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greysadv · 2 years

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Pink flamingo

#Pink flamingo how to#

#Pink flamingo movie#

#Pink flamingo registration#

It doesn't make Pink Flamingos a masterpiece. And I don't think YOU, the reader, or anyone other than Waters could have pulled that off.

#Pink flamingo movie#

So, although the movie is so disgusting that I wish it had never been made, it is not a squalid film. Pink Flamingos has panache! It has a free-wheeling sense of daring-do that borders on innocent fun. The bright pink color of flamingos comes from beta-carotene, a red. Could YOU recognize the virtues of, let alone even find, someone like Edith Massey? I doubt it. For flamingos, the phrase You are what you eat holds more truth than it might for humans. Waters' actors had a style, no matter how bizarre, that is rarer than most depravities. And it's not just a matter of WHAT they will do, but HOW they do it. Yes, GOOD! You couldn't because, first of all, I doubt you have the same quality of acquaintances that Waters had and put into into his early movies. Even if you - yes YOU out there - the reader, wanted to make the most disgusting movie in the world and even if you had the money and the skills that John Waters lacked in 1972, you couldn't make a film as good as he did. And then there is the primary purpose behind Pink Flamingos - to make the most disgusting, revolting movie possible, perhaps even conceivable. well, they are better than in porn flicks and even some straight-to-video movies, but, jeez, not by much. The camera work is a hair's breadth above home movies the acting and story are. Those who call it "great" or a "masterpiece" are plain wrong, they don't recognize what they are seeing. it looks a hell of a lot better when you're drunk. Having finally seen it again only recently, this time sober, I'm here to tell you. A college dorm had rented a print, and in a drunken state I've not achieved again this past quarter-century, I went to see it. In ancient Rome, flamingo tongues were eaten as a rare delicacy.I first saw Pink Flamingos in the mid 70's, back before VCRs. It is also the smallest and the deepest in colour. The lesser flamingo ( Phoeniconaias minor), which inhabits the lake district of East Africa and parts of South Africa, Madagascar, and India, is the most abundant. The former has a pink band on each of its yellow legs, and the latter was thought extinct until a remote population was discovered in 1956. Two smaller species that live high in the Andes Mountains of South America are the Andean flamingo ( Phoenicoparrus andinus) and the puna, or James’s, flamingo ( Phoenicoparrus jamesi). The Chilean flamingo ( Phoenicopterus chilensis) is primarily an inland species. ruber roseus) of Africa and southern Europe and Asia. Description: Kwik Kombos are formulated mixes tested for consumer performance in a range of. ruber ruber) and the Old World flamingo ( P. Downloads: High resolution Image 1.58 mb. There are two subspecies of the greater flamingo: the Caribbean flamingo ( P. The greater flamingo ( Phoenicopterus ruber) breeds in large colonies on the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico in tropical and subtropical America. You can still register on the day of the race by printing off the below form and bringing it the day of the race.

#Pink flamingo registration#

Online Registration for this year’s run is now closed. The run/walk is the same weekend as the world famous Pink Flamingo Softball Tournament.

SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space! We truly love and appreciate this community RACE DATE: Saturday, July 16 th, 2022.

Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them!

Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.

Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning.

100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.

#Pink flamingo how to#

COVID-19 Portal While this global health crisis continues to evolve, it can be useful to look to past pandemics to better understand how to respond today.Student Portal Britannica is the ultimate student resource for key school subjects like history, government, literature, and more. 31.7k Followers, 62 Following, 5,018 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Pink Flamingo (pinkflamingorio) pinkflamingorio.From tech to household and wellness products. Britannica Explains In these videos, Britannica explains a variety of topics and answers frequently asked questions.This Time in History In these videos, find out what happened this month (or any month!) in history.#WTFact Videos In #WTFact Britannica shares some of the most bizarre facts we can find.Demystified Videos In Demystified, Britannica has all the answers to your burning questions.Britannica Classics Check out these retro videos from Encyclopedia Britannica’s archives.

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tlatollotl · 3 years

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The Pacific Coast of the Americas linked Pre-Columbian complex societies from Mexico to Peru, facilitating exploration, communication, and transportation in a way that terrestrial routes could not match. Yet West Mexico, the Isthmo-Colombian Area, and Ecuador, with their great stretches of coastline, were marginalized by the definition of the Mesoamerican and Andean culture areas in the 1940s. Waves of Influence seeks to renew the inquiry into Pacific coastal contacts and bring fresh attention to connections among regions often seen as isolated from one another.

This volume reassesses the evidence for Pre-Columbian maritime contacts along the Pacific Coast, from western Mexico to northwestern South America. The authors draw upon recent models of globalization, technological style, and ritual commensality alongside methods such as computer simulation, iconographic analysis, skeletal studies, and operational chains. No single model can characterize the coastal network over 4,000 km of coastline and over 4,000 years of interaction, and authors present individual case studies to demonstrate how each region participated in its own distinct networks. Essays address the difficulty of maritime movement, the transfer of crops, technology, and knowledge, the identification of different modalities of contact, and the detection of important nodes and social actors within the coastal network.

#archaeology #arqueologia #mesoamerica #history #historia #west mexico #south america #pacific

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fuckyeahmarxismleninism · 3 years

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The Network in Defense of Humanity celebrates the growing electoral strength of progressivism in Ecuador, led by Andrés Arauz and Carlos Rabascall, a force that puts on stage its victory in the contest of February 7. We hope that this victory will be celebrated by all the peoples of Our America on the road to cementing a regional project.

Precisely because of this, in the context of the dispute that neoliberalism imposes on a proposal for sovereignty raised by progressivism, there have been troubling maneuvers contrary to the rules and institutions of the rule of law, established by the Constitution of Ecuador. We have witnessed violations of inalienable rights, such as the cessation of the political rights of progressive actors and movements; there have even been violations of the rights of citizens by attempting to truncate the electoral process itself.

With this background, while celebrating the democratic spirit of the Ecuadorian people, the Network demands that the government and the electoral authorities of Ecuador fully respect the will of the people as expressed at the ballot box and ask for guarantees that the elections will be transparent and flawless before, during and after the casting of the ballots.

The Network in Defense of Humanity makes an urgent appeal to progressive and democratic forces around the world to be vigilant and watch very carefully the Election Day of 7 February, and with their watchful eye, avoid the misappropriation of the electorate’s preferences.

We ask international bodies to certify the non-interference of Lenín Moreno’s government, nor of foreign actors, such as the president of the OAS, Luis Almagro, or others, in the electoral process.

