China’s naval hospital ship, called the Peace Ark, is on a 13-nation tour of mostly African countries to provide free health care for locals. Over the past week, it was docked off the South African coast where the Western Cape province has a backlog of about 80,000 surgeries. Vicky Stark reports.
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Corts
Israel gives go-ahead for Gaza polio vaccination campaign
Geneva — World Health Organization officials say Israel has given United Nations agencies the go-ahead to start inoculating hundreds of thousands of young Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip against polio.
A mass polio vaccination campaign to immunize more than 640,000 children under the age 10 against the crippling disease is set to begin Sunday, according to Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Speaking from Deir al Balah in central Gaza, Peeperkorn told journalists in Geneva Friday that Israel has agreed to a series of so-called humanitarian pauses.
“We want to emphasize without humanitarian pauses, the campaign’s delivery, which is already being implemented under incredibly complex and challenging circumstances, will not be possible,” Peeperkorn said.
“So, we welcome the preliminary commitment to these area-specific humanitarian pauses during the campaign,” he said. “We call on all parties to pause the fighting to allow children and families to safely access health facilities and for community outreach workers to get the children who cannot access health facilities for polio vaccinations.”
The campaign, which is being run by Gaza’s Ministry of Health, the WHO, UNICEF, UNRWA and partners, will be split into three, three-day phases, starting with central Gaza, followed by south Gaza, and lastly north Gaza.
The campaign will involve two doses of novel oral polio vaccine and will be given to the children in two rounds four weeks apart. The WHO says 1.26 million doses of vaccine and 500 vaccine carriers have been delivered to Gaza, noting that an additional 400,000 doses will arrive in Gaza soon.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, told journalists during an online briefing Friday that staff have prepared for the logistically mammoth undertaking.
“We have trained more than 2,100 workers and community outreach workers to provide vaccinations and inform communities about the campaign,” he said. “Our aim is to reach at least 90% vaccination coverage during each round of the campaign to stop the current outbreak and prevent the international spread of polio.”
Decisions to vaccinate Gaza’s children were made just days after a 10-month-old baby became partially paralyzed with polio, the first case of the infectious disease in the Palestinian enclave in 25 years.
Polio mainly affects young children and is spread through contact with feces or from contaminated food or water. Health officials agree that the overcrowded, unsanitary conditions under which people in Gaza are forced to live create an environment in which the poliovirus thrives.
“Due to insecurity, damage to road and infrastructure, and constant population displacement, conducting the campaign for just three days in each area is unlikely to be sufficient to achieve adequate vaccination coverage,” Tedros said.
“Vaccination coverage will be monitored throughout the campaign,” he said, “and it has been agreed that vaccination will be extended by one day wherever necessary.”
Peeperkorn said that every day a technical team will analyze the campaign to see how it is progressing and whether adjustments need to be made.
“In an ideal situation, you would go house to house. Unfortunately, that is not feasible in Gaza,” he said.
“If after three days, we see that coverage is too low, we will ask for additional days,” he added, explaining that this has been approved by the Israeli COGAT authority, which coordinates government activities in the Palestinian territories.
“We have this agreement, and I expect all the parties to stick to this agreement,” he said. “We are here. The teams are ready to move forward, and we expect that this will happen in the best possible way.”
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NY nonprofit reclaims centuries-old cemetery for enslaved people
KINGSTON, New York — On a residential block in upstate New York, college students dug and sifted backyard dirt as part of an archeological exploration this summer of a centuries-old cemetery for African Americans.
Now covered with green lawns in the city of Kingston, this spot in 1750 was part of a burial ground for people who were enslaved. It was located on what was then the outskirts of town. An unknown number of people who were denied church burials were interred here until the late 19th century, when the cemetery was covered over as the city grew.
The site is now being reclaimed as the Pine Street African Burial Ground, one of many forgotten or neglected cemeteries for African Americans getting fresh attention. In the last three summers, the remains of up to 27 people have been located here.
Advocates in this Hudson River city purchased a residential property covering about half the old cemetery several years ago and now use the house there as a visitor center. Money is being raised to turn the urban backyard into a respectful resting place. And while the names of people buried here may be lost, tests are planned on their remains to shed light on their lives and identify their descendants.
“The hardships of those buried here cannot just go down in vain,” said Tyrone Wilson, founder of Harambee Kingston, the nonprofit community group behind the project. “We have a responsibility to make sure that we fix that disrespect.”
