Phil and Kristie Graves are a U.S.couple from Maryland and parents of three biological children and an adopted girl with special needs from Armenia. Recently, they decided to adopt a six-year-old girl with special needs from Ukraine. But that was before the Russian invasion. Anush Avetisyan has the story.
Videographer: Dmytri Shakhov
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Month: June 2022
Australian-Led Team Discovers Supermassive Black Hole
A massive, fast-growing black hole, more luminous than previously discovered phenomena, has been discovered by an international team led by astronomers in Australia. Scientists say the black hole consumes the equivalent of one Earth every second and shines 7,000 times brighter than all the light from our own galaxy.
Researchers were looking for unusual stars when they came across a supermassive black hole. It consumes the equivalent of one Earth every second and has the mass of three billion suns.
The team led by the Australian National University believes it was obscured by the lights of the Milky Way.
The discovery was made using the SkyMapper telescope at Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran in New South Wales.
To take a more detailed look, the team went to the South African Astronomical Observatory’s 1.9-meter telescope in Cape Town.
Christopher Onken from the Australian National University is the study’s lead researcher.
He says astronomers have been searching for these types of objects without success for more than 50 years.
“What we found is what appears to be the most luminous growing black hole in the last nine billion years of the history of the universe,” said Onken. “People have been looking for these kinds of objects for almost 60-years and this one escaped its notice probably because it was just a little bit too close to the plane of the Milky Way, where there is so many stars that often it is hard to follow up all of the objects that you might find. And, so, this one had been just outside the range that had been surveyed in the past.”
Black holes are parts of space where matter has collapsed in on itself.
Their light comes from a ring of gas, dust and stars that circles the black hole, known as an accretion disk.
Astronomers hope this rare find will offer tantalizing clues about the formation of galaxies. The ancient black hole is so “astonishingly bright” that it should be visible to well-equipped amateur stargazers.
The Australian-led research is continuing. The team also discovered another 80 growing black holes.
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Study: Facebook Fails to Catch East Africa Extremist Content
A new study has found that Facebook has failed to catch Islamic State group and al-Shabab extremist content in posts aimed at East Africa as the region remains under threat from violent attacks and Kenya prepares to vote in a closely contested national election.
An Associated Press series last year, drawing on leaked documents shared by a Facebook whistleblower, showed how the platform repeatedly failed to act on sensitive content including hate speech in many places around the world.
The new and unrelated two-year study by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found Facebook posts that openly supported IS or the Somalia-based al-Shabab — even ones carrying al-Shabab branding and calling for violence in languages including Swahili, Somali and Arabic — were allowed to be widely shared.
The report expresses particular concern with narratives linked to the extremist groups that accuse Kenyan government officials and politicians of being enemies of Muslims, who make up a significant part of the East African nation’s population. The report notes that “xenophobia toward Somali communities in Kenya has long been rife.”
The al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab has been described as the deadliest extremist group in Africa, and it has carried out high-profile attacks in recent years in Kenya far from its base in neighboring Somalia. The new study found no evidence of Facebook posts that planned specific attacks, but its authors and Kenyan experts warn that allowing even general calls to violence is a threat to the closely contested August presidential election.
Already, concerns about hate speech around the vote, both online and off, are growing.
“They chip away at that trust in democratic institutions,” report researcher Moustafa Ayad told the AP of the extremist posts.
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue found 445 public profiles, some with duplicate accounts, sharing content linked to the two extremist groups and tagging more than 17,000 other accounts. Among the narratives shared were accusations that Kenya and the United States are enemies of Islam, and among the posted content was praise by al-Shabab’s official media arm for the killing of Kenyan soldiers.
Even when Facebook took down pages, they would quickly be reconstituted under different names, Ayad said, describing serious lapses by both artificial intelligence and human moderators.
“Why are they not acting on rampant content put up by al-Shabab?” he asked. “You’d think that after 20 years of dealing with al-Qaida, they’d have a good understanding of the language they use, the symbolism.”
He said the authors have discussed their findings with Facebook and some of the accounts have been taken down. He said the authors also plan to share the findings with Kenya’s government.
Ayad said both civil society and government bodies such as Kenya’s national counterterrorism center should be aware of the problem and encourage Facebook to do more.
Asked for comment, Facebook requested a copy of the report before its publication, which was refused.
The company then responded with an emailed statement.
“We’ve already removed a number of these pages and profiles and will continue to investigate once we have access to the full findings,” Facebook wrote Tuesday, not giving any name, citing security concerns. “We don’t allow terrorist groups to use Facebook, and we remove content praising or supporting these organizations when we become aware of it. We have specialized teams — which include native Arabic, Somali and Swahili speakers — dedicated to this effort.”
Concerns about Facebook’s monitoring of content are global, say critics.
“As we have seen in India, the United States, the Philippines, Eastern Europe and elsewhere, the consequences of failing to moderate content posted by extremist groups and supporters can be deadly, and can push democracy past the brink,” the watchdog The Real Facebook Oversight Board said of the new report, adding that Kenya at the moment is a “microcosm of everything that’s wrong” with Facebook owner Meta.
“The question is, who should ask Facebook to step up and do its work?” asked Leah Kimathi, a Kenyan consultant in governance, peace and security, who suggested that government bodies, civil society and consumers all can play a role. “Facebook is a business. The least they can do is ensure that something they’re selling to us is not going to kill us.”
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Dangerous Heat Wave Descends on Parts of Midwest and South
A dangerous heat wave hit much of the Midwest and South on Tuesday, with temperatures hitting triple digits in Chicago and combining with the humidity to make it feel even hotter there and in other sweltering cities.
More than 100 million people were expected to be affected by midweek, and authorities warned residents to stay hydrated, remain indoors when possible, and be aware of the health risks of high temperatures. Strong storms brought heavy rain and damaging wind to many of the affected areas on Monday, and more than 400,000 customers remained without power as of Tuesday afternoon.
Excessive heat warnings are in effect for much of Illinois and Indiana along with parts of Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan and Ohio from Tuesday through Wednesday night, according to the National Weather Service.