We call on the electoral observation delegations to take note of: 1) the impediments to the holding of elections in different places that concentrate the migrant vote; 2) the validity of the legislative elections for the Andean Parliament; 3) the clean counting of the vote in all scenarios.

For democracy to be reborn in Ecuador, it will be necessary to adopt an attitude of permanent participation and vigilance and to be absolutely intolerant of any attempt to pervert the purity of the vote or to ignore the will of the people.

Guaranteeing democracy for the peoples of our America is a task for all of us!

Our America, February 4, 2021

Executive Secretariat of the Network in Defense of Humanity

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freakscircus · 3 years

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i don’t think i ever shared these, but these were my comp questions back in october. i prepped by reading 40 books, or 20 books per question. i almost had a panic attack when i read these questions for the first time but they didn’t turn out to be too bad.......... it wasn’t so much what it was asking as it felt like i didn’t have enough time to answer all of this in 8 hours. i didn’t take any breaks at all, nick made all my food and tea and was there for moral support. i’m so dreading my next comp exam, i keep having nightmares that i get ready to write and i haven’t read any of the books. the examiner of this test said i did a great job though, especially for question 2!!

Question 1: Historians of colonial-era Iberian economies have developed a rich historiography over decades around their research on a number of questions focused on labor systems and the production of commodities. Two of these – silver and sugar – figure prominently, as they encapsulate the definition of imperial wealth as bullion under the political economy of mercantilism and the complexes of plantation economies across the Americas. Discuss the following questions: (1) What was the role of colonial Iberio-America in the development of early modern global capitalism? How do historians working in the realm of Iberian-American imperialism define the Atlantic world? (2) What are the major differences in the economic systems that linked Spanish and Portuguese America to early modern global economies? What were some of the common points between these imperial economies? (3) Within Spanish America, how have historians marked the differences between New Spain and the Andean region for both labor and the production of wealth? (4) In what different ways did Indigenous peoples negotiate their spaces of production and trade within the colonial economies in addition to their forced contributions through tribute and labor regimes that varied across mita, repartimiento, and wage labor? (5) In what ways did the production of commodities shape social relations, and how do these reveal tensions between imperial structures and colonial agency?

Question 2: The methodology of “new philology” has created a rich ethnohistorical literature over nearly four decades that has brought to light new documentary sources produced in Native American glyphs and alphabetized texts that addressed colonial and ecclesiastical power structures, defended community autonomy and resources, and constructed historical memory. Although especially applicable to Mesoamerica, where such Indigenous language sources have survived in often abundant repositories, historians of the Andes and other regions of colonial Iberian America have grappled with the methods of linguistic interpretation to bring to light the agency of Indigenous peoples as historical actors in the complex theatre of their early modern history. (1) How has this methodology helped us rethink the top-down views of conquest-era and colonial society in Latin America? (2) In what ways did Indigenous speakers/writers not only address by challenge imperial structures? (3) What are the linkages in the historiography between the methodologies of language analysis and interpretation and revisionist thinking about race and ethnicity? (4) How does the concept of ethnogenesis change the way we research and teach the themes of race and ethnicity? (5) How do we understand the palimpsest of mestizaje within Indigenous “groups” or “nations” and across the Indigenous and African-descendant peoples who increasingly populated Spanish and Portuguese America?

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newstfionline · 3 years

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Thursday, November 12, 2020

Canada Is Relieved at Biden’s Win (NYT) On a snowy evening in December 2016, a month after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada held a rare farewell state dinner for the departing vice president, Joseph R. Biden Jr. It was like a tearful goodbye between two old friends. “We are more like family. That’s the way the vast majority of Americans feel about Canada and Canadians,” Mr. Biden said to a hall packed with politicians in Ottawa. “The friendship between us is absolutely critical to the United States.” He ended with a toast: “Vive le Canada. Because we need you very, very badly.” After four years of surprise tariffs, stinging insults and threats from President Trump, a giddy jubilation and sense of deep relief spread across Canada on Saturday, with the news that Mr. Biden had won the presidency. Many Canadians hope to return to the status of cherished sibling to the United States, and that the president-elect’s personal connection to Canada, and that of his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, will help heal the wounds.

States cite smooth election (AP) The 2020 election unfolded smoothly across the country and without any widespread irregularities, according to state officials and election experts, a stark contrast to the baseless claims of fraud being leveled by President Donald Trump following his defeat. Election experts said the large increase in advance voting—107 million people voting early in person and by mail—helped take pressure off Election Day operations. There were also no incidents of violence at the polls or voter intimidation. “The 2020 general election was one of the smoothest and most well-run elections that we have ever seen, and that is remarkable considering all the challenges,” said Ben Hovland, a Democrat appointed by Trump to serve on the Election Assistance Commission, which works closely with officials on election administration. Following Democrat Joe Biden’s victory, Trump has sought to discredit the integrity of the election and argued without evidence that the results will be overturned. Republican lawmakers have said the president should be allowed to launch legal challenges, though many of those lawsuits have already been turned away by judges and those that remain do not include evidence of problems that would change the outcome of the race.

Future of business travel unclear as virus upends work life (AP) For the lucrative business travel industry, Brian Contreras represents its worst fears. A partner account executive at a U.S. tech firm, Contreras was used to traveling frequently for his company. But nine months into the pandemic, he and thousands of others are working from home and dialing into video conferences instead of boarding planes. Contreras manages his North American accounts from Sacramento, California and doesn’t expect to travel for work until the middle of next year. Even then, he’s not sure how much he will need to. “Maybe it’s just the acceptance of the new normal. I have all of the resources necessary to be on the calls, all of the communicative devices to make sure I can do my job,” he said. “There’s an element of face-to-face that’s necessary, but I would be OK without it.” That trend could spell big trouble for hotels, airlines, convention centers and other industries that rely so heavily on business travelers like Contreras. Work travel represented 21% of the $8.9 trillion spent on global travel and tourism in 2019, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. Amazon, which told it employees to stop traveling in March, says it has saved nearly $1 billion in travel expenses so far this year. The online shopping giant, with more than 1.1 million employees, is the second-largest employer in the U.S. At Southwest Airlines, CEO Gary Kelly said while overall passenger revenue is down 70%, business travel—normally more than one-third of Southwest’s traffic—is off 90%. U.S. hotels relied on business travel for around half their revenue in 2019, or closer to 60% in big cities like Washington, according to Cindy Estis Green, the CEO of hospitality data firm Kalibri Labs.

