The Paralympics began Tuesday in the same empty National Stadium — during the same pandemic — as the opening and closing ceremonies of the recently completed Tokyo Olympics.
Japanese Emperor Naruhito got it all started again, this time under the theme “We Have Wings.”Among the few on hand were Douglas Emhoff, husband of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons and International Olympic President Thomas Bach.It was a circus-like opening with acrobats, clowns, vibrant music and fireworks atop the stadium to mark the the start of the long parade of athletes.Entertainers perform during the opening ceremony for the 2020 Paralympics at the National Stadium in Tokyo, Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021.”I cannot believe we are finally here,” Parsons said in his opening remarks. “Many doubted this day would happen. Many thought it impossible. But thanks to the efforts many, the most transformative sport event on earth is about to begin.”The opening ceremony featured the national flags of the 162 delegations represented, which included the refugee team. In addition, the flag of Afghanistan was carried by a volunteer despite the delegation not being on hand in Tokyo.Comparisons to the Olympics stop with the colorful jamboree, save for the logistical and medical barriers during the pandemic, and the hollowing out of almost everything else.Tokyo and Paralympic organizers are under pressure from soaring new infections in the capital. About 40% of the Japanese population is fully vaccinated. But daily new cases in Tokyo have increased four to five times since the Olympics opened on July 23. Tokyo is under a state of emergency until Sept. 12, with the Paralympics ending Sept. 5.Organizers on Tuesday also announced the first positive test for an athlete living in the Paralympic Village. They gave no name or details and said the athlete had been isolated.The Paralympics are being held without fans, although organizers are planning to let some school children attend, going against the advice of much of the medical community.Parsons and Seiko Hashimoto, the president of the Tokyo organizing committee, say the Paralympics can be held safely. Both have tried to distance the Paralympics and Olympics from Tokyo’s rising infection rate.”For the moment we don’t see the correlation between having the Paralympics in Tokyo with the rising number of cases in Tokyo and Japan,” Parsons told The Associated Press.Some medical experts say even if there is no direct link, the presence of the Olympics and Paralympics promoted a false sense of security and prompted people to let down their guard, which may have helped spread the virus.Athletes from the United States wave as they enter the stadium during the opening ceremony for the 2020 Paralympics at the National Stadium in Tokyo, Aug. 24, 2021.The Paralympics are about athletic prowess. The origin of the word is from “parallel” — an event running alongside the Olympics.Markus Rehm — known as the “Blade Jumper” — lost his right leg below the knee when he was 14 in a wakeboarding accident, but earlier this year he jumped 8.62 meters, a distance that would have won the last seven Olympics, including the Tokyo Games. Tokyo’s winning long jump was 8.41 meters.”The stigma attached to disability changes when you watch the sport,” said Craig Spence, a spokesman for the International Paralympic Committee. “These games will change your attitude toward disability.”If you look around Japan, it’s very rare you see persons with disabilities on the street,” Spence added. “We’ve got to go from protecting people to empowering people and creating opportunities for people to flourish in society.”Archer Matt Stutzman was born with no arms, just stumps at the shoulders. He holds a world record — for any archer, disabled or otherwise — for the longest, most accurate shot, hitting a target at 310 yards, or about 283 meters.Wheelchair fencer Bebe Vivo contracted meningitis as a child and to save her life, doctors amputated both her forearms and both her legs at the knees.”So many people told me that it was impossible to do fencing without any hands,” Vivo said in a recent interview. “So it was so important to me to demonstrate and show people that it doesn’t matter if you don’t have hands, or you don’t have legs or whatever. If you have a dream and you really want to achieve it, just go and take it.”Stutzman and Vivo are both set to compete in Tokyo and have already won medals in previous games, superstars who told their stories last year in the Netflix documentary about the Paralympics called “Rising Phoenix.”The rest of the 4,403 Paralympic athletes in Tokyo — a record number for any Paralympics — will be telling their stories until the closing ceremony.”I feel like I’m meeting movie stars,” said 14-year-old Ugandan swimmer Husnah Kukundakwe, who is competing for the first time.She acknowledged being a self-conscious adolescent, even more so because of a congenital impairment that left her with no lower right arm, an her left hand slightly misshapen.”Since it’s the Paralympics and everybody else is disabled, I feel really comfortable with myself,” she said. “In Uganda, there are very few people who have disabilities who want to come out and be themselves.”Paralympic organizers played a part last week in launching “WeThe15,” a human-rights campaign aimed at 1.2 billion people — 15% of the global population — with disabilities. They’ve also produced a 90-second video to promote the cause of social inclusion.”Difference is a strength, it is not a weakness,” Parsons said, speaking in the largely empty stadium. “And as we build back better in the post-pandemic world, it must feature societies where opportunities exist for all.”Shingo Katori, a member of boy band SMAP that had its roots in the 1980s, now works with Paralympic organizers. He acknowledged his early fears of working with people with disabilities.”Frankly speaking, people in wheelchairs or people with artificial legs — I hadn’t had an opportunity to meet these people and I didn’t know how to communicate with them,” he said. “But through Paralympic sports, such hesitation faded away.”Stutzman, known as the “Armless Archer,” has a disarming sense of humor — pardon the pun. He jokes about growing up wanting the be like former NBA star Michael Jordan.”I gave it up,” he deadpans. “I wasn’t tall enough.”
