#continents i know the least are africa and asia (i know the large countries but theres a ton of small ones there that i dont know well)

[aq2003]

globle WILL be the way i fill in the gaps in my knowledge of world geography

[mariacallous]

Hello, this is Kostyantyn Nechyporenko. I’m a researcher at the Kyiv Independent’s War Crimes Investigations Unit.

In this issue of The Witness, our newsletter about Russian war crimes, I’ll talk about how Russia exploits poverty in Asian and African countries to recruit soldiers for its war against Ukraine.

On Aug. 1, 2024, the Indian government told its parliament that it knew of eight Indian citizens who died in Ukraine while serving in the Russian army. The exact number of Indians serving in the Russian military is unknown, but the government knows of 63 Indian nationals who "have sought early discharge" from the Russian army.

At the first glance, this news may seem strange. Russia’s population is almost three times bigger than Ukraine’s – why would Russia look for soldiers abroad?

Moreover, why would it recruit soldiers from the other side of the continent and spend resources on logistics instead of finding "volunteers" nearby, from the countries that are culturally closer, where people may speak Russian and have even served in an army that is similar to that of Russia?

Russia doesn’t limit itself with India. In June, the Kyiv Independent published a video of a questioning of a Nepali POW who fought for Russia in Ukraine. Russian special services send hundreds of people to conduct secret or semi-secret recruitment in dozens of countries. Ukrainian military intelligence has said that Russians are recruiting citizens of at least 21 countries for the war in Ukraine.

The list includes post-Soviet countries, as well as Serbia, and a number of countries in South Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. This list is probably not exhaustive, as videos and photos of alleged citizens of Somalia, China, Vietnam, Cameroon, and Ghana participating in the war on the side of the Russians have surfaced.

What do we know about Russia’s international recruitment and why it’s conducting it?

The recruitment is active in the countries where Russia can afford to not care about locals’ discontent, where there won't be even a diplomatic note of protest or condemnation.

It is telling that the reaction of the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry to Russian recruitment of its citizens was to propose to set up a "joint committee" with Russia to address the following issues: "payment of compensation for the deceased and the wounded, the plight of the uncontactable Sri Lankans, and the possibility of voluntary returns." Despite the obviously abusive attitude towards the Sri Lankans in the Russian military, the statement has no hint of resentment or dissatisfaction.

One might think that the point of international recruitment is to give the impression that Russia’s war is supported by a large number of countries. However, there seems to be not enough publicity to support this version. There is no evidence of a systematic public campaign by the Russian state and Kremlin-controlled media that would highlight that volunteers from around the world are joining their fight.

From what I've seen, most videos and photos of foreigners in the Russian army show that Russian recruiters tend to target poor and embattled countries.

Syria is the most appalling example. After years of brutal campaigns in support of the Assad regime, Russia is taking advantage of the country’s dire economic situation, lack of essential goods and staple foods, and many Syrians struggling to provide for their families. Some public sector employees, for example, can earn as little as $20 a month. For many Syrians, the promise of a soldier’s wage of $300 to $3,000 per month is very tempting. In addition, recruiters often promise non-combat roles, "work in the rear," or even "guarding facilities" thousands of miles away from the combat zones. Often, it’s deliberate deception.

Those who accept the offers risk ending up in so-called "meat assaults" – this is what Ukrainians call Russian tactics in which waves of infantry with little or no mechanized support attempt to wear down the defenders of Ukrainian fortified positions with continuous attacks. Such tactics are not uncommon in the Russian army, known for its blatant disregard for casualties.

This is exactly what happened to one of the Syrians who was lured to Russia with the promise of "guarding gold mines in eastern Siberia" and a tempting salary, where he quickly found himself in the ranks of the Russian army. In an audio message to his uncle, he describes how he was forced to walk over the bodies of killed soldiers and how horrified he was to see scorched earth and burned trees on battlefields.

Technically, such recruitment isn’t a war crime. But if you ask me, exploiting poverty, dire living conditions, and unemployment to send people far from home to die in an unprovoked and ill-motivated war is not just predatory recruitment. It is a crime.

Still, Russia needs more people to fight. Their tactics and strategy require many troops, no regard for casualties, and treating soldiers as “expendables.” Therefore, the search for new soldiers never stops.

One of the recruitment ads got a lot of attention on Ukrainian social media because of its somewhat comical wording and lack of consistency. It begins with the words “Contract work for real men in Moscow” and ends with “The women are back in action! Recruitment in Rostov-on-Don has opened for you!” However, those who mocked the ad missed a very important part: the ad promised a one-time bonus of 2.3 million rubles (about $25,000, a great deal of money for Russia) for signing the contract. This shows how much the Russian army needs more recruits and how unwilling the Russian leadership is to intensify the mobilization at home. Foreign mercenaries are a different case — they can be paid less, and there are no political consequences at home if they die or get seriously wounded.

As I was writing this newsletter, the military juntas of Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali sent a letter to the UN Security Council condemning Ukraine's alleged support for rebels in the Sahel. Following the successes of the Tuareg rebels in their battles against the Wagner, many Ukrainian military bloggers have speculated that they are being supported and perhaps even trained by the Ukrainian special services. Whether this is true or not is hard to say now. But Mali and Burkina Faso are definitely on the list of countries where Russians actively recruit soldiers.

This war may be taking place on the territory of just two countries in Eastern Europe, but it has truly global implications.

[thetrgger]

One of my teachers, a really cool and interesting guy, once said that, if you had an idea, and someone else did that, then it was never yours. An idea is yours if you think it and go as far as you can with making it real. That is when it is your idea. And I don't know how to make games, especially not on the level I think this idea deserves to be made on, but I do have the idea, and I've thought on how to theoretically make it, though I am sure that counts for little. Anyways, here it is: A horror game based on the idea of superposition, where something can be in multiple states until measured. In this case, it is the (what I'll refer to as) monster that is in superposition, in multiple locations at once, perhaps in different forms as well. I never liked the overused horror monster that could only kill when not looked at, so I turned it on its head. Now we have a monster, created by the classic human meddling with space-time, that you must absolutely not look at it. Measure it with thine eyes, and it will be there, and it will see you as you see it, and boy does it want you dead. You'll have to go through the tight halls of a wrecked Research Centre™ as well as disturbingly large rooms, and in a place as ruined as this, you best watch your step, or meet your end at something as boring as sharp debris, falls or inconveniently positioned equipment.

What was the reason for all this science mumbo jumbo that lead to this creature? Why, the search for immortality of course. If you could exist in multiple states at one time, it would not matter if you died once, you have more states to live in that are perfectly fine. Except whoever greenlit this project probably didn't consider the consequences of using death-row inmates as test subjects, and skipping any animals. The result was a "human", born a big ol' murderer, that had their atoms flung around a tad too much and now they resemble that of a blended squirrel without the fur and double the terror. And this stuff was in prototype phase, so each and every state of the poor buddy is gonna be uniquely screwed up. Maybe they have about fifty six eyes too many and they really don't appreciate not having any eyelids... That or the pain of being a flesh creature with too many views of one ugly idiot staring at them. Maybe they're blinder than the genetical defect of a child between a mole and a bat with the hearing of Mr. Krabs when the cash register goes off, and god are your footsteps loud and annoying (but, you know, also the immeasurable pain of being a creature like that.) I think you get the idea. Don't worry, they won't stay put even if they want to though, being a "living" creature in superposition is not your average Tuesday (the canonical day this would take place) and their states just kinda float around when not observed. Maybe the freaky, breathing blob of skin is on the 4th floor one moment, but the other, it is two feet to your left.

Oh, but of course, you want to GET OUT of the terrifying and dangerous ruin, yeah, I forgot about that tidbit. How do you do that? Well, this wasn't your run of the mill Bachelors students doing a group project, the Government™ was all over this and made sure it was the number one top secret. Only people who knew worked in the place itself, or at least resided there, and they did not fancy any easy access, so you gotta go against some big ol' doors, buddy.

