LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – K-Pop band BTS roared to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts in the United States on Monday, becoming the first Korean pop act to debut at No. 1. “Dynamite,” the first all-English language single from the seven-member boy ba... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Facebook Inc (FB.O) on Tuesday said it would stop Australians sharing news content on its platforms if a proposal to make it pay local media outlets for their content becomes law, escalating tension with the Australian government. Under Aust... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Facebook Inc (FB.O) said it will block news sharing on its platforms in Australia if the government goes ahead with a law to force it, and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google, to pay local media outlets for featuring their content on its platfor... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Porn star Ron Jeremy was charged on Monday with 20 additional counts of rape and sexual assault, including one involving a 15- year-old girl, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office said. Jeremy, 67, one of the biggest names in the a... More »
DUBLIN (Reuters) – Irish President Michael D. Higgins joined a virtual celebration of Van Morrison’s 75th birthday on Monday, namechecking U.S. civil rights champion John Lewis and author James Baldwin in a spoken-word rendition of one of the Northern Irishman... More »
BUDAPEST (Reuters) – The management of Hungary’s prestigious University of Theatre and Film Arts resigned on Monday in protest over the imposition of a government-appointed board which they say will undermine the school’s autonomy. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Notting Hill Carnival, a highlight of the British summer, may have been cancelled this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but a couple of colourful individuals on Monday were determined to bring some festival spirit to west London’s quie... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – A popular Tokyo amusement park on Monday closed its doors for the last time after being in business for more than nine decades, with part of the site set to make way for a “Harry Potter” theme park. Toshimaen amusement park, which opened in 1... More »
(Reuters) – Lady Gaga dominated the MTV Video Music Awards show on Sunday, with a series of visually arresting outfits, masked performances and four wins, including artist of the year. Gaga, who went into the show sharing a leading nine nominations with Ariana... More »
(Reuters) – The MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) were held as a mostly virtual event on Sunday, with some performances in front of a limited audience at locations in New York City. Following is a list of winners in key categories: VIDEO OF THE YEAR The Weeknd – “... More »
(Reuters) – Canadian singer The Weeknd on Sunday won the video of the year award, the top prize at the MTV Video Music Awards. The Weeknd won for “Blinding Lights”, which was also chosen as best R&B single in the fan-voted show. Source: https://www.reuters.com... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – In his golden-hued office, decked out with peacock feathers and crystal balls, Indian mystic healer and astrologer Sanjay Sharma is busy offering his clients a peek into their future as the COVID-19 pandemic has muddied their present. “Ri... More »
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Thieves stole a painting by Dutch Golden-Age master Frans Hals from a small museum near the Dutch city of Utrecht on Thursday, police said, the third time the canvas has been stolen. The artwork, valued at 15 million euros ($18 million) b... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Finding the pandemic scary? A Japanese group is trying to take people’s minds off COVID-19 – by putting them in coffins surrounded by chainsaw-wielding zombies. Customers this weekend in Tokyo can lie in a 2-metre (6 1/2-foot) windowed box, l... More »
HARARE (Reuters) – Victor Mpofu is using satire to shine a light on Zimbabwe’s political problems, reaching a growing audience despite living in fear of retribution from President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government. Mpofu, aka Doc Vikela, has seen his followers o... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese artist Hiroko Takahashi fought through sexism and suspicion from traditional kimono artisans to establish a globally known brand that sold hundreds of her original garments every month – until the coronavirus devastation hit. Takahas... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – U.S streaming giant Netflix is ramping up its mobile-only subscription plans in Southeast Asia and expanding local content, senior executives told Reuters, just as arch-rival Disney arrives in the fast-growing market. The world’s biggest ... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian politicians are trading barbs over a media report that Facebook Inc’s (FB.O) content policies favoured Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party, putting the social network at the centre of a political storm in its biggest market by use... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google on Monday said a proposed antitrust law in Australia forcing tech firms to pay for news that appears on their social media websites would adversely impact individual content creators and channel operators. Goo... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Two decades of Maya Husseini’s work to restore stained glass windows destroyed in the Lebanese civil war was lost in an instant in the seismic port explosion in Beirut. “I can say that in this blast, 20 years of my professional life was on t... More »
