7aMoDi

Yes @WHAT IS GOING ON?

A Burmese python in Miami, Florida, in 2021. Photograph: Patrick Connolly/Orlando Sentinel via Getty Images Wildlife experts in Florida recently captured 500lb worth of Burmese pythons after finding two large snake “mating balls” in the south-west of the state, as part of a continued effort to prevent the non-native species from harming Floridian wildlife. The catch of a total of 11 pythons was a record for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida (CSWF), the Miami Herald reported – and it adds to the total of 34,000lb of pythons captured in that part of the state since 2013. Pythons, which are native to south-east Asia, made their way to Florida through the pet trade beginning in the 1970s, according to the CWSF. They have since established themselves as the apex predator across the Everglades region and are responsible for a 90% decline in native mammal po[CENSORED]tions. “For 10 years, we’ve been catching and putting them down humanely,” CWSF biologist Ian Bartoszek wrote in a post on Facebook. “You can’t put them in zoos and send them back to south-east Asia. Invasive species management doesn’t end with rainbows and kittens. These are remarkable creatures, here through no fault of their own. They are impressive animals, good at what they do.” The CWSF found three snakes coiled in one mating ball. There were six in another “writhing’”, 7ft-wide mating ball, the Miami Herald reported. Two more pythons were captured nearby. According to an article titled Animal Sex: How Snakes Do It on the website Live Science, snakes will form a mating ball in the days after they emerge from hibernation. “Within the snake mass, each male will try his best to get the female to open her cloaca (waste and reproductive orifice) so that he can insert his penis and mate with her,” Live Science wrote. “Sometimes, males will resort to force by suffocating the female and inducing a stress response in which she opens her cloaca to release feces and musk – giving sneaky males an opportunity to mate.” BBC Wildlife reported that male snakes “are equipped with two penises” and can “use either to mate”. Studies have shown that pythons, which can grow to 19ft long, are eating “at least 24 species of mammal, 47 species of bird and three reptile species in south Florida”, the Miami Herald reported. That includes deer. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/19/florida-burmese-pythons

