Month: December 2020

The world’s 7.8 billion people are bidding a hearty farewell to 2020, but without the usual fanfare and public gatherings because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.In India, celebrations to ring in 2021 were toned down because of curfews, a ban on beach parties and other travel restrictions. In major cities, hotels and bars were shut down at 11 p.m. local time, and The Associated Press reported that drones were monitoring people’s movement in Mumbai, where large gatherings were prohibited.Japan rang in the new year quietly because of rising cases.Tokyo’s governor, Yuriko Koike, had asked people not to attend countdown ceremonies. “The coronavirus knows no year-end or New Year’s holidays,” she said.South Korea, where the government banned gatherings of more than five, saw a different New Year’s Eve as a traditional bell-ringing in Seoul was canceled for the first time since 1953. Beaches where South Koreans flock to watch the sun rise were closed, with some outlets announcing plans to broadcast it instead. Ski resorts and other tourist spots were closed.World Bids Farewell to Year 2020Pandemic restrictions limiting crowds and many people bidding farewell to a year they’d prefer to forget. In Taiwan, officials held a fireworks show near the iconic Taipei 101 tower. A New Year’s morning flag-raising ceremony took place in front of the Presidential Office Building, but it was limited to government officials and invited guests.Taiwan has had seven deaths and fewer than 1,000 infections, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is monitoring the outbreak of the virus that causes COVID-19.Hong Kong canceled public celebrations for the second year in a row. Last year, it was due to public security concerns. Restaurants closed at 6 p.m. local time, and live performances were canceled. Gatherings were limited to two people, but the AP reported crowds were still present in shopping areas.The small central Pacific island nations of Tonga, Samoa and Kiribati were first to welcome 2021 because of their location on the international date line, with the bigger regional powers of New Zealand, Australia, Japan and South Korea following.Auckland eventsNew Zealand’s port city of Auckland rang in the new year with a major laser light show and fireworks display at the iconic Sky Tower, as residents celebrated the island nation’s successful response to the coronavirus outbreak that so far has resulted in just 2,162 coronavirus infections and 25 deaths.Many of the traditional celebrations around the world that mark the beginning of the new year have either been curtailed or called off, as public officials struggle to contain a rising surge in the number of infections.In Australia, the million people who normally gather at the Sydney Harbor to watch the world-famous fireworks display over the city’s renowned Opera House watched the proceedings from home. New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced earlier this week that the public would not be allowed at the harbor because of an outbreak at its Northern Beach suburbs.The pandemic forced the cancellation of the midnight fireworks show over Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, as well as the pyrotechnics over the River Thames in London, which has been under a strict lockdown that curtailed Christmas celebrations and shopping sprees.Across the Atlantic, New York City’s historic Times Square is banning visitors from gathering to witness the traditional “ball drop” that counts down the final minute of the outgoing year. In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, officials have called off the annual New Year’s Eve beach party, which normally attracts hundreds of thousands of people with live music and a spectacular fireworks display.
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This New Year’s Eve is being celebrated like no other, with pandemic restrictions limiting crowds and many people bidding farewell to a year they’d prefer to forget.  Australia will be among the first nations to ring in 2021 because of its proximity to the International Date Line. In past years 1 million people crowded Sydney’s harbor to watch fireworks that center on the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Authorities this year are advising revelers to watch on television. People are only allowed in downtown Sydney if they have a restaurant reservation or are one of five guests of an inner-city apartment resident. People won’t be allowed in the city center without a permit. Some harborside restaurants are charging up to 1,690 Australian dollars ($1,294) for a seat, Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported Wednesday. A man and woman pose for a photo in front of a 2021 sign as a limited number of people begin celebrating New Year’s Eve at the Sydney Harbour waterfront amidst tightened COVID-19 prevention regulations in Sydney, Australia, Dec. 31, 2020.Sydney is Australia’s most populous city and has its most active community transmission of COVID-19 in recent weeks. Melbourne, Australia’s second-most populous city, has cancelled its fireworks this year.  For the first time in many, many years we made the big decision, difficult decision to cancel the fireworks,'' Melbourne Mayor Sally Capp said. We did that because we know that it attracts up to 450,000 people into the city for one moment at midnight to enjoy a spectacular display and music. We are not doing that this year,” she added. New Zealand, which is two hours ahead of Sydney, and several of its South Pacific island neighbors have no COVID-19, and New Year celebrations there are the same as ever. In Chinese societies, the Lunar New Year celebration that falls in February in 2021 generally takes precedence over solar New Year, on Jan. 1. While celebrations of the Western holiday have been growing more common in recent decades, this year will be more muted.  Beijing will hold a countdown ceremony with just a few invited guests, while other planned events have been cancelled. And nighttime temperatures plunging to -15 Celsius (- 5 Fahrenheit) will likely discourage people from spending the night out with friends.  Taiwan will host its usual New Year’s celebration, a fireworks display by its capital city’s iconic tower, Taipei 101, as well as a flag-raising ceremony in front of the Presidential Office Building the next morning. The island has been a success story in the pandemic, registering only 7 deaths and 700 confirmed cases of COVID-19.  Hong Kong, with its British colonial history and large expatriate population, has usually seen raucous celebrations along the waterfront and in bar districts. For the second year running, however, New Year’s Eve fireworks have been cancelled, this time over coronavirus rather than public security concerns.  Still roiled by its coronavirus outbreak, Hong Kong social distancing regulations restrict gatherings to only two people. Restaurants must close by 6 p.m. Live performances and dancing are not allowed. But crowds still throng shopping centers.  In Japan, some people skipped what’s customarily a chance to return to ancestral homes for the holidays, hoping to lessen health risks for extended families amid the coronavirus pandemic.  