(This August 13 story corrects to show that 2019 and 2020 H1 results are based on different accounting standards in paragraph 3, changes percentage change to profit figure in paragraph 1) By Joyce Lee SEOUL (Reuters) – Big Hit Entertainment, the management lab... More »
SARAJEVO (Reuters) – The Sarajevo Film Festival will be launched entirely online on Friday after a spike in coronavirus cases forced organisers to cancel plans to stage Europe’s first in-person movie fair since the outbreak of the pandemic. Just ten days ago a... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – This year’s Notting Hill Carnival will swap the streets of West London for computer screens around the world, as the event turns online-only due to the coronavirus pandemic, streaming hours of music and performance. Held at the end of August... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A new “Star Wars” holiday special produced with Legos will debut on Walt Disney Co’s Disney+ streaming service in November, the company said on Thursday. The special will feature Rey and other characters from the most recent “Star Wars”... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Four famous amateur model grandmothers took off their masks during a saunter down the streets of Beijing on Thursday to demonstrate life returning to normal as the COVID-19 pandemic eases. Glamma Beijing, a group of four women who met durin... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – British actress Naomie Harris and musician Brian Eno have teamed up to produce a short film backing calls for urgent action to slow climate change, in support of civil disobedience campaign Extinction Rebellion. Harris, who plays Eve Moneype... More »
ROME (Reuters) – Raphael probably didn’t like his nose, and replaced it with an idealised version in his famous self-portrait. That is the conclusion of Rome University scientists who produced a 3D computer reconstruction of the Renaissance master’s face from ... More »
HAVANA (Reuters) – Havana was once dubbed the ‘Paris of the Caribbean’ for its beautiful architecture, vibrant arts scene, and flourishing nightlife. Now it even has its own Eiffel Tower. The illuminated four-meter (13-ft) high replica by Cuban blacksmith Jorg... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A flock of 20,000 multicoloured origami birds has been installed in a cathedral in Brussels, Belgium, as part of a fundraising artwork that has paid for two COVID-19 units at a local hospital. Suspended from the ceiling of the medieval Cat... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp has emerged as the most likely buyer of the U.S. operations of TikTok, the popular Chinese short-video app that U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing to effectively ban on national security grounds. A deal would be in lin... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Looking for a new way to communicate during the pandemic? A Los Angeles company has created phone booth-sized machines to beam live holograms into your living room. The device made by PORTL Inc lets users talk in real time with a life-s... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – MTV has abandoned the idea of holding its Video Music Awards show at an indoor venue in New York because of the complications of the coronavirus epidemic. The VMA show on Aug. 30, which traditionally features live performances from musi... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – British broadcaster ITV will this year hold its reality TV show “I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here” in a ruined English castle in winter instead of the heat of the Australian jungle, as COVID-19 restrictions make global travel all but imp... More »
(Reuters) – AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc said on Thursday it expects all its international theaters to resume operations in the next two to three weeks, while two-thirds or more of its U.S. theaters are set to reopen later this month. Movie theaters across t... More »
(Reuters) – Grammy Award-winning producer Detail, who once worked with Beyonce, has been charged with raping five women and sexually assaulting a sixth, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office said on Thursday. Detail, whose birth name is Noel Fisher, was c... More »
(Reuters) – Gwyneth Paltrow says deciding to split with her first husband Chris Martin was painful enough, but nothing could have prepared her for the public mockery that greeted the announcement of their “conscious uncoupling.” That was the phrase used by the... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Grammy-winning R&B star Lizzo has signed a deal to produce television programming for Amazon.com Inc’s Prime Video streaming service, the singer announced on Thursday. The 32-year-old singer of “Good as Hell” and “Juice” had a breakout ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Misan Harriman hopes to encourage employers to cast the recruitment net more widely with his Vogue cover portrait of influential Black activists in place of the usual pouting stars. Footballer Marcus Rashford, who helped force a UK governmen... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Singer-actress Selena Gomez has been cooking up a storm during the coronavirus lockdown and is now ready to share her hilarious and sometimes embarrassing efforts with the rest of the world. “Selena + Chef,” a 10-episode unscripted seri... More »