Heat index values — which take into account the temperature and relative humidity and indicate how hot it feels outdoors — approached and topped 105 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) in some locations, including Chicago, the weather service said.
“Full sun today will make it feel even hotter,” the weather service wrote. “There will not be much relief for those without air conditioning today through Wednesday night.”
Much of southeastern Michigan — from just south of Flint to the state lines with Ohio and Indiana — was put under an excessive heat watch Wednesday through Thursday morning as the warm front is forecast to move east.
A heat advisory was also issued, stretching from as far north as Wisconsin down to the Florida Panhandle on the Gulf coast.
Health risks of heat
In Chicago, where a ferocious storm Monday night heralded temperatures that were expected to exceed 90 degrees on Tuesday and Wednesday, the May deaths of three women when temperatures climbed above 32 C (90 F) served as a reminder of the dangers of such heat — particularly for people who live alone or are dealing with certain health issues.
Pat Clemmons, an 81-year-old resident of the apartment complex where the women died, said everything was working well Tuesday morning as the temperatures climbed. She said that she had lived in the building for about 20 years and that she had never experienced issues before “that one horrible Saturday” in May.
“They have every kind of air conditioner, air blower, fan jets and everything else. … I’m fine right now,” Clemmons said. “The air’s on. You know they’re going to have everything working perfectly right now ’cause all the chaos that happened.”
By mid-afternoon, the temperature at Chicago Midway National Airport reached 100 F (38 C) for the first time since July 2012, the area’s weather service office reported.
Officials encouraged Chicagoans to check on their neighbors and loved ones and to quickly report any problems with cooling their homes. The city opened six large cooling centers and encouraged people to cool off in libraries, park district buildings and other public locations.
“The next two days will require that we all look out for one another and provide extra attention and resources for our vulnerable neighbors,” said Alisa Rodriguez, managing deputy commissioner for Chicago’s Department of Family Services and Support.
The Detroit suburb of Westland opened many of its public buildings as cooling stations Tuesday, including its city hall, fire and police stations, a library and a community center. Residents can get out of the heat, charge cellphones and get bottled water there, the city said.
South sizzles
With a noon temperature at 35 C (95 F) and the heat index pushing 43 C (110 F) on Tuesday in Birmingham, Alabama, Cindy Hanger sat outside the food truck where she works. Her face was red and her green T-shirt was soaked with sweat.
“I am worn out and I’m hot, and I’m ready to go home and have a cold drink,” she said.
Hanger works outside the small rig taking and filling orders while two relatives work inside cooking. That arrangement is just fine with her on such days.
“You think it’s hot out here? Imagine in there,” she said.
The heat was also stressing certain power grids.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, which serves 10 million people in Tennessee and parts of six surrounding Southern states, said that on Monday, it experienced record power demand for a single day in June. It said it provided 31,311 megawatts of energy at an average temperature of 94 F (34 C) in its region, which broke the previous June high of 31,098 megawatts that was set on June 29, 2012.
The power provider said similar demand could continue through the end of the week as more hot and humid weather was expected
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FDA Advisers Back Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine for Older Kids
A government advisory panel Tuesday endorsed a second brand of COVID-19 vaccine for school-age children and teens.
The Food and Drug Administration’s outside experts voted unanimously that Moderna’s vaccine is safe and effective enough to give to kids ages 6 to 17. If the FDA agrees, it would become the second option for those children, joining Pfizer’s vaccine.
The same FDA expert panel will meet Wednesday to consider tot-sized shots from Moderna and Pfizer for the littlest kids, those under 5.
Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine has long been available for adults in the U.S. and elsewhere, and more than three dozen countries offer it to older children. If the FDA authorizes Moderna’s vaccine for teens and younger children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will next decide whether to formally recommend the shots.
The Massachusetts company is seeking clearance for two doses and plans to later offer a booster. Tuesday’s vote was only for two doses — full-strength for 12-17 and half-sized doses for those 6-11.
“The data do support that the benefits outweigh the risks for both of these doses, in both of these age groups,” said the CDC’s Dr. Melinda Wharton, a member of the panel.
“I believe that this will provide families an important option” and may be particularly important for families who live in areas where coronavirus spread is increasing, said another panel member, Dr. Ofer Levy of Boston Children’s Hospital.
The FDA held up Moderna’s teen vaccine for months while it investigated a rare side effect, heart inflammation. That’s mostly a risk for teen boys and young men, and also can occur with the Pfizer vaccine. Moderna got extra scrutiny because its shots are a far higher dose.
In their review, FDA scientists said there were no confirmed cases of heart inflammation in Moderna’s kid studies. But experts say the studies may have had too few participants for a rare side effect like that to appear.
“That clearly needs to be watched closely going forward as we expand the use of the vaccine,” said Dr. Mark Sawyer, a panel member from the University of California, San Diego’s medical school.
As for other side effects, FDA officials said nothing worrisome was reported — mainly sore arms, headache and fatigue.
The FDA analysis concluded that two doses of Moderna are effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 illness in teens and younger kids, with the levels of virus-fighting antibodies comparable to those developed in young adults.
Vaccine effectiveness was estimated at 93% for the teens, and 77% for the younger children, according to the FDA analysis. However, the research was done when earlier versions of the coronavirus were causing most U.S. infections, before more contagious versions emerged. It’s also based on a limited number of COVID-19 cases, making the estimates a bit rough.
A booster shot was added to the studies, and data is expected in about the next month, Moderna officials said. Booster shots are now recommended for children vaccinated with Pfizer’s shots, as well as for all adults.
How much demand there will be for even two Moderna shots isn’t clear. Teens became eligible a year ago for Pfizer’s vaccine, which uses the same technology, and only 60% have gotten two doses. Shots for younger kids started in November; about 29% have been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
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US Open Will Allow Russian, Belarusian Tennis Players
Citing “concern about holding individual athletes accountable for the actions and decisions of their governments,” the U.S. Tennis Association will let Russian and Belarusian tennis players participate in the U.S. Open later this summer.