Final weeks of historic hurricane season bring new storms (AP) Just when you thought it should be safe to go back to the water, the record-setting tropics are going crazy. Again. Tropical Storm Eta is parked off the western coast of Cuba, dumping rain. When it finally moves again, computer models and human forecasters are befuddled about where it will go and how strong it will be. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Theta—which formed overnight and broke a record as the 29th named Atlantic storm of the season—is chugging east toward Europe on the cusp of hurricane status. The last time there were two named storms churning at the same time this late in the year was in December 1887, Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said. But wait there’s more. A tropical wave moving across the Atlantic somehow survived the mid-November winds that usually decapitate storms. The system now has a 70% chance of becoming the 30th named storm. That’s Iota on your already filled scorecard. If it forms, it is heading generally toward the same region of Central America that was hit by Eta. Never before have three named storms been twirling at the same time this late in the year, Klotzbach said. Hurricane records go back to 1851, but before the satellite era, some storms were likely missed.

Religious Persecution Is Worsening Worldwide (CT) Dictators are the worst persecutors of believers. This perhaps uncontroversial finding was verified for the first time in the Pew Research Center’s 11th annual study surveying restrictions on freedom of religion in 198 nations. The median level of government violations reached an all-time high in 2018, as 56 nations (28%) suffer “high” or “very high” levels of official restriction. The number of nations suffering “high” or “very high” levels of social hostilities toward religion dropped slightly to 53 (27%). Considered together, 40 percent of the world faces significant hindrance in worshiping God freely. And the trend continues to be negative. Since 2007, when Pew began its groundbreaking survey, the median level of government restrictions has risen 65 percent. The level for social hostilities has doubled.

Critics, protesters call removal of Peruvian president a legislative coup (Washington Post) The little-known head of Peru’s Congress took the helm of the South American nation Tuesday amid a public outcry over the surprise removal of the country’s popular president, Martín Vizcarra. Vizcarra’s ouster late Monday and the inauguration of interim president Manuel Merino amounted to a return of the political chaos that has long plagued Peru, where nearly every president since 1990 has resigned, been indicted or been jailed amid clouds of corruption. One former president killed himself. Yet at a time when the Andean nation is confronting one of the world’s most lethal coronavirus outbreaks, Vizcarra’s ouster, based on still-unproven bribery allegations, appeared to be fundamentally different. Critics called it a congressional coup staged by Machiavellian legislators desperate to halt his anti-corruption and political reform campaigns, which took aim at their pocketbooks and threatened to end many of their political careers. Under Vizcarra, Peru adopted laws that took on festering malfeasance within the 130-member legislature, where 68 lawmakers are now under investigation or indictment for alleged crimes ranging from money laundering to murder. Members of the current Congress have been prohibited from seeking reelection, and anyone with active charges is barred from running. Critics now fear that Merino—who previously sought to turn the military against Vizcarra and attempted an earlier removal on different grounds in September—will seek to lift those rules, allowing a compromised political class to preserve itself and setting up a new period of instability in this nation of 32 million.

Generation COVID (Foreign Policy) A report from the British school inspection agency found that children had suffered from being outside the regular school system during lockdown, with some younger children regressing from being potty-trained back to diapers and older children showing reduced reading stamina. The chief inspector for schools found that the children experiencing the worst effects were those whose parents’ employment did not allow for flexible or at-home working.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy tests positive for Covid-19 (AP) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced Monday that he has tested positive for coronavirus infection and will be working in self-isolation while being treated. “There are no lucky people in the world for whom Covid-19 does not pose a threat,” Zelenskiy said on Twitter. “However, I feel good. I promise to isolate myself and I continue to work.” Zelenskiy became president in 2019 as a political neophyte, previously known as an actor and comedian. He became popular in the country for a TV sitcom, “Servant of the People,” in which he played the role of a teacher who unexpectedly becomes president after making a rant about corruption that goes viral. He handily defeated incumbent Petro Poroshenko. Ukraine’s coronavirus infections began surging in late summer and have put the country’s underpaid doctors and underequipped hospitals under severe pressure.

Nagorno-Karabakh: Turkey wins the war? (Foreign Policy/Eurointelligence) Russia may have secured a peace deal to end a six-week conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, but Turkey has won the war. Ankara threw its political support behind Azerbaijan and employed Turkish cutting-edge drones and military expertise to allow Azerbaijan to roll over Armenian positions in the difficult mountain area under dispute. The conflict is not new, and occasional fighting has been going on there since 1994, but this time it is a decisive victory. This victory will boost Erdogan’s image as a strongman with geopolitical weight, and helps him put a foot into the South Caucasus. Hard power impresses former Soviet countries.

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers resign en masse (AP) Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers said Wednesday that they were resigning en masse following a move by the semi-autonomous Chinese territory’s government to disqualify four of their fellow pro-democracy legislators. The 15 lawmakers announced the move in a news conference Wednesday, hours after the Hong Kong government said it was disqualifying the four legislators. The disqualifications came after China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee, which held meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, passed a resolution stating that those who support Hong Kong’s independence or refuse to acknowledge China’s sovereignty over the city, or threaten national security or ask external forces to interfere in the city’s affairs, should be disqualified. Beijing has in recent months moved to clamp down on opposition voices in Hong Kong with the imposition of a national security law, after months of anti-government protests last year rocked the city. A mass resignation by the pro-democracy camp would leave Hong Kong’s legislature with only pro-Beijing lawmakers. The pro-Beijing camp already makes up a majority of the city’s legislature.

Iran sanctions continue (Foreign Policy) The Trump administration doesn’t intend to give up its “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran just because it lost an election. On Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced new sanctions on six companies and four people accused of supplying components to Iran Communication Industries, a company run by the Iranian military that is already under U.S. and EU sanctions. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the United States would continue to take action against those that support Iran’s “militarization and proliferation efforts.”

Frantic search after medicines vanish from Lebanon shelves (AP) She is a nurse at a Beirut hospital, and still Rita Harb can’t find her grandfather’s heart drugs. She has searched pharmacies up and down Lebanon, called friends abroad. Not even her connections with doctors could secure the drugs. Unlike many amid Lebanon’s financial crash, she can afford them—they just aren’t there. To get by, her 85-year-old grandfather is substituting his medicine with more pills of a smaller concentration to reach his dosage. That too could run out soon. Drugs for everything from diabetes and blood pressure to anti-depressants and fever pills used in COVID-19 treatment have disappeared from shelves around Lebanon. Officials and pharmacists say the shortage was exacerbated by panic buying and hoarding after the Central Bank governor said that with foreign reserves running low, the government won’t be able to keep up subsidies, including on drugs. That announcement “caused a storm, an earthquake,” said Ghassan al-Amin, head of the pharmacist syndicate. Lebanese now scour the country and beyond for crucial medications. The elderly ask around religious charities and aid groups. Family members plead on social media or travel to neighboring Syria. Expats are sending in donations. It’s the newest stage in the economic collapse of this country of 5 million, once a regional hub for banking, real estate and medical services. More than half the population has been pushed into poverty and people’s savings have lost value. Public debt is crippling, and the local currency plunged, losing nearly 80% of its value. The health sector is buckling under the financial strain and coronavirus pandemic.