While the more-than-0.2 hectares site was designated as a cemetery for people who were enslaved in 1750, it might have been in use before then. Burials continued through about 1878, more than 50 years after New York fully abolished slavery. Researchers say people were buried with their feet to the east, so when they rise on Judgment Day they would face the rising sun.
Remains found on the Harambee property are covered with patterned African cloths and kept where they are. Remains found on adjoining land are exhumed for later burial on the Harambee property.
Students from the State University of New York at New Paltz recently finished a third summer of supervised backyard excavations in this city 129 kilometers upriver from Manhattan. The students get course credit, though anthropology major Maddy Thomas said there’s an overriding sense of mission.
“I don’t like when people feel upset or forgotten,” Thomas said on a break. “And that is what’s happened here. So we’ve got to fix it.”
Harambee is trying to raise $1 million to transform the modest backyard into resting spot that reflects the African heritage of the people buried there. Plans include a tall marker in the middle of the yard.
While some graves were apparently marked, it’s still hard to say who was buried there.
“Some of them, it’s obvious, were marked with just a stone with no writing on it,” said Joseph Diamond, associate professor of anthropology at New Paltz.
The only intact headstone recovered with a name visible was for Caezar Smith, who was born enslaved and died a free man in 1839 at age 41. A researcher mined historical records and came up with two more people potentially buried there in 1803: a man identified as Sam and a 16-year-old girl named Deyon who was publicly hanged after being convicted of murdering the 6-year-old daughter of her enslavers.
The cemetery was at first covered by a lumberyard by 1880, even though some gravestones were apparently still standing by that date.
In 1990, Diamond was doing an archaeological survey for the city and noticed the cemetery was marked on a map from 1870. He and the city historian went out to find it.
Coincidentally, Pine Street building owner Andrew Kirschner had just discovered buried bone chips while digging in front of the building in search of a sewer pipe. He put the pieces in a box. Kirschner said he was still digging when Diamond told him what they were looking for.
“The conversation begins and then I go, ‘Well, let me show you what I found.’ Of course, they were amazed,” said Kirschner, who had owned the building next to the current Harambee property.
Even after the discovery, Diamond said it was difficult to convince people there were graves on Pine Street. There were even plans in 1996 to build a parking lot over much of the site. Advocates purchased the property in 2019.
Similar stories of disregard and rediscovery have played out elsewhere.
In Manhattan, the African Burial Ground National Monument marks the site where an estimated 15,000 free and enslaved Africans were buried until the 1790s. It was discovered in 1991 during excavations for a federal building. Farther up the Hudson River, the renovation in Newburgh of a century-old school into a courthouse in 2008 led to the discovery of more than 100 sets of remains.
Antoinette Jackson, founder of The Black Cemetery Network, said many of the 169 sites listed in their online archive had been erased.
“A good deal of them represent sites that have been built over — by parking lots, schools, stadiums, highways. Others have been under-resourced,” said Jackson, a professor of anthropology at the University of Southern Florida.
She added that the cemeteries listed on the archive are just the “tip of the iceberg.”
Given the meager historical record in Kingston, advocates hope tests on the remains will help fill in some gaps. Isotopic analyses could provide information on whether individuals grew up elsewhere — like South Carolina or Africa — and then moved to the region. DNA analyses could provide information on where in Africa their ancestors came from. The DNA tests also might be able to link them to living descendants.
Wilson said local families have committed to providing DNA samples. He sees the tests as another way to connect people to heritage.
“One of the biggest issues that we have in African culture is that we don’t know our history,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of information of who we are.”
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WHO: Israel agrees to daily pauses in Gaza for polio vaccinations
United Nations — A senior World Health Organization official said Thursday that Israel has agreed to a series of daily nine-hour humanitarian pauses for the duration of a massive polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip, where the first case of the disease was found in a baby earlier this month.
“The campaign will start on the first of September in central Gaza for three days,” Rik Peeperkorn, WHO’s representative for the Palestinian Territory, told reporters in a video call from Gaza. “There will be a humanitarian pause during the vaccination for three days.”
He said they had agreed to a humanitarian pause from 6 a.m. until 3 p.m. daily during each vaccination day with COGAT, the Israeli agency that coordinates access for humanitarians in Gaza.
