A crab covered in oil creeps across the sand as Philippine fishers wearing white protective suits, rubber gloves and masks scrape toxic sludge from the rocks along the shore. Four weeks after a Philippine tanker loaded with 800,000 liters of oil sank off the central island of Mindoro, the vessel is still leaking. More than half the oil has been discharged and dispersed over hundreds of kilometers of waters famed for having some of the most diverse marine life in the world. Experts estimate the two main slicks northwest and southeast of the tanker could span 162km2. It took two days for the spill to reach Buhay na Tubig, a remote village in Pola, one of the island’s worst-affected municipalities. Some residents got sick after oil smeared the shoreline, turning rocks black and leaving dark globs on the beach. Authorities have banned fishing and swimming indefinitely, leaving thousands of fishers wondering how long they can survive. “They say this might take six months, but what if we are unable to fish for an entire year?” asked Arvie Anonuevo, 32, who has three children. For more than two weeks, Anonuevo and other fishers have spent four hours a day cleaning up oil in exchange for a daily wage of 355 pesos (US$6.53) from the Philippine government — a little more than half what they used to make from fishing. The fishers used trowels and sheets of thin, absorbent material to clean the rocks. By the following day, more oil had washed up on the shore. “It’s annoying that the oil keeps coming back the next day no matter how much you clean” the rocks, Anonuevo said. The government estimates that at least 5,000 hectares of coral reefs, seaweed and mangroves have been affected. Mangroves can suffocate if oil covers their roots, while corals — breeding grounds for many fish species — can die or
PUSH TO RESET RELATIONS: The German president said ahead of the visit that his country wants to have ‘close and friendly relations’ with the UK even after Brexit
King Charles III was to travel to Germany yesterday in his first state visit abroad since becoming British monarch, as part of efforts to turn the page on years of rocky relations between Britain and the EU after its exit from the bloc. Charles, who succeeded his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, as the British monarch in September last year, had been due to travel first to France, but canceled that part of the tour due to violent social unrest over French President Emmanuel Macron’s new pension law. During his three-day visit to Germany’s capital, Berlin, the eastern state of Brandenburg and the northern port city of Hamburg, Charles is to address issues facing both countries, such as sustainability and the Ukraine war, as well as commemorate the past, Buckingham Palace said. Yesterday morning, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was to greet Charles and his wife, Queen Consort Camilla, with military honors at Berlin’s most famous landmark, the Brandenburg Gate, a symbol of the country’s division during the Cold War and subsequent reunification. Steinmeier said that it was an important “European gesture” that Charles had chosen France and Germany for his first state visit, even before his coronation in May. “To him and obviously all Britons, I want to say that we in Germany, in Europe, wish for close and friendly relations with the United Kingdom even after Brexit,” he said in a video message ahead of the trip. The royal couple would then be guests of honor at a state banquet at the presidential palace, Schloss Bellevue. Today in Berlin, Charles is to address the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag — which he last addressed in 2020 as Prince of Wales — and meet some of the 1 million Ukrainians that have taken refuge from war in Germany. Later in the day, he is to meet representatives
A pupil shyly approached the whiteboard, picked up a marker and carefully traced a letter from the Berber alphabet as the teacher watched — a scene unimaginable under former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi. Tamazight has been the native language of indigenous people across North Africa since pre-Roman times. It has survived despite centuries of Arab domination and has undergone a revival in Libya since Qaddafi’s four-decade rule ended in a 2011 revolution. In the city of Zuwara, a majority-Berber community near the border with Tunisia, teacher Assirem Shawashi encouraged her nine-year-old pupils to approach the board, one by one, to draw out symbols. “Children love this subject because they find their identity and their culture in books,” said Shawashi, dressed in a black dress and gray hijab. “It’s not just about the alphabet and vocabulary, but it’s a whole culture we’re passing on to them.” About 10 percent of Libya’s 7 million people are ethnically Berber. Qaddafi worked to crush their culture while promoting Arab identity. However, some, especially in the remote western mountains, continued to speak their language at home, out of earshot of the feared secret police. They include residents of Zuwara, 120km west of the capital, Tripoli, who have held on to their culture throughout Greek, Roman, Arab, Ottoman and Italian rule. Libya has seen a decade of complex and often violent power struggles since Qaddafi’s fall in a NATO-backed uprising, but authorities in Tripoli have been accommodating toward Berber culture, even providing textbooks — although they have not given the language official status. Shawashi is a member of the first-ever class to graduate with degrees in Tamazight last year from the University of Zuwara. Her younger pupils never knew life under Qaddafi, she said. “It’s just a natural right to learn their mother tongue, and they can’t imagine that anyone would ever ban that,” Shawashi said. She said