Now gimme a second to decide where this takes place geographically. Okay, did some wheel spinning, picked a country from every continent plus one from the entire world, and the mix of all these is gonna be what this country is gonna be like: Europe, Estonia; Asia, Armenia; Africa, Tunisia; North America, Grenada; South America, Bolivia; Oceania, Nauru and all countries, Netherlands. Okay, so let's say they have the language of Estonia, architecture of Armenia, food of Tunisia, people of Grenada, geography and nature and terrain and stuff of Bolivia, history of Nauru and general influences on all parts from Netherlands. Credit to random wheel jr.

Oh and there's also Martin. Martin is just chilling. The whole superposition thing worked perfectly on him, he wasn't even supposed to be on death row, got framed by accident (he doesn't mind.) He just exists all over the world. Maybe you see Martin, he says hello, asks how your day is, that stuff. Come back the next day and he isn't there, but don't worry, one of him will float back around to you one day. He just chills, nothing much. No pain, no anger, no nothing. Just a cool guy. Scared of the water, but otherwise unperturbed, just carries on existing.

[icannotreadcursive]

So we all know JKR is a moron, and one of the places that shows is in the official Wizarding Schools list. Mostly because there are way too few of them

There are officially 11 of them, and we know 8: 3 in Europe (one of which is in the British Isles), 1 in Russia, 1 in Japan, 1 in Africa, 1 in South America, and 1 in North America. That's a ridiculously tiny number, and almost all of them cover ranges that are ridiculously huge and with such diverse cultures and magical traditions within their range. So let's run through what I consider a sensible distribution of wizarding schools.

Starting with the British Isles, we know we have Hogwarts in Scotland.  There would also be one in Ireland—because of the way Irish history has gone, this school likely would have taken a side in the Troubles and therefore be, at least unofficially, either very Catholic or very Protestant. Irish wizarding kids whose families are religiously opposite to the school, or not particularly religious, may then choose to go to Hogwarts instead to avoid conflict. I think there used to beother schools—1 in Wales, and as many as 3 in England, 1 in or near London, and 1 each associated with Cambridge and Oxford universities. The Cambridge and Oxford schools I think would have evolved over time into magic colleges, because I do not believe for a second that there is no such thing as post-secondary wizarding education. The London school can't still exist and have it still make sense that all our Hogwarts friends end up at Hogwarts—if it's a fancy private school, Draco is there not at Hogwarts; if it's a public school Hermione and all the Weasleys are there, not at Hogwarts, and so on. I'm not sure exactly why or when I think it closed, but sometime before the 1990s, probably before the 1950s, Hogwarts absorbed the London school's student pool. The Welsh school I think was a victim of the English destruction of Welsh culture. If it still exists, or has been rebuilt, I think it's very small and teaches at least partially in Welsh.

Moving on to the rest of Europe. We know we have Beauxbatons in France, and I buy that. Then we have Durmstrang, which is allegedly in Scandinavia. “Durmstrang” doesn't sound Scandinavian to me, it sounds German, because it is German. It's obviously derived from the German phrase “Sturm und Drang” which means “storm and stress,” so I feel like Durmstrang must be somewhere that is or has been German-speaking.  I'm inclined to put it in Poland in one of the areas that used to be in Prussia, possibly near Danzig. Durmstrang would then serve most everywhere that has ever been part of that which is now Germany, so most of the middle of Europe.

I do think there is also at least 1 school in Scandinavia. And there's going to be 1 in Spain, 1 it Italy—specifically Rome—and 1 in the south-east of Europe, probably Romania or Bulgaria.

That brings us up to a total of 8 major magic schools in Europe, 2 of them in the British Isles, not counting any magic colleges.

You may note I sort of left out most of Eastern Europe. That's because I think there's probably a school somewhere between Moscow, and Minsk in Belarus that serves Eastern Europe and Western Russia. That is still a very large geographical range, but a lot of that area is quite sparsely populated so I think it works out, especially if we expect that there are smaller, more local schools and/or homeschooling coalitions going on. We'll say this is Koldovstoretz, the canon Russian school. But also, Russia is freaking enormous, there's no way there's only one magic school in all of Russia. I think there must be ant least 1 more, out east, but probably there's 2, one out east and one more toward the middle, possibly near Krasnoyarsk.

I'm willing to believe that there is 1 major magic school in Japan, and that's the canon Mahoutokoro School of Magic. That cannot be the only school in Asia.

There has to be 1 in China. Now, despite China's size, I'm actually okay with the idea of there only being 1 major official magic school. China has a long history of centralizing government and education and its vast bureaucracy. I can see there being one school that's been there since, like, the 800s AD. If there is only the one official school, though, there will also be smaller local less prestigious schools, and again homeschooling.

There's definitely at least 1 in India. Mongolia and Kazakhstan are both traditionally nomadic enough that I expect magic is taught much more on a familial, elder-to-child basis without any large centralized schools. I feel like there would be 1 in Korea, because while Korea is relatively small, it is culturally very distinct from both China and Japan and has historically made a point of maintaining that distinction, so I don't think they'd be sending their wizarding kids to either of the neighboring magic schools.

I am going to very conservatively say there's 1 on the Indochinese Peninsula.

That gives us 5 in Asia. With the 8 in Europe and 3 in Russia, we're already at 16 major magic schools.

There's at least 4 in the middle east: 1 in Turkey, 1 in Iran, 1 in Saudi Arabia, and 1 in the vicinity of Israel that focuses on Judaic magic tradition. Exactly where that one is—whether it's within the modern state of Israel or not—is going to depend pretty significantly on how old it is, whether it's born of Jewish cultural revival and reclamation or if it's ancient. It's quite likely there would be more schools than this, it's a large region with longstanding emphasis on education, but let's just go with these 4.

We're at 20 schools.

Africa. Canon gives us Uagadou School of Magic in Uganda. The idea that there is only 1 school to serve the entire African continent is insane. And I don't think there's any way around the fact that it derives from the colonialist and racist idea that Africa and African people are uncivilized and uneducated.

In North Africa, I'm saying there's at least 2: 1 in Morocco, and 1 in Egypt. Because of regional histories, there's definitely 1 in Ethiopia and definitely 1 in Zimbabwe. I expect at least 1 in Western Africa, probably Nigeria. I was thinking that is there's 1 in South Africa (the country specifically, not the region of Southern Africa) there'd be 2, one white one black, because of Apartheid, but on second thought I highly suspect that until quite recently, most or all white wizarding kids in South Africa would have been sent to Durmstrang or Hogwarts, depending on their parents' backgrounds and socialaspirations, so I'm not sure what magic schools there might be in Southern Africa other than the one in Zimbabwe.

This puts us at (a minimum of) 6 schools in Africa, 26 worldwide.

Hopping the Atlantic to North America where it's just as ridiculous to think there's 1 school for the entire damn continent. There's going to be at least 8 in the U.S. alone. An old affluent white one up east that looks a whole lot like its European cousins (that's Ilvermorny), 2 in the south (one that started off whites only, one historically black), 2 in the midwest (again, one white one black), 1 in California, 1 that at least used to be girls only (this one is probably also East Coast), and 1 that focuses on Native magic traditions that's either west/midwest or in or near the Qualla Boundary in North Carolina.

There's at least 3 in Canada: an English speaking one probably east of middle, an English speaking one in the west that probably also gets kids from Alaska, and a French speaking one in Quebec.

I'm thinking another 3 in Mexico and Mesoamerica, one of which was or is closely tied to the school in Spain, and all 3 of which teach different, even conflicting, magical traditions.

We're at 40 schools worldwide.

In South America, we know we have Castelobruxo in Brazil, which allegedly serves all of South America, but that's also stupid, in no small part because Brazil speaks a different language from the entire rest of the continent. So that gives us bare minimun 2 schools: Portuguese speaking Castelobruxo, and another Spanish speaking school. I'm gonna say there's actually 2 Spanish speaking schools, for a total of 3.

Finally, Australia's gotta have 1.

