Two documentaries offering a female perspective on the death and destruction in the war-torn Syrian cities of Aleppo and Eastern Ghouta received Oscar nominations for Best Documentary. Waad al-Kateab’s film “For Sama” and Feras Fayyad’s film “The Cave” document civilians’ struggle for survival in devastated cities where doctors in makeshift hospitals tend to throngs of injured and dying. Amidst airstrikes, barrel bombs and chemical attacks, citizen journalist-turned-filmmaker al-Kateab chronicles her daily life in besieged Aleppo since the beginning of the rebellion against the Assad regime in 2012.”When I filmed everything you’ve seen in the film, I had no idea that I would do a film. So, I was just documenting all these moments because I was sure that I would be killed and I wanted this story not to be dead,” al-Kateab told VOA.”For Sama” is a visual diary dedicated to her daughter, Sama, born in the middle of destruction.Over five years in Aleppo, al-Kateab filmed thousands of hours of footage, recording her personal life as a young student, as a young bride living with her husband, Hamza, a doctor in Aleppo, and then as a mother.FILE – Director/producer/cinematographer Waad al-Kateab, left, and director Edward Watts participate in PBS’s “For Sama” panel at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., July 30, 2019.While thousands of people who were looking for a better life abandoned the city, al-Kateab and her husband chose to stay, with Hamza working at a makeshift hospital where he was one of the few doctors left tending to injured civilians, mostly women and children.While airstrikes were hitting the hospital, al-Kateab kept filming the incoming casualties, holding the camera with one hand and her baby with the other. “I can’t really separate myself between Waad the mother and Waad the journalist. Everything I was trying to do was mixed between these two, and you can see that in the film,” she said.Filming everything around her served as a coping mechanism for al-Kateab. When she would feel hopeless as a mother, unable to give her daughter a better life, she would keep filming. And when she could no longer bear to film the horrors she witnessed, she would find solace in her baby daughter. She also drew hope that her footage would humanize the refugees on the world stage by showing how dangerous life is in Syria.”Behind every one of us, there is a story, there is a lot of memories, there is childhood and a lot of complicated decisions until they (we) reach this point. When people see the film, they can experience the same situation I went through,” al-Kateab said.After five years in Aleppo, ak-Kateab fled to London with her family in 2017. There, she collaborated with award-winning filmmaker and producer Edward Watts to make “For Sama.””It was incredibly challenging, trying to make this film,” Watts told VOA. “There were so many different stories. It was the story of Aleppo. The story of the hospital and their friends. It was the story of the whole conflict. And there was so much incredible footage. Trying to scope that, distill that down, while retaining its essence, retaining its spirit and doing justice to these guys’ lives was very hard.”‘The Cave'”The Cave” by Syrian filmmaker Fayyad is also an Oscar contender in the category of Best Documentary Feature. This is Fayyad’s second Oscar-nominated documentary on war-torn Syria.As in the film “For Sama,” Fayyad’s documentary chronicles Herculean efforts by a skeleton crew of doctors and nurses at an underground hospital called The Cave to save as many lives as possible from airstrikes by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and its allies in Eastern Ghouta. “The Cave” also chronicles the destruction through the eyes of a woman, the hospital’s head doctor, Dr. Amani Ballour, in a culture where, for women, wartime struggles are compounded by gender inequality.”A woman would be attacked if she turned to be a manager, and this is what happened with Dr. Amani. She managed to be a manager. She was the first manager in the history of Syria to lead a hospital,” Fayyad told VOA.FILE – Feras Fayyad arrives at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, March 4, 2018.Fayyad also said that the film documents airstrikes by Russian warplanes and chemical attacks by the Assad regime on civilians, many of them children.He said both the Syrian government and its Russian allies have tried to discredit his film.”They called me a propaganda maker and the film a propaganda film,” Fayyad told VOA.Theodore Strzhizhovskiy, head of press, information and public relations of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, told VOA: “As for ‘The Cave,’ we do not closely follow Mr. Fayyad’s creative endeavors.”Fayyad, a Syrian exile living in Denmark, has been denied a visa to enter the United States to attend the Oscars.Members of the International Documentary Association wrote a letter to the U.S. State Department, requesting that Fayyad be given a visa to enter the U.S. and represent his film at the Oscars.When asked by VOA about the filmmaker’s case, the State Department responded in a statement: “The Department of State recognizes the important contributions international filmmakers and documentarians make to the culture of the United States. We strive to facilitate the legitimate travel of artists to the United States, regardless of nationality.”