‘Countdown to catastrophe’ in Yemen as U.N. warns of famine—again (Reuters) Millions of men, women and children in war-torn Yemen are facing famine—again, top United Nations officials warned on Wednesday as they appealed for more money to prevent it—again. “We are on a countdown right now to a catastrophe,” U.N. food chief David Beasley told the U.N. Security Council. “We have been here before ... We did almost the same dog-and-pony show. We sounded the alarm then.” The United Nations describes Yemen as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with 80% of the people in need of help. “If we choose to look away, there’s no doubt in my mind Yemen will be plunged into a devastating famine within a few short months,” Beasley told the 15-member council. In late 2017, U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock warned that Yemen was then facing “the largest famine the world has seen for many decades with millions of victims”. “We prevented famine two years ago,” Lowcock told the Security Council on Wednesday. “More money for the aid operation is the quickest and most efficient way to support famine prevention efforts right now.”

#headlines #news

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bbclesmis · 5 years

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The Spectator: Les Misérables is another depressing example of the BBC’s woke quota targets

As the Allies advanced towards Germany in September 1944, their supplies were brought all the way from western Normandy in a constant shuttle convoy known as the Red Ball Express. If you were making a realistic movie about this, three quarters of the truck drivers would be played by black actors, because that’s how it was in real life.

Similar rules would have to apply to any remake of Zulu or Zulu Dawn. It is an awkward but inescapable historical fact that there was no diversity whatsoever among Cetewayo’s Impis: they were all, resolutely, from the same African tribe. At the Battle of Crécy, on the other hand, every single participant was white European — even the misleadingly named Black Prince — so any movie version probably wouldn’t involve a call to Samuel L. Jackson’s casting agent.

You could go through all of history like this and make pretty sensible guesses on the ethnicity of the participants. Sometimes you might be surprised. For example, researching a novel I wrote set at the Battle of Arnhem, I found that at least one British unit had a black paratrooper (naturally nicknamed ‘Chalky’ by his comrades). So I included him, not because he was at all representative, but because I thought it was a quirk of history too interesting to resist.

Anyway, to Les Misérables and the casting of David Oyelowo as Javert. Can anyone point me to any evidence that there were black police inspectors in early 19th- century France; or that a gentleman of West African extraction was what Victor Hugo had in mind when he created this son of a galley slave? Otherwise, I’ll have to assume that this is another depressing example of the BBC’s woke quota targets — 15 per cent representation of black and minority ethnic actors on screen by 2020 — being given precedence over verisimilitude, artistic integrity and viewer satisfaction. Very few of us licence-fee payers, I am sure, would consider ourselves to be racist. But the BBC would appear to be on a mission to make us feel as though we are by forcing us to notice stuff we shouldn’t have to notice.

Still, I shall carry on enjoying Andrew Davies’s adaptation — but at least as much for the purposes of bracing masochism as for pleasure. Never was a novel more accurately titled than Les Misérables. Hugo works so hard to give his characters the worst possible deal that sometimes you want to laugh — the only laugh you’ll get — at the contrivance. Fantine, for example. How stupid do you have to be to sell your hair and front teeth before you go on the game rather than afterwards?

Andrew Davies — among others — has commented on what a dire travesty of the original the musical version is. The more I see of this epic, melodramatic gloomfest, the more I disagree. For more than a century, Les Misérables was desperately in need of a few jaunty numbers to counter the natural urge it induces to slit one’s wrists. Boublil and Schönberg did the world and Hugo a massive favour.

SAS: Who Dares Wins is back on Channel 4 for a fourth season (Sundays), more enjoyable than ever because this time half the contestants being put through the mill are female. The ostensible rationale for this is to celebrate the fact that women are now eligible to join the Special Forces. Underneath, though — at least this is what I’m hoping — it’s a subversive exercise by old-school military reactionaries designed to show why this is a stupid, politically correct policy that can never work in practice.

Most of the evidence from around the world shows this anyway. For example, a study conducted by the US Marine Corps found that mixed-sex units (containing fit, motivated, capable women) performed noticably more badly in combat-style tasks than all-male ones. No one is saying that women can’t make good fighting soldiers (the obvious example being the YPJ in Syria and Iraq); just that no matter how determined (or ruthless) girls might be, they are almost invariably let down by their physiology.

We saw this in Who Dares Wins, where in the thin Andean air, 10,000ft above sea level, the contestants had to lug huge logs up a mountain trail. And guess which sex it was that bore the brunt of the heavy lifting. Later in the series, the contestants have to box one another and one of the women gamely volunteers to go up against a man. Guess who wins. Really, no one likes to see a pretty girl having seven shades beaten out of her by a bloke. But maybe brave Louise was doing her sex a favour: you really want total equality? This is what it looks like.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/01/les-miserables-is-another-depressing-example-of-the-bbcs-woke-quota-targets/

#les mis bbc #bbc les mis #articles #the spectator

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selfportraitsofcolor · 6 years

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Alejandro Mario Yllanes, b. Bolivia, 1913; d. Mexico, 1960? Self-portrait Number 1 Mexico (1944) Wood engraving [Source]

Alejandro Mario Yllanes, a Bolivian tin miner turned engraver, painter and muralist, vanished in the late 1940s after winning—but not claiming—the Guggenheim Fellowship. It is believed that he returned to Mexico leaving much of his work behind in New York.

His self-portrait was exhibited as part of a retrospective held at the Ben Shahn Galleries at William Paterson College (Wayne, NJ) in 1992. The exhibition also travelled to the Edith C. Blum Art Institute at Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY). Yllanes’ work had only been shown once before in Mexico when Diego Rivera championed his work and wrote in the 1946 exhibition catalogue that “artists and workers of Mexico should open their arms to […] this Bolivian who endured torture, languished in prison and suffered in exile because of the revolutionary affirmations expressed in his paintings.”