Rural restaurants saw business drop, while home deliveries of traditional New Year’s good luck'' food calledosechi” boomed.  Emperor Naruhito is delivering a video message for the new year, instead of waving from a window with the imperial family as cheering crowds throng the palace.  Train services that usually carry people on shrine visits overnight December 31, as well as some countdown ceremonies, have been cancelled.  Meiji Shrine in downtown Tokyo, which attracts millions of people every year during New Year holidays and is usually open all night on New Year’s Eve, will close its doors at 4 p.m. on December 31 this year, the shrine announced on its website.  In South Korea, Seoul’s city government has canceled its annual New Year’s Eve bell-ringing ceremony in the Jongno neighborhood for the first time since it first held the event in 1953, months after the end of the Korean War.  The event, in which citizens ring a large bell at a traditional pavilion when the clock strikes twelve, drew an estimated 100,000 people and was broadcast live.  Authorities in eastern coastal areas say they’ll close beaches and other spots where hundreds of thousands of people typically gather on New Year’s Day to watch the sunrise.  The southeastern city of Pohang says it instead plans to broadcast live the sunrise at several beaches under its jurisdiction on its YouTube channel on January 1.  Earlier this week, South Korea’s central government said it will ban private social gatherings of more than five people and shut down ski resorts and major tourist spots nationwide from Christmas Eve until January 3 as efforts to bring a recent viral resurgence under control.  Associated Press journalists Huizhong Wu in Taipei, Taiwan, Raf Wober in Hong Kong, Mary Yamaguchi and Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo, and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.  
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Born deaf into a silent world, Nancy Rourke turned long ago to painting to convey her innermost feelings. So, when the 63-year-old artist contracted COVID-19, she responded with a series of striking images intended to alert others to the dangers of the disease. Rourke tested positive on November 13. Her case was more severe than many others because she also has autoimmune disease. She had fatigue, chills, cough, congestion, sore throat, loss of taste and smell, body aches, severe headaches, dizziness, diarrhea, loss of appetite and shortness of breath. Deaf artist Nancy Rourke contracted COVID-19 in November and is currently on the road to recovery. (Courtesy photo)”Your chest gets so tight, and it hurts, and you’re wondering why is it so hard to breathe,” she said. “It’s so labor-intensive and the coughing — I never stopped coughing every single day. Now, finally I have some relief. But I still cough.”  Rourke, who spoke to VOA by phone through an interpreter using a telecommunications relay service, said she also suffered confusion, nightmares and weight loss.  Anxious to warn others who seemed not to be taking the pandemic seriously, the Colorado-based artist began producing paintings and drawings based on her experience with the disease and sharing them on social media. Nancy Rourke shared a series of drawings she did on social media to raise awareness about the dangers of COVID-19. The drawings depict all the symptoms she had when infected. (Courtesy photo)One of the drawings shows a chopped hand — a scene from a scary nightmare that Rourke had while sick. Another drawing shows a figure with a question mark on the nose or mouth, which represents her loss of taste and smell for two weeks.  Rourke, the only deaf person in her family, said she struggled as a child to explain her feelings even to her closest relatives. It was during her high school years that she found an outlet for her emotions in art. “My identity of being a deaf person — I was frustrated, and I was trying to describe to my parents and to my teacher about my experiences. And they kind of didn’t get it. And so, words weren’t explaining my frustrations well enough, so I just started drawing,” she said.  Deaf artist Nancy Rourke’s painting “Eighteen Signs” hangs on display at the Deaf Action Center in Shreveport, Louisiana. (Courtesy photo)That early beginning led to a 20-year career as a graphic designer for major corporations, including 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios) and Microsoft. But in 2009, she decided to make a shift. After receiving a grant from a Philadelphia-based foundation, Rourke found herself able to focus full time on deaf art, which is based on deaf history, culture and the deaf experience. Even before getting sick, Rourke said, she found the coronavirus pandemic presented challenges for her as a deaf person. For example, some people trying to communicate with her would take off their face masks and expect her to read their lips. When Rourke asked them to keep their masks on and write their messages, they seemed to get irritated. “Expressions are really important, and I can read microexpressions,” she said.  Rourke and many others in the deaf community also found it upsetting that for a long time, the White House did not provide an American Sign Language interpreter for public briefings on COVID-19 — or anything else.  “The White House needs an interpreter,” she said. “There’s no access to communication, and we can’t understand what’s going on, especially when it comes to coronavirus when it was such a big deal.” Nancy Rourke painted a piece to express the frustration of the deaf community at the White House for not having ASL interpreters at COVID-19 briefings in the past. (Courtesy photo)She created an oil painting depicting the frustration felt by the deaf community at the time. The piece shows a group of “screaming hands” in different colors with the White House in the background. The hands symbolize deaf protesters begging for ASL access.  As a result of lobbying efforts from the National Association of the Deaf, a federal judge ruled in September that the White House has to provide interpreters for deaf people during COVID-19 press briefings.  Every year in February, Rourke undertakes a 28-day art challenge, during which she makes art the whole month. This time, she is planning a project with themes related to 2020, including her COVID-19 journey. Deaf artist Nancy Rourke is in the beginning stages of a project, which will debut in February and will include themes of 2020, including her experiences with COVID-19. (Courtesy photo)The centerpiece will be a wooden construction modeled on a 28-day Advent calendar. It will have 28 doors, with each door opening to illustrate an incident from the past year.  Rourke now believes her illness in November was her second infection. She said she suffered a milder form of the common symptoms after returning home from a business trip to New Jersey in March but did not get tested at the time.
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Dawn Wells, who parlayed her girl-next-door charm and wholesome beauty into enduring TV fame as the sweet-natured desert island castaway Mary Ann on the classic 1960s sitcom Gilligan’s Island, died Wednesday at age 82, her publicist said. 
 
