Month: August 2024

Farmers honor ‘Peanuts’ creator with corn mazes in US, Canada

Posted on by SeeUS

NEW YORK — Visitors to corn mazes across the country are finding a familiar and joyous figure in the winding labyrinth of tall stalks. Snoopy.

More than 80 farms in the U.S. and Canada have teamed up with Peanuts Worldwide to create “Peanuts”-themed mazes to celebrate the beloved strip’s 75th birthday this summer and fall.

A massive Snoopy rests on top of his doghouse in a maze at Dull’s Tree Farm in Thorntown, Indiana, and he’s depicted gleefully atop a pumpkin at Downey’s Farm in Caledon, Ontario.

“All of these events helps keep my dad’s legacy alive,” says Jill Schulz, an actor and daughter of “Peanuts” creator Charles M. Schulz.

“As someone who can’t even keep houseplants alive, the fact that they can do that with a corn maze and get the artwork right and create a fun experience for all ages is pretty incredible,” she adds, laughing.

The mazes — which span 35 states and provinces, from California to New York, Ontario to Texas — are expected to attract more than 2 million visitors. Farmers are signing up for the free service because the mazes are part of the customer lure, in addition to things like hay rides, fresh produce and pumpkin carvings.

Each maze is designed for the size of the farm — from 1.5 acres to 20 acres — and are mostly corn but also sunflowers. They’re custom created by the world’s largest corn maze consulting company, The MAiZE Inc.

The Utah-based Brett Herbst, who leads the company and who launched his first corn maze in 1996, says technology has only somewhat changed the way corn mazes are made.

“The first year we did it, we just used a weed whacker with a saw blade on it when the corn was fully grown,” he says. “Now we do it when it’s short and we go in and either mow it or rototill it. We design it all on a computer, but most of it we actually just go draw it out on the ground by hand.”

He and his team have over the years designed mazes with everything from the faces of presidential candidates, Oprah Winfrey, zombies, John Wayne and Chris LeDoux. Charlie Brown and Co. just work well, he says.

“It’s very nostalgic and just seemed like a very natural fit from the get-go to embrace that with ‘Peanuts,'” he says. “It’s harvest time. It’s kind of become this iconic thing.”

There’s an art and a science to maze building, a balance between maintaining the integrity of the image, but also making it a true maze where people can actually get lost in. “That’s definitely a challenge there,” says Herbst. “You want to accomplish both as much as possible.”

“Peanuts” made its debut Oct. 2, 1950. The travails of the “little round-headed kid” Charlie Brown and his pals eventually ran in more than 2,600 newspapers, reaching millions of readers in 75 countries.

The strip offers enduring images of kites in trees, Charlie Brown trying to kick a football, tart-tongued Lucy handing out advice for a nickel and Snoopy taking the occasional flight of fancy to the skies. Phrases such as “security blanket” and “good grief” are a part of the global vernacular. Schulz died in 2000.

There’s something timeless about corn mazes, and that’s what excites Jill Schulz so much. They offer kids a chance to disconnect from their online life and celebrate something their parents did.

“It’s great to have an opportunity to just bring kids to events that are old school, because it’s also important for parents and grandparents to introduce something they loved to do as a child,” she says.

“I think we all need a little innocence for our children right now with all the technology out there. We need a little ‘put down your phone and go out and have some good old fashioned, old school family time.’ I think that’s important.”
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Chinese tax collectors descend on companies as budget crunches loom

Posted on by SeeEA

BEIJING — Chinese authorities are chasing unpaid taxes from companies and individuals dating back decades, as the government moves to plug massive budget shortfalls and address a mounting debt crisis.

More than a dozen listed Chinese companies say they were slapped with millions of dollars in back taxes in a renewed effort to fix local finances that have been wrecked by a downturn in the property market that hit sales of land leases, a main source of revenues.

Policies issued after a recent planning meeting of top Communist Party officials called for expanding local tax resources and said localities should expand their “tax management authority and improve their debt management.”

Local government debt is estimated at up to $11 trillion, including what’s owed by local government financing entities that are “off balance sheet,” or not included in official estimates. More than 300 reforms the party has outlined include promises to better monitor and manage local debt, one of the biggest risks in China’s financial system.

That will be easier said than done, and experts question how thoroughly the party will follow through on its pledges to improve the tax regime and better balance control of government revenues.

“They are not grappling with existing local debt problems, nor the constraints on fiscal capacity,” said Logan Wright of the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm. “Changing central and local revenue sharing and expenditure responsibilities is notable but they have promised this before.”

The scramble to collect long overdue taxes shows the urgency of the problems.

Chinese food and beverage conglomerate VV Food & Beverage reported in June it was hit with an 85 million yuan ($12 million) bill for taxes dating back as far as 30 years ago. Zangge Mining, based in western China, said it got two bills totaling 668 million RMB ($92 million) for taxes dating to 20 years earlier.

Local governments have long been squeezed for cash since the central government controls most tax revenue, allotting a limited amount to local governments that pay about 80% of expenditures such as salaries, social services and investments in infrastructure like roads and schools.

Pressures have been building as the economy slowed and costs piled up from “zero-COVID” policies during the pandemic.

Economists have long warned the situation is unsustainable, saying China must beef up tax collection to balance budgets in the long run.

Under leader Xi Jinping, the government has cut personal income, corporate income, and value-added taxes to curry support, boost economic growth and encourage investment — often in ways that favored the rich, tax scholars say. According to most estimates, only about 5% of Chinese pay personal income taxes, far lower than in many other countries. Government statistics show it accounts for just under 9% of total tax revenues, and China has no comprehensive nationwide property tax.

Finance Minister Li Fo’an told the official Xinhua News Agency that the latest reforms will give local governments more resources and more power over tax collection, adjusting the share of taxes they keep.

“The central government doesn’t have a lot of responsibility for spending, so it doesn’t feel the pain of cutting taxes,” said Cui Wei, a professor of Chinese and international tax policy at the University of British Columbia.

The effectiveness of the reforms will depend on how they’re implemented, said Cui, who is skeptical that authorities will carry out a proposal to increase central government spending. That “will require increasing central government staffing, and that’s an ‘organizational’ matter, not a simple spending matter,” he said.

“I wouldn’t hold my breath,” Cui said.

Sudden new tax bills have hit some businesses hard, further damaging already shaky business confidence. Ningbo Bohui Chemical Technology, in Zhejiang on China’s eastern coast, suspended most of its production after the local tax bureau demanded 500 million yuan ($69 million) in back taxes on certain chemicals. It is laying off staff and cutting pay to cope.