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Month: January 2020
Eminem Drops Surprise Album, Advocates Changes to Gun Laws
Rapper Eminem once again dropped a surprise album, releasing of “Music to be Murdered By” on Friday.The follow-up to 2018’s “Kamikaze” – also released without warning – was announced on Twitter just after midnight.The Detroit rapper also released a new music video for one of the 20 tracks on the album, “Darkness,” which depicts a shooting at a concert and includes footage of news broadcasts from recent mass shootings around the U.S. The video ends with an appeal to register to vote: “When will this end? When enough people care. Register to vote at vote.gov. Make your voice heard and help change gun laws in America.”The cover art features a bearded Eminem holding both a hatchet and a gun to his head, in apparent homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 album of the same name, Pitchfork noted.Among many collaborators, the album features Ed Sheeran, Skylar Grey, Anderson .Paak and Juice WRLD, the 21-year-old rapper who died in December.
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Cycling is Their Activism: How Some Young Girls in Pakistan Are Fighting for Public Space
For almost two years, a group of dedicated young women in a conservative neighborhood of Pakistan has been working to beat the odds and change the culture around them. The women are doing it by cycling. VOA’s Ayesha Tanzeem reports from Pakistan’s largest city Karachi
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Muslim Millennial’s Site Dispels Stereotypes for Millions
Today she travels the world, attends a red-carpet movie premiere and sits on panels with astronauts, former presidents and feminist icons.But in the years after 9/11, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, center, sits at the Islamic Center of New York University during Friday prayers, Dec. 27, 2019. At 17, she and a group of friends started the blog Muslimgirl.com in response to anti-Muslim bullying they experienced after 9/11.A decade later, her She was 9 when the airliners struck the World Trade Center towers, and she remembers the warning of her Jordanian immigrant father: “They’re going to blame us.”In the aftermath, she was bullied. People threw eggs at her home and slashed her mother’s tires. Her family faced such a backlash that her father temporarily relocated them to Jordan.While she is proud of being “born and raised a Jersey girl,” it was only in Jordan that she began to take pride in her roots. She learned Arabic and appreciated Middle Eastern food and hospitality. When she returned to the U.S., she began to wear a headscarf as an act of defiance against a rising anti-Muslim tide.“I lost a lot of friends, people started treating me differently,” she said. But she also became an ambassador for her faith. Students, even teachers, stopped her in school and asked about the Quran and Islam.“I had to learn as much as I possibly could about my own religion, the ins and outs of it, what Islamophobes were saying about it, so that I could understand how to respond,” she said.Eventually, she concluded that if the people around her had those questions, so did many others.In recent years, Forbes magazine chose her for its “30 Under 30” list of top achievers. Michelle Obama asked her to speak at the United State of Women Summit. She was also part of a panel that included female astronaut Cody Coleman and was moderated by former President Bill Clinton. Most recently, she served on an advisory committee for the live-action remake of Disney’s “Aladdin” and attended the premiere.“It was such a full-circle moment for me, because when I was a little girl, Princess Jasmine was one of the only representations that I had growing up,” she said.Being on the committee allowed her “to try to course-correct some of the problematic stereotypes” in the first movie, including some that she did not notice as a child.She pointed to two examples: The opening song talked about a faraway place that is “barbaric.” And Jasmine was dressed in a belly dancing outfit and chains in a “hyper-sexualized and oppressive way.”On her site, Al-Khatahtbeh is especially proud of stories that deal with race and sexuality. “Of course, female sexuality is honored within our religion, and it shouldn’t be something we shy away from or think of as a taboo.”Most of the site’s visitors live in the U.S. and Britain, and an estimated 70% are Millennials and Gen Z ages 15 to 32. One of the site’s most controversial stories was written by a Muslim transgender convert.“We want to push the envelope that way by creating that space and reminding people that they have a place within our religion,” she said. “I’m really proud of that, because one thing MuslimGirl does really well is we attract youth. They want to come in, and they want to learn more about Islam because of the way that we put it out there. We always say that our language is the Millennial tongue.”