Cages full of red wine grapes are seen during harvest in Barolo [File: Stefano Rellandini/Reuters] Names marked with an asterisk have been changed to protect identities. Piedmont, Italy – One of the first words that Sajo* learned in the Langhe, Italy’s northeastern wine country, was “Anduma!” In Piedmontese, the language spoken in the Piedmont region, it means “Let’s go!” Sajo, a 36-year-old from The Gambia, used to hear it constantly while working 12-hour shifts in the vineyards, rain or shine, weekends included, for 3 euros ($3.27) to 4 euros ($4.36) an hour. He had no contract and no legal status. “Anduma!” his supervisors – local wine entrepreneurs and employees of wine production companies – yelled at him and at other African migrant workers as they picked grapes to produce Barolo and Barbaresco, two of Italy’s most expensive and most exported wines. On average, a bottle of Barolo sells for 50 euros ($55), but prices for the highest quality can range from 200 euros ($220) to an eye-watering 1,000 euros ($1,090). Called the new Tuscany, the Langhe – a UNESCO heritage site since 2014 – has been featured in the lifestyle pages of international newspapers and magazines, from The Wall Street Journal to The New York Times. The vineyard-covered hills of the Langhe are described as a dreamlike destination where “wine tastes like violets”. One hectare (2.5 acres) of land can cost up to 1.5 million euros ($1.63m) But for many living and working here, the reality is far from idyllic. Since April, local authorities have uncovered more than 30 cases of “caporalato” in the Langhe vineyards, a form of exploitation in which migrant workers are recruited by intermediaries – often other migrants – and forced to work in inhumane conditions for Italian companies. Union workers and activists believe this is just the tip of the iceberg. Confagricoltura Cuneo, or the General Confederation on Italian Agriculture, estimated there are 2,500 viticulture companies that hire seasonal workers with various contracts. More than half of them are migrant workers, the group said. Labour rights activists estimated 4,000 to 5,000 people work in the vineyards and at least two-thirds of them face the risk of exploitation. Sajo arrived on the Sicilian coast in April 2015, dreaming of a good job that paid him enough to send money home to his wife and two children. “I’m Muslim,” he told Al Jazeera. “I don’t even drink wine.” Vineyards are seen in Barolo, Italy [File: Stefano Rellandini/Reuters] Sajo was granted asylum but lost his status in 2018 when the Italian government passed the so-called Salvini decree – a law named after Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right League party – which abolished humanitarian protections. After his legal standing and, with it, his job and apartment were lost, Sajo began looking for casual work – day-labour jobs in agriculture. He slept rough and worked long hours for a few euros. One day in 2021 while he was in Sicily for the olive harvest, another seasonal worker, also from The Gambia, told him of an opportunity in Alba, a small town in the heart of the Langhe. It was grape season and a new workforce was needed. As soon as Sajo got off the train in Alba, he was approached by a man, a so-called caporale, or gangmaster, who offered him a job in the vineyards. In a mix of English and broken Italian, Sajo accepted wages of 3 euros ($3.27) an hour. He settled in a small makeshift camp that had been built in the woods by other vineyard workers from Africa on a bank of the Tanaro river. They had no toilets, no running water and no electricity. When they couldn’t afford bottled water, they used the muddy river water to wash themselves and cook. “That was the hardest time since I left Gambia,” he said. “I couldn’t even recharge my phone. I couldn’t call home.” Each day, Sajo woke before dawn and walked to the train station, where a gangmaster or one of his drivers picked him and others up in a van and drove them up into the hills to the vineyards. The workers were constantly watched. “We couldn’t take breaks to go to the restroom or drink water,” he said. The gangmaster’s men yelled at the farmhands to speed up and “threatened to fire us if we slowed down or spoke up”, he recalled. Balla*, another undocumented worker from The Gambia, worked in the vineyards around Alba from 2021 to the end of last year. “They called us bad names. Some even said racist words,” he said. He said payments were often late and lower than what was promised. “Some days, I didn’t have enough money to buy [food] for the next day,” he said. “When they paid you late, you couldn’t eat.” Access to water in the vineyards was also inconsistent. “Sometimes they gave me water. Sometimes they didn’t,” he said. Matteo Ascheri, president of the Consorzio Barolo Barbarossa, the main organisation representing Barolo producers, acknowledged the perils of the caporalato system, saying he worried about the potential impact of an exploitation scandal on the Barolo brand. “If a company breaks the law, it discredits all other companies,” he said. “It’s a huge problem.” Exploitation in the Italian winemaking industry isn’t limited to the Langhe. Caporalato in this sector traces back to the early 2000s when the government passed reforms that allowed labour outsourcing. A plethora of small intermediary companies were then able to offer cheaper manpower for hire in Italy’s wine country. “Within three or four years, the labour organisation in the agriculture sector completely changed,” said Fabio Berti, a sociologist at the University of Siena who has researched exploitation in the Tuscan winemaking industry. As international demand for Italian wine grew – international exports spiked by 74 percent from 2006 to 2016 – a lack of accountability and transparency requirements in subcontracting practices exposed workers to higher risks of exploitation, and undocumented workers were the most vulnerable. “The system works so well that producers no longer have any direct contact with workers,” said Piertomaso Bergesio, a representative of CGIL, one of the country’s main unions. “The dirtiest part of the job is done by someone else [intermediary companies] who takes up the risks [of hiring them] and the opportunity of profiting off the back of people who are completely at their mercy.” In recent years, caporalato cases have been documented in the northeast, where Prosecco is made, as well in the Chianti area. But compared with other sectors, there has been less scrutiny on vineyards. Employment officials said investigating caporalato in the winemaking industry requires more resources because of the vastness of the hills where the vineyards are located. But Bergesio and others believe there’s a code of silence. “Nobody wants to talk about it,” said Francesca Pinaffo, a journalist in Alba who’s been reporting on exploitation cases in the Langhe wine country for the past three years. “Viticulture is a huge business.” An anti-caporalato law that the Italian government approved in 2016 punishes convicted gangmasters with one to five years in jail and grants asylum to survivors who report them. But experts said the implementation of the law is difficult. Undocumented migrants are often afraid to file criminal complaints against their employers because it puts their incomes at risk. “These criminal proceedings can take years, but these people need answers now. They need to send money home,” said Marco Paggi, a lawyer specialising in exploitation in the Prosecco industry. Even when workers summon up the courage to report their exploiters, the law isn’t always implemented. In 2022, Sajo reported his woes to local law enforcement. But his case fell through the cracks, and his asylum request was never processed. To this day, he doesn’t know if his affidavit led to an investigation. But he has moved on, thanks to the help of local immigration rights activists. He has his legal status back and now has a job and an apartment. “I see a future now,” he said. Since Sajo filed his complaint, awareness has grown. In late 2022, local officials launched an outreach project with labour inspectors and cultural mediators from the International Organization for Migration to inform migrant workers of their rights and support those who want to file legal complaints. But experts said there is a long way to go. “[Caporalato has] become a system to control labour costs. Companies have no interest in changing anything,” Paggi said. The reporting for this piece was supported by Journalismfund Europe. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/3/19/migrant-workers-exploited-abused-in-italys-prized-fine-wine-vineyards