Jacqueline Barnitz, author of Twentieth Century Art of Latin America, writes that Yllanes was one of the few Bolivian artists to take a militant position and that his figures, the Andean peasants, are the “central actors of their own land, in control of their lives.”

The wood engraving, measuring 24 by 18 cm, follows the sophisticated patterns and speckles typical of his prints. The nicely kempt hair, and stylish suit and tie, contrast the clothing most of the Andean subjects wear in his paintings. Yet, the dark eyes and eagle-like face, traits found in many of his figures, are reflective of the silent suffering he not only depicts but must have endured himself.

#Alejandro Mario Yllanes #mexico #bolivia #south america #latin america #latinx #print #1940s

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mintchipnicecream · 3 years

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post-scripting our exhilarating success onto the conveyor belt of storytime land and eccentricity, we dished out a wide variety of nuts and made them cling to the actionfruit of the century; the unnameable was herstoricized and protected by a vibrancy that made the communities that were included in this pedagogical reordering merely capable of alphabetizing literature and eating blackberry scones. the Sao Paulo metropolis rose above the expectations of the Andean cloudforest, the animate aspects of this dear world freeing themselves from the entanglements of technological culture, and people saw love in the stars themselves. but the plants and minerals themselves found that the sex of the humyns and animals was creating an added culturation, where several different actors realized the wise brightness of the colors on the stage of the world.

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helleborehexgrove · 6 years

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20 Questions Tag

I was tagged by my lovely handsome son @tranquilpxls ~ Thank you!

Rules: Answer all 20 questions and tag 20 people.

Name: Juno/Juni

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio/Sagittarius Cusp

Height: 6’4”/193cm

Languages Spoken: English fluently, Spanish semi-fluently (it’s been a while since I’ve used it in conversation though rip), Arabic conversationally, and snippets of French, German, Italian, and Mandarin (I’m a slut for language, it’s so fun)

Nationality: American

Favorite Fruit: Uhhh plums? Peaches? Pineapples? Strawberries? One of those lol

Favorite Scent: Rain, mint, cardamom, baked goods, old books.

Favorite Color: Tyrian Purple!

Favorite Animal: Reptiles will always hold a special place in my heart, but the Andean condor still wins out.

Coffee, Tea, or Hot Chocolate? Tea! Though hot chocolate and coffee are also good.

Favorite Fictional Character: Hm. Hmmmmm. I never know what to put for this question, but one I love is Percy de Rolo from Critical Role. He and his voice actor are such devils, it’s great.

Dream Trip: Travel across as much of Europe as I safely can, but especially Ireland. I wanna see if I can connect to any of my heritage there.

When was your blog created? 2014. My other son wizorab finally got me to cave and make one lmao

Last Movie You’ve Seen: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. It was very interesting!

Song You’ve Had on Repeat: Africa by Toto. It comes and goes in waves but it’s come back with a vengeance this week.

Favorite Candy: Literally anything made of gummies lmao

Favorite Holiday: A tie between Thanksgiving and Halloween! Thanksgiving not for its Bad roots but as any good excuse to make lots of food and share it with friends, Halloween for spooky nonsense and witchy vibes, and both for being in the best season of the year lol.

I tag anyone who wants to do this!

#thanks kiddo <3 #tag game

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andeanbeauties · 2 years

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Magaly Solier: Andean Quechua Actress ⛰️⛰️⛰️

#Magaly Solier #Andean indigenous #Andean women #Ayacuchana #PEruvian indigenous #indigenous andean women #Andean actresses #andean actor #indigenous actors #peruana #ayacucho #long hair #peruvian #beautiul women #andean region #andean fashion #pretty women #BIPOC actors