CZECH BACKING: A Czech minister said his nation ‘strongly advocates’ the tribunal, as Russia’s invasion was reminiscent of forced land concessions to Germany in 1938
The US on Tuesday threw its support behind a special international tribunal to try Russia for “aggression” against Ukraine, building momentum to prosecute the crime for the first time since the aftermath of World War II. The EU has backed a special tribunal, which could bring fresh charges against Russian President Vladimir Putin and would be the latest legal salvo after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him over alleged war crimes. The US Department of State said that the US would work with allies to set up a “special tribunal on the crime of aggression” over Russia’s invasion of its neighbor in February last year. “We envision such a court having significant international support — particularly from our partners in Europe — and ideally located in another country in Europe,” state department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters. US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Beth van Schaack said that Washington wanted the court to have international personnel and resources. That “will provide the clearest path to establishing a new tribunal and maximizing our chances of achieving meaningful accountability,” Van Schaack said in a speech at the Catholic University of America in Washington on Monday. The US was “committed” working with other countries to provide resources for such a tribunal “in a way that will achieve comprehensive accountability for the international crimes being committed in Ukraine,” she said. It was the first time that the US has explicitly supported a special tribunal on Ukraine. The EU in November last year floated the idea of a tribunal, which was backed formally in January by a vote of the European Parliament. Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Jan Lipavsky, speaking to a democracy summit via videoconference on Tuesday, said that his country “strongly advocates” the special tribunal, adding that Putin’s invasion brought memories of forced land concessions to Germany by
VISIBLE CRACKS: A worker said that efforts to repair the bones had to remain visible, as ‘there are some stories about fakes out there’ that they do not want
Yolanda Schicker-Siber on Tuesday was gingerly fastening a pointy claw bone with a thin metal wire, putting the finishing touches on a giant Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton before a rare auction in Switzerland next month. The Aathal Dinosaur Museum’s curator was helping complete perhaps the world’s biggest construction kit — reassembling a T-rex dubbed Trinity. Trinity was sent to Zurich from Arizona in nine giant crates. The 3.9m skeleton has been mounted on a red carpet and under crystal chandeliers in a Zurich concert hall, where it is on public display before going under the hammer on April 18. The Koller auction house has estimated it would fetch 6 million to 8 million Swiss francs (US$6.5 million to US$8.7 million). However, Christian Link, who is in charge of natural history memorabilia at Koller, said he believed that was a “pretty low” estimate. Trinity is made up of bone material from three T-rex specimens excavated between 2008 and 2013 from the Hell Creek and Lance Creek formations in Montana and Wyoming. The two sites are known for the discoveries of two other significant T-rex skeletons that have gone to auction. Sue went under the hammer in 1997 for US$8.4 million and Stan took the world-record hammer price of US$31.8 million at Christie’s in 2020. Last year, Christie’s withdrew another T-rex skeleton days before it went on sale in Hong Kong after doubts were reportedly raised about parts of it. Reassembling Trinity was no easy feat, Schicker-Siber told reporters as she secured another toe bone. “The bones are very, very old. They are 67 million years old. So they are brittle, they have cracks,” she said. “They are stabilized, but you never know if there is a crack that you haven’t seen so far... You have to have the glue ready.” Aart Walen, an exhibit preparator from the Netherlands with 30 years’ experience assembling
