Author: Uponent

NEW YORK — For some television viewers, size apparently does matter.

Forget the 165-centimeter TVs that were considered bigger than average a decade ago. In time for the holidays, manufacturers and retailers are rolling out more XXL screens measuring more than 2.4 meters diagonally. That’s wider than a standard three-seat sofa or a king-size bed.

Supersize televisions only accounted for 1.7% of revenue from all TV set sales in the U.S. during the first nine months of the year, according to market research firm Circana. But companies preparing for shoppers to go big for Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa have reason to think the growing ultra category will be a bright spot in an otherwise tepid television market, according to analysts.

The 38,100 televisions of at least 246 centimeters sold between January and September represented a tenfold increase from the same period last year, Circana said. Best Buy, the nation’s largest consumer electronics chain, doubled the assortment of hefty TVs — the 19 models range in price from $2,000 to $25,000 — and introduced displays in roughly 70% of its stores.

“It’s really taken off this year,” Blake Hampton, Best Buy’s senior vice president of merchandising, said.

Analysts credit the emerging demand to improved technology and much lower prices. So far this year, the average price for TVs spanning at least 246 centimeters was $3,113 compared to $6,662 last year, according to Circana. South Korean electronics manufacturer Samsung introduced its first 249-centimeter TV in 2019 with a hefty price tag of $99,000; it now has four versions starting at $4,000, the company said.

Anthony Ash, a 42-year-old owner of a wood pallet and recycling business, recently bought a 949-centimeter Sony for his 1,300-square-meter house in Bristol, Wisconsin. The device, which cost about $5,000 excluding installation fees, replaced an 216-centimeter TV in the great room off his kitchen. Ash now has 17 televisions at home and uses some to display digital art.

“We just saw that the price was affordable for what we were looking for and thought, ‘Why not?'” he said of deciding to upsize to the Sony. “You get a better TV experience with a bigger TV. You’re sitting watching TV with a person on TV that is the same size as you. You can put yourself in the scene.”

The amount of time that many people spend staring at their cellphones and tablets, including to stream movies and TV shows, is another factor driving the growth of widescreen TV screens. Overall TV sales revenue fell 4%, while the number of units sold rose 1% from the January through September period, Circana said.

Most people only invest in a television every seven years, but when they do, they typically choose bigger ones, according to Rick Kowalski, the senior director of business intelligence at the Consumer Technology Association. In the past 15 years, the size of flat-panel TVs that were shipped to U.S. retailers and dealers grew an average of one inch a year, Kowalski said.

The coronavirus pandemic accelerated the elongation trend as people spent more time at home. In fact, screen sizes increased an average of 5 centimeters in both 2021 and 2022, and 216-centimeter TVs began gaining traction with consumers, Kowalski said. Shipments of 249-centimeter TVs to the U.S. are picking up pace this year, and models as huge as 279-292 centimeters are on the market right now, he said.

“You get better resolution over time,” Kowalski said. “You get better picture quality. And so just over time, it’s easier to produce those sets and improve the technology.”

Best Buy’s Hampton said a benefit of a colossal TV is the viewer can watch multiple shows at once, an experience he described as “incredible.”

“If you’re watching YouTube TV content or ‘ NFL Sunday Ticket,’ you can actually get four screens up, and that’s four 48-inch (122-centimeter) screens on it,” he said.

Manufacturers are also adding new features. Samsung said it designed its 249-centimeter lineup with a component that analyzes what the viewer is watching to increase sharpness and reduce visible noise across every scene.

James Fishler, senior vice president of the home entertainment division of Samsung’s U.S. division, said the way people watch TV and experience content is shifting.

“It’s even more so about watching TV as a shared experience,” Fishler said. “They want to host a watch party and gather around their TV to watch the big game, or set up a cinematic movie experience right at home. ”

Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, its Sam’s Club division, and Chicago retailer Abt Electronics, also say they are expanding their TV ranges to meet customer demand for supersize screens.

TV industry experts say these monster TVs are beginning to encroach on home theater projectors, which create a 254- to 305-centimeter image that is less sharp and require rooms with blackout curtains or without windows.

“A dedicated viewing room for watching movies was exclusively the purview of projectors,” Andrew Sivori, vice president in the entertainment division of LG Electronics, another Korean manufacturer. “But you can get a much better viewing experience with direct TV.”

Retailers and TV makers said the buyers trading up range from millennials and members of Generation X to the tech-native Gen Z crowd. But as Jon Abt, co-president of Abt Electronics said, “It’s still a niche business.”

“A lot of people just don’t have the space to put one of those in,” he added.

Before dreaming big for the holidays, shoppers therefore should make sure a 249-centimeter TV will fit. Best Buy said its Geek Squad team asks if stairwells and entry halls are large enough to accommodate delivery and installation. An augmented reality feature on the Best Buy app that allows customers to see if products are the right size has been especially helpful for XXL TVs, the retailer said.

But for those worried about having the space for viewing, the good news is that the recommended distance for a 249-centimeter TV is actually just 1.8-3.6 meters feet from the seating area. The rule of thumb is to multiple the diagonal length of the TV by 1.2 to determine the ideal viewing distance, Samsung’s Fishler said.

If bigger is better in the TV department, how big can they go?

“I think we’ll have to wait and see,” Fishler said.
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MEXICO CITY — Cassandra Garduño squinted in the sunlight, her pink boots smudged by dirt as she gazed out over her family’s chinampa — one of the islands first built up by the Aztecs with fertile mud from the bottom of a lake that, later drained, would one day become Mexico City.

Food from these islands has fed people for hundreds of years, but the chinampas are under threat from urbanization. The produce grown here doesn’t fetch much money, and many families are abandoning the ancient practice to rent out or sell their land for more lucrative uses such as soccer fields.

“People don’t want to farm anymore,” said Garduño. “They don’t see it as a necessity, they don’t want to produce, and people don’t want to buy the products.”

Some of those remaining, like Garduño, are banding together to preserve and promote the traditional use of the chinampas.

“None of this can exist without human hands, the hands of those who worked here and created the chinampa a thousand years ago,” she said on a recent morning as the smell of celery growing nearby filled the air.

The gardens crisscrossed by canals in the capital’s southern Xochimilco borough are built up from layers of dredged soil, held together by tall, thin ahuejotes — a kind of willow tree — planted around their perimeter. Xochimilco has more than 2,500 acres of protected land owned by generations of local chinamperos, as those who farm the islands are known.

Garduño’s earliest memories of her family’s chinampa came from peering through her grandparents’ window at the plot of land and watching canoes weave in and out of the canals. Even then, she saw how the chinampas were deteriorating under pressure from urbanization and as some farmers began to drop the practice.