Wells, who won the title of Miss Nevada in 1959 and competed in the Miss America contest, died from complications of COVID-19, publicist Harlan Boll said in a statement. 
 
Born in the gambling city of Reno, Wells played Kansas farm girl Mary Ann Summers, one of seven castaways stranded after their boat, the S.S. Minnow, became battered in a storm during what was supposed to be a three-hour tour from Hawaii. Wells beat out actors including Raquel Welch for her role. 
 Gilligan’s Island ran for three seasons (1964-1967) with a cast that also included Bob Denver as the zany Gilligan, Alan Hale Jr. as the Skipper, Jim Backus as millionaire Thurston Howell III, Natalie Schafer as his posh wife, Russell Johnson as the Professor and Tina Louise as movie star Ginger.The death of Wells leaves Louise, 86, the sole survivor of these cast members. FILE – In this 1965 file photo, Dawn Wells, center, poses with fellow cast members of “Gilligan’s Island,” Bob Denver and Alan Hale Jr., in Los Angeles.The 98 episodes invariably involved their efforts in vain to get off the island, even as a parade of guest stars dropped in and had no trouble getting out. The show drew the wrath of critics, but its innocent fun caught on with viewers at a time of tumult in America after the assassination of a president and during the rise of the Civil Rights Movement and the escalation of the Vietnam War. Wells, playing a cheerful brunette Midwestern farm girl, appeared in the series wearing short shorts, midriff tops and pigtails. Louise, playing a buxom red-haired sensation akin to Marilyn Monroe, wore slinky, form-fitting dresses. The two inspired what became an enduring pop culture question for men: “Ginger or Mary Ann?” 
 
Wells said that question was the most common topic mentioned to her by fans. “Mostly they’ll pick a favorite, Ginger or Mary Ann. For some reason, they feel they have to make a choice,” Wells told Forbes magazine in 2016. 
 
Wells had effusive praise for Denver and her other cast mates but was not especially close to Louise, who distanced herself from the Ginger character and declined to appear in various Gilligan’s Island reboots with her former co-stars. 
 
“We had nothing against each other,” Wells told the Los Angeles Times in 2014. “We didn’t have much in common.” 
 Gilligan’s Island was canceled by network executives despite respectable ratings, then became ubiquitous in syndicated reruns. 
 
“A misconception is that we must be wealthy, rolling in the dough, because we got residuals. We didn’t really get a dime,” Wells told Forbes. 
 
Wells said she was paid $750 a week, adding, “Sherwood Schwartz, our producer, reportedly made $90 million on the reruns alone.” 
 
Like some of her co-stars, she suffered from typecasting in Hollywood in the years after the series ended, appearing in TV guest spots and stage work before taking roles in B-movies. 
  FILE – This Oct. 2, 1978, photo shows the cast of “Gilligan’s Island,” from left, Russell Johnson, Jim Backus, Natalie Schafer, Alan Hale Jr., Bob Denver, Judith Baldwin replacing original cast member Tina Louise, and Dawn Wells.In light of the show’s steady popularity in the 1970s, three made-for-TV movies were made with progressively far-fetched plots involving Soviet satellites and visiting basketball players: Rescue from Gilligan’s Island (1978), The Castaways on Gilligan’s Island (1979) and The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island (1981). 
 
Wells also lent her voice to the animated Gilligan’s Planet (1982) in which the castaways become stranded on a faraway planet. 
 
