Month: December 2024

TAIPEI — A Chinese war plane goes missing near Taiwan. China sends swarms of military boats and planes for a blockade as Taiwan goes on a war footing. Panic ensues on the streets of Taipei.

The premise of “Zero Day,” a new Taiwan TV drama envisioning a Chinese invasion, is a topic that has for years been considered too sensitive for many Taiwan filmmakers and television show creators, who fear losing access to the lucrative Chinese entertainment market.

But as China steps up military threats, including the large massing of naval forces last week and daily military activities close to the island, the upcoming drama confronts the fear by setting the 10-episode series around a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

“We thought there is freedom in Taiwan, but in film and TV production we are restricted by China on many levels,” said Cheng Hsin Mei, the showrunner on “Zero Day.”

China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory over the objections of the government in Taipei, is a much larger market for film and television. Taiwanese entertainers are popular there partly due to language and cultural similarities.

Cheng said creators in free and democratic Taiwan, however, are indirectly confined by Beijing’s powerful state censorship.

Beijing has regularly called out Taiwanese artists seen as violating China’s political ideology and has threatened to blacklist those unwilling to cooperate.

China pressured a popular Taiwanese rock band to make pro-China comments ahead of Taiwan’s presidential vote early this year, sources told Reuters. Beijing denied pressuring the group Mayday.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment.

Buzz in Taiwan

For the “Zero Day” crew, confronting such a sensitive topic means facing difficulties, from funding and casting, to finding places to film.

Cheng said more than half of the “Zero Day” crew asked to remain anonymous on the crew list, and some people including a director pulled out of the production at the last minute, due to worries it might jeopardize their future work in China or concerns about the safety of their families working there.

“Our freedom is hard-earned,” Cheng said, adding people should not give in easily due to fears over China.

“The People’s Liberation Army has launched substantial incursions against us and they are getting closer and closer,” she said. “We should look at this directly rather than pretending that it is not happening.”

The show, which is set to be broadcast online and on yet-to-be announced television channels next year, is already creating buzz in Taiwan after the extended trailer went online in July.

The drama focuses on several scenarios Taiwan might face in the days leading up to a Chinese attack, including a global financial collapse, the activation of Chinese sleeper agents and panicked residents trying to flee the island.

“Without freedom, Taiwan is not Taiwan,” the actor who plays a fictional Taiwan president says in a televised speech, urging unity after declaring war on China, in the show’s trailer.

The live broadcast then gets abruptly cut off, replaced by a feed of a Chinese state television anchor calling for Taiwanese to surrender and to report “hidden pro-independence activists” to Chinese soldiers after their landing in Taiwan.

Milton Lin, a 75-year-old Taipei resident, said he was grateful the TV series was putting a spotlight on the threats by China.

“It helps Taiwanese to understand that we are facing a strong enemy trying to annex us and how we should be on guard with unity to face such an invasion.”
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The magic of Christmas is lighting up New York City, and nowhere is it more dazzling than in Dyker Heights, a neighborhood famous for its extravagant holiday displays. VOA’s Aron Ranen takes us to this festive wonderland.
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Hanukkah, Judaism’s eight-day Festival of Lights, begins this year on Christmas Day, which has only happened four times since 1900.

For some rabbis, the intersection of the two religious holidays provides an auspicious occasion for interfaith engagement.

“This can be a profound opportunity for learning and collaboration and togetherness,” said Rabbi Josh Stanton, a vice president of the Jewish Federations of North America. He oversees interfaith initiatives involving the 146 local and regional Jewish federations that his organization represents.

“The goal is not proselytizing; it’s learning deeply from each other,” he said. “It’s others seeing you as you see yourself.”

One example of togetherness: a Chicanukah party hosted Thursday evening by several Jewish organizations in Houston, bringing together members of the city’s Latino and Jewish communities for a “cross cultural holiday celebration.” The venue: Houston’s Holocaust museum.

The food on offer was a blend of the two cultures — for example a latke bar featuring guacamole, chili con queso and pico de gallo, as well as applesauce and sour cream. The doughnut-like pastries were sufganiyot — a Hanukkah specialty — and buñuelos, And the mariachi band took a crack at playing the Jewish folk song “Hava Nagila.”

“What really brings us together is our shared values — our faith, our families, our heritage,” said Erica Winsor, public affairs officer for the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston.

Rabbi Peter Tarlow, executive director of the Houston-based Center for Latino-Jewish Relations, said the first Chicanukah event 12 years ago drew 20 people, while this year the crowd numbered about 300, and could have been larger had not attendance been capped. He said the partygoers were a roughly even mix of Latinos — some of them Jews with Latin American origins — and “Anglo” Jews.

“There’s too much hate, too much separation against both Jews and Latinos,” Tarlow said. “This is a way we can come together and show we support each other.”