Wimbledon will still maintain the ban on those athletes, which will include the world’s No. 1 player, Daniil Medvedev. Medvedev is the defending U.S. Open champion.
Wimbledon starts June 27 in England. The U.S. Open starts August 29 in New York.
Players from Russia and Belarus will participate under a neutral flag.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Russian athletes have been banned from competing in a variety of sports, including soccer’s World Cup qualifying playoffs.
Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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From DRC to NBA, Congolese Player Biyombo Gives Others a Shot at Better Life
Growing up in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bismack Biyombo dreamed of playing professional basketball in the United States. His dream has been reality ever since he was drafted into the NBA more than a decade ago. But what he’s doing off the court gives a notable assist to his home country.
The 29-year-old center for Arizona’s Phoenix Suns calls himself “a child of Africa” who “stepped onto a basketball court at the age of 13 in Lubumbashi,” a major city in southeastern DRC. “And I was lucky enough to have, you know, parents that supported me,” he told VOA in an interview at the Suns’ practice facility earlier this spring.
Biyombo credits his father Francois Biyombo and mother Françoise Ngoy with nurturing a spirit of purpose and generosity. They sacrificed to ensure that the eldest of their seven children could play basketball, including when he went to Yemen at 16 to try out for a local team, and later when he joined a club league in Spain. After Biyombo was drafted into the NBA in 2011, they encouraged his giving back.
He has. Bismack Biyombo has donated time and millions of dollars to support education and health care in the DRC, largely through the self-named foundation he started in 2017 in Florida. (Before joining the Phoenix Suns for the 2021-22 season, he played with the Orlando Magic — also in Florida — as well as the Charlotte Hornets in North Carolina and Toronto Raptors in Canada.)
Biyombo heavily funded the Kivu International School, which opened in Goma in 2017. “Each year, we award more than 150 scholarships within the DRC and the U.S.,” he said in a video clip posted on the foundation website. The foundation has brought more than 60 DRC students to the United States to study, he told VOA. Biyombo also hosts free basketball camps each summer in the DRC, equipping youths with new skills, athletic shoes and other gear.
“My job becomes to inspire kids across Congo and make sure that we give all of them an equal opportunity,” he said in the VOA interview.
Biyombo’s foundation has supported Congolese mobile clinics and upgrades to public health facilities. It also provided hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of health care equipment, including face masks and hazmat suits, to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic in the DRC.
“And now we’ve set bigger goals and we’re going for it,” Biyombo said.
That includes building a Lubumbashi hospital in honor of his father, who died last August at age 61 of complications from COVID-19. Biyombo announced earlier this year that he would donate his salary for the 2021-2022 season — $1.3 million, according to his foundation’s website — toward that mission.
“I want to build my dad a hospital that will continue servicing people, because he believed in one guy, which is me,” Biyombo said. “And now we get to do it for him.”
Such humanitarian gestures are right out of the playbook of retired NBA great Dikembe Mutombo, a Congolese player who, Biyombo said, is “like a big brother.”
Mutombo, who hung up his jersey in 2009 and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame six years later, started a foundation in 1997 to aid people, especially those in his native DRC. That foundation’s projects include building the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital in his hometown of Kinshasa.
Dr. Joseph Nsambi Bulanda, health minister for Haut Katanga province where Lubumbashi is located, told VOA his government appreciated Biyombo’s offer of a new hospital. Construction has not yet begun.
“We can give him some advice,” Nsambi said, noting his government aims “to improve and to let all Congolese and all people from Haut Katanga province have a very good health system.”
Nsambi said of Biyombo, “He’s someone with very good will.” He added that the public health system in his country – one of the world’s poorest — welcomes an assist. “We need people. We need organizations.”
Biyombo’s generosity has brought him accolades. TIME named him to its 2021 list of Next Generation Leaders. The NBA and health care provider Kaiser Permanente honored him this year with a “community cares” award — and a $10,000 check for his foundation — for his efforts to aid the DRC.
The athlete wants others to benefit from basketball, as he has.
“So many young African American leaders [are] now coming into the NBA that I think the future of Africa there is great,” Biyombo said. He also talked up the Basketball Africa League, a partnership of the NBA and International Basketball Federation (FIBA).
“The reality of the league,” Biyombo said, “is that I think a lot of these kids are given an opportunity to actually stay home” and still prosper in the sport.
“You know, most of the kids want to find a way to escape what’s happening in Africa,” he said. “And you got to give them a reason to stay. I think that’s one thing that motivated me to invest so much in the younger generation. … The more tools we can give to the next generation, they’ll be able to solve more of the problems that we’re dealing with today.
“There is an opportunity to make an impact,” Biyombo said. “And I don’t want to waste it.”
VOA Lingala service’s Eddy Isango contributed to this report.
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Refuged in Paris, Kyiv City Ballet Dances On
About 5 million Ukrainian refugees have fled to other parts of Europe since Russia’s assault on their homeland began in February. Among them: nearly three dozen dancers from the Kyiv City Ballet. They’ve found refuge in Paris and continue to perform and plan foreign tours, but the conflict is never far away. For VOA, Lisa Bryant has more from Paris.
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Polluted Air Cuts Global Life Expectancy by 2 Years
Microscopic air pollution caused mostly by burning fossil fuels shortens lives worldwide by more than two years, researchers reported Tuesday.
Across South Asia, the average person would live five years longer if levels of fine particulate matter met World Health Organization standards, according to a report from the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute.
In the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, home to 300 million, crippling lung and heart disease caused by so-called PM2.5 pollution reduces life expectancy by eight years, and in the capital city of New Delhi by a decade.
PM2.5 pollution – 2.5 microns across or less, roughly the diameter of a human hair – penetrates deep into the lungs and enters the bloodstream.
In 2013, the United Nations classified it as a cancer-causing agent.
The WHO says PM2.5 density in the air should not top 15 micrograms per cubic meter in any 24-hour period, or 5 mcg/m3 averaged across an entire year.