Wells also capitalized on her fame by writing, Mary Ann’s Gilligan’s Island Cookbook, and later, for the 50th anniversary of the series in 2014, the book, What Would Mary Ann Do? A Guide to Life. 
 
Wells was born Oct. 18, 1938, in Reno, studied theater at the University of Washington, and headed to Hollywood after her beauty pageant success. 
 
She embraced her pop culture status but said there was more to her than just being Mary Ann. 
 
“I’m deeper, smarter, more ambitious, funnier. I think if you meet me for 15 minutes, there is nothing you won’t know: what you see is what you get,” she told Forbes. 
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During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina from1992 to 1995, tens of thousands of refugees came to the United States. In this story narrated by Anna Rice, Dino Jahic reports they brought some unique culinary traditions to the U.S. 
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Health experts in South Sudan are criticizing organizers of a weekend concert in Juba where tens of thousands of people gathered in clear violation of the health ministry’s COVID-19 protocols.Tanzanian music star Diamond Platnumz attracted all kinds of fans to the outdoor event at the Doctor John Garang Mausoleum, including President Salva Kiir.The vast majority of concert goers ignored health ministry and World Health Organization directives to social distance or wear masks, although President Kiir wore a face covering.Dr. Angelo Guop Kouch, director of South Sudan’s Public Health Emergency Operation Center, which manages COVID-19 cases in the country, said the gathering was not advisable, saying “health authorities should be involved when there are such activities in the country because of the crowd.”A World Health Organization epidemiologist in South Sudan, Dr. Joseph Wamala, said new strains of COVID-19 have emerged that can spread more easily in South Sudan.“The identification of this new strain is really a reason for countries to reinforce measures to limit spread through the recommended measures; using the mask, observing respiratory etiquette,” Dr. Wamala told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.To date, COVID-19 has had a relatively light impact on South Sudan, with just 3,511 confirmed cases and only 63 deaths.But that situation could quickly change, says Health Ministry spokesman Dr. Thuou Loi Cingoth. “People are dying of COVID-19 and right now we have people who are in critical condition in our facility affected by COVID-19. Now, whether we are going to go to the stage of asking the law enforcement agencies to ensure that measures against COVID-19 are adhered to by the public, I still don’t know. But it is our appeal that the public listen,” Dr. Loi told South Sudan in Focus.Saturday’s concert was an “absolute violation of our declared and official position as the Ministry of health,” Dr. Loi added.One of the concert organizers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the concert was organized by the K2 company belonging to the brother of South Sudanese businesswoman Achai Wiir, and that it was difficult to maintain protective measures because turnout was far more than organizers had anticipated.
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French fashion designer Pierre Cardin, whose futuristic space-inspired looks upended catwalk styles in the 1960s and 70s, has died at the age of 98, France’s Fine Arts Academy said. Cardin, who cut his teeth working at top couture houses such as Christian Dior, went on to launch his own brand and pioneered the use of licensing in fashion, plastering his label’s name on products of all kinds. As well as shaking up fashion with bubble-dresses and geometrical designs, Cardin was also one of the first to bring high fashion to the masses by selling collections in department stores from the late 1950s. FILE – French fashion designer Pierre Cardin poses in front of his 1954-1956-1957 fashion creations in his museum called “Past-Present-Future” in Paris, Nov. 12, 2014.His savvy business sense brought him a mix of admiration but also scorn from fashion purists at the time. While he no longer presented runway collections, Cardin remained active in the industry, attending parties and events and taking young designers under his wing. He has previously been a mentor to prominent designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier.  
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Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Americans increasingly seem to be tuning out warnings against travel during what is traditionally one of the busiest periods of the year.On Sunday, the Transportation Security Administration said it screened close to 1.3 million air travelers at U.S. airports Sunday. It was the highest number in more than nine months. The TSA also reported that more than 10 million people have flown since December 18.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Americans against travel during the holiday season, fearing that to do so would help spread the coronavirus.”The best thing for Americans to do in the upcoming holiday season is to stay at home and not travel,” Dr. Henry Walke, the CDC’s COVID-19 incident manager, said in a news briefing in early December. “Cases are rising. Hospitalizations are increasing, Deaths are increasing. We need to try to bend the curve, stop this exponential increase.”According to National Public Radio, it was unclear if a travel surge over Thanksgiving caused a spike in cases. It reported that in some areas, there appeared to be a surge, while in others, there wasn’t.The American Automobile Association, known as AAA, predicted that an estimated 85 million Americans would travel over the Christmas season, most of them by car, but according to the Associated Press, actual numbers were not yet available.As of Monday, the United States had more than 19 million coronavirus cases and 333,326 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