So, using my numbers, which I fully recognize leave out a lot of places and still give most of these schools impractically large ranges, even taking into account home schooling and community-based education, we get 44 Wizarding schools. That's four times the official number.

Like, wtf.

[owakoblack-portspa]

(APH PortSpa) African Holiday

APH fan fiction. I do not own the characters.

Pairing: Portugal/ Spain, Spain/ Portugal

Pedro is the nation of Portugal and Antonio is the nation of Spain. For convenience, I use their human names instead of names of nations in this fiction. Pedro and Spain meet at Ceuta, a city in Africa.

African Holiday

On a very quiet night, a long-haired little boy was sleeping alone on a large, soft bed. Such a huge bed was more suitable for at least two boys lying on it, and sure enough, this boy lied on the right side of the bed, as if saving a place for somebody to sleep on the left side.

Suddenly, a knock on the bedroom door broke the silence, causing the boy in bed to wake. He did not get up at once, but simply turned onto the other side.

 “Disculpe, may I come in?” A sweet voice of a little boy called out beyond the door. Both the boys had dark-brown hair.

 The boy in bed reached out for a spare pillow lying on the left side of the bed, and pressed it upon his ear, trying hard to continue sleeping.

 “I can’t sleep, can I sleep with you?” The child outside the door raised his voice, and knocked more loudly.

 “How old are you? Can’t you sleep alone? It’s time to grow up!” The boy in bed finally replied.

 “Lo siento.”

 Since then, the boy outside the door never came again.

 In Ceuta, a harbour city on the northern tip of Africa, you can find everywhere talkative Spaniards, logos written in Spanish, products from Europe, flags in red and gold colours, and you feel there is no difference from Andalusia on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea. However, Africa is not Europe after all. It is much more significant to travel from continent to continent, rather than to travel from province to province, or from country to country.

 A barbería on the opposite of the port has no difference from most of the barberías on the Spanish mainland either: right now inside the barbería where Enrique Iglesias’ dancing songs were playing, a barber with a big beard was sweeping away hair left on the chair, while swaying to the music, cheerfully. It is a mystery that the Spaniards can keep excited all the time, perchance because of lovely sunshine, perchance because of the blue sea–it is a happy nation after all.

 As the wind chimes on the glass door of the shop rang merrily, the door opened, a cool sea wind blew in, and a tall young man walked inside. His long dark-brown hair was tied into a pony tail, a caramel jacket rounded his slim waist, and a pair of goggles hung on his well-built chest.

 “¡Buenos días! ¿Tiene una reserva?” As soon as the barber straightened up to see the young man’s face, his smile turned into a surprised look, “Dios mío, did I just trim Señor’s hair? How come it grows back even longer than before within a blink of an eye?”

 “Don’t worry, Señor Peluquero, I’m still here. I just paid at the counter.” Another young man touched the back of the barber from behind, and put both of his hands in front of his face to form a picture frame, “after trimming my hair, I’m as cool as a breeze!” The short-haired young man winked his light green eyes while smiling brightly, and incredibly, some stars fell out of the frame.

 “What a coincidence, Antonio. I just arrived from the port, and spotted you inside this barbershop.”

 “Isn’t it Pedro? I’ve never expected you here!”

 The confused barber turned his head to look at the picture-framing, short-haired young man, and then turned back to see the long-haired young man who just walked into the shop. He found that both of their faces and bodies exactly the same, even the colours of their hair, eyes, and skin the same too, as if God conveniently used the same colours from his colour palette to paint these two , except that He dotted a beauty spot under the right eye of the long-haired one, in order to distinguish from his twin. “You two are twins!” the barber exclaimed.

 “We are not twins!” the two young men protested in one voice.

 “So…you two are brothers who look much alike?”

 “We are just neighbours!” two men, one voice again.

 “Are you really just neighbours? I can tell from your appearances that you two are related by blood!” The barber stretched out his strong arms to bring both of the young men close together, and shouted to a girl at the counter. “Isabel, don’t you think they look much alike? Mira, mira,” the barber turned Pedro’s face towards Isabel, “when his pony tail couldn’t be seen from the front, even their hair styles are los mismos!”

 “Even so,” Isabel shrugged her thin shoulders, “los amigos have told you they ain’t bros, so they ain’t bros, are you thinking of helping people recover their long-lost familia?”

 “I see, it’s a matter of hair style.” Pedro mused, “por favor, Señor Peluquero, could you make a new hair style for me?”

 Half an hour later, Pedro’s long dark-brown hair was trimmed thin and made more stylish, which reached down his prominent collarbones.

 “Listo, as cool as a breeze!” Imitating Antonio, the barber put his hands to form a picture frame in front of Pedro, but this time there were no fallen stars, for Pedro did not wink, but instead smiled mildly to his mirrored self. “In this way, you two don’t look the same any more!” the barber admired his masterpiece happily, “Señor looks so handsome, bueno, guapo!”

 “Gracias, but I’m a navigator, it’s better for me to tie my hair while sailing at sea. However, today I have a holiday, and Antonio is beside me, let me forget the pony tail for a while.” He brushed gracefully his long hair with his hand, satisfied.

 After leaving the barbería, Pedro and Antonio walked leisurely in the direction of the old town. Pedro’s caramel jacket was again tied around his waist, and despite the hot African weather, he wore short black gloves. He and Antonio both wore short-sleeve shirts, and their opening collars revealed deep shapes of their chest cleavages.

 “Pedro, why are you in Africa?” Antonio walked a step ahead of the quiet young man, turning around to look at the other with his bright green eyes.

 “Me chame de Pedro, faz favor. In Portuguese, you should pronounce ‘Pedru’, instead of ‘Pedro’.” Pedro spoke in Portuguese–even though he had spoken fluent Spanish at the barber’s, he had got used to speak Portuguese to Antonio whenever they were alone.

 “Todo bien, ‘Pedru’. You know although I can understand Portuguese, I don’t speak it well.” Antonio continued to communicate with Pedro in Spanish, while the other spoke Portuguese.

 “Our ship is heading to a tall ship festival in Marseilles. When we crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, I thought of our past in Ceuta, so I stopped to visit here.”

 “Our past in Ceuta? You mean yours and mine?”  

 Pedro nodded slightly.

 Antonio began to feel anxious, deliberately avoiding Pedro’s gaze.

 When they were approaching the gate of the old town, they saw a huge coat of arms of the city which looked very similar to the Portuguese national coat of arms: in the middle of the red shield are five blue mini shields, surrounded by seven golden tiny castles.

 When they were about to cross the street, Pedro stopped short.

 “In Spain, you don’t have to wait for traffic lights all the time…” Antonio wanted to push him, but he found the Portuguese was gazing on a sculpture in the middle of the round-about. It was the sculpture of Prince Henry the Navigator.

 Pedro kept silent, but his emerald eyes spoke for him. In his eyes, there was a mixture of worship, nostalgia, and sorrow. Such a beautiful, bright young man was suddenly shrouded by sadness, just like the sun shadowed by dark clouds, and a cool breeze laden with salt.

 “Disculpe, I suddenly remember I have some important thing to do, can I leave?” Antonio tried to escape, but was stopped at once by another.

 “Don’t you go, you should be my tour guide.”

 “Even though you wish so, there is not much worth tour guiding…”

 Much against his will, Antonio led Pedro to a bastion east to the old town gate, which is one of the landmarks in Ceuta. An edge of the bastion extended gracefully into a moat circling the city, where deep blue seawater turned into emerald, and a big school of small fish attracted the attention of several migrant birds. Above the top of the bastion, a flag of blood and gold was flying proudly.

 Antonio noticed that Pedro was becoming more and more moody. He felt so guilty that he wanted to climb up the bastion to tear down the flag, if he could.

 At this moment, a pair of Asian twin girls went towards them.

 “Excuse me, do you speak English?”

 Antonio was not confident in his English, so he eyed Pedro for assistance.

