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Paralympic triathlon events postponed for a day because of poor water quality in Seine river
Paris — Paralympic triathlon competitions in Paris scheduled for Sunday were postponed for a day because of concerns about water quality in the Seine River after heavy rainfall, organizers said.
The 11 para triathlon events are now scheduled for Monday, the Paris 2024 organizing committee and World Triathlon said in a joint statement.
Rainstorms hit the French capital Friday and Saturday. Heavy rains cause wastewater and runoff to flow into the river, leading to a rise in bacteria levels including E. Coli.
“It rained a lot Friday and then it also rained Saturday. So the international federation and the organizing committee … out of a principle of precaution decided to delay all of the events for a day,” Paris Deputy Mayor Pierre Rabadan told reporters.
While organizers awaited new test results, Rabadan said “the trend is actually positive to being able to have the competition tomorrow morning.”
Late Sunday night, organizers confirmed the races would go ahead Monday, saying in a statement that new water testing results and monitoring ”indicate that water quality continues to improve and will be within the World Triathlon thresholds on race day.”
This was the second scheduled change for the para triathlon events. They had initially been scheduled to take place over two days, Sunday and Monday, but were moved to Sunday because of rain forecasts.
The disruption is another hiccup for the city’s efforts to clean up the river for future public swimming, one of Paris’ most ambitious promises ahead of hosting the Olympics and Paralympics this summer. The men’s individual triathlon event during the Paris Olympics was delayed and several test swims were canceled because of high E. coli levels after rainstorms.
Lazreg Benel-Hadj, vice president of the French Swimming Federation, said that while some of the 53 athletes who took part in Olympic swimming competitions in the Seine fell ill afterward, none of those illnesses “was linked to the water in the Seine.”
Rabadan reiterated that athletic events in the river would continue past the Paralympics.
“Yes, for sure, we will continue,” he said. “We’ll continue to have competition in the river. So many reasons for that. First one because athletes are happy with that, and second one because the quality of water will permit it in the future. So we will keep going on that way. And that’s a massive legacy of the games.”
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California lawmakers approve laws banning deepfakes, regulating AI
Sacramento, California — California lawmakers approved a host of proposals this week aiming to regulate the artificial intelligence industry, combat deepfakes and protect workers from exploitation by the rapidly evolving technology.
The California Legislature, which is controlled by Democrats, is voting on hundreds of bills during its final week of the session to send to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. Their deadline is Saturday.
The Democratic governor has until Sept. 30 to sign the proposals, veto them or let them become law without his signature. Newsom signaled in July he will sign a proposal to crack down on election deepfakes but has not weighed in on other legislation.
He warned earlier this summer that overregulation could hurt the homegrown industry. In recent years, he often has cited the state’s budget troubles when rejecting legislation that he would otherwise support.
Here is a look at some of the AI bills lawmakers approved this year.
Combating deepfakes
Citing concerns over how AI tools are increasingly being used to trick voters and generate deepfake pornography of minors, California lawmakers approved several bills this week to crack down on the practice.
Lawmakers approved legislation to ban deepfakes related to elections and require large social media platforms to remove the deceptive material 120 days before Election Day and 60 days thereafter. Campaigns also would be required to publicly disclose if they’re running ads with materials altered by AI.
A pair of proposals would make it illegal to use AI tools to create images and videos of child sexual abuse. Current law does not allow district attorneys to go after people who possess or distribute AI-generated child sexual abuse images if they cannot prove the materials are depicting a real person.
Tech companies and social media platforms would be required to provide AI detection tools to users under another proposal.
Setting safety guardrails
California could become the first state in the nation to set sweeping safety measures on large AI models.
The legislation sent by lawmakers to the governor’s desk requires developers to start disclosing what data they use to train their models. The efforts aim to shed more light into how AI models work and prevent future catastrophic disasters.
Another measure would require the state to set safety protocols preventing risks and algorithmic discrimination before agencies could enter any contract involving AI models used to define decisions.
Protecting workers
Inspired by the monthslong Hollywood actors strike last year, lawmakers approved a proposal to protect workers, including voice actors and audiobook performers, from being replaced by their AI-generated clones. The measure mirrors language in the contract the SAG-AFTRA made with studios last December.
State and local agencies would be banned from using AI to replace workers at call centers under one of the proposals.
California also may create penalties for digitally cloning dead people without consent of their estates.
Keeping up with the technology
As corporations increasingly weave AI into Americans’ daily lives, state lawmakers also passed several bills to increase AI literacy.
One proposal would require a state working group to consider incorporating AI skills into math, science, history and social science curriculums. Another would develop guidelines on how schools could use AI in the classrooms.
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Pope to embark on most challenging Asia trip, with China watching
Vatican City — If any evidence were needed to underscore that Pope Francis’ upcoming trip to Asia and Oceania is the longest and most challenging of his pontificate, it’s that he’s bringing along his secretaries to help him navigate the four-country program while keeping up with work back home.
Francis will clock 32,814 kilometers by air during his Sept. 2-13 visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, far surpassing any of his previous 44 foreign trips and notching one of the longest papal trips ever, both in terms of days on the road and distances traveled.
That’s no small feat for a pope who turns 88 in December, uses a wheelchair, lost part of a lung to a respiratory infection as a young man and had to cancel his last foreign trip (to Dubai in November) on doctors’ orders.