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with his election campaign confidants at the Kremlin in Moscow [Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters] Mykola sarcastically wonders whether he “voted” correctly. The Ukrainian police officer left his home village near the southeastern city of Mariupol on February 25, 2022, the day after Russia’s full-scale invasion began. More than two years later, his elderly parents, who opted to stay under Russian occupation, told him they saw his name in the list of voters at the March 15-17 presidential vote. In his absence, election officials faked his “vote” for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mykola alleged, echoing reports of widespread vote rigging documented by rare and heavily persecuted independent monitors in the Russia-occupied parts of four Ukrainian regions – and in Russia proper. Mykolay’s parents also told him about how masked, heavily armed servicemen plodded the streets accompanying election officials who urged residents to fill in early ballots. “Government employees have been forced to vote, required to provide photo reports” showing their ballots with Putin’s name ticked off, Mykola, who withheld his last name and his village’s location to protect his parents, told Al Jazeera. Vote rigging in the Russia-occupied parts of four Ukrainian regions harks back to the decades of similar practices documented in Russia that included coercion to vote, ballot staffing, and “carousels” – when groups of people are bussed to dozens of polling stations. This reporter, accompanied by an independent election monitor in a northern Moscow suburb during the 2012 presidential vote, witnessed the arrival of several busloads of men, some of them visibly drunk, who loudly said they “only vote for Putin”. Hours later, the same men arrived at a different polling station, this reporter observed. An election official at the time said the “usual” winners at previous elections were either Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov or flamboyant ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky. However, the polling station always reported Putin’s victory, the official – a tired teacher who finished counting the votes at 4am – said on condition of anonymity. ‘Record falsification’ Some 110 million Russians were eligible to vote this month, and 87.1 million cast their ballots at polling stations or used an electronic voting system, Russia’s chief election official Ella Pamfilova said. Almost 65 million of them voted for Putin, she said. But at least 31.6 million votes for Putin were falsified, claimed Novaya Gazeta, an independent newspaper that has for decades been among the most trusted media outlets in Russia. Novaya Gazeta’s analysts used a mathematical model developed by election monitor Sergey Shpilkin that uses a discrepancy between voter turnout and votes for each candidate. If turnout at an individual polling station suddenly increases, the voting goes up sharply only for one candidate against statistical odds – namely, Putin, according to the model. This year’s vote beat all previous records of vote rigging, Novaya Gazeta claimed. “This is a record amount of vote falsification at a presidential vote in Russia,” it reported. Golos, Russia’s last independent election monitor whose staffers and volunteers have faced fines and arrests, said the vote was the least constitutional since Putin came to power in 2000. “We’ve never seen a presidential campaign that was so far from constitutional standards,” Golos said in a statement. The key word of this year’s presidential campaign was “imitation,” it said. The Kremlin imitated the freedom of choice and campaigning with the participation of opposition candidates who were only figureheads from pro-Kremlin political parties, it said. The Kremlin also imitated transparency and openness, election monitoring and the independence of election officials, Golos said. To a jailed Putin critic, Putin’s futile attempts to make his rule look legitimate were on full show. “Perhaps, the results of these ‘elections’ must make the antiwar part of the public apathetic. Apparently, they were designed to,” Ilya Yashin, who was sentenced to eight and a half years in jail for lambasting Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, wrote on Facebook on Monday. “But it only makes me smirk with derision. These ‘elections’ are not a sign of the dictator’s force, but his self-exposure,” he wrote. And yet, the vote indicates a tectonic shift in public opinion “from generally antiwar and neutral views to generally prowar ones”, Nikolay Mitrokhin of Germany’s Bremen University told Al Jazeera. He said even though the turnout was below the official figure, about two-thirds of voters still turned up because of a massive and hugely successful “propaganda” campaign that was boosted by Ukraine’s indiscriminate bombing of border Russian regions. Even pro-democratic Russians, once neutral about the war, now want “Russia’s unambiguous victory,” he said. One of the reasons is “a response to Ukraine’s response to the war, and Putin’s propaganda in particular,” Mitrokhin said. When average Russians want to check what they hear from Kremlin-controlled media, they surf Ukrainian websites and “see that yes, they are hated, called not just aggressors, but various racist names, and everything Russian and related to Russia is banned,” Mitrokhin said. A Russian national who lives in Germany agrees with him, having seen how elderly Russian-speaking men who emigrated from ex-Soviet Kazakhstan respond to Ukrainian activists picketing the Russian consulate in Frankfurt. “Sometimes, fights broke out,” Konstantin Rubalsky, a 47-year-old IT expert who visited the consulate a dozen times to obtain documents for his children, told Al Jazeera. “Kazakh grandpas are tough and respond with force.” Another reason why Russians voted for Putin, Mitrokhin added, is the resilience of their economy in the face of Western sanctions along with Moscow’s moderate gains on the front lines in 2023 and early 2024. Even though Russia has been hit with the largest set of sanctions in modern history, high oil prices and increased military spending heated the economy and triggered a consumption boom. “I’ve never seen Moscow consume so much, they’re buying stuff like there’s no tomorrow,” David, a lawyer in Moscow who withheld his last name, told Al Jazeera. After Russian suppliers found ways to deliver sanctioned Western goods via ex-Soviet republics and use cash or cryptocurrencies to pay for them, anything is available, he said. “The boom is obvious, and those who gain from it feel different emotions, from guilt to gambling rush,” he said. “But all of my friends understand the fun could be over tomorrow.” https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/20/record-falsification-kremlin-critics-decry-vote-won-by-russias-putin