Experts say the arbitrary way taxes are collected, with periods of leniency followed by sudden crackdowns, is counterproductive, discouraging companies from investing or hiring precisely when they need to.

“When business owners are feeling insecure, how can there be more private investment growth in China?” said Chen Zhiwu, a finance professor at the University of Hong Kong’s business school. “An economic slowdown is inevitable.”

The State Taxation Administration has denied launching a nationwide crackdown, which might imply past enforcement was lax. Tax authorities have “always been strict about preventing and investigating illegal taxation and fee collection,” the administration said in a statement last month.

As local governments struggle to make ends meet, some are setting up joint operation centers run by local tax offices and police to chase back taxes. The AP found such centers have opened in at least 23 provinces since 2019.

Both individuals and companies are being targeted. Dozens of singers, actors, and internet celebrities were fined millions of dollars for avoiding taxes in the past few years, according to a review of government notices.

Internet livestreaming celebrity Huang Wei, better known by her pseudonym, Weiya, was fined 1.3 billion yuan ($210 million) for tax evasion in 2021. She apologized and escaped prosecution by paying up, but her social media accounts were suspended, crippling her business.

The hunt for revenue isn’t limited to taxes. In the past few years, local authorities have drawn criticism for slapping large fines on drivers and street vendors, similar to how cities like Chicago or San Francisco earn millions from parking tickets. Despite pledges by top leaders to eliminate fines as a form of revenue collection, the practice continues, with city residents complaining that Shanghai police use drones and traffic cameras to catch drivers using their mobile phones at red lights.

Outside experts and Chinese government advisers agree that structural imbalances between local and central governments must be addressed. But under Xi, China’s most authoritarian leader in decades, decision-making has grown more opaque, keeping businesses and analysts guessing, while vested interests have pushed back against major changes.

“They have a hermetically sealed process that makes it difficult for people on the outside to know what is going on,” says Martin Chorzempa, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Beijing has been reluctant to rescue struggling local governments, wary it might leave them dependent on bailouts. So, the central government has stepped in only in dire cases, otherwise leaving local governments to resolve debt issues on their own.

“In Chinese, we have a saying: You help people in desperate need, but you don’t help the poor,” said Tang Yao, an economist at Peking University. “You don’t want them to rely on soft money.”

Economists say intervention may be required this time around and that the central government has leeway to take on more debt, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of only around 25%. That’s much lower than many other major economies.

Accumulated total non-financial debt, meanwhile, is estimated at nearly triple the size of the economy, according to the National Institution for Finance and Development and still growing.

“This is a huge structural problem that needs a huge structural solution that is not forthcoming,” said Logan Wright of the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm. “There’s really no way around this. And it’s getting worse, not better.”
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Chess club for kids thrives in Congo refugee camp

Posted on by SeeAF

KANYARUCHINYA, Democratic Republic of Congo — Children sit on the dirt, their clothes ragged and torn, their shoes punctured with holes, but their eyes bright and fixed on what’s playing out in front of them.

In a corner of a refugee camp in conflict-wracked eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, about a dozen chess games are going, each one with its own fascinated audience.

The Soga Chess Club for children doesn’t have enough tables and chairs. The “boards” are squares of paper with green and white blocks marked on them and are lined with plastic to protect them from the wear and tear coming their way. Irritatingly, the pieces sometimes topple over if players haven’t found a flat enough stretch of ground to lay their game out on.

But the chess club founders say it’s good enough to try to take these kids’ minds away from what they’ve seen and experienced so far: fighting and killing, hunger and fear. They’ve all lost their homes. Some have lost fathers, mothers or siblings in one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Chess is “a therapeutic escape from the stress and horrors these children have endured,” said Gabriel Nzaji, one of the club’s instructors. He said the game encourages the children to be quiet and to focus, a way of calming their minds.

More than 5 million people have been displaced by decades of conflict in eastern Congo, where dozens of armed groups fight each other over land and control of areas rich in sought-after minerals. An increase in fighting in recent months has led to a new surge of refugees, and there’s no end in sight for a displacement disaster that dwarfs many others that get more global attention.

Hundreds of thousands of people forced to escape the attacks that destroy their towns and villages have ended up in vast displacement camps like Kanyaruchinya, where the Soga Chess Club operates. The United Nations Children’s Fund says around a quarter million children live in the camps, ripped away from their homes and their schools, and sometimes their families.

Soga has around 100 children signed up to its club. One of them is 9-year-old Heritier, who is still learning the game but confident enough already to hand out his own lesson.

“Here,” he said, his fingers flicking across the board. “I’m doing everything to protect my king on the chessboard. I have to sacrifice this queen. You see that?

“I like this game,” Heritier said. “It relaxes me.”

The trauma suffered by children in eastern Congo is incalculable as aid agencies battle to provide food and shelter to as many of the millions that have been displaced as possible. Some of the children in the chess club have been living in the Kanyaruchinya camp for almost two years, their lives in limbo.

But in Heritier’s grin and his newfound delight in a game — a given for so many kids — the club organizers see a sign of hope.

“The perspective of these children has changed drastically,” said Nzaji. “[They] approach life with a different mindset.”

The organizers said they noticed that most of the children would spend their days engaged in rough, war-like games, sometimes involving sticks they’d swing at each other. They hope chess offers the children something other than a mimicking of the conflict they’ve grown up around.

Akili Bashige, president of the Soga Chess Club, said parts of the camp have been transformed into sites of optimism by children playing chess. “Despite their limited resources, their passion persists,” he said of his club’s recruits.

Soga has also taken the game to orphanages in the region, and Bashige said he wants to start clubs for children who live on the streets in nearby towns.

The club can also be uplifting to parents, who worry for their children and their future — which they see slipping away.

Arusi, a 13-year-old girl, recently won a tournament and with it a reputation for being a fierce competitor. Her mother beamed with pride as she recalled the feat.

“Before Soga chess, they were idle because of the war and a lack of schooling,” said Feza Twambaze, Arusi’s mom. “Seeing them engaged and thriving fills me with immense joy.”
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US colleges are cutting majors and slashing programs after years of putting it off

Posted on by SeeUS

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City officials release audio and video recordings from 2022 Texas school shooting

Posted on by SeeUS

DALLAS — As law enforcement officers hung back outside Khloie Torres’ fourth-grade classroom in Uvalde, Texas, she begged for help in a series of 911 calls, whispering into the phone that there were “a lot” of bodies and telling the operator: “Please, I don’t want to die. My teacher is dead. Oh, my God.”

At one point, the dispatcher asks Khloie if there are many people in the room with her.

“No, it’s just me and a couple of friends. A lot of people are,” she says, pausing briefly, “gone.”