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Mistrust Provokes Attack on Red Cross Volunteers in Ebola-Affected Community in DR Congo
The The World Health Organization reports that 3,382 cases of Ebola, including 2,232 deaths, have occurred in Congo’s North Kivu and Ituri provinces since the start of the outbreak in August 2018. The epidemic is unfolding in an area affected by a two decades-long conflict that has claimed countless lives.Capobianco says this unstable, dangerous situation has raised fear and hostility in communities toward responders.”The episode was regrettable and I think the expression of the frustration in the communities seeing this Ebola outbreak continuing month after month,” he said. “You know, this is a year-and-a-half now. And, that is a way that the frustration and the fear is manifesting.” Capobianco says the attack is a sign that the Red Cross needs to do more to build community trust and acceptance. He says the hundreds of volunteers involved in Ebola operations come from the communities in which they work. He says this is one of their strengths.After the volunteers recover from the shock of the attack, he says they will go back into the communities. The Red Cross official says they will talk and listen to what they have to say while continuing to involve them in the Ebola response.
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US Experts: Last Decade was Hottest Ever Recorded
The last 10 years were the hottest decade ever measured on Earth, last year was the second warmest ever and NASA says “you haven’t seen anything yet.”The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday that the average global temperature in the 2010s was 14.7 degrees Celsius, with eight of the 10 hottest years ever recorded.Parts of Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and South America had record-high temperatures in 2019. Alaska’s average temperature was above freezing for the first time in recorded history.Many climate scientists who have seen the study said there was no other explanation for the record-breaking warming than human activity.”This is going to be part of what we see every year until we stabilize greenhouse gases,” said Gavin Schmidt, head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “We crossed over into more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit warming territory in 2015 and we are unlikely to go back. This shows that what’s happening is persistent, not a fluke due to some weather phenomenon.”Experts say natural causes of a warmer atmosphere, including more heat from the sun and climate variations, are not big enough to explain the long-term temperature rise.For those who still question global warming, the scientists say all one has to do is look at melting ice sheets, more powerful storms, floods in some parts of the world and drought in others as clear evidence.
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Intellectual Property Theft a Growing Threat
The new U.S.-China trade agreement includes provisions that are aimed at curbing forced technology transfers, in which companies hand over technical know-how to foreign partners. For many high-tech businesses, the intellectual property behind their products represents the bulk of their companies’ value. To learn more about the risks of IP theft, Elizabeth Lee recently visited the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where companies talked about the risks to their technology secrets.
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Intellectual Property Theft a Growing Threat
Intellectual property theft is a growing concern, and it poses a real risk at large conferences where people from around the world are gathered, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said recently. David Eagleman was one of more than 175,000 people at the Consumer Electronics Show held earlier this month in Las Vegas. He is a Stanford neuroscientist who co-founded a company that creates a wristband that helps the hearing-impaired hear through their skin. The device was produced after years of research, so Eagleman wanted it well-protected globally. Sorry, but your player cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
FILE – Tara Scranton demonstrates the Sarcos Robotics Guardian XO at the Delta Airlines booth during the CES tech show, Jan. 8, 2020, in Las Vegas. The full-body powered exoskeleton is designed to boost the user’s strength and endurance.At conferences, such as the Consumer Electronics Show, where there were more than 4,000 companies exhibiting and more than 160 countries represented, Rouse said one should be aware of who is handling the technology at all times. “Before you come out to one of these conferences, [it’s important] to make sure that the equipment arrives intact and on time, that it makes it off the loading dock,” he said. “And then during the time of the convention, who’s handling your your equipment? Who is handling your product, and do they have access or the capability of installing malware onto that product at that time?” As technology continues to permeate every aspect of life, especially internet file sharing, the FBI warns intellectual property theft is a growing threat that can cost companies billions of dollars.
