MEXICO
First ‘Kahlo audio’ found
The National Sound Library said it has discovered what could be the first known audio recording of Frida Kahlo’s voice. Secretary of Culture Alejandra Frausto said it is possible researchers have found Kahlo’s voice and it is likely the only such recording that exists. The audio clip from 1955 consists of a woman describing Kahlo’s former husband and painting partner Diego Rivera. The clip came from the pilot of the 1950s Mexican radio program The Bachelor. National Sound Library director Pavel Granados on Wednesday said that Kahlo’s voice has been the most sought after piece within the library’s archive that contains 600,000 files. He said researchers would try to confirm that the voice belongs to Kahlo by going through 1,300 more tapes from The Bachelor.
UNITED STATES
Sarah Sanders leaving
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, whose tenure was marked by a breakdown in regular press briefings and questions about the administration’s credibility, as well as her own, is to leave her post at the end of the month, President Donald Trump announced on Thursday. Sanders is one of Trump’s closest and most trusted White House aides, and one of the few remaining on staff who worked on his campaign. “After 3 1/2 years, our wonderful Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be leaving the White House at the end of the month and going home to the Great State of Arkansas,” Trump tweeted just before she accompanied him to a White House event on prison reform. Trump suggested her as a future candidate for Arkansas governor, saying: “She would be fantastic.” Sanders has not held a formal briefing since March 11. Reporters often catch her on the White House driveway after she is interviewed by Fox News Channel and other TV news outlets.
UNITED STATES
Cartoon features gay couple
Coinciding with Pride Month, the Discovery Family cartoon series My Little Pony has introduced a same-sex couple on the show for the first time. Writer-producer Michael Vogel on Thursday told People the timing of the episode, “The Last Crusade,” is a happy coincidence. The episode introduces a lesbian couple, Aunt Holiday and Auntie Lofty. They care for Scootaloo. The episode has already aired in Europe and is to be broadcast in the US today. Last month, the animated children’s series Arthur on PBS showed the gay wedding of Arthur’s teacher, Mr Ratburn. Co-showrunner Nicole Dubuc told Buzzfeed News the core of My Little Pony is to embrace what truly defines a family — love.
UNITED STATES
Concert canceled for birds
A concert series on a popular New Jersey beach has been canceled this summer to protect dozens of shorebirds nesting there, Sandy Hook Foundation announced on Thursday. Piping plovers usually only visit Sandy Hook, but this year, unusually, they have decided to build more than 20 nests, it said. National Park Service officials said noise disturbs the plovers, which are federally protected shorebirds. Sandy Hook is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, which encompasses parts of New York City and New Jersey. Gateway superintendent Jen Nersesian said they want “these special birds to thrive.” She said alternate locations for the concerts were scouted, but a suitable spot was not found. Sandy Hook has supported nearly half of New Jersey’s plover pairs the past decade.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
INSTABILITY: If Hezbollah do not respond to Israel’s killing of their leader then it must be assumed that they simply can not, an Middle Eastern analyst said Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah leaves the group under huge pressure to deliver a resounding response to silence suspicions that the once seemingly invincible movement is a spent force, analysts said. Widely seen as the most powerful man in Lebanon before his death on Friday, Nasrallah was the face of Hezbollah and Israel’s arch-nemesis for more than 30 years. His group had gained an aura of invincibility for its part in forcing Israel to withdraw troops from southern Lebanon in 2000, waging a devastating 33-day-long war in 2006 against Israel and opening a “support front” in solidarity with Gaza since
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