But Francis is pushing ahead with this trip, originally planned for 2020 but postponed because of COVID-19. He’s bringing along his medical team of a doctor and two nurses and taking the usual health precautions on the ground. But in a novelty, he’s adding his personal secretaries into the traditional Vatican delegation of cardinals, bishops and security.
The long trip recalls the globetrotting travels of St. John Paul II, who visited all four destinations during his quarter-century pontificate, though East Timor was an occupied part of Indonesia at the time of his landmark 1989 trip.
By retracing John Paul’s steps, Francis is reinforcing the importance that Asia has for the Catholic Church, since it’s one of the few places where the church is growing in terms of baptized faithful and religious vocations.
Here is a look at the trip and some of the issues that are likely to come up, with the Vatican’s relations with China ever-present in the background in a region where Beijing wields enormous influence.
Indonesia
Francis loves gestures of interfaith fraternity and harmony, and there could be no better symbol of religious tolerance at the start of his trip than the underground “Tunnel of Friendship” linking Indonesia’s main Istiqlal mosque to the country’s Catholic cathedral.
Francis will visit the underpass in central Jakarta with the grand imam, Nasaruddin Umar, before both partake in an interfaith gathering and sign a joint declaration.
Francis has made improving Christian-Muslim relations a priority, and has often used his foreign travels to promote his agenda of committing religious leaders to work for peace and tolerance, and renounce violence in God’s name.
Papua New Guinea
Francis was elected pope in 2013 largely on the strength of an extemporaneous speech he delivered to his fellow cardinals in which he said the Catholic Church needed to go to the “peripheries” to reach those who need God’s comfort the most. When Francis travels deep into the jungles of Papua New Guinea, he will be fulfilling one of the marching orders he set out for the future pope on the eve of his own election.
Few places are as remote and poverty wracked as Vanimo, a northern coastal town on the main island of New Guinea. There Francis will meet with missionaries from his native Argentina who are working to bring Christianity to a largely tribal people who still practice pagan traditions alongside the Catholic faith.
East Timor
When John Paul visited East Timor in 1989, he sought to console its overwhelmingly Catholic population who had suffered under Indonesia’s brutal and bloody occupation for 15 years.
“For many years now, you have experienced destruction and death as a result of conflict; You have known what it means to be the victims of hatred and struggle,” John Paul told the faithful during a seaside Mass.
East Timor emerged as an independent country in 2002, but still bears the trauma and scars of an occupation that left as many as 200,000 people dead — nearly a quarter of the population.
Francis will literally walk in John Paul’s footsteps when he celebrates Mass in Tasi-Toli, near Dili, the same seaside esplanade as that 1989 liturgy, which some see as a key date in the Timorese independence movement.
Another legacy that will confront Francis is that of the clergy sexual abuse scandal: Revered independence hero and Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo was secretly sanctioned by the Vatican in 2020 for sexually abusing young boys.
There is no word on whether Francis will refer to Belo, who is still revered in East Timor but has been barred by the Vatican from ever returning.
Singapore
Francis has used several of his foreign trips to send messages to China, be they direct telegrams of greetings when he flies through Chinese airspace or more indirect gestures of esteem, friendship and fraternity to the Chinese people when nearby.
Francis’ visit to Singapore, where three-quarters of the population is ethnically Chinese and Mandarin is an official language, will give him yet another opportunity to reach out to Beijing as the Vatican seeks improved ties for the sake of China’s estimated 12 million Catholics.
“It’s a faithful people, who lived through a lot and remained faithful,” Francis told the Chinese province of his Jesuit order in a recent interview.
The trip comes a month before the Vatican is set to renew a landmark 2018 agreement governing bishop nominations.
Just last week, the Vatican reported its “satisfaction” that China had officially recognized Tianjin Bishop Melchior Shi Hongzhen, who as far as the Vatican is concerned had taken over as bishop in 2019. The Holy See said China’s official recognition of him under civil law now was “a positive fruit of the dialogue established over the years between the Holy See and the Chinese government.”
But by arriving in Singapore, a regional economic powerhouse which maintains good relations with both China and the United States, Francis is also stepping into a protracted maritime dispute as China has grown increasingly assertive with its presence in the South China Sea.
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Ghana’s journalists on front line in battle against AI-generated deepfakes
Bernard Avle hosts one of the biggest morning shows in Ghana. But scammers used artificial intelligence, or AI, to clone his voice to endorse a product. Analysts warn the same technology could be used to spread disinformation ahead of Ghana’s elections in December. For VOA News, Senanu Tord reports from Accra.
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5 key Chinese ‘Belt and Road’ projects underway in Africa
Beijing — China has vowed to beef up its vast Belt and Road global infrastructure initiative, promising “high-quality cooperation” ahead of a summit with African leaders in Beijing starting Wednesday.
Africa is already a key Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) region, with Chinese companies signing contracts there worth more than $700 billion between 2013 and 2023, according to Beijing’s commerce ministry.
However, China’s investment in the continent has been slammed by critics who accuse the BRI of saddling countries with exorbitant debt or funding projects that damage the environment.
AFP looks at five key BRI projects in Africa:
Kenya’s incomplete railway
Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway — built with financing from Exim Bank of China — connects the capital Nairobi with the port city of Mombasa. It has cut journey times from 10 hours to four since opening in 2017.
At $5 billion, it is the country’s most expensive infrastructure project since it won independence more than 60 years ago.
But a second phase meant to continue the line to Uganda never materialized as both countries struggled to pay down BRI debts.