Calls from Khloie and others, along with body camera footage and surveillance videos from the May 24, 2022, shooting at Robb Elementary School, were included in a massive collection of audio and video recordings released by Uvalde city officials on Saturday after a prolonged legal fight.

The Associated Press and other news organizations brought a lawsuit after the officials initially refused to publicly release the information. The massacre, which left 19 students and two teachers dead, was one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.

The delayed law enforcement response to the shooting has been widely condemned as a massive failure: Nearly 400 officers waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the gunman in a classroom filled with dead and wounded children and teachers. Families of the victims have long sought accountability for the slow police response in the South Texas city of about 15,000 people 130 kilometers west of San Antonio.

Brett Cross’ 10-year-old nephew, Uziyah Garcia, was among those killed. Cross, who was raising the boy as a son, was angered that relatives weren’t told the records were being released and that it took so long for them to be made public.

“If we thought we could get anything we wanted, we’d ask for a time machine to go back … and save our children, but we can’t, so all we are asking for is for justice, accountability and transparency, and they refuse to give this to us,” he said.

Jesse Rizo, whose 9-year-old niece Jacklyn Cazares was killed in the shooting, said the release of information Saturday reignited festering anger because it shows “the waiting and waiting and waiting” of law enforcement.

“Perhaps if they were to have breached earlier, they would have saved some lives, including my niece’s,” he said.

The police response included nearly 150 U.S. Border Patrol agents and 91 state police officials, as well as school and city police. While terrified students and teachers called 911 from inside classrooms, dozens of officers stood in the hallway trying to figure out what to do. Desperate parents who had gathered outside the building pleaded with them to go in.

The gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, entered the school at 11:33 a.m., first opening fire from the hallway, then going into two adjoining fourth-grade classrooms. The first responding officers arrived at the school minutes later. They approached the classrooms, but then retreated as Ramos opened fire.

At 12:06 p.m., much of the radio traffic from the Uvalde Police Department was still focused on setting up a perimeter around the school and controlling traffic in the area, as well as the logistics of keeping track of those who safely evacuated the building. They’ve had trouble setting up a command post, one officer tells his colleagues, “because we need the bodies to keep the parents out.”

“They’re trying to push in,” he says.

At 12:16 p.m., someone with the Texas Department of Public Safety, the state law enforcement agency, called police to let them know a SWAT team was en route from Austin, about 100 kilometers away. She asked for any information the police could give about the shooting, the suspect and the police response.

“Do you have a command post? Or where do you need our officers to go?” the caller asks.

The police representative responds that officers know there are several dead students inside the elementary school and others still hiding. Some of the survivors have been evacuated to a building nearby. She doesn’t know if a command post has been set up.

At 12:50 p.m., a tactical team enters one of the classrooms and fatally shoots Ramos.

Among criticisms included in a U.S. Justice Department report released earlier this year was that there was “no urgency” in establishing a command center, creating confusion among police about who was in charge.

Multiple federal and state investigations have laid bare cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned whether officers prioritized their own lives over those of children and teachers.

Some of the 911 calls released were from terrified instructors. One described “a lot, a whole lot of gunshots,” while another sobbed into the phone as a dispatcher urged her to stay quiet. “Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry!” the first teacher cried before hanging up.

Just before arriving at the school, Ramos shot and wounded his grandmother at her home. He then took a pickup from the home and drove to the school.

Ramos’ distraught uncle made several 911 calls begging to be put through so he could try to get his nephew to stop shooting.

“Everything I tell him, he does listen to me,” Armando Ramos said. “Maybe he could stand down or do something to turn himself in,” he added, his voice cracking.

He said his nephew, who had been with him at his house the night before, stayed with him in his bedroom all night, and told him that he was upset because his grandmother was “bugging” him.

“Oh my God, please, please, don’t do nothing stupid,” the man says on the call. “I think he’s shooting kids.”

But the offer arrived too late, coming just around the time that the shooting had ended and law enforcement officers killed Salvador Ramos.

Two of the responding officers now face criminal charges. Former Uvalde school Police Chief Pete Arredondo and former school officer Adrian Gonzales have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of child abandonment and endangerment. A Texas state trooper in Uvalde who had been suspended was reinstated to his job earlier this month.

In an interview this week with CNN, Arredondo said he thinks he’s been “scapegoated” as the one to blame for the botched law enforcement response.

Some of the families have called for more officers to be charged and filed federal and state lawsuits against law enforcement, social media, online gaming companies, and the gun manufacturer that made the rifle the gunman used.
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Chinese drones detected off Vietnam days before military drills with Philippines

Posted on by SeeEA

Washington — Chinese drones were detected in Vietnam’s airspace twice recently, a response, experts say, to the joining of forces between Vietnam and the Philippines.

“The Chinese WZ-10 surveillance drone entered Vietnam’s airspace twice in close succession, in response to joint exercises with the Philippines,” Roni Sontani, founder of Indonesia-based Airspace Review said in a report Wednesday, the most recent drone flight.

Vu Duc Khanh, a law professor at the University of Ottawa who follows Vietnamese policies and its international relations, told VOA China always uses the tactic of “divide and rule.”

“Any cooperation is likely to affect China’s status as a regional power. Therefore, it will seek to disrupt it,” Vu said.

The drone incursions came within a week of the joint coast guard training exercises between Vietnam and the Philippines. The first occurred on August 2 and the second on Wednesday during the Philippines naval commander’s meeting with his counterpart in Hanoi.

In both cases, the drone, identified as a Wing Loong-10 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), took off from China’s Hainan Island and entered Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), flying along the coastline for approximately 800 kilometers  before turning back near Phan Rang province, the Belgium-based Army Recognition group said.

Data from Flightradar24 indicated that it was the same drone on both flights.

The Chinese Embassy in Hanoi and the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to VOA’s inquiry for comments.

On Tuesday, when asked by Reuters about a Chinese unmanned military aircraft that was seen flying over Vietnam’s EEZ on August 2, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said she didn’t have any information and referred Reuters to the competent authorities.

On Friday, the Philippines and Vietnamese coast guards conducted their first joint drills in Manila Bay, off the west coast of Luzon, leading into the South China Sea.

Ha Hoang Hop, president of VietKnow think tank in Hanoi, told VOA that the Friday drill is the first between the two Southeast Asian nations who have competing claims over some parts of the South China Sea. Both countries have also been in disputes with Beijing in the same contested waters.

Both countries are claimants to the Spratly group of islands and became the most vocal critics of China’s increasingly hostile actions in the disputed waters, where Beijing has increasingly asserted its territorial claims.

“The drill presents their mutual support and their readiness [for] conducting talks and finding ways to further cooperate to help gain common interests in solving the South China Sea issues,” Ha told VOA by phone.