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Book by Pope Emeritus on Celibacy Gets Shrug in France
The former pope Benedict XVI reportedly wants his name removed from a controversial book that appears to undermine his successor, Pope Francis, on issues of priestly celibacy. The book hit stores Wednesday in France, the first country to publish it. But despite the furor the book has stirred in the press, many French readers appear underwhelmed.The book, “Des Profondeurs de Nos Coeurs,” meaning “From the Depths of Our Hearts,” defends priestly celibacy at a time when Pope Francis is considering whether to lift restrictions on married priests in remote areas. Cardinal Robert Sarah, who co-authored the book, rejects accusations he manipulated Benedict regarding the content. The furor, which appears to lay bare spiritual divisions between the two popes, has made news headlines, but hasn’t stirred up much public interest. Parisian Brigitte Gallay says she has heard about the book, but notes Protestant ministers are married with children. She sees nothing wrong about a church that’s closer to the lives of ordinary people — even though some Catholics might be shocked at the thought of married priests. The Catholic Church has taken a hit in France, not just because of declining attendance, but also because of a major pedophilia scandal — the theme of a recent movie. A trial opened this month against a priest at the heart of the scandal, which has helped fuel debate about the dangers of priestly celibacy. At Paris bookstore Gibert Joseph, social worker Alexander Monnot adds the book to a pile of others he’s planning to buy. Monnot says he supports celibacy for priests. “The fact is, at the very beginning of the Church, there was Jesus and 12 apostles,” Monnot said. “And even some were married. They all left their families to preach. Jesus was not married. And priests should be an incarnation, a continuation of Jesus.”Monnot says he is looking forward to reading the book’s arguments in favor of celibacy, but that’s not the only reason he’s buying it. He predicts the French publisher will recall this edition, which has Benedict’s name as co-author, meaning the copy he’s buying may one day be a collector’s item.
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China: Possible That New Virus Could Spread Between Humans
The possibility that a new virus in central China could spread between humans cannot be ruled out, though the risk of transmission at the moment appears to be low, Chinese officials said Wednesday.
Forty-one people in the city of Wuhan have received a preliminary diagnosis of a novel coronavirus, a family of viruses that can cause both the common cold and more serious diseases. A 61-year-old man with severe underlying conditions died from the coronavirus on Saturday.
While preliminary investigations indicate that most of the patients had worked at or visited a particular seafood wholesale market, one woman may have contracted the virus from her husband, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said in a public notice.
The commission said the husband, who fell ill first, worked at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. Meanwhile, the wife said she hasn’t had any exposure to the market.
It’s possible that the husband brought home food from the market that then infected his wife, Hong Kong health official Chuang Shuk-kwan said at a news briefing. But because the wife did not exhibit symptoms until days after her husband, it’s also possible that he infected her.
Chuang and other Hong Kong health officials spoke to reporters Wednesday following a trip to Wuhan, where mainland Chinese authorities briefed them on the outbreak.
The threat of human-to-human transmission remains low, Chuang said, as hundreds of people, including medical professionals, have been in close contact with infected individuals and have not been infected themselves.
She echoed Wuhan authorities’ assertion that there remains no definitive evidence of human-to-human transmission.
The outbreak in Wuhan has raised the specter of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. SARS is a type of coronavirus that first struck southern China in late 2002. It then spread to more than two dozen countries, killing nearly 800 people.
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Whitney Houston, Notorious B.I.G. Lead Field into Rock Hall
Posthumous inductees Whitney Houston and The Notorious B.I.G. will lead a new class into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, joined by Depeche Mode, the Doobie Brothers, Nine Inch Nails and T-Rex.The gospel-trained Houston, whose soaring voice transformed the Dolly Parton cover “I Will Always Love You” into a gigantic hit, was one of four artists elected after being on the ballot for the first time. The Doobie Brothers, Biggie and T-Rex were the others.The annual induction ceremony will take place May 2 at the Public Auditorium in Cleveland, the city where the rock museum is located. The Saturday night show will be on HBO, televised live for the first time.Houston, who succumbed to years of drug abuse in 2012, was an instant success after being signed to a record contract at age 19. Her 1985 debut had three No. 1 singles: ”Saving All My Love for You,” ”How Will I Know” and ”The Greatest Love of All.” She had seven consecutive singles top the charts, a first for any artist.The daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston and cousin of Dionne Warwick, she grew up in the business.The imposing, Brooklyn-born rap artist Christopher Wallace took on the identities of The Notorious B.I.G. and Biggie Smalls and was massively influential as rap became music’s dominant style in the 1990s. With hits like ”Juicy” and ”Big Poppa,” he was the leader of an East Coast school of rap that found itself in a bitter rivalry with artists from the West Coast.He was killed in a still-unsolved drive-by shooting in Los Angeles at age 24 in 1997. On the album, ”Life