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Month: August 2021
Beeple, NFT, Ethereum – words familiar mostly in the worlds of cryptocurrency and digital art. but they have revolutionized the art world and are now worth millions of dollars. Maxim Avloshenko looked into what exactly they are and why they are worth so much in this story, narrated by Anna Rice.
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The judge overseeing Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy said Monday that some members of the Sackler family who own the OxyContin maker face a “substantial risk” of liability and could be on the hook for “huge amounts of money” over claims the company fueled the opioid epidemic. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain in White Plains, New York, made the remark during closing arguments in a trial over Purdue’s proposed reorganization plan. Drain said he believes some Sacklers face liability, but that “the question is where you draw the line.” Under the deal, which Purdue said is worth more than $10 billion, the Sacklers would contribute approximately $4.5 billion and would receive legal protections against future opioid-related litigation. Drain did not explicitly state how he would rule but suggested he finds the deal sufficient. The judge is expected to issue a formal ruling on the deal later this week. The money would go toward various entities and private individuals with opioid claims, as well as state and local opioid abatement programs. Critics of the settlement argue that the liability releases are too broad. An attorney representing the states of Washington and Oregon, which oppose the plan, told Drain on Monday that approving the deal would be a “historic mistake.” The judge also stated that appeals courts generally support the types of releases the Sacklers would receive if they meet certain standards. At the outset of Monday’s hearing, a lawyer for the Sacklers said they had agreed to narrow the litigation releases to exclude protections for the family against non-opioid-related claims. But the crux of the releases, shielding the Sacklers against opioid-related litigation, remains intact. During testimony last week, members of the Sackler family said they would not contribute if they do not receive the releases.
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Igor Vovkovinskiy, the tallest man in the United States, has died in Minnesota. He was 38.His family said the Ukrainian-born Vovkovinskiy died of heart disease on Friday at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. His mother, Svetlana Vovkovinska, an ICU nurse at Mayo, initially posted about his death on Facebook.Vovkovinskiy came to the Mayo Clinic in 1989 as a child seeking treatment. A tumor pressing against his pituitary gland caused it to secrete abnormal levels of growth hormone. He grew to become the tallest man in the U.S. at 2 meters, 34.5 centimeters (7 feet, 8.33 inches) and ended up staying in Rochester.His older brother, Oleh Ladan of Brooklyn Park, told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis that Vovkovinskiy was a celebrity when he arrived from Ukraine because of his size and the flickering Cold War of the late 1980s. But Ladan said Vovkovinskiy “would have rather lived a normal life than be known.”Vovkovinskiy appeared on “The Dr. Oz Show” and was called out by President Barack Obama during a campaign rally in 2009, when the president noticed him near the stage wearing a T-shirt that read, “World’s Biggest Obama Supporter.” In 2013, he carried the Ukrainian contestant onto the stage to perform in the Eurovision Song Contest.When he was 27, Vovkovinskiy traveled to New York City and was declared America’s tallest living person by a Guinness World Records adjudicator on Oz’s show. He edged out a sheriff’s deputy in Virginia by one-third of an inch.He issued a plea in 2012 to cover the estimated $16,000 cost for specially made shoes that wouldn’t cause him crippling pain. At the time, he said he hadn’t owned a pair for years that fit his size 26, 10E feet. Thousands donated more than twice what he needed. Reebok provided the custom shoes for free.Vovkovinskiy was born Sept. 8, 1982, in Bar, Ukraine, to Vovkovinska and Oleksandr Ladan, according to Ranfranz and Vine Funeral Home, which is holding a memorial service on Saturday. His father died earlier.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given full approval to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. “The public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards of safety effectiveness and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product,” acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a statement Monday.The vaccine produced by Pfizer-BioTech was approved for emergency use last December. More than 200 million doses have been administered in the U.S. and hundreds of millions more worldwide.Information from AP and Reuters was used in this report.