On Thursday, the Philippines completed two days of maritime exercises with the militaries of Australia, Canada, and the United States, a first involving the four countries, to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Vu says the warming relationship between the two countries is good for regional peace and security.

But he warned that Beijing could escalate tactics.

“No one is fooled by Beijing’s expansionist objectives. Today, it may be drones, but tomorrow, it may be the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) that intervenes,” Vu added.

Last month (July) Vietnam filed a claim with the United Nations for an extended continental shelf (ECS) in the South China Sea, a month after the Philippines made a similar move in June.

China rejected the moves by both Hanoi and Manila, saying that such an act violated China’s sovereignty and maritime interests and would not help resolve disputes.
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Namibian occupational therapists assist children with mental health

Posted on by SeeAF

Windhoek, Namibia — Poverty, family dysfunction, hopelessness and learning challenges are among the reasons children, sometimes as young as 9, take their own lives. The Namibia Association of Occupational Therapists on Saturday brought together children, parents, and health care workers to teach children how to cope and adapt into adulthood.

When Samuel Njambali was 11 years old, he began drinking and smoking with his peers.

This destructive behavior led to fights and failing grades at school.

His grandmother helped him get his act together.

Now an intern occupational therapist, Njambali gave a peer talk at a #Be Free Youth Campus workshop Saturday on the impact of substance abuse on adolescent mental health and the role of occupational therapy in treating and correcting negative behavior patterns.

“Occupational therapy is a profession that helps people who are using substances to quit, and we help to rehabilitate them through activities,” he told VOA. “So, we will help them with restructuring their activities of their day so changing their routines providing more structure to their habits so that they don’t have free time and opportunities for them to use substances.”

Karlien Burger from the Namibia Association of Occupational Therapists organized the event, which attracted more than 150 students, parents, teachers and health care providers.

Given Namibia’s past of apartheid and colonization, she said, its citizens experienced inter-generational trauma that manifests in poor mental health outcomes.

As occupational therapists, she said, they want to reach families when their children are young to re-model their behavior into healthier lifestyles.

“There are a lot of difficulties with mental health, and because these difficulties are starting earlier and earlier, we wanted to take a pro-active and a preventative approach. And that’s why we are looking at adolescent mental health today at this event and different facets of it. The emotional development that happens and how to look after that, how to prevent substance use, how to support the adolescent learning processes and then lastly, we looked at spirituality and how we can foster health promoting spirituality in our everyday tasks.”

Monica Amukoto, a student at the event, said she now has a greater understanding of how her body works and how she can communicate her boundaries with her parents and her peers.

She said greater awareness in the community can help children like her avoid common substance abuse problems.

“I practically learnt about self-love and how as a young person I am supposed to control my emotions, and we encounter a lot of young people on a day-to-day basis,” she said. “On how I am supposed to control my anger and all these things.”

Occupational therapy is a branch of health care that helps people of all ages with physical, sensory or cognitive problems. It is relatively unknown in Namibia and Africa and the Occupational Therapy Association used the opportunity at the #Be Free Youth Campus to create awareness of its practice.

A first of its kind in Namibia, the #Be Free Youth Campus provides sexual and reproductive health services, counseling, sports and learning facilities in the underserved township of Katutura to teens and young adults.  
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Steph Curry’s late barrage seals another Olympic men’s basketball title as US beats France

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It was the fifth consecutive gold medal for the U.S.
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Anti-racism protesters rally across UK

Posted on by SeeEU

London — Thousands of anti-racism demonstrators rallied Saturday across the United Kingdom to protest recent rioting blamed on the far right in the wake of the Southport knife attack that killed three children.

Crowds massed in London, Glasgow, Belfast, Manchester and numerous other towns and cities as fears of violent confrontations with anti-immigration agitators failed to materialize.

It followed a similar situation that unfolded Wednesday night, when anticipated far-right rallies up and down the country were instead replaced by gatherings organized by the Stand Up To Racism advocacy group.

More than a dozen places across England as well as Belfast had been hit by unrest prior to that, following the July 29 stabbing spree, which was wrongly linked on social media to a Muslim immigrant.

Rioters targeted mosques and hotels linked to immigration, as well as police, vehicles and other sites.

However, recent nights have been largely peaceful in English towns and cities, prompting hope among authorities that the more than 700 arrests and numerous people already being jailed has deterred further violence.

However, in Northern Ireland, which has seen sustained disorder since last weekend, police said they were investigating a suspected racially motivated hate crime overnight.

A petrol bomb was thrown at a mosque in Newtownards, east of Belfast, in the early hours of Saturday, with graffiti sprayed on the front door and walls of the building, according to the Police Service of Northern Ireland, or PSNI.

It said the petrol bomb thrown at the property did not ignite.

Taken seriously

“This is being treated as a racially motivated hate crime, and I want to send a strong message to those who carried this out, that this type of activity will not be tolerated, and any reports of hate crime are taken very seriously,” PSNI Chief Inspector Keith Hutchinson said.

There were also overnight reports of damage to property and vehicles in Belfast, as nightly unrest there rumbled on.

The disturbances in Northern Ireland were sparked by events in England but have also been fueled by pro-U.K. loyalist paramilitaries with their own agenda, according to the PSNI.

Around 5,000 anti-racism demonstrators rallied in Belfast on Saturday without incident.

In London, hundreds massed outside the office of Brexit architect Nigel Farage’s Reform U.K. party before marching to Parliament, as a large police presence looked on.

Farage and other far-right figures have been blamed for helping to fuel the riots through anti-immigrant rhetoric and conspiracy theories.

“It’s really important for people of color in this country, for immigrants in this country, to see us out here as white British people saying, ‘No, we don’t stand for this,'” attendee Phoebe Sewell, 32, from London, told AFP.

Fellow Londoner Jeremy Snelling, 64, said he had turned out because “I don’t like the right-wing claiming the streets in my name.”

He did not hold Farage “personally responsible” for the violence but argued that the Reform party founder had “contributed” to the volatile environment.

“I think he is damaging, and I think he’s dangerous,” Snelling said.
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24 Sierra Leonean soldiers given long jail terms for failed coup

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FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE — A military court in Sierra Leone sentenced 24 soldiers to lengthy prison terms Friday for their roles in a failed attempt to overthrow the government of President Julius Maada Bio in November 2023.

The sentences were read out in court with the judge handing out prison terms ranging from 50 and 120 years for those convicted.

They were among 27 men court-martialed for participating in the attempted coup on November 26 that saw gunmen attack military barracks, two prisons and other locations, freeing about 2,200 inmates and killing more than 20 people.