After Death,” with hits like ”Mo Money Mo Problems” and ”Hypnotize,” he became the first artist to earn multiple No. 1 singles after his death.Depeche Mode remains active, but its biggest influence came in the 1980s, when its post-punk, synthesizer-dominated music made the Brits a favorite of the goth subculture. Hits included ”Personal Jesus,” ”Just Can’t Get Enough” and ”Enjoy the Silence.”Depeche Mode shares with fellow inductees Nine Inch Nails the honor of having one of their signature songs covered by country legend Johnny Cash, who recorded ”Personal Jesus” and NIN’s ”Hurt” during his late-career resurgence.With songs like ”Closer,” NIN was a leader of the industrial rock movement in the 1990s. Like Green Day, a memorable performance in the mud at Woodstock ’94 brought them a wider audience. Leader Trent Reznor has become a go-to soundtrack producer in addition to his continued work with Nine Inch Nails.The Doobie Brothers weren’t critical favorites, but they had some indelible rock hits in the 1970s, including ”Listen to the Music,” ”Black Water” and ”China Grove.” They’re embarking on a 50th anniversary tour this summer, bringing members Michael McDonald, Pat Simmons, Tom Johnston and John McFee together for the first time in 25 years, and a rock hall induction makes for perfect publicity.The British band T-Rex was know primarily for its 1970s hit ”Bang a Gong (Get it On)” and, to a lesser extent, ”Jeepster.” The death of leader Marc Bolan in 1977 ended the band.The two non-performing inductees may be able to bring some star power with them.Music manager Irving Azoff has watched the finances for several bands, but is best-known as the manager of the Eagles since 1974.Jon Landau is a former music journalist, known for an indelible line when he saw a concert by a little-known artist in 1974: ”I saw rock `n’ roll’s future and its name is Bruce Springsteen.” Shortly thereafter, he became Springsteen’s manager, a job he still holds today.Tickets for the induction ceremony go on sale Feb. 27. Performers will be announced at a later date.
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EU Legal Opinion: Mass Data Retention at Odds With EU Law
A legal adviser at the European Union’s highest court said Wednesday that the bloc’s data protection rules should prevent member states from indiscriminately holding personal data seized from Internet and phone companies, even when intelligence agencies claim that national security is at stake.
In a non-binding opinion on how the European Court of Justice, or ECJ, should rule on issues relating to access by security and intelligence agencies to communications data retained by telecommunications providers, advocate general Campos Sanchez-Bordona said “the means and methods of combating terrorism must be compatible with the requirements of the rule of law.”
Commenting on a series of cases from France, the U.K. and Belgium — three countries that have been hit by extremist attacks in recent years and have reinforced surveillance — Sanchez-Bordona said that the ECJ’s case law should be upheld. He cited a case in which the court ruled that general and indiscriminate retention of communications “is disproportionate” and inconsistent with EU privacy directives.
The advocate general recommended limited access to the data, and only when it is essential “for the effective prevention and control of crime and the safeguarding of national security.”
The initial case was brought by Privacy International, a charity promoting the right to privacy. Referring to the ECJ’s case law, it said that the acquisition, use, retention, disclosure, storage and deletion of bulk personal data sets and bulk communications data by the U.K. security and intelligence agencies were unlawful under EU law.
The U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal referred the case to the ECJ, which held a joint hearing with two similar cases from France and another one from Belgium.
“We welcome today’s opinion from the advocate general and hope it will be persuasive to the Court,” said Caroline Wilson Palow, the Legal Director of Privacy International. “The opinion is a win for privacy. We all benefit when robust rights schemes, like the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, are applied and followed.”
The ECJ’s legal opinions aren’t legally binding, but are often followed by the court. The ECJ press service said a ruling is expected within two months.
“Should the court decide to follow the opinion of the advocate general, ‘metadata’ such as traffic and location data will remain subject to a high level of protection in the European Union, even when they are accessed for national security purposes,” said Luca Tosoni, a researcher at the Norwegian Research Center for Computers and Law. “This would require several member states — including Belgium, France, the U.K. and others — to amend their domestic legislation.”
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Documents Suggest Thomas Markle to Testify in Meghan Lawsuit
The estranged father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex could be called as a defense witness in her lawsuit against the Mail on Sunday newspaper, court papers reveal.
Meghan is suing the newspaper and its parent company Associated Newspapers for publishing a letter she wrote to her father Thomas Markle. The civil lawsuit accuses the newspaper of copyright infringement, misuse of private information and violating the U.K.’s data protection law with the publication of the letter.
Documents filed at the High Court show the newspaper plans to rely on evidence from Markle, stating that he “had a weighty right to tell his version of what had happened between himself and his daughter, including the contents of the letter.”
Papers drawn up by lawyers for the newspaper argue that members of Britain’s royal family “generate and rely on publicity about themselves and their lives in order to maintain the privileged positions they hold and to promote themselves.”