(Reuters) – Eleven years after the sudden death of actress Natasha Richardson, her husband Liam Neeson and their son have found renewed healing in their first film together, “Made in Italy.” “Reading the script was like, what? This is so weird. Like, surely Mo... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Irish peacemaker John Hume was a “political giant” who did so much to help bring an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday. Hume, a key Roman Catholic architect of Northern Ireland’s 1998... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Visitors to Universal Studios in Singapore will now have to pass through facial recognition scanners to enter the park, in the city-state’s latest foray with a technology that has stoked privacy concerns. Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), whic... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese artificial intelligence company Shanghai Zhizhen Intelligent Network Technology Co., Ltd., also known as Xiao-i, has filed a lawsuit against Apple Inc, alleging it has infringed on its patents. The company is calling for 10 billion... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Ellen DeGeneres on Thursday sent an emotional message to the staff of her television talk show saying she was taking steps to improve the culture on set following accusations of a hostile working environment. The email followed an inter... More »
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Most of us have accepted COVID-19 face masks as an inconvenient, albeit necessary, safety measure. For the style conscious like James Maina Mwangi, however, they are an unmissable fashion opportunity. Mwangi’s brightly coloured suits and ha... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Pop stars Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga led a girl power list of nominations on Thursday for the MTV Video Music Awards, which added two new categories to reflect how musicians are responding to the coronavirus pandemic. Grande and Gaga g... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Emmy-winning “Breaking Bad” star Bryan Cranston disclosed on Thursday that he had recovered from mild symptoms of COVID-19 and donated his plasma in the hopes that his antibodies would help others with the disease. Wearing a face mask, ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – As someone who dreams of a career in the music business, Amanda Montgomery had big plans for her summer internship – working in studios, going on shoots for music videos, maybe taking in some live concerts. Thanks to COVID-19, her internsh... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – A 9-tonne sculpture of a giant swirl of whipped cream with a cherry on top, as well as a fly and a drone, was unveiled on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth in London on Thursday. The sculpture by Heather Phillipson, entitled “THE END”, is the... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Madame Tussauds’ most famous figures led by example and formed a socially distanced queue outside the soon-to-be reopened wax museum on Thursday, with Queen Elizabeth leading the way followed by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson then musi... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Stuck at home during lockdown, Dutch researcher Wouter van der Veen finally found time to look through old postcards of the French village where Vincent Van Gogh died and made a remarkable discovery. One postcard showing gnarled roots and tre... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Some of Japan’s best-known artists are finding new avenues of expression in areas such as online communication and the environment, as the novel coronavirus outbreak sparks ideas as radical as renaming the country’s “Reiwa” imperial era. Five... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian scientists said on Wednesday they have given five fly species scientific names that pay tribute to the Marvel comic universe, including one named for wise-cracking anti-hero Deadpool and another after superhero creator Stan Lee. T... More »
OSLO (Reuters) – Norway began tearing down a landmark building adorned with giant murals by Pablo Picasso on Monday as part of efforts to rebuild government headquarters after a deadly far-right bombing. Oslo’s ‘Y block’ office building, with a Picasso drawing... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The NBA basketball jersey given to Michael Jordan on the day in 1984 when he first signed with the Chicago Bulls will go up for auction in December, Julien’s Auctions announced on Monday. The red and white jersey emblazoned with Jordan’... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Johnny Depp was a drug addict prone to violent rages and a misogynist who assaulted his wife and used abusive language about women, a London court was told on Monday as the actor’s libel trial against a British tabloid neared its ending. The... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Johnny Depp is suing the publisher of Britain’s Sun newspaper and its executive editor Dan Wootton for libel over an article that described the movie star as a “wife beater”. The Sun’s lawyers told the court they would show the allegation in... More »
(Reuters) – Regis Philbin, a familiar face to TV viewers as an energetic and funny talk and game show host who logged more hours in front of the camera than anyone else in the history of U.S. television, has died aged 88, People magazine said on Saturday, citi... More »
(Reuters) – Fleetwood Mac guitarist and co-founder of the influential rock group Peter Green has died at age 73, Green’s lawyers said on Saturday. The law firm Swan Turton said in a statement that Green had died in his sleep this weekend. Green, born in London... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – British rap artist Wiley is facing a police investigation after a string of anti-Semitic comments appeared on his social media accounts, prompting his management to drop him. The rapper’s Twitter account, which has half a million followers, ... More »