The sentencing followed the jailing in July of 11 civilians, police and prison officers for their role in the insurrection.

A seven-member military jury found most of the court-martialed soldiers guilty by unanimous verdict after hours of deliberations. The men faced a total of 88 charges including mutiny, murder, aiding the enemy and stealing public or service property.

All but one of those arraigned were rank-and-file soldiers. A lieutenant colonel was found guilty and received the longest prison term, 120 years.

Before handing out the sentences, Judge Advocate Mark Ngegba — himself a former military officer — said, “When we reach this conclusion for sentences, it is to send a message of zero tolerance for such an act in the military.”

Of the remaining three, one was found not guilty, another was sentenced earlier due to pleading guilty, and the third’s trial will conclude later.

Family members of the convicts wailed inside the court as the sentences were announced.

The failed attempt followed an election which Bio narrowly won to secure a second term. His victory was disputed by the main opposition APC party, while some local and international observers also questioned the transparency of the vote.
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2 children among 8 dead in Uganda landfill landslide

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Kampala, Uganda — Eight people, including two children, were killed when mountains of garbage collapsed at a landfill in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, on Saturday, city authorities said.

Local media said homes, people and livestock were engulfed in the landslide at the vast garbage dump in Kiteezi, a district in the north of Kampala, after heavy rainfall.

“On a very sad note, eight people have so far been found dead, six adults and two children,” the Kampala Capital City Authority, or KCCA, which operates the site, said in a statement.

The disaster comes eight months after the ceremonial head of the authority described the situation at the landfill as a “national crisis.”

The KCCA said in the statement posted on social media platform X that 14 people had been rescued and taken to hospital. It did not disclose their condition.

“The rescue operation is still ongoing, and we shall share updates as they come in,” it said.

Images from Kiteezi showed a Ugandan police excavator churning through huge mounds of rubbish as large crowds of residents looked on.

Some were gathered behind a yellow police tape, carrying pictures of their missing loved ones.

Structural failure

The KCCA said there was a “structural failure in waste mass this morning resulting in a collapsed section of the landfill.”

“Our teams, along with other government agencies, are on ground taking the necessary measures to ensure the area is secure and to prevent any further incidents,” it said.

“The level of damage is still being assessed.”

In January, KCCA ceremonial head Erias Lukwago, who carries the honorary title of Lord Mayor of Kampala, had warned that people working and living near the Kiteezi landfill were at risk of numerous health hazards due to overflowing waste.

He said the site was not maintained at all, describing the situation as a “national crisis” that needed the central government and Parliament to intervene.

The official in charge of the site, Vincent Mbaizireki, said it was full to capacity.

The Daily Monitor, an independent newspaper in Uganda, said the 14-hectare (36-acre) landfill was established in 1996 and was the dumpsite for all garbage collected across Kampala, receiving about 1,200 tons of waste a day.

Several parts of East Africa have been battered by heavy rains recently, including Ethiopia, the second-most-populous country on the continent.

Devastating landslides in a remote and mountainous area in southern Ethiopia last month killed around 250 people, with the U.N.’s humanitarian response agency OCHA saying several thousand people needed emergency evacuation.

In February 2010, mudslides in the Mount Elgon region of eastern Uganda killed more than 350 people.
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Record-breaking fires scorch more than 1.4 million acres in Oregon

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PORTLAND, Oregon — Wildfires in Oregon have burned more acres of land in 2024 than in any year since reliable records began, authorities said Friday, with the mid-August peak of fire season still on the horizon.

Blazes have scorched more than 5,700 square kilometers (2,200 square miles), Northwest Interagency Coordination Center spokesperson Carol Connolly said. That’s more than any other year since 1992, when reliable records began to be kept, she said. It surpasses the previous record, set in 2020.

Connolly said 71 large fires have burned most of the land this year. Large fires are defined as those that consume more than 40 hectares (nearly 100 acres) of timber or more than 120 hectares (almost 300 acres) of grass or brush.

Thirty-two homes in the state have been lost to the fires, she said, which have been fueled by high temperatures, dry weather and low humidity.

They have prompted evacuation notices across the state and largely torched rural and mountain areas, although some have also sparked closer to the Portland metro area.

Level 3 “go now” evacuation notices were in place Friday for the small town of Cherry Grove, about 56 kilometers (35 miles) west of Portland, as a fire burned in a nearby forest. David Huey, a deputy with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, said most residents evacuated after officers went door to door encouraging them to leave.

Airplanes and helicopters were scooping water from nearby Henry Hagg Lake to drop on the fire, said Gert Zoutendijk, spokesperson for the Gaston Rural Fire District. The lake was set to be closed to the public throughout the weekend.

The fire was roughly 1.3 square kilometers (half a square mile) with zero containment as of Friday afternoon, although crews have made progress on lining the fire, Zoutendijk said.

Another fire, near the Portland suburb of Oregon City, led authorities to temporarily close part of a state highway in the morning and issue “go now” evacuation orders along part of the route. By midafternoon, authorities downgraded the evacuation and reopened the highway.

The largest blaze is the Durkee Fire in eastern Oregon, which has scorched more than 1,200 square kilometers (459 square miles) but was at least 95% contained as of Friday, according to authorities. At one point it was the biggest fire in the country.

California’s Park Fire has since become the largest, burning more than 1,710 square kilometers (660 square miles) and destroying more than 600 structures. A man was arrested and accused of starting the fire by pushing a burning car into a gully in a wilderness park outside the Sacramento Valley city of Chico.

Also in California, the Crozier Fire in El Dorado County has burned about 7.7 square kilometers (3 square miles) and was 5% contained as of Friday evening, according to Cal Fire. The fire is burning in steep and rugged terrain and threatens 4,017 structures. The weather is expected to remain hot and dry through the weekend.
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Philippines condemns China for ‘dangerous’ acts in South China Sea

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MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines and China traded accusations Saturday following an encounter between their aircraft over a contested area of the South China Sea.

The Philippine military strongly condemned “dangerous and provocative actions” by China’s air force, while the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, or PLA, said it acted in a professional and legal manner.

It is the first time the Philippines has complained of dangerous actions by Chinese aircraft, as opposed to navy or coast guard vessels, since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office in 2022.

Two Chinese air force aircraft executed a dangerous maneuver and dropped flares in the path of a Philippine air force aircraft conducting a routine patrol over the Scarborough Shoal Thursday morning, the military said in a statement.

It “endangered the lives of our personnel undertaking maritime security operations recently within Philippine maritime zones,” said Philippines armed forces chief Romeo Brawner, adding that the Chinese aircraft interfered with lawful flight operations and violated international law on aviation safety.