 “How can I help you, beautiful ladies?” Pedro replied in British English, and later, according to these girls’ request, took photos for them. Antonio chuckled quietly, because he knew that Pedro had kind of “yellow fever”, for he had a particular passion for Asians, which had been one of the secret reasons why he had ventured so far away to Asia during the Age of Discovery.

 “May I ask if we could take photos together? We are all twins!”

 “Pero nosotros no somos gemelos…” Antonio tried to deny without a second thought, but these Asian girls did not understand his Spanish.

 “Certainly! Antonio, come here!” Apparently, Pedro was afraid of making the shy Asian girls embarrassed, so he did not deny he and Antonio being twins, and pulled the Spaniard to take photos together.

 “Can we ask a question about history?” the girls asked carefully.

 “Ask away, darlings.” Pedro winked, smiling.

 “Doesn’t Ceuta belong to Spain? Why are there so many Portuguese emblems here then?”

 “Umm, as for this question, it’s better to let Antonio explain, for he’s the local tour guide.”

 Antonio felt stressed, for it would be a challenge for him to explain the complicate history related to both Spain and Portugal in his “broken” English. It was obvious that Pedro wanted to make fun of him. However, if he cast the task back to Pedro, when recalling the past, would Pedro become sad again? Antonio did not feel like seeing that sorrowful face, so he began to explain slowly in English:

 “Ceuta was a part of Morocco long time ago. In the year of 1415, Prince Henry of Portugal conquered this military fortress…”

 “Excuse me, who was Prince Henry?” the girls asked.

 “He was a great navigator who started the Portuguese Age of Discovery. From then on, Portugal gradually discovered new sea routes. The new route to India discovered by Vasco da Gama was in fact the continuation of Prince Henry’s sea routes. In other words, if there were no Prince Henry, there would have been no Vasco da Gama, or even the Portuguese Empire. Perhaps Prince Henry is not as famous as da Gama worldwide, but for Portugal, he was the most important person.”

 The twin girls began to admire this prince, “How brave are the navigators to discover the unknown world!”

 “He is also a navigator.” Antonio pointed to Pedro, who was smiling in the shade of a tree. “Let me continue the history of Spain and Portugal. After the conquest, Portugal rebuilt Ceuta, so the city coat of arms contains Portuguese emblems. Between 1580 and 1640, Portugal was ruled by Spain. Many Spanish people migrated to Ceuta, so even after Portugal’s independence from Spain in 1640, Ceuta still sided with Spain. Finally in 1668, Portugal ceded Ceuta to Spain. Therefore, you can still see Spanish flags flying on the African continent today.”

 After the twin girls had left, Antonio and Pedro found all museums closed at noon. As the sun was becoming hotter, they had no choice but to sit down at an ice cream parlour by the seaside.

 It seemed that Pedro was exhausted by the hot weather, for even ice cream could not cheer him up. He kept silent and ate quietly without looking up at Antonio, which made Antonio unbearable. Finally, Antonio broke the ice:

 “Pedro, I want to say that I am sorry, for I have taken up the place you had cherished.”

 “Which place?” Pedro tucked his long hair behind his ear, and had another spoonful of ice cream.

 “This place, Ceuta.”

 Pedro fell silent again for a moment. Then, his head turned slightly towards Antonio, a pair of scorching eyes stared at the Spaniard fiercely behind long hair, and he said: “Now you know that you’re sorry, you know that…” he covered his mouth with a hand, as if trying hard to suffocate his moaning, “…you already know that Dom Henrique was the person I had most respected, most loved…and this place had been the first step where we began to explore the world…and yet, you…!”

 “Pedro…”

 “You were too strong, too powerful–so powerful that you swallow up everyone who were close to you…Aragon, Navarre, Granada…being your neighbour, you had no idea how hard I had tried to survive…and you still don’t know why I want to keep distance from you–you’ve never cared about others.”

 “…lo siento.”

 “…that’s why I set my knights guard against you on borders.” Pedro added.

 Antonio did not know how to reply, and Pedro lost the interest of continuing their conversation, so these two kept silent while watching the blue Mediterranean Sea and eating ice cream. After a while, two identical cats approached them for food, and they gave the cats ice cream respectively. Later, the cats curled up to sleep under their legs. It was time for siesta. The two young men bent on the table and fell asleep too.

 When Antonio woke up, he found himself alone, a caramel jacket covering his back.

 “Señor, did you sleep well? Your brother has already paid the bill.” A waiter came over and smiled at him.

 “When did he leave?”

 “About half an hour ago. He went in the direction of the port, perhaps to board a ship.”

 Hearing this, Antonio grabbed Pedro’s jacket at once, and ran towards the port.

 There were countless vessels from all over the world at the port, but Antonio had some clue for finding out Pedro’s ship.

 Sure enough, before long, he spotted a huge sail ship with three masts. Upon the white sails, there were red crosses of the Order of Christ.

 “Disculpe, is Pedro on this ship?” Antonio stopped a sailor who was about to board.

 “Which Pedro? We have many Pedros on the ship!”

 “He has long hair, and a spot under his right eye.” Antonio panted from running.

 “Let me think…” the sailor looked baffled.

 “Alright, he looks very much like me!” Antonio finally confessed.

 “Ah, I see!” the sailor turned around and shouted to the top cabins of the ship, “Captain, your little brother has come to see you off!”

 “I’m not his brother,” Antonio said quickly, “and I just come to return his jacket.”

 “Thank you for returning my jacket,” Pedro went down slowly from the ship. He wore a set of deep blue navy uniform, his long hair tied neatly behind. “By the way, I do recall that you had called me ‘mi hermano’ when you were a very little child, didn’t you?”

 “It’s not true, I had only called you by your birth name…it’s you who had called me ‘meu irmão’.”

“I’d never done that.”

 “Yes, you had.”

 When the siren was blown, Antonio knew that Pedro’s ship, Sagres, was about to set out. He raised his hands high in the air and waved happily towards Pedro, who was standing on the deck, watching him whom was down below.

 “¡Adiós, Lusitania!” Antonio smiled, brighter than the sun.

 –Lusitania, isn’t this Pedro’s birth name? Suddenly, some long-lost memory flashed back to Pedro’s mind.

 On a very quiet night, he was lying on a large bed sleeplessly. Suddenly, there was a knock on the bedroom door.

 “Lusitania?” a sweet voice of a boy called out.

 “Sim?” he replied lazily.

 Knowing the boy in bed was still awake, the boy outside opened the unlocked door, and went in.

“Can I sleep with you, Lusitania?” a pair of light green eyes was looking innocently at him.

 He opened his arms to the boy, and smiled mildly, “claro, meu irmão.”

 Long long time ago, Pedro had indeed called Antonio “my brother”, and only Antonio had called him by his birth name. Are they really not related by blood? They look so much alike, they had been so close, and nobody could understand them better than they understand each other. What made them separate from each other?

 Looking at the young man waving on the quay who had the same face as his, Pedro suddenly had an urge to touch, to embrace, and to merge with him–his brother. Before the ship started moving, he dashed down to the quay, and jumped onto Antonio.

 “Lusitania?”

 Pedro held Antonio tightly in his arms. Back lighted, his bright green eyes had never seemed so profound before, as if trying to convey millions of words. However, Pedro chose not to say a single word, but to kiss directly on Antonio’s petal-soft lips.

 Basking in orange light of the African sunset, the two brothers embraced and kissed each other for a long while, until eventually, Pedro broke the kiss and left silver saliva on his brother’s lips. Antonio looked at him, confused, intoxicated.

 “If we’re not brothers, I think it’s fine to kiss you.” Pedro smiled mildly.

 “Claro, we’re not brothers at all.” Antonio blushed, and kissed Pedro again.

[arcadialedger]

The Harry Potter Wizarding Schools Map: A Rant/ Meta

*takes deep breath

Okay. I am a huge fan of Harry Potter. I even enjoyed the first Fantastic Beasts film. However, I am not afraid to call out Wizarding World canon when it screws up royally.

And, well, the recent map of all of the Wizarding schools is just that. A royally big screw up.

