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US student protests challenge balance of speech rights, university policies
Young fencer shows NY grit on Paris 2024 stage
EAUBONNE, France — Growing up in cutthroat New York gave Lauren Scruggs the competitive mindset needed to claim an unexpected fencing silver medal on her Olympic debut in Paris. The 21-year-old Queens native shared the podium with fellow American Lee Kiefer, who retained her Olympic title in the women’s individual foil event gold medal bout on…
Drag queen in Olympic opening ceremony has no regrets, calls it ‘a photograph of France in 2024’
Paris — As a gay youth growing up in central France, Hugo Bardin never felt he lived in a world that represented who he was — a world in which he had a place. And that is why Bardin, who performs as the drag queen Paloma, felt it was meaningful and important to be part of…
College athletes could be considered employees, court rules
Bangladesh faces growing criticism for violent crackdown on students
Income gap between Black and white US residents shrank between Gen Xers and millennials, study says
UCLA ordered by judge to craft plan in support of Jewish students
LOS ANGELES — A federal judge ordered Monday that the University of California, Los Angeles, craft a plan to protect Jewish students, months after pro-Palestinian protests broke out on campus. Three Jewish students sued the university in June, alleging that they experienced discrimination on campus amid demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war. Yitzchok Frankel, a UCLA law…
Gap year between high school and college can benefit students
Ancient secrets unearthed in vast Turkish cave city
Midyat, Turkey — Through a basement door in southeastern Turkey lies a sprawling underground city — perhaps the country’s largest — which one historian believes dates back to the ninth century before Jesus Christ. Archaeologists stumbled upon the city-under-a-city “almost by chance” after an excavation of house cellars in Midyat, near the Syrian border, led to…
Edna O’Brien, Irish literary giant who wrote ‘The Country Girls,’ dies at 93
NEW YORK — Edna O’Brien, Ireland’s literary pride and outlaw who scandalized her native land with her debut novel “The Country Girls” before gaining international acclaim as a storyteller and iconoclast that found her welcomed everywhere from Dublin to the White House, has died. She was 93. O’Brien died Saturday after a long illness, according to…
Frank Stewart photos captured culture of jazz, church and Black life in US
CHADDS FORD, Pa. — At first glance, it looks like an aerial photo of a cemetery destroyed by war, with charred coffins ripped from broken concrete vaults and arched marble tombstones flattened by a bomb blast. Then, the viewer begin to discern details: the coffins and vaults are actually parts of a keyboard. Instead of names…
Princess Leia bikini costume from ‘Star Wars’ movie set sells for $175K
HOUSTON — The gold bikini-style costume that Carrie Fisher wore as Princess Leia while making “Return of the Jedi” in the “Star Wars” franchise has sold for $175,000, according to the auction house that handled the sale. The costume was made famous when Fisher wore it at the start of the 1983 film when Leia was…
‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ smashes R-rated record with $205M North American debut
Defying downturn, auction houses bid high on Hong Kong
HONG KONG — Three of the world’s top auction houses are racing to expand in Hong Kong, eager to woo young Asian buyers even as the global art market retreats from pandemic-era highs. In the span of two months, Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Bonhams will each see the culmination of yearslong efforts to upgrade their regional headquarters…
India’s Charaideo Moidam royal burial mounds designated World Heritage Site
NEW DELHI — The Charaideo Moidam royal burial complex and shrines, built by northeast India’s Ahom dynasty, has been inscribed as a new World Heritage Site, the United Nations’ cultural agency said on Friday. UNESCO experts, who are deliberating on a list of sites nominated for the World Heritage Site tag, announced the decision in Indian…
3 in Gospel Music Hall of Fame quartet among 7 killed in plane crash
Puerto Rico bans discrimination against those who wear Afros, other styles
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico’s governor on Wednesday signed a law that prohibits discrimination against people wearing Afros, curls, locs, twists, braids and other hairstyles in the racially diverse U.S. territory. The move was celebrated by those who had long demanded explicit protection related to work, housing, education and public services. “It’s a victory…
Payments to college athletes to range from a few dollars to more than $1M under settlement
Survey: US college students score low in civic literacy
Former US diplomat and author Martin Indyk dies at 73
NORWICH, Conn. — Veteran diplomat Martin S. Indyk, an author and leader at prominent U.S. think tanks who devoted years to finding a path toward peace in the Middle East, died Thursday. He was 73. His wife, Gahl Hodges Burt, confirmed in a phone call that he died from complications of esophageal cancer at the couple’s…
Video game performers to strike over artificial intelligence concerns
LOS ANGELES — Hollywood’s video game performers voted Thursday to go on strike, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections. The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen…
YouTube star sets Domino installation world record
YouTube star Lily Hevesh has been mesmerizing viewers with domino creations for 15 years. Last weekend, at the National Building Museum in Washington, she completed her most ambitious project yet: she brought down an installation of 100,000 dominoes and set a world record. Maxim Adams reports. Camera: Dmitry Shakhov, Artem Kohan. …
Drill team cultivates sense of identity for Chinese American girls
In the Pacific Northwest, there is a marching group that has thrilled parade audiences for more than 70 years. The Seattle Chinese Community Girls Drill Team has brought a sense of community and identity for generations of Chinese American girls. VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya reports. …
Toronto Film Festival lineup includes movies from Angelina Jolie, Mike Leigh
Ukraine’s largest music festival returns with break from inescapable reality of war
Kyiv, Ukraine — This year, Ukraine’s largest music festival struck a different chord. Gone were the international headliners, the massive performance halls and the hundreds of thousands of visitors. Instead, beloved local artists graced the stage this past weekend at the Atlas Festival — the first since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 — for a…