The Philippine aircraft, “despite repeated warnings from China, insisted on illegally intruding into the airspace of Huangyan Island,” disrupting training activities, the Southern Theater Command of the Chinese PLA said Saturday.

China’s naval and air forces carried out identification, tracking, warning and expulsion in accordance with the law, it said.

“The on-site operation was professional, abided by norms, legitimate and legal,” the PLA said, urging the Philippines to stop what it called infringement and provocation.

Filipino fishermen frequent the Scarborough Shoal, one of two flashpoints in a longstanding maritime rivalry with China. Beijing Wednesday organized a combat patrol near the shoal, which Manila calls Bajo de Masinloc and China seized in 2012 and refers to as Huangyan island.

Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion in annual shipborne commerce, including parts also claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

China rejects a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that Beijing’s expansive claims had no basis under international law.

The Philippines in May accused Chinese fishermen of destroying the environment at Scarborough by cyanide fishing, harvesting giant clams and other protected creatures, and scarring coral reefs, which China denied.
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North Korea flies more trash balloons toward South, Seoul says

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SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s military says North Korea is again flying balloons likely carrying trash toward the South, adding to a bizarre psychological warfare campaign amid growing tensions between the war-divided rivals.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Saturday that the winds could carry the balloons to regions north of the South Korean capital, Seoul. Seoul City Hall and the Gyeonggi provincial government issued text alerts urging citizens to beware of objects dropping from the sky and report to the military or police if they spot any balloons.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or property damage.

North Korea in recent weeks has flown more than 2,000 balloons carrying waste paper, cloth scraps and cigarette butts toward the South in what it has described as a retaliation toward South Korean civilian activists flying anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border.

Pyongyang has long condemned such activities as it is extremely sensitive to any outside criticism of leader Kim Jong Un’s authoritarian rule.

North Korea last flew balloons toward the South on July 24, when trash carried by at least one of them fell on the South Korean presidential compound, raising worries about the vulnerability of key South Korean facilities. The balloon contained no dangerous material, and no one was hurt, South Korea’s presidential security service said.

South Korea, in reaction to the North’s balloon campaign, activated its front-line loudspeakers to blast broadcasts of propaganda messages and K-pop songs. Experts say North Korea hates such broadcasts because it fears it could demoralize front-line troops and residents.

The Koreas’ tit-for-tat Cold War-style campaigns are inflaming tensions, with the rivals threatening stronger steps and warning of grave consequences.

Their relations have worsened in recent years as Kim continues to accelerate the North’s nuclear weapons and missile program and issue verbal threats of nuclear conflict toward Washington and Seoul. In response, South Korea, the United States and Japan have been expanding their combined military exercises and sharpening their nuclear deterrence strategies built around U.S. strategic assets.

Experts say animosity could further rise later this month when South Korea and the United States kick off their annual joint military drills that are being strengthened to deal with the North’s nuclear threats.

The resumption of the balloon campaign comes as North Korea struggles to recover from devastating floods that submerged thousands of homes and huge swaths of farmland in areas near its border with China.

North Korean state media said Saturday that Kim ordered officials to bring some 15,400 people displaced by the floods to the capital, Pyongyang, to provide them with better care, and that it would take two or three months to rebuild homes in flood-hit areas.

Kim has so far turned down aid offers by traditional allies Russia and China and international aid groups, insisting that North Korea can handle the recovery on its own. He accused “enemy” South Korea of a “vicious smear campaign” to tarnish the image of his government, claiming that the South’s media have been exaggerating the damage and casualties caused by the floods.
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Youth engagement reaches new heights this election cycle

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Will the youth vote send Kamala Harris or Donald Trump to the White House? Organizers on both sides have seen a swell of voter enthusiasm and support, particularly among young people. But the younger demographic has had a historically low turnout at the polls. VOA’s Tina Trinh explores whether that could change come November.
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Russia launches new operation to halt advancing Ukrainian troops

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moscow — Moscow on Saturday launched a “counter-terror operation” in three border regions adjoining Ukraine to halt Kyiv’s biggest cross-border offensive in the two-and-a-half year conflict.

Ukrainian units stormed across the border into Russia’s western Kursk region on Tuesday morning in a shock attack and have advanced several kilometers, according to independent analysts.

Russia has deployed additional troops and equipment, including tanks, rocket launchers and aviation units to stop the advancing troops.

Russia’s national anti-terrorism committee said late Friday it was starting “counter-terror operations in the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions … in order to ensure the safety of citizens and suppress the threat of terrorist acts being carried out by the enemy’s sabotage groups.”

Under Russian law, security forces and the military are given sweeping emergency powers during “counter-terror” operations.

Movement is restricted, vehicles can be seized, phone calls can be monitored, areas are declared no-go zones, checkpoints introduced, and security is beefed up at key infrastructure sites.

The anti-terrorism committee said Ukraine had mounted an “unprecedented attempt to destabilize the situation in a number of regions of our country.”

It called Ukraine’s incursion a “terrorist attack” and said Kyiv’s troops had wounded civilians and destroyed residential buildings.

Ukrainian leaders have remained tight-lipped on the operation, and the United States, Kyiv’s closest ally, said it was not informed of the plans in advance.

But President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appeared to tout his troops’ early successes, saying earlier this week that Russia must “feel” the consequences of the full-scale offensive it has waged against Ukraine since February 2022.

Russia’s defense ministry published footage on Saturday of tank crews firing on Ukrainian positions in the Kursk region, as well as an overnight air strike, after it said Friday it had deployed yet more units to the border region.

It also said it had downed 26 Ukrainian drones that tried to attack the region overnight.
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How Maui’s 151-year-old banyan tree is coming back to life after fire

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LAHAINA, Hawaii — When a deadly wildfire tore through Lahaina on Maui last August, the wall of flames scorched the 151-year-old banyan tree along the historic town’s Front Street. But the sprawling tree survived the blaze, and thanks to the efforts of arborists and dedicated volunteers, parts of it are growing back — and even thriving.

One year after the fire, here’s what to know about the banyan tree and the efforts to restore it.

Why is Lahaina’s banyan tree significant?

The banyan tree is the oldest living one on Maui but is not a species indigenous to the Hawaiian Islands. India shipped the tree as a gift to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the first Protestant missionaries to live in Lahaina. It was planted in 1873, a quarter century before the Hawaiian Islands became a U.S. territory and seven decades after King Kamehameha declared Lahaina the capital of his kingdom.

The tree is widely beloved and fondly remembered by millions of tourists who have visited Maui over the years. But for many others it is a symbol of colonial rule that has dispossessed Native Hawaiians of their land and suppressed their language and culture.