Music title: إنما يخشى الله من عباده العلماء | الشيخ مشاري العفاسي والشيخ سعيد الكملي | برنامج آية وحكاية 3 Signer: Alafasy Release date: 2024/03/18 Official YouTube link:

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Yes @NINJAAAA?

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Yes @Cyberpsycho?

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YES @Cyberpsycho?

One of Honda's earliest passenger cars was a sportscar. With a redline of 9500 rpm and a curb weight of 1500 pounds, this little roadster is part car, part motorcycle. This one is a rare left-hand-drive example originally from the island of Okinawa. In the mid 1960s, a Japanese journalist named Shotaro Kobayashi shipped his white Honda S600 to Europe, and spend the next two months and 7500 miles hitting all the highlights. He toured the Porsche factory just as it was tooling up for production of the 911 (then called the 901). He showed up at Lotus and let Colin Chapman take a spin in the little Honda—Chapman came away impressed. Perhaps most importantly, Kobayashi and his S600 were there for Honda's debut in F1 at the Nürburgring with its spidery RA271. Who wouldn't want to relive that kind of adventure? Well, perhaps you can. Up for auction on Bring a Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos— is a near-identical match to Kobayashi's tiny road-tripping roadster, albeit one more appropriate for U.S. roads, with the steering wheel on the left side. It's a 1966 Honda S600, one of Honda's earliest passenger cars—almost more motorcycle than car. The Honda story began with motorcycles, and later in the U.S. with the thrifty and utilitarian N600 of the early 1970s. The S600 is basically the Venn diagram overlap area of those two worlds: It's got a 606-cc engine that sips fuel but one that also redlines at 9500 rpm, with four tiny carburetors, one for each cylinder. The S600 was never officially sold in the States, although Canada did receive some left-hand-drive models through a few motorcycle dealerships. This version is a left-hooker because it was originally delivered to Okinawa, which was then under American administration. In fact, Okinawans drove on the right side of the road up until June of 1978. The S600's furiously-spinning four-cylinder makes just shy of 60 horsepower, but that's only part of the driving experience. Instead, it's all about the 1500-pound curb weight, as feathery-light as a contemporary Lotus Elan. Driving an S600 is like putting a saddle and a Honda badge on a hummingbird. Its lack of inertia makes it feel agile and darty today, and in the 1960s must have been a complete revelation. This example has the equivalent of 54K miles on its odometer, and has benefited from a recent comprehensive mechanical overhaul. Both the engine and transmission were disassembled and rebuilt, including the twin rear chain drives. The fuel system was cleaned, and the electrics inspected. Best of all, this car's white on red color scheme is a match for Honda's first F1 cars. Dr. Honda himself had to fight for the right to paint his road cars white or red (neither was legal in Japan at the time except for emergency vehicles). White shows off the elegantly restrained design of this little car to maximum effect. Driving such a small car in modern traffic for 7500 miles might be a non-starter these days, but even a short weekend spin will feel adventurous in something so tiny and swift. The spirits of Shotaro and Soichiro will ride shotgun with you, smiling through the first curve. The auction ends on March 19. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a60214675/1966-honda-s600-roadster-bring-a-trailer-auction/

