Day: July 7, 2021

Burkina Faso Rapper-Turned-Farmer Rhymes on Climate Change

Africa’s Sahel region is seeing the worst effects of climate warming anywhere on the planet, according to the United Nations.Farmers bear the brunt of the changes because 80% of the Sahel’s economy is agrarian.    Art Melody, a musician in Burkina Faso who raps in the local Djula and Moore languages, knows from experience the negative impact on farm production because he is a farmer himself. His songs convey the fear and emotion felt by millions of people across the region because of the impact of global warming.   Art Melody says his grandparents have told him the rainy season used to start in April but now can start in July, so there is less rain and more heat.  FILE – A man herds his goats in the village of Samba, Passore province, northern Burkina Faso, March 29, 2016.The U.N. says the impact of desertification and drought on farmers is one of several factors causing the Sahel conflict in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Combatants include terror groups linked to Islamic State and al-Qaida.  More than two million people have been displaced because of the fighting, and more than 20,000 people have been killed since 2012, according to data compiled by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. “When there’s a drought, it’s a disaster, it’s hell,” said Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification. “When that situation happens, you have two options — flight or fight. Either you flee because there is no way you can produce anymore, or you fight with your neighbors for the limited resources that are still there.”FILE – People work in a dry field near Diapaga, 300 kms northeast of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, March 21, 2012.Conflicts often arise between ethnic groups that traditionally grow crops and those that herd livestock, since land usually cannot be used for both purposes.  While that is a major obstacle, new techniques and technologies can help integrate agricultural production with livestock farming through agro-ecological actions, says Marc Gnasonre, a representative of a Burkinabe farmers union.  As for Art Melody, his songs attempt to raise awareness of the plight of farmers because, he says, if people’s eyes are closed, they will always end up destroying everything, whether it is plants or human relationships.Until the effects of climate change in the Sahel are mitigated, farming will likely get harder and the Sahel’s conflict will likely get worse.  
 

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Chinese Social Media Giant WeChat Shuts LGBT Accounts

 China’s most popular social media service has deleted accounts on LGBT topics run by university students and nongovernment groups, prompting concern the ruling Communist Party is tightening control over gay and lesbian content.WeChat sent account holders a notice they violated rules but gave no details, according to the founder of an LGBT group, who asked not to be identified further out of fear of possible official retaliation. She said dozens of accounts were shut down about 10 p.m. Tuesday.It wasn’t clear whether the step was ordered by Chinese authorities, but it came as the ruling party has tightened political controls and had tried to silence groups that might criticize its rule.WeChat’s operator, Tencent Holding Ltd., confirmed it received an email seeking comment but didn’t immediately respond.The Communist Party decriminalized homosexuality in 1997, but gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual and other sexual minorities still face discrimination. While there is more public discussion of such issues, some LGBT activities have been blocked by authorities.The official attitude is increasingly strict, the founder of the LGBT group said.Contents of the WeChat accounts, which included personal stories and photos of group events, were erased, according to the group’s founder.DevastatingThe former operator of a different group for university students, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, called the step a devastating blow.University officials asked students two months ago to shut down LGBT social media groups or to avoid mentioning their school names, according to the LGBT group founder. She said universities in the eastern province of Jiangsu were told by officials to investigate groups for women’s rights and sexual minorities to “maintain stability.”Surveys suggest there are about 70 million LGBT people in China, or about 5% of the population, according to state media.Some groups have organized film festivals and other public events, but those have dwindled.One of the most prominent, Shanghai Pride, canceled events last year and scrapped future plans without explanation after 11 years of operation.China’s legislature received suggestions from the public about legalizing same-sex marriage two years ago, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. However, it gave no indication whether legislators might take action.