People using sugar in cockroach traps has led to female roaches being turned off by the sugary “gifts” males use to entice them into mating. However, the demise of cockroaches cannot be celebrated, as some males have adapted new ways to continue wooing females, including by shortening the length of foreplay, a study said yesterday. The small but stubborn German cockroach is the most common species of the insect, lurking in kitchens and bathrooms around the world. Glucose, a form of sugar, has long been used to bait cockroaches into deadly traps. However, 30 years ago, researchers first noticed that some German cockroaches had developed an aversion to glucose and were avoiding the traps. This distaste for glucose might save them from death, but it has also put a damper on their sex life, said the study, which was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Male cockroaches have a particular maneuver to attract females into mating. They lift their wings and expose a special gland that secretes a “nuptial gift,” a cocktail that includes the sugar maltose. The female jumps on the male’s back to lap up the treat, which keeps her occupied “long enough for the male to extend his abdomen under the female and engage her genitalia,” the study said. However, the saliva of the females quickly converts the maltose into glucose. Females who have developed an aversion to glucose jump off “before the male can grasp the female genitalia,” potentially affecting the future reproduction of the species, the study said. However, male cockroaches, which have also developed an aversion to glucose, can now get around the problem. The males have changed the composition of their nuptial gift, slashing the glucose content and more than doubling the amount of maltotriose. This sugar is popular with females and converts into glucose much more slowly than maltose. The
Mohamed Bayoh climbed into the deep, pitch-black hole, hoping to emerge with a nugget that would change his life. The 26-year-old Guinean is one of thousands of west Africans who have flocked to remote eastern Senegal in search of gold. The rush for the precious metal has dramatically transformed Bantakokouta, a town on the borders of Mali and Guinea. The locals numbered just a few dozen two decades ago, now there are several thousand on the back of a floating population of dream-seekers and risk-takers with gold in their eyes. Their ant-like labor has left the landscape looking like a Swiss cheese. As far as the eye can see, through the pervasive dusty mist, small huddled groups protected from the sun by makeshift branch shelters haul up spoil scratched from the ground. Women sit nearby, sorting the rocks into two mounds — a big one for the discards and a much smaller one for the promising samples. The same scenes are played out every day, with no guarantee of any success. “Working here is like playing the lottery, you are never sure of winning,” said Bayoh, who added that he was nonetheless determined to stay put until he gets rich. Other sites in the gold-rich region have been taken over by mining corporations, sometimes triggering land disputes with local people, but in Bantakokouta, informal mining has been allowed to carry on. Diggers typically stay for a few months — sometimes just days — to chance their arm, hoping for a lucky strike that would enable them to send money home or start a business. Bayoh was clear in his objective to “find a lot of gold.” “Not a little ... a lot. To start another life in Guinea,” he added. After six months’ grueling work, he had earned enough to buy two motorbikes. One gram of gold — about the size of 60 grains
The Italian government on Tuesday introduced a draft law that, if approved, would ban the production and sale of cultivated food and meat. “We are proud to be the first nation in the world to stop this decadence,” said Augusta Montaruli, a lawmaker from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party. Cultivated, or cell-based, meat is created by harvesting cells from live animals, providing them with nutrients to grow in bioreactors and then taking additional steps to turn the cells into a consumer-ready meat product. The draft law, which would only come into force if approved by both branches of parliament, appears to be a preventive move aimed at signaling the government’s determination in defending Italy’s culinary tradition. The draft “is based on the precautionary principle, because there are no scientific studies yet on the effects of synthetic foods,” Italian Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci told a news conference. “We want to protect citizens’ health and to safeguard our nation’s heritage and our agrifood culture based on the Mediterranean diet.” While plant-based proteins are widely available, cultivated meat still has a long way to go before it hits supermarket shelves. Most start-ups are yet to scale up the technology before they even obtain regulatory approval. “This development puts Italy at odds with the rest of Europe, where other governments are eager to unlock the benefits of cultivated meat,” said Alice Ravenscroft, head of policy at the Good Food Institute Europe, which represents the alternative protein industry.