Erik ten Hag said Manchester ­United’s FA Cup victory against ­Liverpool could be the turning point he and his team need after beating their fierce rivals in an epic ­quarter‑final at Old Trafford. United came from 2-1 down in normal time and 3-2 down in extra time to win 4-3 thanks to Amad Diallo’s 120th‑minute winner. The matchwinning substitute was sent off for removing his shirt during the wild celebrations, having been booked earlier for preventing a quick ­Liverpool free-kick. Ten Hag’s team could have completed their comeback in normal time only for Marcus Rashford to miss a gilt-edged chance with the final kick but, having booked a semi-final place against Coventry at Wembley, the United manager was thrilled with the character and desire on display at Old Trafford. “It could be [a turning point] but we have missed so many opportunities,” Ten Hag said. “Arsenal in the fourth game of the season we should have had a penalty in the 87th ­minute, then we scored with ­Garnacho and it was disallowed and then we conceded a goal that should be disallowed. Every team needs these moments in a ­season but we never had one. This could be the moment that gives the team energy and the belief that they can do amazing things. When you can beat Liverpool like this you can beat any opponent.” The United manager believes his side produced their best ­football of the season at the start of the ­quarter‑final only to lose their way as Liverpool recovered with goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Mohamed Salah. “The first 35 minutes we showed again that the future of this team is very bright,” he said. “There is huge potential and now we have to get it out con­sistently. The first 35 minutes was very pleasing. It was really fun to be part of this game. After the first 35 we had our drop and allowed them back in the game. We know they have a very good team but we showed resilience and determination to win the game.” Defeat ended Liverpool’s dreams of a quadruple in Jürgen Klopp’s final season. The mana­ger said his side toiled in extra time when the demands on a squad that has thrived recently in adversity finally caught up with them. Klopp said: “We didn’t finish the game off and when you leave the door open away from home at Old Trafford it’s clear they will get chances and they could score the equaliser. Marcus [Rashford] had a big chance at the end of normal time. It was then really hard for us. That was the first time I saw my team really struggling. We played a lot of football recently and then go 3-2 up and all good and then they win 4-3. Come on, you can easily accept that. “Congratulations to United. They fought extremely hard as well. You want to go to the semi-finals and both teams understood the importance of the occasion and the competition. We tried absolutely everything and didn’t get a lot from it. “Now the boys have to recover. It’s really tough. They fly all over the world now and in five or six days’ time play the first of two games. Let’s really hope and pray they come back healthy and we can start the rest of the season.” A brilliant spectacle was marred by tragedy chanting from United ­supporters before and during the match, with Greater Manchester police (GMP) ­making an arrest in ­connection with the taunts. The Football ­Association condemned the ­chanting. A ­significant number of fans in the Stretford End were heard chanting “­Murderers”, “The Sun was right” and “Always the victims” around the hour, with the singing audible to the live television audience. A police spokesperson said:“GMP can confirm that an arrest has been made in connection with tragedy chanting at the Manchester United V Liverpool fixture this afternoon. Incidents of tragedy chanting will not be tolerated and will be dealt with robustly.” The FA said: “We strongly condemn any offensive, abusive and discriminatory chants in football stadiums, and we are determined to stamp this behaviour out. It is entirely unacceptable and can have a lasting and damaging impact on people and communities within our game. It must stop, and we support any club and their fans who try to eradicate this from the terraces.” https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/mar/17/erik-ten-hag-fa-cup-quarter-final-liverpool-manchester-united