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tlatollotl · 6 years

Photo

Camelid figurine

Date: 1400–1533

Geography: Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, or Argentina

Culture: Inca

Medium: Alloys of silver, gold and copper

This male camelid figurine, potentially representing a llama, has a solid head and a hollow body. While many similar camelid figurines are made of hammered sheet, X-radiography confirms that this figurine was cast by the lost wax method (see image 3) in two distinct casting stages to achieve different metallic effects. The first step was the casting of the llama’s head (see image 4), neck, torso (see image 5), and tail (see image 6), as well as its legs, with a silver-copper-gold alloy. As part of this first step, the wax form of the torso was modelled around a ceramic core that now forms a hollow space within the camelid’s body (the space is not visible to the viewer as it has been covered over by a silver metal plug at the chest, visible in the X-ray). The second casting step was the creation of the head and upper or rear elements of the body and tail in a more gold-rich silver metal. This second casting operation was accomplished by casting directly onto the solidified silver-rich portions. X-radiography reveals extensive porosity throughout most of the silver metal areas, a feature caused by gas trapped in the molten metal during casting, which contrasts with a lack of porosity in the gold-rich areas. This difference suggests that the second step in casting may have been undertaken to correct flaws or areas of weakness associated with the porosity in the first. XRF analysis of the two metal elements indicates that the silver-rich metal contains approximately 72% silver, 20% copper and 7% gold while the more gold-rich areas contain roughly 50% silver, 42% gold, and 8% copper. Following casting, the metal worker employed tracing and engraving tools to form the details of the inner ear, the eyes, the nostrils, the mouth, and the toes. The object may be considered a huaca, a Quechua and Aymara word for a sacred being among Andean peoples. Huacas may take the form of artificial anthropomorphic or zoomorphic objects, as well as rocks, mountains, and mineral sources (Cruz 2009). Throughout the Andes, camelids, including two wild and two domesticated species, are prized for their wool and meat (Moore 2016). For the Incas, their human ancestors, along with camelids, were thought to have come into existence from a cave at Pacariqtambo. In the Andes, camelids, whose hides and bones were turned into a range of products, are charged with carrying goods as part of caravans. Camelid figurines may be components of the Inca ritual performance of capac hucha, a Quecha term meaning ‘royal obligation’, in which, according to 16th century Spanish chroniclers (Cieza de León 1959, 190-193; Diez de Betzanos 1996, 46, 132), could involve annual celebrations in Cusco where prophecies were given for the coming year as well as sacrificial offerings of llamas, maize, and children, whether as a dedication to the Sun or for particular royal events, including the Sapa Inca’s death. As part of this performance, in some cases, juveniles were ritually married in Cuzco and then sent on processions to points as far north and south as Isla de la Plata in Ecuador and Cerro El Plomo in Chile, respectively, where they were sacrificed and buried, wearing textiles, and accompanied by dressed metal and Spondylus spp. shell figurines, ceramic vessels, and other shell and metalwork. The motivation of the capac hucha was to commemorate particular royal events and to mark the expansion of the Inca Empire. However, such figurines may have been deposited with other intentions, and without human burials. In one case, four camelid figurines in metal and shell were recovered in a line oriented to the southeast and in association with stones related to the usnu, or altar, of Cuzco as part of the dedication of sacred space in the Haukaypata, or main plaza of Cuzco (Farrington and Raffino 1996, 73). Camelid figurines were occasionally designed with special ornamentations, such as those seen on two figurines from the region of Lake Titicaca, including the attachment of a textile blanket adorned with gold appliqué and cinnabar (AMNH B/1618) and a highly corrugated surface to index the texture of the animal’s pelage (AMNH B/1619). These ornamentations, or inherent aspects of the design of the figurines, testifies to the ways that metallurgists distinguished their ritualized work. At present, there is little archaeological indication of production sites for these figurines, but Spanish chroniclers point to Cuzco. Many Inca camelid figurines in metal tend to be around the height of 1974.271.36, but there are exceptions (such as the two aforementioned AMNH figurines) that are larger, at 23–24 cm. The height groupings of the camelid figurines are in some way comparable to those of the Inca anthropomorphic figurines in metal but appear to show a bipartite rather than a tripartite grouping (see McEwan 2015, 282, n. 15). In Spondylus spp., the heights of camelid figurines may range from approximately 2 to 7 cm without clear groupings across that range. It should be recognized that many of the sites from which these figurines have been recovered are sacred to local indigenous communities (see Aguero 2004, Fine-Dare 2009, and Politis 2001 on the display of human remains from the mountaintop capac hucha site of Llullaillaco in Argentina). Eleven camelid figurines in silver, gold, and Spondylus spp. were associated with the human male juvenile’s grave at Llullaillaco but none was found with the two human female graves (MAAM 2007, 52). A hollow camelid figurine, made of gold-silver-copper sheets joined mainly by solder, was recovered from the capac hucha burial of a 7-year-old human male at Cerro Aconcagua, also in Argentina (Bárcena 2004). While camelid figurines are often found with male capac hucha burials (King 2016), a strict gender correlation is not clear. At Choquepujio, in the Cusco Valley, a Spondylus male camelid figurine was found resting in a Spondylus valve associated with the Inca burial of a female juvenile (11–12 years old) inside a pre-Inca temple (Gibaja et al. 2014). In excavating a burial of a male juvenile (6–7 years old), investigators recovered two Spondylus female camelid figurines. In these assemblages, camelid figurines were social actors, having their own camay, a Quechua term that could be translated as “energizing power,” through interaction with other assemblage components and with the human actors that made and deposited them. The deterioration of these objects, or their removal from their original locations in the earth, has surely changed their efficacy. Technical notes: Optical microscopy, new X-radiography, and XRF conducted in 2017. Bryan Cockrell, Curatorial Fellow, AAOA Beth Edelstein, Associate Conservator, OCD Ellen Howe, Conservator Emerita, OCD Caitlin Mahony, Assistant Conservator, OCD 2017 Further Reading Aguero, Adrian. Violan derechos de las momias del Llullaillaco. Argentina Indymedia. Last modified August 24, 2004, http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2004/08/218027.php. Bárcena, J. Roberto. “Las piezas metálicas de la ofrenda ritual del Cerro Aconcagua, Mendoza, República de Argentina.” In Tecnología del oro antiguo: Europa y América, edited by Alicia Perea, Ignacio Montero, and Óscar García-Vuelta, 157-172. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 2004. Cieza de León, Pedro de. The Incas. Edited by Victor Wolfgang von Hagen. Translated by Harriet de Onis. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1553] 1959. Cruz, Pablo J. “Huacas olvidadas y cerros santos: Apuntes metodológicos sobre la cartografía sagrada en los Andes del sur de Bolivia.” Estudios Atacameños (San Pedro De Atacama) 38 (2009): 55-74. Diez de Betanzos, Juan. Narrative of the Incas. Translated and edited by Roland Hamilton and Dana Buchanan. Austin: University of Texas Press, [1551-57] 1996. Farrington, Ian, and Rodolfo Raffino. “Mosoq suyukunapa tariqnin: Nuevos hallazgos en el Tawantinsuyu.” Tawantinsuyu 2 (1996): 73-77. Fine-Dare, Kathleen S. “Bodies Unburied, Mummies Displayed: Mourning, Museums, and Identity Politics in the Americas.” In Border Crossings: Transnational Americanist Anthropology, edited by Kathleen S. Fine-Dare and Steven Rubenstein, 67-118. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009. Gibaja Oviedo, Arminda M., Gordon F. McEwan, Melissa Chatfield, and Valerie Andrushko. “Informe de las posibles capacochas del asentamiento arqueológico de Choquepujio, Cusco, Perú.” Ñawpa Pacha 34, no. 2 (2014): 147-175. King, Heidi. “Further Notes on Corral Redondo, Churunga Valley.” Nawpa Pacha 36, no. 2 (2016): 95-109. McEwan, Colin. "Ordering the Sacred and Recreating Cuzco," in The Archaeology of Wak'as: Explorations of the Sacred in the Pre-Columbian Andes, edited by Tamara L. Bray, 265-291. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2015. Moore, Katherine M. “Early Domesticated Camelids in the Andes.” In The Archaeology of Andean Pastoralism, edited by José M. Capriles and Nicholas Tripcevich, 17-38. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2016. Museo de Arqueología de Alta Montaña (MAAM). Museo de Arqueología de Alta Montaña. Buenos Aires: Fondo Nacional de las Artes, 2007. Onuki, Yoshio, and Fernando Rosas Moscoso. Exposición del gran Inca eterno: La tristeza de la niña "Juanita.” Lima: Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú and Museo Santuarios Andinos, 2000. Politis, Gustavo. “On Archaeological Praxis, Gender Bias and Indigenous Peoples in South America.” Journal of Social Archaeology 1, no. 1 (2001): 90-107.