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The Afghanistan flag will be displayed in Tuesday’s opening ceremony of the Paralympics even though the country’s athletes were not able to get to Tokyo to compete.
Andrew Parsons, the president of the International Paralympic Committee, said Monday it will be done as a “sign of solidarity.”
Parsons said a representative of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees would carry the flag in the National Stadium during the opening ceremony. It’s the same stadium where the opening ceremony of the Olympics took place on July 23.
The two Paralympic athletes from Afghanistan were unable to reach Tokyo after the Taliban took control of the country more than a week ago. They are para-taekwondo athlete Zakia Khudadadi and discus thrower Hossain Rasouli.
Parsons said 162 delegations will be represented in Tokyo, which includes refugee athletes. The IPC has said about 4,400 athletes will compete in the Paralympics. The exact number is to be released on Tuesday.
The Paralympics will close on Sept. 5 and are facing a surge around Tokyo in COVID-19 cases. Cases in the capital have increased from four or five times since the Olympics opened a month ago.
Organizers and the IPC say there is no connection between the Olympics or Paralympics taking place in Tokyo, and the rising cases among the general Tokyo population.
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Parts of the northeastern United States braced for more heavy rains and the potential for flooding Monday as the storm that made landfall as Tropical Storm Henri slowly moved across the region. The bulk of the rain overnight was located over New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The National Hurricane Center expects the center of the storm, now downgraded to a tropical depression, to drift a short distance to the east during the day Monday before eventually making it back out over the Atlantic Ocean by Tuesday morning. Forecasters said total rainfall amounts across much of the region would be between 7 and 15 centimeters, with some locally higher amounts. The storm made landfall Sunday in the state of Rhode Island, and knocked out power to more than 130,000 homes in that state, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York. President Joe Biden said Sunday he had already approved emergency declarations for Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York, and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had resources such as generators, food and water positioned in the region to help those in need. “We don’t know the full extent of the storm’s impact today, but we are acting to prepare for and prevent damage as much as possible, and to speed help to affected communities so they can recover as quickly as possible,” Biden said. Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee spoke of the need to get electricity service restored with warm temperatures forecast in the coming days. “We know that that’s an issue and that’s why getting power restored is critical for the health and safety of our residents, our economy, and our small businesses to make sure that they’re operating,” McKee said. Some information for this report came from the Associated Press.
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Scores of firefighters backed by water-dropping aircraft battled a forest fire that broke out early Monday on the southern part of Greece’s Evia island, less than two weeks after an inferno decimated its northern part. The fire was burning near the village of Fygia where two neighborhoods have been evacuated and was moving toward the coastal tourist village of Marmari, where authorities were preparing boats to evacuate people if needed, according to Athens News Agency. Forty-six firefighters were battling flames fanned by high winds — assisted by 20 fire engines, three water-dropping airplanes and two helicopters, the Greek fire brigade said. Authorities have boats on standby off Marmari. Evia is northeast of the capital Athens. The civil protection authorities had announced on Sunday a “very high risk” of fire for many areas of Greece on Monday. Wildfires since July have ravaged the islands of Evia and Rhodes as well as forests to the north and southeast of Athens, and parts of the Peloponnese peninsula. Three people have died as a result of the fires. The government has blamed the disaster on the worst heatwave the country has seen in decades. Climate scientists warn extreme weather and fierce fires will become increasingly common due to man-made global warming, heightening the need to invest in teams, equipment and policy to battle the flames.