When her grandfather died in 2010 and her uncles didn’t want to carry on, Garduño took it upon herself to learn and conserve generations of farming. Her neighbors and relatives were skeptical at first, but she bought land for her own chinampa from a friend’s uncle in 2020 and now grows an assortment of produce, including sunflowers, eggplant, and the Mexican marigold “cempasuchil.”

Now the 32-year-old Garduño is one of the growing collective called Chinampa Refuge, started by the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and she and other famers encourage chinamperos to preserve their land. They follow ancient growing techniques but are trying new commercial approaches to compete with cheaper produce grown on massive farms elsewhere in Mexico. That includes a special tag — Etiqueta Chinampera — that tells buyers the produce came from a chinampa, and may tout things like water quality or the chinampa’s status as a biodiversity refuge.

“Change comes with educating the new generations,” said Garduño. “Talking about the origins and efforts to conserve and why it’s important to do it.”

Luis Zambrano, an ecologist from the National Autonomous University of Mexico who has worked in Xochimilco for decades, said the fields are largely self-sustaining. Nourished by the lake, they can produce three to five crops of vegetables a year without the need of chemicals or irrigation, he said.

Moreover, the ecosystem of Xochimilco benefits the sprawling city. Many different species of birds and fish thrive there, and the extensive canals help reduce the city’s overall temperature, he said.

But now, on weekends, it’s common to see more soccer players boating to islands in their jerseys and cleats than farmers tending their crops. The soccer fields stretch for miles along the canals after what Zambrano called “a massive increase” over the past two to three years.

In Xochimilco, many people are reluctant to talk about transforming their chinampas to soccer fields. One landowner who declined to be identified for fear of legal or community backlash said keeping the chinampas productive required more work and financial investment and yielded less revenue. Instead, she has established multiple businesses on her land — a soccer field for weekend games, a food stand and kayaking tours for foreign visitors.

“If you do well (farming) you could earn $5,000 to $10,000 (100,000 to 200,000 pesos) a year,” Garduño said. “In the tourist area you could have that within a couple of weekends.”

But converting the agricultural fields carries ecological impact. While traditional farming methods avoid insecticides and fertilizers, the soccer fields are another story.

“It doesn’t look that detrimental because there’s no construction,” said Zambrano. But “it’s just as damaging because the amount of chemicals that are used, the amount of pollution that is generated is very, very large.”

The chinampas are among the significant features that led Mexico City’s historic center and Xochimilco to be recognized as a world heritage site by UNESCO. But any protective measures are up to federal, state and local authorities. Carlos Vasquez, director of the Natural Protected Areas under Mexico City’s Environmental Department, said they are working on proposals to address the soccer fields.

“Many are counter to the conservation of the ecosystems,” he said. “We’re looking to regulate these activities.”

After a long day’s work out in the sun, Garduño and some neighboring farmers congregate under Garduño’s makeshift hut for a feast of chicken and tortillas. They catch up on their tasks and outline what’s left to do.

Juan Ávalos, 63, and his brother Salvador Gonzalez Ávalos, 55, have been working on chinampas all their lives. Their family has several plots in Xochimilco’s San Gregorio neighborhood. A year ago, after some convincing by Garduño, the brothers joined Chinampa Refuge to adopt a more holistic approach to their farming.

Salvador said the approach is a continuous reminder of his family’s legacy in maintaining the ancient practices — something they want to pass on to their grandchildren.

“That’s something we need to work on as grandparents,” he said. “That they integrate themselves with a taste for this earth.” 
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NEW DELHI — The decadeslong ban of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses in his native India is now in doubt — not because of a change of heart more than two years after the author’s near-fatal stabbing, but because of what amounts to some missing paperwork.

Earlier this week, a court in New Delhi closed proceedings on a petition filed five years ago that challenged the then-government’s decision to ban the import of the novel, which enraged Muslims worldwide because of its alleged blasphemy, just days after its 1988 publication. In a ruling issued Tuesday, according to the Press Trust of India news agency, a bench headed by Justice Rekha Palli said authorities had failed to produce the notification of the ban.

“We have no other option except to presume that no such notification exists,” the judges concluded.

The petitioner, Sandipan Khan, had argued that he couldn’t buy the book because of a notification issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs on October 5, 1988, which forbade its import into India, adding that he was unable to locate the notification on any official website or through officials. Khan’s lawyer, Uddyam Mukherjee, said that the court’s ruling meant that as of now, nothing prohibits anybody from importing the novel into India.

“But whether this means it will be sold in bookstores — I don’t know, that depends on the publishers or sellers,” he told The Associated Press.

When reached by phone, several bookstores in the country’s capital were unaware of the news. An employee of Jain Book Agency in New Delhi said that they did not know whether this news meant that the novel would be available again in stores in India, adding that if that was the case, it could still take time and that they would need to hear from the publisher.

“What the ruling does is open up a potential path for the book to become available here,” Mukherjee said, but added that any aggrieved individual, group or the government can also appeal against it.

Rushdie’s literary agent, Andrew Wylie, declined comment to the AP. Rushdie, now a citizen of the United Kingdom and the United States, has yet to comment publicly. He has more than 1 million followers on his X account, on which he last posted in September.

Rushdie’s publisher in India, Penguin Random House India, issued a statement Friday called the ruling a “significant new development” and adding that it was “thinking through next steps.”

This week’s ruling adds a new twist to Rushdie’s complex relationship with India, where he was born in 1947, just before the country’s independence. He left as a child and was living in the United Kingdom at the time of his breakout novel, Midnight’s Children, which came out in 1981 and infuriated India’s prime minister at the time, Indira Gandhi, who was satirized in the book. After she sued over a reference to her having caused her husband’s death, Rushdie agreed to remove it, and the case was settled.

When India banned The Satanic Verses, Rushdie condemned the action and doubted whether his censors had even read the novel. In an open letter to then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, published in The New York Times in 1988, he alleged the book was “being used as a political football” and called the ban not only “anti-democratic, but opportunistic.” Over the years, Rushdie has made private trips to India and attended the Jaipur Literary Festival in 2007. But five years later, he canceled plans to attend the Jaipur gathering because of security concerns. The festival did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.

Besides the ban in his native country, The Satanic Verses elicited a fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death from Iran’s Ayotollah Ruhollah Khomeini, forcing the author into hiding in 1989. He gradually resumed a normal life, especially after Iranian officials announced in 1998 that the government had no plans to enforce it. But his relative calm abruptly ended in 2022, when he was stabbed repeatedly onstage by a young assailant during a literary festival in western New York. Rushdie survived the attack, which left him blind in one eye, and wrote about it in the memoir Knife, a finalist this year for the National Book Award.

On Friday, Khan’s lawyer said that his client was an avid book reader driven to find answers after he found out the novel was banned. He filed numerous requests for information with various authorities — and tried for over a year to get a hold of the notification. Mukherjee said Khan was told by authorities that it was not traceable.