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The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way people work, dress and relax. Fashion was one of the first to adapt to the new house-bound reality, making sweatpants the new American go-to attire. Nina Vishneva has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.Camera: Vladimir Badikov, Max Avloshenko, Natalia Latukhina, Alexander Barash 
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As Monica Harvey watched, crowds flocked to a Sam’s Club in northern Arizona where she works, picking shelves clean of toilet paper and canned goods. Native American seniors couldn’t move fast enough, and Harvey saw their faces fall when they reached empty shelves.The Navajo woman wanted to help tribal elders get household staples without leaving their homes and risking exposure to COVID-19, so she started Defend Our Community, a group that delivers supplies.Tribes across the nation are working to protect elder members who serve as honored links to customs passed from one generation to the next. The efforts to deliver protective gear, meals and vaccines are about more than saving lives. Tribal elders often possess unique knowledge of language and history that is all the more valuable because tribes commonly pass down their traditions orally. That means losing elders to the coronavirus could wipe out irreplaceable pieces of culture.”When you lose an elder, you lose a part of yourself,” said Harvey, who lives in Leupp, Arizona, east of Flagstaff. “You lose a connection to history, our stories, our culture, our traditions.”Harvey remembers her own grandfather explaining the stories behind Navajo songs and teaching her Navajo words from the songs. She often listened to her grandparents speaking Navajo while she practiced the words under her breath.In Oklahoma, the Cherokee Nation has increased food distributions to elders and offered financial aid to those who were struggling to pay rent or utilities. Concern for elders is also apparent in the tribe’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution plans. Participants and workers in the tribe’s elder program are first in line for the shots, along with hospital workers and first responders. Next are those whose first language is Cherokee and others considered “tribal treasures,” an honor given to members who keep Cherokee art, language and other culture alive through their work.An effort among the Blackfeet in Montana is helping the tribe’s 600-plus members connect with elders who need support. Connecticut’s Mashantucket Pequot Nation is providing its citizens with masks and telemedicine, delivering meals to their doors and organizing home visits to give flu vaccines.”Elders are like libraries. Losing one is like a library burning down,” said Loren Racine, creator of a Facebook page offering help in the Blackfeet community.FILE – A sign on a door warns people to wear face coverings, at the Kayenta Health Center on the Navajo reservation in Kayenta, Arizona, April 18, 2020.Roy Boney, Jr., who manages a Cherokee language program, said the majority of Cherokee speakers are elders. They make up a small pool of people the program relies on to teach the language he calls the “beating heart” of Cherokee identity.”For decades our language has been taken from us through forced assimilation,” Boney said. “Elders hold our history and culture but also our language…Our elders are precious.”Almost half of the Cherokee who received care from the tribe’s health services but died from the coronavirus were fluent Cherokee speakers. Losing even a handful of speakers can be devastating for language preservation and other cultural practices, Boney said.”With them goes so much information in terms of language knowledge, dialect, specialized knowledge of medicine and traditional practices,” he said. “All these things we’re trying to revitalize and save, they’re the heart of all of it.”Mashantucket Pequot elders shifted to a virtual format for the intergenerational gatherings where they tell traditional stories. An elders council also helps to organize Pequot language bingo nights and Schemitzun, the annual Festival of the Green Corn.”When we heard how COVID-19 was spreading, we were immediately concerned for our elders and how losing them would affect the tribe, so we immediately started working to protect them,” said the tribe’s chief medical officer, Setu Vora.The tribe has no known COVID-19 deaths.Pequot elders play an important role in the effort to revive the tribe’s language, which is no longer widely spoken. Elders still remember relatives who spoke the language and can verify the definitions and context of certain words. A handful of the tribe’s 2,000 members are becoming somewhat proficient in Pequot as they research and reclaim new words, Vora said.Karen Ketcher was among 28 Cherokee Nation elders who have died from the coronavirus. She was weeks shy of her 71st birthday and had decades of experience working for the tribe and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Her knowledge was unmatched and invaluable, said her granddaughter, Taryn King.”There’s so much at stake when this virus hits our communities,” said King, 31, of Stilwell, Oklahoma. She described elders as “the glue that holds our communities together.”At work, Ketcher was affectionately called “Granny.” She was the go-to person for questions about Cherokee policies, tribal governance and how to apply for grants. She also was the first stop for snacks, help mending holes in sweaters or questions about community relations.One co-worker, Kamisha Hair, went into Ketcher’s office shortly before the tribe temporarily closed it in March because of the pandemic. She assured Ketcher things would be OK and implored her to pray.The two hugged and said they loved each other. Ketcher died in April.Relatives held a small outdoor service for her. When they returned to town, other Cherokees had lined the streets to pay their respects.”Losing an elder like Granny is like losing a piece of your identity,” Hair said. “It dies with them, and you can never get it back.”
 