Peeperkorn said their teams would evaluate after the first three days whether an additional one to two days more were necessary to reach enough children in central Gaza. Then the teams would move to southern Gaza and finally northern Gaza, with each area expected to take three to five days.
More than 1.2 million doses of the polio vaccine have already been delivered to Gaza and an additional 400,000 are on the way.
The virus was detected last month in environmental samples in southern and central Gaza. At least one case has been confirmed, in an 11-month-old baby — the first case in Gaza in 25 years — raising fears of a larger outbreak.
“Israel will work with WHO and other organs to support all the campaigns to bring vaccines into Gaza,” Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon told reporters on Wednesday.
WHO says that Gaza had a high level of vaccination coverage before the escalation of hostilities in October but that the war has disrupted routine immunizations, including polio.
Peeperkorn said at least 90% of children need to be vaccinated to stop transmission of the poliovirus, which can cause irreversible paralysis in children. The virus is spread from person to person, mainly through feces, but also through contaminated food and water. Gaza’s water, sewage and sanitation systems have collapsed during the 10-month-long conflict, and living conditions are desperate.
More than 2,000 health care workers and community volunteers will be aiming to reach 640,000 children under age 10 during the campaign with a double dose of the novel oral polio vaccine type 2. The second dose will be administered four weeks after the first one.
Peeperkorn said the humanitarian pauses are vital to allow health workers and families to reach the vaccination sites.
“We need these humanitarian pauses, and that has been very clear. There is an agreement on that, so we expect that all parties will to stick to that,” he said. “Otherwise, indeed, it is actually impossible to do a proper campaign because you will definitely not reach your 90% [coverage].”
WHO, along with the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF, and UNRWA, the agency that assists Palestinian refugees, will be implementing the vaccination campaign. There will be 392 sites across Gaza where families can take their children for the polio vaccine. Nearly 300 other mobile units will be in the field to reach those who cannot access a vaccination site.
Israel has issued 16 separate evacuation orders to Gaza residents during August, displacing more than a quarter of a million Palestinians. Peeperkorn said Israel has agreed not to issue any evacuation orders on the days the vaccination campaign is in progress.
At a U.N. Security Council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the U.S. envoy expressed support for the vaccination campaign.
“It is especially important for Israel to facilitate access for agencies carrying out the vaccination campaign, and for it to ensure periods of calm and to refrain from military operations during vaccination campaign periods,” Ambassador Robert Wood said. “We urge Israel to avoid further evacuation orders during this period.”
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Snakehead fish: The invasive species disaster that wasn’t
Invasive plants and animals disrupt food supplies, carry diseases and cause an estimated $423 billion in damage every year around the world. When an Asian fish called the snakehead invaded waterways near Washington, experts warned it might devour the competition and upset of the ecosystem. But, as VOA’s Dora Mekouar reports, that’s not what ended up happening. VOA footage by Adam Greenbaum.
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China’s summer movie ticket sales nearly halved amid sluggish economy
WASHINGTON — Movie ticket sales in China have generated more than $1.5 billion so far this summer, a little more than half of last year’s record total of $2.89 billion, according to China’s Film Data Information Network, an institution directly under the Central Propaganda Department.
Summer is usually one of three lucrative periods for China’s movie industry, but industry analysts, observers and customers say a slower economy and a lack of creative domestic films are to blame for the decline.
Some would-be moviegoers explained why they are staying home this summer.
One posted on social media: “The impact from last year’s economic downturn officially appeared this year. Everyone thinks 40-80 yuan ($5-$11) per ticket is expensive.”
“Many movies in theaters in July are on streaming services in August,” another posted. “We’d rather watch them at home than go to the theater.”
A moviegoer in Beijing who identified herself as Ms. Yu, told VOA that this year’s film market is sluggish because the themes are plain, and streaming services allow everyone to watch movies at home without spending money.
“Everyone’s life is already miserable,” she said, “so we don’t want to watch sad movies.”
Although the streaming services have become theaters’ biggest competitors, the economic downturn may be the main reason for the ticket sales plunge, said Shenzhen-based film director Zhang, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.
“The spending power of young people and parents has decreased,” Zhang told VOA. “One [reason] is that young people don’t date, and parents whose income has been reduced are under great pressure to raise children, so they naturally cut the consumption activities except eating and drinking, not just movies.”
China’s economy has been struggling to stabilize since the pandemic, according to the World Bank, with growth falling to 3% in 2022 before a moderate recovery to 5.2% in 2023. The global lender expects China’s growth rate to drop back below 5% this year, while youth unemployment has surged.
