Yaa Gyasi on the long shadow of slavery in America   -33%

Ghanaian-American writer Yaa Gyasi talks to Haaretz about what inspired her acclaimed debut novel, 'Homecoming,' in which two different worlds - 18th century Ghana and present day America – are linked by devastating exploitation

Violent protests, political turmoil like Hong Kongs are the new normal worldwide for 2020, warns risk firm Verisk Maplecroft   -7%

The violent protests and political upheaval that marked 2019 and challenged governments from Hong Kong to Chile are set to stay and are now the “new normal,” according to a global risk firm.Verisk Maplecroft, which advises corporate clients on political risk around the world, said in a new report released on Thursday that it predicts “continued turmoil in 2020” as administrations around the world continue to be surprised by demonstrators and ill-prepared to address the underlying social…

India to start Olympic preparations with FIH Pro League   45%

With all the top teams of the world in fray, the home-and-away Pro League will be ideal preparation for world No.5 India ahead of the Summer Games later this year.

Why a wave of suicides washed over Germany after the Nazi defeat   -5%

Toward the end of World War II a suicide wave swept the areas of Germany occupied by the Red Army. Florian Huber’s new book blames the influence of Nazi anti-Bolshevik propaganda and the mass rapes by Russian soldiers

WEF Risks Report ranks climate change as biggest global threat   5%

A new report by the World Economic Forum says global risk perceptions are shifting. While in previous years economic problems were deemed the biggest threats to mankind, fears of a climate breakdown are now dominating.

GLOBAL MARKETS-Shares set fresh records, lifted by U.S. housing data   19%

Key world equity indexes scaled new highs on Friday, boosted by a surge in U.S. housing starts to levels last seen in 2006, while the greenback rose to a one-week high against the euro on expectations of solid economic growth.

In Indonesia, mosque hunters are scouring 17,000 islands with drones to log the official tally   1%

As Friday prayers wrap up at Suada mosque, worshippers turn their attention outside, where Fakhry Affan steers a drone high above, snapping pictures of the building tucked in a corner of Indonesia’s Sulawesi island.Affan leads a government team of some 1,000 mosque hunters who have spent years visiting every corner of the 5,000km-long archipelago to answer one question: how many mosques are there in the world’s biggest Muslim majority nation?“Only God knows exactly how many mosques there are in…

Disney Drops Fox From 20th Century and Searchlight Studio Names  

The name change means consumers won’t mistakenly connect the Disney-owned studio with Mr. Murdoch’s polarizing Fox News.

Robert Redford's Sundance store to open first Michigan location this summer  

Sundance Catalog was founded in 1989 to promote the works of artists and craftspeople from across the country and around the world.

Vanguard refuses to sign up to climate crisis commitment  

US asset manager that built up fossil fuel portfolio fails to join rivals in engaging with climate

Vanguard, the world’s second largest asset manager, has refused to sign up to a group of major investors demanding that polluters respond to the climate crisis, despite its rival BlackRock relenting to pressure to do so.

The US investment manager’s decision leaves it increasingly isolated after BlackRock last week joined Climate Action 100+ (CA100+), a group of asset managers that pushes the largest fossil fuel producers to show how they will meet carbon dioxide reduction targets.

Africa: Bolt Raises 50m in Venture Debt From the EU to Expand Its Ride-Hailing Business  

[TechCrunch] Bolt, the billion-dollar startup out of Estonia that's building a ride-hailing, scooter and food delivery business across Europe and Africa, has picked up a tranche of funding in its bid to take on Uber and the rest in the world of on-demand transportation.

Anti-protest laws and litigation take aim at climate activism  

The frontline of the climate protest movement is moving to the courts as activists are targeted with anti-protest laws and big money lawsuits. But is the war on climate activism undermining fundamental protest rights?

World's coolest ski lifts   100%

From Austria to Colorado, ski lifts are getting absolutely awesome. Here are some of the best new ski lifts around the world.

Bioengineering a career path which busts boundaries  

The discipline of bioengineering is growing in universities around the world.