OSLO (Reuters) – The Norwegian government will make an exception for Tom Cruise and his crew to shoot parts of a new “Mission: Impossible” movie in Norway this autumn without imposing quarantine requirements, a minister said on Friday. Production of the sevent... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Taylor Swift on Friday won some of the best reviews of her career with an album produced entirely during the coronavirus crisis that breaks new ground for the Grammy-winning artist. “Folklore” features the 30-year-old singer, who began ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Works by Rembrandt, Miro and Picasso are being offered to entice life back to the auction world next week when Sotheby’s holds its first face-to-face sale since the coronavirus in London with a line-up from the Renaissance to the European Av... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Actress Amber Heard will be questioned about her allegations that she suffered domestic abuse at the hands of ex-husband Johnny Depp when she begins giving evidence on Monday as part of the Hollywood star’s libel case against a British tablo... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Johnny Depp is suing the publisher of Britain’s Sun newspaper and its executive editor Dan Wootton for libel over an article that described the movie star as a “wife beater”. Depp has given five days of testimony. This week, London’s High Co... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – While the cinema drive-in may have gotten a boost as lockdowns gradually come to an end amid the COVID-19 outbreak, in Paris film fans can now munch on their popcorn watching a movie from a boat on the river Seine. As part of Paris Plages, th... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Twitter Inc disabled a campaign-style video that President Donald Trump retweeted on Saturday, citing a copyright complaint. The video, which included music from the group Linkin Park, disappeared from the president’s Twitter feed late S... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. flags were flown at half-staff on Saturday at the White House, federal properties and several states as politicians and activists voiced an outpouring of grief and appreciation for civil rights career of U.S. Representative John Lewis, who die... More »
(Reuters) – Indian actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and her daughter are in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus this week, days after her husband and father-in-law were admitted, the Times of India reported on Saturday. Rai’s father-in-law Amitabh Ba... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Actress and #MeToo campaigner Katherine Kendall said on Friday Britain’s Sun newspaper had deliberately misused her quotes in an article which labelled Hollywood star Johnny Depp a “wife beater”. Depp, 57, is suing the publisher of that news... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Hollywood increased the numbers of gay and bisexual characters in movies in 2019, but most of them had only fleeting screen time and there were no transgender characters at all, according to a survey released on Thursday. The Studio Res... More »
(Reuters) – Young YouTube sensation Ryan Kaji’s star has kept rising during the coronavirus lockdowns. The eight-year-old, who first began his channel “Ryan’s World” on YouTube to review toys for family members and other youngsters, raked in $26 million as 201... More »
(Reuters) – AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc said on Monday it had reached an agreement with bondholders to reduce its debt by up to $630 million, as the theater industry suffers from the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Major theater operators in the United States ... More »
(Reuters) – American actress Kelly Preston who has appeared in films including “Jerry Maguire” and “Twins”, has died aged 57 after battling breast cancer for nearly two years, her husband, John Travolta, announced in an Instagram post late on Sunday. “It is wi... More »
MUMBAI (Reuters) – Fans across India prayed on Monday for Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan and others members of his movie star family who have fallen sick with the coronavirus as the one-day rise in infections hit a new record without any sign of a peak. Bac... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Movie star Johnny Depp on Monday concluded giving evidence in his libel action against Britain’s Sun newspaper after five days in the witness box, again rejecting accusations he had hit his ex-wife Amber Heard and accusing her of using viole... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A little-known member of one of rock ‘n’ roll music’s royal families, Benjamin Keough, grandson of the late Elvis Presley and only son of the “The King’s” daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, has died aged 27, her spokesman said on Sunday. The... More »
(Reuters) – Mickey waved from a distance and visitors wore colorful face masks with mouse ears on Saturday as Florida’s Walt Disney World opened to the public for the first time in four months amid a surge of coronavirus cases in the state. Walt Disney Co (DIS... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – UNESCO must be notified of any change in the status of Istanbul’s sixth-century Hagia Sophia museum and the changes may have to be reviewed by its World Heritage committee, the United Nation’s cultural body said on Thursday. Turkey’s top admi... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – With Britain’s coronavirus lockdown eased, sculptor Anish Kapoor can finally exhibit his work at Houghton Hall, one of the country’s best-known stately homes. Kapoor’s exhibition of 24 sculptures was due go on show thoughout the grounds and ... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – With their stadium devoid of fans due to coronavirus restrictions, Japanese baseball team Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks have come up with an imaginative replacement: dancing robots. Before their most recent Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) game ag... More »