The project was also beset with corruption allegations, and environmental campaigners have taken issue with the route, which cuts through a wildlife park.
Kenya’s President William Ruto last year asked China for a $1 billion loan and the restructuring of existing debt to complete other stalled BRI construction projects.
The country now owes China more than $8 billion.
Port facilities in Djibouti
After China established its first permanent overseas naval base in Djibouti in 2016, it helped develop the east African country’s nearby Doraleh multi-purpose port.
The reportedly $590 million military base is strategically placed between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Beijing has said the base is used to resupply navy ships, support regional peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, and combat piracy, though its proximity to a U.S. military base has raised concerns of espionage.
Doraleh, meanwhile, is partly owned by China Merchants Port Holdings, but the conglomerate’s 23.5% stake raised eyebrows when it was awarded after the Djiboutian government seized control of the container terminal from UAE-based DP World.
DP World claims it was forced out to allow China Merchants to take over.
Africa’s longest suspension bridge
According to state broadcaster CCTV, BRI investment in Africa has helped build over 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) of road and railway track, around 20 ports, and more than 80 power facilities.
In Mozambique, China Road and Bridge Corporation built Africa’s longest suspension bridge, connecting the capital Maputo with its suburb of Katembe.
Previously, the quickest way across the Bay of Maputo was by ferry. Road travel required driving 160 kilometers (99.4 miles) on unpaved roads susceptible to flooding.
The bridge, which opened in 2018, cost an estimated $786 million, 95% of which was financed by Chinese loans.
But critics have suggested the project was overpriced and that interest rates on loans are excessive.
Minerals in Botswana and beyond
In recent years, BRI investment in Africa has shifted to mining the minerals needed to fuel China’s high-tech and green industries, such as electric vehicles.
In 2023, China invested $7.8 billion in mining in Africa, according to U.S.-based think tank the American Enterprise Institute.
That includes a $1.9 billion deal, reached last year, by state-owned MMG to buy the Khoemacau mine in Botswana, one of the world’s largest copper mines.
In July, Chinese firm JCHX Mining Management agreed to buy Zambia’s indebted Lubambe copper mine for just $2.
China has invested in cobalt and lithium mines in Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
But regional conflicts have proved an occasional barrier to Chinese investments. In July this year, authorities suspended all mining in part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, including where Chinese companies operate, to “restore order” there.
Coal and clean power
Chinese funding in Africa has included dozens of investments in power generation, leading to criticism of the BRI’s environmental impact.
In Kenya, Chinese companies were contracted in 2015 to build a coal-fired power plant close to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Lamu old town.
But Kenya’s government cancelled the project in 2020 after protests and opposition to its environmental impact.
In 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced China would no longer support the construction of coal power plants abroad.
In July that year, Chinese funders pulled support from the $3 billion Sengwa coal project in Zimbabwe.
Instead, Chinese backers have funded the expansion of the country’s Kariba Hydroelectric Power Station, for $533 million.
Chinese firms have accelerated investments in renewable energy projects. In Nigeria, Chinese loans are part-funding the $4.9 billion construction of the Mambilla hydroelectric plant, which will be the country’s largest power station.
A white paper issued by China’s State Council Information Office says the country will focus on using the BRI to support green transition projects.
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EU ‘condemns dangerous actions’ by China against Philippine ship
Brussels — The European Union accused China on Sunday of taking “dangerous actions” against the Philippines, as Beijing and Manila blamed each other of deliberately ramming their coast guard ships.
The collision marks the latest in a spate of similar incidents in recent weeks in the South China Sea, where Beijing claims almost all of the economically vital body of water despite competing claims from other countries and an international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
“The EU condemns the dangerous action by Chinese Coast Guard vessels against lawful Philippine maritime operations in the area of the Sabina Shoa,” said Nabila Massrali, spokesperson for the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell, in a statement.
A Chinese coast guard spokesperson had said Saturday’s incident took place off the disputed Sabina Shoal, which has emerged as a new hotspot in the long-running maritime confrontations between the two countries.
The incidents “endanger the safety of life at sea and violate the right to freedom of navigation to which all nations are entitled under international law,” the EU statement said.
“The EU condemns all unlawful, escalatory and coercive actions that undermine these principles of international law and threaten peace and stability in the region.”
Since taking office in 2022, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Manila has more firmly asserted its claim to sovereignty over disputed reefs despite Beijing showing no intention of backing down on its own claims.
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Russia and Ukraine exchange cross-border attacks
A Russian missile strike injures dozens in Ukraine. The news comes as Moscow claims to have intercepted 158 Ukraine-launched drones overnight. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports.
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Crew members on Mike Lynch yacht tell of moments it sank off Sicily
Rome — Crew members on Mike Lynch’s yacht have spoken of the moments when a storm sank the vessel off Sicily and their efforts to help save passengers, after a disaster that killed the British tech tycoon and six other people.
Matthew Griffiths, who was on watch duty on the night of the disaster two weeks ago, told investigators that the crew members did everything they could to save those on board the Bayesian, according to comments reported by Italian news agency Ansa on Saturday.
Griffiths, the boat’s captain James Cutfield, and ship engineer Tim Parker Eaton have been placed under investigation by the Italian authorities for potential manslaughter and shipwreck. Being investigated does not imply guilt and does not mean formal charges will follow.
“I woke up the captain when the wind was at 20 knots (23 mph/37 kph). He gave orders to wake everyone else,” Ansa quoted Griffiths as saying.