For generations, the banyan tree served as a gathering place along Lahaina’s waterfront. By many accounts, it was the heart of the oceanside community — towering more than 18 meters (60 feet) high and anchored by multiple trunks that span nearly an acre.

The enormous tree has leafy branches that unfurl majestically and offer shade from the sun. Aerial roots dangle from its boughs and eventually latch onto the soil to become new trunks. Branches splay out widely and have become roosting places for choirs of birds.

 

What happened to it during the fire?

The 2023 fire charred the tree and blackened many of its leaves. But it wasn’t the flames so much as the intense heat that dried out much of the tree, according to Duane Sparkman, chair of the Maui County Arborist Committee. As a result of this loss of moisture, about half of the tree’s branches died, he said.

“Once that section of the tree desiccated, there was no coming back,” he said.

But other parts of the tree are now growing back healthy.

How was it saved?

Those working to restore the tree removed the dead branches so that the tree’s energy would go toward the branches that were alive, Sparkman said.

To monitor that energy, 14 sensors were screwed into the tree to track the flows of cambium, or sap, through its branches.

“It’s basically a heart monitor,” Sparkman said. “As we’ve been treating the tree, the heartbeat’s getting stronger and stronger and stronger.”

Sparkman said there are also plans to install vertical tubes to help the tree’s aerial roots, which appear to be vertical branches that grow down toward the ground. The tubes will contain compost to provide the branches with key nutrients when they take root in the soil.

A planned irrigation system will also feed small drops of water into the tubes. The goal, Sparkman said, is to help those aerial roots “bulk up and become the next stabilizer root.” The system will also irrigate the surrounding land and the tree’s canopy.

“You see a lot of long, long branches with hundreds of leaves back on the tree,” Sparkman said, adding that some branches are even producing fruit. “It’s pretty amazing to see that much of the tree come back.”

What other trees were destroyed in the fire?

Sparkman estimates that Lahaina lost some 25,000 trees in the fire.

These included the fruit trees that people grew in their yards as well as trees that are significant in Hawaiian culture, such as the ulu or breadfruit tree; the fire charred all but two of the dozen or so that remained.

Since the blaze, a band of arborists, farmers and landscapers — including Sparkman — has set about trying to save the ulu and other culturally important trees. Before colonialism, commercial agriculture and tourism, thousands of breadfruit trees dotted Lahaina.

To help restore Lahaina’s trees, Sparkman founded a nonprofit called Treecovery. The group has potted some 3,500 trees, he said, growing them in “micro-nurseries” across the island, including at some hotels, until people can move back into their homes.

“We have grow hubs all over the island of Maui to grow these trees out for as long as they need. So, when the people are ready, we can have them come pick these trees up and they can plant them in their yards,” he said. “It’s important that we do this for the families.”
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China’s drivers fret as robotaxis pick up pace – and passengers

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WUHAN, China — Liu Yi is among China’s 7 million ride-hailing drivers. A 36-year-old Wuhan resident, he started driving part-time this year when construction work slowed in the face of a nationwide glut of unsold apartments.

Now he predicts another crisis as he stands next to his car watching neighbors order driverless taxis.

“Everyone will go hungry,” he said of Wuhan drivers competing against robotaxis from Apollo Go, a subsidiary of technology giant Baidu 9888.HK.

Baidu and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology declined comment.

Ride-hailing and taxi drivers are among the first workers globally to face the threat of job loss from artificial intelligence as thousands of robotaxis hit Chinese streets, economists and industry experts said.

Self-driving technology remains experimental but China has moved aggressively to green-light trials compared with the U.S which is quick to launch investigations and suspend approvals after accidents.

At least 19 Chinese cities are running robotaxi and robobus tests, disclosure showed. Seven have approved tests without human-driver monitors by at least five industry leaders: Apollo Go, Pony.ai, WeRide, AutoX and SAIC Motor 600104.SS.

Apollo Go has said it plans to deploy 1,000 in Wuhan by year-end and operate in 100 cities by 2030.

Pony.ai, backed by Japan’s Toyota Motor 7203.T, operates 300 robotaxis and plans 1,000 more by 2026. Its vice president has said robotaxis could take five years to become sustainably profitable, at which point they will expand “exponentially.”

WeRide is known for autonomous taxis, vans, buses and street sweepers. AutoX, backed by e-commerce leader Alibaba Group 9988.HK, operates in cities including Beijing and Shanghai. SAIC has been operating robotaxis since the end of 2021.

“We’ve seen an acceleration in China. There’s certainly now a rapid pace of permits being issued,” said Boston Consulting Group managing director Augustin Wegscheider. “The U.S. has been a lot more gradual.”

Alphabet’s GOOGL.O Waymo is the only U.S. firm operating uncrewed robotaxis that collect fares. It has over 1,000 cars in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix but could grow to “thousands,” said a person with knowledge of its operations.

Cruise, backed by General Motors GM.N, restarted testing in April after one of its vehicles hit a pedestrian last year.

Cruise said it operates in three cities with safety its core mission. Waymo did not respond to a request for comment.

“There’s a clear contrast between U.S. and China” with robotaxi developers facing far more scrutiny and higher hurdles in the U.S., said former Waymo CEO John Krafcik.

Robotaxis spark safety concerns in China, too, but fleets proliferate as authorities approve testing to support economic goals. Last year, President Xi Jinping called for “new productive forces,” setting off regional competition.

Beijing announced testing in limited areas in June and Guangzhou said this month it would open roads citywide to self-driving trials.

Some Chinese firms have sought to test autonomous cars in the U.S. but the White House is set to ban vehicles with China-developed systems, said people briefed on the matter.

Boston Consulting’s Wegscheider compared China’s push to develop autonomous vehicles to its support of electric vehicles.

“Once they commit,” he said, “they move pretty fast.”

‘Stupid radishes’

China has 7 million registered ride-hailing drivers versus 4.4 million two years ago, official data showed. With ride-hailing providing last-resort jobs during economic slowdown, the side effects of robotaxis could prompt the government to tap the brakes, economists said.

In July, discussion of job loss from robotaxis soared to the top of social media searches with hashtags including, “Are driverless cars stealing taxi drivers’ livelihoods?”

In Wuhan, Liu and other ride-hailing drivers call Apollo Go vehicles “stupid radishes” – a pun on the brand’s name in local dialect – saying they cause traffic jams.

Liu worries, too, about the impending introduction of Tesla’s TSLA.O “Full Self-Driving” system – which still requires human drivers – and the automaker’s robotaxi ambitions.

“I’m afraid that after the radishes come,” he said, “Tesla will come.”

