Month: May 2020

Stone by stone, digital artists and game developers from Mosul are rebuilding Nineveh’s heritage sites in the digital world.By looking through a virtual reality headset, a person can see the wonders of ancient Iraq. Via VR, it’s possible to fly over Nergal Gate, built 2,700 years ago, and see two winged bulls at its entrance.”Since we started the virtual reality lab, we tried to focus on Mosul’s archaeological sites,” said project co-ordinator Moyasser Nasseer. “It is an opportunity for people to discover archaeological sites that still exist as well as sites recently destroyed by Daesh (Islamic State) when they occupied Mosul.”QAF Media Lab designers want to create an immersive game, in which players solve mysteries to discover Nineveh’s heritage sites. They hope it might also draw tourists. (Reuters video screenshot)Nineveh was an Assyrian city in ancient Mesopotamia. It’s around where modern-day Mosul is located in northern Iraq.The designers want to create an immersive game in which players solve mysteries to discover Nineveh’s heritage sites. They hope it might draw tourists to an area recovering from recent conflicts, said artist Basma Qais.”First of all, we want to redefine the national identity of people living in Mosul, encourage tourism and also have people reconsider their perception of Mosul, especially those who don’t know Mosul,” she said.To build the 3-D models of Nineveh, the team from QAF Media Lab collected data from sites that still exist today. They also used archive material to rebuild sites damaged over the centuries, or more recently by Islamic State.With the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis and the boom of the online entertainment industry, the market for virtual reality games is expanding. People under lockdown enjoy being able to travel at least virtually, while students and researchers get access to the project data online, Nasseer said.
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Little Richard, the self-proclaimed “architect of rock n' roll" whose piercing wail, pounding piano and towering pompadour irrevocably altered popular music while introducing black R&B to white America, has died Saturday. He was 87.Pastor Bill Minson, a close friend of Little Richard's, told The Associated Press that Little Richard died Saturday morning. Minson said he also spoke to Little Richard's son and brother.Minson added that the family is not releasing the cause of death.Born Richard Penniman, Little Richard was one of rockn’ roll’s founding fathers who helped shatter the color line on the music charts, joining Chuck Berry and Fats Domino in bringing what was once called “race music” into the mainstream. Richard’s hyperkinetic piano playing, coupled with his howling vocals and hairdo, made him an implausible sensation — a gay, black man celebrated across America during the buttoned-down Eisenhower era.He sold more than 30 million records worldwide, and his influence on other musicians was equally staggering, from the Beatles and Otis Redding to Creedence Clearwater Revival and David Bowie. In his personal life, he wavered between raunch and religion, alternately embracing the Good Book and outrageous behavior.”Little Richard? That’s rock n' roll," Neil Young, who heard Richard's riffs on the radio in Canada, told biographer Jimmy McDonough. "Little Richard was great on every record."It was 1956 when his classic "Tutti Frutti" landed like a hand grenade in the Top 40, exploding from radios and off turntables across the country. It was highlighted by Richard's memorable call of "wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-lop-bam-boom."A string of hits followed, providing the foundation of rock music: "Lucille," "Keep A Knockin'," "Long Tall Sally," "Good Golly Miss Molly." More than 40 years after the latter charted, Bruce Springsteen was still performing "Good Golly Miss Molly" live.
The Beatles' Paul McCartney imitated Richard's signature yelps — perhaps most notably in the "Wooooo!" from the hit "She Loves You." Ex-bandmate John Lennon covered Richard's "Rip It Up" and "Ready Teddy" on the 1975 "Rock and Roll" album.
When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opened in 1986, he was among the charter members with Elvis Presley, Berry, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Sam Cooke and others.Few were quicker to acknowledge Little Richard's seminal role than Richard himself. The flamboyant singer claimed he paved the way for Elvis, provided Mick Jagger with his stage moves and conducted vocal lessons for McCartney."I am the architect of rockn’ roll!” Little Richard crowed at the 1988 Grammy Awards as the crowd rose in a standing ovation. “I am the originator!”Richard Wayne Penniman was born in Macon, Georgia, during the Great Depression, one of 12 children. He was ostracized because he was effeminate and suffered a small deformity: his right leg was shorter than his left.The family was religious, and Richard sang in local churches with a group called the Tiny Tots. The tug-of-war between his upbringing and rock `n’ roll excess tormented Penniman throughout his career.Penniman was performing with bands by the age of 14, but there were problems at home over his sexual orientation. His father beat the boy and derided him as “half a son.”