While Hanukkah is intended as an upbeat, celebratory holiday, rabbis note that it’s taking place this year amid continuing conflicts involving Israeli forces in the Middle East, and apprehension over widespread incidents of antisemitism.

Rabbi Moshe Hauer, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, acknowledged that many Jews may be feeling anxious heading into Hanukkah this year. But he voiced confidence that most would maintain the key tradition: the lighting of candles on menorah candelabras and displaying where they’re visible through household windows and in public spaces.

“The posture of our community — without stridency, just with determination — is that the menorah should be in our windows, in a place where the public sees it,” Hauer said.

“It is less for us, the Jewish community, than for the world,” he added. “We have to share that light. Putting the menorah in the window is our expression of working to be a light among the nations.”

Hauer concurred with Stanton that this year’s overlap of Hanukkah and Christmas is “an exceptional opportunity to see and experience the diversity of America and the diversity of its communities of faith.”

Rabbi Motti Seligson, public relations director for the Hasidic movement Chabad-Lubavitch, noted that this year marks the 50th anniversary of a milestone in the public lightings of menorahs. It was on Dec. 8, 1974 — as part of an initiative launched by the Lubavitcher leader, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson — that a menorah was lit outside Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, where the Liberty Bell was housed at the time.

“Hanukkah is a celebration of religious liberty, so that it’s not taken for granted,” Seligson said. “One of the ways of doing that is by celebrating it publicly.”

He said Chabad was organizing about 15,000 public menorah lightings this year through its numerous branches around the world.

“There certainly is some apprehension,” Seligson said, referring to concerns about antisemitism and political friction. “Some people question whether Jews will be celebrating as openly as in the past.”

“What I’m hearing is there’s no way that we can’t,” he added. “The only way through these difficult times is by standing stronger and prouder and shining brighter than ever.”

Stanton concurred.

“Through our history, we’ve been through moments that are easy and moments that are hard,” he said. “Safety for us does not come from hiding. It comes from reaching out.”

Why is Hanukkah so late this year? The simple answer is that the Jewish calendar is based on lunar cycles and is not in sync with the Gregorian calendar, which sets Christmas on Dec. 25. Hanukkah always begins on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev, a date which occurs between late November and late December on the Gregorian calendar.

The last time Hanukkah began on Christmas Day was in 2005. But the term “Chrismukkah” — signifying the overlap of the two holidays — had become a popular term before then. The term gained extra currency in 2003, when the character Seth Cohen on the TV drama “The O.C.” embraced the fusion holiday as a tribute to his Jewish father and Protestant mother.

This season, the Hallmark Channel introduced a new Christmas movie called “Leah’s Perfect Gift,” depicting a young Jewish woman who had admired Christmas from a distance and gets a chance to experience it up close when her boyfriend invites her to spend the holidays with his family. Spoiler alert: All does not go smoothly.

Despite such storylines suggesting a fascination with Christmas among some Jews, Stanton says research by the Jewish Federations reveals a surge in Jews seeking deeper connections to their own traditions and community, as well as a surge in Jews volunteering for charitable activities during the holidays.

“The opportunity is to share with others how we celebrate Hanukkah,” he said. “It’s a holiday of freedom, hope, showing proudly you are Jewish.”
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Harrisburg, Pennsylvania — Capitol buildings are almost always an imposing presence. As the seat of government, they tend to be elegant and stately — and frequently capped by a dome.

Visitors to Pennsylvania ‘s Capitol are drawn to its priceless artwork, polished marble and intricate carvings, but hidden behind the doors of some of its most ornate offices and chambers are another treasure: hundreds of antique clocks that were part of its original design.

The 273 working clocks include many that are integrated into fireplace mantels and other building features.

They are not low maintenance, requiring regular oiling and occasional mechanical overhauls.

And every week, in a throwback to a time before wristwatches and cellphones, clock winders roam the halls — ensuring the century-plus-old timekeepers keep ticking.

On a recent morning, Bethany Gill demonstrated how it’s done — going room to room with an array of ladders and custom tools. She opens the glass covers, rotates the mechanisms enough to keep them going for about a week and checks their accuracy before moving on to the next one.

Gill is a former art student who works for Johnson & Griffiths Studio, a Harrisburg firm that just received a five-year, $526,000 winding and maintenance contract renewal from the Capitol Preservation Committee.

She’s also a lifelong clock lover who looks forward to the semiannual transitions between daylight saving time and Eastern Standard Time.

Why?

“My dad was a clock collector growing up,” Gill said. “And every Sunday we would go around the house and wind the clocks. And that was always just a nice thing that I did with my dad.”

Pennsylvania’s Capitol was crafted by architect Joseph M. Huston, who won its design competition in 1901 with a vision for a temple of democracy — a palace of art that would be as fancy as what could then be found in Europe.