“When we realized there was no hope, we proceeded to go to court and challenge the notification,” Mukherjee added.

The court also said that Khan has the right under law to procure this book. So how does he plan to get it now?

“He doesn’t have a clear answer to this yet — if it becomes available in India, he will buy a copy of it,” Mukherjee said. “But he can also potentially buy it from international booksellers online, as it’s no longer illegal to import the book into the country.” 
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paris — As dusk falls over the City of Light, a new spectacle is illuminating Saint-Sulpice church, a monument whose interiors are even larger than Notre Dame’s — and arguably just as breathtaking. 

The cavernous walls of the neoclassical gem on Paris’ Left Bank are coming alive with 360-degree video projections, sparkling cutting-edge technology and actors, all telling the story of the church and its place in French history. 

Blending centuries of intrigue, revolution and family drama, the show reimagines the Saint-Germain district during the Fronde, the 17th-century civil war, and the lead-up to the French Revolution. 

“Paris Cœur de Lumières” (Paris Chancel of Lights), which runs until November 23, transforms the church’s sprawling 6,000-square-meter (65,000-square-foot) interior into a digital stage through advanced video mapping. 

“From a technological standpoint, it’s a laser scan of the entire building that allows us to reconstruct the space in three dimensions,” director Damien Fontaine explained. 

“We then ‘unfold’ it like origami … and put it back into 3D to be projected as a single unified image. We have over 45 projectors, each covering a part of the vaults, a section of a pillar, or a piece of the nave. It’s … a mosaic of images to form one large picture.” 

Projections transform stone carvings into animated storytellers, while immersive soundscapes, paired with an original score, wrap the audience in a sensory experience. 

The actors brought history to life. Over 350 performers and volunteers, clad in more than 500 historical costumes, move among the audience portraying local families and rivalries, threading personal narratives into the broader history. 

Many of those who volunteered themselves marveled at learning about little known aspects of French history. 

Anne Dubosc, a 65-year-old amateur actress, played Anne of Austria, mother of Sun King Louis XIV. 

“She was a remarkable woman, very involved in politics and religion,” Dubosc said. “I hadn’t realized how important she was. If Louis XIV became the man he was, it was partly thanks to this woman, this mother who was like a tigress, doing everything to protect her son and teaching him to be a great statesman.” 

Performing in Saint-Sulpice, she added, was extraordinary: “It’s exceptional. You lose track of what’s happening, of where fiction ends and history begins.” 

Her historic costume shaped her performance — literally. 

“I have a corset that squeezes me so tightly,” she said. “You realize there’s a very 18th-century way of holding yourself, of carrying your shoulders and neck, which gives a natural majesty. The costume really impacts how you carry your body, and that posture influences your mind, giving character to this woman of state.” 

The production underscored a growing trend in Paris of using light technology to show off the city’s storied church interiors. A similar illuminations display took place at Saint-Eustache church until September, featuring video projections, lighting effects and spatialized electronic soundtrack. 
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ROME — The Pompeii archaeological park plans to limit visitor numbers to 20,000 a day and introduce personalized tickets starting next week in a bid to cope with over-tourism and protect the world heritage site, officials said Friday.

The move comes after what authorities called a record summer that saw more than 4 million people visiting the world-famous remains of the ancient Roman city, buried under ash and rock following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.

The park’s director Gabriel Zuchtriegel said visitors to the main archaeological site now exceed an average of 15,000 to 20,000 every day, and the new daily cap will prevent the numbers from surging further.

“We are working on a series of projects to lift the human pressure on the site, which could pose risks both for visitors and the heritage (that is) so unique and fragile,” Zuchtriegel said.

Starting November 15 tickets to access the park will be personalized to include the full names of visitors. A maximum of 20,000 tickets will be released each day, with different time slots during the peak summer season.

The park’s management is also trying to attract more tourists to visit other ancient sites connected to Pompeii by a free shuttle bus under the “Greater Pompeii” project, including Stabia, Torre Annunziata and Boscoreale sites.

“The measures to manage flows and safety and the personalization of the visits are part of this strategy,” Zuchtriegel said.

“We are aiming for slow, sustainable, pleasant and non-mass tourism and above all widespread throughout the territory around the UNESCO site, which is full of cultural jewels to discover,” he added. 
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Washington/Istanbul — Local authorities in Turkey’s metropolitan Istanbul province banned a screening of the LGBTQI-themed movie “Queer” on Thursday because of concerns that it would endanger public peace and security.

The screening of “Queer,” a film directed by Italian director Luca Guadagnino and starring Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey, was scheduled to open a film festival in Istanbul’s Kadikoy district on Thursday. The festival was organized by Mubi, an international streaming platform and film production and distribution company.

Mubi canceled the entire festival, noting “This ban not only targets a single film but also undermines the very essence and purpose of the festival.”

In a statement shared on X, Mubi announced that the Kadikoy District Governor’s Office had notified them of the ban hours before the festival was set to begin.

“The decision states that the film is prohibited on the grounds that it contains provocative content that could endanger public peace, with the ban being imposed for security reasons,” Mubi wrote.

“We believe this ban is a direct restriction on art and freedom of expression,” Mubi added.

The Kadikoy District Governor’s Office has not made a public statement on the ban and has not responded to VOA’s inquiry at the time of this story’s publication.

Rising anti-LGBTQI+ rhetoric

The Turkish government has toughened rhetoric against its LGBTQI+ community in recent years, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeatedly calling its members “perverts” or “deviants.”

Authorities have banned pride marches throughout the country since 2015, citing security concerns. At least 15 people were detained in Istanbul in June for taking part in a pride rally.

Yıldız Tar, editor in chief of the LGBTQI news portal KaosGL, does not find the ban surprising considering the government’s anti-LGBTQI stance.

“The reason for the ban on ‘Queer’ is of course that it is a film about LGBTI+ people. When you try to organize any LGBTI+-themed event in Turkey since 2015, you already encounter such bans,” Tar told VOA.

Tar noted that the Kadikoy District Governor’s Office banned the screening of another movie, “Pride,” as part of Pride Month events in June 2023.

The Istanbul festival, which was scheduled to take place November 7 to 10, included a variety of film screenings, talks and performances. According to Mubi, tickets for the festival had sold out days in advance.

Tar views Mubi’s decision to cancel the festival after the ban as “an important and valuable message” and argues that the platform’s decision should be exemplary.

“If LGBTI+ themed films are being censored so openly at this point, then festivals and the world of culture and arts need to raise a very strong voice against this censorship,” Tar said.

Academic and film critic Yeşim Burul also sees the district governor’s ban as censorship.

“We are talking about unacceptable censorship here. It is truly absurd that a district governorship would make such decisions to prevent a film from reaching the audience,” Burul told VOA.