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COVID-19 Case Surge Forces Olympic Torch Relay Off Tokyo’s Public Streets

Tokyo’s metropolitan government announced Wednesday that it will move the iconic Olympic torch relay off the city’s public roads due to rising numbers of new COVID-19 cases in the Japanese capital.Relay runners will instead carry the torch out of public view to private torch-lighting ceremonies across Tokyo after the Olympic symbol arrives Friday.  The only planned public torch lighting event will take place on a group of small islands off the coast of Tokyo.  In a related development, the Olympics organizing committee says it will request the public not gather on the streets to witness the marathon races when they are staged in the final days of the Games.The latest restrictions involving the upcoming Tokyo Olympics come as organizers and government officials consider plans to limit the number of spectators at the July 23 opening ceremonies to just a handful of dignitaries and Olympic officials.  The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported Tuesday the idea is part of a larger plan that would also include banning visitors from attending events at large venues and at night.The last Olympic torch relay runner for the Osaka leg concludes the event in Suita, north of Osaka, western Japan, April 14, 2021.Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics announced back on June 21 that it would allow just 10,000 people, or 50% of a venue’s capacity, at all events, despite health experts advising the government that banning all spectators was the “least risky” option for holding the Games. The Asahi Shimbun reported the revised changes to the number of spectators allowed would be negotiated between the government and officials with the International Olympic Committee. Tokyo and several other prefectures were initially placed under a state of emergency in April due to a surge of new COVID-19 infections in the Japanese capital and across the country. The surge prompted staunch public opposition against staging the Olympics, especially among a prominent group of medical professionals that urged Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to call off the Games.  The prefectures transitioned last month from the state of emergency into “quasi-emergency” measures that are set to expire on July 11, just 12 days before the Olympics opening ceremonies.  But the government is expected to extend the quasi-emergency after a meeting on Thursday, with a decision about the Olympics to follow.   Prime Minister Suga has previously said he would not rule out banning all spectators from attending the Olympics if the situation takes a turn for the worse. Foreign spectators have already been banned from attending the event.  The Tokyo Olympics are set to take place after a one-year postponement as the novel coronavirus pandemic began spreading across the globe.This report includes information from AFP and Reuters

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WHO Chief Says World at Perilous Point in COVID-19 Pandemic

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters Wednesday that the world was at a perilous point in the COVID-19 pandemic, as fast-moving variants continued to spread because of an uneven global vaccination effort.From the agency’s headquarters in Geneva, Tedros said that some countries with high vaccination rates were making plans to roll out booster shots in coming months and were dropping public health social distancing measures and relaxing as though the pandemic were already over.But the WHO chief said that because of what he called a “shocking inequity in vaccination,” and highly contagious variants of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, far too many countries in every region of the world were seeing spikes in cases and hospitalizations.He said that had led to an acute shortage of oxygen and treatments and was driving a wave of death in parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America.Tedros said around the world, variants were winning the race against vaccines because of inequitable vaccine production and distribution, which, he said, also threatened the global economic recovery.Sydney to Remain in Coronavirus Lockdown for a Third Week New South Wales state premier calls delta strain of COVID-19 ‘a game-changer’ 4 million deathsDeaths worldwide related to the coronavirus recently passed 4 million as many countries struggled to obtain sufficient supplies of vaccines to inoculate their populations.He said, “Vaccine nationalism, where a handful of nations have taken the lion’s share, is morally indefensible and an ineffective public health strategy against a respiratory virus that is mutating quickly and becoming increasingly effective at moving from human to human.”Tedros noted that finance ministers from the G-20 world economic powers would be meeting this week in Venice. He called on the finance ministers and other leaders to get behind his call for 10 percent of people in all countries to be vaccinated by September and for that figure to rise to 40 percent by the end of the year.He said providing the necessary funding to scale up the equitable manufacturing and distribution of health tools was the fastest way to end the acute stage of the pandemic, save lives and livelihoods, and drive a truly global economic recovery.Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.