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Barry Lopez, an award-winning writer who tried to tighten the bonds between people and place by describing the landscapes he saw in 50 years of travel, has died. He was 75.Lopez died in Eugene, Oregon, on Friday after a years-long struggle with prostate cancer, his family said.Longtime friend Kim Stafford, former Oregon poet laureate, said Lopez’s books “are landmarks that define a region, a time, a cause. He also exemplifies a life of devotion to craft and learning, to being humble in the face of wisdom of all kinds.”An author of nearly 20 books on natural history studies, along with essay and short story collections, Lopez was awarded the National Book Award in 1986 for Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape. It was the result of almost five years of traveling the Arctic.His final work was Horizon, an autobiography that recalls a lifetime of travel in more than 70 countries.’Desire simply to go away’Born in 1945 in Port Chester, New York, Lopez grew up in California’s San Fernando Valley and, after his mother remarried, New York City. In Horizon, he wrote that in those formative years, he developed “a desire simply to go away. To find what the skyline has cordoned off.”His later years were spent with his wife, Debra Gwartney, in a wooded area along the McKenzie River east of Eugene. After years of writing about the natural world and humans’ effect on climate change, he mourned the loss of acres of timber, not to mention personal papers, in the September 2020 Holiday Farm fire.The wildfire damaged Lopez’s home so badly that he couldn’t live in it. The blaze also destroyed a building that stored his original manuscripts, personal letters, photos and a typewriter he used to write his books. The IBM Selectric III was quickly replaced with an identical model by his friends.”Just an incredible body of work and memories,” said his stepdaughter Stephanie Woodruff. “Very meticulously kept and organized. That [loss] was devastating, certainly. He wrote every single book on a typewriter.”In 2013, Lopez wrote the essay Sliver of Sky, revealing he had been sexually abused by a family friend for several years starting when he was 7. Lopez said the essay was an attempt at catharsis.Crowning achievementWoodruff said the essay possibly helped lead to Horizon, a book more than two decades in the making. In a 2019 review, The Associated Press said the book felt like the crowning achievement of Lopez’s illustrious career, describing it as part travel journal, part history, part science lecture, part autobiography and completely unique.”I do think that [the essay] released something in him to really ground and round out and complete ‘Horizon,’ ” Woodruff said. “Everything he wrote was personal, of course.”In a statement Saturday, his family encouraged financial support for the McKenzie River Trust, with which Lopez had worked on conservation efforts.Lopez is survived by his wife, four stepdaughters and an older brother. A younger brother died in 2017.
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COVID-19 was the main protagonist of the film industry during 2020. This nefarious character dominated the saga of Hollywood’s struggles at the box office with moviegoers staying home and theater chains going bust. On the plus side, films focused on stories about minorities and gender equality, reflecting the diversity of moviegoing audiences. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more. 
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Among the celebrity philanthropists who donate extreme amounts of money to education and lifting others, Chuck Feeney’s name is not as well-known as Bloomberg, Gates or Buffett.Those billionaires — Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett — are highly recognizable names of great wealth, and their efforts are well-known.But Feeney, 89, has donated more than $8 billion in the past 38 years more quietly, espousing the slogan “Giving While Living” through his Men look at cosmetic products in a Duty Free store at the Fraport airport in Frankfurt, Germany, Nov. 14, 2012.Numerous educational programs have benefited from Atlantic Philanthropies, but none more than Cornell, where Feeney graduated from its vaunted hotel management program. Cornell has received $1 billion from Feeney’s generosity.“Physical markers of his giving are sprinkled around all corners of Cornell’s campus, funding everything from student scholarships to North and West Campus living facilities, hospitality research support, the Martin Y. Tang Welcome Center and athletics programs,” the university reported to the Cornell Daily Sun. Feeney’s giving was “transformative,” said Cornell President Martha Pollack, and “deserves the highest recognition we can give,” the Cornell Daily Sun reported.Feeney has been giving internationally, too.“While his generosity towards Ireland and Cornell University is well-known, his relationship with the people of Vietnam has flown relatively under the radar,” blogged John W. Conroy in 2017.In Vietnam, Feeney’s contributions rebuilt medical facilities, expanded libraries and increased educational opportunities.“Viet Nam was the right place at the right time with the right people,” wrote Lien Hoang in a book for Atlantic Philanthropies. “The energy and commitment to change, the unfair legacy of brutal conflict, and the possibilities to improve responses to fundamental human needs in health and education were all evident.” Feeney “has been the savior of our people and we will never forget that,” Conroy quoted Dr. Tran Ngoc Thanh, Da Nang Hospital director.In Cuba, AP awarded $5.8 million in November to Medical Education Cooperation with Cuba (MEDICC), “a nonprofit organization based in Oakland, California that has worked to promote US-Cuba health collaboration and highlight Cuba’s public health contributions to global health equity and universal health,” according to its website.That brings AP’s total contribution to MEDICC to $16.7 million since 2002.Feeney is not alone, just less public, about his philanthropy.Last