Faced with mounting evidence of damaging health impacts, the WHO tightened these standards last year, the first change since establishing air quality guidance in 2005.
“Clean air pays back in additional years of life for people across the world,” lead research Crista Hasenkopf and colleagues said in the Air Quality Life Index report.
“Permanently reducing global air pollution to meet the WHO’s guidelines would add 2.2 years onto average life expectancy.”
Major gains in China
Almost all populated regions in the world exceed WHO guidelines, but nowhere more so that in Asia: by 15-fold in Bangladesh, 10-fold in India, and nine-fold in Nepal and Pakistan.
Central and West Africa, along with much of Southeast Asia and parts of central America, also face pollution levels — and shortened lives — well above the global average.
Surprisingly, PM2.5 pollution in 2020, the most recent data available, was virtually unchanged from the year before despite a sharp slow-down in the global economy and a corresponding drop in CO2 emissions due to Covid lockdowns.
“In South Asia, pollution actually rose during the first year of the pandemic,” the authors noted.
One country that has seen major improvements is China.
PM2.5 pollution fell in the nation of 1.4 billion people by almost 40 percent between 2013 and 2020, adding two years to life expectancy.
But even with this progress, lives in China are on average cut short today by 2.6 years.
The worst-hit provinces include Henan and Hebei, in north-central China, and the coastal province of Shandong.
Compared to other causes of premature death, the impact of PM2.5 pollution is comparable to smoking tobacco, more than three times that of alcohol use, and six times that of HIV/AIDS, the report said.
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LogOn: Companies Are Building the ‘Metaverse’ but What Is It?
Often touted as the next digital shift, the metaverse comprises three-dimensional online spaces where people can work, shop, play games, go to concerts and so on. Michelle Quinn on what the metaverse is — or might be.
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New Saudi-Sponsored Golf Tour Roils US Golf
A startup professional golf tour backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has roiled the usually staid world of professional golf — the PGA Tour — in the United States.
The PGA suspended 17 professional players last week for participating in the inaugural Saudi tournament, which began June 9.
The new tour, the LIV Golf Invitational Series, has caused controversy for months, in large part because critics of the Saudi regime’s policies claimed it was a way to launder the reputation of the country’s monarchy, particularly that of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The crown prince has been held in disrepute internationally since at least 2018, when agents of his government allegedly assassinated journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul and dismembered his body to hide the evidence. The CIA later concluded that Salman ordered the killing.
U.S. President Joe Biden, who, as a candidate in 2019, declared that Saudi Arabia should be considered a “pariah” state based on its record of human rights abuses, including the Khashoggi killing, is currently attempting a rapprochement with the Saudi regime. He is expected to visit Riyadh in July.
A new approach
The Roman numerals in the new tour’s name — LIV, or 54 — refer to its format. Unlike the traditional PGA Tour, which typically involves four rounds of golf totaling 72 holes, LIV Golf consists of just three rounds, for a total of 54 holes.
LIV Golf markets itself as taking a fresh approach to a sport steeped in history, decorum and understatement. Its tournaments feature loud music, a team format and “shotgun” starts in which all teams begin play at the same time at different holes.
The new tour also offers large purses. On Saturday, South African golfer Charl Schwartzel won the tournament’s top individual prize of $4 million. Schwartzel’s side also won the team competition, splitting an additional $3 million between the four of them.
The Saudis are also reportedly paying top players undisclosed appearance fees, which in some cases might exceed the prize money on offer at specific tournaments.
Indeed, the amount of money the Saudis are pouring into LIV Golf appears be a major reason it has been able to separate well-known players, including Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed, from the PGA Tour.
LIV ‘leverage’
Early this year, American golfer Phil Mickelson, one of the most popular and successful players of his generation, sparked anger after a biographer quoted him weighing the pros and cons of playing in the new league.
Characterizing the Saudi leadership as “scary,” Mickelson said, “We know they killed Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it?”
Mickelson went on to say that he has joined LIV Golf because he saw the new league as a way to force change on the PGA Tour, which he characterized as “manipulative” and “coercive,” toward players.
“The Saudi money has finally given us that leverage,” he said.
Mickelson was immediately dropped by a number of high-profile sponsors. He later apologized and withdrew from professional golf for months. However, he was on hand when the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational London tournament kicked off June 9 in Hemel Hempstead, England.
Dueling statements
As the LIV event began, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan sent a letter to the tour members announcing that 17 players had been suspended for their participation. Ten of them had already voluntarily resigned their PGA Tour membership.
“These players have made their choice for their own financial-based reasons,” a decision, he wrote, that “disrespects you, our fans and our partners.”
He added: “I am certain our fans and partners — who are surely tired of all this talk of money, money and more money — will continue to be entertained and compelled by the world-class competition you display each and every week, where there are true consequences for every shot you take and your rightful place in history whenever you reach that elusive winner’s circle.”
LIV Golf responded immediately with a statement of its own.
“Today’s announcement by the PGA Tour is vindictive and it deepens the divide between the Tour and its members,” it said. “It’s troubling that the Tour, an organization dedicated to creating opportunities for golfers to play the game, is the entity blocking golfers from playing. This certainly is not the last word on this topic. The era of free agency is beginning as we are proud to have a full field of players joining us in London, and beyond.”
‘Staggering’ amount of money
John A. Fortunato, a professor at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business, told VOA that the question of “free agency” in golf is not new. Some European players, for example, play in PGA Tour events in the U.S. but also participate in non-PGA events in Europe.
Fortunato, the author of the book Making the Cut: Life Inside the PGA Tour System, also said that freedom from the PGA’s participation rules is probably not the main driver behind some players opting for the LIV, he said.
“The amount of money is staggering,” he said. Indeed, Schwartzel’s $4 million purse in the LIV opener dwarfed the approximately $1.5 million that Rory McIlroy took home for winning a PGA Tour event in Canada on the same weekend.