“The ship tilted and we were thrown into the water. Then we managed to get back up and tried to rescue those we could,” he added, describing the events of the early hours of Aug. 19, when the Bayesian had been anchored off the Sicilian port of Porticello.
“We were walking on the walls (of the boat). We saved who we could, Cutfield also saved the little girl and her mother,” he said, referring to passenger Charlotte Golunski and her one-year-old daughter. In all there were 15 survivors of the wreck.
Cutfield exercised his right to remain silent when questioned by prosecutors on Tuesday, his lawyers said, saying he was “worn out” and that they needed more time to build a defense case.
Before this, Cutfield gave a similar description to Griffiths’ to investigators, according to comments reported on Sunday by Italian daily Il Corriere della Sera.
Cutfield said the boat tilted by 45 degrees and stayed in that position for some time, then it suddenly fell completely to the right, the newspaper reported.
Parker Eaton had not previously commented on the investigation. On Sunday, Il Corriere quoted him as saying that all doors and hatches were closed when the storm hit the boat, except one giving access to the engine room.
That door was located on the side opposite to the tilting and so could not be a factor causing the sinking, he said.
Prosecutor Raffaele Cammarano said last week that the vessel was most likely hit by a “downburst,” a very strong downward wind.
The sinking has puzzled naval marine experts, who said a vessel like the Bayesian, built by Italian high-end yacht manufacturer Perini, should have withstood the storm and, in any case, should not have sunk as quickly as it did.
Prosecutors in the town of Termini Imerese, near Palermo, have said their investigation will take time, with the wreck yet to be salvaged from the sea.
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Wall St Week Ahead — US stock rally broadens as investors await Fed
New York — A broadening rally in U.S. stocks is offering an encouraging signal to investors worried about concentration in technology shares, as markets await key jobs data and the Federal Reserve’s expected rate cuts in September.
As the market’s fortunes keep rising and falling with big tech stocks such as Nvidia NVDA.O and Apple AAPL.O, investors are also putting money in less-loved value stocks and small caps, which are expected to benefit from lower interest rates. The Fed is expected to kick off a rate-cutting cycle at its monetary policy meeting on Sept. 17-18.
Many investors view the broadening trend, which picked up steam last month before faltering during an early August sell-off, as a healthy development in a market rally led by a cluster of giant tech names. Chipmaker Nvidia, which has benefited from bets on artificial intelligence, alone has accounted for roughly a quarter of the S&P 500’s year-to-date gain of 18.4%.
“No matter how you slice and dice it you have seen a pretty meaningful broadening out and I think that has legs,” said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment officer at Charles Schwab.
Value stocks are those of companies trading at a discount on metrics like book value or price-to-earnings and include sectors such as financials and industrials. Some investors believe rallies in these sectors and small caps could go further if the Fed cuts borrowing costs while the economy stays healthy.
The market’s rotation has recently accelerated, with 61% of stocks in the S&P 500 .SPXoutperforming the index in the past month, compared to 14% outperforming over the past year, Charles Schwab data showed.
Meanwhile, the so-called Magnificent Seven group of tech giants — which includes Nvidia, Tesla TSLA.O and Microsoft MSFT.O — have underperformed the other 493 stocks in the S&P 500 by 14 percentage points since the release of a weaker-than-expected U.S. inflation report on July 11, according to an analysis by BofA Global Research.
Stocks have also held up after an Nvidia forecast failed to meet lofty investor expectations earlier this week, another sign that investors may be looking beyond tech. The equal weight S&P 500 index, a proxy for the average stock, hit a fresh record [last] week and is up around 10.5% year-to-date, narrowing its performance gap with the S&P 500.
“When market breadth is improving, the message is that an increasing number of stocks are rallying on expectations that economic conditions will support earnings growth and profitability,” analysts at Ned David Research wrote.
Value stocks that have performed well this year include General Electric GE.N and midstream energy company Targa Resources TRGP.N, which are up 70% and 68%, respectively. The small-cap focused Russell 2000 index, meanwhile, is up 8.5% from its lows of the month, though it has not breached its July peak.
The jobs report “tends to be one of the more market moving releases in general, and right now it’s going to get even more attention than normal.”
Investors are unlikely to turn their back on tech stocks, particularly if volatility gives them a chance to buy on the cheap, said Jason Alonzo, a portfolio manager with Harbor Capital.
Technology stocks are expected to post above-market earnings growth over every quarter through 2025, with third-quarter earnings coming in at 15.3% compared with a 7.5% gain for the S&P 500 as a whole, according to LSEG data.
“People will sometimes take a deep breath after a nice run and look at other opportunities, but technology is still the clearest driver of growth, particularly the AI theme which is innocent until proven guilty,” Alonzo said.
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Torrential rains in Niger kill 15 more people
Niamey, — Torrential rains in Niger have killed at least 15 more people, regional authorities said on Sunday, the latest casualties of the downpours lashing the African nation.
Heavy rains have been drenching Africa’s Sahel region since June and the latest victims in Niger come on top of at least 217 people who have died across the country in that time, according to authorities.
More than 350,000 people have been affected and last week rising floodwaters nearly cut off the capital Niamey from the rest of the country before retreating.
The latest deaths occurred on Friday in the city of Maradi, the country’s economic capital whose eponymous region that has been one of the areas most affected by the rains.