Yes @WHAT IS GOING ON?

Mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria that inhibit spread of disease to be introduced in six cities after successful pilot scheme A dengue-transmitting mosquito, Aedes aegypti, in São Paulo, Brazil. When the mosquito is infected with Wolbachia, transmission of arboviruses is limited. Photograph: Isaac Fontana/EPA A dengue-fighting strategy that involves releasing bacteria-infected mosquitoes will be rolled out to six Brazilian cities in the coming months as the country battles a severe outbreak of dengue fever, a viral disease transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Factors such as hotter and wetter weather caused by the climate crisis and the circulation of previously absent subtypes of the virus are fuelling an explosion of dengue in Brazil, which has recorded 1.6m probable cases since January – the same number reported for all of last year – and 491 deaths, with a further 889 deaths under investigation, as of 14 March. Local and national health authorities have stepped up their response, notably boosting prevention measures, which include community health agents crisscrossing cities on the lookout for containers of stagnant water that could permit mosquitoes to breed. “Our strategies are old and heavily focused on vector control,” said Ethel Maciel, the secretary for health surveillance at the health ministry. But amid “a significant change in the pattern of dengue” – with earlier and bigger spikes in infections – the government is turning to newer technologies with medium-term results, such as vaccines and the release of mosquitoes infected with bacteria that limit the transmission of dengue and other arboviruses to humans. The Wolbachia method – named after a type of bacteria found in about 60% of insects but not naturally present in Aedes aegypti – has already been introduced in five Brazilian cities, providing protection to 3.2 million people. An 80m reais (£12.5m) expansion to six new municipalities will cover a further 1.7 million people. A member of staff at the World Mosquito Program releases Wolbachia mosquitoes in Niterói. The car contains 900 tubes that he will release every 50 metres. Photograph: Adrienne Surprenant/Collectif/Wellcome Eggs and larvae of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes – which Brazilians have nicknamed “wolbitos” – will be provided by a Rio de Janeiro lab in a public health institute run by the health science organisation Fiocruz, which manages the Wolbachia method in Brazil in partnership with the NGO World Mosquito Program (WMP) and with support from the health ministry. “We started off in a tiny room, with just three small cages. And now we have these big rearing cages which can hold 32,000 mosquitoes,” said the lab’s supervisor Cátia Cabral during a recent tour of the 397 sq metre (4,273 sq ft) facility, which houses approximately 1.5 million adult mosquitoes and produces 10m eggs each week. There are plans to build a bigger mosquito-breeding lab in another state. Cabral, a biologist who has worked with the WMP since the start of its Brazil-based projects 10 years ago, leads a team of 17 people who are responsible for keeping the colony of wolbitos alive in a continuous cycle of reproduction. They also monitor the implementation of the Wolbachia method in targeted areas by diagnosing Aedes aegypti eggs collected in the field. Niterói, a city of half a million inhabitants across the Guanabara Bay from Rio de Janeiro, hosted one of the initial pilot projects back in 2015 and later became the first city with full Wolbachia coverage. This appears to have helped keep dengue numbers down even as the state of Rio declared an official emergency last month. Just 689 probable cases had been recorded in Niterói as of 14 March, compared with 61,779 in neighbouring Rio de Janeiro, where the Wolbachia method was trialled on a smaller scale and in areas that presented specific challenges, such as violence-plagued favelas. Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which transmit dengue fever and Zika virus, in a jar at the International Atomic Energy Agency Insect Pest Control Laboratory in Seibersdorf, Austria. Photograph: Christian Bruna/EPA “Rio is a city with 12 times the po[CENSORED]tion but [nearly] 100 times more dengue cases than Niterói,” said Axel Grael, the mayor of Niterói. “There is no doubt that the application of the Wolbachia strategy has been decisive for our results.” New research is expected to be published later this year, but a 2021 study associated the deployment of Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes in Niterói with a 69% decrease in dengue, as well as a 56% and 37% decrease in the incidence of chikungunya and Zika, respectively – two other Aedes-borne diseases. The low cost, self-sustaining nature and proven efficacy of the Wolbachia method appeals to city authorities, according to Luciano Moreira, a Fiocruz researcher who leads the WMP in Brazil. “We have a list of more than 50 municipalities that have got in touch requesting [‘wolbitos’],” he said, adding: “Our biggest bottleneck right now is the production of mosquitoes.” The new mosquito-breeding lab, which should be up and running by 2025, will increase the current production capacity tenfold, to 100m eggs each week. “Our projections show that within 10 years, we will be able to protect around 70 million Brazilians across various cities,” said Moreira. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/mar/15/brazil-to-release-millions-of-anti-dengue-mosquitoes-as-death-toll-from-outbreak-mounts

