When Presidents Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Vladimir V. Putin meet in the shadow of Mont Blanc on June 16, the chill will be palpable. Biden will be the first president since Ronald Reagan to meet a Russian leader in Geneva, Switzerland — and also the first since Reagan to enter office expressing open hostility to the Kremlin. Biden called Putin a “killer,” and upbraided him over human rights. In contrast, Donald J. Trump said of Putin: “I liked him, and he liked me.” Barack H. Obama’s secretary of state Hillary R. Clinton took a giant “reset button” to Moscow,…
Author: zenger.news
NEW DELHI — When nations began shutting down last year, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Jennifer Lopez, Taylor Swift, John Legend, Stevie Wonder, and The Rolling Stones, among others, came together for a virtual concert. ‘One World: Together at Home’, curated by Lady Gaga with support from the World Health Organization and Global Citizen movement, wanted to inspire people to take action against Covid-19 and to unite humanity at a time when many may feel isolated. It has been more than a year since, and the pandemic has changed the course of several industries — performing arts included. In India, Bollywood, the Hindi…
KOLKATA, India — To enhance the quality of astronomical observations and gather more insights about celestial bodies, five emerging nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — have agreed to build a regional data network. Together known as BRICS, the nations constitute an informal economic bloc working mutually to tackle issues plaguing the world and wield influence on different matters. In a meeting on May 19 and 20, the BRICS Astronomy Workers Group recommended telescope networking to increase collaborations between the member countries and build a cohort of networks to optimize all the operational telescopes located across the BRICS nations. India hosted…
HARARE, Zimbabwe — The Zimbabwean government is under pressure from civil society groups to drop charges against Never Tshuma, a political leader arrested and charged in April 2021 for allegedly inciting members of his Dinde community to resist a proposed 270 megawatts coal power plant by a Chinese firm in Hwange, Matabeleland North Province. Tshuma, the vice-chairperson of the Hwange Residents Association, was charged with inciting public violence after leading people in Katange village on April 14, 2021, to evict Beifa Investments (Pvt) Limited, the Chinese firm implementing the project with the backing of the state. “I am the one who…
NAIROBI, Kenya — Abdulatif Afdub, a Somali-born transporter in East Africa, was elated after Kenya and the Federal Republic of Somalia restored diplomatic ties after five months. In December 2020, Mogadishu cut diplomatic ties with Nairobi, accusing it of interfering in its internal affairs. Following Qatar’s intervention, the two neighbors restored ties on May 6 — much to the delight of businessmen on both sides of the border, such as Afdub. “It was good news for the Somali people who have a lot of interests in Kenya,” he told Zenger News. “We had hoped to resume our business activities between Nairobi…
KOLKATA, India — On the outskirts of western India city of Ahmedabad, Shree Swaminarayan Gurukul Vishwavidya Pratishthanam Gaushala, a cowshed, recently witnessed a unique event amid the pandemic. Scores of people applied cow dung and urine mixture on their bodies and let it dry while they hugged cows and enacted yoga postures. The people washed the dung packs after a few hours using milk or buttermilk. The idea — to get rid of the Covid-19 virus and boost immunity against it amid the raging second wave of the pandemic. Following the event, medical practitioners, healthcare professionals, and doctors warned against rubbing…
LAHORE, Pakistan — Pakistan has, for the first time, admitted the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, granting special laws and provisions to the mountainous states of Jammu and Kashmir, is “India’s internal matter”. “The issue is between the people of Jammu and Kashmir and India,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in a TV interview earlier this month. “The issue is being debated in Indian courts as many people there [in India] have challenged the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.” The Narendra Modi government abrogated Article 370 and Article 35 of the Indian Constitution in August 2019,…
NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya, known for its Konza Technopolis — dubbed “Africa’s Silicon Savannah” — is about to be the continent’s first nanotechnology and semiconductors manufacturer, a field dominated by global giants such as the United States, China, and Canada. Located at the Dedan Kimathi University of Technology in Nyeri County, 60 miles east of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, Semiconductor Technologies Limited will set the pace for local electronic chip manufacturing. Other devices that the company will manufacture are mobile phones and television sets, which will be sold locally and internationally, according to its owners. The facility has been constructed through a public-private partnership…
A male crocodile named Meunga gave a snappy welcome to resident female Alice at an Australian zoo after they had been kept apart for several months. The introduction was filmed at Snakes Downunder Reptile Park and Zoo in Queensland, Australia, this week. “Introducing saltwater crocodile Alice to new male Meunga for the first time. A bit more aggression from him than we had hoped, but things seem to have settled down,” the zoo posted on its Facebook page. Zoo spokesman Ian Jenkins said the introduction was necessary after the unexpected loss of another male crocodile. “Our previous male saltwater (estuarine)…
Israeli-born Netanel Moshe Sagi and his mother, Daniela Gemma Abravanel, established a holistic retreat on Mexico’s San Miguel de Cozumel Island in 2017. Holistic Tikun offers classes in yoga, qi gong, diving, capoeira, permaculture, meditation and Kabbala (Jewish mysticism). The site offers a sweat lodge, therapeutic massages and treatments, birdwatching and coral reef excursions. The vegan retreat also offers something unique: a getting-to-know-you session with native stingless bees that Sagi rescues from the deforestation devastating the Yucatán Peninsula. On his 25th birthday in April, Sagi spoke more about his unusual story and mission. “I grew up in Migdal in northern…