Among countless other fine touches, Huston designed at least 180 custom clock cases, including smaller so-called keystone clocks that are shaped to remind people of Pennsylvania’s early and critical role in the formation of the United States, leaving it with the nickname of the Keystone State.

“The clocks are just part of why the building’s so unique and so intricate,” said Capitol Preservation Committee historian Jason Wilson. “The mantels surrounding the clocks are all custom designed.”

Every so often the clocks, most of them built from mahogany or stained mahogany, are carefully removed from their spots around the Capitol and taken to a facility for cleaning, maintenance and repair. They seem to run better when kept wound.

Huston, the architect, achieved his goal. The Capitol is a showpiece that draws thousands of visitors every year to where 253 state lawmakers convene to debate and pass legislation.

While the buildings and the clocks are his lasting legacy, Huston was convicted of a conspiracy to defraud the state during the Capitol construction project and spent several months in another Pennsylvania landmark, Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia.
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As another turbulent year ends, New Yorkers are finding an outlet for their emotions in an unusual place — a subway station wall. A public art project called Subway Therapy invites people to share their thoughts and feelings via colorful sticky notes, creating a collage of hopes, frustrations and reflections. Nina Vishneva has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Michael Eckels.
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The group behind a proposed breakaway European football competition is back.

They have a new name for their tournament, too, calling it the Unify League this time.

The latest idea for an elite competition for the biggest teams in Europe is being put forward by Madrid-based A22 Sports Management, which is seeking to change the face of the sport in its most lucrative market by creating a rival for the Champions League and other UEFA tournaments.

It comes nearly four years after the initial plan of a European Super League was ambitiously launched and then quickly quashed. It’s been a rocky journey, to say the least, and there’s still a long way to go before a breakaway league comes to fruition — if it ever does.

What was the initial Super League idea, and why did it collapse?

Late one Sunday night in April 2021, a dozen of Europe’s biggest clubs rocked the football world by announcing plans to create a breakaway European Super League, which would have effectively replaced the Champions League — Europe’s elite club competition. The 12 rebel teams were Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham. They proposed a 20-team elite tournament that was largely closed because 15 were protected from relegation. The plan collapsed within 48 hours after the six English clubs pulled out and issued apologies amid a backlash from their own fans and the government. Three others — AC Milan, Inter and Atlético — also quickly backed out.

How was the breakaway idea revived?

Well, it never quite went away. Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus carried on the fight behind the scenes, seemingly forlornly. Juventus withdrew midway through 2023 but the two Spanish powers held out, and scored a win in December of that year when the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that UEFA and world governing body FIFA acted contrary to EU competition law by blocking plans for the breakaway league. Emboldened, A22 — formed to assist the creation and promotion of the Super League — immediately announced new proposed competitions for men and women, saying young fans are “turning away” from football. More details about these competitions came on Tuesday.

The latest incarnation is the Unify League. What is it?

A22 said Tuesday it has submitted proposals to UEFA and FIFA for official recognition of its proposed midweek competition, which would contain 96 men’s teams across four leagues — Star, Gold, Blue and Union — and 32 women’s teams in two leagues — Star and Gold. Eight teams would qualify for the knockout stage in each league. All teams involved in the Unify League are being guaranteed a minimum of 14 matches per season. Qualification will not be automatic but “based on annual performance” in the domestic European leagues, A22 said. A key part of the new format would be free streaming of games on a branded “Unify” platform to, in A22’s words, “directly connect clubs to their global fan bases” and “improve the viewing experience at home by eliminating the need for multiple subscriptions.” There would also be a premium subscription offered without adverts. If the plans get the green light, it in theory gives Europe’s clubs a choice: Stay with the existing European competitions run by UEFA or join a breakaway competition.

What has been the response?

No team has publicly backed the Unify League, strengthening the existing skepticism about the project. A22 said its plans had come after discussions with clubs, leagues and “other parties” but didn’t go into more details. Not even Barcelona or Madrid — the remaining holdouts from the original Super League — have commented, though the Spanish league has. As expected, the league’s reaction was scathing, saying the project “threatens the governance of European football” and would “destroy the economy of national leagues.” “The project continues to lack support from clubs, federations, players, fans, national governments and European institutions,” La Liga said. There was no official response from any other major league, or from UEFA or FIFA.

Could it succeed?

It still seems a non-starter at this stage — and the outcry caused by the original rebellion would likely make most clubs retain the status quo. That is especially the case in England, with the popular and lucrative Premier League having said last year it “continues to reject any such concept” of a Super League. Part of the Premier League’s owners’ charter states that clubs “will not engage in the creation of new competition formats outside of the Premier League’s Rules” and a proposed U.K. government bill would block English teams from trying to join a breakaway league. Financial details about the Unify League remain sketchy – for example, who is funding this? – and the latest plans come at a time when there has been a redrawing of the power dynamic in European football.