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Don Everly, one-half of the pioneering Everly Brothers whose harmonizing country rock hits impacted a generation of rock ‘n’ roll music, has died. He was 84.Everly died at his home in Nashville, Tennessee, on Saturday, according to his attorney and family spokesperson Linda Edell Howard. His brother, Phil Everly, died in January 2014 at age 74.”Don lived by what he felt in his heart,” a statement from the family said. “Don expressed his appreciation for the ability to live his dreams … living in love with his soul mate and wife, Adela, and sharing the music that made him an Everly Brother. Don always expressed how grateful he was for his fans.”In the late 1950s and 1960s, the duo of Don and Phil drew upon their rural roots with their strummed guitars and high, yearning harmonies, while their poignant songs — many written by the team of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant — embodied teenage restlessness and energy. Their 19 top 40 hits included “Bye Bye Love,” “Let It Be Me,” “All I Have to Do Is Dream” and “Wake Up Little Susie.” Performers from the Beatles to Simon & Garfunkel cited them as key influences.”The Everly Brothers are integral to the fabric of American music,” said Jerry Lee Lewis in a statement. “With my friend Don’s passing, I am reflective … reflective on a life full of wonderful friends, spectacular music and fond memories. There’s a lot I can say about Don, what he and Phil meant to me both as people and as musicians, but I am going to reflect today.”Songs like “Bye Bye Love” and “Wake Up Little Susie” appealed to the postwar generation of baby boomers, and their deceptively simple harmonies hid greater meaning among the lighter pop fare of the era. The two broke up amid quarreling in 1973 after 16 years of hits, then reunited in 1983, “sealing it with a hug,” Phil Everly said.Although their number of hit records declined in the late 1980s, they had successful concert tours in the U.S. and Europe.They were inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, the same year they had a hit pop-country record, “Born Yesterday.” Two years earlier, they had success with the up-tempo ballad “On the Wings of a Nightingale,” written by Paul McCartney.”As a singer, a songwriter and a guitar innovator, Don Everly was one of the most talented and impactful artists in popular music history,” said Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, in a statement. The brothers were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. Don Everly was born in Brownie, Kentucky, to Ike and Margaret Everly, who were folk and country music singers. Phil Everly was born to the couple in Chicago, where the Everlys moved from Brownie when Ike grew tired of working in the coal mines.The brothers began singing country music in 1945 on their family’s radio show in Shenandoah, Iowa.Their career breakthrough came when they moved to Nashville in the mid-1950s and signed a recording contract with New York-based Cadence Records.Their breakup came dramatically during a concert at Knott’s Berry Farm in California. Phil Everly threw his guitar down and walked off, prompting Don Everly to tell the crowd, “The Everly Brothers died 10 years ago.”The disputes between the brothers even went to court, when Don Everly sued the heirs of Phil Everly in 2017 over the copyright to three of their songs, including “Cathy’s Clown.” The case went all the way to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.But after Phil’s death in 2014, Don said that he felt a spiritual message from his brother before he died. “Our love was and will always be deeper than any earthly differences we might have had,” Don Everly said in a statement in 2014. While apart, they pursued solo singing careers with little success. Phil also appeared in the 1978 Clint Eastwood movie “Every Which Way but Loose.” Don made a couple of records with friends in Nashville, performed in local nightclubs and played guitar and sang background vocals on recording sessions.Don Everly said in a 1986 Associated Press interview that he and his brother were successful because “we never followed trends. We did what we liked and followed our instincts. Rock ‘n’ roll did survive, and we were right about that. Country did survive, and we were right about that. You can mix the two, but people said we couldn’t.”Decades later, their impact on popular music is still evident. In 2013, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones released a loving tribute to the Everlys on their collaborative album “Foreverly.”
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The Tokyo Paralympics open Tuesday after a year-long pandemic delay and with the virus continuing to cast a long shadow as Japan battles a record surge in cases. As at the Olympics, the event will be marked by strict virus rules, with almost all spectators banned and tough restrictions on athletes and other participants. While a swell of domestic support emerged during the Olympics after months of negative polls, there is deep concern in Japan as the Paralympics approach with the country going through a fifth virus wave. More than 25,000 new cases were recorded on Thursday, and medics across the country have warned hospitals are at breaking point with serious cases also at record highs. It’s a challenging environment for the most important sports event for disabled athletes, and International Paralympic Committee chief Andrew Parsons has warned participants against complacency. Despite the backdrop, IPC officials insist the reach of the event will be “incredible.”A woman walks near a sing of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Aug. 20, 2021, in Tokyo. The Tokyo Paralympics open on Aug. 24 in a ceremony at Tokyo’s National Stadium.”Of course, the fact that we will not have spectators at the venues is a challenge,” Parsons told AFP in an interview. “But we believe we will reach more than 4 billion people through broadcasting.” Local officials say the Games can be held safely, with athletes and other participants subject to the same anti-infection rules that applied to the Olympics. Competitors can only enter the Paralympic Village shortly before their event and must leave within 48 hours of the end of their competition. They will be tested daily and limited to moving between training venues, competition sites and the Village. The measures are intended to prevent the Games from becoming a superspreader event — and officials say the Olympics proved the restrictions work. There were 552 positive cases linked to the Olympics reported from July 1 until Sunday, the majority among Japan residents employed by the Games or working as contractors. So far, 138 cases related to the Paralympics have been confirmed, also mostly among Japan-based Olympic officials, though at least four athletes have also tested positive. But Olympic officials say there is no evidence of infection spreading from the Games to the rest of Japan, where case numbers were already on the rise. Still organizers acknowledge the worsening environment. “The infection situation today is different to how it was before the Olympics. It has deteriorated,” said Tokyo 2020 official Hidemasa Nakamura on Friday. “And the local medical system is also in a very tight situation.” The virus surge has caused tensions, with some local regions and schools cancelling planned trips to Games events despite support for the programme from Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike. The mood among Paralympians remains buoyant though, after the uncertainties of the year-long delay. “It’s our time to take aim at gold!” tweeted U.S. archer Matt Stutzman, a Paralympic silver medalist who uses the handle “Armless Archer.” Stutzman is among those likely to be making an appearance on the medal podium during the Games, which will see 4,400 athletes from around 160 national teams competing. There are 22 sports, with athletes competing in different categories and classes depending on the nature of their disability. Badminton and taekwondo are appearing for the first time. Top names include Germany’s Markus Rehm, dubbed the “Blade Jumper” for his gravity-defying feats in long jump, which have earned him three gold medals and a bronze. He has pushed to be included in the Olympics, but so far without success over concerns that his prosthetic blade gives him an advantage. Other household names include Tatyana McFadden, the American wheelchair racer who will be competing in her fifth summer Paralympics. She also appeared at the Sochi Winter Games, where she won a silver medal in the country where she was born, as her adoptive U.S. mother and Russian birth mother cheered her on. Japan will be hoping it can repeat the gold rush that saw it bring home a record 58 gold Olympic medals. Among its top medal hopes is Shingo Kuneida, the reigning world No. 1 wheelchair men’s single champion and considered one of the greatest figures in the sport.
