SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia does not know why Chinese authorities have detained Australian citizen and television anchor Cheng Lei, Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said on Tuesday, adding to the mystery why the journalist has been taken into custody. The Aust... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s trade minister, Simon Birmingham, said Canberra didn’t know why Chinese authorities had detained Australian citizen Cheng Lei, as he warned that the risks for Australian businesses engaged with China had changed. The Australian g... 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 »
(Reuters) – Apple Inc (AAPL.O) has asked suppliers to make at least 75 million 5G iPhones for later this year, along with new Apple Watch models, a new iPad Air and a smaller HomePod, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday. The company expects shipments of these n... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – French media conglomerate Vivendi (VIV.PA) and activist fund Amber Capital – the two biggest shareholders in French company Lagardere (LAGA.PA) – said they would go to court over Lagardere’s refusal to hold a special shareholders meeting. The... More »
(Reuters) – Facebook Inc said on Tuesday that it was preparing for Myanmar’s general election in November by improving the detection and removal of hate speech and content that incites violence and preventing the spread of misinformation. The company said in a... 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 »
(Reuters) – Facebook Inc said on Monday it is partnering with external researchers to examine the impact of the social media site on society during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The company said findings of the studies will not be published until the mi... 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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
(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 »
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 »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai became the highest-profile person arrested under a new national security law on Monday, detained over suspected collusion with foreign forces as around 200 police searched the offices of his Apple Daily ne... 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 »
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican schools will not reopen when the academic year begins on August 24 in order to safeguard the health of students and teachers because cases of coronavirus are still too high, education minister Esteban Moctezuma said on Monday. T... More »
BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) – A potential shotgun wedding to Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) for TikTok’s U.S. operations provoked an outcry on Monday on Chinese social media as well as criticism from a prominent Chinese investor in TikTok owner ByteDance. The U.S. te... 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 »
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 »
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 »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia is scrutinising the popular Chinese-owned social media TikTok platform for any risks it may pose to users from around potential foreign interference and data privacy issues, government sources told Reuters. Owned by Bytedance, TikT... 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 »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump declined to say the Confederate flag was an offensive symbol in an interview broadcast on Sunday, saying it is a source of pride for people who love the South. The Republican president was asked on “Fox News S... 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 »
SHANGHAI/SEOUL (Reuters) – Some K-pop stars’ accounts have been blocked from view on TikTok’s China equivalent Douyin, Reuters’ checks showed on Friday, days after South Korea’s media regulator slapped fines on the short-video app for data privacy noncomplianc... 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 »
LAGOS (Reuters) – Oreoluwa Akinnawo is in his element. Lagos’s bars and restaurants are shut and Nigerians are struggling to socialise. The pandemic is his perfect time to find a soul mate online. “The dating thing during this restriction works perfectly for m... More »
MOGADISHU (Reuters) – The head of Somalia’s military escaped unhurt and one civilian was killed on Monday when a suicide attacker drove a bomb-laden car into a convoy in the capital Mogadishu, according to a military spokesman and an ambulance service. The al ... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia charged former military journalist Ivan Safronov with state treason on Monday, his lawyer said, accusations that have sent a chill through Russia’s media community which has protested over what it says is his unfair treatment. Securit... 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 »
PARIS (Reuters) – Ubisoft (UBIP.PA) shares dropped 9% on Monday after the French video games group said over the weekend that three senior managers were leaving the company following a review into allegations of inappropriate behaviour. Ubisoft, which makes ga... 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 »
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 »
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 »
TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada’s biggest lenders confirmed on Friday they had joined a widespread boycott of Facebook Inc (FB.O) begun by U.S. civil rights groups seeking to pressure the world’s largest social media platform to take concrete steps to block hate sp... 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 »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – “This is white supremacy. This is institutionalized racism,” Aaisha Joseph, an executive assistant in New York City, posted on Microsoft Corp’s (MSFT.O) LinkedIn in early June, calling out the Black leadership vacuum at tech giants. In ano... More »
OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google upended plans by European media companies to block it from harvesting data about their readers and slash some of its dominance in online advertising, seven people involved in the talks said this month... 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 »
(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 »
(Reuters) – Black power, suffering and the fight for justice took center stage at the BET awards on Sunday, the first Black celebrity event in the United States since nationwide mass protests broke out this month over systemic racism. The show, which celebrate... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – A former High Court of Australia judge was found to have sexually harassed six female staff, the court said on Monday, one of the country’s most powerful figures to face such recriminations amid a global reset in workplace gender relations. ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – International music and film stars will headline a globally televised and streamed fundraising concert on Saturday to help fight COVID-19 as part of a joint initiative by the advocacy group Global Citizen and the European Commission. The ini... More »