UEFA has a revamped, more lucrative and more open Champions League, FIFA has its big new club competition in the Club World Cup, with financial backing from Saudi Arabia. Put simply, there’s not the widespread discontent in football as there was four years ago. However, A22 is confident the rebranded competition complies with UEFA’s required authorization rules because of the revised feature that annual qualification is based on domestic league performance. John Hahn, co-founder of A22, said he had “not been expecting the public support of clubs at this time.” “Logically,” he said, “that will come following the official recognition of the Unify League.” 
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SAO PAULO — For decades, they have scrounged for food on streets across the country — undesired, abandoned and overlooked.

But today, the caramel-colored mutts of Brazil are having a major moment. The “vira-lata caramelo” (literally: caramel trashcan-tipper) is being exalted in memes, videos, petitions, an upcoming Netflix film, a Carnival parade and draft legislation to honor it as part of Brazilian culture. Caramelos’ newfound cachet speaks to the value of resilience in Brazil — a melting pot of 213 million people known for weathering hard knocks with a smile — and inverts its supposed “mongrel complex.”

A scene from Netflix’s Caramelo shot in October featured a beige puppy sitting beside a river in Sao Paulo watching picture-perfect families pass with their impeccable purebreds — a golden retriever, a miniature collie and a Doberman. At the director of photography’s signal, a delivery boy cycled past and the plucky mutt gave chase, following the scent of pizza and seeking a way to get by.

“The caramelo ended up becoming the great symbol of Brazil, a symbol for the people,” Diego Freitas, the film’s director and co-writer, said after the day’s shooting. “Netflix was sensitive to what’s happening with the zeitgeist. The caramelo is the spirit of our time.”

Caramelos escape from the internet

The caramelo craze started online around 2019. People posted the tongue-in-cheek phrase, “This represents Brazil more than soccer or samba,” along with photos of distinctively Brazilian phenomena, including caramelos galore. Social media accounts paid tribute to the caramelos’ antics: One invaded a dance show and relieved itself on stage; another played dead while receiving chest compressions for a CPR training video. Online retailers started hawking caramelo-shaped throw pillows.

A petition to replace the macaw on Brazil’s 10-reais ($1.65) bill garnered 50,000 signatures in 2019.

“The caramelo has established itself as a landmark of the Brazilian people, being well loved and received in all states of the country, being an excellent representative of our culture,” it proclaimed. “Therefore it deserves mention on our currency.”

The next year, another petition to emblazon the medium-sized dog on the 200-reais note received triple the support.

Many cite kindness as the caramelos’ secret charm, but more often say it’s that they’re savvy survivors.

Case in point is a caramelo in the northeastern city Joao Pessoa. Last year, Khelson Silva, 59, left the gym with a friend and found the stray waiting. It took Silva’s friend’s finger gingerly between its teeth and led them for three blocks.

“He got to my building, walked straight into the garage, went up the elevator and right into the house,” said Silva, who learned this caramelo, now named Persistent José, had attempted similar gambits before. “It was him who chose us. He knew where we lived.”

The ‘crazy mixture’ of Brazil

Writer Nelson Rodrigues coined the now-infamous term “mongrel complex” after the national soccer team’s humiliating World Cup defeat in 1950, aiming to encapsulate what he perceived as Brazil’s sense of inferiority compared to other nations. Today, many see Brazil’s diverse roots — immigrants, enslaved Africans and Indigenous people — as a source of pride.

Tina Castro, an English teacher in Rio de Janeiro, equates owning a caramelo with loving the “crazy mixture” of Brazil and its people.

“It comes from a marginal place, like Brazil. It has a history of survival and marginalization,” said Castro, 32. “We value the caramelo in the way we value our country, as it is.”

“Caramelos will dominate the world!” has become a jokey rallying cry online, and foreign allies are lending a hand. After touring Brazil in November, singer Bruno Mars posed with a caramelo in his viral farewell video. Staff of the British mission to Brazil overwhelmingly voted in July to christen their new digital mascot, a Welsh Corgi, “Lord Caramelo.”

‘The caramelo, a national icon’

The budget for Netflix’s Caramelo is part of 1 billion reais ($164 million) spent from 2023-24 on Brazilian productions to capture eyeballs in one of the world’s biggest video streaming markets. Netflix hasn’t set a release date.

“The movie is a big bet for Netflix, a superproduction,” Netflix Brasil’s press office told The Associated Press. “It’s the first Brazilian film with a dog as a protagonist, and it couldn’t be any other than the caramelo, a national icon.”