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Sydney to Remain in Coronavirus Lockdown for a Third Week

Officials in Australia’s New South Wales state have ordered a week-long extension of Sydney’s strict coronavirus lockdown as the city of five million residents struggles to contain an growing outbreak of the delta variant of COVID-19.The latest lockdown was imposed on June 26 after a Sydney airport limousine driver who had been transporting international air crews tested positive for the variant. More than 300 people have since been infected.The outbreak has grown to more than 300 people, including 27 new cases reported Wednesday.“This delta strain is a game-changer,” New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney. “We don’t want to be in a situation where we are constantly having to move between lockdown, no lockdown, lockdown, no lockdown.”Australia has been largely successful in containing the spread of COVID-19 due to aggressive lockdown efforts, posting just 30,861 total confirmed cases and 910 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.  But it has proved vulnerable to fresh outbreaks due to a slow rollout of its vaccination campaign and confusing requirements involving the two-shot AstraZeneca vaccine, which is the dominant vaccine in its stockpile.The new extension for Sydney is set to expire July 16.South Korea is also undergoing a new wave of COVID-19 infections, with authorities reporting 1,212 new cases on Wednesday, its highest one-day total since Christmas Day, when 1,240 new infections were reported. The 1,212 new cases, the majority from  heavily populated Seoul, marks a huge jump from the previous three days, when more than 700 new cases were reported each of those days.Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said officials will maintain current social distancing rules in Seoul for another week, including a ban on private gatherings of five or more people.President Moon Jae-in has also ordered the military, police officers and other civil servants to take part in an extensive contact tracing effort.Health experts say a premature easing of social distancing guidelines, despite a steady increase in new cases, led the public to become complacent and lower its guard.South Korea and Israel reached an agreement for an even swap of COVID-19 vaccines as both countries seek to jump-start their vaccination campaigns.The deal calls for Israel to send 700,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to South Korea later this month, with South Korea sending back an equal amount of the Pfizer vaccine it has already ordered as soon as September.“This is a win-win deal,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a written statement Tuesday.As many countries ease pandemic restrictions amid rising vaccination rates, Bangladesh and Russia both broke one-day COVID-19 records.Moscow announced it would ease travel restrictions on Russians who had been vaccinated as it also reported over 700 deaths from COVID-19 — a one-day record for the country — on Tuesday.Some 140,000 Russians have died from the virus, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. But observers say the death toll is believed to be much higher.Bangladesh reported 11,525 positive cases Tuesday, the highest one-day case number since the beginning of the pandemic. The country also saw 163 deaths in the past 24 hours, the government reported.The country shares a border with India, where the more contagious and serious delta variant emerged. Health experts in Bangladesh believe infection and death numbers are likely higher.More than 184.6 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in late 2019, including 3.9 million fatalities, the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center figures. The United States has 33.7 million confirmed infections, followed by India with 30.6 million and Brazil with 18.8 million. The U.S. leads with 605,905 deaths, with Brazil second with 526,892 and India with 404,211.More than 3.2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered.This report includes information from the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 

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Dilip Kumar, Bollywood’s Great ‘Tragedy King,’ Dies at 98

Bollywood icon Dilip Kumar, hailed as the “Tragedy King” and one of Hindi cinema’s greatest actors, died Wednesday in a Mumbai hospital after a prolonged illness. He was 98.The “Tragedy King” title came from Kumar’s numerous serious roles. In several, his character died as a frustrated lover and a drunkard. He also was known as Bollywood’s only Method actor for his expressive performances identifying a character’s emotions.Kumar was hospitalized twice last month after he complained of breathlessness, and his family tweeted “with a heavy heart and profound grief” the announcement of his passing.”Dilip Kumar will be remembered as a cinematic legend. He was blessed with unparalleled brilliance, due to which audiences across generations were enthralled. His passing away is a loss to our cultural world,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet that also offered his condolences to Kumar’s family and admirers.”An institution has gone,” Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan tweeted. “Whenever the history of Indian Cinema will be written, it shall always be ‘before Dilip Kumar, and after Dilip Kumar’ ..””It’s the end of an era,” filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar said.He was born Muhammad Yusuf Khan, a Muslim, on Dec. 11, 1922. His Pathan family hailed from Peshawar, in what became Pakistan after Partition, and he visited his ancestral home in the late 1980s.He changed his name as he debuted in Bollywood, the Hindi-language film industry centered in Mumbai, with Jwar Bhata, or Sea Tides, in 1944.Saira Banu, wife of Indian actor Dilip Kumar, wearing blue mask, center, mourns near his body at a hospital in Mumbai, India, July 7, 2021.His career spanned over six decades with more than 60 films. His first major box-office hits were Jugnu, or Firefly, in 1947 in which he starred alongside Noor Jehan, and the 1948 film Shaheed, or Martyr.He played a variety of characters — a romantic hero in Andaz, a swashbuckler in Aan, a dramatic drunkard in Devdas, a comic role in Azaad, a Muslim prince in the historical epic Mughal-e-Azam and a robber in the social movie Ganga Jamuna.Mehboob Khan’s blockbuster Aan in 1952 was his first film in Technicolor and was among a string of light-hearted roles he took at the suggestion of his psychiatrist to shed his “Tragedy King” image.He starred in many social drama films like Footpath, Naya Daur (New Era), Musafir (Traveller) and Paigham (Message) in the 1950s.His top female co-stars included Madhubala, Nargis, Nimmi, Meena Kumari, Kamini Kaushal and Vyjanthimala.In 1966, Dilip Kumar married Saira Banu, who was 22 years younger than him, and the couple acted in “Gopi,” Sagina Mahato and Bairaag. They had no children.In 1961, he produced and starred in Ganga Jamuna in which he and his brother Nasir Khan played the title roles. It was the only film he produced. Indian media reports say he declined the role of Sherif Ali in David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia in 1962. The role went to Egyptian actor Omar Sharif.He took a break in the late ’70s but returned with a character role in the successful Kranti, or Revolution in 1981. He continued playing key roles in films such as Shakti, Karma and Saudagar. His last film was Qila (Fort) in 1998.In 1994, he was given the Dadasaheb Phalke award, the highest honor for contributions to Indian cinema. He also served in the upper house of Indian Parliament after being nominated for a six-year term.  

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In North India, Artisans Weave a New Garment to Woo Customers

At a workshop in Kullu district in North India, dozens of artisans bend over hand-operated looms, deftly weaving a garment called the sari in vibrant shades of pink and orange.The sari is an unstitched, flowing garment worn by women in India and in South Asian countries like Bangladesh. It is a new addition to the hilly region’s handloom industry, which for decades focused on making shawls and stoles with traditional patterns from woolen yarn.The hope is that adding the handwoven sari to shop shelves will draw in new customers and boost incomes for hundreds of women in the region, who have very few employment avenues available in the primarily rural district.Looms have long been a part of many village homes nestled on hilly slopes, where women use yarn from sheep to make traditional woolen wraps known as “pattu” for the family.In recent decades, they made a living weaving shawls to sell to the tens of thousands of tourists who came to the Himalayan district. But it was becoming harder to attract a younger, more fashion-conscious generation that now prefers coats to the traditional shawl.“I just wanted that this art should not die, this handloom art. So, we thought let us give them some new ideas,” said Richa Verma, the Deputy Commissioner of Kullu. “We are very hopeful that the tourist who is coming to this district will take the sari as a souvenir and boost income opportunities for local people.”They will be among the country’s first woolen saris, which are usually made of cotton and silk. The artisans are optimistic because saris are an intrinsic part of most women’s wardrobes in the country.At the workshops, broader looms have replaced the old, narrower ones because the fabric for saris is woven in a wider width compared to shawls and stoles.“This work is very good for women. We educate our children, and we are managing to live well,” said Vimla Devi, a resident.Saris are hung out to dry in Lalitpur, Nepal, April 17, 2019.Sales of handwoven garments, often made from local yarn, have been growing in recent years as people begin to appreciate their qualities, said Paljor Bodh, the head of Bodh Shawl Weavers, one of the region’s well-known manufacturers of shawls who has lent his support to the sari project. His workshop employs about 60 artisans. Boutique stores in large cities like New Delhi and Mumbai, have helped market their product and boost sales among a niche, upmarket clientele that is willing to spend money on.“Handloom fabrics have more warmth because they are uneven and trap the air,” Bodh said. “Fabric made on power looms . . . does not have any gaps, so it cannot trap body heat.”The challenge, however, has been to enhance the appeal of the traditional handmade garments to a more fashion-conscious public and present them in a new avatar, according to experts. Traditional patterns have been enhanced with motifs that represent the region such as trout fish, local flowers and cedar trees.“To keep up with the times and to raise demand, we have consulted fashion institutes and followed global fashion forecasting trends,” said Ramesh Thakur, the General Manager of the Bhutti Weavers Cooperative Society. Designers have also been involved with the project and training programs organized for artisans.They have adapted to a new format quickly.“We don’t have to teach them much. They are expert in making motifs on the fabric. So, we have to just train them in the length and breadth of the sari plus the weight of the sari,” said Verma. “It should not be very heavy, otherwise it will be very uncomfortable to wear.”While an ancient tradition is getting a new spin, much will depend on luring young people to learn the painstaking art. The craft has been passed down generations, but there is a question mark on how many want to continue working with their hands, said 76-year-old Bodh, who learned the art from his father.“Now computers and phones have captured their attention. So, sometimes local people are hesitant to come thinking that their efforts may not fetch much value. Most of those working here are 40 or 50 years old,” Bodh said. “That is why the future of this art will depend on how much support the government extends.”However, some artisans are weaving dreams into a project. Javitri Thakur, who started weaving in traditional designs into the hand spun shawls to support her family, hopes making saris will open new avenues for her. Over the last four years she has mastered the craft. “Maybe I can start my own business one day,” she said, displaying a new garment she has made.

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US Announces Vaccine Donations to Vietnam, Guatemala

The Biden administration announced shipments of millions of Moderna vaccine donations for Guatemala and Vietnam on Tuesday, after pledging to donate 4 million doses to Indonesia last week. But overall, the U.S. fell short of its target of sending 80 million doses to countries in need by the end of June. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report on the challenges facing the U.S. effort to help vaccinate the world.

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Britney Spears’ Court-appointed Attorney Resigns

Britney Spears’ court-appointed attorney on Tuesday filed documents to resign from her conservatorship, the latest of several such moves that have come in the fallout from the pop singer’s comments in court decrying the legal arrangement that controls her money and affairs. Samuel Ingham III filed documents in Los Angeles Superior Court requesting that the court appoint Spears a new attorney and saying his resignation would take effect as soon as that happened.  During her June 23 speech in court, in which she condemned the conservatorship and asked Judge Brenda Penny to end it, Spears was critical of Ingham, and said she wished the court would allow her to hire a lawyer of her choice.  Last week, Bessemer Trust, the estate-management company that Spears had requested replace her father as conservator of her finances, filed its own documents withdrawing from the case. The filing said that circumstances had changed after Spears’ comments in court on June 23. At a hearing in November, Penny denied Spears’ request to have her father replaced entirely but said James Spears and Bessemer Trust could work together as co-conservators of her finances.  And on Monday, in a letter obtained by entertainment industry publication Deadline, Britney Spears’ longtime manager Larry Rudolph also resigned, saying she had no intention of resuming her career after a 2½-year hiatus that has left him with no work to do for her.  A veteran probate attorney, Ingham was for years a largely silent figure in the conservatorship, at least publicly, but became a more vocal advocate for Britney Spears starting last year. His statements in court that she feared her father and would not resume her career so long as he had power over it were an early crack in the presumed consensus among the figures involved in the conservatorship.  At the June 23 hearing, Ingham said that Britney Spears had not asked him to file a petition to end the conservatorship, but said he expected she might do so soon. In her remarks critical of Ingham, Spears said during the hearing that she hadn’t known she could file such a petition, and she still has not. 
 

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