The paper also argues the letter’s publication was in response to a “one-sided” article in People Magazine in February 2019 featuring an interview with five unnamed “close friends” of the duchess which referenced the letter, meaning its existence was in the public domain.
The documents came to light this week amid the firestorm of attention that followed Meghan and Prince Harry’s decision to issue a statement announcing that they wanted to step back from their royal roles, become financially independent and split their time between Britain and North America. Queen Elizabeth II convened a family summit on Monday at her Sandringham estate in eastern England and decided the couple could to live part time in Canada.
Meghan was seen in Canada for the first time since the crisis began when she visited the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre in Vancouver to discuss issues affecting women in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. The shelter posted a photograph of the duchess’s visit.
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National Security Agency Discovers a Major Security Flaw in Microsoft’s Windows Operating System
The National Security Agency has discovered a major security flaw in Microsoft’s Windows operating system and tipped off the company so that it can fix it.Microsoft made a software patch to fix it available Tuesday and credited the agency as the flaw’s discoverer.The company said it has not seen any evidence that hackers have used the technique discovered by the NSA.”Customers who have already applied the update, or have automatic updates enabled, are already protected,” said Jeff Jones, a senior director at Microsoft, in a statement.Priscilla Moriuchi, who retired from the NSA in 2017 after running its East Asia and Pacific operations, said this is a good example of the “constructive role” that the NSA can play in improving global information security. Moriuchi, now an analyst at the U.S. cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, said it’s likely a reflection of changes made in 2017 to how the U.S. determines whether to disclose a major vulnerability or exploit it for intelligence purposes.The revamping of what’s known as the “Vulnerability Equities Process” put more emphasis on disclosing unpatched vulnerabilities whenever possible to protect core internet systems and the U.S. economy and general public.Those changes happened after a group calling itself “Shadow Brokers” released a trove of high-level hacking tools stolen from the NSA.
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EU Investment Plan Aims for Carbon Neutrality by 2050
The European Union rolled out a massive, trillion-dollar investment plan Tuesday to deliver on promises to make Europe the first carbon-neutral continent by 2050.The EU would designate one-quarter of its budget to fighting climate change over the next decade. The trillion-dollar price tag would come from a mix of EU and national government funds, as well as investment from the private sector. It targets the EU’s ambitious goal of ensuring greenhouse emissions reach net zero in 30 years. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who late last year announced that goal — a plan she calls the “Green Deal” — says the investments are for the climate, as well as EU citizens. “It will be invested in the huge transition ahead of us, which consists of upskilling people in new jobs, clean technologies, green financing, new procedures,” she said.FILE – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaks during a media conference after an extraordinary meeting of the EU college of commissioners at EU headquarters in Brussels, Jan. 8, 2020.The plan prioritizes investment to help coal-dependent countries like Poland transition to green energy. Poland is the only EU member that has not yet signed onto the Green Deal, which would support scientists, businesses and other players in the energy transition. Some of the financing is seed money aimed at triggering much bigger investment. States that want to qualify for funding must present proposals on low-emission projects as part of how they plan to restructure their economies to be climate friendlier. The European commissioner for budget and administration, Johannes Hahn, detailed the investment plan at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. “We have no time to waste if we want to deliver results for the citizens,” Hahn said. “Or, again in a nutshell, we provide climate cash in order to avoid a climate crash.”A recent poll shows Europeans fear climate change more than terrorism or losing their jobs. Still, some EU lawmakers suggest details of the green investment plan are too sketchy. Others believe it should link the funds to deadlines for phasing out coal. The European Investment Bank, which is mobilizing the chunk of money, announced last year it would end financing for all fossil fuel projects by the end of 2020, and align future financing goals with the Paris climate agreement. EU lawmakers are expected to hold a non-binding vote Wednesday on the Green Deal. Von der Leyen aims to have climate legislation adopted by March.
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Forget the Mouse: Your Thoughts Can Control Devices
It sounds like science fiction, but a number of tech wearables are letting users control devices with their thoughts. The implications for consumers and businesses are significant. But to start out, the goal of two developers is to simply enable more productivity. Tina Trinh meets the Brooklyn team behind a thought-powered headset.
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New Space Force Chief Sworn in
Vice President Mike Pence has formally sworn in in Gen. John “Jay” Raymond as the new Chief of Space Operations Tuesday at the White House.Raymond assumed the duties of the first head of the Space Force on December 20, 2019, when U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act that officially launched the new force.”The Space Force will help us deter aggression and control the ultimate high ground,” Trump said at the NDAA signing last month.Officials say the Space Force will organize, train and equip military personnel who primarily focus on space operations.Vice President Mike Pence, right, applauds during swearing in ceremony for Air Force General John Raymond as Chief of Space Operations, in his Ceremonial Office in the White House complex, Jan. 14, 2020 in Washington.Raymond was named commander of the new United States Space Command upon its creation in August of last year. That command, which sought to better organize the U.S. military’s space assets and operations, is being phased out as personnel are transferred to the Space Force.The military’s role in space has come under scrutiny because the U.S. is increasingly reliant on orbiting satellites that are difficult to protect. Satellites provide communications, navigation, intelligence and other services vital to the military and the national economy.The Space Force is the newest military service branch and will fall under the Department of the Air Force, much as the U.S. Marine Corps is a separate service within the Department of the Navy.Officials have said the Space Force will initially include thousands of Air Force service members and civilian personnel currently serving within the Air Force’s Space Command.Personnel from the Army and Navy’s space programs also are eventually expected to be integrated into the new service branch.
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Tom Hanks’ Family Offered Greek Passport too for Fire Help
Greece’s government is extending its offer of citizenship to Tom Hanks to his wife and their two children, in recognition of the family’s help in assisting victims of a deadly wildfire near Athens in 2018.Last month, Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos signed an honorary naturalization order allowing the 63-year-old actor, who has spent his recent summer vacations at a family home on the Greek island of Antiparos, to claim Greek citizenship.The decision published in a government gazette Tuesday and co-signed by Greek Interior Minister Takis Theodorikakos, revealed that the order also includes Hanks’ wife, actress and producer Rita Wilson, and their two sons, Chester and Truman.The wildfire killed more than 100 people in July 2018, sweeping through the coastal town of Mati and other nearby resorts east of Athens.“The Hanks family gave a signal all over the world for immediate relief actions to help our fire-stricken fellow citizens,” the order signed on Dec. 27 said. It added that in their effort to assist charity efforts they had provided “exceptional services to Greece.”Honorary naturalization, under Greek law, may be granted to people “who have provided exceptional services to the country or whose naturalization serves the public interest.”Hanks became an Orthodox Christian before his second marriage in 1988 to Rita Wilson, who is of Greek and Bulgarian descent.Hanks, Wilson, and Hollywood producer Gary Goetzman co-produced the 2002 romantic comedy, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which received an Academy Award nomination for best original screenplay.In a post on Instagram last week, Hanks said: “Starting 2020 as an Honorary citizen of all of Greece! Kronia pola! (more or less, ‘Many years to you!’). Hanx”The post shows the shadow of Hanks holding up his left arm against an ancient Greek statue.
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Oceans Were Hottest on Record in 2019
The world’s oceans were the hottest in recorded history in 2019, scientists said on Tuesday, as manmade emissions warmed seas at an ever-increasing rate with potentially disastrous impacts on Earth’s climate.Oceans absorb more than 90 percent of excess heat created by greenhouse gas emissions and quantifying how much they have warmed up in recent years gives scientists an accurate read on the rate of global warming.A team of experts from around the world looked at data compiled by China’s Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) to gain a clear picture of ocean warmth to a depth of 2,000 meters over several decades.They found that oceans last year were by far the hottest ever recorded and said that the effects of ocean warming were already being felt in the form of more extreme weather, rising sea levels and damage to marine life.The study, published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, said that last year the ocean was 0.075 Celsius hotter than the historical average between 1981-2010.That means the world’s oceans have absorbed 228 Zetta Joules (228 billion trillion Joules) of energy in recent decades.”That’s a lot of zeros,” said Cheng Lijing, lead paper author and associate professor at the International Center for Climate and Environmental Sciences at the IAP.”The amount of heat we have put in the world’s oceans in the past 25 years equals 3.6 billion Hiroshima atom bomb explosions.”The past five years are the five hottest years for the ocean, the study found.As well as the mid-term warming trend, the data showed that the ocean had absorbed 25 Zetta Joules of additional energy in 2019 compared with 2018’s figure.”That’s roughly equivalent to everyone on the planet running a hundred hairdryers or a hundred microwaves continuously for the entire year,” Michael Mann, director of Penn State’s Earth System Sciences Center, told AFP.Centuries of warming The 2015 Paris accord aims to limit global temperature rises to “well below” 2C, and to 1.5C if at all possible.With just 1C of warming since the pre-industrial period, Earth has experienced a cascade of droughts, superstorms, floods and wildfires made more likely by climate change.The study authors said there was a clear link between climate-related disasters — such as the bushfires that have ravaged southeastern Australia for months — and warming oceans.Warmer seas mean more evaporation, said Mann.”That means more rainfall but also it means more evaporative demand by the atmosphere,” he said.”That in turn leads to drying of the continents, a major factor that is behind the recent wildfires from the Amazon all the way to the Arctic, and including California and Australia.”Hotter oceans also expand, leading to sea level rises.The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in a landmark oceans report last year warned that tens of millions of people could be displaced from coastal areas by the end of the century because of encroaching seas.And given that the ocean has a far higher heat absorption capacity than the atmosphere, scientists believe they will continue to warm even if humanity manages to drag down its emissions in line with the Paris goals.”As long as we continue to warm up the planet with carbon emissions, we expect about 90 percent of the heating to continue to go into the oceans,” said Mann.”If we stop warming up the planet, heat will continue to diffuse down into the deep ocean for centuries, until eventually stabilising.”