HOPES FADING: At least 11 people have died and 67 are missing, with a firefighter saying that decreasing oxygen is ‘the main problem’ for those who are still trapped
Rescuers on Tuesday raced against time in southern Ecuador to find survivors of a weekend landslide that left at least 11 people dead and more than 60 missing. Torrential rain overnight on Sunday triggered a mudslide that buried dozens of homes and injured 30 people in the village of Alausi about 300km south of the capital, Quito, officials said. As hopes faded of finding survivors under the rubble, rescuers with dogs and neighbors alike worked feverishly to remove debris, some with their bare hands. “My daughter is here, my granddaughter, my whole family,” Carlos Maquero said standing among the ruins, desperate for a breakthrough. “I want you to understand the pain we’re going through,” the 40-year-old merchant said. The same region was hit by an earthquake just over a week earlier in which 15 people were killed. There is a “buildup of tonnes and tonnes of earth,” making it difficult to find survivors, firefighter Fernando Yanza said. Decreasing oxygen was “the main problem” facing those still trapped, said Yanza, who had been digging down through 4m of mud looking for signs of life. “As you dig, it becomes more dangerous,” because the ground becomes less stable, he added. Firefighter Adriana Guzman said that removing all the rubble was nearly impossible, “and truly what is found, if it is found, will be bodies.” The mudslide’s death toll had grown to at least 11 with 67 missing, the Ecuadoran Secretariat for Risk Management (SNGR) said in an update on Tuesday after four bodies were recovered. “We feel powerless not being able to do anything,” said Carmen Quiroz, whose sister-in-law was buried along with several others, including infants, under the mud. Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso on Monday night visited Alausi in Chimborazo Province where he was met with jeers of “Lasso out” by some who felt the tragedy could have been avoided. Lasso held a
BALANCING ACT: However, most of the respondents in a recent poll were also in favor of more funding for infrastructure, healthcare and social security programs
In the federal budget standoff, the majority of US adults want lawmakers to pull off the impossible: Cut the overall size of government, but also devote more money to the most popular and expensive programs. In a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, six in 10 US adults said the government spends too much money, but majorities also favored more funding for infrastructure, healthcare and social security — the kind of commitments that would make efforts to shrink the government unworkable and politically risky ahead of next year’s elections. These findings showed just how messy the financial tug-of-war between US President Joe Biden and Republicans in the US House of Representatives could be. At stake is the full faith and credit of the federal government, which could default on its obligations unless there is a deal this summer to raise or suspend the limit on the government’s borrowing authority. Biden this month proposed a budget that would trim deficits by nearly US$3 trillion over 10 years, but his plan contains a mix of tax increases on the wealthy and new spending that led Republican lawmakers to declare it dead on arrival. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is insisting on budget talks with the White House, but has not produced a plan of his own to cut deficits, which Biden has said is a prerequisite for negotiations. The poll found that US adults were closely divided over whether they want to see a bigger government offering more services or a smaller government offering fewer services. However, a clear majority — 60 percent — said they think government is spending too much altogether. Just 16 percent said the government is spending too little, while 22 percent said spending levels are about right. US adults were previously less supportive of spending cuts, a possible
Searching desperately for his brother after a fire killed dozens at a Mexican immigrant detention center, Abel Maldonado pleaded with authorities to stop treating migrants like animals. “We’re not dogs,” the 29-year-old Venezuelan construction worker repeated before visiting a morgue, praying that his brother had survived the blaze in Ciudad Juarez near the US border. He said the same thing to security personnel at the immigration facility when he went to ask about the fate of his 22-year-old sibling, Orlando. He kept repeating it to demand “humane and fair” treatment from authorities in the border city, where he arrived 11 days earlier with his wife, two young children and brother on a freight train known as “The Beast” ridden clandestinely by migrants through Mexico. “It’s my family. It’s not a dog that’s in there. We’re migrants. We’re not thieves or gangsters — nothing like that. We just want to work and have a better life for our families,” Maldonado told one of the guards at the center. Almost 17 hours after the tragedy, he still did not know if his brother was among the 40 dead or the 28 injured who were taken to hospital, some in serious conditions. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrado has said that the migrants were believed to have lit the fire as a protest because they feared they would be deported. Anger boiled outside the detention facility, with relatives chanting demands for justice. “Every migrant has the right to be safe, to be protected, even by migration ... because we’re not criminals,” said Fran Martin Perez, also from Venezuela. Maldonado said he and his brother were on Monday brought to the detention center by officials promising them a work permit that would allow them to stay in Mexico legally while seeking asylum in the US. “But they tricked us in,” he said, showing a
Artists outraged by artificial intelligence (AI) that copies in seconds the styles they have sacrificed years to develop are waging battle online and in court. Fury erupted in the art community last year with the release of generative AI programs that can convincingly carry out commands such as drawing a dog like cartoonist Sarah Andersen would, or a nymph the way illustrator Karla Ortiz might do. Such style-swiping AI works are cranked out without the original artist’s consent, credit or compensation — the three C’s at the heart of a fight to change all that. In January, artists including Andersen and Ortiz filed a class-action lawsuit against DreamUp, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, three image-generating AI models programmed with art found online. Andersen said that she felt “violated” when first she saw an AI drawing that copied the style of her “Fangs” comic book work. She fired off an indignant reaction on Twitter; it went viral, and other incensed artists reached out to her with stories of their own. Backers of the suit hope to establish legal precedent governing generative AI models that copy artists’ styles. Artists want AI creators to be required to secure permission for works used in training software, with an option to remove it. They also want suitable compensation. “There is room for a conversation about what that would look like,” Ortiz said. Compensation could take the form of a licensing model and would need to be appropriate, she said.. It would be wrong for artists to “get a couple of cents, while the company gets millions” of dollars, added Ortiz, whose resume includes working for Marvel Studios. On social networks, artists are sharing tales of jobs being lost to generative AI. The suit says that a video-game designer named Jason Allen last year won a Colorado State Fair competition with art created using Midjourney. “Art is dead, dude. It’s
Hawaii authorities on Tuesday said that they have referred 33 people to US law enforcement after the group allegedly harassed a pod of wild dolphins in waters off the Big Island. It is against federal law to swim within 45m of spinner dolphins in Hawaii’s nearshore waters. The prohibition went into effect in 2021 amid concerns that so many tourists were swimming with dolphins that the nocturnal animals were not getting the rest they need during the day to be able to forage for food at night. The rule applies to areas within 3.7km of the Hawaiian Islands and in designated waters surrounded by the islands of Lanai, Maui and Kahoolawe. The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources said in a news release that its enforcement officers came upon the 33 swimmers in Honaunau Bay on Sunday during a routine patrol. Aerial footage shot by a drone shows snorkelers following dolphins as they swim away. The department said that its video footage and photographs showed swimmers “who appear to be aggressively pursuing, corralling and harassing the pod.” Enforcement officers contacted the group while they were in the water, and told them about the contravention. Uniformed officers met the swimmers on land where state and federal officials launched a joint investigation. Hawaii’s spinner dolphins eat fish and small crustaceans that surface from the ocean’s depths at night. When the sun rises, they head for shallow bays to hide from tiger sharks and other predators. To the untrained eye, the dolphins appear to be awake during the day because they are swimming, but because they sleep by resting half of their brains and keeping the other half awake to surface and breathe, they can be sleeping even when they are maneuvering through the water.