Others catapulting the caramelo into the spotlight include Rio’s Sao Clemente samba school. At its three-story workshop downtown on Nov. 28, seamstresses churned out strips of sheer yellow fabric for dozens of towering caramelo costumes. Each will feature a giant foam head in the school’s 2025 Carnival parade, whose theme is animal abandonment and abuse.

“It’s our starlet,” gushed workshop director Roberto Gomes. “The caramelo is the beautiful, likeable little dog — not the purebred. It’s the cutie, that dog that’s always funny, always in our hearts.”

A few blocks away, Lt. Col. Sidnei Robson Pazini says Brazilians are merely rediscovering long-lost devotion. He directs the Rio military police’s museum and archive, and says the “most iconic, most emblematic” piece — more than the muskets, cannon or painting worth almost $1 million — is a taxidermied caramelo that’s about 150 years old.

The dog often visited a Rio police battalion for food — earning the name Bruto — then joined officers shipping off to war in Paraguay, despite efforts to stop him boarding. Bruto alerted troops to approaching enemies, signaled where soldiers needed rescue and, after surviving a gunshot, returned to Rio a hero. When he died, police took up a collection to have him stuffed, with a silver collar bearing the words “Constancy, Love and Fidelity.”

Street dogs still find succor inside police battalions. One in Rio adopted a caramelo in 2018 and gave him the rank of corporal. At a ceremony in July, he was promoted to sergeant.

Famous but homeless, caramelos still need help

Amid this caramelo hype, one might think Brazilians would be jostling to adopt their own. But volunteers at two shelters told the AP they still get passed over for smaller, fluffier or whiter dogs.

The Indefesos shelter in Rio had 217 dogs on Dec. 12 — about half caramelos. One clambers over a 6-foot wall to welcome visitors, his favorite ball in his mouth.

Whenever Indefesos receives a litter with caramelos, volunteers scramble to post Instagram photos. Caramelo puppies are inevitably picked last.

“It’s absurd. We rush because we know that animal, when it grows up, will never have the chance for a home,” said Rosana Guerra, the nonprofit’s president. “They end up staying, waiting for adoption that never comes.”

In the Netflix film, the stray scampers into the hectic life of a career-driven chef and helps him find meaning in the present. Freitas, the director, said he aims for it to touch Brazilians’ hearts and transform caramelo affinity into action.

The puppy that pursued the delivery boy that gray October day had been found in a box beside a highway with its nine siblings. Four play the young version of the film’s 1-year-old star that was also a stray. Since filming wrapped Nov. 26, six of the film’s once-homeless canines were adopted by crew members and others.

“It’s a story that I hope is worthy of the dogs, because they are incredible,” Freitas said, with his own caramelo — the film’s inspiration — at his feet. “They change our lives.” 
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OAKLAND, Calif. — Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, who shattered stolen base records and redefined baseball’s leadoff position, has died. He was 65.

Henderson died on Friday. The Athletics said Saturday they were “shocked and heartbroken by his passing,” but did not specify a cause of death.

Known as baseball’s “Man of Steal,” Henderson had a lengthy list of accolades and accomplishments over his 25-year career — an MVP, 10 All-Star selections, two World Series titles and a Gold Glove award.

But it was stealing bases where Henderson made his name and dominated the sport like no other.

He broke through with 100 steals in his first full season in the majors in 1980, topping Ty Cobb’s AL single-season record with the Oakland Athletics. He barely slowed, playing for nine franchises over the next two decades. He broke Lou Brock’s single-season record of 118 by stealing 130 bases in 1982 and led the league in steals for seven straight seasons and 12 overall.

He broke Brock’s career record when he stole his 939th base on May 1, 1991, for Oakland. He famously pulled third base out of the ground and showed it off to the adoring crowd before giving a speech that he capped by saying: “Lou Brock was a great base stealer, but today I am the greatest of all time.”

Henderson finished his career with 1,406 steals, a 468-steal edge over Brock.

Henderson said in September he would have had many more steals in his career and in the record-breaking 1982 season if rules introduced in 2023 to limit pickoff throws and increase the size of bases had overlapped with his career.

“If I was playing today, I would get 162, right now, without a doubt,” he said.

Henderson’s accomplishment that record-breaking day in 1991 was slightly overshadowed that night when Nolan Ryan threw his record seventh career no-hitter. Henderson had been Ryan’s 5,000th career strikeout victim, which led him to say, “If you haven’t been struck out by Nolan Ryan, you’re nobody.”

That was clearly not the case for Henderson. He is also the career leader in runs scored with 2,295 and in leadoff home runs with 81, ranks second to Barry Bonds with 2,190 walks and is fourth in games played (3,081) and plate appearances (13,346). He finished his career with 3,055 hits over 25 seasons spent with Oakland, the New York Yankees, Toronto, San Diego, Anaheim, the New York Mets, Seattle, Boston and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

He fittingly finished his career with the Dodgers at age 44 in 2003 by scoring a run in his final play on a major league field.