“We have registered 15 human lives lost, we have also registered injured and heavy material damage”, regional governor Issoufou Mamane told public television.
Friday saw 150 millimeters (six inches) of water fall on the city in the space of 90 minutes, local television said.
Images broadcast on television showed water racing through the streets, touching off landslides and collapsing homes as it carried off cars, motorcycles and trees.
Drinking water and electricity supplies have been affected in some areas, according to broadcasters.
The downpours have also disturbed traffic on the main route linking Maradi to the city of Zinder.
Niger’s rainy season normally lasts from June to September and consistently brings a heavy death toll.
In 2022 there were 195 deaths and 400,000 people affected.
your ad hereAlgeria joins BRICS New Development Bank
Algiers — Algeria has been approved for membership in the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), the country’s finance ministry has announced.
The decision was taken on Saturday and announced by NDB chief Dilma Roussef at a meeting in Cape Town, South Africa.
By joining “this important development institution, the financial arm of the BRICS group, Algeria is taking a major step in its process of integration into the global financial system,” the Algerian finance ministry said in a statement.
The bank of the BRICS group of nations — whose name derives from the initials of founding members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — is aimed at offering an alternative to international financial institutions like the World Bank and IMF.
Algeria’s membership was secured thanks to “the strength of the country’s macroeconomic indicators” which have recorded “remarkable performances in recent years” and allowed the North African country to be classified as an “upper-tier emerging economy,” the finance ministry said.
Membership in the BRICS bank will offer Algeria — Africa’s leading exporter of natural gas — “new prospects to support and strengthen its economic growth in the medium and long term,” it added.
Created in 2015, the NDB’s main mission is to mobilize resources for projects in emerging markets and developing countries.
It has welcomed several country as new members, including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
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New Caledonia separatists name jailed party leader as chief
Koumac, France — An alliance of parties seeking independence for New Caledonia has nominated as chief a prominent opposition leader currently jailed in France over a wave of deadly rioting in the French Pacific territory.
Christian Tein, who considers himself a “political prisoner,” was one of seven pro-independence activists transferred to mainland France in June — a move that sparked renewed violence that has roiled the archipelago and left 11 people dead.
His appointment on Saturday to lead the Socialist Kanak National Liberation Front (FLNKS) risks complicating efforts to end the crisis, sparked in May by a Paris plan for voting reforms that indigenous Kanaks fear will thwart their ambitions for independence by leaving them a permanent minority.
Laurie Humuni of the RDO party, one of four in the FLNKS alliance, said Saturday that Tein’s nomination was a recognition of his CCAT party’s leading role in mobilizing the independence movement.
It was not clear if the two other alliance members, the UPM and Palika, supported the move — they had refused to participate in the latest FLNKS meeting and indicated they would not support any of its proposals.
The alliance also said it was willing to renew talks to end the protests, but only if local anti-independence parties are excluded.
“We will have to remove some blockades to allow the population access to essential services, but that does not mean we are abandoning our struggle,” Humuni told AFP.
On Thursday, France said it had agreed to terms with Pacific leaders seeking a fact-finding mission to New Caledonia in a bid to resolve the dispute, though a date for the mission has not yet been set.
President Emmanuel Macron’s government has sent thousands of troops and police to restore order in the archipelago, almost 17,000 kilometers (10,600 miles) from Paris, and the electoral reforms were suspended in June.
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US hotel workers strike in Boston, Greenwich as contract negotiations stall
NEW YORK — About 1,070 hotel workers in the U.S. cities of Boston and Greenwich are on strike after contract talks with hotel operators Marriott International MAR.O, Hilton Worldwide HLT.N and Hyatt Hotels H.N stalled, the Unite Here union said on Sunday.
The strikes in Boston and Greenwich will last three days, the union said, adding that more hotel workers in different cities are expected to walk off the job across the U.S. throughout the Labor Day holiday weekend.
Unite Here, which represents workers in hotels, casinos and airports across the United States and Canada, said frustrated workers may strike in major destinations including San Francisco and Seattle as they struggle to agree with hotel operators on wages and on reversing pandemic-era job cuts.
“Strikes have also been authorized and could begin at any time in Baltimore, Honolulu, Kauai, New Haven, Oakland, Providence, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle,” Unite Here said in a statement.
A total of 40,000 Unite Here hotel workers in more than 20 cities are working under contracts that expire this year. About 15,000 of those workers have authorized strikes in 12 markets from Boston to Honolulu.
Workers have been in negotiations for new four-year contracts since May.
“We’re on strike because the hotel industry has gotten off track,” Unite Here President Gwen Mills said.
“We won’t accept a ‘new normal’ where hotel companies profit by cutting their offerings to guests and abandoning their commitments to workers,” Mills added.
Unite Here workers in 2023 won record contracts in Los Angeles following rolling strikes and in Detroit after a 47-day strike.
In Las Vegas, casino operators MGM MGM.N, Caesars CZR.O and Wynn WYNN.O resorts reached an agreement in November to avert a strike with 40,000 hospitality workers days before a deadline that would have crippled the Vegas Strip.
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African leaders in Beijing eyeing big loans and investment
Beijing — African leaders descend on China’s capital this week, seeking funds for big-ticket infrastructure projects as they eye mounting great power competition over resources and influence on the continent.
China has expanded ties with African nations in the past decade, furnishing them with billions in loans that have helped build infrastructure but also sometimes stoked controversy by saddling countries with huge debts.