Television deals and sponsors
Fortunato said the new league’s long-term success will hinge in part on getting television networks to cover its tournaments — a task that will be difficult in the U.S., given that most major broadcast networks as well as cable sports giant ESPN have long-standing relationships with the PGA Tour.
He said another factor will be how two “major” tournaments in the U.S. that are not run by the PGA Tour decide to address the issue of LIV participation.
One of those tournaments, the U.S. Open, begins Thursday, June 16, and appears poised to allow LIV participants to play. But that may be in part because the organizers did not have time to develop a policy toward the new tour.
The next Masters Tournament, held by the Augusta National Golf Club, will not take place until spring 2023. The Masters could prevent LIV participants from playing in Augusta.
“That’s the big domino that I’m watching,” Fortunato said. “And that is the thing that the PGA Tour, I think, is most hoping for.”
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In Rural India, Soaring Cooking Gas Prices Reverse Gains in Tackling Deadly Kitchen Smoke
After cooking for decades on earthen stoves lit with firewood, women in Sarmathla village in India’s northern Haryana state were excited when they received cooking gas stoves and connections about five years ago.
The gas cylinders which use liquified petroleum gas (LPG) meant that they would not have to collect firewood and breathe in the smoky fumes emitted from stoves called “chullahs.”
They are among millions of poor rural households given subsidized gas connections and cylinders under a government program launched in 2016 to help women move away from using highly polluting sources of cooking such as wood and animal dung to a cleaner cooking fuel.
But in most homes in Sarmathla, the cylinders now lie unused in a corner of the kitchen as many return to lighting their stoves with firewood.
“I am a poor person and everything has become so expensive. As daily wagers, we barely earn four dollars a day,” said Santosh Devi, a village resident. “Tell me, should I buy food for children or buy a gas cylinder?”
A series of price increases in the past year and a half has made cooking gas cylinders unaffordable for many poor households already struggling to cope with soaring food prices and incomes that declined due to the pandemic.
The approximately $13 price tag of a gas cylinder is almost double compared to six years ago when the project was launched. And although the government last month announced a $2.50 subsidy for those with subsidized gas connections, most village residents say they still cannot use it as their primary source of cooking.
Cooking gas prices in India have jumped massively as international crude prices have spiraled — India is heavily dependent on imported natural gas.
The soaring costs pose a challenge to the ambitious program that aimed to tackle the severe health challenges caused by indoor air pollution. Along with building toilets and homes for the rural poor, it was one of the flagship programs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government meant to dramatically improve the lives of poor households in the countryside.
The government subsidies had given more than 80 million rural households access to a clean energy source for cooking until last year, according to government figures.
But Poonam Devi, a resident of Sarmathla, said she uses it sparingly.
“I only cook vegetables on gas but I make everything else on a wood fire,” said Devi as she rolled out Indian bread for the family of seven. “Sometimes I use it when guests come.”
Experts worry that this will set back efforts to address the severe health problems caused by toxic kitchen fumes. While this village depends mostly on firewood, cow dung and agricultural waste are other traditional sources for cooking in India’s vast rural areas.
“The indoor air pollution caused by these solid fuels is equivalent to a person smoking a significant number of cigarettes continuously at the same time,” said Abhishek Jain, director of Powering Livelihoods at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water in New Delhi.
Calling it one of India’s biggest public health challenges, Jain said, “Broad estimates suggest that India loses half a million of its population every year prematurely because of indoor air pollution. That is the scale of the problem we are dealing with.”
The women in this village know the health consequences of the sooty flames only too well.
“I cough and I get congestion and breathing problems due the cooking. So I try to cook on gas when I can,” said Paramwati, a Sarmathla resident whose tiny kitchen traps the fumes.
It is not just poor households that have been affected — even better-off families in this village, who do not benefit from government subsidies, are struggling to cope with the high prices of cooking gas.
“I have to think many times before I can refill this cylinder. I can only do it when I manage to save $13 or I have to wait until my husband gets his salary,” said Manju Chhoker.
That feeling is widely echoed across the village. “It is a huge challenge to cope with inflation and the high prices of gas. When it is time to refill the gas cylinder, I get really worried,” said another resident, Satya Prakash Rajput.
According to studies, the number of households using clean energy as the primary fuel for cooking rose exponentially from about 30 percent to nearly 70 percent between 2011 and 2020. Those gains are now under threat, say experts, as affordability emerges as a huge barrier.
“At the very least this has stalled the progress, at worst this has reversed some of the progress,” says Jain. “So, unless prices would get more affordable through either subsidy support by the government or a decrease in international prices, households may not now shift to liquified petroleum gas for most of their cooking.”
That means women in Sarmathla village may have to continue to lug firewood and cope with the fumes in their kitchens to light their stoves.
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Multimedia Exhibit Explores Intersections of Gender Identity, Disability
June is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Pride Month. In the Western U.S. state of Colorado, multimedia artists are exploring the intersections of gender identity and disability. VOA’s Scott Stearns has the story from Denver. WARNING: The video contains a brief depiction of nudity.
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UK Reports 104 More Cases of Monkeypox, Mostly in Men
British health officials have detected another 104 cases of monkeypox in England in what has become the biggest outbreak beyond Africa of the normally rare disease.
The U.K.’s Health Security Agency said Monday there were now 470 cases of monkeypox across the country, with the vast majority in gay or bisexual men. Scientists warn that anyone, regardless of sexual orientation, is susceptible to catching monkeypox if they are in close, physical contact with an infected person or their clothing or bed sheets.
According to U.K. data, 99% of the cases so far have been in men and most are in London.
In May, a leading adviser to the World Health Organization said the monkeypox outbreak in Europe and beyond was likely spread by sex at two recent raves in Spain and Belgium.
Last week, WHO said 1,285 cases of monkeypox had been reported from 28 countries where monkeypox was not known to be endemic. No deaths have been reported outside of Africa. After the U.K., the biggest numbers of cases have been reported in Spain, Germany and Canada.