“We, as adults, can decide which film we can and cannot watch. Such festivals are already organized for those over the age of 18, and tickets are sold that way,” Burul added.

The 2024 film “Queer,” with a screenplay adapted from William S. Burroughs’ 1985 novel, tells the story of an American expatriate living in Mexico City in the 1950s who establishes an intimate connection with a younger man.

In October, Mubi acquired distribution rights for the film in multiple territories, including Turkey, India, the United Kingdom, Germany and Latin America.

Reactions

Several rights groups and organizations reacted to the ban on the screening.

According to the LGBTI+ Rights Commission of the Istanbul branch of the Human Rights Association, the ban is “a continuation of criminalizing LGBTI+ individuals.”

In a post on X, the rights group argued that the ban violates not only domestic law but also the “protection from discrimination” principle of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Turkey is a signatory.

The Actors’ Union of Turkey called the ban “clearly an application of censorship.”

“The duty of art and artists is to broaden the horizons of societies and offer them new perspectives while telling their own stories,” the union said in a statement published on X. The union also reminded that the law on freedom of expression protects artistic activities in Turkey.
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AMSTERDAM — Antisemitic rioters “actively sought out Israeli supporters to attack and assault them” after a football match, Amsterdam authorities said Friday as Israel said it was sending planes to the Dutch capital to fly fans home.

An unknown number of Israeli supporters were injured in the Thursday night violence that was condemned by the leaders of both the Netherlands and Israel as antisemitic.

A statement issued by the Dutch capital’s municipality, police and prosecution office said that the night after the Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv “was very turbulent with several incidents of violence aimed at Maccabi supporters.”

There was no immediate word on the number of injured or arrests.

The violence erupted Thursday despite a ban on a pro-Palestinian demonstration near the football stadium imposed by Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema, who had feared that clashes would break out between protesters and supporters of the Israeli football club.

Israel ordered that two planes be sent to the Dutch capital to bring the Israelis home.

“The prime minister has directed that two rescue planes be sent immediately to assist our citizens,” said a statement from Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

It added that “the harsh pictures of the assault on our citizens in Amsterdam will not be overlooked,” and that Netanyahu “views the horrifying incident with utmost gravity.” He demanded that the Dutch government take “vigorous and swift action” against those involved.

Netanyahu’s office added that he had called for increased security for the Jewish community in the Netherlands.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on X that he followed reports of the violence “with horror.”

“Completely unacceptable anti-Semitic attacks on Israelis. I am in close contact with everyone involved,” he added, saying that he had spoken to Netanyahu and “emphasized that the perpetrators will be tracked down and prosecuted. It is now quiet in the capital.”

Geert Wilders, the hard right nationalist lawmaker whose Party for Freedom won elections in the Netherlands last year and who is a staunch ally of Israel, reacted to a video apparently showing a Maccabi fan being surrounded by several men.

“Looks like a Jew hunt in the streets of Amsterdam. Arrest and deport the multicultural scum that attacked Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters in our streets. Ashamed that this can happen in The Netherlands. Totally unacceptable,” Wilders said.

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, also condemned the violence in a post on the social media platform X.

Ajax won the Europa League match 5-0. 
…

NEW DELHI — Tens of thousands of Hindu devotees flocked to rivers and bodies of water across India to pray to the sun god as part of the Chhath festival this week.

In Noida, on the outskirts of the capital New Delhi, families gathered at the Yamuna river, which is covered with white toxic foam as a result of pollutants discharged from nearby industries.

Women in brightly colored saris waded into the knee-deep water flecked with blobs of white foam. Some carried a coconut or other fruits as an offering to thank Lord Surya, the god of the sun, for sustaining life on earth as they sought divine blessings.

The Yamuna is considered one of India’s most sacred rivers, and Hindu devotees have continued to use it despite warnings about the toxic foam. A court in Delhi on Wednesday forbade worshipers from performing rituals on the bank of the heavily polluted river over health and safety concerns, local media reported, yet thousands gathered on Thursday and Friday at the river banks to immerse themselves in the river and drinks it water.

From the financial capital Mumbai to Hyderabad in the south and Guwahati in the east, thousands of men, women and children did the same.

The Chhath festival, celebrated after the Hindu festival of Diwali, originated in the country’s eastern states, with large celebrations in Bihar and Jharkand, and extends to Nepal. Over the years, it has grown more popular across India, often introduced as migrants from eastern states mark the festival away from home.

The rituals, which stretch over four days, include a holy dip in the river and a period of fasting and abstaining from drinking water. On the last two days, devotees stand in the waters to pray to the sun as it rises and sets, with some families camping out overnight along the banks. 
…

BUENOS AIRES — Three people have been charged in connection with the death of Liam Payne, a former member of musical group One Direction who died after falling from the balcony of his hotel room in Buenos Aires last month, Argentine prosecutors said Thursday.

Prosecutor Andrés Madrea charged the three suspects, whose identities were not revealed, with the crimes of “abandonment of a person followed by death” and “supplying and facilitating the use of narcotics,” the prosecutor’s office said. Madrea also requested their arrest to judge Laura Bruniard, who ruled the three cannot leave the country.

Payne fell from his room’s balcony on the third floor of his hotel in the upscale neighborhood of Palermo, in the Argentine capital. His autopsy said he died from multiple injuries and external bleeding.

Prosecutors also said that Payne’s toxicological exams showed that his body had “traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescribed antidepressant” in the moments before his death.

Investigators said hours after Payne’s death that he was by himself when he fell. But the prosecutors’ office said Thursday that one of the people charged was often with the singer during his time in Buenos Aires. The second is a hotel staffer who allegedly gave Payne cocaine during his stay between October 13 and 16. And the third is a drug dealer.

The charges in Payne’s case bear some resemblance to the U.S. cases stemming from the death of Friends star Matthew Perry a year ago. The actor’s personal assistant and a longtime friend are among those charged with helping supply him with ketamine in the final months of his life, leading up to his overdose on the anesthetic.

Three young men were similarly charged in the opioid-overdose death of rapper Mac Miller in 2018.

Local authorities gathered, among other pieces of evidence, Payne’s cellphone records, material for forensics and testimonies. They are yet to unlock the singer’s personal computer – which is damaged – and other devices that were seized.

Payne’s autopsy showed his injuries were neither caused by self-harm nor by physical intervention of others. The document also said that he did not have the reflex of protecting himself in the fall, which suggests he might have been unconscious.

Prosecutors in Argentina also ruled out the chances of Payne dying by suicide.

One Direction was among the most successful boy bands of recent times. It announced an indefinite hiatus in 2016 and Payne — like his former bandmates Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, and Louis Tomlinson — pursued a solo career.