(Reuters) – The Dalai Lama made a bid for music chart stardom on Monday, his 85th birthday, with the release of an album of mantras and teachings. “Inner World” kicks off with the track “One Of My Favourite Prayers” and continues with the exiled Tibetan spirit... More »
ROME (Reuters) – Ennio Morricone, the Italian composer whose haunting scores to Spaghetti Westerns like “A Fistful of Dollars” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” helped define a cinematic era, has died, his lawyer said on Monday. He was 91. Morricone had bro... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Several dozen Paris tour guides wearing masks and holding Mona Lisa portraits protested outside the Louvre museum on Monday for more support from the government to help them ride out the coronavirus crisis and a dearth of tourists. They gathe... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Elton John on Monday became the second artist to be honoured by Britain’s Royal Mint with a commemorative coin paying tribute to the decorated British singer-songwriter. The coin, designed by artist Bradley Morgan Johnson, depicts John’s dis... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will invest nearly $2 billion in the arts and hopes to allow outdoor and socially distanced performances at cultural venues as it tries to help a high-profile sector hit hard by the coronavirus. Spanning theatres in London’s West End... More »
ROME – Ennio Morricone, whose scores for movies such as “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, “The Mission” and “Cinema Paradiso” made him one of the world’s most famous and prolific screen composers, has died, ANSA news agency said on Monday. He was 91. ANSA said... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – If Kanye West is serious about running for president, the American rapper and fashion designer will face major obstacles to mount a serious campaign less than four months before the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election. West, who said in a ... More »
MOUNT RUSHMORE NATIONAL MEMORIAL, S.D. (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Friday accused “angry mobs” of trying to erase history with efforts to remove or rethink monuments to U.S. historical figures and used a speech at Mount Rushmore to paint himself as a... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Social media app TikTok distanced itself from Beijing after India banned 59 Chinese apps in the country, according to a correspondence seen by Reuters. In a letter to the Indian government dated June 28th and seen by Reuters on Friday, Ti... More »
PRAGUE (Reuters) – A Czech film festival disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic unveiled a scaled-down programme of movies on Friday with an opening ceremony in an empty auditorium and a star-free red carpet. The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, central a... More »
LUANDA (Reuters) – When the Angolan government imposed its coronavirus lockdown in late March, local entrepreneur and innovator Claudio Kiala saw a gap in the market when it came to virtual entertainment. Kiala and his team had been developing a performance pl... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Two of the biggest Harry Potter fan sites on Thursday distanced themselves from author J.K. Rowling because of her beliefs on transgender issues, calling them at odds with the message of empowerment in her best-selling books. Websites T... More »
(Reuters) – Hollywood came under intense scrutiny for a lack of diversity in 2015 when the #OscarsSoWhite movement spotlighted the dearth of Black nominees for the film industry’s highest honors. Following the mass protests after the death of African American ... More »
ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s Uffizi gallery said on Thursday it was planning to pick out nine of its masterpieces for a project to highlight the part that Black people and culture played in the Renaissance. Under the “Black Presence” initiative, images of works in... More »
KOBLENZ, Germany (Reuters) – Forty-nine faceless figures stand on the lawn outside a German courthouse, facing the windows of a courtroom behind which two suspected members of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s security services are standing trial for torture ... More »
KINSHASA (Reuters) – In central Kinshasa, freshly painted murals show traditional idols wearing medical masks or applying hand sanitiser, part of an art initiative to counter public disbelief in the face of the coronavirus pandemic sweeping Democratic Republic... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Cineworld (CINE.L) on Tuesday delayed the reopening of its cinemas in the United States and Britain until the end of July, citing changes to the release schedules for some of the big summer movies. The UK-based company had previously expecte... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Monday announced he was taking a “hard pause” on when movie theaters in the city can reopen, citing an increase in coronavirus cases. Los Angeles County is the biggest movie theater market in the Unite... More »
(Reuters) – Social media site Reddit on Monday shut down r/The_Donald, a forum which long served as a popular online home base for fans of President Donald Trump, saying it violated the site’s hate speech rules. Other sites also conducted high-profile sweeps: ... More »