Wuhan driver Wang Guoqiang, 63, sees a threat to workers who can least afford disruption.

“Ride-hailing is work for the lowest class,” he said, as he watched an Apollo Go vehicle park in front of his taxi. “If you kill off this industry, what is left for them to do?”

Baidu declined to comment on the drivers’ concerns and referred Reuters to comments in May by Chen Zhuo, Apollo Go’s general manager. Chen said the firm would become “the world’s first commercially profitable” autonomous-driving platform.

Apollo Go loses almost $11,000 a car annually in Wuhan, Haitong International Securities estimated. A lower-cost model could enable per-vehicle annual profit of nearly $16,000, the securities firm said. By contrast, a ride-hailing car earns about $15,000 total for the driver and platform.

‘Already at the forefront’

Automating jobs could benefit China in the long run given a shrinking population, economists said.

“In the short run, there must be a balance in speed between the creation of new jobs and the destruction of old jobs,” said Tang Yao, associate professor of applied economics at Peking University. “We do not necessarily need to push at the fastest speed, as we are already at the forefront.”

Eastern Pioneer Driving School 603377.SS has more than halved its instructor number since 2019 to about 900. Instead, it has teachers at a Beijing control center remotely monitoring students in 610 cars equipped with computer instruction tools.

Computers score students on every wheel turn and brake tap, and virtual reality simulators coach them on navigating winding roads. Massive screens provide real-time analysis of driver tasks, such as one student’s 82% parallel-parking pass rate.

Zhang Yang, the school’s intelligent-training director, said the machines have done well.

“The efficiency, pass rate and safety awareness have greatly improved.”
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Zimbabwe schoolchildren learn how to coexist with dangerous wildlife

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SAVE VALLEY CONSERVANCY, Zimbabwe — On the impoverished edges of a conservancy that protects wildlife in southeastern Zimbabwe, 14-year-old Esther Bote wakes up at dawn to a practiced daily routine.

She cleans the house, lights the fire, cooks, bathes and gets into her neat grey and white school uniform. Then it’s time for what she considers the most perilous chore: the 5-kilometer walk to school through bush paths and forests where dangerous animals might lurk.

The teenager has been living with such threats for some time now but there is no getting used to it. Children as young as 5, some held by the hand by slightly older peers or siblings, briskly walk in thick forests to school and then back home.

“Sometimes we see animal footprints. We see their footprints and can tell that the elephants are still around,” she told The Associated Press from her home, where she stays with her elderly grandparents.

In this humid, densely forested area in a semi-arid Zimbabwean district, repeated droughts, juiced by the naturally occurring El Nino weather phenomenon and human-caused climate change, have led to food and water shortages, leaving people and animals to compete for resources. Wildlife is getting dangerously close to human populations, and children are having to learn how they can live in this new reality without putting themselves at too much risk. To adapt, schoolchildren are now taking basic lessons in animal behavior.

On a recent day in July, when Esther and her friends spotted elephant footprints on the way from school, they reported it to a wildlife ranger. The animals had cut across a farming field and bush path that they regularly use to and from school. A few days prior, a child was severely injured from a crocodile attack.

Although no fatalities have been reported, Esther and her friends are still cautious.

“We usually walk in groups to feel safer,” said Esther.

Since last year, the privately owned Save Valley Conservancy and the country’s parks agency have been running a program for school-age children on how to recognize danger signs and how to coexist with wildlife. Dozens of students such as Esther are now able to identify different wildlife footprints, animal sounds and can read wind direction by the blowing sand and know how and when to take cover.

“The person who is affected mostly is the kid. It’s the kid who goes to school, it’s the kid who goes to fetch water, it’s the kid who goes to fetch firewood,” said Dingani Masuku, community liaison manager for Save Valley Conservancy. “That’s why we are targeting schools so that they can know how animals behave, what to do with the animals.”

He said they are trying to teach “a sense of ownership in the kids” so that they “don’t see the animal as an adversary, but they see it as something beneficial to the community, something which should be respected.”

On a recent sunny day, over two dozen children sat outside on dusty ground in searing heat for one of the sessions at Chiyambiro Secondary School. An 18-year-old who recently left school and is now part of a new corps of young women rangers from the community was teaching them animal behavior and how to protect themselves.

“Don’t approach an animal. If it’s a lion, it’s looking for food. That’s why it’s in the community. It is looking for cheap, easy prey, and you could be the easy prey,” she said, wearing military-type green fatigues. Some of the children said they travel up to 15 kilometers to school, and are forced to walk before daybreak when animals such as hyenas would still be on the prowl.

An official from the national parks agency talked about the benefits of wildlife to the community such as tourism. He pointed to the recently recruited women rangers as an example of how wildlife can create employment for locals. He encouraged them to take the message home to their parents — many who view wild animals as either enemies or a source of food.

Alphonce Chimangaisu, the School Development Committee chairperson at Chiyambiro Secondary School, said parents hoped the initiative would make children safer.

“Some parents have stopped their children from going to school because they don’t know what might happen,” he said.

Although there is no concrete data yet on the effectiveness of the initiative, Chimangaisu said the school has been using it to convince some previously reluctant parents to change their attitudes. Many agree with the training but still ask for concessions, such as the school allowing their children to arrive later for class, he said.

School authorities in affected rural areas are often forced to delay the start of classes and end them early to allow affected children to walk to and from school during daylight when wild animals are unlikely to be roaming around communities, said Obert Masaraure, president of the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe.

“We have reports of learners who have completely withdrawn from school fearing for their lives,” he said, adding that teachers who live far from schools are also increasingly not turning up for work. “These challenges are compounding other existing vulnerabilities for rural learners further denying them access to quality education.”

The country’s parks agency is now pushing to initiate animal behavior and conservation training at schools countrywide in areas where people are increasingly being forced to co-exist with wild animals that make regular forays into communities for food and water due to climate change-related droughts, said Tinashe Farawo, the spokesman for the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.

Aside from learning how to keep safe, schoolchildren can be a useful way to deliver the message home, he said.

“We have established environmental clubs at many schools where we raise awareness and education,” added Farawo. “When children are taught about these dangers and animal behavior, they also go home and teach their parents. We have found that it’s easier for parents to listen when their children speak.”

He said the conflict is likely to worsen due to increased frequencies of droughts, noting that the parks agency received between 3,000 and 4,000 distress calls from communities battling confrontations with wildlife in the last three years, compared to about 900 calls in 2018.

For Esther, although the training has not eliminated the risk, she said it could come in handy when danger arises.

“It helps, we now know a lot of things about animals that we didn’t know before,” she said, adding that as long as the animals are still there, she won’t be able to fully enjoy school.
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