The singer had posted on his Snapchat account that he traveled to Argentina to attend Horan’s concert in Buenos Aires on October 2. He shared videos of himself dancing with his girlfriend, American influencer Kate Cassidy, and singing along in the stands. Cassidy had left Argentina after the show, but Payne stayed behind. 
…

UNESCO – the U.N. agency for the protection of cultural heritage – says it is concerned that museums in Sudan are being looted during the ongoing civil war. VOA gained access to one damaged and apparently ransacked museum. VOA’s Henry Wilkins has more from The House of the Khalifa in the city of Omdurman.
…

Quincy Jones, the multi-talented music titan whose vast legacy ranged from producing Michael Jackson’s historic “Thriller” album to writing prize-winning film and television scores and collaborating with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and hundreds of other recording artists, has died at 91.

Jones’ publicist, Arnold Robinson, says he died Sunday night at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, surrounded by his family.

“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing,” the family said in a statement. “And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him.”

Jones rose from running with gangs on the South Side of Chicago to the very heights of show business, becoming one of the first Black executives to thrive in Hollywood and amassing an extraordinary musical catalog that includes some of the richest moments of American rhythm and song. For years, it was unlikely to find a music lover who did not own at least one record with his name on it, or a leader in the entertainment industry and beyond who did not have some connection to him.

Jones kept company with presidents and foreign leaders, movie stars and musicians, philanthropists and business leaders. He toured with Count Basie and Lionel Hampton, arranged records for Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, composed the soundtracks for “Roots” and “In the Heat of the Night,” organized President Bill Clinton’s first inaugural celebration and oversaw the all-star recording of “We Are the World,” the 1985 charity record for famine relief in Africa.

Lionel Richie, who co-wrote “We Are the World” and was among the featured singers, would call Jones “the master orchestrator.”

In a career that began when records were still played on vinyl at 78 rpm, top honors likely go to his productions with Jackson: “Off the Wall,” “Thriller” and “Bad” were albums near-universal in their style and appeal.

Jones’ versatility and imagination helped set off the explosive talents of Jackson as he transformed from child star to the “King of Pop.”

On such classic tracks as “Billie Jean” and “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” Jones and Jackson fashioned a global soundscape out of disco, funk, rock, pop, R&B and jazz and African chants. For “Thriller,” some of the most memorable touches originated with Jones, who recruited Eddie Van Halen for a guitar solo on the genre-fusing “Beat It” and brought in Vincent Price for a ghoulish voiceover on the title track.

“Thriller” sold more than 20 million copies in 1983 alone and has contended with the Eagles’ “Greatest Hits 1971-1975” among others as the best-selling album of all time.

“If an album doesn’t do well, everyone says ‘it was the producers fault’; so if it does well, it should be your ‘fault,’ too,” Jones said in an interview with the Library of Congress in 2016. “The tracks don’t just all of a sudden appear. The producer has to have the skill, experience and ability to guide the vision to completion.”

The list of his honors and awards fills 18 pages in his 2001 autobiography “Q”, including 27 Grammys at the time (now 28), an honorary Academy Award (now two) and an Emmy for “Roots.” He also received France’s Legion d’Honneur, the Rudolph Valentino Award from the Republic of Italy and a Kennedy Center tribute for his contributions to American culture.

He was the subject of a 1990 documentary, “Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones” and a 2018 film by daughter Rashida Jones. His memoir made him a best-selling author.
…

“Venom: The Last Dance” enjoyed another weekend at the top of the box office. The Sony release starring Tom Hardy added $26.1 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.

It was a relatively quiet weekend for North American movie theaters leading up to the presidential election. Charts were dominated by big studio holdovers, like “Venom 3,” “The Wild Robot” and “Smile 2,” while audiences roundly rejected the Tom Hanks, Robin Wright and Robert Zemeckis reunion “Here.” Thirty years after “Forrest Gump,” “Here” opened to only $5 million from 2,647 locations.

“Venom 3” only fell 49% in its second weekend, which is a notably small drop for a superhero film, though it didn’t exactly open like one either. In two weeks, the movie has made over $90 million domestically; The first two opened to over $80 million. Globally, the picture is brighter given that it has already crossed the $300 million threshold.

Meanwhile, Universal and Illumination’s “The Wild Robot” continues to attract moviegoers even six weeks in (and when it’s available by video on demand), placing second with $7.6 million. The animated charmer has made over $121 million in North America and $269 million worldwide. “Smile 2” landed in third place with $6.8 million, helping to push its worldwide total to $109.7 million.

The time-hopping “Here,” a graphic novel that was adapted by “Forrest Gump” screenwriter Eric Roth, was financed by Miramax and distributed by Sony’s TriStar. With a fixed position camera, it takes audiences through the years in one living room. Critics were not on board: In aggregate it has a lousy 36% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Despite playing in almost 1,000 more locations, “Here” came in behind Focus Features’ papal thriller “Conclave” which earned $5.3 million. Playing in 1,796 theaters, “Conclave” dropped only 20% from its debut last weekend and has made $15.2 million so far. Two Indian films also cracked the top 10 in their debuts, “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3” and “Singham Again.”

Jesse Eisenberg’s film “A Real Pain,” a comedic drama about cousins on a Holocaust tour in Poland, launched in four theaters this weekend in New York and Los Angeles. It made an estimated $240,000, or $60,000 per screen, which is among the top three highest per theater averages of the year. Searchlight Pictures will be expanding the well-reviewed film nationwide in the coming weeks, going wide on Nov. 15 to over 800 theaters.

Box office charts don’t always paint a full picture of the moviegoing landscape, however. This weekend several relatively high-profile films playing in theaters did not report full grosses for various reasons, including the Clint Eastwood film “Juror #2,” Steve McQueen’s WWII film “Blitz” and the Cannes darling “Emilia Pérez.” Netflix, which is handling “Emilia Pérez,” never reports box office figures. Apple Original Films is following suit with “Blitz,” a likely awards contender, which is in theaters before hitting Apple TV+ on Nov. 22. 

“Juror No. 2” is a Warner Bros. release, and a well-reviewed one at that. The film directed by Eastwood stars Nicholas Hoult as a juror on a murder case who faces a big moral dilemma. Domestic ticket sales were withheld. The studio did say that it earned $5 million from international showings, where it played on 1,348 screens.

Even major studios withhold box office numbers occasionally. Earlier this year, Disney did not report on the Daisy Ridley movie “Young Woman and the Sea.” Results were most notably withheld during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Final domestic figures will be released Monday. Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore, were:

1. “Venom: The Last Dance,” $26.1 million. 

2. “The Wild Robot,” $7.6 million. 

3. “Smile 2,” $6.8 million. 

4. “Conclave,” $5.3 million. 

5. “Here,” $5 million. 

6. “We Live In Time,” $3.5 million. 

7. “Terrifier 2,” $3.4 million. 