ISRAEL Spy satellite launched Jerusalem yesterday launched a new version of its Ofek spy satellite, saying it would enhance around-the-clock regional monitoring as the country braces for a possible showdown with Iran. The Ofek-13, manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), is the latest in a series of locally produced satellites first put into orbit in 1988. It was launched on a Shavit missile over the Mediterranean Sea, a westward trajectory Israel usually opts for as a precaution against sensitive technologies falling into the hands of hostile Middle East neighbors should there be a malfunction. “The Ofek-13 is the most advanced of its kind, with unique radar observation capabilities, and will enable intelligence collection in any weather and conditions of visibility,” IAI chief executive officer Boaz Levy said in a statement. GREECE General election announced Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday called a May 21 general election as his party’s longstanding lead in opinion polls has declined in the aftermath of the country’s worst train disaster. A Feb. 28 collision between a passenger train and a freight train in northern Greece left 57 people dead. The disaster stirred public anger, cutting the New Democracy party’s support by a half-point to 4 points over its main rival, Syriza, opinion polls showed. “The country and its citizens need clear skies ... our work continues more boldly and with fewer compromises,” Mitsotakis said during a televised Cabinet meeting. The election he called is not considered early because it is within six months of the end of his mandate. Greece is moving to a proportional representation system that is likely to result in six parties with seats in parliament. MEXICO Tiger hunt ensues Prosecutors in Sonora state on Tuesday said that they are searching for a full-grown Bengal tiger named Baluma. The five-year-old male tiger was stolen on Monday from a home in
‘WEAPON GRADE’: North Korea should prepare to use nuclear weapons ‘any time and anywhere,’ Kim Jong-un said, as experts said Pyongyang is preparing a seventh test
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for his country to expand production of “weapon-grade nuclear materials” and build more powerful weapons, state media reported yesterday. Kim’s latest threat, a doubling-down on an earlier promise to “exponentially” ramp up nuclear production, came as a US Navy carrier strike group arrived in South Korea yesterday. Kim was briefed by officials from the nation’s nuclear weapons institute, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, and said North Korea should prepare to use the weapons “any time and anywhere.” He called on officials to expand “the production of weapon-grade nuclear materials” needed for an “exponential” increase in the country’s arsenal. Kim also “put spurs to continuing to produce powerful nuclear weapons” that he said would strike fear into the country’s enemies, KCNA added. Photos carried by Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed Kim, surrounded by uniformed officers, inspecting a row of purported tactical nuclear warheads identified as the “Hwasan-31” — which means “volcano” in Korean. The compact green warheads can be mounted onto different types of missiles, according to diagrams seen on the wall in the background. North Korea last year declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power, and Kim recently called for an “exponential” increase in weapons production, including tactical nukes. North Korean state media yesterday released a flurry of nuclear-related reports, an indication the country was building up to a seventh nuclear test, analysts said. “North Korea unveiled a significantly miniaturized tactical nuclear warhead this time, and many are questioning whether it can really explode,” said Cheong Seong-chang, a researcher at the Sejong Institute. “The possibility that North Korea will carry out a seventh nuclear test with these tactical nuclear warheads as a next step has increased,” he said. Pyongyang has got into a pattern of “tit-for-tat” missile launches and tests to counter US and South Korean military exercises, which represents a huge — and
The Japanese government has made tackling its falling birthrate a top priority, but with few women involved in official debate on the issue, some are making themselves heard on social media. Japan recorded fewer than 800,000 births last year, the lowest in the nation of 125 million since records began. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has warned the trend threatens “whether we can continue to function as a society,” and fresh focus on the issue has sparked countless articles. However, one in particular, which said Japan has the highest ratio in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development of women aged 50 who have never had children, triggered an outpouring of responses using the hashtag “life-long childlessness.” Tomoko Okada had long felt “ashamed” about not having children and initially hesitated to click on the trending topic on Twitter, fearing the usual barrage of criticism. Instead, she found mostly sympathetic and nuanced discussions, with women explaining why they had been unable to start a family or, in some cases, why they had chosen not to. “I used to strongly believe that giving birth was the ‘normal’ thing to do,” the 47-year-old freelance writer said. She tried matchmaking services, hoping to find a partner, with no luck, and was left feeling guilty when her dad asked for a grandchild for Father’s Day. However, posting her experiences and reading those of others helped her feel “my way of life is also OK.” ‘SO MUCH CRITICISM’ While many developed countries are struggling with low birthrates, the problem is particularly acute in Japan. It has the world’s second-oldest population after Monaco, and its relatively strict immigration rules mean it faces growing labor shortages. Kishida has vowed policies — including financial aid for families, easier childcare access and more parental leave — to encourage people to have children. But with female lawmakers accounting for fewer than 10 percent