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Cuban Yordenis Ugas pulled off a stunning victory over 42-year-old former champion Manny Pacquiao with a unanimous decision to retain his WBA welterweight world title after an intense fight in Las Vegas on Saturday. The judges scored the fight 115-113, 116-112, 116-112 in favor of Ugas, who controlled the second half of the contest with his jab as the more aggressive Pacquiao struggled to land his punches on his return to the ring after a two-year absence. “Now the plan is to unify the title,” Ugas, 35, said in the ring through a translator. “Everyone said he was the champion, now they know who the real champion is.” Pacquiao was initially preparing to fight WBC and IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. but a retinal tear in the American’s left eye forced him to withdraw, with Ugas agreeing to step in at less than two weeks’ notice. Ugas had been elevated to WBA super champion after Pacquiao was stripped of the belt because of inactivity as he had not fought since July 2019 and the Filipino looked desperate to get it back. The clear favorite of the 17,438 fans at the T-Mobile Arena, southpaw Pacquiao came out aggressively in the early rounds with his trademark speed and combinations. Ugas’s long reach enabled him to keep the former eight-division world champion at arm’s length, however, and his jab was proving an effective, if not fight-winning, weapon. Pacquiao continued to throw almost twice as many punches as his opponent, but the Cuban was more accurate with his, and there was plenty of sting in the big rights he was starting to land over the top. The crowd was reduced to a nervous silence as the fight headed into the final rounds with no sign of the knockout that Pacquiao needed to win, although spectators were roused into voice when the fighters went toe-to-toe in the 10th. Ultimately, though, Pacquiao’s aging legs had nothing more to give and Ugas, a bronze medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, earned the decision to improve his record to 27-4. Pacquiao, the only man in boxing history to hold world titles in eight different divisions and one of the greatest boxers of all time, will announce next month if he will run for the presidency of the Philippines in the 2022 elections.
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Famed Iraqi musician Ilham al-Madfai hosted a private concert in the Atlanta, Georgia, suburb of Duluth recently to mark 55 years of performing. Al-Madfai is a guitarist, singer and composer who combines Western guitar styling with traditional Iraqi music. His Western-inspired songwriting prompted his nickname, “The Baghdad Beatle.”His music is popular across the Arab world, as was reflected in the crowd of Algerians, Syrians, Egyptians and Iraqis at his Duluth show.”I fought so hard to be here,” said Nura Khuffash, a Georgia resident at the invitation-only concert.Amid the coronavirus pandemic and upheaval in the Middle East, the small concert provided an eagerly sought respite for many of the guests commemorating the 79-year-old al-Madfai’s long-running career.The author of this story is a friend of the family of the performer.”I was listening to Ilham’s music since I was a little girl,” Khuffash, a native of Nablus, West Bank, told VOA.”I really fought to be here because I had to find someone to watch my kids so I could come with my friends. I really went above and beyond, and I’m excited to be here,” Kuffash said. The songs of al-Madfai originate from compositions written at the beginning of the last century. They are often played as Maqam, a melodic style of music popular in the Middle East that incorporates stringed instruments, such as the qanun, and drums, such as the tabla. Al-Madfai, who was born in Baghdad, has popularized these traditional Arabic classics through an energetic vocal performance. Throughout his recent celebratory performance, concertgoers sprang out of their chairs in the small but packed indoor venue and burst into dancing, a testament to al-Madfai’s appeal. Attendees of the private concert are seen dancing to the music of Al-Madfai.Although al-Madfai’s music often sparks a contagious, joyful energy at his shows, his lyrics