Henderson is the third prominent baseball Hall of Famer with ties to the Bay Area who died this year, following the deaths in June of former Giants stars Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda.

Henderson was the rare position player who batted from the right side and threw with his left arm — but then again, everything about Henderson was unique.

He batted out of an extreme crouch, making for a tighter strike zone that contributed to his high walk total. He struck fear in opponents with his aggressive leads off first, his fingers twitching between his legs as he eyed the pitcher and the next base.

Born on Christmas Day in 1958 in Chicago in the back of his parents’ Chevy, Henderson grew up in Oakland and developed into a star athlete. He played baseball, basketball and football at Oakland Tech High School and was a highly sought-after football recruit who could have played tailback at Southern California, where he could have played eventually with football Hall of Famer Marcus Allen.

But Henderson said his mother loved baseball and thought it would be the safer career in a decision that proved to be prescient.

“She didn’t want her baby to get hurt,” Henderson told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2019. “I was mad, but she was smart. Overall, with the career longevity and the success I had, she made the right decision. Some of the players in football now have short careers and they can barely move around when they’re done.” 
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Rhiannon Giddens is a Grammy- and Pulitzer-winning musical artist whose latest project tells the story of the U.S. transcontinental railroad — a story told through the eyes of its builders, including African American, Chinese, Japanese, Irish and Native American workers. It’s called “American Railroad,” and Nina Vishneva has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Vladimir Badikov
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When Pope Francis left the Vatican earlier this month for his traditional Christmastime outing downtown, he acknowledged what many Romans have been complaining about for months: That his big plans for a Holy Year had turned their city into a giant construction pit, with traffic-clogging roadworks tearing up major thoroughfares, scaffolding covering prized monuments and short-term rentals gobbling up apartment blocks.

Francis urged Romans to pray for their mayor — “He has a lot to do” — but to nevertheless welcome the upcoming Jubilee as a time of spiritual repair and renewal. “These worksites are fine, but beware: Don’t forget the worksites of the soul!” Francis said.

When he formally opens the Holy Year next week, Francis will launch a dizzying 12-month calendar of events that include special Jubilee Masses for the faithful from all walks of life: artists, adolescents, migrants, teachers and prisoners.

And while the Jubilee’s official start means the worst of the construction headache is ending, the arrival of a projected 32 million pilgrims in 2025 is set to only increase congestion in the Eternal City and intensify a housing crunch that has been driving residents away.

Like many European art capitals, Rome has been suffering from overtourism as the Italian travel sector rebounds from COVID-19: Last year, a record high number of people visited Italy, 133.6 million, with foreign tourists pushing Italy over the EU average in growth of the travel sector, national statistics bureau ISTAT reported.

Rome, with its innumerable artistic treasures, the Vatican and Italy’s busiest airport, was the top city in terms of nights booked in registered lodging, ISTAT said.

And yet for all its grande bellezze, Rome is hardly a modern European metropolis. It has notoriously inadequate public transportation and garbage collection. For the past two post-pandemic summers, taxis have been so hard to come by that the city of Rome authorized 1,000 new cab licenses for 2025.

Rome’s growing housing crisis — rents have risen about 10% this year — has gotten so bad that vigilantes have taken to going out at night with wire cutters to snip off the keyboxes on short-term apartment rentals that are blamed in part for driving up rents and driving out residents.

“The market is out of control and has definitely gotten worse with touristification, with the additional load of the Jubilee,” said Roberto Viviani, a university researcher whose landlord recently refused to renew his lease in favor of turning the apartment over to an agency to run as a holiday rental. “The surprise was that he gave the Jubilee as the justification.”

All of which has set the stage for a Jubilee opening Dec. 24 that is being received as something of a mixed bag. For the Vatican, the Holy Year is a centuries-old tradition of the faithful making pilgrimages to Rome every 25 years to visit the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul and receiving indulgences for the forgiveness of their sins in the process.

For the city of Rome, it’s a chance to take advantage of some 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) in public funds to carry out long-delayed projects to lift the city out of years of decay and neglect and bring it up to modern, European standards.

But for Romans who have seen the short-term rental market take over neighborhoods like Pigneto, on the eastern flank of the capital, it’s just another pressure point in a long-running battle to keep the flavor of their neighborhoods with affordable rents for ordinary Romans.

“The Jubilee has significantly worsened this phenomenon that we have seen, above all in the last months,” said Alberto Campailla, director of the association Nonna Roma, which has been slapping stickers “Your BnB, our eviction” on Pigneto keyboxes to protest the growth of tourist rentals.