*le sigh.

Where do I begin with how geographically, culturally, and linguistically egregious this is?

To start off, let’s look at a map which makes things more visually easy to discern.

Let’s move West to East, shall we?

The first absurdity is, of course, the size of Ilvermorny. It is ridiculous already to imply that all of AMERICA would fit into one school, and not have one in, well, pretty much every major city. At least a west coast and east coast school. But the fact we’re supposed to share a school WITH CANADA AND MEXICO? Let’s compare the size of the population this school is supposed to cover vs that of Hogwarts, shall we?

Yeah. NEARLY NINE TIMES AS LARGE. There is a blatant lack of understanding of the world outside of the UK here on JK’s part.

The idea that Mexico would not, culturally and linguistically, be grouped in with a Central American school is also ridiculous, which brings me to my next grievance.

The entirety of South America going to Castlebruxos in Brazil. This is absurd enough already, once again, with the population issue. But there’s another thing here.

An entire continent which is entirely Spanish speaking besides one country going to school in the one country that speaks Portuguese. In a school named in Portuguese.

There should, realistically, be a separate Central American school, Brazilian school, and one for general South America. Probably two, actually, one down in Argentina.

Western Europe is fine because that the region JK Rowling knows. Besides the fact that Italy has no Wizarding School. You know, even though the spells in the series ARE IN FUCKING LATIN (Yes, I am an angry Italian)

Let’s move on to Africa. Ah, Africa, a culturally diverse continent with over 200 languages and hundreds of individual cultures— relegated to one school. In Uganda. No Nigerian Yoruba school, no southern South Africa school.

“It is the largest of the eleven wizarding schools, accepting students from all over Africa”—https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Uagadou_School_of_Magic

What’s the population of Africa, might you ask?

BILLION. BILLION. ALMOST TWENTY TIMES THE POPULATION OF THE UK.

Jk, your ignorance is showing.

Now, I’m fine with Russia having its own school. It actually makes sense and isn’t infeasbale.

But the rest of Asia? Is a travesty.

Not only is there no Wizarding School for the Middle East, the cradle of civilization, but CHINA AND INDIA, THE TWO MOST POPULATED COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD WITH TOTALLY DIFFERENT CULTURES, SHARE A BLOODYDAMN SCHOOL.

There should be a Southwest Asian school, if not multiple schools in India. There should be a separate Chinese school. There should be a separate South East Asian school, not grouped in the bloodydamn Pacific.

China and India ALONE account for 2.8 BILLION PEOPLE. That is over 40x the population of the UK, and this apparently isn’t even the biggest school. Did JK Rowling even think this through?

There are 22 official languages in India alone, not including the hundreds of dialects. There are 297 living languages in China. This. Would. Never. Work. Culturally or linguistically.

Then we have the Japanese school, which population wise is fine, but the name is entirely wrong linguistically, as explained by a Japanese speaker on Twitter here.

And lastly the Pacific School. Size wise this is perfectly fine, as including the populations of Australia and the Pacfic Islands it only rounds out to about 28 million people. Including the southeast Asian countries and New Zealand, I’d say it rounds out just fine. But geographically and culturally? Not likely to work. The Pacific Islands are of tribal tradition, with many of the islands having their own language, culture, religion, etc. Just like Native Americans, the nature of TV wit culture would probably mean the Pasifika people don’t attend a big regional school, but smaller individual schools on their islands.

So there you have it. All of my grievances with this absurd map of the world’s wizarding schools. This truly showcases an exceptional cultural and geographical ignorance of the world.

[kyndaris]

2020: Unprecedented Times

Most people, at the start of the year, had high hopes for 2020. For many, it was the start of a new decade (though, ask anyone on the street and the start of a decade is open to debate). Here in Australia, the start of 2020 merely carried on the disasters of 2019. Beset by bushfires all along the Eastern coast, we watched as our tourism numbers slump as the denizens of Sydney wore masks as a means to fight the harmful effects of smoke inhalation. Many small businesses, particularly in small towns, felt the brunt of the natural disaster. Homes were destroyed by the thousands. Worse was the fact that livelihoods that were dependent on visitors from all around the world (in particular, China) were also badly affected.

Why would anyone come to Australia, after all, when there was smoke in the air and the air quality was teetering on dangerously toxic?

Many hoped that once the fires had petered out, however, life would return to normal. Little did they know that by March, the world would be caught in the grips of COVID-19. After all, though there were the occasional news headlines of a new disease plaguing China in early January (which resulted in me warning my grandmother that maybe she not go over to celebrate the Year of the Rat), most people were focused on Donald Trump’s impeachment.

Then, of course, there was the assassination of an infamous Iranian general:  Qasem Soleimani. Once again, the world’s attention was arrested by the acts of the United States of America. Most were worried that the tension between Iran and the United States of America would boil over. At the time, it almost felt like a repeat of Trump’s antagonism towards North Korea.

In the United Kingdom, Brexit was well underway. After his re-election in December 2019, Boris Johnson continued his negotiations for a way that Britain could leave the European Union.

On a more personal scale, Australia was wracked by sport club funding scandals and climate change protests.

As for me, I was more concerned about the video game delays. Now that I write this, in December of 2020, I look back and think that perhaps it was appropriate for Cyberpunk 2077 to have been delayed until next year in order to fix the bugs that have the plagued the title ever since launch. Still, I was also vastly disappointed that Vampires the Masquerade II would not be releasing anytime soon. And saddened to hear that The Last of Us Part II had been pushed back.

After COVID-19 swept across the globe and taken hold in most countries and continents (which now extends to Antarctica thanks to a few Chileans testing positive), I watched as stupidity rose to the fore. Lockdown protests, the politicisation of the wearing of masks and the attacks on East Asians. Despite the severity of the virus and how infectious it was, I was disheartened to see so many people flout social distancing rules and break lockdown requirements. Most notably among the rich and famous such as politicians and NRL (National Rugby League) players.

Of course, being in Australia, our bid to ‘flatten the curve’ proved incredibly effective. Articles I’ve read indicate that this was mostly due to Australian’s observance of laws and regulations, as well as our trust in science. In fact, I’ve heard the refrain, ‘at least we’re not America’ spoken quite a few times this year. And honestly, after looking at the statistics, with the Land of the Free having upwards of 18.5 million cases with 326,000 (and counting) deaths, I couldn't agree more to the sentiment.

The whole ‘do as we say, not as we do’ approach by its President further served to fracture society and gave rise to conspiracy theories that served no purpose but showcase the height of people’s ignorance and distrust. It didn’t help that most Western countries also placed more importance on the ‘economy’ than people’s lives. Many global leaders were of the opinion that the ‘cure should not be worse than the disease’ and that a few deaths to keep the budget afloat was a necessary evil. 

Well, to that, I say, ‘Bah! Humbug!’ Without acting decisively and quickly, many nations have ruined their economy AND seen their people die in droves. When people are falling sick and suffering from long-term effects, they’re hardly likely to spend money. Nor will they be able to contribute to society and be able to continue working. Instead, you’ll be saddled with additional welfare taxes. By going hard and fast, closing down the economy for two months, maybe three, you can bounce back harder and stronger without fear of contagion.

Now, many countries are struggling with high numbers of new infected each day AND an economy that’s in tatters. Good job. 

It also doesn’t hurt to give back to the community and help struggling businesses. Schemes such as Jobkeeper and Jobseeker (at least in Australia) were able to alleviate some of the stress for many workers. And honestly, perhaps if the world had implemented a universal basic income, this would also enable people ensure their basic needs are met without sinking into poverty.

The fact that so many only see the short-term rather than long-term is astounding. And as for Sweden’s model? The less said about it, the better. ‘Herd immunity’ without a working vaccine? Madness. Utter madness. Particularly when the virus is airborne.

After enjoying a decent summer, numbers rose again in Europe and much of it was back under lockdown. A new strain, that has proven much more infectious, was discovered in the South of England! Trump tested positive for COVID-19, but to the dismay of many, he recovered quite quickly.

