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…

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. …

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…

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…

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,”…

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…

CES 2023 opens this week in Las Vegas. After an unusually low turnout last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain issues, organizers say the consumer electronics show is back in full swing. VOA’s Julie Taboh shows us some of what to expect. …

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

The world welcomed the new year with a packed party in Times Square and fireworks soaring above European capitals, while hoping for an end to the war in Ukraine and a return to post-COVID normality in Asia. It was a year marked by the conflict in Ukraine, economic stresses and the effects of global warming.…

Sherlock Holmes is finally free to the American public in 2023. The long-running contested copyright dispute over Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s tales of a whip-smart detective will finally come to an end as the 1927 copyrights expiring January 1 include Conan Doyle’s last Sherlock Holmes work. Alongside the short-story collection The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes,…

Photo collage above: Top row, from left, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, singer Ronnie Spector, actor Sidney Poitier, Queen Elizabeth, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev. Bottom row, from left, actress Angela Lansbury, singer Jerry Lee Lewis, Pakistani doctor who championed women’s health and rights Nafis Sadik, Soviet…

Cristiano Ronaldo completed a lucrative move to Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr on Friday in a deal that is a landmark moment for Middle Eastern soccer but will see one of Europe’s biggest stars disappear from the sport’s elite stage. Al Nassr posted a picture on social media of the five-time Ballon d’Or holding up…

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the first pope in 600 years to resign, has died. Below are highlights from his life. April 16, 1927: Born Joseph Alois Ratzinger in Marktl am Inn, Germany, youngest of three children to Joseph and Maria Ratzinger. 1943-45: Assistant in Germany’s anti-aircraft defense and infantry soldier; imprisoned in 1945 in American…

The rudeness pandemic, the actual pandemic, and all things gray. There’s a lot to leave behind when 2022 ends and uncertainty rules around the world. The health crisis brought on the dawn of slow living, but it crushed many families forced to hustle for their living. Rudeness went on the rise. Crypto currencies tanked. Pete…

Barbara Walters, one of the most visible women on U.S. television as the first female anchor on an evening news broadcast and one of TV’s most prominent interviewers, has died at age 93, her longtime ABC home network said on Friday. Walters, who created the popular ABC women’s talk show The View in 1997, died…

Web searches reveal what America really cared about this year   …

Brazil and the world said goodbye Thursday to a man who many consider the greatest football player of the last century. Pele died in São Paulo at the age of 82. Brazilians took to the streets to honor their greatest idol in the country’s most popular sport. For VOA, Edgar Maciel reports from Sao Paulo.…

As the person who dressed the Sex Pistols, Vivienne Westwood, who died Thursday at 81, was synonymous with 1970s punk rock, a rebelliousness that remained the hallmark of an unapologetically political designer who became one of British fashion’s biggest names. “Vivienne Westwood died today, peacefully and surrounded by her family, in Clapham, South London. The…

Brazilian football legend Pelé has died at the age of 82, after battling cancer and cardiac problems the past year. Over the course of his legendary career, the man who led his national team to an unprecedented three World Cup titles became known as one of the sport’s greatest players. VOA’s Robert Raffaele has more…

Before Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo came along, the enduring debate in soccer about who was the greatest player centered on two men: Pele and Diego Maradona. It was an argument that played out for years on terraces and in bars, on radio and on television. Brazil’s Pele, a prolific goal scorer who died aged…

Brazilian football legend Pele, who burst onto the world scene as a goal-scoring teenager and led his national team to an unprecedented three World Cup titles, died Thursday at the age of 82. He was hospitalized in late November, and doctors said in December he was dealing with cancer that had advanced along with kidney…

Former world number one Novak Djokovic arrived in Australia on Tuesday almost one year after he was deported for refusing to be vaccinated against Covid-19, tennis officials said. The nine-time Australian Open champion was initially banned from the country for three years after losing a high-stakes legal battle in January over his vaccine status.  Australia…

“Avatar: The Way of Water” sailed to the top of the box office in its second weekend, bringing in what studios estimate Sunday will be a strong $56 million in North America — a sign that the sequel may stay afloat into the new year and approach the massive expectations that met its release. James…

The streets of Bethlehem are crowded for Christmas again, after two years of COVID-related restrictions. In the Church of the Nativity, the faithful celebrated Jesus’s birth as the number of Palestinian Christians continues to dwindle. Christian tourists from around the world have come to Bethlehem to celebrate the birth of Jesus. While the numbers have…