8. “Singham Again,” $2.1 million. 

9. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” $2.1 million. 

10. “Bhool Bhulaiyaa,” $2.1 million. 
    …

NEW YORK — John Albert’s daughter didn’t go to school on Friday. And he couldn’t be happier about it.

For the first time, the high school senior and all of New York City’s public school students have the day off to mark the holiday of Diwali, celebrated in India and among the global Indian diaspora as the victory of light over darkness and marked by communities of Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs.

To get the holiday added to the school calendar, where it joins other days off for Rosh Hashanah, Lunar New Year, Eid al-Fitr as well as federal holidays like Veterans Day, Christmas and Memorial Day, took years of pushing from those in New York’s South Asian and Indo-Caribbean communities like Albert. But it was worth it.

“It was this feeling of wanting to weave our culture into New York,” he said.

From religious and cultural holidays to region-specific commemorations to days meant to honor the towering figures and moments of U.S. history, the holiday calendars across the 50 states and the country at large are increasingly diverse ones, a reflection of and a window into the many communities that make up the American whole.

Recognizing holidays creates community

Including a smaller culture’s or community’s special days as something to recognize in the larger general culture is an act of unity, said Lauren Strauss, professor of modern Jewish history at American University.

“By doing that in an American context and by including a Muslim feast for the end of Ramadan and by including Diwali and including Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, my goodness. You’re just saying it out loud, aren’t you? You’re saying that these cultures, these people, they aren’t visitors, that they are a permanent part of this community, that it is multicultural and multiethnic,” she said.

“Whether or not you think it’s good or bad, certainly it paints a different picture of what it means to be American and what the American calendar is.”

A look at what days are marked as holidays in places around the country can be a crash course into what matters in those places. Louisiana, home to New Orleans, takes a day for Mardi Gras. In Hawaii, the state marks a day for King Kamehameha, who united the Hawaiian islands, as well as a day for becoming a U.S. state. California and some other states mark Cesar Chavez Day, named for the civil rights and labor movement activist. In Texas and in the southwest, there are celebrations scheduled for Friday marking Day of the Dead, the Mexican cultural remembrance of loved ones who have passed.

The federal government, in addition to the 11 days that are days off for federal workers, has a host of days that it marks as national observances, like Harriet Tubman Day in March and Patriot Day on September 11.

It keeps greeting card companies on their toes.

“Celebrating holidays and occasions, big or small, with the people we care about is a vital thread that runs through our shared human experience,” Kelly Ricker, chief product officer at American Greetings, said in a statement. The company is “studying and talking to consumers, continuously” to keep up with the kinds of cards people are looking for.

When Chris Sargiotto started his greeting card company Apartment 2 Cards about 15 years ago, the holiday offerings were limited to Christmas and Hanukkah. In recent years, he’s added Kwanzaa and Ramadan, and is looking to bring Diwali cards onto the roster for next year.

The additional holidays were added because of requests from his customers, the stores around that country that stock Apartment 2 cards, a reflection of increasing demand.

“It was stores asking for it because of their customers are asking for it,” he said. “Whenever we introduce one of these specific cards, it seems to take off. So I think there definitely is the need for these.”

There can be challenges as well

But a holiday is not always uncontested. Take mid-October, when the federal government recognizes Columbus Day. It was added to the federal calendar in the 20th century after efforts from Italian Americans, who pushed for it as a way to stake their community’s place in America.

In the decades after though, Indigenous communities pushed back, citing the impact of colonization on their people and the continuing challenges. That has led to the spread of Indigenous People’s Day marked on the same day, which while not a federally recognized is recognized in states around the country.

And sometimes there’s some learning that needs to happen as well. In Montville, New Jersey, the police department this month put a post on Facebook explaining to the community that with Diwali approaching, they would be more likely to see swastikas, a variation of which are ancient sacred symbols in some religions and not deployed in the way Hitler and the Nazis did.

With both Jewish and Hindu communities in the town, it was done in an attempt to forestall misunderstanding, said Chief Andrew Caggiano, and has been met with an overwhelmingly positive response.

“It’s a great opportunity,” he said, “to raise awareness about other cultures that are that are in our community and that are part of our community at this point.”
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MEXICO CITY — Every year this time Mexico erupts in celebrations during the Day of the Dead. Families gather at cemeteries across the country on November 1 to reconnect with their dead just as their ancestors have done for centuries. 

For many more in small communities, it’s also about preserving the core of their traditions as celebrations in places in bigger hubs have increasingly been marked by mass tourism. 

“We’re conserving our tradition, part of our heritage that my mother instilled in me,” said 58-year-old Antonio Melendez. “We can’t let it be lost.” 

Observance dates back centuries

Melendez was among throngs of people gathered in the cemetery, tucked away in the maze of canals and brick buildings in Xochimilco, a borough in south of Mexico City that has long carried on traditions that have faded away in other parts of the country. 

He gathered with his two daughters around the grave of his mother, marked by orange flower petals spread out in the shape of a cross and bouquets of pink flowers, his mother’s favorite color. 

Melendez said she died last year, and the loss was still fresh, so he was trying to remember her by continuing with the same rituals he watched her carry out growing up, this time with his daughters. He started preparing for the celebration four days before, making tamales from scratch and building a small altar for her in their home. 

Day of the Dead dates back centuries to ancient Indigenous civilizations, which would organize parties when someone died to guide them on to the next life, and lay out food in altars to nourish them on their journeys. 

When Spanish colonizers arrived and began forcing Catholicism upon Indigenous communities, they would mix Indigenous traditions with Catholic holidays. Celebrations of the dead then synced up with All Saints Day on November 1, ending on November 2. 

While celebrations begin ramping up at the end of October, Mexican tradition says that on that night their deceased are closest to the living world, and people hope to keep them company. Each family celebrates in different ways. 

In San Gregorio Pantheon, elderly women carry massive bundles of orange flowers, the iconic flower of death. Some families sob into each other’s arms. Others sit alone next to loved one’s graves in silence. Many more drink mezcal and tell stories of their family members. 

‘It’s like being with them’

Gathered with her daughter and granddaughter, 60-year-old Beatriz Chavez kneels at the graves of her son, nephew and father, quietly lighting candles. 

“It’s like being with them one more year, feeling like even if they don’t see them, we feel like we’re closer to them,” Chavez said, noting that she planned to sleep in the graveyard, just like she did every year since her father died when she was 10. 

Over the years, the tradition has been the focus of the Disney film Coco. A Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City was also featured in a James Bond film, despite such a parade not existing in real life. Annual celebrations later adopted the idea of the parade from the movie. 

Now, people from all over the world have flocked to the Latin American nation, eager to experience the rich tradition for themselves. 

