blazes that killed at least 27 people and brought the entertainment capital to a halt. Festival chiefs held lengthy talks with filmmakers, including those “who lost homes or were displaced” by …


Keke Palmer’s ‘One of Them Days,’ ‘Mufasa’ race for No. 1 

WASHINGTON — The Keke Palmer buddy comedy “One of Them Days” opened in first place on the North American box office charts on a particularly slow Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.  The R-rated Sony release earned $11.6 million from 2,675 theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday, beating Disney’s “Mufasa: The Lion King” by a hair. By the end of Monday’s holiday, “Mufasa” will have the edge, however.  “One of Them Days” cost only $14 million to produce, which it is expected to earn by Monday. The very well-reviewed buddy comedy …


New documentary questions who took famous napalm attack photo

It is one of the 20th century’s most memorable images: a naked girl, screaming, running from a napalm bombing during the Vietnam War. More than a half-century later, a new documentary is calling into question who took it — and the retired Associated Press photographer long credited for the photo insists it was his, while his longtime employer says it has no evidence of anyone else being behind the camera.  The film about the Pulitzer Prize-winning picture, “The Stringer,” is scheduled to debut next week at the Sundance Film Festival. …


Chili paste heats up dishes and warms hearts at northeastern Tunisia’s harissa festival

NABEUL, Tunisia — For years, Tunisians have been picking bright red peppers, combining them with garlic, vinegar and spices and turning them into a saucy spread called harissa. The condiment is a national staple, found in homes, restaurants and food stalls throughout the coastal North African nation. Brick-red, spicy and tangy, it can be scooped up on bread drizzled with olive oil or dabbed onto plates of eggs, fish, stews or sandwiches. Harissa can be sprinkled atop merguez sausages, smeared on savory pastries called brik or sandwiches called fricassées. In Nabeul, …


David Lynch, filmmaker behind ‘Twin Peaks’ and ‘Mulholland Drive,’ dies at 78

LOS ANGELES — David Lynch, the filmmaker celebrated for his uniquely dark vision in such movies as “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive” and the TV series “Twin Peaks,” has died just days before his 79th birthday.  His family announced the death in a Facebook post on Thursday. The cause of death and location was not immediately available, but Lynch had been public about his emphysema.  “We would appreciate some privacy at this time. There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us. But, as he would …


Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan out of danger after stabbing at Mumbai home

MUMBAI — Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan was stabbed repeatedly by an intruder at his home in Mumbai on Thursday, but doctors treating him said he was out of danger after surgery. Khan, 54, was “on the path to complete recovery” after receiving stab wounds on his spine, neck and hand, the doctors told reporters. “He sustained a major injury to the thoracic spinal chord due to a lodged knife in the spine. Surgery was performed to remove the knife and also repair the leaking spinal fluid,” said Nitin Dange, one …


Lasers help archaeologists study ancient tattoos on Peruvian mummies

WASHINGTON — For more than 5,000 years, humans have adorned themselves with tattoos. In a new study, researchers used lasers to uncover highly intricate designs of ancient tattoos on mummies from Peru. The preserved skin of the mummies and the black tattoo ink used show a stark contrast — revealing fine details in tattoos dating to around 1250 A.D. that aren’t visible to the naked eye, said study co-author Michael Pittman, an archaeologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The researchers examined around 100 mummies from coastal Peru’s Chancay culture …