The Met

#archaeology #arqueologia #ecuador #peru #bolivia #chile #argentina #llama #silver #gold #copper #plata #oro #cobre #art #arte #history #historia

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hopeslover · 6 years

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18, 23, 24, 26, 27, 30 for the not American ask meme

18. do you speak with a dialect of your native language?

i had to do a quick research on this bc i wasnt sure and its so interesting?? it’s called dialecto vallecaucano or valluno dialect which is basically the dialect of my department

23. which alcoholic beverage is the favoured one in your country?

oh maaaan i think we drink a lot of beer and aguardiente which is the most popular in the andean regions, where i live. we drink it in shots and neat and it tastes awful but it does the trick

24. what other nation is joked about most often in your country?

honestly, all other countries. but two popular ones are the united states and spain

26. does your nationality get portrayed in Hollywood/American media? what do you think about the portrayal?

i have to keep this short ahsdjf bc honestly this is such a big subject for me i could talk about it for hours. i hate it with my entire soul. almost all mainstream colombian representation is either violent or involving drugs. its such a disrespectful take on one of colombia’s most terrifying era in its history makes me really angry. especially pablo escobar. the fact that they keep bringing up his character and make series and movies of what he did not w an educational purpose but merely to sell it an action or whatever its infuriating

27. favourite national celebrity?

i dont know about actors and stuff but i think its really cute when the country gets together to support athletes (for example cyclists nairo quintana and mariana pajon and soccer player falcao) so im a supporter of all of them!

30. do you have people of different nationalities in your family?

i have a few cousins born in the usa but otherwise we’re all from here

#doing the not american ask set!#thank u so much!!#this too so long bc of the 26 question i kept rewriting it agshdjfkg #anonymous

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newstfionline · 3 years

Text

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Stranded and shattered seafarers threaten global supply lines (Reuters) “I’ve seen grown men cry,” says Captain Tejinder Singh, who hasn’t set foot on dry land in more than seven months and isn’t sure when he’ll go home. “We are forgotten and taken for granted,” he says of the plight facing tens of thousands of seafarers like him, stranded at sea as the Delta variant of the coronavirus wreaks havoc on shore. “People don’t know how their supermarkets are stocked up.” Singh and most of his 20-strong crew have criss-crossed the globe on an exhausting odyssey: from India to the United States then on to China, where they were stuck off the congested coast for weeks waiting to unload cargo. He was speaking to Reuters from the Pacific Ocean as his ship now heads to Australia. They are among about 100,000 seafarers stranded at sea beyond their regular stints of typically 3-9 months, according to the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), many without even a day’s break on land. Another 100,000 are stuck on shore, unable to board the ships they need to earn a living on. The United Nations describes the situation as a humanitarian crisis at sea and says governments should class seafarers as essential workers. Given ships transport around 90% of the world’s trade, the deepening crisis also poses a major threat to the supply chains we rely on for everything from oil and iron to food and electronics.

Unruly airplane passengers (Washington Post) The system for keeping the peace in America’s skies is creaking under the pressure of what airlines and regulators say is an unprecedented proliferation of misbehavior. The Federal Aviation Administration has received more than 3,400 reports of “unruly” passengers this year. As travel rebounds, the system for enforcing regulations and federal laws covering passengers is being strained by confrontations fueled by alcohol, hostility to mask mandates and small conflicts that careen out of control. One passenger hit a woman holding an infant amid an apparent dispute over a window shade. Another ran through business class and stomped on a flight attendant’s foot after the power outlet at her seat wouldn’t charge her phone, according to court records. The incidents that take place miles high in pressurized cabins are filled with many of the same pathologies and clashes that occur on the ground. A review of federal cases by The Washington Post points to alcohol, drug use and mental illness as key factors in outbursts that have terrified passengers and crew members, sometimes leaving them hospitalized.

Canada to open border to fully vaccinated U.S. citizens on Aug. 9 (Washington Post) Canada on Monday said it will begin to ease pandemic restrictions at the U.S.-Canada border next month, allowing U.S. citizens and permanent residents living in the United States who are fully vaccinated with Canadian-authorized vaccines to enter for nonessential travel without quarantining. The decision, which takes effect Aug. 9, follows months of criticism from U.S. lawmakers across the political spectrum, business groups and some travelers over what they said was an overly cautious approach to lifting curbs that have split families, battered the tourism sector and upended life in close-knit border communities. To be eligible for entry, fully vaccinated U.S. citizens and permanent residents must be asymptomatic and present a negative coronavirus molecular test taken within 72 hours of flight departure or arrival at a land crossing. They will also be required to upload proof in English, French or certified translation that they have received a full series of an authorized coronavirus vaccine at least 14 days before departure to the Canadian government’s ArriveCan app or website. They must also present an original copy.

Jeff Bezos blasts into space on own rocket (AP) Jeff Bezos blasted into space Tuesday on his rocket company’s first flight with people on board, becoming the second billionaire in just over a week to ride his own spacecraft. The Amazon founder was accompanied by a hand-picked group: his brother, an 18-year-old from the Netherlands and an 82-year-old aviation pioneer from Texas—the youngest and oldest to ever fly in space. “Best day ever!” Bezos said when the capsule touched down on the desert floor at the end of the 10-minute flight.

Size of Oregon wildfire underscores vastness of the US West (AP) The monstrous wildfire burning in Oregon has grown to a third the size of Rhode Island and spreads miles each day, but evacuations and property losses have been minimal compared with much smaller blazes in densely populated areas of California. The fire’s jaw-dropping size contrasted with its relatively small impact on people underscores the vastness of the American West and offers a reminder that Oregon, which is larger than Britain, is still a largely rural state, despite being known mostly for its largest city, Portland. The 476-square-mile (1,210-square-kilometer) Bootleg Fire is burning 300 miles (483 kilometers) southeast of Portland in and around the Fremont-Winema National Forest, a vast expanse of old-growth forest, lakes and wildlife refuges. If the fire were in densely populated parts of California, “it would have destroyed thousands of homes by now,” said James Johnston, a researcher with Oregon State University’s College of Forestry who studies historical wildfires. “But it is burning in one of the more remote areas of the lower 48 states.”

How Washington power brokers gained from NSO’s spyware ambitions (Washington Post) The Israeli surveillance giant NSO Group and companies linked to it or its founders have spent millions of dollars in hopes of wooing their way into the U.S. market, hosting demonstrations for government intelligence officials and hiring Washington’s most prominent names despite pledges that its phone-hacking tool can’t be used inside the United States. The company’s attempts to secure U.S. contracts appear to have been unsuccessful, with federal and local law enforcement agency representatives saying in emails and interviews that they balked at its Pegasus spyware tool’s million-dollar price tag. But an influential network of Washington consultants, lawyers, lobbyists and other prominent personalities have earned money from the company, its parent company or its founders, a Washington Post review of government and company filings shows. Those beneficiaries include some of the most powerful members of the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations. Among those who’ve received payments from NSO or related companies are former chiefs of the Homeland Security and Justice departments, as well as Washington’s most prestigious law and public-relations firms, the public filings show. These political heavyweights have defended NSO’s spy tool as an invaluable weapon against terrorists and human traffickers, and they have worked to soften the public image of a company accused in a federal lawsuit of helping spy on allies of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi before his grisly murder in 2018.