But once quaint celebrations in hubs for the Day of the Dead like Mexico City, Oaxaca and Michoacan have started to brim with tourists, who snap photos of mourners. In recent years, many Mexicans have also started to mix the celebration with Halloween. Other new traditions — such as the James Bond parade — have popped up. 

Some, like Melendez, prickle at the shifts. 

“Here, Halloween isn’t ours, it’s Day of the Dead,” he said. “It’s sad because it’s getting distorted. We’re losing the essence of who we are. This is a part of us, our roots.” 

For Melendez, it adds an extra level of importance to the celebration in their small cemetery, which he and others say has stayed true to the centuries-old traditions. 

It coincides with a larger conversation playing out across Mexico amid an influx of American “expats” and tourists. As more move to or travel to Mexico City, rents have gotten so high that many Mexicans have been pushed out of areas they’ve lived in for much of their lives, leaving frustration simmering in much of the city. 

Those who wander the graves and sell flowers and food in the streets see the changes less as a loss of tradition, and more as an evolution — a way for younger generations to continue passing on their heritage in their own ways, and share it with new audiences. 
…

tokyo — Hello Kitty turned 50 on Friday. Befitting a pop icon at midlife, the bubble-headed, bow-wearing character’s fictional birthday has brought museum exhibits, a theme park spectacle and a national tour. And that’s just in Japan, her literal birthplace but not the one listed in her official biography. 

Confused? Welcome to the party. If there’s one thing about Hello Kitty, it’s that she’s proven adaptable and as much a study in contrasts during her long career. She — and Kitty is a she, according to the company that owns her — may have been conceived as a vessel for the feelings of others, but some women see an empowering symbol in her mouthless face. 

“Shrewd” is how Mika Nishimura, a design professor at Tokyo’s Meisei University, describes the way Hello Kitty conquered the worlds of commerce, fashion and entertainment. As a tabula rasa open to interpretation, the non-threatening creation was the perfect vehicle for making money, she said. 

“American feminists have said she doesn’t say anything and acquiesces to everyone. But in Japan, we also see how she may appear happy if you’re happy, and sad if you’re feeling sad,” Nishimura told The Associated Press. “It’s a product strategy that’s sheer genius. By being so adaptable, Kitty gets all those collaborative deals.” 

The character’s semicentennial is evidence of that. Sanrio, the Japanese entertainment company that holds the rights to Hello Kitty’s name and image, kicked off the festivities a year ago with an animation account on TikTok, Roblox games and an avatar for the social networking app Zepeto. 

There have been anniversary editions of merchandise ranging from pet collars, cosmetics and McDonald’s Happy Meals to Crocs and a Baccarat crystal figurine. A gold coin pendant with the image of Hello Kitty holding the number 50 is selling for about 120,000 yen ($800), while a Casio watch costs 18,700 yen ($120). 

But first, more on the origin story. 

Unlike Mickey Mouse and Snoopy, Hello Kitty didn’t start as a cartoon. A young Sanrio illustrator named Yuko Shimizu drew her in 1974 as a decoration for stationery, tote bags, cups and other small accessories. The design made its debut on a coin purse the next year and became an instant hit in Japan. 

As Hello Kitty’s commercial success expanded beyond Asia, so did her personal profile. By the late 1970s, Sanrio revealed the character’s name as Kitty White, her height as five apples tall and her birthplace as suburban London, where the company said she lived with her parents and twin sister Mimmy. 

“The main theme of Hello Kitty is friendship. When I first created it, I made a family of which Kitty was a part. But then Hello Kitty started to appear in other settings as the character grew,” Shimizu told the BBC in June. “Sanrio put a lot of effort into building the brand into what it is today.” 

At some point, Sanrio designated Kitty’s birthday as November 1, the same as Shimizu’s. Her background was embellished with hobbies that included playing piano, reading and baking. Her TV appearances required co-stars, including a pet cat named Charmmy Kitty that made its debut 20 years ago. 

But Hello Kitty’s 40th birthday brought an update that astonished fans. Sanrio clarified to a Los Angeles museum curator that Kitty, despite her feline features, was a little girl. A company spokesperson repeated the distinction this year, renewing debate online about the requirements for being considered human. 

“She is supposed to be Kitty White and English. But this is part of the enigma: Who is Hello Kitty? We can’t figure it out. We don’t even know if she is a cat,” art historian Joyce S. Cheng, a University of Oregon associate professor, said. “There is an unresolved indeterminacy about her that is so amazing.” 

Part of the confusion stems from a misunderstanding of “kawaii,” which is Japanese for “cute” but also connotes a lovable or adorable essence. Sanrio recruited Shimizu and other illustrators to create “kawaii” characters at a time when cute, girlish styles were popular in Japan. But the word is used often in Japanese society, and not only to describe babies and puppies. 

An elderly man, something as innocuous as an umbrella, a subcompact car or a kitchen utensil, or even a horror movie monster can get labeled “kawaii.” By Western standards, the idea may seem embarrassingly frivolous. But it’s taken seriously in Japan, where the concept is linked with the most honorable instincts. 

The complexity of “kawaii” may help explain Hello Kitty’s enduring appeal across generations and cultures, why Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne released a song titled “Hello Kitty” a decade ago, and why Britain’s King Charles wished Hello Kitty a happy 50th birthday when he hosted Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako at Buckingham Palace in June. 

Although Hello Kitty may seem to embody the self-sacrificing woman stereotype, it’s revealing that three women have served as the character’s chief designers at Sanrio. Yuko Yamaguchi, who has held the role since 1980, is credited with keeping the character both modern and timeless, giving Kitty black outfits or false eyelashes as trends dictated but never removing the bow from her left ear. 

“Hello Kitty, this cultural object, has something to tell us about the history of women in East Asia, and how East Asian women modernized themselves and became professional citizens in a modern society,” the University of Oregon’s Cheng said. 

Sanrio has come up with hundreds of creatures, all adorable and cuddly, but none with the lasting power of Hello Kitty. Forget the understated wabi-sabi aesthetic historically associated with Japan. A chameleon-like cat-girl who reflects unabashed kitsch is the cultural ambassador of a consumer-crazed, happy-go-lucky nation. 

“It’s the anti-wabi sabi, wanting to be as flashy and as bling-bling as possible, like Lady Gaga. In your face, but that’s actually part of the genius, too. It’s powerful,” Cheng said. 

Leslie Bow, a professor of English and Asian American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that while many Asian and Asian American women see Hello Kitty as a symbol of defiance, the protective, caretaking instinct aroused by “kawaii” isn’t without power. 

“We take care of our siblings, our babies, our pets, because we are in control. We control their actions. And so that is also the dark side of cute,” Bow said. 

Sanrio has taken advantage of the character’s adaptability by allowing relatively unrestricted use of her image in return for a licensing fee. 