The actor talks to Vicki Power about the community of dog-walking, the genius of Peter Falk and the importance of a bedtime routine ‘I’m trying to take care of myself’: David Harewood. Photograph: Dave Benett/Getty Images for Walpole Up early? Our Cavapoo, Sebby, enjoys getting me up at the crack of dawn, so by 7.30 we’re out the door heading for Streatham or Wandsworth Common, rain or shine. It’s nice – you get chatting to other dog walkers. What’s for breakfast? Occasionally my wife [Kirsty] and I will cook a fry-up: bacon, egg, sausage, beans, toast, black pudding and tea. If not, we’ll snack until we have a Sunday roast around three or four. It’ll just be me and my wife: our eldest daughter is at university and our youngest daughter won’t be out of bed until 2pm. Sundays growing up? It was all about football. I’d play for my school on Saturday and then for my Sunday league team. By 8am I’d be getting in a poky little van with my mates and driving to some godforsaken part of Birmingham to play on a muddy pitch with stones and glass. It was joyous. Then I’d go home with a few mates and my mum would cook for everybody. Sunday mornings now? I will tune in to a couple of episodes of Columbo. Peter Falk is a genius, and I love those old stars playing the baddies. It takes me back to being a kid. Then the sport starts: Formula One or a big football match. I become a complete couch potato. Late afternoon? The sport lasts all afternoon. My wife will be downstairs braiding my daughter’s hair. I’m left to my own devices, which is wonderful. I might pop to the shed, prune some bushes in the garden, or head to Brixton on my bike and sit outside with a sneaky beer, watching the world go by. Sundays are about indulgence. Early evening? I’ll have reheated roast beef and gravy around 8pm, with a nibble of rum, and we’ll watch a big, meaty drama. Just before bed? My New Year’s resolution was to give myself a bedtime routine – when I’m away I tend to fall into bed, sometimes drunk. So I’m trying to take care of myself. I’ll wash my face, moisturise, maybe have a bath with Epsom salts. Then I’ll pop into my office for an hour to look at the week ahead. David appears in World’s Most Dangerous Roads, tonight at 8pm on Dave and catch-up on UKTV Play” https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/mar/17/sunday-with-david-harewood-i-sit-with-a-sneaky-beer-watching-the-world-go-by