Rome’s relationship with Jubilees dates to 1300, when Pope Boniface VIII inaugurated the first Holy Year in what historians say marked the definitive designation of Rome as the center of Christianity. Even then, the number of pilgrims was so significant that Dante referred to them in his Inferno.

Massive public works projects have long accompanied Holy Years, including the creation of the Sistine Chapel (commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV for the Jubilee of 1475) and the big Vatican garage (for the 2000 Jubilee under St. John Paul II).

Some works have been controversial, such as the construction of Via della Concilliazione, the broad boulevard leading to St. Peter’s Square. An entire neighborhood was razed to make it for the 1950 Jubilee.

The main public works project for the 2025 Jubilee is actually an extension of that boulevard: A pedestrian piazza along the Tiber linking Via della Conciliazione to the nearby Castel St. Angelo, with the major road that had separated them diverted to an underground tunnel.

The project, at 79.5 million euros ($82.5 million) the most ambitious of the 2025 Jubilee works, ran into a predictable glitch over the summer when archaeological ruins were discovered during the dredging of the tunnel. The artifacts were transferred to the castle museum and the digging resumed, with the grand opening scheduled for Monday, the eve of the Jubilee’s start.

Mayor Roberto Gualtieri has pointed to another feature of the 2025 projects that previous Jubilees have largely ignored, an emphasis on parks and “green” initiatives, in keeping with Francis’ focus on environmental sustainability.

But Francis himself has acknowledged the paradox of the Jubilee on the lives of everyday Romans. He wrote to Rome-area priests and religious orders earlier this year to ask them to “make a courageous gesture of love” by offering up any unused housing or apartments in their increasingly empty convents and monasteries to Romans threatened with eviction.

“I want all diocesan realities that own real estate to offer their contribution to stem the housing emergency with signs of charity and solidarity to generate hope in the thousands of people in the city of Rome who are in a condition of precarious housing,” Francis wrote.

Gualtieri has gone farther, demanding alongside other mayors that the national government pass the necessary norms to let them regulate the proliferation of short-term rentals, which have been blamed for reducing the available long-term rental stock and driving up prices.

“This for us is an emergency because we need to prevent entire blocks of the center from emptying out and turning into B&Bs, because the presence of residents in the center is fundamental,” Gualtieri said.

Just this week, Gualtieri joined nine other European mayors in urging the European Commission do more to address the overall urban housing crisis in many cities, where homelessness and rising rents are driving out students and workers and threatening the cities’ abilities to attract and retain talent.

But the Vatican’s point-man for the Jubilee, Monsignor Rino Fisichella, defended the Holy Year as part of Rome’s fabric and denied the influx of pilgrims was anything but a net gain for the city.

“As long as it has existed, Rome has always been called a ‘common home,’ a city that has always been open to everyone,” Fisichella said on the sidelines of a Jubilee promotional event. “To think that Rome might reduce the presence of pilgrims or tourists would in my opinion inflict a wound that doesn’t belong to it.” 
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BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA — On Christmas Eve in 1741, Moravian settlers named this Pennsylvania city after the biblical birthplace of Jesus. Nearly 300 years later, Moravians continue celebrating their Christmas season traditions in Bethlehem.

They include the “putz,” a Nativity scene that tells the story of Christ’s birth with miniature wooden figurines, the making of thousands of beeswax candles by hand as a symbol of the light that Jesus brought to the world and a “lovefeast,” a song service where worshippers share a simple meal of sweet buns and coffee in their pews.

“Like all Moravian traditions, the importance of it is that it brings people together,” said the Rev. Janel Rice, senior pastor of Central Moravian Church — Bethlehem’s first congregation and the oldest Moravian church in North America.

“Building community, emphasizing that, over doctrine or dogma, is really the Moravian practice and tradition at our core,” she said.

Moravians relate to the story of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Rice said, because their ancestors began as a refugee church fleeing religious persecution. The Nativity is also a poignant reminder today, when the number of people fleeing their homes because of war, violence and persecution continues to rise worldwide.

“It’s so crucial because this story is not just Jesus’s story of 2,000 years ago. It’s today’s story. And we need to make sure that we’re living the word that we were told when it comes to these refugees,” said church member Sarah Wascura. “That word is to give them refuge and to take care of them and to love them as ourselves.”

A town founded on Christmas Eve

The Moravian Church is one of the world’s oldest Protestant denominations. Its name comes from the historical provinces of Bohemia and Moravia in what is now the Czech Republic.

Their beliefs of practice over dogma began with a religious reformer, John Hus, who led a protest movement against some of the practices of Roman Catholic hierarchy. Hus believed congregants in his church should listen to Mass and read the Bible in their native Czech instead of Latin. He was accused of heresy and burned at the stake in 1415.