Just about anything goes for the wee whiskered one, from a growing global empire of Sanrio-sanctioned Hello Kitty cafes to an “augmented reality” cellphone app that shows Kitty dancing in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, London’s Big Ben and other tourist landmarks. 

On the unsanctioned side, Hello Kitty even has shown up on guns and vibrators. 

During a presentation earlier this year in Seoul, Hello Kitty designer Yamaguchi said one of her unfulfilled goals was finding a way “to develop a Hello Kitty for men to fall in love with as well.” But she’s still working on it. 

“I am certain the day will come when men are no longer embarrassed to carry around Hello Kitty,” entertainment news site Content Asia quoted Yamaguchi as saying. 
…

KARACHI, Pakistan — Attiq Ur Rehman is determined to follow his dream to become Pakistan’s first professional surfer despite his father’s concern for his future, a lack of equipment and the messy waves near Karachi.

“I don’t care about the money right now. I just want to compete,” the 21-year-old says, shrugging off his father’s plea to take up fishing so he can get married and support his family. “It’s my surfer attitude.”

Rehman’s family are part of a poor coastal community in southern Pakistan that usually make a living from fishing or as lifeguards watching over more affluent residents of Karachi when they come for a day at the beach.

His father makes the equivalent of $100 a month to feed a family of 10 through fishing.

“I told him a thousand times (to stop surfing) but he still doesn’t listen,” said Rehman’s father, Muhammad Rafiq.

Rehman was a lifeguard but gave it up to concentrate on his surfing, which he started at age 9, and founded a new community that calls itself “Surfers of Bulleji.”

The group has grown to around 50 and has gone viral on social media in a country where cricket and hockey are the main sports.

The group consists of surfing enthusiasts from surrounding coastal villages, some as young as 8.

On a sunny day, their passion for surfing is on display with the right window for waves to surf along a near-empty beach close to the metropolis of 20 million.

One of cohort, Mujahid Baloch, a 24-year-old fisherman, first saw surfing on social media and instantly took a shine to it.

“Slowly, through watching, we learned. No one taught us,” he said.

Though Sri Lanka and the Maldives to the south are on global surfers’ hit lists, Pakistan’s arid 1,000 kilometers of coastline is usually poorly suited for surfing, relying on local winds to generate waves that are often small and messy, or rare cyclone swells.

“When all of Karachi was being given an advisory to stay away from the sea, and a cyclone was approaching, me and the boys were getting ready to go to the beach,” said Rehman. “The waves were ideal for us.”

While an occasional visiting surfer might join them for a paddle and some other villages along the coast have small surfing groups, competition with global peers is a challenge. The International Surfing Association has 116 member countries, including places such as Ukraine and land-locked Switzerland, but Pakistan is not on the list.

Still, members of Surfers of Bulleji idolize American professional surfer Kelly Slater, whose videos they often watch awestruck, and wish to emulate his skill.

But access to surfing equipment is limited in Pakistan, with the group sharing about 25 surfboards and pitching in for repairs when they are needed.

They sometimes find discarded boards in large containers of junk brought to Pakistan from around the world. They buy these junked boards for as little as $35 and repair them using basic materials like glue and resin.

“If it breaks, we repair it. Because we don’t have surfboards here,” Baloch said. Pointing to a piece of foam, he said it was found at sea and shaped into a makeshift board. “If we find more such foam, we can make our own boards here,” he said.

“Our community is getting bigger and stronger, so the shopkeepers know we will come and keep such finds safe for us,” Rehman said.
…

New York City recently hosted the world’s largest Halloween parade, bringing together the city’s spookiest and most spectacular characters. Here’s Aron Ranen with the story.
Camera: Aron Ranen
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NEW DELHI — As India gears up for Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, people are divided over whether they should celebrate by setting off firecrackers, which worsen the country’s chronic air pollution.

Diwali, which will be celebrated Thursday, is marked by socializing and exchanging gifts with family and friends. Many Indians light earthen oil lamps or candles. But every year the festivities are tinged with worries over air pollution, as smoke-emitting firecrackers cause toxic smog that can take days to clear.

The capital, New Delhi, which is among India’s worst cities for air quality, is particularly impacted by the problem and is usually shrouded in toxic gray smog a day after Diwali. Authorities there and in some other states have banned the use and sale of firecrackers since 2017, asking people to opt for more sustainable options like environmentally friendly firecrackers and light shows, but the rule is often flouted. Firecrackers can be easily bought from roadside stalls and stores.

Some residents in New Delhi say the ban doesn’t make much difference, while others see it as a necessary measure to fight pollution.

Vegetable vendor Renu, who only uses one name, loves celebrating Diwali in the city. Every year her kids set off firecrackers at night. She tells them to be careful but not to refrain from using them.

“Diwali is a day of celebration and happiness for us which comes only once a year, and I feel the ban should not be there,” she said.

Others are against it.

Unlike most kids, Ruhaani Mandal, 13, doesn’t light firecrackers. She acknowledges it is fun but says it is hazardous for people and animals.

“I have seen firsthand the struggle of my father, who has lost his sense of smell due to pollution, and I see how his health worsens after Diwali celebrations,” she said.

New Delhi and several northern Indian cities typically see extremely high levels of air pollution between October and January each year, disrupting businesses and shutting schools and offices. Authorities close construction sites, restrict diesel-run vehicles and deploy water sprinklers and anti-smog guns to control the haze and smog that envelopes the skyline.

This year, thick, toxic smog has already started to engulf New Delhi. On Wednesday, authorities reported an AQI of over 300, which is categorized as “very poor.”

Several studies have estimated that more than a million Indians die each year from air pollution-related diseases. A high level of tiny particulate matter can lodge deep into the lungs and cause major health problems, including chronic respiratory diseases.

New Delhi’s woes aren’t only due to firecrackers. Vehicular emissions, farm fires in neighboring states and dust from construction are the primary causes of the capital’s air pollution woes. But health experts say the smoke emitted from firecrackers can be more hazardous.

“The smoke that is produced by firecrackers contains heavy metals like sulphur, lead and toxic gases like carbon monoxide and fumes of heavy metals that are dangerous to our respiratory system,” said Arun Kumar Sharma, a community medicine professor at New Delhi’s University College of Medical Sciences.

Meanwhile, authorities in New Delhi have largely failed to enforce a strict ban on the use of firecrackers to avoid offending millions of Hindus across the country, for whom Diwali is one of the biggest festivals. To sidestep the ban, many sellers offer firecrackers online, some with the convenience of home delivery.

Shopkeeper Gyaanchand Goyal said the ban on firecrackers has disadvantaged sellers like him and affected their biggest source of income during the festive season.

“The government enforces a restriction on firecrackers solely to demonstrate their commitment to the environment. Other than that, I don’t think there are any other consequences of this ban,” he said.
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