China’s National Bureau of Statistics removed students from its unemployment calculation after China hit a record high 21.3% youth unemployment rate in June 2023, prompting authorities to temporarily suspend publication of the statistic.
Darson Chiu, director-general of the Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Taiwan, told VOA that China’s controls on film and creativity have also contributed to the lackluster box office figures.
“China has a very strict censorship system,” Chiu said. “Cultural activities need creativity, and it must be bottom-up. But it is obviously a top-down [censorship] mechanism, so it [the Chinese film industry] is not as creative as it is in other more open and free economies.”
Lee Cheng-liang, an assistant professor of communications at National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan, said Chinese cinemas in the summer mainly show domestic movies, which are struggling to find investors.
“The economy is declining; investors are more cautious to minimize risks. So they diversify the movie themes they invest in,” Lee told VOA. “If you focus on the Chinese market, you will not necessarily make money unless you are at the top of the pyramid.”
Director Zhang said the Chinese summer comedies “Successor,” which critiques the Chinese social education system, and “Upstream,” which portrays package deliverers, are movies that do not “empathize with the general public.”
Commercial movies are often condescending, he said, with hypocritically fabricated plots to show the suffering of people at the bottom. “It is actually a very deformed route,” Zhang added.
Other film critics, however, find “Upstream” a great work with increasing favorable audience feedback, which uncovers China’s immense economic problems and the struggle of its army of gig workers.
China’s state Xinhua News agency said “Successor,” grossing nearly 3.2 billion yuan as of Aug 20, accounted for almost 30% of China’s summer box office sales.
Zhang said the more depressed the social and historical period is, the more popular comedy is because the audience wants to feel “dreamy and painless.”
Despite the poor summer box office showing, not all critics are negative about China’s film industry.
“The ticket sales are not good this summer, but it does not mean that their [China’s] movies are bad,” Michael Mai, a film critic based in Taipei, told VOA. “Their audience is hard to please. Why? Because their appetite is too big. They have all kinds of movies.”
Mai noted that there are three major periods in the Chinese movie market: the Lunar New Year, in January and February; the summer season, from June to August; and the weeklong National Day season from Oct. 1.
Movie ticket sales always have seasonal ups and downs, Mai said, so people should be focusing more on long-term trends.
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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Second elephant calf in 2 weeks is born at California zoo
FRESNO, Calif. — The second elephant calf in two weeks has been born at a California zoo.
African elephant Amahle gave birth early Monday morning, according to the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. The event came 10 days after Amahle’s mother, Nolwazi, gave birth to another male calf.
The new additions are the first elephants born at the zoo, about 240 kilometers southeast of San Francisco, which has embarked on a program to breed elephants in the hope that they can be seen by zoogoers in years to come.
“To have two healthy calves is a historic milestone,” Jon Forrest Dohlin, the zoo’s chief executive, said in a statement Tuesday. “We cannot wait for the public to see the new additions to our herd and share in our excitement.”
The elephants and their calves will continue to be monitored behind the scenes for now, Dohlin said. While the zoo expanded its exhibit in anticipation of growing its herd, some animal activists have opposed the breeding program, saying elephants shouldn’t be in zoos because of their complex needs.
In 2022, the zoo brought in male elephant Mabu hoping he’d breed with the two females. The future of elephants — which have relatively few offspring and a 22-month gestation period — in zoos hinges largely on breeding.
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Paris Paralympics open in City of Light
Paris — The Opening Ceremony of the Paris Paralympics got underway Wednesday in the center of the French capital, firing the starting gun on 11 days of intense competition.
Just as for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics on the River Seine in July, it took place away from the main stadium for the first time at a Paralympics.
In balmy weather — in contrast to the heavy rain that blighted the opening of the Olympics on July 26 — the Games opened in Place de la Concorde, in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron.
The ceremony culminates with the lighting of the cauldron, which has already become a highly popular point of interest in the city since its debut at the Olympics.
When the sporting action begins on Thursday, a new generation of Paralympians will join seasoned veterans competing in many of the same venues that hosted Olympic sports.
Eighteen of the 35 Olympic venues will be used for the Paralympics, which run until September 8, including the Grand Palais, which scored rave reviews for its hosting of fencing and taekwondo under an ornate roof.