(Reuters) – Tom Petty’s family slammed President Donald Trump for using the late rock star’s hit “I Won’t Back Down” at his sparsely attended rally in Tulsa, sending the campaign a cease and desist warning. “Trump was in no way authorized to use this song to f... More »
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Filming the sequel of James Cameron’s sci-fi blockbuster “Avatar” will bring hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars to New Zealand after it ended its coronavirus outbreak, the film’s producer told media as production resumed on Monday.... More »
MUMBAI (Reuters) – Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who won acclaim for his role in the 2016 biopic of then Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, was found dead at his home in Mumbai on Sunday, police said. He was 34 years old. “It pains us to shar... More »
KISUMU (Reuters) – Hundreds of Kenyans defied tear gas and riot police on Friday to carry off the body of a popular singer, trying to prevent a swift burial under rules for suspected coronavirus cases which the crowd said would be disrespectful. Mourners and f... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – “The world is full of idiots,” said ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus, as he condemned critics of the Black Lives Matter movement and voiced his support of the worldwide protests against racism and police brutality. “The solidarity that we see in the ... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – Fans of the popular South Korean boy band BTS matched its $1 million donation to Black Lives Matter (BLM) in support of U.S. protests against police brutality, an organisation that runs fundraisers for the fans said on Monday. The K-pop group... More »
KARLSRUHE, Germany (Reuters) – Germany’s Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday that monitoring the internet traffic of foreign nationals abroad by the BND intelligence agency partly breaches the constitution. The long-awaited ruling stated that internet survei... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The first live televised golf event in the United States since the coronavirus outbreak brought world sport to a standstill attracted an average of 2.35 million viewers on Sunday, NBC Sports said. World number one Rory McIlroy paired up wi... More »
(Reuters) – China’s Tencent Music Entertainment (TME.N) narrowly missed market estimates for quarterly revenue on Monday as the COVID-19 crisis hurt the company’s social entertainment services business, sending its shares down 4.5% in extended trade overnight.... More »
(Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee said on Monday they jointly raised $61.7 million in April, just beating the month’s haul for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his party. A ... More »
(Reuters) – Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) will add labels and warning messages on some tweets with disputed or misleading information about COVID-19, the company said on Monday, as part of a new approach to misinformation that will eventually extend to other topics. Tw... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Jerry Stiller, who played two of American television’s most cantankerous fathers on the sitcoms “Seinfeld” and “The King of Queens,” has died aged 92, his son Ben Stiller said on Twitter on Monday. “I’m sad to say that my father, Jerry Sti... More »
LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigerian comedian Maryam Apaokagi has a sure-fire way of getting people to listen to her coronavirus health advice – she delivers it with a hard slap in the face. The 21-year-old has joined a line-up of the nation’s top performers working hea... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Thousands of visitors streamed into Shanghai Disneyland on Monday for the first time in three months as the Chinese park became the first reopened by Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) after the coronavirus pandemic brought the Magic Kingdom to a stan... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Millions of Japanese viewers of the world’s longest-running animated cartoon TV show will have to make do with re-runs from next week after the coronavirus pandemic disrupted production, Fuji Television Network said on Sunday. Aired every Sun... More »
(Reuters) – Little Richard, the self-proclaimed “architect of rock ‘n’ roll” who built his ground-breaking sound with a boiling blend of boogie-woogie, rhythm and blues and gospel, died on Saturday at the age of 87. Richard, a Grammy Award winner and inductee ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins will stream a concert from an empty Royal Albert Hall on Friday evening, as locked-down Britain marks the 75th anniversary of “Victory in Europe” Day. Millions of people held a two-minute silence while m... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Walt Disney Co’s (DIS.N) acquisitions spree that included swallowing much of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox last year, and a reputation for operational excellence, turned the company into the world’s most powerful entertainment machi... More »
LAGOS (Reuters) – Two dozen Lagos healthcare workers in scrubs and face masks rushed outside the isolation tents and, making sure to keep six feet apart on the bright green grass, danced and swayed as a saxophone and trumpet struck up the band. Inside the tent... More »
(Reuters) – Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O) owned NBCUniversal is evaluating a significant reduction of staff across its portfolio of media and entertainment properties as part of a cost-cutting effort, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar... More »
(Editor’s note: paragraph 7 contains language that some readers may find offensive) LONDON (Reuters) – The Rolling Stones gave their fans some satisfaction on Thursday by releasing a new track “Living in a Ghost Town”, part-recorded during the coronavirus lock... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Coronavirus quarantine has supermodel Naomi Campbell reinventing herself as a talk show host with the new series “No Filter with Naomi.” The catwalk queen is chatting live on YouTube every day with some of her famous friends, including Vog... More »
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Tom Hanks has sent a letter and a Corona brand typewriter to an Australian boy who wrote to him about being bullied over his name, Corona, Australian television networks reported on Thursday. Corona De Vries, an eight-year-old from the Go... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Kelly Rowland, Halle Berry and Anthony Anderson are among a host of black celebrities taking on the coronavirus epidemic as the disease continues to disproportionately affect minorities in the United States. The actors and singers will tak... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The cast of the hit TV comedy “Friends” on Tuesday offered six fans the chance to join them for their upcoming reunion show, which will raise funds for those worst-affected by the coronavirus epidemic. “The One Where You Meet the Entire... More »
(Reuters) – AT&T Inc. announced on Tuesday that it will make its HBO Max streaming service free to some customers when it launches on May 27. The HBO Max app will be pre-loaded on the AT&T TV set top box. HBO Max will also be included with the AT&T Internet 10... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Bob Dylan’s handwritten lyrics to his 1960s classic “The Times They Are A-Changin’” are going up for sale with a $2.2 million asking price in what could mark a world record for rock lyrics. Gary Zimet, owner of Los Angeles-based autogra... More »
(Reuters) – Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Beyonce and Oprah Winfrey on Saturday headlined a special broadcast of music, comedy and personal stories celebrating those around the world on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic.... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Rolling Stones will join a star-studded global television broadcast on Saturday to honor healthcare workers on the front lines of the battle against the coronavirus pandemic, the band announced on Friday. The two-hour “One World: To... More »
CAIRO (Reuters) – Wearing white face paint, stripy top and bright red spectacle frames, Ahmed Naser stands in a street in Cairo distributing face masks and health advice to passing children. The 22-year-old engineering student has been entertaining youngsters ... More »
KIEV (Reuters) – Ukrainian brothers Nikita and Egor Zigura work on their sculpture of a giant fingerprint as art enthusiasts look on via a live-streaming internet link and make bids for the developing work. The online auction is part of a new “Stay Art Home” s... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – After closing their doors to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, many small businesses face an uncertain future following government-ordered lockdowns. As part of our weekly #AskReuters Twitter chat series, Reuters gathered a group of s... More »
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Several Dutch cellular broadcasting towers have been damaged by arson or sabotage in the past week by opponents of a rollout of a new 5G telecommunications network, newspaper De Telegraaf reported on Saturday. The paper said there have be... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Elmo and Cookie Monster are reaching out to young children confused at being stuck at home during the coronavirus epidemic with a special “Sesame Street” episode airing next week. “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and actors Anne Ha... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Ellen DeGeneres, one of America’s most popular TV personalities, faced a barrage of criticism on Wednesday after comparing her self-isolation in a multimillion-dollar mansion to being in prison. DeGeneres, whose daily television talk sh... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – ResearchGate, a social network site for scientists and researchers, has launched a new forum to facilitate collaboration between COVID-19 experts on research into beating the flu-like disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The site here de... More »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Lockdowns and travel retrictions prompted by the new coronavirus have been a boon to JOOX, Chinese tech giant Tencent’s international music streaming platform, driving traffic to its karaoke services up by as much as 50%, an executive sai... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Oprah Winfrey said on Thursday she was donating $10 million to coronavirus relief efforts, including a new venture to help get food to vulnerable Americans during the coronavirus epidemic. Winfrey, one of America’s richest and most infl... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two top Democrats in Congress on Thursday asked Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai to reassure broadcasters the agency will not revoke their licenses for airing advertisements critical of President Donald Trump. On... More »
(Reuters) – Netflix Inc led rivals YouTube, Amazon Prime and Disney+ with over 59 million installs in the first quarter of 2020, but more time was spent on YouTube’s Kids service as usage boomed following the shutdown of thousands of schools in March. YouTube,... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – Walt Disney Co’s (DIS.N) Disney+ content will be available for the first time in the Middle East and North Africa on regional pay television and online streaming service provider OSN from April 9. Dubai-headquartered OSN has signed a “long-te... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Public Enemy’s ouster last month of founding member Flavor Flav was a hoax to generate publicity and provide a commentary on disinformation, members of the rap group said on Wednesday as they released a new album. Founder Chuck D and fo... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – A South Korean K-Pop star on Wednesday pulled an April Fool’s prank announcing that he had contracted coronavirus, and later removed the Instagram post after triggering a backlash. Kim Jae-joong, a member of boyband JYJ, posted on his Instagr... More »
DAKAR (Reuters) – The mural stretched over 10 metres of wall in Senegal’s seaside capital Dakar shows a giant pair of hands reaching out for sanitiser, and a woman in hoop earrings and a facemask colored blue, red, gold and green. It is the work of RBS CREW, a... More »
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Brazilian rapper MV Bill added his voice to a chorus of criticism of President Jair Bolsonaro for downplaying the gravity of the new coronavirus epidemic in a video clip that urges people to protect themselves. His rap “Quarantine” r... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The stars of the movie “Contagion,” which has seen a surge in popularity as the coronavirus has spread across the globe, on Friday urged fans to listen to experts, wash their hands frequently and practice social distancing. “That was a ... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – Billionaire investor William Ackman said a CNBC television interview he gave last week was not designed to profit from any trades, dismissing some media speculation he had purposely pushed markets lower to make money off his hedges. “Our hed... More »