China has sent hundreds of thousands of workers to Africa to build its megaprojects, while tapping the continent’s vast natural resources, including copper, gold, lithium and rare earth minerals.
Beijing has said this week’s China-Africa forum will be its largest diplomatic event since the COVID-19 pandemic, with leaders of South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and other nations confirmed to attend and dozens of delegations expected.
African countries were “looking to tap the opportunities in China for growth,” Ovigwe Eguegu, a policy analyst at consultancy Development Reimagined, told AFP.
China, the world’s No. 2 economy, is Africa’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade hitting $167.8 billion in the first half of this year, according to Chinese state media.
Beijing’s loans to African nations last year were their highest in five years, research by the Chinese Loans to Africa Database found. Top borrowers were Angola, Ethiopia, Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya.
But analysts said an economic slowdown in China has made Beijing increasingly reluctant to shell out big sums.
China has also resisted offering debt relief, even as some African nations have struggled to repay their loans — in some cases being forced to slash spending on vital public services.
Since the last China-Africa forum six years ago, “the world experienced a lot of changes, including COVID, geopolitical tension and now these economic challenges,” Tang Xiaoyang of Beijing’s Tsinghua University told AFP.
The “old model” of loans for “large infrastructure and very rapid industrialization” is simply no longer feasible, he said.
Stalled megaprojects
The continent is a key node in Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, a massive infrastructure project and central pillar of Xi Jinping’s bid to expand China’s clout overseas.
The BRI has channeled much-needed investment to African countries for projects like railways, ports and hydroelectric plants.
But critics charge Beijing with saddling nations with debt and funding infrastructure projects that damage the environment.
One controversial project in Kenya, a $5 billion railway — built with finance from Exim Bank of China — connects the capital Nairobi with the port city of Mombasa.
But a second phase meant to continue the line to Uganda never materialized, as both countries struggled to repay BRI debts.
Kenya’s President William Ruto last year asked China for a $1 billion loan and the restructuring of existing debt to complete other stalled BRI projects.
The country now owes China more than $8 billion.
Recent deadly protests in Kenya were triggered by the government’s need “to service its debt burden to international creditors, including China,” said Alex Vines, head of the Africa Program at London’s Chatham House.
In light of such events, Vines and other analysts expect African leaders at this week’s forum to seek not only more Chinese investment but also more favorable loans.
‘Lack leverage’
In central Africa, Western and Chinese firms are racing to secure access to rare minerals.
The continent has rich deposits of manganese, cobalt, nickel and lithium — crucial for renewable energy technology.
The Moanda region of Gabon alone contains as much as a quarter of known global reserves of manganese, and South Africa accounts for 37% of global output of the metal.
Cobalt mining is dominated by the Democratic Republic of Congo, which accounts for 70% of the world total. But in terms of processing, China is the leader, at 50%.
Mounting geopolitical tensions between the United States and China, which are clashing over everything from the status of self-ruled Taiwan to trade, also weigh on Africa.
Washington has warned against what it sees as Beijing’s malign influence.
In 2022, the White House said China sought to “advance its own narrow commercial and geopolitical interests [and] undermine transparency and openness.”
Beijing insists it does not want a new cold war with Washington but rather seeks “win-win” cooperation, promoting development while profiting from boosted trade.
“We do not just give aid, give them help,” Tsinghua University’s Tang said.
“We are just partners with you while you are developing. We are also benefiting from it.”
But analysts fear African nations could be forced to pick sides.
“African countries lack leverage against China,” Development Reimagined’s Eguegu said.
“Some people … think you can use the U.S. to balance China,” he said. “You cannot.”
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Far-right party is looking for wins in 2 state elections in eastern Germany
BERLIN — Two state elections in eastern Germany on Sunday offer the far-right Alternative for Germany the chance to become the strongest party for the first time and could produce painful results for the unpopular national government. A new party founded by a prominent leftist also hopes to make an immediate impact.
About 3.3 million people are eligible to vote in Saxony and nearly 1.7 million in Thuringia. Sunday’s elections are being watched nervously in Berlin: While the three parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing coalition were weak there already, they risk dropping under the 5% support threshold needed to stay in the state legislatures at all.
A third election follows September 22 in another eastern state, Brandenburg, currently led by Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats. Germany’s next national election is due in a little over a year.
Alice Weidel, a national co-leader of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has described Sunday’s votes as “an important milestone for the national parliamentary election next year.” The party secured its first mayoral and county government posts last year, and now says it wants to govern at state level, too.
But with polls putting AfD’s support around 30% in both states, it would most likely need a coalition partner to govern, and it’s highly unlikely anyone else would agree to put it in power. Even so, its strength could make forming new state governments extremely difficult.
AfD is at its strongest in the formerly communist east, and the domestic intelligence agency has the party’s branches in both Saxony and Thuringia under official surveillance as “proven right-wing extremist” groups. Its leader in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, has been convicted of knowingly using a Nazi slogan at political events, but is appealing.
Germany’s main opposition conservative party hopes to keep AfD at bay in Saxony and Thuringia after winning the European Parliament election in June.
The Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, has led Saxony since German reunification in 1990 and is banking on incumbent governor Michael Kretschmer to push it past AfD. In Thuringia, surveys show it trailing AfD, but candidate Mario Voigt hopes to cobble together a governing coalition.
Depending how badly the parties in the national government perform, that could be very tricky. Two of those parties, Scholz’s Social Democrats and the environmentalist Greens, are the junior partners in both states’ outgoing governments.