The La Defense Arena will again host the swimming events, and track and field will take place on the purple track of the Stade de France.
Sluggish ticket sales have picked up since the Olympics, and more than 2 million of the 2.5 million available have been sold, with several venues sold out.
The Paralympic flame was lit at Stoke Mandeville hospital in England, the birthplace of the Games, and brought to France through the Channel Tunnel before touring French cities.
Theater director Thomas Jolly, who also oversaw the Olympics Opening Ceremony, said there was a deep symbolism in having the Paralympics ceremony in the center of Paris — a city whose Metro system is not adapted to the needs of wheelchair users.
“Putting Paralympic athletes in the heart of the city is already a political marker in the sense that the city is not sufficiently adapted to every handicapped person,” Jolly said earlier this week.
Organizers say wheelchair users can take Paris buses, and they have laid on 1,000 specially adapted taxis as well.
Paralympic powerhouse China will send a strong squad — the Chinese dominated the medals table at the Covid-delayed Games in Tokyo three years ago, winning 96 golds. Britain was second with 41 golds.
Riding the wave of its Olympic team’s success, host nation France will be aiming for a substantial upgrade on the 11 golds it won in 2021, which left it in 14th position. French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said she wants France to finish in the top eight of the medals table.
Ukraine, traditionally one of the top medal-winning nations at the Paralympics, have sent a team of 140 athletes spread over 17 sports despite the challenges they face in preparing as the war against Russian forces rages at home.
Russia and Belarus are sending a total of 96 athletes, who will compete under a neutral banner but are barred from the opening and closing ceremonies because of the invasion of Ukraine.
Every Games produces new stars, and in this edition, look to American above-the-knee amputee sprinter/high jumper Ezra Frech to make the headlines.
Away from the track, Iranian sitting volleyball legend Morteza Mehrzad, who stands 8 feet, 1 inch tall, will attempt to take gold again.
International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons told AFP earlier this year he hopes the Paris edition will restore the issues facing disabled people to the top of the list of global priorities.
Parsons believes the Games “will have a big impact in how people with disability are perceived around the world.”
“This is one of the key expectations we have around Paris 2024; we believe that we need people with disability to be put back on the global agenda,” the Brazilian said.
“We do believe people with disability have been left behind. There is very little debate about persons with disability.”
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Mpox outbreak in Africa poses risks for refugees, displaced communities
GENEVA — U.N. agencies warn that refugees and displaced communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other African countries infected with mpox are at particular risk of illness and death because of conditions under which they are forced to live.
The World Health Organization says at least 42 suspected cases of mpox have been identified among the refugee population in DR Congo’s South Kivu Province, one of the regions hardest hit by the disease. Confirmed and suspected cases of the new clade 1b strain also have been recorded among refugee populations in the Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.
“Suspected cases are being reported in conflict-impacted provinces that host the majority of the DRC’s 7.3 million internally displaced people,” Dr. Allen Maina, UNHCR public health chief, said Tuesday.
“In these areas, the virus threatens to exacerbate an already impossible situation for a population devastated by decades of conflict, forced displacement, appalling human rights abuses and a lack of international assistance,” the U.N. refugee official said.
He also warned that without additional, urgent international support, the recently declared mpox outbreak “could become devastating” for the DRC and other impacted African countries.
Nearly two weeks ago, the WHO declared mpox to be a public health emergency of international concern following an upsurge in the deadly disease in the DRC and 11 other countries in Africa.
Maina told journalists at a briefing in Geneva that refugees and displaced people are particularly vulnerable to mpox because people fleeing violence “are unable to implement many of the mpox prevention measures” that could keep them healthy and save their lives.
“Displaced families living in crowded schools, shelters and tents, and also in churches, and also in farmers’ fields have no space to isolate when they develop symptoms of the disease. UNHCR staff have found some affected individuals trying diligently to follow preventive measures and protect their communities by sleeping outside,” he said.
So far this year, the WHO reports more than 18,910 cases of mpox and 615 deaths, most in the DRC. “But most of these are suspected cases as they have not yet been laboratory confirmed,” said Dr. Margaret Harris, WHO spokesperson, adding that “We are seeing outbreaks of both clade 1a and clade 1b.”
Clade 1a is primarily transmitted through sexual contact, and there also have been outbreaks resulting from zoonotic spillover; while the new strain of the virus, clade 1b, is exclusively spread by contact between humans.