12 of the best city museums in Europe: readers travel tips   55%

Our tipsters reveal brilliant museums from Reykjavík to Pristina, shining a light on everything from dinosaurs and Vikings to Mozart and the history of cinema

The collection is breathtaking – true colour photographs commissioned by the banker and philanthropist Albert Kahn in the early 20th century and taken all over the world. The idea was to create an archive of the planet, and it is considered one of the world’s most important collections of early colour photographs. The colour makes views from a hundred years ago very fresh, and yet somehow alien. Few people, colourful clothes, countryside without much construction. Some places have not changed, for instance Mostar’s bridge (now reconstructed) looks just as it did 100 years ago. Exhibits change regularly enough and every time I was taken by how remarkable the collection is. The Japanese gardens attached to the museum are gorgeous as well.
NB: Although the wonderful gardens are open, the museum itself is closed until 2021, when it will reopen in a new building.
• albert-kahn.hauts-de-seine.fr
Amaury

European soccer body to Israel: Don't air games in West Bank settlements   -10%

Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation won the bidding process to broadcast World Cup preliminary games. But under pressure from a Qatari broadcasting company, UEFA is barring the airing of the games beyond the Green Line

Disney drops the word Fox from 20th Century Fox name  

Change comes after $71.3bn purchase of 21st Century Fox

Polish president threatens to boycott Int'l Holocaust forum in Israel because of Putin   -5%

According to Polish media, one of the reasons is the expected address by Vladimir Putin, who has recently waged a campaign against Poland accusing it of responsibility for World War II

Opinion: Siemens chooses profits over environment   41%

Australia is burning, but Siemens has decided not to renounce plans to help build a controversial mine in the country. Climate activists are up in arms. Rightly so, says Malte Rohwer-Kahlmann.

Ben Gorham: With Byredo I wanted a more inclusive approach to luxury   30%

After his career as a basketballer ended, Ben Gorham leapt into a whole new world – and set up the luxury brand Byredo

He has shops on the coolest streets of New York, Paris, London and Seoul, with two Beijing flagships having opened last year. He’s good mates with Louis Vuitton’s Virgil Abloh, Burberry’s Riccardo Tisci and Kanye West, and has Naomi Campbell and Edward Enninful RSVPing to his launch parties around the world. But Ben Gorham still might be one of the most influential people you’ve never heard of.

You are, however, likely to be familiar with his brainchild, Byredo. The brand is, after all, largely responsible for the reason you may have coveted a designer candle or boutique perfume in the last decade. Since its launch as a fragrance brand in 2006, it has become a byword for independent cool, with multiple new categories – including handbags, eyewear, trainers, men’s tailoring and, most recently, jewellery – taking it from modest to major player.

Saudi Arabia named most improved economy for gender equality: World Bank Report  

Saudi Arabia’s economy made the biggest progress globally toward gender equality since 2017, according to a World Bank report released Wednesday. The World Bank’s “Women, Business

With bioacoustics, conservationists try to save birds through their songs  

Ornithologists use the science to focus on species struggling with habitat loss, urban hazards and climate change.

Welcome aboard, denialists: now let's stop fiddling and start fixing   6%

For many, the bushfire crisis has brought a radical change in thinking. People are realising they were wrong. The climate really is changing.

Thousands flock to second climate change rally in Melbourne   20%

Thousands of protesters took to Melbourne’s streets for the second time in as many weeks demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Scott Morrison and immediate action on climate change.

Siya Kolisi named Rugby Union Writers Club personality of the year after World Cup victory   70%

Springbok captain led South Africa to World Cup glory as well as the Rugby Championship title and succeeds Johnny Sexton as winner of the prestigeous award

Letters to the Editor: The cheating Astros deserve to lose much more than their coach and general manager   -40%

The Dodgers lost the 2017 World Series to a club that blatantly cheated. The Astros' owner should be forced to sell.