PEN PATH FOUNDER: Matiullah Wesa’s brother described how the education rights worker was stopped after prayers by men who beat him when he asked for their IDs
The founder of a project that campaigned for girls’ education in Afghanistan has been detained by Taliban authorities in Kabul, his brother and the UN said yesterday. The Taliban government last year barred girls from attending the equivalent of junior-high school. “Matiullah Wesa, head of Pen Path and advocate for girls’ education, was arrested in Kabul Monday,” the UN mission in Afghanistan wrote on Twitter. Wesa’s brother confirmed his arrest, saying he was picked up outside a mosque after prayers on Monday evening. “Matiullah had finished his prayers and came out of the mosque when he was stopped by some men in two vehicles,” Samiullah Wesa told reporters. “When Matiullah asked for their identity cards, they beat him and forcefully took him away.” The organization Matiullah Wesa founded — which campaigns for schools and distributes books in rural areas — has long dedicated itself to communicating the importance of girls’ education to village elders. Since the ban on junior-high schools for girls, Matiullah Wesa has continued visiting remote areas to drum up support from locals. “We are counting hours, mins and seconds for the opening of girls schools. The damage that closure of schools causes is irreversible and undeniable,” he wrote on Twitter last week as the new school year started in Afghanistan. “We held meetings with locals and we will continue our protest if the schools remain closed.” The Taliban — which has also banned women from university — has said that schools would be reopened for girls once certain conditions have been met. There is a lack the funds and time to remodel the syllabus along Islamic lines, the Taliban has said. The order against girls’ education is believed to have been made by Afghanistan’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and his aides, who are skeptical of modern education. As well as sparking international outrage, it has stirred criticism from
A suicide attack claimed by the Islamic State group near Afghanistan’s foreign ministry on Monday killed six civilians and wounded several others, the Afghan Ministry of the Interior said. Security has dramatically improved since the Taliban stormed back to power in August 2021, ousting the US-backed government and ending their two decades in the country, but the Islamic State has proved an increasing threat. Afghan forces identified the attacker and shot at him in front of a business center near the foreign ministry, Ministry of the Interior spokesman Abdul Nafy Takor wrote on Twitter. “With his killing, the explosives carried by the attacker also exploded which killed six civilians and wounded a number of others,” he said. The Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on Amaq, the group’s news arm. Italian non-governmental organization Emergency, which operates a hospital in the capital, said that it had received two bodies and 12 wounded people, including a child. Monday’s blast was the second attack near the foreign ministry in Kabul in less than three months, and the first since the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began on Thursday last week in Afghanistan. On Jan. 11, a suicide bomber blew himself up near the foreign ministry, killing 10 people and wounding 53, UN data showed. The Taliban, which has often tried to play down attacks challenging its rule, had said that five people were killed in that attack, which was also claimed by the Islamic State group. The group has increasingly become a major challenge, killing and wounding hundreds of people in several attacks, some targeting foreigners or foreign interests in a bid to undermine the Taliban government. At least five Chinese nationals were wounded in December last year when gunmen stormed a hotel popular with businesspeople in Kabul. That raid was claimed by the Islamic State group, as was
A mammoth meatball has been created by a cultivated meat company, resurrecting the flesh of the extinct animals. The project aims to demonstrate the potential of meat grown from cells and to highlight wildlife destruction and climate change. The mammoth meatball was produced by Vow Food, an Australian company, which is taking a different approach to cultured meat. There are scores of companies working on replacements for meat, but Vow Foods is aiming to mix and match cells from unconventional species to create new kinds of meat. The company has already investigated the potential of more than 50 species, including alpaca, buffalo, crocodile, kangaroo, peacocks and fish. The first cultivated meat to be sold to diners is Japanese quail, which the company expects will be in restaurants in Singapore this year. “We have a behavior change problem when it comes to meat consumption,” Vow Food chief executive officer George Peppou said. “The goal is to transition a few billion meat eaters away from eating [conventional] animal protein to eating things that can be produced in electrified systems.” “And we believe the best way to do that is to invent meat,” Peppou said. “We look for cells that are easy to grow, really tasty and nutritious, and then mix and match those cells to create really tasty meat.” “We chose the woolly mammoth because it’s a symbol of diversity loss and a symbol of climate change,” said Tim Noakesmith, who cofounded Vow Food with Peppou. The initial idea was from Bas Korsten at creative agency Wunderman Thompson. “Our aim is to start a conversation about how we eat and what the future alternatives can look and taste like,” Thompson said. “Cultured meat is meat, but not as we know it.” Plant-based alternatives to meat are now common but cultured meat replicates the taste of conventional meat. Cultivated meat — chicken from Good
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