The WHO says a lot of outbreaks in north and south Kivu provinces are caused by clade 1b. The U.N. health agency has recorded 5,400 suspected cases as of August 23, noting that more than 220 cases of the new strain also have been found in neighboring countries.
Harris says scientists do not have the data to know whether clade 1b is more dangerous than clade 1a.
“Studies are underway to understand the properties of the new strain. The available epidemiological data does not suggest that the clade 1b variant causes more severe cases as yet.” She noted, however, that the disease spreads rapidly, putting refugees and displaced people at particular risk.
“You just heard the descriptions of the conditions under which people are living and have arrived already very stressed, hungry, terrified, displaced,” she said.
These difficult living conditions have led to weaker immune systems, she said, “which makes them more likely to become more ill with anything they get, including mpox.”
Mpox is a deadly infection that causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. It is spread through close physical contact, which makes children particularly vulnerable “as the disease spreads easily through skin-to-skin contact,” Harris said, adding that children who have close physical contact with an infected adult relative “cannot fight off the virus because of a weakened immune system.”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus launched a six-month global strategic preparedness and response plan Monday to stop human-to-human transmission of mpox through global, regional and national efforts.
“The mpox outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring countries can be controlled, and can be stopped,” Tedros said in a statement.
The WHO followed Monday’s launch with an $87.4 million appeal Tuesday to implement critical activities over the next six months, emphasizing surveillance, research, equitable access to medical countermeasures and community empowerment.
The WHO is calling on donors to urgently fund the mpox response “to prevent further spread and protect those most at risk.”
The UNHCRs public health chief, Maina, has no doubt as to who is most at risk and what must be done.
“International solidarity is urgently needed to expand health services, isolation centers, humanitarian shelters, access to water and soap for those forced to flee,” he said. “In conflict zones, peace is also desperately needed, to ensure a sustainable response to stop the spread of the disease.”
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Flag football finds unlikely popularity in war-torn Ukraine
Before Russia invaded in February 2022, American football was becoming popular in Ukraine. Today, most of the players are on the front lines. A gentler version of the game — flag football — is gaining ground in the meantime among kids and youth. Tetiana Kukurika has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Sergiy Rybchynski
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WHO launches plan to stanch mpox transmission, says virus can be stopped
GENEVA — The U.N. health agency on Monday launched a six-month plan to help stanch outbreaks of mpox transmission, including ramping up staffing in affected countries and boosting surveillance, prevention and response strategies.
The World Health Organization said it expected the plan, running from September through February next year, would require $135 million in funding. The plan would also aim to improve fair access to vaccines, notably in African countries hardest hit by the outbreak.
“The mpox outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring countries can be controlled, and can be stopped,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement.
The agency is “significantly scaling up staff” in affected countries, it said. In mid-August, WHO classified the current mpox outbreak as a global health emergency.
Also Monday, German government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said Germany was donating 100,000 doses of mpox vaccine to affected countries from stocks held by its military, German news agency dpa reported.
Last Tuesday, Congo — the hardest-hit country — reported more than 1,000 new mpox cases over the previous week.
In its latest update on the outbreak, the African Centers for Disease Control reported that as of Thursday, more than 21,300 suspected or confirmed cases and 590 deaths have been reported this year in 12 African countries.
Mpox belongs to the same family of viruses as smallpox but typically causes milder symptoms such as fever, chills and body aches. It mostly spreads through close skin-to-skin contact, including sexual intercourse. People with more serious cases can develop lesions on the face, hands, chest and genitals.
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Venice will surge with star power, from Lady Gaga to Pitt to Clooney
rome — Stars from Angelina Jolie to George Clooney will gather this week at the Venice Film Festival, bringing a high dose of Hollywood pizzazz back to the watery city’s sandy Lido.
With 21 films vying for the top Golden Lion prize, the 81st edition of the prestigious festival kicks off Wednesday, with Lady Gaga, Daniel Craig and Brad Pitt expected on the red carpet during the 10-day affair.
The dazzle is welcome after the Hollywood strikes last year kept most studio films and their A-lister stars away from the world’s longest-running festival, known as “La Mostra.”
In the spotlight, but out of competition, is “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” the long-anticipated sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 cult classic that opens the festival Wednesday, with Michael Keaton, Catherine O’Hara and Winona Ryder reprising their original roles.