are poignant, injected with deep political connotations. Al-Madfai drew a major following in Iraq in the 1970s, but Saddam Hussein’s rise to power in 1979 prompted him to leave the country. He returned to Iraq shortly before the Gulf War. In 1994, he emigrated to Jordan, where he currently resides. “The songs are very special,” said Ara Artanik, a drummer who performs with al-Madfai in the United States. “They have political meanings, and the songs are written as an artistic expression and reflect the political situation in Iraq as well as the rest of the region, which many Arabs can relate to, not just Iraqis,” Artanik said. Another guest, Rania Layous, described al-Madfai’s music as a connecting force that binds members of the Arab diaspora living in the U.S. “Every song has a story, and it’s very much related to not just the Iraqi culture but all of the Middle East,” Layous said. “It’s really nice, you know, because we all have immigrated and we all have a story, so his music ties us together to the experience we share from the same region.”Layous, who is of Palestinian origin, emphasized how notable al-Madfai’s voice is for an Arabic singer. But because of his strong Iraqi accent, not everything he sings is intelligible. “Some of the words when he’s singing I don’t understand, but because his voice is so unique, the songs become very melodic, which you just want to shake and dance to,” Layous said. Al-Madfai’s son, Mohamad, who is also his manager, spoke with VOA about the shared partnership and sentimentality father and son feel. “It’s very emotional,” Mohamad said. “We started 25 years ago together, just the two of us, developed the basics of production, music production and putting on concerts and touring. And since then, we’ve performed in about 60-70 countries.”Al-Madfai often performs during short stays in the U.S. He is scheduled to perform a couple of shows in the U.S. before returning to the Middle East later this year.
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Japanese actor Sonny Chiba, who wowed the world with his martial arts skills in more than 100 films, including “Kill Bill,” has died. He was 82.Chiba, known in Japan as Shinichi Chiba, died late Thursday in a hospital near Tokyo where he had been treated for COVID-19 since Aug. 8, Tokyo-based Astraia, his management office, said in a statement Friday. It said he had not been vaccinated. Chiba rose to stardom in Japan in the 1960s, portraying samurai, fighters and police detectives, the anguished so-called “anti-heroes” trying to survive in a violent world. He did many of the stunt scenes himself. His overseas career took off after his 1970s Japanese film “The Street Fighter” proved popular in the U.S. American director Quentin Tarantino listed the work as among his “grindhouse,” or low-budget kitsch cinema, favorites. Tarantino cast Chiba in the role of Hattori Hanzo, a master swordsmith in “Kill Bill.”Chiba appeared in the 1991 Hollywood film “Aces,” directed by John Glen, as well as in Hong Kong movies. Chiba’s career also got a boost from the global boom in kung fu films, set off by Chinese legend Bruce Lee, although critics say Chiba tended to exhibit a dirtier, thug-like fighting style than Lee.“A true action legend. Your films are eternal and your energy an inspiration. #SonnyChiba #RIP,” American actor Lewis Tan said on Twitter. New York-based writer and director Ted Geoghegan called him “the great Sonny Chiba.” “Watch one of his films today,” Geoghegan tweeted, followed by images of a fist and a broken heart. Other fans mournfully filled Twitter threads with clips of his movies and photos. Born in Fukuoka, southwestern Japan, Chiba studied at Nippon Sport Science University trained in various martials arts, earning a fourth-degree black belt in karate. Chiba set up Japan Action Club in 1980, to develop a younger generation of actors, including protege Hiroyuki Sanada, who is among Hollywood’s most coveted Japanese actors, landing roles in “The Last Samurai” and “Rush Hour 3.”Chiba is survived by his three children, Juri Manase, Mackenyu Arata and Gordon Maeda, all actors. A wake was canceled as a pandemic measure, and funeral arrangements were still undecided, his office said.
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Harvey Sutton, or “Little Man,” as he is known on the Appalachian Trail, won’t have long to bask in the glory of hiking its full length. After all, he starts kindergarten Friday.At 5 years old, Harvey is one of the youngest — and the latest of several youngsters in recent years — to complete the trail, after tagging along with his parents over more than 2,100 miles in 209 days.It was hard work, but it was fun checking out frogs, lizards and other wildlife. So was sprinkling Skittles onto peanut butter tortillas as fuel for the walk, he said.“The rock scrambles were really fun and hard. We were not bored,” he said cheerfully in a phone interview from Virginia, where he lives with his parents, Josh and Cassie Sutton.His parents were so busy keeping him engaged and entertained that it distracted them from the physical pain of trudging over so many miles.“It gave us a bond and a strength that we hadn’t realized before,” Cassie Sutton said.Other youngsters have hiked the 2,193-mile (3,530 kilometers) trail that starts at Springer Mountain, Georgia, and ends atop Maine’s Mount Katahdin. Some babies have even been carried in backpacks by their determined parents.Harvey was 4 years old when he and his parents began their walk in January and he turned 5 before the family completed the journey last week in Maine.He’s several months younger than “Buddy Backpacker,” a boy who held the record for youngest to complete the trail in 2013, Harvey’s parents say.But the youngest of all may be Juniper Netteberg, who finished the trail at age 4, wearing a Wonder Woman costume, with her parents and three siblings on Oct. 13, 2020, said her parents, who are missionary doctors.Her family hiked sections over a period of months, but that still counts as long as they didn’t skip any part of the trail, said Ken Bunning, president of Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association.It may seem extreme for a kid, but a pediatrician sees no harm.Kids are resilient enough to handle the experience as long as parents keep their social and emotional development in mind and scale the hike to kids’ abilities, said Dr. Laura Blaisdell, a pediatrician and medical adviser to the American Camp Association.For Harvey’s hike, his parents decided to take a “mini retirement” from their real estate jobs in Lynchburg, Virginia. They’d been hiking with Harvey since he was 2, so the Appalachian Trail made sense to them.It was mostly smooth sailing after a snowstorm in the Smoky Mountains forced them to backtrack more than 30 miles (48 kilometers) to safety over 2 1/2 days.The family became accustomed to sleeping in a tent, waking at 5:30 a.m. and hiking all day. There was a simplicity to the routine and a camaraderie with other “thru hikers” that kept it from getting boring, Josh Sutton said.Karl Donus Sakas, a hiker known as “Sugar Man” who accompanied the Suttons from Pennsylvania to the end in Maine, said Harvey had boundless energy.“He’s pretty strong and tough. So often we’d get to camp and I’d be beaten and tired. And Little Man would say, ‘Let’s play freeze tag!’” he said.The parents said the biggest challenge was keeping their son’s imagination engaged. Harvey made plans to build homes, construct space ships and host a lava party in discussions over miles and hours of hiking, Sakas said.Sakas helped out by setting up a treasure hunt with faux maps, hidden toys and glow sticks on the trail over several days in New Jersey.Some other thru hikers gave Little Man toys, including a pet rock, Hot Wheels and a pocket watch. At a Dollar General store, the boy bought a calculator to keep track of the miles.The hike showed the strength of teamwork and further solidified the Suttons’ relationship, Cassie Sutton said. “We’re closer than ever before,” she said.They completed the hike Aug. 9 atop Mount Katahdin. Now it’s off to kindergarten for Little Man and back to work for his parents.Harvey’s journey earned accolades from another hiking legend, Dale “Greybeard” Sanders, the oldest person to hike the trail, at age 82 in 2017.“It’s going to change his life forever, and his parents’ life, too. The kid went through some hardships, but don’t we all? Hardships make us stronger,” said Sanders, now 86, of Bartlett, Tennessee. “That kid is going to smile through life.”
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“Stillwater” is a drama involving an American father who travels to Marseilles, France, to help exonerate his daughter of murder. Amanda Knox, who faced the same fate in real life in Italy, has criticized filmmaker Tom McCarthy for tailoring the story of her wrongful murder conviction in Perugia, Italy, “too closely and inaccurately” to the film’s plot. The Academy Award-winning filmmaker told VOA his film is not about Knox, but about a father-daughter relationship. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.