week, MacKenzie Scott, former wife of world’s richest man, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, donated $4.2 billion to groups helping the vulnerable, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.Scott last year signed a “giving pledge” to donate the bulk of her wealth to charity. In a round of donations early this year, Scott gave nearly $1.7 billion to groups devoted to race, gender and economic equality, as well as other social causes.She is among other donors who have signed the pledge, saying they intend to donate much of their wealth in their lifetimes. Issues include “poverty alleviation, refugee aid, disaster relief, global health, education, women and girls’ empowerment, medical research, criminal justice reform, environmental sustainability, and arts and culture,” according to the pledge website.Included are Canadian Marcel Arsenault whose foundation promotes good governance to prevent war; Sudanese-British Mo Ibrahim who is dedicated to good governance and leadership in Africa; Emirati billionaire Mohammed Bin Musallam Bin Ham Al-Ameri who is dedicated to helping the underprivileged; Chinese investment banker Dong Fangjun who helps drop-out students, among others, from impoverished families; entrepreneur You Zhonghui, the first Chinese woman to sign the pledge; Emiratis Badr Jafar and Razan al Mubarak, who promote good governance and transparency in the Gulf Region; Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Indian entrepreneur and owner of biotech company Biocon Limited; and others. 
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In a normal year, Christmas is a joyful time for Episcopalians on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, home of the Sicangu Lakota Oyate (The Burnt Thigh Nation), which has seen as many as 30 new coronavirus cases in a day.  The year 2020 has been anything but normal. “We’ve had to change everything,” said Mother Lauren Stanley, the presbyter (priest-in-charge) for the west half of the Rosebud Episcopal Mission. Normally, Stanley offers services at the Church of Jesus, a small white clapboard building dating to 1875, and in three other churches under her supervision. “We shut down all in-person worship in March and immediately created something called ‘Love in the Time of Coronavirus,’ hashtag ChurchOnTheGo, where people can do drive-up Communion,” she said. “Folks drive up in their cars and come to their window and say, ‘So, what would you like to pray for?’ And if there’s a whole family, then I ask them each individually, starting with grandparents, then the parents, and then the children. And I’ll put that all in one prayer. And then we’ll do the Lord’s Prayer together.” After that, she will hand them Communion. Normally, the sacrament consists of bread in the form of small, unleavened wafers, and wine sipped from a communal cup. Rosebud Episcopal Mission worshipper Sandra Wilcox receiving communal wine “on the go” before wine was removed from sacrament due to COVID. (Courtesy: Rev. Lauren Stanley)“But we had to give up wine in February and just give out the body of Christ,” said Stanley. She laughed, “Well, we’re Episcopalians, and we don’t like that. Then, one of my colleagues gave me an idea.” Mother Lauren Stanley gives communion during #ChurchOnTheGo services on the Rosebud. (Courtesy: Rev.  Lauren Stanley) Fully gloved, Stanley said she lays the communal wafers on a large baking tray, then dips a pair of chopsticks into the wine and dots each wafer with a drop of what she admits is “really awful port.” “So, now I am giving them the body and blood,” she said. “When we started doing that, my people here were so overjoyed.” For those who do not have a car or are confined to home, Stanley conducts home visits, packing Communion wafers in plastic sandwich bags that she passes through front doors.  Communion hosts (wafers) with drops of wine on them, prepared for distribution on Christmas Eve and Christmas for Episcopal worshipers. (Courtesy: Rev. Lauren Stanley)She also Church of Jesus, the home of the Rosebud Episcopal Mission, Rosebud S.D. (Courtesy: Rev. Lauren Stanley)Stanley tries to introduce humor into every aspect of worship during the pandemic, a time when spirits are low. During one segment of the Episcopalian service, worshippers formally exchange greetings of peace with words and gestures — a kiss on the cheek, a handshake or a hug. “I like to keep it light,” she said. “At first, it was like, ‘OK, we can fist bump.’ And then, it was like, ‘No, no, we’re going do elbow bumps.’ And this was a big joke with the elders — ‘Fine, we’re going to do aerial bombardments!’ ”     She laughed again. “And now, we have a big joke about how to take Communion: ‘Do I pull the mask up or down?’ ”  In October, coronavirus cases began to climb on the 5,180-square-kilometer reservation, as on neighboring reservations in North and South Dakota. The tribe reported 400 cases among its 33,000 citizens and more than a dozen COVID-19 deaths. The tribe instituted its second lockdown of the year and other safety measures. COVID-19 is the illness caused by the coronavirus. Episcopal Mission priest Lauren Stanley, seen here in full PPE as she transports patients to and from the Rosebud Reservation Indian Health Service hospital. (Courtesy: Rev.  Lauren Stanley)A COVID Christmas This year, Rosebud’s Episcopalians will celebrate a very different kind of Christmas. Stanley is doing something she has never done before: Make a movie.  “We are recording a service in bits and pieces,” she said. “The whole service with eight or nine hymns on it. The whole nine yards. Then, I’ll edit the pieces together on my 11-year-old Mac.”  She chuckled, hoping the aging laptop is still up to the job. “And then, we will air it Christmas Eve morning,” she said. “And on Christmas Day until 3 o’clock, I will go and do the same thing — taking Communion to the community.” Normally on Christmas Eve, Stanley gives seven services in 14 hours.  “Now, I’m going to be doing #ChurchOnTheGo at three different churches on Rosebud. And then, I’ll be going to people’s houses the rest of the time,” she said. The church has had to cancel activities for GLORY, an acronym for “God Loves Our Rosebud Youth,” Rosebud’s weekly program for children ages 5-15 that is funded in part by St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Dallas, Texas. To make up for that, Stanley and the mission’s senior catechist, Erroll Geboe, drove 130 kilometers to the town of Pierre, South Dakota, where they used the donated funds to go on a shopping spree. “We had a blast and spent a boatload of money!” she said. “And every child in our program — 106 total — is getting a stocking stuffed with coloring books, crayons and pencils, a ton of candy. And, you know our children. When you are poor, candy is a real treat.” They purchased craft items and stuffed animals for all. “And I have grandmas who make scarves, hats and gloves. So, everybody gets a set of those. And I have some additional donated items to give the older kids,” said Stanley.A few days ago, youth volunteers helped Stanley and Geboe assemble the stockings, which by Wednesday had been delivered. By 5 o’clock on Christmas Day, after being up until 3 a.m. the night before, the celebrations will end. That is when Stanley said she will go home to a Christmas dinner of Yankee pot roast. She admits it will be an exhausting weekend — she is just now getting over her second case of COVID-19. But that is what it takes to keep her flock together when they are forced to be apart.
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Stella Tennant, the aristocratic British model who was a muse to designers such as Karl Lagerfeld and Gianni Versace, died suddenly at the age of 50, her family said Wednesday. Tennant, the granddaughter of a duke, rose to fame in the 1990s while walking the runway for Versace, Alexander McQueen and other designers. FILE – Model Stella Tennant poses during a photocall before Chanel Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2018 fashion collection presented in Paris, Jan. 23, 2018.In a statement, her family said: “It is with great sadness we announce the sudden death of Stella Tennant on Dec. 22.”  “Stella was a wonderful woman and an inspiration to us all. She will be greatly missed,” it said.  The family asked for privacy and said arrangements for a memorial service would be announced later. They did not disclose her cause of death.  Police Scotland said officers were called to an address in the Scottish Borders town of Duns on Tuesday following the sudden death of a 50-year-old woman. Police said there were no suspicious circumstances.  The granddaughter of the 11th Duke of Devonshire Andrew Cavendish and his wife Deborah Mitford of a glamorous, unconventional aristocratic family, Tennant was one of the leading British models of the 1990s. Late in the decade, Lagerfeld announced her as the new face of Chanel, with an exclusive modeling contract, and she became a muse to the designer. Fashion house Versace paid tribute to Tennant on Twitter, saying: “Versace is mourning the death of Stella Tennant. Stella was Gianni Versace’s muse for many years and friend of the family. We will miss you forever, Stella. Rest in peace.”  Donatella Versace posted a photo of Tennant on Instagram in a tribute to the model.”Stella, I cannot believe you are gone,” she wrote. “You have left us way too soon. We met when you were at the beginning of your career. I cherish every moment we spent together. Ciao. Rest in peace.” FILE – Italian designer Gianfranco Ferre, right, acknowledges applause on the catwalk with top model Stella Tennant, in Milan, March 2, 2003.Stella McCartney said she was “speechless” after hearing the news.”What sad, horrific news to end this already shocking year!” McCartney wrote in a post on Instagram that included a photo of her and Tennant. “Rest in peace, you inspiring woman. Your soul and inner beauty exceeded the external perfection, Stella.” Tennant also appeared in advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein, Chanel, Hermes and Burberry.  In 1999, Tennant married French photographer David Lasnet. She is survived by him and their four children. “From the first time I met Stella I was completely blown away,” fashion designer Marc Jacobs said on social media. “Her beauty, style and body language combined with her manners, kindness, sense of humor and personality were like no other. … My condolences to David and her family. What a terrible, heartbreaking loss.” 
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Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona did not consume alcohol or illicit narcotics in the days before his death, an autopsy released on Wednesday said.Maradona, who died in November at age 60, had taken seven different medicines to treat depression, anxiety and other ailments but “there was no presence of [illegal] drugs,” a judicial official told Reuters.The autopsy, which was based on blood and urine samples and was released by the Buenos Aires Scientific Police, said Maradona had problems with his kidneys, heart and lungs.Investigators are looking into various facets of his death, which rocked Argentina and the wider footballing world, and they have not ruled out wrongful death.The more detailed autopsy confirmed the results of one carried out immediately after his death that said the former Boca Juniors and Napoli player died from “acute pulmonary edema secondary to exacerbated chronic heart failure with dilated cardiomyopathy.”In an angry broadside at her father’s critics, Maradona’s daughter Gianinna said the autopsy showed “a result compatible with cirrhosis of the liver.”The charismatic 1986 World Cup winner, regarded as one of the greatest soccer players of all time, had battled alcohol and drug addiction for much of his life.A judge last week ruled that Maradona’s body could not be exhumed or cremated in case DNA is needed at a later date for use in paternity or other cases.Maradona has five recognized children and six with filiation requests. They are part of a complex inheritance process under way in Argentina.
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