High-profile contenders in the main competition include Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie a Deux,” the sequel to the U.S. director’s 2019 Venice-winning film that sees Joaquin Phoenix paired with Lady Gaga; and “Queer” from Italy’s Luca Guadagnino, starring Craig and based on the William Burroughs novel set in 1940s Mexico City.
Jolie headlines “Maria,” a Maria Callas biopic from Chile’s Pablo Larrain, who returns to Venice following his Diana drama “Spencer” in 2021, while Nicole Kidman and Antonio Banderas star in the erotic thriller “Babygirl” from Dutch director Halina Reijn.
To keep the drama on the screen — and avoid it behind the scenes — “Maria” will premiere on the festival’s first full day Thursday, while “Wolfs” starring Jolie’s ex, Brad Pitt, will screen out of competition Sunday.
Joining Pitt in the Apple TV+ film from “Spider-Man” director Jon Watts is Clooney, with the actors playing rival professional fixers in the action comedy.
The main competition also includes the first full-length film in English for a Venice regular, Spain’s Pedro Almodovar — “The Room Next Door” with Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore — while “The Order” from Australian director Justin Kurzel sees Jude Law playing an FBI agent investigating a terror ring in the Pacific Northwest.
Weaver, Costner and Kline
Wednesday’s opening night will feature the introduction of the international jury led by its president, French actress Isabelle Huppert, and the awarding of an honorary Golden Lion for lifetime achievement to “Alien” star Sigourney Weaver.
Also having its out-of-competition debut is the second chapter of Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga.” The first part of the actor-director’s Western epic premiered at Cannes in May.
Running until September 7, the international festival has increasingly become known for showcasing films that go on to Oscar glory for its directors and cast members, including former Golden Lion winners “Poor Things,” “Nomadland” and “Joker.”
Unlike at the rival Cannes Film Festival, Venice accepts films produced by streaming services in competition, especially Netflix, which has found great success launching titles such as “Maestro” and “Roma” at the Italian festival.
Besides “Wolfs,” Apple TV+ also produced “Disclaimer,” a thriller series starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline and Sacha Baron Cohen, which is also having its premiere in Venice.
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Disposable vape products creating worldwide pollution
The rapid rise in disposable electronic cigarette, or vape, usage is creating a tidal wave of pollution, and it’s raising serious environmental concerns. Aron Ranen reports from New York City about one woman who is trying to make a difference.
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‘Deadpool’ and ‘Alien’ top box office charts again; ‘Blink Twice’ sees quiet opening
Los Angeles — In a sleepy summer weekend at the box office, holdovers reigned supreme as newcomers landed without a splash.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” reclaimed first place at the North American box office in its fifth weekend with $18.3 million. Its cumulative international earnings now sit at over $1.2 billion.
The Walt Disney Co., which owns 20th Century Studios, claimed the top two spots on the charts for the second weekend in a row with “Alien: Romulus” following close behind the foul-mouthed superhero movie. The latest installment in the 45-year-old franchise brought in $16.2 million in its second weekend after a promising opening. Disney’s “Inside Out 2” also remained on the charts, raking in $2.1 million domestically in its 11th weekend. Its global earnings are now over $1.6 billion.
“This is an incredible turnaround for Disney, who almost fell off the radar, shockingly enough, last year and over the course of the pandemic,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “They got a couple of billion-dollar films out so far and ‘Moana 2’ is still up on the way. This is a huge comeback year for Disney – no question about it.”
Romantic drama “It Ends With Us,” another repeat chart-topper, landed in third place for the second consecutive weekend with $11.9 million. The Sony movie starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, who also directed, has made $242.6 million to date globally. It cost only $25 million to produce.
The new releases were victim to the crowded movie marketplace, resulting in what Dergarabedian called “box office deja vu,” with the familiar films dominating and making it harder for the new releases to find their footing. Dergarabedian says the upcoming Labor Day holiday will likely benefit the newer titles as word-of-mouth spreads and more people head to theaters during the long weekend.
“Blink Twice,” directed by Zoe Kravitz and starring her life partner Channing Tatum, saw a modest opening, taking in $7.3 million and claiming fourth place on the charts. The Amazon MGM Studios psychological thriller follows Tatum as tech magnate Slater King, who whisks two women away to his private island.
While it may seem like a picture-perfect vacation at first, much more sinister events unfold as the visitors learn the truth about the island and the billionaire. The film’s budget has been reported at $20 million.