WHO said many people in the outbreak have “atypical features” of the disease which could make it more difficult for doctors to diagnose. The U.N. health agency also said while close contact can spread monkeypox, “it is not clear what role sexual bodily fluids, including semen and vaginal fluids, play in the transmission.”
Meanwhile, countries in Africa have reported more than 1,500 suspected cases including 72 deaths from eight countries. Monkeypox is considered endemic in Central and West Africa.
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‘A Strange Loop’ Makes History at Tonys; ‘Company’ Wins 5
“A Strange Loop,” an irreverent, sexually frank work about Blackness and queerness took home the best new musical crown at the Tony Awards on Sunday, as voters celebrated Broadway’s most racially diverse season by choosing an envelope-pushing Black voice.
Michael R. Jackson’s 2020 Pulitzer Prize drama winner is a theater meta-journey — a tuneful show about a Black gay man writing a show about a Black gay man. Jackson also won for best book. Many of the night’s other Tonys were spread over several productions.
The victory of a smaller, more offbeat musical against more commercial offerings continues a recent trend, as when the intimate musical “The Band’s Visit” beat the big brand-musicals “Frozen,” “Mean Girls” and “SpongeBob SquarePants” in 2018 or when “Hadestown” bested “Tootsie,” “Beetlejuice” and “Ain’t Too Proud” a year later.
“A Strange Loop” beat “MJ,” a bio musical of the King of Pop’s biggest hits, for the top prize, although the other Jackson musical nabbed four Tony Awards including for best choreography. Myles Frost moonwalked away with the award for best lead actor in a musical for playing Michael Jackson, becoming the youngest solo winner in that category. “Mom, I made it!” he said.
“MJ” represents the 22-year-old Frost’s Broadway debut as he plays Jackson with a high, whispery voice, a Lady Diana-like coquettishness and a fierce embrace of Jackson’s iconic dancing and singing style. “Heal the world,” Frost said from the stage, channeling Jackson.
Joaquina Kalukango won the Tony for best leading actress in a musical for her work in “Paradise Square,” a show about Irish immigrants and Black Americans jostling to survive in New York City around the time of the Civil War. Earlier in the night, she blew the house down with a stunning performance of the musical’s “Let It Burn.”
A gender-swapped revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” rode the fondness Broadway has for the late iconic composer by earning five statuettes, including best musical revival.
“Company” is an exploration of a single person’s conflicted feelings about commitment, traditionally focusing on a 35-year-old bachelor. This time, it had a bachelorette and the sexes of several couples were swapped.
Marianne Elliott made Tony history by becoming the only woman to have won three Tonys for directing, the latest for “Company.” She thanked Sondheim for letting her put a woman “front and center.” She dedicated her award to everyone fighting to keep theaters open.
Patti LuPone won best featured actress in a musical for her work in the revival, thanking COVID-19 safety officials in her acceptance speech. Matt Doyle won for best featured actor in a musical for “Company.”
“The Lehman Trilogy,” spanning 150 years and running three and a half hours, follows the fortunes of a single family into the financial crash of 2008. It was crowned best new play and Sam Mendes won for best direction of a play, praising the season for its “rampant creativity.” One of its three stars, Simon Russell Beale, won for best actor in a play and thanked the audience for coming to see a trio of British actors tell a New York story.
Deirdre O’Connell won for best actress in a play for her work in “Dana H.,” about a real woman kidnapped by a former convict and white supremacist. O’Connell never speaks, instead, lip-syncing to an edited recording of the survivor. On Sunday, O’Connell urged the crowd to ignore safe options and “make the weird art.”
“Take Me Out” won for best play revival, and “Modern Family” star Jesse Tyler Ferguson won the Tony for best featured actor in a play for his work in it. “Mom, Dad, thank you for letting me move to New York when I was 17-years-old. I told you it would be OK,” said Ferguson, who also thanked his understudy and his husband.
Host Ariana DeBose kicked off her portion of the show in a sparkling white jumpsuit and wide-brimmed hat, dancing and singing to the song “This Is Your Round of Applause,” which mashed up shards of musical theater favorites, like “Chicago, “The Wiz,” “Evita,” “Rent,” “Hair,” “Cabaret,” “Hairspray” and “West Side Story,” the movie remake for which she recently won an Oscar.
Still panting while welcoming viewers, she told the crowd that this was the season “Broadway got it’s groove back.”
Phylicia Rashad won best featured actress in a play for “Skeleton Crew.” The Dominique Morisseau play is about blue-collar job insecurity set in a Detroit auto stamping plant. “It’s wonderful to present humanity in all it’s fullness,” Rashad said.
And the Tonys ushered in the latest EGOT winner: Jennifer Hudson, who has an Emmy, Grammy and Oscar, and joined that elite group Sunday when “A Strange Loop” won best musical — she’s a producer.
A starry revival of the classic show “The Music Man” with Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster walked away empty-handed despite six nominations and being a box office smash, regularly pulling in more than $3 million a week.
The season was marked by the embrace of seven Black playwrights, from contemporary writers like Dominique Morisseau, Keenan Scott II and Antoinette Nwandu, to underappreciated historical playwrights like Alice Childress and Ntozake Shange. DeBose said Broadway was more representative.
DeBose celebrated the Black voices and onstage talent — as well as noting that two Broadway theaters were being renamed for Black icons James Earl Jones and Lena Horne — saying that The Great White Way was now a nickname “as opposed to a how-to guide.”
DeBose also hailed the heroic efforts of understudies, swings and standbys to keep shows going throughout pandemic spikes, noting that she and many other Tony nominees had once been unheralded understudies and swings. After the cast of “Six” performed, DeBose noted that one was a fill-in at the last minute.
Having been freed of handling the technical awards, the main telecast had a less frantic, more airy feel. DeBose was an assured, funny and versatile host, one who roamed the seats, sat in Andrew Garfield’s lap, danced with Sam Rockwell and prompted Laurence Fishburne to do a Daffy Duck imitation. She closed the show with a medley of the musical nominees, at one point making “MJ” part of the Dylan show: “You’ve been hit by/A rolling stone.”