Pedro Castillo finally declared winner of Peru’s presidential election (Washington Post) Pedro Castillo, the provincial schoolteacher who promised to restructure Peru’s economy to favor the poor, was confirmed Monday evening as the Andean country’s president-elect more than six weeks after the election. Peru’s electoral agency certified the results of the June 6 runoff, giving the left-wing Castillo 50.13 percent of the vote over 49.87 percent for his hard-right opponent Keiko Fujimori. The two candidates were separated by just 44,000 votes out of nearly 19 million cast. The result followed a deeply divisive election and last-ditch legal challenges by Fujimori. Her lawyers made unsubstantiated claims of fraud in an effort to get 200,000 votes thrown out. Shortly before Peru’s national election tribunal declared the result, after dismissing the last of Fujimori’s appeals, she finally acknowledged Castillo’s triumph—even as she cast doubt on its validity. Fujimori, 46, said she would recognize him as president because “that is what the law and the constitution that I have sworn to defend order,” but then she said his victory was “illegitimate” and that “the truth will come out.”

U.S. issues ‘Do Not Travel’ advisory for UK over COVID-19 (Reuters) The U.S. State Department and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) both issued on Monday their highest warnings against travel to the United Kingdom because of a rising number of COVID-19 cases in that country. Each raised the UK to “Level Four,” telling Americans they should avoid travel there. “If you must travel to the United Kingdom, make sure you are fully vaccinated before travel,” the CDC said in an advisory, while the State Department said: “Do not travel to the United Kingdom due to COVID-19.” COVID-19 cases are rising by more than 50,000 a day in the UK and hundreds of thousands of Britons are being asked to self-isolate for 10 days.

China tensions (Bloomberg) The U.S., U.K. and their allies formally attributed the Microsoft Exchange hack to actors affiliated with the Chinese government while accusing Beijing of “malicious cyber activities,” further escalating tensions between the White House and China. While Beijing was rattling its sabers again near Taiwan, its efforts to rule the waves in the South China Sea ran into some trouble, courtesy of the Philippines Coast Guard, which reports it challenged a Chinese ship and drove it away.

Tokyo 2020’s Popularity Problem (Foreign Policy) As more COVID-19 cases emerge in Tokyo’s Olympic village, public doubts about the safety of the athletes and the public threaten to upend the competition before its official launch on Friday. The Olympics will take place in a city under a state of emergency, as new daily coronavirus cases in Tokyo have already surpassed a spike recorded in May. Tokyo’s decision to host the Games has been met with public derision for months. A recent Asahi Shimbun poll found that 68 percent of respondents doubted organizers could control coronavirus infections, while 55 percent said they didn’t want the Games to go ahead. While Tokyo’s Olympic organizers can still hope that public apathy evaporates once the festivities begin, they also face more tangible public concerns: The price tag. Originally budgeted at $7.3 billion, the final bill is now roughly $30 billion. The overrun brings it in line with every Olympics since 1960.

Caught between China and the U.S., Asian countries stockpile missiles (Reuters) Asia is sliding into a dangerous arms race as smaller nations that once stayed on the sidelines build arsenals of advanced long-range missiles, following in the footsteps of powerhouses China and the United States, analysts say. China is mass producing its DF-26—a multipurpose weapon with a range of up to 4,000 kilometres—while the United States is developing new weapons aimed at countering Beijing in the Pacific. Other countries in the region are buying or developing their own new missiles, driven by security concerns over China and a desire to reduce their reliance on the United States. Before the decade is out, Asia will be bristling with conventional missiles that fly farther and faster, hit harder, and are more sophisticated than ever before—a stark and dangerous change from recent years, analysts, diplomats, and military officials say. Such weapons are increasingly affordable and accurate, and as some countries acquire them, their neighbours don’t want to be left behind, analysts said.

In Syria’s war without end, refugee tent camps harden into concrete cities (Washington Post) After years of dithering and deadlock by the international community over the fate of Idlib, one of Syria’s last rebel-held areas, the province is being transformed. Housing blocks and markets are rising in what were once vast olive groves along the Turkish border. Schools are filling with students and electricity is regular in places. There are endless traffic jams. Behind Idlib’s transformation is a merciless, years-long dislocation of millions of Syrians from around the country, many displaced from homes multiple times before they ended up in this enclave. If the north of the province feels like a boomtown, for many it is a miserable one, filled with people who survive on handouts from humanitarian organizations as they wait to return to their homes. For now, many are digging in, one cinder block at a time. A decision this month by the U.N. Security Council to continue the flow of humanitarian aid to the province for another year did little to ease the sense of precariousness here. The vote came a day before the relief deliveries were to be cut off. A standoff in the province has lasted for years. Idlib, a bastion of opposition to government rule, has been controlled since 2015 by Islamist extremist rebels with links to al-Qaeda.

Ben & Jerry’s to stop sale in Palestinian territories (BBC) The popular ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s will end sales in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, stating that it was “inconsistent with our values.” The company said the decision reflected the concerns of “fans and trusted partners,” while Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid blasted the decision as a “capitulation” to the movement to boycott Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians.

Muslims mark Eid al-Adha holiday in pandemic’s shadow (AP) Muslims around the world were observing Tuesday yet another major Islamic holiday in the shadow of the pandemic and amid growing concerns about the highly infectious delta variant of the coronavirus. Eid al-Adha, or the “Feast of Sacrifice,” is typically marked by communal prayers, large social gatherings and, for many, slaughtering of livestock and giving meat to the needy. This year, the holiday comes as many countries battle the delta variant first identified in India, prompting some to impose new restrictions or issue appeals for people to avoid congregating and follow safety protocols. The pandemic has already taken a toll for the second year on a sacred mainstay of Islam, the hajj, whose last days coincide with Eid al-Adha. Once drawing some 2.5 million Muslims from across the globe to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, the Islamic pilgrimage has been dramatically scaled back due to the virus.

Ethiopia’s civil war (Foreign Policy) Tigrayan forces have expanded military operations into the neighboring Afar region, an Afar spokesman said on Monday, adding that fighting began on Saturday. Getachew Reda, a Tigrayan military spokesman, confirmed that fighting had expanded into Afar but that the campaign would be limited. “We are not interested in any territorial gains in Afar, we are more interested in degrading enemy fighting capabilities,” he said.

#headlines #news

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