Richard left home to join a minstrel show run by a man known as Sugarloaf Sam, occasionally appearing in drag.In late 1955, Little Richard recorded the bawdy “Tutti Frutti,” with lyrics that were sanitized by a New Orleans songwriter. It went on to sell 1 million records over the next year.When Little Richard’s hit was banned by many white-owned radio stations, white performers like Pat Boone and Elvis Presley did cover versions that topped the charts.Little Richard went Hollywood with an appearance in “Don’t Knock the Rock.” But his wild lifestyle remained at odds with his faith, and a conflicted Richard quit the business in 1957 to enroll in a theological school and get married.Richard remained on the charts when his label released previously recorded material. And he recorded a gospel record, returning to his roots.A 1962 arrest for a homosexual encounter in a bus station restroom led to his divorce and return to performing.He mounted three tours of England between 1962 and 1964, with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones serving as opening acts. Back in the States, he put together a band that included guitarist Jimi Hendrix — and later fired Hendrix when he was late for a bus.
In 1968, Richard hit Las Vegas and relaunched his career. Within two years, he had another hit single and made the cover of Rolling Stone.By the mid-1970s, Richard was battling a $1,000-a-day cocaine problem and once again abandoned his musical career. He returned to religion, selling Bibles and renouncing homosexuality. For more than a decade, he vanished.”If God can save an old homosexual like me, he can save anybody,” Richard said.
But he returned, in 1986, in spectacular fashion. Little Richard was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and appeared in the movie “Down and Out in Beverly Hills.”A Little Richard song from the soundtrack, “Great Gosh A’Mighty,” even put him back on the charts for the first time in more than 15 years. Little Richard was back to stay, enjoying another dose of celebrity that he fully embraced.Macon, Georgia, named a street after its favorite son. And Little Richard was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In August 2002, he announced his retirement from live performing. But he continued to appear frequently on television, including a humorous appearance on a 2006 commercial for GEICO insurance.Richard had hip surgery in November 2009 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, and asked fans at the time to pray for him. He lived in the Nashville area at the time. 
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The U.N. Security Council reflected Friday on the lessons learned from World War II on the 75th anniversary of its end in Europe, as the world faces its biggest collective challenge since then — the coronavirus.“How we react to the new challenge before us — the COVID-19 pandemic — could be as significant as how the world rebuilt after fascism was vanquished,” U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo told a virtual meeting of more than 80 nations, including nearly 50 foreign ministers, organized by Estonia, which presides over the Security Council this month.The end of six brutal years of war, massive death and destruction in Europe marked a turning point. From the devastation, the European Union, the United Nations and NATO were born, along with a new world order. The European High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell attends a video conference with Europeans Foreign Ministers in Brussels, Belgium, April 22, 2020. 
“COVID-19 is a test of our humanity, but also of the multilateral system itself,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said of the disease caused by the coronavirus. “The rules-based international order — with the U.N. at its core — must be upheld and strengthened.”He expressed concern that the pandemic has rattled societies and exposed vulnerable nations to great peril.“It has the potential to deepen existing conflicts and generate new geopolitical tensions,” Borrell said. “It is a reminder that peace, democracy and prosperity must constantly be nurtured, expanded and made more inclusive.”Several diplomats warned that, 75 years after World War II, some of the characteristics that marked Nazi Germany are reemerging on the world stage.“The voices of populism, authoritarianism, nationalism and xenophobia are making themselves heard ever more loudly,” the U.N.’s DiCarlo said. “We must confront those who would drag the world back to a violent and shameful past.”Germany, which was an aggressor in World War II and is now a leading nation on the European and international stage, also expressed concern about rising nationalism.German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas addresses the media at the Foreign Ministry in Berlin on March 17, 2020, to comment on the situation concerning the spread of the novel coronavirus. (Photo by Tobias Schwarz / AFP)“In Germany, we have a saying: ‘He who closes his eyes to the past will be blind to the present,’ ” Foreign Minster Heiko Maas said. He urged political support for international institutions and multilateralism, and threw his government’s support behind the U.N. chief’s call for a global humanitarian cease-fire.On March 23, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the cease-fire to focus attention and resources on fighting the virus. Dozens of nations and at least 16 armed groups have signed on, but so far, the 15-nation Security Council has been unable to adopt a resolution supporting the truce.The United States, which accuses Beijing of lying and covering up the spread of the coronavirus early on, has butted heads with China at the Security Council over the language in the draft resolution.The Trump administration has blasted the World Health Organization for what it says is a bias favoring China and has suspended funding to the agency. Washington wants a reference to supporting the WHO in the fight against COVID-19 removed from the draft resolution. China wants it to remain.In this file photo taken on Feb. 8, 2020, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference at the African Union headquarters.France and Tunisia, which drafted the text, thought they found a way around it, changing the WHO reference to “specialized health agencies” of the United Nations — of which there is just one. Washington rejected that on Friday afternoon, ending yet another week without support from the U.N.’s most powerful body for Guterres’ now seven-week-old appeal.The feud between the two powers has frustrated diplomats who want to see strong support from the council for a global cease-fire, but fear the foot-dragging will further corrode the council’s credibility, which has found itself paralyzed on other important crises, including the war in Syria.Council resolutions require nine votes in favor and no vetoes from the five permanent members, which include China and the United States, to pass.