China is global threat to individual freedoms, says new Human Rights Watch report  

The Chinese government fears “people’s desire for democracy” and its repression of human rights is “an existential threat to the world”, the investigative and advocacy group Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday at the launch of its World Report 2020 in New York.The release of the annual report had already made headlines when immigration officials at the Hong Kong airport turned away the group’s executive director, Kenneth Roth, without explanation on Sunday. He had been scheduled to unveil the…

Laying down the Strava gardening gauntlet | Brief letters  

Flybe | Strava | English usage | Getting old | Marmalade | Beards

“Ministers ‘must do whatever it takes’ to save Flybe” (14 January); “Record heat in world’s oceans is ‘dire’ warning on climate crisis” (14 January); “The way to tackle the climate emergency is to stop emitting greenhouse gases. That means a rapid end to fossil fuel burning” (Report, 14 January). So don’t save Flybe. But do look at the price gap between air and rail travel from Exeter to Glasgow, etc.
Penelope Putz
Exeter

• In her article on Strava (Journal, 14 January) Rose George says the fitness app does not include gardening as an accepted physical activity. However, I use it regularly to see how far I walk while cutting the grass. My personal best (minimum distance) is 1.12 miles. I’d be happy for other Strava users to come and see if they can better it!
Dr Andrew Marr
Datchworth, Hertfordshire

You can't do everything. You can't do nothing. You have to do something to change this weary world   20%

The 2010s felt like a series of great and sudden changes, of immense disruption, of death and rebirth.my impotence. And now, I worry about my future in a way I could never have imagined, and my impotence to change it.

Woodside boss laments LNG 'black eye' amidst climate debate   -11%

Woodside chief executive Peter Coleman said LNG wasn't the 'cigarette industry' and needed to show the company was serious about action on climate change.

"Stop the Money Pipeline": 150 Arrested at Protests Exposing Wall Street's Link to Climate Crisis   5%

Nearly 150 people were arrested on Capitol Hill Friday in a climate protest led by Academy Award-winning actor and activist Jane Fonda. Fonda has been leading weekly climate demonstrations in Washington, D.C., known as "Fire Drill Fridays," since October. For her last and 14th protest, actors Martin Sheen and Joaquin Phoenix, indigenous anti-pipeline activist Tara Houska, journalist Naomi Klein and dozens more lined up to get arrested as they demanded a mass uprising and swift political action to thwart the climate crisis. Fonda then marched with supporters down Pennsylvania Avenue to a Chase Bank branch where environmentalist Bill McKibben and dozens of others were occupying the space to draw attention to the bank's ties to the fossil fuel industry. Ten, including McKibben, were arrested. The day of action was the launch of "Stop the Money Pipeline," a campaign to halt the flow of cash from banks, investment firms and insurance companies to the fossil fuel industry. "Let us remember that we are not the criminals," Naomi Klein told a crowd of protesters. "The criminals are the people who are letting this world burn for money."

In Australia, searching for common ground amid scorched earth   50%

Australia’s fires may prompt new cooperation on environmental policy, many hope, in a coal-dependent country where views on climate change diverge.

The Heart-Stopping, Nerve-Shredding Race to Be Americas Deadliest Combat Pilot   17%

“Race of Aces,” John Bruning’s action-fueled World War II narrative, follows the elite fighter pilots who competed to shoot down the most enemy planes.

One-in-100-year storms trigger flash flooding in Australia   30%

Fire-ravaged country faces fresh misery amid escalating climate change emergency

Iran crisis: Trump claims all is well! after missile strike on US Iraq bases   20%

'We have the most powerful and well equipped military anywhere in the world, by far!' president says

'Dystopian future': Climate change to force review of military's role   -1%

Climate change poses "a major security challenge for Australia" that experts warn could rapidly stretch the capability of the military.

Billy Porter: Allures first male cover star says his family sent him to therapy aged five because he was a sissy   38%

Actor says he's 'part of the first generation of gay men, ever, who get to be out, loud, and proud in the world'

Melbourne protesters demand action on climate change   20%

Thousands of protesters have taken to Melbourne’s streets for the second time in as many weeks demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Scott Morrison and immediate action on climate change.

Schlumberger posts $10.1 billion loss in 2019  

Schlumberger, the largest oilfield services company in the world, is responding to the ongoing shale slump by selling underperforming businesses, stacking frac fleets, closing locations and laying off employees.

One child is killed every day by violence in Idlib, where a humanitarian disaster could soon spiral out of control   10%

Vital cross-border aid for millions could be suspended if world powers cannot agree in new UN vote