Some of the show highlights included the massive cast of “The Music Man” filling the massive Radio City stage with “Seventy-Six Trombones,” as well as Prince Jackson and Paris Jackson introducing the show about their father before the “MJ” cast danced to an energetic “Smooth Criminal.”
Billy Crystal taught the crowd “Yiddish scatting,” and the original cast of the 2007 Tony-winning musical “Spring Awakening” — including Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff — reunited for a performance.
Many acceptance speeches thanked the audiences for braving spikes in COVID-19 to come to see shows, and Marsha Gay Harden cheered 150 safety officers invited as guests to the Tonys.
Earlier, Darren Criss and Julianne Hough kicked off the four-hour awards, handing out mostly design awards. Criss opened the telecast with the original song, “Set the Stage,” as he and Hough energetically danced up ladders, on laundry hampers and in sliding theater seats to celebrate the artists who keep theater alive.
The first award of the night — for best score — went to “Six: The Musical,” with music and lyrics by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. Marlow became the first out nonbinary composer-lyricist to win a Tony. “Six: The Musical” also picked up the award for best costumes for a musical.
The season — with 34 new productions — represents a full return to theaters after nearly two years of a pandemic-mandated shutdown. At the last Tonys nine months ago, the winners were pulled from just 18 eligible plays and musicals, and many of the competitive categories were depleted.
Sondheim, the iconic composer who died in late 2021, was honored in a special segment by Bernadette Peters singing his song “Children Will Listen.” Angela Lansbury, who was honored with a lifetime achievement Tony, wasn’t present so her “Sweeney Todd” co-star Len Cariou accepted on her behalf.
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SIPRI STUDY: World Headed for New Era of Nuclear Rearmament
After 35 years of decline, the number of nuclear weapons in the world is set to rise in the coming decade as global tensions flare amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, researchers said Monday.
The nine nuclear powers — Britain, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, the United States and Russia — had 12,705 nuclear warheads in early 2022, or 375 fewer than in early 2021, according to estimates by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
The number has come down from a high of more than 70,000 in 1986, as the U.S. and Russia have gradually reduced their massive arsenals built up during the Cold War.
But this era of disarmament appears to be coming to an end and the risk of a nuclear escalation is now at its highest point in the post-Cold War period, SIPRI researchers said.
“Soon, we’re going to get to the point where, for the first time since the end of the Cold War, the global number of nuclear weapons in the world could start increasing for the first time,” Matt Korda, one of the co-authors of the report, told AFP.
“That is really kind of dangerous territory.”
After a “marginal” decrease seen last year, “nuclear arsenals are expected to grow over the coming decade,” SIPRI said.
During the war in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has on several occasions made reference to the use of nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile several countries, including China and Britain, are either officially or unofficially modernizing or ramping up their arsenals, the research institute said.
“It’s going to be very difficult to make progress on disarmament over the coming years because of this war, and because of how Putin is talking about his nuclear weapons,” Korda said.
These worrying statements are pushing “a lot of other nuclear armed states to think about their own nuclear strategies,” he added.
‘Nuclear war can’t be won’
Despite the entry into force in early 2021 of the U.N. nuclear weapon ban treaty and a five-year extension of the U.S.-Russian “New START” treaty, the situation has been deteriorating for some time, according to SIPRI.
Iran’s nuclear program and the development of increasingly advanced hypersonic missiles have, among other things, raised concern.
The drop in the overall number of weapons is due to the U.S. and Russia “dismantling retired warheads,” SIPRI noted, while the number of operational weapons remains “relatively stable.”
Moscow and Washington alone account for 90% of the world’s nuclear arsenal.
Russia remains the biggest nuclear power, with 5,977 warheads in early 2022, down by 280 from a year ago, either deployed, in stock or waiting to be dismantled, according to the institute.
More than 1,600 of its warheads are believed to be immediately operational, SIPRI said.
The United States meanwhile has 5,428 warheads, 120 fewer than last year, but it has more deployed than Russia, at 1,750.
In terms of overall numbers, China comes third with 350, followed by France with 290, Britain with 225, Pakistan with 165, India with 160, and Israel with 90.
Israel is the only one of the nine that does not officially acknowledge having nuclear weapons.
As for North Korea, SIPRI said for the first time that Kim Jong Un’s Communist regime now has 20 nuclear warheads.
Pyongyang is believed to have enough material to produce around 50.
In early 2022, the five nuclear-armed permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. — issued a statement that “nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”
Nonetheless, SIPRI noted, all five “continue to expand or modernize their nuclear arsenals and appear to be increasing the salience of nuclear weapons in their military strategies.”
“China is in the middle of a substantial expansion of its nuclear weapons arsenal, which satellite images indicate includes the construction of over 300 new missile silos,” it said.
According to the Pentagon, Beijing could have 700 warheads by 2027.
Britain last year said it would increase the ceiling on its total warhead stockpile and would no longer publicly disclose figures for the country’s operational nuclear weapons.
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Tony Awards Begin With Non-acting Honors Handed Out in NYC
Darren Criss and Julianne Hough kicked off the four-hour Tony Award celebrations at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday night, handing out mostly design awards exclusively on the streaming Paramount+.
Criss opened the telecast with the original song, “Set the Stage,” as he and Hough energetically danced up ladders, on laundry hampers and in sliding theater seats to celebrate the artists who keep theater alive.
The first award of the night — for best score — went to “Six: The Musical,” with music and lyrics by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. Marlow is the first out nonbinary composer-lyricist to win a Tony.
Criss and Hough have an hour to hand out a total of eight technical awards for things such as best lighting and sound design, along with best score, orchestrations and choreography. They will then pass hosting duties to Ariana DeBose for the main three-hour telecast on CBS and Paramount+ from the same stage, live coast to coast for the first time.
The season — with 34 new productions — represents a full return to theaters after nearly two years of a pandemic-mandated shutdown. At the last Tonys nine months ago, the winners were pulled from just 18 eligible plays and musicals, and many of the competitive categories were depleted.
DeBose, the Tony-nominated theater veteran and freshly minted Oscar winner for “West Side Story,” said Broadway is due for a party.
“I feel like if there was ever the time, the time is now,” she said. “I think it’s a triumph to have simply made it to this point, to have made art and to have a show.”
The telecast will have performances from this year’s Tony Award-nominated musicals, including “A Strange Loop,” “Company,” “Girl from the North Country,” “MJ,” “Mr. Saturday Night,” “Music Man,” “Paradise Square” and “Six.” The original cast members of the 2007 Tony-winning musical “Spring Awakening” will also reteam and perform.
“A Strange Loop,” a theater meta-journey about a playwright writing a musical, goes into the show with a leading 11 Tony nominations. Right behind with 10 nominations each is “MJ,” a bio musical of the King of Pop stuffed with his biggest hits, and “Paradise Square,” a musical about Irish immigrants and Black Americans jostling to survive in New York City around the time of the Civil War.
Front-runners for best actress in a musical are Sharon D Clarke from the revival of “Caroline, or Change” and Joaquina Kalukango of “Paradise Square.” The best actor in a musical may come down to Jaquel Spivey from “A Strange Loop” versus Myles Frost as the King of Pop in “MJ the Musical.”
“The Lehman Trilogy,” Stefano Massini’s play spanning 150 years about what led to the collapse of financial giant Lehman Brothers, is the leading best new play contender, while David Morse in a revival of Paula Vogel’s “How I Learned to Drive” is the leading contender as best actor in a play. His co-star, Mary-Louise Parker, could become the first actor to receive consecutive Tonys for best actress in a play.
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1,500-Year-Old Cambodian Hindu Sculpture Honored at American National Museum
An exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art is showcasing a sculpture of a Hindu god that was carved into a Cambodian mountain around year 600. VOA’s Chetra Chap reports on the importance of this Hindu sculpture to a nation that is now primarily Buddhist.
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Mo Donegal Wins Belmont Stakes as Rich Strike Misses
Favorite Mo Donegal romped to victory at the 154th Belmont Stakes on Saturday while Rich Strike, the longshot winner of the Kentucky Derby could not pull off another surprise at Elmont, New York.
Mo Donegal, fifth at the Kentucky Derby, settled in midpack for much of the mile-and-a-half race then made his move coming onto the home stretch.
Under jockey Irad Ortiz Jr.’s urging Mo Donegal powered away from the field coming home ahead of stable mate Nest to give trainer Todd Pletcher a 1-2 finish and a fourth Belmont win.
Skippylongstocking finished third.
“This has been a dream I’ve had for 40 years,” said Mo Donegal owner Mike Repole, a native New Yorker. “This is New York’s biggest race, and to win it here, with family, friends, I’m sort of overwhelmed.”
Rich Strike had given up a shot at the Triple Crown when owner Rick Dawson decided to skip the second jewel, the Preakness Stakes, in order to rest the chestnut colt for the Belmont marathon known as the “test of a champion.”
At 80-1 odds Rich Strike was one of the greatest longshots to win the Kentucky Derby but no one was overlooking the chestnut colt on Saturday going off as second favorite.
The distance proved too much as Rich Strike spent most of the race trailing the eight-horse field finishing sixth.
“Our biggest change today was that we decided to stay a little out, off the rail and try to give him a good open run when he would take off,” said Rich Strike trainer Eric Reed. “He is a routine horse, and this is the first time he has not been on the inside rail.
“The whole way. If you watch, his head turned he’s trying to get to the inside I guess we made a mistake not putting him on the fence.”
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US Seeks to Expand Monkeypox Testing as Cases Rise
U.S. health officials are working to expand capabilities to test for monkeypox beyond a narrow group of public health labs, heeding calls from infectious-disease experts who say testing for the virus needs to become part of routine care.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said during a conference call Friday that her agency was working with the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to expand testing capacity to include commercial laboratories.
The CDC did not respond to a request for details.
Currently, preliminary monkeypox testing in the United States is done through a network of 69 public health laboratories, which send results to the CDC for confirmation.
There have been 45 confirmed monkeypox cases in 16 U.S. states so far, with the bulk of the current outbreak outside Africa, where the virus is endemic, occurring in Europe.
The United States has conducted roughly 300 monkeypox tests. While testing for the virus rose by 45% last week, that needs to increase dramatically if the outbreak is to be contained, infectious-disease experts said.
“There is not enough testing going on now for monkeypox in the United States,” said Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
“The commercial labs are used to working with health care providers from across the country, moving samples around quickly, reporting results quickly in a way that providers understand and expect,” he said.
For commercial labs to do this testing, they need access to monkeypox samples to validate their tests, regulatory guidance from the FDA and commercial billing codes set by CMS, said Inglesby, a former senior White House adviser for the COVID-19 response.
“My sense is all of that is moving forward,” he said.
In a detailed report of 17 cases published by the CDC last week, most patients identified as men who have sex with men.
In many of the cases, the monkeypox rash started in the genital area, which could lead some doctors to misdiagnose it as a more common sexually transmitted infection such as herpes or syphilis.
“Monkeypox symptoms are mimicking other sexually transmitted infections,” said David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of Sexually Transmitted Disease Directors. “We need to mount a bigger national response.”
The Association of Public Health Laboratories said it has plenty of capacity now but will work to expand testing to commercial labs should the outbreak continue to grow.
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In War-Torn Ukraine, Art Plays Powerful Role
Although the war in Ukraine has entered its fourth month, local artists have not stopped working. For many Ukrainians, art during the wartime is a powerful tool that helps people stay strong and inspired. Omelyan Oshchudlyak has the story.
Video Editor: Yuriy Dankevych
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Baby Formula Shortage Leads Moms to Buy Breast Milk From Strangers
On Thursday, the first shipments of Australian baby formula landed in the U.S. Yet the shortage continues, with women going to extreme measures to feed their babies, including buying breast milk from strangers on social media. Senior Washington Correspondent Carolyn Presutti reports.
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