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Brazil Documentary Gets Oscar Nomination, Exposes Division
The Academy Award nomination for a Brazilian documentary about the impeachment of then-President Dilma Rousseff has once again laid bare the polarization of Latin America’s largest democracy.
In “The Edge of Democracy,” 36-year-old filmmaker Petra Costa uses her personal story to argue that Brazil’s democracy is at risk after the abrupt end to governments led by the leftist Workers’ Party.
With Rousseff’s removal in 2016, her conservative vice president, Michel Temer, assumed power and in 2018, far-right Jair Bolsonaro defeated the Workers’ Party candidate to win the presidency.
Leftist politicians said Monday’s nomination validates their interpretation of Rousseff’s impeachment as a soft coup, as Costa suggests. Rousseff’s mentor, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who recently was released from jail pending appeal of his corruption conviction, praised Costa on Twitter for “the seriousness in which she narrated this important time of our history.’
“Truth will prevail,” he wrote.
Conservatives fired back, slamming the film’s veracity and insisting Brazil’s first female president deserved to be ousted for manipulating budget figures.
“Congratulations to filmmaker Petra Costa on her nomination for best fiction and fantasy,” the Brazilian Social Democracy Party, which was instrumental in Rousseff’s impeachment process, said on Twitter.
Roberto Alvim, Bolsonaro’s secretary of culture, also said Costa’s documentary amounts to fiction and told local newspaper Folha de S.Paulo that its recognition by Hollywood proves the culture wars are being waged internationally.
Costa, for her part, said on her social media channels that the documentary was urgent “in a time where the far right is spreading like an epidemic.”
The other films nominated for best documentary are “American Factory,” “The Cave” “For Sam” and “Honeyland.” The winning film will be announced at a Feb. 9 ceremony in Los Angeles.
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Worldwide Pollution-Related Deaths Topped 8 Million in 2017
Pollution kills three times more people than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined, according to new estimates. It’s one of the leading causes of death. But it’s a neglected issue in most of the world, despite the enormous toll. VOA’s Steve Baragona has more.
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Weinstein Back in Court as Jurors Winnowed for Rape Trial
Jury selection resumed Monday at the trial of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who has pleaded not guilty to charges he raped a woman in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and sexually assaulted another in 2006.The initial screening process, now on its fifth day, has been stymied by a host of challenges and distractions, including repeatedly denied requests from the defense and a noisy protest outside the courthouse.Both sides hope to deliver opening statements before the end of this month.If convicted at a trial expected to last into March, the 67-year-old could face life in prison.The former studio boss behind such Oscar winners as I and “Shakespeare in Love” has said any sexual activity was consensual.About 120 prospective jurors are being summoned to court each day. Last Tuesday, they were introduced as a group to Weinstein and were read a list of names that could come up at trial, including actresses Salma Hayek, Charlize Theron and Rosie Perez.As his New York trial was getting underway a week ago, Los Angeles prosecutors announced new charges in a separate case against Weinstein. Those charges accuse him of raping one woman and sexually assaulting another woman there on back-to-back nights in 2013, days before he walked the Oscars with his then-wife, fashion designer Georgina Chapman, who was pregnant at the time.Weinstein has not entered a plea in the Los Angeles case, which will be tried later.
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