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The U.N. Security Council reflected Friday on the lessons learned from World War II on the 75th anniversary of its end in Europe, as the world faces its biggest collective challenge since then — the coronavirus.“How we react to the new challenge before us — the COVID-19 pandemic — could be as significant as how the world rebuilt after fascism was vanquished,” U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo told a virtual meeting of more than 80 nations, including nearly 50 foreign ministers, organized by Estonia, which presides over the Security Council this month.The end of six brutal years of war, massive death and destruction in Europe marked a turning point. From the devastation, the European Union, the United Nations and NATO were born, along with a new world order. The European High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell attends a video conference with Europeans Foreign Ministers in Brussels, Belgium, April 22, 2020. 
“COVID-19 is a test of our humanity, but also of the multilateral system itself,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said of the disease caused by the coronavirus. “The rules-based international order — with the U.N. at its core — must be upheld and strengthened.”He expressed concern that the pandemic has rattled societies and exposed vulnerable nations to great peril.“It has the potential to deepen existing conflicts and generate new geopolitical tensions,” Borrell said. “It is a reminder that peace, democracy and prosperity must constantly be nurtured, expanded and made more inclusive.”Several diplomats warned that, 75 years after World War II, some of the characteristics that marked Nazi Germany are reemerging on the world stage.“The voices of populism, authoritarianism, nationalism and xenophobia are making themselves heard ever more loudly,” the U.N.’s DiCarlo said. “We must confront those who would drag the world back to a violent and shameful past.”Germany, which was an aggressor in World War II and is now a leading nation on the European and international stage, also expressed concern about rising nationalism.German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas addresses the media at the Foreign Ministry in Berlin on March 17, 2020, to comment on the situation concerning the spread of the novel coronavirus. (Photo by Tobias Schwarz / AFP)“In Germany, we have a saying: ‘He who closes his eyes to the past will be blind to the present,’ ” Foreign Minster Heiko Maas said. He urged political support for international institutions and multilateralism, and threw his government’s support behind the U.N. chief’s call for a global humanitarian cease-fire.On March 23, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the cease-fire to focus attention and resources on fighting the virus. Dozens of nations and at least 16 armed groups have signed on, but so far, the 15-nation Security Council has been unable to adopt a resolution supporting the truce.The United States, which accuses Beijing of lying and covering up the spread of the coronavirus early on, has butted heads with China at the Security Council over the language in the draft resolution.The Trump administration has blasted the World Health Organization for what it says is a bias favoring China and has suspended funding to the agency. Washington wants a reference to supporting the WHO in the fight against COVID-19 removed from the draft resolution. China wants it to remain.In this file photo taken on Feb. 8, 2020, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference at the African Union headquarters.France and Tunisia, which drafted the text, thought they found a way around it, changing the WHO reference to “specialized health agencies” of the United Nations — of which there is just one. Washington rejected that on Friday afternoon, ending yet another week without support from the U.N.’s most powerful body for Guterres’ now seven-week-old appeal.The feud between the two powers has frustrated diplomats who want to see strong support from the council for a global cease-fire, but fear the foot-dragging will further corrode the council’s credibility, which has found itself paralyzed on other important crises, including the war in Syria.Council resolutions require nine votes in favor and no vetoes from the five permanent members, which include China and the United States, to pass.
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