The UN agency says surviving children do not ‘even have the energy to cry’ as famine looms in the besieged enclave being bombarded for months. A Palestinian girl holds a bowl of beans before an iftar meal in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip [File: Mohammed Abed/AFP] Israel has killed more than 13,000 children in Gaza since October 7 while others are suffering from severe malnutrition and do not “even have the energy to cry”, says the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). “Thousands more have been injured or we can’t even determine where they are. They may be stuck under rubble … We haven’t seen that rate of death among children in almost any other conflict in the world,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell told the CBS News network on Sunday. “I have been in wards of children who are suffering from severe anaemia malnutrition, the whole ward is absolutely quiet. Because the children, the babies … don’t even have the energy to cry.” Russell said there were “very great bureaucratic challenges” moving trucks into Gaza for aid and assistance as famine stalks more than two million Palestinians since Israel’s “genocidal” war began. Moreover, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), one in three children under the age of two in northern Gaza is now acutely malnourished. The agency also warned that famine is looming in the besieged enclave facing relentless Israeli bombing for more than five months. International criticism has mounted on Israel due to the death toll of the war, the starvation crisis in Gaza, and allegations of blocking aid deliveries into the enclave. On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his threat of a ground assault on Rafah, the town bordering Egypt where more than a million Palestinians have taken refuge. “No amount of international pressure will stop us from realising all the goals of the war: eliminating Hamas, releasing all our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat against Israel,” Netanyahu said in a video released by his office. “To do this, we will also operate in Rafah,” he said. Play Video Since October 7, Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 31,645 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and displaced nearly two million of its residents. The Israeli operation has also led to accusations of genocide, being probed at the UN’s International Court of Justice. Israel has repeatedly denied the genocide charges and stressed that it is acting in self-defence after the October 7 attack by Hamas that it says killed more than 1,130 people and took more than 200 as captives. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/17/over-13000-children-killed-in-gaza-others-severely-malnourished-unicef

Russian President Vladimir Putin has hailed his election victory as a vindication of his decision to invade Ukraine [File: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP] Russian President Vladimir Putin has cemented his grip on power in a landslide election victory that has been widely criticised as lacking democratic legitimacy. In a post-election news conference, Putin cast the outcome as a vindication of his decision to defy the West and invade Ukraine. “No matter who or how much they want to intimidate us, no matter who or how much they want to suppress us, our will, our consciousness – no one has ever succeeded in anything like this in history,” Putin said in an address from his campaign headquarters early on Monday morning. “It has not worked now and will not work in the future. Never.” Shortly after the last polls closed on Sunday, early returns pointed to the conclusion everyone expected: that Putin would extend his nearly quarter-century rule for six more years. According to Russia’s Central Election Commission, he had some 87 percent of the vote with about 60 percent of precincts counted. The result means Putin, 71, will overtake Joseph Stalin and become Russia’s longest-serving leader in more than 200 years. Communist candidate Nikolay Kharitonov came second with just under 4 percent, newcomer Vladislav Davankov third and ultra-nationalist Leonid Slutsky fourth, early results suggested. Nationwide turnout was 74.22 percent when polls closed, election officials said, surpassing 2018 levels of 67.5 percent. Putin’s victory was never in doubt as his critics are mostly in jail, in exile or dead, while public criticism of his leadership has been stifled. The Russian leader’s most prominent rival, Alexey Navalny, died in an Arctic prison last month. For Putin, a former KGB lieutenant colonel who first rose to power in 1999, the result is intended to underscore to the West that its leaders will have to reckon with an emboldened Russia, whether in war or in peace, for many more years to come. The United States said the vote was neither free nor fair. “The elections are obviously not free nor fair given how Mr. Putin has imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running against him,” said the White House’s National Security Council spokesperson. United Kingdom Foreign Secretary David Cameron said in a post on X that the vote was “not what free and fair elections look like”. In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, “This election fraud has no legitimacy and cannot have any”. The election came more than two years after Putin’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II. On Sunday, thousands of Putin’s opponents staged a protest against him, although there was no independent tally of how many of Russia’s 114 million voters took part in the demonstrations. Supporters of Navalny had called on Russians to come out to a “Noon against Putin” protest. At his press conference, Putin referred to Navalny by name for the first time since his death, saying he had supported a proposal to release him in exchange for prisoners held in Western countries. “The person who was talking to me hadn’t finished his sentence and I said ‘I agree’,” Putin said. Putin was first nominated as acting president when former Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigned. He then won his first presidential election in March 2000 and a second term in 2004. After two stints as president, Putin switched back to being prime minister in 2008 to circumvent a constitutional ban on holding more than two consecutive terms as head of state. But he returned to the presidency in 2012 and won a fourth term in 2018. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/17/putin-poised-to-win-russian-presidential-election-by-a-landslide

Music title: مصطفى حفل بريطانيا | مشاري راشد العفاسي Signer: Alafasy Release date: 2024/01/04 Official YouTube link: