South Africa has held its annual International Public Arts Festival (IPAF), despite the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing measures. Turnout was low but those attending welcomed the street festival, held Feb. 10-14, as a chance to get out of the house.Scores of people attended the IPAF’s opening in Cape Town this month – even though South Africa has been the country worst hit on the African continent by the coronavirus pandemic.The annual street arts festival strictly followed the government’s COVID-19 rules, including no groups larger than 50 people – said one of the organizers, Alexandre Tilmas.“The best way was to split people. Because we are painting outdoors, and the artists are outdoors, every guest that want[s] to visit us, we put them in tiny little groups and send them [to] visit the neighborhood.”The artists changed the landscape in the Salt River neighborhood, a former industrial area made famous by the colorful murals.The five-year-old festival usually attracts artists from abroad.But this year, because of the pandemic’s travel restrictions, just two showed up to create their murals.Despite the low turnout, festivals like the IPAF should be held to boost South Africa’s struggling tourism sector, said tour guide Analisa Zigana.“You know, you need to sanitize, we need to keep our social distance. If we keep to those regulations, then I think it’s still okay. So, we can continue with the festivals but, just make sure that we keep to the regulations, Zigana said.The World Travel Awards has voted Cape Town Africa’s leading festival and event destination for the last three years.But the tourism sector also is suffering amid the pandemic and Cape Town cancelled all big events again this year.Nonetheless, festival attendees like Laeti Maboang welcomed the break from pandemic lockdown measures aimed at preventing the virus from spreading.“The fact that it’s still happening even [when] the pandemic is still going on. And I feel like we are in need of this, we are in need of being out, interacting with people; even we have the mask,” Maboang said.South Africa a year ago enacted one of the severest lockdowns worldwide, with restrictions on gatherings, movement, and sales of alcohol.The country has registered the highest number of confirmed cases on the continent with nearly 1.5 million infections and more than 48,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. COVID-19 is the illness caused by the coronavirus.This year’s festival displayed more than 100 murals and focused on three points: creativity, sustainability and safety.
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Month: February 2021
Artworks owned by the late artist Christo and his wife, Jean-Claude, a duo famed for wrapping landmarks in fabric, sold for $9.6 million at auction on Wednesday.The 28 lots under the hammer at Sotheby’s in Paris included drawings for the couple’s “The Umbrellas (Joint project for Japan and USA),” two spectacular installations by the couple in 1991 consisting of thousands of umbrellas erected simultaneously in Japan and Los Angeles.Less than a year after his death at the age of 84, Christo is evidently more in demand than ever, with more than three quarters of the works on sale selling above estimate.The works, snapped up by buyers in the United States, Asia and Europe, had been expected to sell for between $3 million and $4.5 million collectively.The preparatory drawings for the yellow Californian umbrellas set a new record for a work by the Bulgarian-born U.S. artist at $2 million, while the Japanese version sold for about $1.4 million.A second set of works from the couple’s private collection are due to go on sale Thursday.Christo collaborated with Jeanne-Claude, his wife of 51 years, until her death in 2009 and continued to produce dramatic pieces into his 80s.From Paris’s oldest bridge to Berlin’s Reichstag, they spent decades wrapping landmarks and creating improbable structures around the world.Their large-scale productions would take years of preparation and were costly to erect, but they were mostly ephemeral, coming down after just weeks or months.
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Facebook announced Thursday it has blocked Australians from viewing and sharing news on the platform because of proposed laws in the country to make digital giants pay for journalism.Australian publishers can continue to publish news content on Facebook, but links and posts can’t be viewed or shared by Australian audiences, the U.S.-based company said in a statement.Australian users cannot share Australian or international news.International users outside Australia also cannot share Australian news.”The proposed law fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content,” Facebook regional managing director William Easton said.”It has left us facing a stark choice: attempt to comply with a law that ignores the realities of this relationship or stop allowing news content on our services in Australia. With a heavy heart, we are choosing the latter,” Easton added.The announcement comes a day after Treasurer Josh Frydenberg described as “very promising” negotiations between Facebook and Google with Australian media companies.Frydenberg said after weekend talks with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google, he was convinced that the platforms “do want to enter into these commercial arrangements.”Frydenberg said he had had a “a constructive discussion” with Zuckerberg after Facebook blocked Australian news.”He raised a few remaining issues with the Government’s news media bargaining code and we agreed to continue our conversation to try to find a pathway forward,” Frydenberg tweeted.But communications Minister Paul Fletcher said the government would not back down on its legislative agenda.”This announcement from Facebook, if they were to maintain this position, of course would call into question the credibility of the platform in terms of the news on it,” Fletcher told Australian Broadcasting Corp.”Effectively Facebook is saying to Australians, ‘Information that you see on our platforms does not come from organizations that have editorial policies or fact-checking processes or journalists who are paid to do the work they do,’” Fletcher added.The Australian Parliament is debating proposed laws that would make the two platforms strike deals to pay for Australian news.The Senate will consider the draft laws after they were passed by the House of Representatives late Wednesday.Both platforms have condemned the proposed laws as unworkable. Google has also threatened to remove its search engine from the country.But Google is striking pay deals with Australian news media companies under its own News Showcase model.Seven West Media on Monday became the largest Australian news media business to strike a deal with Google to pay for journalism.Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. has since announced a wide-ranging deal.Rival Nine Entertainment is reportedly close to its own pact and ABC is also in negotiations.News plays a larger part in Google’s business model than it does in Facebook’s.Easton said the public would ask why the platforms were responding differently to the proposed law that would create an arbitration panel to set a price for news in cases where the platforms and news businesses failed to agree.”The answer is because our platforms have fundamentally different relationships with news,” Easton said.Peter Lewis, director of the Australia Institute’s Center for Responsible Technology think tank, said Facebook’s decision “will make it a weaker social network.””Facebook actions mean the company’s failures in privacy, disinformation, and data protection will require a bigger push for stronger government regulation,” Lewis said. “Without fact-based news to anchor it, Facebook will become little more than cute cats and conspiracy theories.”
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The U.S. Justice Department has indicted three North Korean computer programmers for trying to extort and steal more than $1.3 billion as part of a global cyber scheme that included the 2014 hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment.A Canadian American who allegedly laundered some of the stolen money also pleaded guilty in the scheme.North Koreans Park Jin Hyok, Jon Chang Hyok and Kim Il are charged with criminal conspiracy, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud.Park, a computer programmer for North Korea’s intelligence service, was charged two years ago for his role in the Sony hack.That hack erased corporate data, obtained sensitive company emails among top Hollywood executives and forced the company to rebuild its entire computer network.The motivation for the hack was believed to be retaliation for the 2014 movie “The Interview,” which ridiculed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and even portrayed an assassination plot against him.As part of the scheme, the Justice Department said, the three plotted to steal more than $1.2 billion from banks in Vietnam, Mexico, Malta and other places. They also stole $75 million from a Slovenian cryptocurrency company and $11.8 million of digital currency from a New York financial services company.”The scope of the criminal conduct by the North Korean hackers was extensive and long-running, and the range of crimes they have committed is staggering,” Tracy L. Wilkison, acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement. “The conduct detailed in the indictment are the acts of a criminal nation-state that has stopped at nothing to extract revenge and obtain money to prop up its regime.”The three are also believed to have been behind the 2017 WannaCry 2.0 ransomware attack, which affected computers in 150 countries and most notably crippled the computer network of Britain’s National Health Service.The three North Koreans are unlikely to ever appear in a U.S. courtroom.
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The U.N. secretary-general called on the world’s largest economies Wednesday to create a task force to plan and coordinate a global COVID-19 vaccination plan. “The world urgently needs a global vaccination plan to bring together all those with the required power, scientific expertise and production and financial capacities,” Antonio Guterres told a high-level virtual meeting of the U.N. Security Council on the global vaccine rollout. “I believe the G-20 is well-placed to establish an emergency task force to prepare such a global vaccination plan and coordinate its implementation and financing.” He said the task force should include the World Health Organization (WHO), the global vaccine alliance Gavi, international financial institutions, as well as the international vaccine alliance COVAX, and all countries that have the capacity to develop vaccines or produce them if licenses are available. “The task force would have the capacity to mobilize the pharmaceutical companies and key industry and logistics actors,” Guterres added. Leaders of the G-7 are holding a virtual summit this Friday, and Guterres said they could use that session to create momentum to mobilize the necessary financial resources. “The rollout of COVID-19 vaccines is generating hope,” he noted, but warned that people affected by conflict and insecurity are at risk of being left behind. US to pay WHO U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made his international debut at the online meeting. He said the Biden administration will work with partners to expand COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing and distribution capacity, and increase access, including to marginalized populations. He also said Washington would pay over $200 million in assessed and current obligations to WHO by the end this month. Funding stopped to the organization last year under the Trump administration, which did not like how WHO handled the coronavirus pandemic. “This is a key step forward in fulfilling our financial obligations as a WHO member,” Blinken said. “It reflects our renewed commitment to ensuring the WHO has the support it needs to lead the global response to the pandemic, even as we work to reform it for the future.” India to vaccinate UN peacekeepers Security Council member India, which is a major pharmaceutical manufacturer and is currently producing two vaccines, one of which it developed, announced it would contribute 200,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to the U.N. peacekeeping division to inoculate their troops and police. The United Nations has about 95,000 peacekeepers, which means double doses could be available to all of them. Britain presides over the 15-nation Security Council this month and organized Wednesday’s session, which drew nine foreign ministers and one prime minister. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called for a U.N. Security Council resolution to facilitate COVID-19 vaccines to millions of people in conflict areas. “Local cease-fires are going to be essential to enable lifesaving vaccinations to take place, and they are essential to protect the brave health workers and humanitarian workers working in incredibly challenging conditions in conflict zones,” Raab said. He said that more than 160 million people are at risk of not receiving COVID-19 vaccinations because of instability and conflict in places including Yemen, Syria, South Sudan and Ethiopia. In July, after three months of negotiations, the council adopted a resolution supporting the U.N. secretary-general’s global cease-fire to assist international containment efforts. It was not immediately clear Wednesday whether the British proposal for smaller cease-fires would have the council’s full support. China’s foreign minister also participated. Beijing has been the subject of some international criticism for its handling of the coronavirus and for a lack of transparency about its origin in the city of Wuhan. “We need to resist prejudice, respect science and reject disinformation and attempts to politicize the pandemic,” Wang Yi said. “In this regard, members of the Security Council should lead by example.” He also said China would help realize vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries. “At the request of the WHO, China has decided preliminarily to donate 10 million doses of Chinese vaccine to help developing countries,” he announced. The U.N. says progress on vaccinations has been extremely uneven and unfair, with just 10 countries having administered 75% of all COVID-19 vaccines, while more than 130 countries have not received a single dose.
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Rush Limbaugh, the talk radio host who ripped into liberals, foretold the rise of Donald Trump and laid waste to political correctness with a merry brand of malice that made him one of the most powerful voices on the American right, died Wednesday. He was 70.
Limbaugh, an outspoken lover of cigars, had been diagnosed with lung cancer. His death was announced on his website.
President Trump, during a State of the Union speech, awarded Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Unflinchingly conservative, wildly partisan, bombastically self-promoting and larger than life, Limbaugh galvanized listeners for more than 30 years with his talent for vituperation and sarcasm.
He called himself an entertainer, but his rants during his three-hour weekday radio show broadcast on nearly 600 U.S. stations shaped the national political conversation, swaying ordinary Republicans and the direction of their party.
Blessed with a made-for-broadcasting voice, he delivered his opinions with such certainty that his followers, or “Ditto-heads,” as he dubbed them, took his words as sacred truth.
“In my heart and soul, I know I have become the intellectual engine of the conservative movement,” Limbaugh, with typical immodesty, told author Zev Chafets in the 2010 book “Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One.”
Forbes magazine estimated his 2018 income at $84 million, ranking him behind only Howard Stern among radio personalities.
Limbaugh took as a badge of honor the title “most dangerous man in America.” He said he was the “truth detector,” the “doctor of democracy,” a “lover of mankind,” a “harmless, lovable little fuzz ball” and an “all-around good guy.” He claimed he had “talent on loan from God.”
Long before Trump’s rise in politics, Limbaugh was pinning insulting names on his enemies and raging against the mainstream media, accusing it of feeding the public lies. He called Democrats and others on the left communists, wackos, feminazis, liberal extremists, faggots and radicals.
When actor Michael J. Fox, suffering from Parkinson’s disease, appeared in a Democratic campaign commercial, Limbaugh mocked his tremors. When a Washington advocate for the homeless killed himself, he cracked jokes. As the AIDS epidemic raged in the 1980s, he made the dying a punchline. He called 12-year-old Chelsea Clinton a dog.
He suggested that the Democrats’ stand on reproductive rights would have led to the abortion of Jesus Christ. When a woman accused Duke University lacrosse players of rape, he derided her as a “ho,” and when a Georgetown University law student supported expanded contraceptive coverage, he dismissed her as a “slut.” When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, Limbaugh said: “I hope he fails.”
He was frequently accused of bigotry and blatant racism for such antics as playing the song “Barack the Magic Negro” on his show. The lyrics, set to the tune of “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” describe Obama as someone who “makes guilty whites feel good” and is “black, but not authentically.”
Limbaugh often enunciated the Republican platform better and more entertainingly than any party leader, becoming a GOP kingmaker whose endorsement and friendship were sought. Polls consistently found he was regarded as the voice of the party.
His idol, Ronald Reagan, wrote a letter of praise that Limbaugh proudly read on the air in 1992: “You’ve become the number one voice for conservatism.” In 1994, Limbaugh was so widely credited with the first Republican takeover of Congress in 40 years that the GOP made him an honorary member of the new class.
During the 2016 presidential primaries, Limbaugh said he realized early on that Trump would be the nominee, and he likened the candidate’s deep connection with his supporters to his own. In a 2018 interview, he conceded Trump is rude but said that is because he is “fearless and willing to fight against the things that no Republican has been willing to fight against.”
Trump, for his part, heaped praise on Limbaugh, and they golfed together. (The president’s Mar-a-Lago estate is eight miles down the same Palm Beach boulevard as Limbaugh’s $40 million beachfront expanse.) In honoring Limbaugh at the State of the Union, Trump called his friend “a special man beloved by millions.”
Limbaugh influenced the likes of Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly and countless other conservative commentators who pushed the boundaries of what passes as acceptable public discourse.
His brand of blunt, no-gray-area debate spread to cable TV, town hall meetings, political rallies and Congress itself, emerging during the battles over health care and the ascent of the tea party movement.
“What he did was to bring a paranoia and really mean, nasty rhetoric and hyperpartisanship into the mainstream,” said Martin Kaplan, a University of Southern California professor who is an expert on the intersection of politics and entertainment and a frequent critic of Limbaugh. “The kind of antagonism and vituperativeness that characterized him instantly became acceptable everywhere.”
In one breathless segment in 1991, he railed against the homeless, AIDS patients, criticism of Christopher Columbus, aid to the Soviet Union, condoms in schools, animal rights advocates, multiculturalism and the social safety net.
His foes accused him of trafficking in half-truths, bias and outright lies — the very tactics he decried in others. Al Franken, the comedian and one-time senator, came out with a book in 1996 called “Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations.”
In 2003, Limbaugh admitted an addiction to painkillers and went into rehab. Authorities opened an investigation into alleged “doctor shopping,” saying he received up to 2,000 pills from four doctors over six months.
He ultimately reached a deal with prosecutors in which they agreed to drop the charge if he continued with drug treatment and paid $30,000 toward the cost of the investigation.
He lost his hearing around that time. He said it was from an autoimmune disorder, while his critics said hearing loss is a known side effect of painkiller abuse. He received cochlear implants, which restored his hearing and saved his career.
A portly, round-faced figure, Limbaugh was divorced three times, after marrying Roxy Maxine McNeely in 1977, Michelle Sixta in 1983 and Marta Fitzgerald in 1994. He married his fourth wife, Kathryn Rogers, in a lavish 2010 ceremony featuring Elton John. He had no children.
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III was born Jan. 12, 1951, in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. His mother was the former Mildred Armstrong, and his father, Rush Limbaugh Jr., was a lawyer.
Rusty, as the younger Limbaugh was known, was chubby and shy, with little interest in school but a passion for broadcasting. He would turn down the radio during St. Louis Cardinals baseball games, offering play-by-play, and gave running commentary during the evening news. By high school, he had snagged a radio job.
Limbaugh dropped out of Southeast Missouri State University for a string of DJ gigs, from his hometown, to McKeesport, Pennsylvania, to Pittsburgh and then Kansas City. Known as Rusty Sharpe and then Jeff Christie on the air, he mostly spun Top 40 hits and sprinkled in glimpses of his wit and conservatism.
“One of the early reasons radio interested me was that I thought it would make me popular,” he once wrote.
But he didn’t gain the following he craved and gave up on radio for several years, beginning in 1979, becoming promotions director for baseball’s Kansas City Royals. He ultimately returned to broadcasting, again in Kansas City and then Sacramento, California.
It was there in the early 1980s that Limbaugh really garnered an audience, broadcasting shows dripping with sarcasm and bravado. The stage name was gone.
Limbaugh began broadcasting nationally in 1988 from WABC in New York. While his know-it-all commentary quickly gained traction, he was dismayed by his reception in the big city. He thought he would be welcomed by Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather.
“I came to New York,” he wrote, “and I immediately became a nothing, a zero.”
Ultimately, Limbaugh moved his radio show to Palm Beach and bought his massive estate. Talkers Magazine, which covers the industry, said Limbaugh had the nation’s largest audience in 2019, with 15 million unique listeners each week.
“When Rush wants to talk to America, all he has to do is grab his microphone. He attracts more listeners with just his voice than the rest of us could ever imagine,” Beck wrote in Time magazine in 2009. “He is simply on another level.”
Limbaugh expounded on his world view in the best-selling books “The Way Things Ought to Be” and “See, I Told You So.”
He had a late-night TV show in the 1990s that got decent ratings but lackluster advertising because of his divisive message. When he guest-hosted “The Pat Sajak Show” in 1990, audience members called him a Nazi and repeatedly shouted at him.
He was fired from a short-lived job as an NFL commentator on ESPN in 2003 after he said the media had made a star out of Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb because it was “very desirous that a black quarterback do well.” His racial remarks also derailed a 2009 bid to become one of the owners of the NFL’s St. Louis Rams.
“Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and just think to yourself, `I am just full of hot gas?'” David Letterman asked him in 1993 on “The Late Show.”
“I am a servant of humanity,” Limbaugh replied. “I am in the relentless pursuit of the truth. I actually sit back and think that I’m just so fortunate to have this opportunity to tell people what’s really going on.”
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German Health Minister Jens Spahn said Wednesday the so-called British variant of COVID-19 is spreading quickly in his country, now accounting for more than 20 percent of all tested cases, and nearly four times the rate of two weeks earlier. Speaking to reporters in Berlin, Spahn said that rate of spread indicates the variant virus strain, first identified in Britain, roughly doubles each week, as has been seen in other countries where it has been found. He said he expects it will soon become the dominant strain found in Germany. FILE – German Health Minister Jens Spahn speaks at the lower house of parliament Bundestag on the start of the coronavirus vaccinations, in Berlin, Germany, Jan. 13, 2021.Spahn said the good news is that overall, the number of new infections is decreasing, a sign that preventive measures, including the current lockdown, are working. He said German health officials will have to be exceptionally careful regarding the British strain when the country starts to ease restrictions.
Spahn said he expects Germany’s vaccination program to “significantly pick up speed” in the next several days. He said vaccination centers are becoming more efficient, and by the end of next week, they should have delivered 10 million additional doses.The health minister urged all those whose turn it is to receive the vaccine do so as soon as possible, so the largest number of people can be protected. He also sought to reassure those reluctant to get vaccinated because of safety concerns.”If a vaccine is approved by the European Union following a rigorous approval process, then it is safe and effective,” he said. Spahn said those who wait also make the situation worse for everyone.”Reason dictates that people should get vaccinated in a pandemic and those who wait risk a serious illness and spreading the virus,” he said.
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Japan began its long-awaited coronavirus vaccination program Wednesday. The first shots took place at a Tokyo hospital just hours after the hospital received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. As many as 40,000 doctors and nurses across the nation will receive the first doses of the vaccine, with the eventual goal of inoculating a total of 3.7 million medical personnel by March, followed by about 36 million citizens 65 years of age and older. Japan’s vaccination program is off to a slow start, with health authorities only formally approving use of the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech drug on Sunday. Officials asked Pfizer to carry out further tests on the vaccine in addition to earlier tests that had been conducted in several other countries. Taro Kono, the country’s vaccine minister, told reporters Tuesday the additional testing was conducted to reassure the Japanese people of its safety. Vaccinations are not compulsory in Japan, and while Kono voiced confidence he could reach front-line workers and elderly people, he acknowledged he needed to formulate a plan for successfully reaching younger people and encourage them to get the shot.A medical worker fills a syringe with a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine as Japan launches its inoculation campaign, at Tokyo Medical Center in Tokyo, Feb. 17, 2021.Along with Pfizer-BioNTech, Japan has also signed contracts to procure millions of doses of the vaccine from AstraZeneca and Moderna, enough in all for 157 million people. The country is hoping to get enough people vaccinated in time for the postponed Tokyo Summer Olympic Games, which are scheduled to begin in July. Japan is the last member of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations to begin the shots. Meanwhile, about 80,000 doses of the new COVID-19 vaccine developed by U.S. drugmaker Johnson & Johnson arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa, late Tuesday night. The government will begin administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to health care workers later this week as part of an observational study. A total of 500,000 doses are expected to be shipped to South Africa within the next few weeks, along with another 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. South Africa had purchased 1 million doses of the two-shot vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, but abandoned plans to use the drug after a study revealed that the vaccine was less effective against a variant of the coronavirus found in the country. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told parliament Wednesday that South Africa will share the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine with the African Union, which will distribute it throughout the continent. The single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine has not been formally approved for use by any country, but the company says results of a late-stage clinical trial shows it is 85% effective in preventing serious illness or death from COVID-19, even against the South African variant. In the United States, President Joe Biden said Tuesday night the country will have more than 600 million doses of coronavirus vaccines, enough to inoculate “every single American” by the end of this July. Biden made the pledge during a question-and-answer session in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that was televised on cable news network CNN. When asked by moderator Anderson Cooper when the United States will return to normal, Biden said by next Christmas “we’ll be in a very different circumstance, God willing, than we are in today.” The White House announced earlier Tuesday that the federal government will increase the amount of COVID-19 vaccines that states receive each week from 11 million doses to 13.5 million doses. The president also said that states should prioritize public school teachers in their vaccination efforts as part of a strategy to reopen schools to full-time in-person classes.
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It’s as if the world has been turned upside-down, or at least its weather. You can blame the increasingly familiar polar vortex, which has brought a taste of the Arctic to places where winter often requires no more than a jacket. Around the North Pole, winter’s ultra-cold air is usually kept bottled up 15 to 30 miles high. That’s the polar vortex, which spins like a whirling top at the top of the planet. But occasionally something slams against the top, sending the cold air escaping from its Arctic home and heading south. It’s been happening more often, and scientists are still not completely sure why, but they suggest it’s a mix of natural random weather and human-caused climate change. This particular polar vortex breakdown has been a whopper. Meteorologists call it one of the biggest, nastiest and longest-lasting ones they’ve seen, and they’ve been watching since at least the 1950 s. This week’s weather is part of a pattern stretching back to January. “It’s been a major breakdown,” said Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center on Cape Cod. “It really is the cause of all of these crazy weather events in the Northern Hemisphere.” “It’s been unusual for a few weeks now — very, very crazy,” Francis said. “Totally topsy-turvy.” Record cold in warmer placesRecord subzero temperatures in Texas and Oklahoma knocked millions off the power grid and into deep freezes. A deadly tornado hit North Carolina. Other parts of the South saw thunder snow and reports of something that seemed like a snow tornado but wasn’t. Snow fell hard not just in Chicago, but in Greece and Turkey, where it’s far less normal. Record cold also hit Europe this winter, earning the name the “Beast from the East.” “We’ve had everything you could possibly think of in the past week,” said Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini, noting that parts of the U.S. have been 50 degrees (28 degrees Celsius) colder than normal. “It’s been a wild ride.”A man walks at Filopapos hill as snow falls, with the ancient Acropolis hill and the Parthenon temple, in background, Athens, on Feb. 16, 2021.It was warmer Tuesday in parts of Greenland, Alaska, Norway and Sweden than in Texas and Oklahoma. And somehow people in South Florida have been complaining about record warmth that is causing plants to bloom early. In the eastern Greenland town of Tasiilaq, it’s been about 18 degrees (10 degrees Celsius) warmer than normal, which “is a bit of a nuisance,” said Lars Rasmussen, a museum curator at the local cultural center. “The warm weather makes dog sledding and driving on snow scooters a bit of a hassle.” Several meteorologists squarely blamed the polar vortex breakdown or disruption. These used to happen once every other year or so, but research shows they are now close to happening yearly, if not more, said Judah Cohen, a winter storm expert for Atmospheric Environmental Research, a commercial firm outside of Boston. The spinning top gets toppledThe polar vortex spends winter in its normal place until an atmospheric wave — the type that brings weather patterns here and there — slams into it. Normally such waves don’t do much to the strong vortex, but occasionally the wave has enough energy to push the spinning top over, and that’s when the frigid air breaks loose, Gensini said. Sometimes, the cold air mass splits into chunks — an event that usually is connected to big snowstorms in the U.S. East, like a few weeks ago. Other times, it just moves to a new place, which often means bitter cold in parts of Europe. This time it did both, Cohen said. There was a split of the vortex in early January and another in mid-January. Then at the end of January came the displacement that caused cold air to spill into Europe and much of the United States, Cohen said. Both Cohen and Francis said this should be considered not one but three polar vortex disruptions, though some scientists lump it all together. While both the vortex and the wave that bumped it are natural, and polar vortex breakdowns happen naturally, there is likely an element of climate change at work, but it is not a sure thing that science agrees on, Cohen, Gensini and Francis said. Warming in the Arctic, with shrinking sea ice, is goosing the atmospheric wave in two places, giving it more energy when it strikes the polar vortex, making it more likely to disrupt the vortex, Cohen said. “There is evidence that climate change can weaken the polar vortex, which allows more chances for frigid Arctic air to ooze into the Lower 48,” said University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd. Pattern has been observed for decadesThere were strong polar vortex disruptions and cold outbreaks like this in the 1980s, Cohen said. “I think it’s historic and generational,” Cohen said. “I don’t think it’s unprecedented. This Arctic outbreak has to be thought of in context. The globe is much warmer than it used to be.” It also feels colder because just before the outbreak, much of the United States was experiencing a milder-than-normal winter, with the ground not even frozen on Christmas Day in Chicago, Gensini said. The globe as a whole is about the same temperature as the average was from 1979 to 2000 for this time of year, according to the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer. That’s still warmer than the 20th-century average, and scientists don’t think that this month has much of a chance to be colder than the 20th century average for the globe, something that hasn’t happened since the early 1980s. One reason is that it will soon warm back up to normal when the polar vortex returns to its regular home, Cohen said. As for people thinking this cold outbreak disproves global warming, scientists say that’s definitely not so. Even with climate change, “we’ll still have winter,” said North Carolina state climatologist Kathie Dello. “What we’re seeing here is we’re pretty unprepared for almost every type of extreme weather. It’s pretty sad.”