But 2020 did not end there. Once again, the struggles between ethnic minorities were brought again to the limelight. The death of George Floyd saw the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and served to highlight the disproportionate number of those living in poverty and in prison. As a person of colour myself (being of East Asian descent), I tried to explain some of this to my colleagues. But some of them saw Black Lives Matter as a predominantly American issue - and disregarded the fact that many Indigenous Australians were also in prison, caught in a vicious cycle of crime and violence.

It wasn’t long, however, that Australia experienced its own second wave in Melbourne, due to breaches in hotel quarantine. And honestly, it came as a surprise when it also happened in Adelaide and we learned that they weren’t testing hospital workers or those in high-risk workplaces on a REGULAR basis. You would have thought that all workers that transported aircrew or worked as security for those quarantining in hotels would be temperature-checked and given a swab every few days (or at least once a week). But no.

This is why we can’t have good things. 

Christmas in Sydney has also been somewhat neutered by the fact that there has been another sizeable outbreak in the Northern Beaches local council. And, of course, many people in Greater Sydney have been barred from other states. Gotta love those hard state borders where we treat each other as separate countries. Still - if it protects the people, the Premiers will stop at nothing. Even if it means families can’t be together. But better that than seeing Australia become the United States of America. 

Jumping from COVID-19, 2020 also saw an explosion in Beirut due to the storing of large amounts of ammonium nitrate at the port. Approximately 178 people were killed and more than 6,500 were injured. Locust swarms in Africa  descended upon crops, threatening food supply and livelihoods for millions of people. The West Coast of the United States of America suffered from catastrophic wildfires. Meanwhile, in south-east Asia, countries were hit by flooding and typhoons. As a side note, Armenia and Azerbaijan  restarted their ongoing feud. 

And to cap it all off, 2020 decided to further traumatise the future generation, a suicide video was uploaded to Tiktok. 

And oh, the US election. Where our favourite President tried to delay and impede mail-in-votes. In the days following the 3 November 2020 election, the world eagerly watched as the votes were counted and each state was certified. Trump, as is always his way, attempted to claim victory in the early hours of the morning of 4 November 2020, before deriding voter fraud with no evidence to substantiate his claims.

The weeks that followed saw a number of lawsuits that were lodged. Most, of which, were simply dismissed out of hand. And while his supporters have continued to claim that fraud was evident in the 2020 election, there has been no substantial pieces of evidence provided. Affidavits and hearsay, fortunately, do not a case make.

In Australia, our once promising relationship with China took a turn for the worse. While instances of racism, after the initial COVID-19, did not help, it also seemed that the finger pointing among government officials and demands for inquiries into wet markets only served to fuel the fire between the two nations. After initiating a trade war with the United States of America, China then saw fit to put significant tariffs on Australian beef, barley, wine and coal (to name but a few). 

The spat between Australia and China also took on a more insidious tone when several Australian journalists were forced to flee.

And with the unveiling of alleged war crimes committed by Australian troops in Afghanistan, the relationship between the two nations have come to an all-time low. China’s tweet of a doctored image that had an Australian soldier about to cut the throat of an Afghan child saw our Prime Minister taking to social media to demand an apology. 

All in all, 2020 has felt like both an incredibly short and long year in equal measure. For an introvert, such as myself, it’s been mostly the same. In fact, I can’t believe that it’s already at an end. Though my gaming has continued, as has my writing, I felt like I hardly interacted with any of my friends or did anything conducive to my social skills. While I’ve been made permanent at my place of work, it’s also felt a little stagnant. For a good long while, particularly in March, it felt like we were on the cusp of something huge and terrible. As the numbers climbed, I desperately wanted a hard lockdown to be called when leaders vacillated. 

2021 does not promise to be much better. While vaccines have rolled out in several countries, it’ll be a long time coming before the world manages to attain a sense of normalcy. For this blogger, I look forward to just kicking back and finally getting my hands on a PlayStation 5.

As for anyone that has worked on the front lines during this pandemic, I just want to say a big hearty ‘thank you.’ All of  you have sacrificed so much and seen so many terrible things. I wish that we all listened to your warnings instead of inundating emergency rooms thinking COVID-19 was a hoax.

Remember: keep at least 1.5 metres away from another person, wash/ sanitise your hands regularly and wear a mask if you can’t socially distance or are in an enclosed space. 

[bisluthq]

“She always books European tours as well and it’s not like she underperforms at them”

Rep where did this come from hahaha. I know these numbers by heart because I’ve had Americans telling me that she treats Europe the same way she treats the US for years and it’s annoying. She never books European tours.

Ever since she started out she’s had a grand total of ELEVEN concerts on mainland Europe. And note that she’s had more than 450 concerts up until this point. She came to Europe seven times during the Speak Now tour (the only tour of hers which included a proper European leg), once during the Red tour and three times during the 1989 tour. And that’s it. She didn’t come at all during her Fearless tour (understandable) and during the rep tour (incredibly disappointing).

There are some parts of the world which have received an ever worse treatment (she’s never had a proper concert in the entirety of Latin America, for example).

It’s a conscious choice her team made, after 2012 they chose to focus on the American market (and on the anglophone market at large) and to almost completely disregard other markets (for her live tours, obviously, not for the general promotion of her music). But most of her peers consistently tour Europe properly, so it’s not like everyone acts the way she does.

She was gonna come here for LoverFest (in MUCH smaller venues compared to the stadiums she usually sells out in the US) but now I don’t know what will happen. She had chosen to come here only because her US market was a bit saturated after the rep tour, and she probably wanted to branch out a bit. But I suspect that once she can tour again she’ll go back to focus on the US and we will have missed our chance.

And I’m also tired of hearing “the US is big, it’s obvious that she must have a gazillion concerts here each time she tours!!!”. It may be true, but Europe has twice the population of the US and roughly the same surface, and nothing justifies the US getting 38 concerts for the rep tour and mainland Europe getting zero.

I didn’t mean to lash out at you and I know that you’re not even American (or at the very least you don’t leave in the US, if I remember correctly), and there are bigger problems in the world. But since we’re both on a gaylor blog I feel like I can focus on this futile problem for a while hahah. I know that most Americans mean well when they say “she’s so famous and successful everywhere in the world!!!!”, but it gets a bit tiring when your entire continent is continuously ignored.

She could never sell out a stadium in each European country the way she does in the US states, but she could’ve least booked a stadium in France (for her Western European fans) and another one in Germany (for the eastern and north European fans) for the rep tour, and she didn’t even do that.

And I know you said that she never comes to your country either, and I simpathize with you. I said what I said only because a lot of people are under the impression that she tours Europe regularly and she absolutely does not

Dude all I know is I was gonna watch her at a stadium in Berlin for Lover Fest on my ACTUAL FUCKING BIRTHDAY and instead I got drunk with my cats and watched the Paris City of Lover because COVID.

I think it makes sense for her to focus on Anglophone markets honestly because her lyrics are the appeal and focus of the marketing (the personal life confessional shit is interesting if you like... fluently understand wtf she is talking about).

She played Manchester, Dublin and London for Rep and those are in Europe. I get feeling frustrated by her not doing mainland shows but she did go to Europe with Rep like she didn’t do South America or Africa but she did go to Europe and she also sold out in Japan so she included Asia and she included both Australia and New Zealand.... I think saying she’s popular internationally is just... true at this point.

Tay does focus on English speaking markets and the US in a way a lot of her peers don’t but I think it’s pretty fair to say she’s popular internationally.

Again, I understand the feelings of frustration but she is popular and she does give Europe some love.

[gotskamstuff]

If you think that racism isn’t deep in the roots of your country and its people I just want you all to know that I just had a long ass argument with a 30-something years old well known “influencer” with thousands of dedicated followers on Twitter that was telling a black girl who was verbally assaulted in public that she should have not documented the assault ‘cause it could have been damaging to the man’s reputation and when she was confronted on how racist and dumb she was being she started using her white and social status privilege by threatening everyone of reporting them to the police for defamation...and this is a public figure with a large following.

On a more general scale my country is the same country that also still allows Mussolini’s granddaughter to be on TV talking about politics. It’s also the country where a group of fascists can march in the streets commemorating Mussolini’s death even tho TECHNICALLY any kind of expression or any fascist ideology is against the law. It’s also the country on which coasts each year many refugees drown and nobody pays too much attention. It’s also the country where a politician goes to a random 17 years old muslim boy’s home live on national tv to ask if he illegally sells drugs without any context. It’s also the country where a man (DESPITE the tragic Covid-19 emergency that we’re facing) just a few days ago went and opened fire towards a building that holds an association that helps refugees. It’s also the place where in 7th grade my classmate, who was black, accidentally hit me with the ball during a game of volleyball WHICH HAPPENED ALL THE TIME TO EVERYONE and we were laughing it off like the usual but our teacher threatened him to suspend him... ONLY HIM, EVER. It’s the place where things like this happen on the daily, on multiple occasions, by multiple people at the expense of multiple people, in a strong circle that goes on and on and on.

If you think that racism is an “American problem” and you’re saying “thank God here is different” “we’re not like that” “things like this don’t happen over here” I kindly invite you to think it twice and to look more carefully to your surroundings, from the micro aggressions to others you witnessed with your own eyes in your daily life to the media and how they portray and manipulate events, from the ignorant comments that fly in the air to the violent acts that do physical damage. ESPECIALLY US WHITE EUROPEANS, as a continent that to this day still has benefits from our disgraceful history (which is the root of any kind of discrimination that exists in our modern society). It still has countries who STEAL any resource they can put eyes on in Africa and Asia...as common citizens the LEAST we could do to start a change is to start be aware and change our attitude towards our own comunity, to pay attention, for once in our damn life to sit back as long as it needs to LISTEN TO OTHERS AND TRULY TRY TO UNDERSTAND and use our privileges to be a support, an echo, AN ACTIVE ROLE IN THE CHANGE NOT ONLY A PASSIVE WITNESS and by just educating yourself, starting to listen and become more aware and not staying silent anymore it’s a beginning, IT’S THE MINIMUM OF WHAT WE OWE. SO IF YOU’RE SAYING THIS IS A PROBLEM THAT DOESN’T CONCERN YOUR COUNTRY YOU’RE PART OF THE PROBLEM AND OPEN YOUR FUCKING EYES!!!

[helplesslyfictional]

While this is related to the current War of the Realms comics, MCU writers might be able to glean some valuable information from it. 

I’m a sucker for political information, and this has some nice info.

Here is the article for folks: 

Malekith the Accursed has spent years building a coalition to conquer the Ten Realms. After years of preparation and conquest—the fall of Alfheim and Nidavellir and more—he and his cabal of worlds have attacked in WAR OF THE REALMS. Their target? Midgard, a place that I happen to live in and so do you so now is probably a great time to panic.

That's right: Malekith and the combined legions of Jotunheim’s Frost Giants, Svartalfheim’s Dark Elves, Niffleheim’s dishonored dead, Muspelheim’s armies of fire, the Roxxon Corporation, the realm-less Trolls, and (in a shocking heel-turn) the Angelic hoard of Heven now own Midgard. This is, generally speaking, not great for Midgardian inhabitants, society, or property values.

So what’s the big deal with all these realms anyway? What’s so nice about Midgard? Now that we’ve been crushed by the might of Malekith and they’ve divvied up the spoils, who's really scored what? And why does it matter?

Well, it’s old Midgardian wisdom that it's always important to be on good terms with the landlord. And sure, they may be a Frost Giant or a Minotaur energy executive or a screaming fire-insect or a vicious Dark Elf whose violent nature is a little extreme even for the most bellicose nation in the cosmos. But don’t judge too quickly! Who knows, maybe you got the ultra-capitalist Angels, and as long and you’re on time with the rent, that can’t be all that bad... Right?

Listed in order of quality of life, here is your cheat sheet for the realms—the vibe and inhabitants of each, what they’d be like to visit—and the skinny on our new landlords right here on Earth.

ASGARD

Inhabitants: Asgardians.

Climate: Feels like Denmark. Average temperature of 7.5°C, but fluctuates. Temperate climate. Low biodiversity—an Asgardian safari would be fairly boring due to the low levels of open wilderness remaining in the developed realm.

Development index: Highest of the realms. High life expectancy, high income, high education quality, and though it’s technically a theocratic monarchy, Asgard has experimented with various forms of leadership in times of political stress.

Best known industrial export: Management and administration.

ALFHEIM

Home races: The Light Elves and the wondrous, beautiful, and violent Faerie people.

Climate: Feels like France. Average temperature of 10.7°C, pleasant and temperate setting, very high levels of biodiversity. Warmer than most but not all places in the Ten Realms, this is a very nice realm to visit, or was before…the war. The one of the Realms.

Development index: Above median, so decently high! Moderate life expectancy, high-income, and high levels of education realm-wide. A monarchy, the government of Alfheim enjoyed generally favorable relations with other realms, with the notorious exception of Svartalfheim.

Best known industrial export: Agricultural products.

VANAHEIM

Inhabitants: The Vanir.

Climate: Feels like Germany. Home to dense forests and a low level of development to disturb the natural landscape—and, as such, is resource-rich. Average temperatures are about 8.5°C, but Vanaheim’s key ecological appeal is their high level of biodiversity and natural resources.

Development index: Above median. High education quality and life expectancies, though moderate incomes due to only partial exploitation of abundant resources.

Best known industrial export: Magically-attuned objects and services.

NIDAVELLIR

Inhabitants: Dwarves.

Climate: Feels like Switzerland. Arid and alpine, average annual temperatures of 5.5°C, but most of the real business is going down underground, so external temperature fluctuations are not a major climatological concern...at least before Muspelheim’s invasion of fire.

Development index: Above median. Residents of Nidavellir enjoy high income due to a prosperous developed economy, moderate life expectancies, and high levels of education. A monarchy and key Asgardian ally in WAR OF THE REALMS, Nidavellir hosted refugees of Alfheim before themselves suffering invasion.

Best known industrial export: Mining and skilled manufacturing. Big hammers.

HEVEN

Inhabitants: Angels.

Climate: Feels like Italy. It has 13.5°C annual temperatures, a temperate biome; it feels nice in Heven.

Development index: Above median. High life expectancy and income, moderate education quality. Anarcho-capitalist monarchy. It's the newest of the realms, as the Angels have generally existed independently. Testy relationship with Asgard.

Best known industrial export: Financial services.

New Midgardian Colony: Given control of Africa. The continent has 1,260,000,000 inhabitants, a GDP of $2.27 trillion, and median age of 18.9; Africa is young and on the rise.*

*(These statistics do not include Wakandan GDP or population, owing to the nation's policy of not participating in OECD data reporting.)

SVARTALFHEIM

Inhabitants: Dark Elves. Handy guide to distinguishing Dark Elves from Alfheim’s: the Svartalfheim elves ones tend to be much, much stabbier.

Climate: Feels like Ireland. Biome is home to bogs and swamps, but overall is quite temperate. Average annual temperature of about 9.3°C. Home to moderate biodiversity due to an environment conducive to diverse types of life.

Development index: 40th percentile, though moderate education, the life expectancy and income opportunity for Svartalfheim residents is low, owing largely to the martial nature of the society and poor administration. Government best described as a “loose gerontocracy” managing a number of factions with generation-spanning strife, only recently controlled by an appointed dictator.

Best known industrial export: Defense industrial products.

New Midgardian Colony: Europe. Population of almost 1 billion in 68 countries across 5.7 million square miles. Malekith kept the second-wealthiest slice of land for himself, as the region generates $22.5 trillion in GDP.

MIDGARD

Inhabitants: Humans and all the animals known to humans.

Climate: Varied. Global average temperatures of 14°C and rising. Roxxon Energy target of 16°C by 2050, and management indicates work is proceeding ahead of schedule.

