A Japanese district court ruled Wednesday that a ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.   The historic ruling by the Sapporo District Court was in response to a lawsuit filed by six plaintiffs, including two male couples and one female couple, who demanded more than $9,100 each (1 million yen), in damages from the Japanese…

South by Southwest, the annual event in Austin, Texas, that brings together technology, music, politics and Hollywood, is happening digitally this year after being canceled last year due to COVID-19. Michelle Quinn reports.Producer: Matt Dibble   …

Britain’s Prince Philip left a London hospital on Tuesday after being treated for an infection and undergoing a heart procedure. Philip, 99, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, had been hospitalized since being admitted to the private King Edward VII’s Hospital in London on Feb. 16, where he was treated for an infection.   He…

David Fincher’s “Mank” led FILE – Chloe Zhao poses for a portrait to promote her film “Nomadland” during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, Jan. 22, 2018.The other directing nominees were Lee Isaac Chung for “Minari,” Fincher for “Mank” and Thomas Vinterberg for “Another Round.”For performers, it’s the most diverse slate of nominees…

A virtual music competition with real prizes — this is the concept of a new music platform called Djooky. Both amateur and professional songwriters and musicians from around the world are invited to participate for free. Mariia Prus has the story. Camera: Kostiantyn Golubchyk   …

The Vatican decreed Monday that the Catholic Church cannot bless same-sex unions since God “cannot bless sin.”The Vatican’s orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a formal response Monday to a question about whether Catholic clergy can bless gay unions.The answer, contained in a two-page explanation published in seven languages and…

Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish won the top prizes at the Grammy Awards on Sunday in a ceremony that also saw Beyonce become the most awarded female artist in Grammy history. Swift’s surprise lockdown record “Folklore” was named album of the year and Eilish’s “Everything I Wanted” won record of the year. Sunday’s win made Swift, 31, the first woman to take home album of the…

Queen Bey is closer to sitting on her Grammys throne: The singer won her 26th Grammy on Sunday, almost matching, and on track to surpass, Alison Krauss’ record of 27 wins.Beyoncé, this year’s leading contender with nine nominations, won two honors during the pre-ceremony including best rap performance for “Savage” with Megan Thee Stallion and…

Dame Zaturoski from Struga, North Macedonia, is a lawyer by training, but his true passion is making models of boats and ships. Reporter Miki Trajkovski went to North Macedonia to see his latest creation and filed this story narrated by Anna Rice. …

Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Dua Lipa lead the charge at the reinvented Grammy Awards on Sunday, where the music industry hopes to put a year-long pandemic behind it.But an unusually diverse line-up of contenders for the top prize – album of the year – mean it could be anyone’s night.”The nominations were so surprising –…

Marvelous Marvin Hagler stopped Thomas Hearns in a fight that lasted less than eight minutes yet was so epic that it still lives in boxing lore. Two years later he was so disgusted after losing a decision to Sugar Ray Leonard — stolen, he claimed, by the judges — that he never fought again.One of…

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio on Friday became the first high-profile Republican lawmaker to support a growing push to unionize Amazon.com, Inc., workers in Alabama, after several Democratic lawmakers visited the company’s facility last week.In an opinion piece in USA Today, Rubio wrote that Amazon has “waged a war against working-class values” and is “looking to…

Japan will not take part in China’s offer — accepted by the International Olympic Committee — to provide vaccines for “participants” in the postponed Tokyo Games and next year’s Beijing Winter Games.Olympic Minister Tamayo Marukawa said Friday that Japan had not been consulted by the IOC about the Chinese vaccines, and that Japanese athletes would…

Iranian authorities have arrested multiple music producers connected to a California-based Iranian pop singer, his management company and Iranian media said Thursday. It was seen as Tehran’s latest effort to halt what it deems decadent Western behavior.The arrests came as Iranian social media have been awash with criticism of popular underground Iranian singer “Sasy,” or…

Prince William on Thursday defended Britain’s royal family against accusations of racism made by his brother Prince Harry and sister-in-law Meghan, saying the royals are “very much not a racist family.” In comments made during a visit to an east London school, William became the first royal to directly address the explosive interview broadcast Sunday…

As Oprah Winfrey’s TV interview with Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex reverberates internationally, it’s left the more than 50 million viewers grappling with the couple’s claims of racism and lack of support that Meghan says drove her to thoughts of suicide. But for many Black women worldwide, the headlines and social media discussions were painfully familiar. With social media conversations…

The U.S. Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry said Wednesday the world’s developed countries – which emit most of the world’s greenhouse gases – “have every capacity” to address the climate crisis. Speaking at a joint news conference in Paris with French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, Kerry stressed that no one country or government…

One of the most dramatic claims in Prince Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey was the allegation that their son was denied a royal title, possibly because of his skin color. Harry and Meghan’s son, seventh in line to the British throne, is Archie Mountbatten-Windsor. In contrast, the children of Harry’s older brother, Prince…

Israel’s premier museum for Islamic art has scrapped the planned auction of scores of rare and precious items after public outcry over the attempted sale, which had been expected to fetch millions of dollars from wealthy private collectors.  In a settlement struck Wednesday, the Sotheby’s auction house agreed to return 268 items from London back…

Longtime NBC and CBS correspondent and television anchor Roger Mudd has died at the age of 93. CBS News says Mudd died Tuesday of complications of kidney failure at his home in McLean, Virginia. The journalist famously once stumped Sen. Edward Kennedy by simply asking why he wanted to be president. During more than 30…

Buckingham Palace said Tuesday the British royal family is “saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the past few years have been” for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, popularly known as Harry and Meghan.Following a widely publicized CBS interview Sunday with Oprah Winfrey, in which issues of race, family dynamics and suicidal…

U.S. President Joe Biden’s two dogs have reportedly been sent back to his home in Delaware after what has been described as aggressive behavior toward a member of White House security. The U.S. cable channel CNN first reported late Monday one of the dogs, Major, had bitten a security staff member, citing people close to…

New controversy is brewing for Britain’s royal family after an interview on U.S. television with Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle raised questions of possible racism in the royal family. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Camera: Henry Ridgwell       …

Britain’s royal family was plunged into crisis Monday, a day after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, known popularly as Harry and Meghan, said in an interview that a royal had raised concerns about the color of son Archie’s skin and that the child would not be made a prince. “So, we have in tandem the…

International Women’s Day celebrates women’s achievements and highlights issues of women’s rights. To mark the occasion Monday, the U.S. State Department presented the International Women of Courage Award, and VOA spoke with a recipient.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has this report.Camera:  AP/REUTERS/SKYPE Produced by: Arash Arabasadi …

Malala Yousafzai is a Nobel laureate known around the world for her activism, but she’s also a cartoon fan, and is taking her love of television and film to Apple TV+.   Yousafzai, 23, who graduated from Oxford last June, announced Monday that she has partnered with Apple in a multi-year deal to develop dramas,…

Meghan, the wife of Prince Harry, accused Britain’s royal family of raising concerns about how dark their son’s skin might be and pushing her to the brink of suicide, in a tell-all television interview that could send shockwaves through the monarchy.The 39-year-old, whose mother is Black and father is white, said she had been naive…

Britain’s royal family on Sunday braced for further revelations from Prince Harry and his American wife, Meghan, as a week of transatlantic claim and counter-claim reaches a climax with the broadcast of their interview with Oprah Winfrey.The two-hour chat with the U.S. chat show queen is the biggest royal interview since Harry’s mother princess Diana…