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Yoshiro Mori’s replacement as president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee is expected to be named very quickly. The 83-year-old former prime minister was forced to step down last week after making demeaning remarks about women. Basically, he said they talk too much.There is pressure to name a woman to replace Mori. But don’t bet on it happening with the Olympics opening in just over five months. Mori tried last week to work behind the scenes to appoint 84-year-old Saburo Kawabuchi, the former head of the governing body of Japanese soccer. Public opinion and social media quickly pushed back against the move and Kawabuchi withdrew from consideration. Some news reports in Japan say the front-runner might be 63-year-old Yasuhiro Yamashita, the head of the Japanese Olympic Committee and a judo gold medalist from the 1984 Olympics. Yamashita took over the Japanese Olympic body after his predecessor, Tsunekazu Takeda, was forced to step down in 2019 in a bribery scandal. Yamashita is also a member of the International Olympic Committee by virtue of his position in Japan. A panel to pick Mori’s replacement, set up by the organizing committee, met on Tuesday. It was expected to meet again Wednesday and come up with a list of candidates. It’s unclear when the choice will be announced. The panel is headed by 85-year-old Fujio Mitarai, the chairman of the camera company Canon. Organizers have promised transparency. However, except for Mitarai, the other members have not been announced. It is to be a 50-50 split of men and women with fewer than 10 members. Q: Have qualified women been mentioned for the job? A: Media in Japan have listed almost a dozen women — most in their 50s — that seem to fit the bill. Many are former Olympians and medal winners. Japan ranks 121st out of 153 in terms of gender equality in a report done by the World Economic Forum, and the “old boy network” remains stronger in Japan than in most developed countries. Q: Who are the female possibilities? A: Seiko Hashimoto, the current Olympic minister in the government of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, has been mentioned frequently. She won a bronze medal in speedskating in 1992. Reports Tuesday said she was reluctant to take the job. There are many other Olympic medal winners, but it’s not clear any will be interested: Yuko Arimori (silver 1992, bronze 1996, marathon); Mikako Kotani (2 bronze 1988, synchronized swimming); Naoko Takahashi (gold 2000, marathon); Yuko Mitsuya (bronze 1984, volleyball); Kaori Yamaguchi (bronze 1988, judo). Also mentioned has been former Olympic minister Tamayo Marukawa and businesswoman Tomoko Namba. In addition to Yamashita, some men have also been mentioned. They include former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Olympic gold-medal swimmer Daichi Suzuki, and Koji Murofushi, who won gold and bronze in the hammer throw. Q: Did Mori’s comments do any real damage to the Olympics? A: In terms of operation, probably not. Mori surely helped work out many of the political deals to push through funding. Official costs are now $15.4 billion, though government audit suggests it might be twice that much. But now the postponed Olympics are in the hands of the pandemic. But the reputation of Japan and the Olympics took a hit. The International Olympic Committee has bragged about the strides in has made in gender equality over the past two decades — on the field and on its boards. Japan, not so much. This has not helped public opinion. Just over 80% in polls in Japan say the Olympics should be canceled or postponed again. “Japan is still governed by a club of old men.” Koichi Nakano, a politicial scientist at Sophia University, wrote in an email. “They continue to pick these old men in order to silence possible dissent and to continue to put women ‘in their place.’ Social norms are changing, though, and a clear majority of the Japanese found Mori’s comments unacceptable.” Q: How is the gender balance in the Tokyo organizing committee? A: Not good. The executive board and council met on Friday to accept Mori’s resignation. Of the 38 members of the executive board, eight are women (21%). None of the vice presidents is a woman. Of the six council members, one is a woman (16.7%). The day-to-day leadership is also almost all male, led by 77-year-old Toshiro Muto, the CEO and former deputy governor of the Bank of Japan.
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Black Americans attend church more regularly than Americans overall, and pray more often. Most attend churches that are predominantly Black, yet many would like those congregations to become racially diverse. There is broad respect for Black churches’ historical role in seeking racial equality, coupled with a widespread perception they have lost influence in recent decades. Those are among the key findings in a comprehensive report released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center, which surveyed 8,660 Black adults across the United States about their religious experiences. It is Pew’s first large-scale survey on the topic. Among Black adults who go to religious services, 60% attend churches where the senior clergy and most or all of the congregation are Black, Pew found. It said 25% are part of multiracial congregations, and 13% are part of congregations that are predominantly white or another ethnicity. Pew said patterns of worship are shifting across generations: Younger Black adults, born since 1980, attend church less often than their elders, and those who attend are less likely to do so in a predominantly Black congregation. FILE – Church parishioners sit socially distanced at a prayer vigil for racial justice at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Seattle, July 19, 2020.Among 30 Black pastors and religious leaders interviewed by Pew, some predicted further shrinkage of predominantly Black churches and an increase in multiracial congregations. “I don’t think there should be a Black Church,” said Dr. Clyde Posley Jr. of Antioch Baptist Church in Indianapolis. “There isn’t a Black heaven and a white heaven. … A proper church will one day eschew the label of Black Church and be a universal church.” The survey found that 66% of Black Americans are Protestant, 6% are Catholic and 3% identify with other Christian faiths — mostly Jehovah’s Witnesses. Another 3% belong to Islam or other non-Christian faiths. Some 21% are not affiliated with any religion and instead identify as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.” Black Americans born since 1980 are far more likely to be among the unaffiliated. Survey responses were collected from November 2019 through June 2020, but most respondents completed the survey by Feb. 10, 2020, before the coronavirus outbreak and the racial-injustice protests that spread after the death of George Floyd in May while in the custody of Minneapolis police. Among the respondents, 77% said predominantly Black churches had played a role in helping Black people move toward racial equality. Yet just one third said historically Black congregations should preserve their traditional character; 61% said these congregations should become more racially diverse. Influence of churchesNearly half of respondents said Black churches are less influential today than 50 years ago. Among the clergy interviewed by Pew, some said too few Black pastors have been on the front lines of recent struggles against racism. “When you look at Black Lives Matter, this is the first time that there has been any political uprising and the church isn’t spearheading it,” said the Rev. Harvey L. Vaughn III, senior pastor of Bethel AME Church in San Diego. FILE – Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church, and his wife, Vera McKissic, pray during services in Arlington, Texas, June 7, 2020.”We’re not as bold and courageous as we used to be,” said the Rev. Sandra Reed of St. Mark AME Zion Church in Newtown, Pennsylvania. “I have to say, I’m somewhat ashamed of that, because the AME Zion Church is known as the Freedom Church that was at the forefront of addressing all the ills of America, and we sort of lost that.” The survey indicates that congregants at Black Protestant churches are more likely to hear preaching about race relations and criminal justice reform than those attending multiracial or white churches. Black Protestants, meanwhile, are less likely than U.S. Protestants overall to hear sermons on abortion. Pew found 68% of Black adults said abortion should be allowed in most or all cases — compared with 59% of all U.S. adults. Pew also posed some survey questions to 4,574 Americans who do not identify as Black, to provide comparisons. Asked whether religion is very important in their lives, 59% of Black respondents said yes, next to 40% of all U.S. adults. Asked if they prayed daily, 63% of Black respondents said yes, compared with 44% overall. Women as leadersAccording to a recent national study cited by Pew, women make up only 16% of religious leaders at Black Protestant churches. Pew’s survey found that 85% of respondents favored allowing women to serve as senior leaders of congregations, however. Pew said the survey’s margin of error, for the full number of respondents, was plus or minus 1.5 percentage points. Black pastors and worshippers in predominantly white or multiracial denominations, face a number of contemporary race-related issues. FILE – Parishioners clap during a worship service at the First Baptist Church, a predominantly African-American congregation, in Macon, Ga., July 10, 2016.Some Black pastors have left the predominantly white Southern Baptist Convention in dismay over decisions by white leaders that they view as downplaying the problem of systemic racism. In the Episcopal Church and some other mainline Protestant denominations, there are reparations initiatives aimed at making amends for past involvement in slavery and the mistreatment of Black and Indigenous people. And many Black Catholics have urged leaders of their church to be more forceful in combating racism. Some have asked the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to consider reparations and promote the teaching of Black Catholic history in Catholic schools. “We still don’t have the church taking a necessary stand against systemic racism,” Tia Noelle Pratt, a sociologist who has studied racism in the U.S. Catholic church and an adviser on Pew’s survey, told The Associated Press via email. “This means acknowledging the white supremacy that exists in the church and ways white church leaders and white members of the faithful benefit from it.” The Rev. Mario Powell, a Black priest who heads a Jesuit middle school in Brooklyn, said Catholic clergy need to preach more often against racism and speak out against some of their colleagues “who brazenly post white nationalist ideology online.”
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Sixty-six million years ago, a huge celestial object struck off the coast of what is now Mexico, triggering a catastrophic “impact winter” that eventually wiped out three-quarters of life on Earth, including the dinosaurs. A pair of astronomers at Harvard say they have now resolved long-standing mysteries surrounding the nature and origin of the “Chicxulub impactor.” Their analysis suggests it was a comet that originated in a region of icy debris on the edge of the solar system, that Jupiter was responsible for it crashing into our planet, and that we can expect similar impacts every 250 million to 750 million years. The duo’s paper, published in the journal Scientific Reports this week, pushes back against an older theory that claims the object was a fragment of an asteroid that came from our solar system’s Main Belt. “Jupiter is so important because it’s the most massive planet in our solar system,” lead author Amir Siraj told AFP. Jupiter ends up acting as a kind of “pinball machine” that “kicks these incoming long-period comets into orbits that bring them very close to the sun.” So-called “long-period comets” come from the Oort cloud, thought to be a giant spherical shell surrounding the solar system like a bubble that is made of icy pieces of debris the size of mountains or larger. The long-period comets take about 200 years to orbit the sun and are also called sungrazers because of how close they pass. Because they come from the deep freeze of the outer solar system, comets are icier than asteroids, and are known for the stunning gas and dust trails that they produce as they melt. But, said Siraj, the evaporative impact of the sun’s heat on sungrazers is nothing compared to the massive tidal forces they experience when one side faces our star. “As a result, these comets experience such a large tidal force that the most massive of them would shatter into about a thousand fragments, each of those fragments large enough to produce a Chicxulub-size impactor, or dinosaur-killing event on Earth.” Siraj and co-author Avi Loeb, a professor of science, developed a statistical model that showed the probability that long-period comets would hit Earth that is consistent with the age of Chicxulub and other known impactors. The previous theory about the object being an asteroid produces an expected rate of such events that was off by a factor of about 10 compared to what has been observed, Loeb told AFP. ‘A beautiful sight’ Another line of evidence in favor of the comet origin is the composition of Chicxulub — only about a tenth of all asteroids from the Main Belt, which lies between Mars and Jupiter, are made up of carbonaceous chondrite, while most comets have it. Evidence suggests the Chicxulub crater and other similar craters, such as the Vredefort crater in South Africa that was struck about two billion years ago, and the million-year-old Zhamanshin crater in Kazakhstan, all had carbonaceous chondrite. The hypothesis can be tested by further studying these craters, ones on the moon, or even by sending out space probes to take samples from comets. “It must have been a beautiful sight to see this rock approaching 66 million years ago, that was larger than the length of Manhattan Island,” said Loeb, “though ideally, we’d like to learn to track such objects and devise ways to deflect them, if necessary.” Loeb added he was excited by the prospect of the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile becoming operational next year. The telescope might be able to see tidal disruption of long-period comets “and will be extremely important in making forecasts for definitely the next 100 years, to know if anything bad could happen to us,” he said. Though Siraj and Loeb calculated Chicxulub-like impactors would occur once every few hundreds of millions of years, “it’s a statistical thing,” said Loeb. “You say ‘on average; It’s every so often,’ but you never know when the next one will come.” “The best way to find out is to search the sky,” he concluded.
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“Our Big Chief told us he doesn’t want us out there this Mardi Gras because of COVID,” Aaron “Flagboy Giz” Hartley told VOA. “He said it wasn’t safe for our members or for the public watching us.”Until this year, Hartley took part in a festive New Orleans tradition dating back to the 1800s, the Mardi Gras Indian. In a unique intermingling of African American and Native American cultures, scores of Black paradegoers don colorful renditions of some elements of Native American garb.”There’s nothing like it in the world,” said Hartley.February 16 is Fat Tuesday, which literally translates to “Mardi Gras.” For Catholics in many parts of the world, the day represents one final celebration before the more solemn six-week period known as Lent.A festively-dressed dinosaurs greets visitors at this home in New Orleans. (Matt Haines/VOA)Perhaps no place in the world celebrates the day more raucously than New Orleans. In a normal year, you’d find Mardi Gras Indians like Hartley with their elaborate suits made of beads, feathers and sequins. You’d find colorful, thematic floats the size of small buildings rumbling down oak-lined avenues as masked “Krewe” members toss beads, cups, decorative coins (and just about everything else you can or can’t imagine) to hundreds of thousands of screaming, costumed onlookers packed on the street.You’d see and hear dozens of marching bands high stepping behind the floats, and you’d be delighted by a smattering of dance krewes — comprised of members of all ages and skill levels — with playful and often sexually suggestive names.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put all of that on pause, to the sorrow of countless locals. “It’s the dopest [best] part of the richest culture in the culture in the country,” said Hartley. “We gotta do something. You can’t just cancel Mardi Gras.”Parades canceled On November 17, citing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans due to the coronavirus, New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell announced all parades in the city would be canceled. Last year’s Mardi Gras took place days before COVID-19 cases grabbed the public’s attention and those festivities are believed to have made New Orleans an early hotspot for the virus.This year, after several large gatherings on New Orleans’ famed Bourbon Street — fueled to some degree by visitors — the mayor announced she was also closing the city’s bars during one of their busiest times of the year.”I understand the decision,” said Cole Newton, owner of local bar Twelve Mile Limit. “People would have gotten sick and died, and no amount of temporary economic boost would have been worth it.”While New Orleanians acknowledge that holding Mardi Gras as usual could lead to a public health catastrophe, the economic hit is painful for service industry workers like bartender Kristin Boring. “It makes my stomach drop to lose more money,” Boring said. “But I understand it’s for the best. It’s just a tough situation.”A different kind of Mardi Gras “The thing about Mardi Gras is that it’s not put on by a single person or organization,” said New Orleans resident Laura Plante. “It’s organized by individual people. That’s what makes it special.”In the wake of the decision to cancel parades, residents almost immediately began proposing new, safer ways to celebrate.Megan Boudreaux, a 30-year-old insurance adjuster with no Mardi Gras leadership experience, was one of those people. A few days after the mayor announced the cancellation of parades, she tweeted a joke that if revelers weren’t allowed to ride floats and throw beads at stationary onlookers, she would just decorate her home like a float and throw beads at random passersby. What started as a joke has grown into a phenomenon. Approximately 3,000 homes — mostly in the New Orleans area, but with a few as far away as Saudi Arabia and Australia — have been decorated as Mardi Gras parade floats. The movement, called “Krewe of House Floats,” has transformed the city.”It went way beyond anything I imagined it could be months ago,” Boudreaux said, “and every time I think it’s peaked, a new house float pops up and becomes a new favorite.”Octopus tentacles burst through the windows of this New Orleans home. (Photo courtesy of Kristin Boring)Walking through the city’s many neighborhoods, onlookers will find everything from modest houses with Carnival float-themed flowers and beads, to mansions with massive octopus tentacles seemingly busting through the home’s many windows. Other houses in the liberal-leaning city are decorated with less-than-flattering images of former President Donald Trump, while others are focused on more fantastical elements — like swooping dragons or Harry Potter.When asked why so many have rallied behind the unusual idea instead of just waiting for next year’s Mardi Gras, Boudreaux pointed to the difficult year.”This holiday has meant so much to so many people for hundreds of years,” she said. “This year especially we’ve lost so much and so many people. I think folks were desperate for something positive to direct their energies toward. They yearned for some connection and house floats gave them that.” New traditions “New Orleanians take Mardi Gras fun seriously,” explained Chaya Conrad, owner of Bywater Bakery, where she makes some of the city’s most celebrated king cakes — a Mardi Gras confection with a several-thousand year history.”We all have our own role to play in Carnival,” she said, “and I think this year we’re creating new traditions for this unique moment that could be celebrated for years to come.”Some — like Devin De Wulf, founder of the Hire a Mardi Gras Artist initiative — are also working tirelessly to protect old traditions in danger because of the pandemic.”Every Mardi Gras parade you watch is the work of countless float makers, artists, costume designers and musicians,” De Wulf said. “We admire the parades, but we don’t think about who’s behind them. This year those people are out of work.”Through Hire a Mardi Gras Artist, he has raised more than $300,000 to pay 48 New Orleans artists to create 23 house floats. Mardi Gras artist Rene Pierre works on a piece of a house float, in New Orleans. (Photo courtesy of Rene Pierre)Rene Pierre is a Mardi Gras artist, too. He would typically begin working on floats 10 months before the parades and that work is an essential part of his income. But this year, because of the uncertainty around COVID-19, work was scarce.Because of initiatives like Hire a Mardi Gras Artist and Krewe of House Floats, though, Pierre said he has been commissioned to produce 64 house floats since December.”I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “Personally, it was my family’s ticket out of a really tough financial situation. And as a city, it restored our morale in a big way.” Coming home Laura Renae Steeg visits a New Orleans home decorated to honor local legend Big Freedia. (Photo courtesy of Laura Renae Steeg)That restoration of morale extends beyond those currently living in New Orleans. Laura Renae Steeg loves the region so much she named her daughter Magnolia after the Louisiana state flower.”I get a daily reminder of this place I love,” Steeg said.Her husband’s job moved the family to Maryland nearly a decade ago, but she has returned to New Orleans every year for Mardi Gras — except the year Magnolia was born.Steeg had planned to skip the trip this year until tragedy struck. Her father unexpectedly passed away in January.”It was a really dark time for me, and then I saw all of these house floats popping up in New Orleans,” she said. “This has been a dark year for a lot of people, and it reminded me that beauty can emerge during terrible times, too. I needed to see it.”Steeg created a travel plan to limit the risk to herself and others and drove 1,800 kilometers from Maryland to Louisiana. She visited a drive-thru parade of some of Mardi Gras’ most famous floats and someone threw beads into her car. The moment, the music and the people overwhelmed her and she broke down crying in her car. “It just struck me that, like this city, we’ve all been through so much. It’s been through hurricanes, pandemics and so much more — but it always perseveres just like it will this time. It just struck me that you can’t beat spirit as strong as Mardi Gras. New Orleanians won’t allow it.”
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The European Space Agency (ESA) said Tuesday it is recruiting new astronauts for the first time since 2008 and encouraging women and people with disabilities to apply.The announcement Tuesday came in a virtual news briefing that included ESA Director General Jan Worner and current agency astronauts. Worner said while ESA still has astronauts from the last selection process, it needs new astronauts to “secure a continuity” and ensure a smooth transfer of knowledge from one class to another.Worner said the agency is looking to add up to 26 permanent and reserve astronauts. And it is strongly encouraging women to apply, as well as people with disabilities to its roster to boost diversity among crews. The agency has launched a “parastronaut” program designed to examine what is needed to get disabled astronauts onto the International Space Station.ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti said if technology can allow other humans to work and thrive in space, it can do so for the disabled as well. “When it comes to space travel, we are all disabled. You know, we all have a disability because we were just not meant to be up there. So, what brings us from being, you know, disabled, to go to space to being able to go to space is technology.”Requirements for an astronaut job at ESA include a master’s degree in natural sciences, engineering, mathematics or computer science and three years of post-graduate experience. But the agency says it is looking for “all-arounders,” not specialists.The application process begins March 31 with all details available on the ESA website. The period will run until May 28 of this year with the outcome expected to be announced in October 2022.
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The World Health Organization and other aid agencies are moving quickly to try to gain control over a new outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Guinea. Guinea is one of three countries that was affected by the 2014 West African outbreak, the largest in history.The outbreak in Guinea was detected February 14, just one week after a new outbreak of Ebola was identified in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The two outbreaks are unrelated, but the World Health Organization says both face similar challenges and both can benefit from new treatments and recent experiences. The WHO reports seven family members who attended a burial ceremony in the town of Goueke, Guinea were infected with the virus and three have since died. WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris says 115 contacts have been identified and the majority have been traced. “We are confident with the experience and expertise built during the previous outbreak that the health team in Guinea are on the move to quickly trace the cause of the virus and curb further infections. But it certainly will be a big job. And WHO is supporting the Guinean authorities to set up testing, contact tracing, treatment structures and to bring the overall response to full speed,” said Harris.Harris says WHO offices in surrounding countries have been contacted and preparedness plans are being put in place. The 2014 West African Ebola outbreak began in Guinea and quickly spread to neighboring Sierra Leone and Liberia. By the time the epidemic ended in 2016, 28,000 people had been infected with the disease and more than 11,000 had died. Harris says many lessons have been learned from previous outbreaks to keep the virus from spreading. She says it is important to have a strategic response plan, get it into action early and to coordinate all aspects of the operation. “What is critical is decentralizing the operations to the lowest levels, making sure your operations are with the community now and that the community owns the operations — that your work is community centered and that you work with the community. A one size fits all approach to community engagement is not effective,” she said.Turning to the other Ebola outbreak, the World Health Organization has confirmed four cases, including two deaths in the city of Butembo in DRC’s North Kivu province. The WHO reports nearly 300 contacts have been identified and tracing is underway.
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“Our Big Chief told us he doesn’t want us out there this Mardi Gras because of COVID,” Aaron “Flagboy Giz” Hartley told VOA. “He said it wasn’t safe for our members or for the public watching us.”Until this year, Hartley took part in a festive New Orleans tradition dating back to the 1800s, the Mardi Gras Indian. In a unique intermingling of African American and Native American cultures, scores of Black paradegoers don colorful renditions of some elements of Native American garb.”There’s nothing like it in the world,” said Hartley.February 16 is Fat Tuesday, which literally translates to “Mardi Gras.” For Catholics in many parts of the world, the day represents one final celebration before the more solemn six-week period known as Lent.A festively-dressed dinosaurs greets visitors at this home in New Orleans. (Matt Haines/VOA)Perhaps no place in the world celebrates the day more raucously than New Orleans. In a normal year, you’d find Mardi Gras Indians like Hartley with their elaborate suits made of beads, feathers and sequins. You’d find colorful, thematic floats the size of small buildings rumbling down oak-lined avenues as masked “Krewe” members toss beads, cups, decorative coins (and just about everything else you can or can’t imagine) to hundreds of thousands of screaming, costumed onlookers packed on the street.You’d see and hear dozens of marching bands high stepping behind the floats, and you’d be delighted by a smattering of dance krewes — comprised of members of all ages and skill levels — with playful and often sexually suggestive names.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put all of that on pause, to the sorrow of countless locals. “It’s the dopest [best] part of the richest culture in the culture in the country,” said Hartley. “We gotta do something. You can’t just cancel Mardi Gras.”Parades canceled On November 17, citing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans due to the coronavirus, New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell announced all parades in the city would be canceled. Last year’s Mardi Gras took place days before COVID-19 cases grabbed the public’s attention and those festivities are believed to have made New Orleans an early hotspot for the virus.This year, after several large gatherings on New Orleans’ famed Bourbon Street — fueled to some degree by visitors — the mayor announced she was also closing the city’s bars during one of their busiest times of the year.”I understand the decision,” said Cole Newton, owner of local bar Twelve Mile Limit. “People would have gotten sick and died, and no amount of temporary economic boost would have been worth it.”While New Orleanians acknowledge that holding Mardi Gras as usual could lead to a public health catastrophe, the economic hit is painful for service industry workers like bartender Kristin Boring. “It makes my stomach drop to lose more money,” Boring said. “But I understand it’s for the best. It’s just a tough situation.”A different kind of Mardi Gras “The thing about Mardi Gras is that it’s not put on by a single person or organization,” said New Orleans resident Laura Plante. “It’s organized by individual people. That’s what makes it special.”In the wake of the decision to cancel parades, residents almost immediately began proposing new, safer ways to celebrate.Megan Boudreaux, a 30-year-old insurance adjuster with no Mardi Gras leadership experience, was one of those people. A few days after the mayor announced the cancellation of parades, she tweeted a joke that if revelers weren’t allowed to ride floats and throw beads at stationary onlookers, she would just decorate her home like a float and throw beads at random passersby. What started as a joke has grown into a phenomenon. Approximately 3,000 homes — mostly in the New Orleans area, but with a few as far away as Saudi Arabia and Australia — have been decorated as Mardi Gras parade floats. The movement, called “Krewe of House Floats,” has transformed the city.”It went way beyond anything I imagined it could be months ago,” Boudreaux said, “and every time I think it’s peaked, a new house float pops up and becomes a new favorite.”Octopus tentacles burst through the windows of this New Orleans home. (Photo courtesy of Kristin Boring)Walking through the city’s many neighborhoods, onlookers will find everything from modest houses with Carnival float-themed flowers and beads, to mansions with massive octopus tentacles seemingly busting through the home’s many windows. Other houses in the liberal-leaning city are decorated with less-than-flattering images of former President Donald Trump, while others are focused on more fantastical elements — like swooping dragons or Harry Potter.When asked why so many have rallied behind the unusual idea instead of just waiting for next year’s Mardi Gras, Boudreaux pointed to the difficult year.”This holiday has meant so much to so many people for hundreds of years,” she said. “This year especially we’ve lost so much and so many people. I think folks were desperate for something positive to direct their energies toward. They yearned for some connection and house floats gave them that.” New traditions “New Orleanians take Mardi Gras fun seriously,” explained Chaya Conrad, owner of Bywater Bakery, where she makes some of the city’s most celebrated king cakes — a Mardi Gras confection with a several-thousand year history.”We all have our own role to play in Carnival,” she said, “and I think this year we’re creating new traditions for this unique moment that could be celebrated for years to come.”Some — like Devin De Wulf, founder of the Hire a Mardi Gras Artist initiative — are also working tirelessly to protect old traditions in danger because of the pandemic.”Every Mardi Gras parade you watch is the work of countless float makers, artists, costume designers and musicians,” De Wulf said. “We admire the parades, but we don’t think about who’s behind them. This year those people are out of work.”Through Hire a Mardi Gras Artist, he has raised more than $300,000 to pay 48 New Orleans artists to create 23 house floats. Mardi Gras artist Rene Pierre works on a piece of a house float, in New Orleans. (Photo courtesy of Rene Pierre)Rene Pierre is a Mardi Gras artist, too. He would typically begin working on floats 10 months before the parades and that work is an essential part of his income. But this year, because of the uncertainty around COVID-19, work was scarce.Because of initiatives like Hire a Mardi Gras Artist and Krewe of House Floats, though, Pierre said he has been commissioned to produce 64 house floats since December.”I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “Personally, it was my family’s ticket out of a really tough financial situation. And as a city, it restored our morale in a big way.” Coming home Laura Renae Steeg visits a New Orleans home decorated to honor local legend Big Freedia. (Photo courtesy of Laura Renae Steeg)That restoration of morale extends beyond those currently living in New Orleans. Laura Renae Steeg loves the region so much she named her daughter Magnolia after the Louisiana state flower.”I get a daily reminder of this place I love,” Steeg said.Her husband’s job moved the family to Maryland nearly a decade ago, but she has returned to New Orleans every year for Mardi Gras — except the year Magnolia was born.Steeg had planned to skip the trip this year until tragedy struck. Her father unexpectedly passed away in January.”It was a really dark time for me, and then I saw all of these house floats popping up in New Orleans,” she said. “This has been a dark year for a lot of people, and it reminded me that beauty can emerge during terrible times, too. I needed to see it.”Steeg created a travel plan to limit the risk to herself and others and drove 1,800 kilometers from Maryland to Louisiana. She visited a drive-thru parade of some of Mardi Gras’ most famous floats and someone threw beads into her car. The moment, the music and the people overwhelmed her and she broke down crying in her car. “It just struck me that, like this city, we’ve all been through so much. It’s been through hurricanes, pandemics and so much more — but it always perseveres just like it will this time. It just struck me that you can’t beat spirit as strong as Mardi Gras. New Orleanians won’t allow it.”
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A slew of attractive toy robots on the market today are teaching children important language and science, technology, engineering and math skills, while keeping them entertained. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.Producer: Julie Taboh/Adam Greenbaum
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For the first time, wild camels have been sold on Australia’s leading online livestock auction. Australia has the world’s largest herd of feral camels that were introduced in the 1840s. Auctioneers in Australia weren’t sure if the group of 93 Arabian camels would sell online, but they all sold for as much as $230 each. Most were bought to keep prickly weeds under control on farms, and there was interest from domestic meat traders. The animals had been rounded up, or mustered, by helicopter on a remote property in Queensland. Scott Taylor is a selling agent who helped arrange the auction. He says it took two days for all the wild camels to be caught. “They came in, I think it was probably about 60 kilometers back to the yards. They were mustered in over a two-day period. Yeah, they just came straight in out of the bush and into the yards, and it is surprising how quickly they settled down once they get into captivity, for being a feral animal,” Taylor saidAlmost 100 animals were sold on AuctionsPlus, an online service that normally trades in cattle, sheep and goats. It is estimated there are at least 300,000 feral camels in central Australia. They can often compete with livestock for scarce supplies of water. Thousands been killed by farmers. They have been declared agricultural pests by state authorities, including Western Australia. Wild herds are also considered to be a health and safety risk to isolated indigenous communities. The animals were imported from South Asia and elsewhere in the mid-19th century. They were used in colonial Australia as transport, but when they were superseded by motor vehicles, many were released into the wild or escaped. They have, like other invasive species, adapted to Australia’s harsh conditions. Australia has had a long and disastrous record of importing animals that have become uncontrollable feral pests, including cats, foxes, pigs and cane toads.
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