Thuringia’s politics are particularly complicated because the Left Party of Governor Bodo Ramelow has slumped into electoral insignificance nationally. Sahra Wagenknecht, long one of its best-known figures, left last year to form a new party — the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, or BSW — which is now outperforming it.
The CDU has long refused to work with the Left Party, descended from East Germany’s ruling communists. It hasn’t ruled out working with Wagenknecht’s BSW, but that would be far from an obvious combination.
High ratings for both AfD and BSW have been fed by discontent with a national government notorious for infighting. Both are strongest in the less prosperous east.
AfD has tapped into high anti-immigration sentiment in the region. It remains to be seen whether and how last week’s knife attack in the western city of Solingen in which a suspected extremist from Syria is accused of killing three people, prompting the government to announce new restrictions on knives and new measures to ease deportations, will affect Sunday’s elections.
Wagenknecht’s BSW combines left-wing economic policy with an immigration-skeptic agenda. The CDU also has stepped up pressure on the national government for a tougher stance on immigration.
Germany’s stance toward Russia’s war in Ukraine is also an issue. Berlin is Ukraine’s second-biggest weapons supplier after the United States; those weapons deliveries are something both AfD and BSW oppose. Wagenknecht also has assailed a recent decision by the German government and the U.S. to begin deployments of long-range missiles to Germany in 2026.
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Pickleball picks away at American tennis
New York — Does American tennis have a pickleball problem?
Even as the U.S. Open opened this week with more than a million fans expected for the sport’s biggest showcase, the game’s leaders are being forced to confront a devastating fact — the nation’s fastest-growing racket sport (or sport of any kind) is not tennis but pickleball, which has seen participation boom 223% in the past three years.
“Quite frankly, it’s obnoxious to hear that pickleball noise,” U.S. Tennis Association President Dr. Brian Hainline grumbled at a recent state-of-the-game news conference, bemoaning the distinctive pock, pock, pock of pickleball points.
Pickleball, an easy-to-play mix of tennis and ping pong using paddles and a wiffleball, has quickly soared from nearly nothing to 13.6 million U.S. players in just a few years, leading tennis purists to fear a day when it could surpass tennis’ 23.8 million players. And most troubling is that pickleball’s rise has often come at the expense of thousands of tennis courts encroached upon or even replaced by smaller pickleball courts.
“When you see an explosion of a sport and it starts potentially eroding into your sport, then, yes, you’re concerned,” Hainline said in an interview with The Associated Press. “That erosion has come in our infrastructure. … A lot of pickleball advocates just came in and said, ‘We need these tennis courts.’ It was a great, organic grassroots movement but it was a little anti-tennis.”
Some tennis governing bodies in other countries have embraced pickleball and other racket sports under the more-the-merrier belief they could lead more players to the mothership of tennis. France’s tennis federation even set up a few pickleball courts at this year’s French Open to give top players and fans a chance to try it out.
But the USTA has taken a decidedly different approach. Nowhere at the U.S. Open’s Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is there any such demonstration court, exhibition match or any other nod to pickleball or its possible crossover appeal.
In fact, the USTA is flipping the script on pickleball with an ambitious launch of more than 400 pilot programs across the country to broaden the reach of an easier-to-play, smaller-court version of tennis called “red ball tennis.” Backers say it’s the ideal way for people of all ages to get into tennis and the best place to try it is (wait for it) on pickleball courts.
“You can begin tennis at any age,” USTA’s Hainline said. “We believe that when you do begin this great sport of tennis, it’s probably best to begin it on a shorter court with a larger, low-compression red ball. What’s an ideal short court? A pickleball court.”
And instead of the plasticky plink of a pickleball against a flat paddle, Hainline said, striking a fuzzy red tennis ball with a stringed racket allows for a greater variety of strokes and “just a beautiful sound.” Players can either stick with red ball tennis or advance through a progression of bouncier balls to full-court tennis.
“Not to put it down,” Hainline said of pickleball, “but compared to tennis … seriously?”
So what does the head of the nation’s pickleball governing body have to say about such comments and big tennis’ plans to plant the seeds of its growth, at least in part, on pickleball courts?
“I don’t like it but there is so much going on with pickleball, so many good things, I’m going to stick to what I can control, harnessing the growth and supporting this game,” said Pickleball USA CEO Mike Nealy.
Among the positive signs, Nealy said, is the continuing construction of new pickleball courts across the country, raising the total to more than 50,000. There’s also growing investment in the game at clubs built in former big-box retail stores, pro leagues with such backers as Tom Brady, LeBron James and Drake, and the emergence of “dink-and-drink” establishments that tap into the social aspect of the game by allowing friends to enjoy pickleball, beer, wine and food under the same roof.
“I don’t think it needs to be one or the other or a competition,” Nealy said of pickleball and tennis. “You’re certainly going to have the inherent frictions in communities when tennis people don’t feel that they’re getting what they want. … They’re different games but I think they are complimentary. There’s plenty of room for both sports to be very successful.”
Top-ranked American tennis player Taylor Fritz agreed. “There are some people in the tennis world that are just absolute pickleball haters, and that’s fine. But for me, I don’t really have an issue with pickleball. I like playing sometimes. … I don’t see any reason why both of them can’t exist.”