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For World Photography Day, VOA’s Jesusemen Oni speaks with American photojournalist Vanessa Charlot, who is being honored for her iconic images of what it means to be Black during the pandemic and protests over racial injustice in the U.S. Here is her report.Producer: Rob Raffaele
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R&B star R. Kelly is a predator who lured girls, boys and young women with his fame and dominated them physically, sexually and psychologically, a prosecutor said Wednesday, while a defense lawyer warned jurors they’ll have to sift through lies from accusers with agendas to find the truth. The differing perspectives came as the long-anticipated trial began unfolding in a Brooklyn courtroom where several accusers were scheduled to testify in the next month about the Grammy-winning, multiplatinum-selling singer whose career has been derailed by charges that have left him jailed as he goes broke. Jerhonda Pace, the first government witness, told jurors Wednesday that she was a 16-year-old virgin and a member of Kelly’s fan club when he invited her to his mansion in 2010. He immediately told her to take off her clothing, Pace said. “He asked me to continue to tell everyone I was 19 and act like I was 21,” she said. In this courtroom artist’s sketch made from a video screen monitor of a Brooklyn courtroom, defendant R. Kelly, top left, listens as Jerhonda Pace, far left, testifies against the R&B star during the singer’s sex abuse trial, Aug. 18, 2021.Kelly responded “that’s good” when she revealed her virginity, said that he wanted to “train her” sexually and ordered her to call him “Daddy,” she said. They continued to see each other for another six months, with Kelly growing more and more controlling and erupting in violence when she broke what she called “Rob’s rules.” One time he grew so angry, “He slapped me and choked me until I passed out,” she said with no hint of emotion. Afterward, he spit in her face and forced her to have oral sex, she said. She kept a blue T-shirt from the episode that has provided DNA evidence of the misconduct, prosecutors said. The Associated Press doesn’t name alleged victims of sexual abuse without their consent unless they have spoken publicly extensively. Pace has appeared in a documentary and participated in media interviews. Prior to Pace’s testimony, lawyers gave jurors an outline of the trial in their opening statements. “This case is not about a celebrity who likes to party a lot,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Cruz Melendez told the jury as she explained the evidence to be revealed at his federal trial. “This case is about a predator.” She said he distributed backstage passes to entice children and women to join him, sometimes at his home or studio, where he then “dominated and controlled them physically, sexually and psychologically.” The prosecutor said Kelly would often record sex acts with minors as he controlled a racketeering enterprise of individuals who were loyal and devoted to him, eager to “fulfill each and everyone one of the defendant’s wishes and demands.” “What his success and popularity brought him was access, access to girls, boys and young women,” she said. But Kelly’s attorney, Nicole Blank Becker, portrayed her client as a victim of women, some of whom enjoyed the “notoriety of being able to tell their friends that they were with a superstar.” “He didn’t recruit them. They were fans. They came to Mr. Kelly,” she said, urging jurors to closely scrutinize the testimony. “They knew exactly what they were getting into. It was no secret Mr. Kelly had multiple girlfriends. He was quite transparent.” It would be a stretch to believe he orchestrated an elaborate criminal enterprise, like a mob boss, the lawyer said. Becker warned jurors they’ll have to sort through “a mess of lies” from women with an agenda. “Don’t assume everybody’s telling the truth,” she said. R. Kelly’s attorney Deveraux Cannick is surrounded by reporters as he leaves U.S. District Court in Brooklyn during the R&B star’s trial, in New York, Aug. 18, 2021.The remarks fit a theme set by the defense in court papers prior to the trial describing Kelly’s alleged victims as groupies who turned up at his shows and made it known they “were dying to be with him.” The women only started accusing him of abuse years later, when public sentiment shifted against him, they said. Kelly, 54, is perhaps best known for his smash hit “I Believe I Can Fly,” a 1996 song that became an inspirational anthem played at school graduations, weddings, advertisements and elsewhere. The openings and testimony came more than a decade after Kelly was acquitted in a 2008 child pornography case in Chicago. It was a reprieve that allowed his music career to continue until the #MeToo era caught up with him, emboldening alleged victims to come forward.The women’s stories got wide exposure with the Lifetime documentary Surviving R. Kelly. The series explored how an entourage of supporters protected Kelly and silenced his victims for decades, foreshadowing the federal racketeering conspiracy case that landed Kelly in jail in 2019. Prosecutors in Brooklyn have lined up multiple female accusers — mostly referred to in court as “Jane Does” — and cooperating former associates who have never spoken publicly before about their experiences with Kelly. They’re expected to offer testimony about how Kelly’s managers, bodyguards and other employees helped him recruit women and girls — and sometimes boys — for sexual exploitation. They say the group selected victims at concerts and other venues and arranged for them to travel to see Kelly in the New York City area and elsewhere, in violation of the Mann Act, the 1910 law that made it illegal to “transport any woman or girl” across state lines “for any immoral purpose.” An anonymous jury made up of seven men and five women was sworn in to hear the case. The trial, coming after several delays due mostly to the pandemic, unfolds under coronavirus precautions restricting the press and the public to overflow courtrooms with video feeds. The New York case is only part of the legal peril facing the singer, born Robert Sylvester Kelly. He also has pleaded not guilty to sex-related charges in Illinois and Minnesota.
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Hawaii had a thriving native-language press through the 19th and early 20th centuries. Now there is an effort underway to preserve and renew Hawaiian-language journalism, as VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan reports from Honolulu. Camera: Mike O’Sullivan
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