His ideas were carried on by his supporters, who broke with Rome and founded the Moravian Church, or Unitas Fratrum (Unity of Brethren) in 1457 — decades before Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation.

Moravians facing persecution eventually fled to Herrnhut, Germany, and established the original Renewed Moravian Church settlement, according to accounts of church history.

Moravian missionaries later settled in Pennsylvania.

On Christmas Eve in 1741, their leader, Count Nicolas Ludwig von Zinzendorf, who was visiting them, led them to a stable, where they sang the hymn Jesus Call Thou Me. Its lyrics say: “Not Jerusalem — lowly Bethlehem ’twas that gave us Christ to save us.” Thus inspired, Zinzendorf named the settlement Bethlehem.

Beloved tradition retells the story of the birth of Jesus

Bethlehem’s first settlers brought with them hand-carved figures to retell the story of Christ’s birth. The tradition is known as the putz, from the German word “putzen,” meaning to clean or decorate.

“It relates back to the creches of the Middle Ages,” Rice said. “But it’s not just a creche, which would be just the one Nativity scene.”

Instead, it uses figures to tell different parts of the Gospel in miniature, including Mary’s annunciation and the visit of the three wise men to the infant Jesus.

In Victorian days, Rice said, Bethlehem’s residents would “go putzing” — visiting each other’s homes between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day to look at Nativity scenes.

In 1937, the local chamber of commerce launched a campaign promoting Bethlehem as “Christmas City USA.” As part of that promotion, they took the tradition of the putz to the historic Hotel Bethlehem on Main Street. Thousands turned up.

“The story goes that the hotel got so crowded that they couldn’t really accommodate the number of people that were coming to see it, and they asked Central Moravian Church to host it.”

For every Christmas since then, the community putz has been put together by the church’s congregants and displayed at the nearby Christian education building.

“It’s more than Christmas for four weeks a year,” said Wascura, who went to the putz on her first date with Bob Wascura, her husband of 33 years.

“The nature of the faith heritage of the city is something that is never forgotten.”

On a recent day, she led families visiting the community putz to their seats. After recounting a brief history of the Moravian Church and the Pennsylvania city, she drew a curtain to display the dozens of wooden figures — angels, shepherds, kings carrying gifts — in a tiny landscape decorated with pebbles, wood and moss.

Children and parents listened to the recorded voice of Janel Rice, who narrated the biblical story about the other Bethlehem.

“We might wonder why setting up a putz and telling the story of Jesus’ birth is so important to the Moravians, and now to the city of Bethlehem,” Rice says in the recording. “One reason has to do with the naming of the city itself.”

The church choir, after some singing, gave way to the powerful sound of the renowned Moravian Trombone Choir, known for playing its brassy tunes from the belfry of Central Moravian Church. When the lights turned on, children approached the stage to look up close at the figurines and point at surprises near the manger, including miniature zebras, lions and giraffes.

“We feel really lucky to live so close to Bethlehem with all of the history here and specifically the history pertaining to Christmas,” said visitor Kelly Ann Ryan. “It’s just something that we can’t miss every holiday season as it rolls around.”

She came to Bethlehem from a nearby town with her husband, Daniel, and their 5- and 8-year-old sons to see the community putz, in what she said has become a family tradition.

“Telling the Christmas story this way is a great way for kids to connect with it.”

Lighting candles on Christmas Eve, joining Santa for a sleigh ride

Christmas — from the Christian celebration to the secular commercial holiday — is omnipresent in Bethlehem.

On a recent day, Santa Claus checked on a red sleigh (drawn by horses instead of reindeer) outside Central Moravian before he led families who hopped on for a tour of Bethlehem and its Moravian church settlements, which were recently designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Others strolled to nearby holiday-themed wooden huts or along Main Street with its stores decorated with Christmas globes and Moravian stars. Some stopped outside an Italian restaurant to greet Santa and Mrs. Claus, who welcomed diners and posed for photos.

Across town, vendors sold ornaments at Christkindlmarkt, in the shadow of rusting blast furnaces of Bethlehem Steel illuminated in red and green. That company once supplied steel for construction of the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge and other landmarks.

At Central Moravian, the choir sang hymns while sacristans handed out buns and mugs of coffee to families who enjoyed the sustenance in their pews at the “lovefeast.”

After Rice delivered a final blessing, Linda Thudium walked up the stairs and opened a large closet, where the congregation keeps thousands of handmade candles wrapped in red ribbons that they light during Christmas services.

“To me, this is Christmas — looking at these candles,” said Thudium. She recalled attending Christmas Eve services with lit candles since she was 5, a tradition she continued with her children and grandchildren.

“To me, this is just magical. I remember my parents doing this, my grandparents,” she said. “It’s just a wonderful warm feeling of being connected with this church.”
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