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Newborn rattlesnakes at Colorado ‘mega den’ make their live debut
CHEYENNE, Wyoming — A “mega den” of hundreds of rattlesnakes in Colorado is getting even bigger now that late summer is here and babies are being born.
Thanks to livestream video, scientists studying the den on a craggy hillside in Colorado are learning more about these enigmatic — and often misunderstood — reptiles. They’re observing as the youngsters, called pups, slither over and between adult females on lichen-encrusted rocks.
The public can watch too on the Project RattleCam website and help with important work including how to tell the snakes apart. Since researchers put their remote camera online in May, several snakes have become known in a chat room and to scientists by names including “Woodstock,” “Thea” and “Agent 008.”
The live feed, which draws as many as 500 people at a time online, on Thursday showed a tangle of baby snakes with tiny nubs for rattles. They have a lot of growing to do: A rattlesnake adds a rattle segment each time it sheds its skin a couple times a year, on average.
The project is a collaboration between California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, snake removal company Central Coast Snake Services and Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
By involving the public, the scientists hope to dispel the idea that rattlesnakes are usually fierce and dangerous. In fact, experts say they rarely bite unless threatened or provoked and often are just the opposite.
Rattlesnakes are not only among the few reptiles that care for their young. They even care for the young of others. The adults protect and lend body heat to pups from birth until they enter hibernation in mid-autumn, said Max Roberts, a CalPoly graduate student researcher.
“We regularly see what we like to call ‘babysitting,’ pregnant females that we can visibly see have not given birth, yet are kind of guarding the newborn snakes,” Roberts said Wednesday.
As many as 2,000 rattlesnakes spend the winter at the location on private land, which the researchers are keeping secret to discourage trespassers. Once the weather warms, only pregnant females remain while the others disperse to nearby territory.
This year, the scientists keeping watch over the Colorado site have observed the rattlesnakes coil up and catch water to drink from the cups formed by their bodies. They’ve also seen how the snakes react to birds swooping in to try to grab a scaly meal.
The highlight of summer is in late August and early September when the rattlesnakes give birth over a roughly two-week period.
“As soon as they’re born, they know how to move into the sun or into the shade to regulate their body temperature,” Roberts said.
There are 36 species of rattlesnakes, most of which inhabit the U.S. They range across nearly all states and are especially common in the Southwest. Those being studied now are prairie rattlesnakes, which can be found in much of the central and western U.S. and into Canada and Mexico.
Like other pit viper species but unlike most snakes, rattlesnakes don’t lay eggs. Instead, they give birth to live young. Eight is an average-size brood, with the number depending on the snake’s size, according to Roberts.
Roberts is studying how temperature changes and ultraviolet sunlight affect snake behavior. Another graduate student, Owen Bachhuber, is studying the family and social relationships between rattlesnakes.
The researchers watch the live feed all day.
“We are interested in studying the natural behavior of rattlesnakes, free from human disturbance. What do rattlesnakes actually do when we’re not there?” Roberts said.
Now that the Rocky Mountain summer is cooling, some males have been returning. By November, the camera running on solar and battery power will be turned off until next spring, when the snakes will re-emerge from their “mega den.”
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In Malawi, a budding musician defies old age, discrimination
Blantyre, Malawi — A 72-year-old woman has shot to music stardom in Malawi, challenging societal norms in a country where elderly people are often abused, tortured or even killed over false accusations of witchcraft.
Christina Malaya, now popularly known by her stage name, Jetu, is breaking the internet with her amapiano-style tracks.
Jetu started her music career last year, at the age of 71 — soon after the death of her husband, in central Malawi, where she was staying.
Relatives suggested she go to Blantyre to stay with grandchildren. Those grandchildren were “doing music,” she said, and asked her to join them as a way to overcome her loneliness and boredom.
Under the management of her grandson, musician Blessings Kazembe, popularly known as Emmu Dee, Jetu has released three powerful singles: “Wakalamba Wafuna,” “Chakwaza” and “Simunatchene.”
Her fans and admirers have crowned her the Malawian queen of amapiano — a subgenre of South African house music — which dominates the music scene in Malawi.
Jetu is excited that music has allowed her to go places she never dreamed of visiting, including Johannesburg and Cape Town when she performed in South Africa in June.
Her talent has earned her recognition as an ambassador for elderly people in Malawi, helping to reduce attacks and killings. Older people in Malawi are faced with attacks and killings on suspicion of practicing witchcraft even though Malawi law does not recognize witchcraft.
Andrew Kavala, executive director of the Malawi Network of Older Persons’ Organizations, told VOA that in 2023, his organization recorded 25 killings and 87 cases of violence, including setting fire to homes and assault. That was up from 2022’s 17 deaths.
So far in 2024, he said, 17 elderly people have been killed and 89 have been abused.
Kavala said his organization chose Jetu as an ambassador for elderly Malawians because of her strong appeal to youth, who studies show make 86% of the witchcraft accusations.
“We are trying to explore means through which Jetu can use her platform to convey the message to the youth, ‘Stop bullying, stop abusing elderly persons,’” he said.
Malawi’s youthful and renowned fashion designer Xandria Kawanga, owner of the House of Xandria fashion brand, has started to dress Jetu for events.
“Most people at her age have already given up or they feel they cannot do anything, entertainment or arts, because they are old now,” Kawanga said “So, I thought one of the best ways [to help] is to complement her art and to give her that push.”
Jetu and her grandson/manager, Emmu Dee, are working to promote their new song, which has a video that was was produced this month.
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