Reviews have been mixed, with audiences giving the film a B- CinemaScore, but the film has been deemed Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a 79% score.
Rounding out the top five was “The Forge,” a faith-focused coming-of-age movie about a young man finding his way through Christianity. The film opened with $6.6 million and received an A+ CinemaScore from audiences. It was released by Affirm Films, Sony’s faith-based banner.
Another new release, “The Crow,” was beat out by “Twisters” and “Coraline” in the rankings. “Twisters” entered its sixth week with $6.2 million in domestic earnings and “Coraline,” which was re-released for its 15th anniversary last week, brought in an additional $5.1 million in its second weekend.
Lionsgate’s “The Crow,” an R-rated adaptation of the acclaimed graphic novel and a remake of the 1994 film of the same name, opened with $4.6 million. The studio also floundered in August with the release of “Borderlands,” an adaptation of the video game, which made $15.2 million over three weekends compared to its reported $120 million budget.
To complete the “tale of the holdovers,” as Dergarabedian put it, “Despicable Me 4” and “Inside Out 2” closed out the top 10 films of the weekend, bringing in $4.4 million and $2.1 million, respectively. “Inside Out 2” has been on the charts for 11 consecutive weekends and remains the No. 1 animated film of all time globally.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
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“Deadpool & Wolverine,” $18.3 million.
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“Alien: Romulus,” $16.2 million.
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“It Ends With Us,” $11.9 million.
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“Blink Twice,” $7.3 million.
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“The Forge,” $6.6 million.
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“Twisters,” $6.2 million.
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“Coraline,” $5.1 million.
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“The Crow,” $4.6 million.
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“Despicable Me 4,” $4.4 million.
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“Inside Out 2,” $2.1 million.
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US rapper Macklemore cancels Dubai gig over alleged UAE role in Sudan war
Dubai, United Arab Emirates — U.S. rapper Macklemore has announced he is cancelling an upcoming show in Dubai over the UAE’s involvement in the conflict in Sudan, charges the Gulf state has denied.
The rapper best known for hits like 2012’s “Thrift Shop” made the announcement in a post on social media on Saturday.
“I have decided to cancel my upcoming show in Dubai this October,” he said.
“Over the last several months I’ve had a number of people reach out to me, sharing resources and asking me to cancel the show in solidarity with the people of Sudan,” he said.
“Until the UAE stops arming and funding the RSF I will not perform there,” Macklemore added, referring to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that have been battling the Sundanese army.
War has raged since April 2023 between the Sudanese army, under the country’s de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, which is commanded by Burhan’s former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
For months, the army has accused the UAE of supporting the RSF.
In June, Sudan’s ambassador to the United Nations Al-Harith Idriss al-Harith Mohamed called Abu Dhabi’s financial and military support for the RSF the “main reason behind this protracted war.”
The UAE has denied allegations of RSF support as “disinformation,” saying that it’s efforts are focused exclusively towards de-escalation and alleviating Sudan’s humanitarian suffering.
Macklemore has released socially aware music in the past, supporting LGBTQ+ rights while also criticizing ills including poverty and consumerism.
In his latest track released in May, Macklemore voices support for Palestinians and also praises students across the United States protesting against Israel’s war in Gaza.
The song, “Hind’s Hall,” is named after a building at Columbia University that students recently occupied and renamed after Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl killed in Gaza.
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Congo-Brazzaville reports 21 mpox cases
Brazzaville, Congo — Twenty-one cases of mpox have been recorded in Congo-Brazzaville, the country’s health minister told state television Sunday.
Gilbert Mokoki said that the central African country had “registered 158 suspect cases” since the beginning of the year, “21 of which we have confirmed.”
The latest two were reported Thursday, he said.
Cases of the infectious disease — formerly known as monkeypox — have been surging in eastern and central Africa, but the virus has also been detected in Asia and Europe, with the World Health Organization declaring an international emergency.
The virus has been reported in five of Congo-Brazzaville’s 15 regions, with the forested areas of Sangha and Likouala in the north particularly affected.
A new variant of mpox has swept across neighboring DR Congo, killing more than 570 people so far this year.
Mokoki said that the epidemic was not alarming in Congo-Brazzaville, but appealed to people to take preventative measures like regularly washing their hands.
While mpox has been known for decades, a new more deadly and more transmissible strain — known as Clade 1b — has driven the recent surge in cases.
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