Development index: From the view of the other realms? Rather low. Though moderate-income and education, Midgardians are known across the cosmos for their laughably low life expectancies, which rarely enter even the triple digits. Government is historically divided between nations, a policy that will continue following the consolidation of assets in post-War of the Realms accounting.

Best known industrial export: Prayers, Super Heroes.

New Midgardian Colony: Midgardian Roxxon Corporation ceded control of Antarctica. 5.1 million square miles, only 4,490 people; a frozen, resource-rich desert.

JOTUNHEIM

Inhabitants: Giants, including Frost and Mountain Giants.

Climate: Feels like Norway. Average annual temperature of 1.5°C. Biome ranges from arid and mountainous to arctic and also mountainous. Moderate level of biodiversity.

Development index: Bottom 30% of realms. System of government is, at best, a loose confederacy of tribes, at worst a tight confederacy of tribes controlled by a particularly frigid local strongman. Low life expectancy, low-income, low education quality, so very low quality of life.

Best known industrial export: None to speak of.

New Midgardian Colony: North America. Home to only about 539 million people across 8.3 million square miles, but has a GDP of $22.2 trillion. Only three countries with the largest city, New York, home to highest Super Hero-per-capita outside Westchester County (a statistical outlier due to a higher ed facility).

MUSPELHEIM

Inhabitants: Fire spirits.

Climate: Feels hotter than the hottest place on earth, Burkina Faso. Desert at best, on-fire at worst. Low biodiversity as very few things can be alive while constantly on fire.

Development index: Bottom 30%. Low life expectancy, education, and income.

Best known industrial export: None to speak of.

New Midgardian Colony: Asia. The largest cession by population, GDP, and area, the Queen of Embers will have her coffers and hands full—3,132,000,000 people in 28 countries with a GDP of $24.6 trillion across 11.7 million square miles.

NIFFLEHEIM

Inhabitants: The dead.

Climate: Think Canadian. Chilly at best, frozen at worst, average temperature of -5°C. High level of biodiversity, as everything dies†.

Development index: Bottom of the bunch. Low education, low income, life expectancy of 0. A monarchy.

Best known industrial export: Mortuary services.

New Midgardian Colony: South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Population of 516 million, this is the lowest-population land for the highest-population realm. GDP of $4.8 trillion.

†See work of R. Richards et. al (2015)

Just tagging to let folks know: @loki-the-fox; @deviantredhead; @trickster-grrrl; @lokiloveforever; @miharu87; @lucianalight; @latent-thoughts

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All the non-Js!

Sorry this got super long because I love talking about travel. 

Mary - See previous post!

Michelle - What size of family would you choose if money were no object? (In regards to kids and also in regards to extended or found family living together.) I want one kid, but I love the mentality of “It takes a village to raise a child” and I would love to raise my kid around a lot of other people, blood related or not, who all love them and feel like a supportive family to them. I need my own space so I wouldn’t do well in like, a shared house with too many people, but I’d be totally down to raise my kid in a more communal-oriented setup where we have shared spaces like a large garden and a big dining room where a small close-knit community can do life together and raise kids in a big found family. 

Anna - If money were no object, how would you choose to school your children? I love the idea of homeschooling when done right, and would absolutely consider homeschooling my future kid and also sending them to classes/teams/etc to learn skills and hobbies they’re interested in. If I did this I would want to find somewhere for my child to get a proper education in subjects that I don’t feel qualified to teach, so I probably wouldn’t strictly homeschool but I don’t know what the happy medium is. I also plan on doing more research on Montessori schools when I have an actual child and this isn’t hypothetical, as they sound good from what I’ve heard but I don’t know nearly enough to make a full judgement on them. 

Kendra - Describe your ideal itinerary if you could spend six months traveling the world with no financial or visa-related limitations. God this is so hard because part of me would want to hit as many places as possible but also I’d love to dig in somewhere and spend time with locals and get to really know the place. For the sake of the question, we’ll pretend that my energy levels also aren’t a limitation since that’s a big factor, especially in places with lots of crowds because crowds drain me really quickly but there are so many places I want to see where crowds are inevitable. Also if money is unlimited I’d hire local tour guides who are focused on showing you more of the local life and also serve as a translator for any of the non-English speaking countries. I could easily make up six month itineraries for each continent, but since we’re going six months with no limitations I’m going to just hit the highlights and I’m sure if for some reason I actually got to plan this I’d wind up fleshing it out with more. I’m listing a lot of touristy places but if this actually happened I’d likely devote a day or two per location to the most well-known tourist spots and then spend the rest of my time there seeing places that were popular with the locals. I’d also bring specific people along with me (part of any itinerary is who is there) for some legs of the trip. 

Europe

For the UK, I’d likely have my college best friend serve as my tour guide since he lives in London. I’d spend time in London and Dublin, and I would time it to attend the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for a few days. He would also probably accompany me to Paris, which would include a day at Disneyland Paris.

I’d want to go to Italy and see the historical sites in Rome and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. 

I’d want to spend a good amount of time in Sweden, specifically in Gothenburg as that’s one place I’d love to live. 

I’d do at least a couple days in Copenhagan. 

I want to see all the historical sites in Athens (Joe and Kendra’s honeymoon actually looked like so much fun) and find somewhere that was essentially the island from Mamma Mia to just unplug, enjoy the scenery, and relax for a couple days. 

Asia

I’d definitely spend time in Japan, and would bring my 12 year old cousin along for this part of the trip because she was obsessed with Japan for a good chunk of her childhood to the point that she started teaching herself Japanese with resources from the library when she was six. I’d let her help me plan this leg of the trip, but the Hitachi Seaside Park is definitely on my must-do list. 

Have y’all ever seen pictures of Vahdoo Island in the Maldives? Go look at them and then you’ll be adding it to your list. 

I’d also want to hit up Thailand and Sri Lanka, both of which have several spots on my Asian travel board on pinterest. 

Africa

I’m going to be totally honest that I don’t know many places in Africa. It’s the only continent that isn’t well-represented on my pinterest, and my plan is to change that fairly soon. 

Australia

Definitely would want to hit up Sydney. Also it’s always been my dream to scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef. 

North/South America (leaving out the US because I live here and wouldn’t waste my visa/money-free time on my own country)

There’s this thing called the Swing at the End of the World in Ecuador that has been on my bucket list for pretty much as long as I’ve had a bucket list. 

Super cheesy but I wanna see the Anne of Green Gables house in Prince Edward Island. 

Probably hit up somewhere in Canada to see the northern lights? Or maybe Alaska? I’d research the best place to see them. 

Lauren - See previous post!

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Meet the SLH Marketing Team

A creative think tank of travel experts specialising in luxury brand positioning, we’re proud to be a small yet mighty team of independently minded individuals. Each with our own unique skill-set, from illustration, graphic design, content creation to copywriting, our marketing knowledge spans across three continents and the same number of decades. Here’s a little bit more about the people behind the brand…

Richard Hyde – Chief Operating Officer

Three fun facts about yourself…

On a work experience week at the Amstel Hotel in Amsterdam a guest called to complain about the soap not soaping. He didn’t realise it had a thin plastic wrapping. That person was Bill Gates.

My first job was advertising microwave ovens. We put a massive billboard on the Cromwell Road with a 25 ft rubber chicken. Within 24 hours it had disappeared, never to be found again. But someone in Earls Court must have it.

I am a big reindeer fan. On a visit to Lapland to see Father Christmas (he does exist), I befriended a reindeer with one antler called Nobby. I paid for his upkeep for a year and got an ownership certificate. If you enjoyed the Chernobyl series on Sky, spare a thought for all the wildlife in Scandinavia, which caught the brunt of the radiation fall out. Another sad fact, there are no wild reindeer left in Scandinavia. Every single one is accounted for and tagged.

Which destination is top of your bucket list?

I’ve always wanted to cycle from New York to San Francisco, but apparently it is better the other way due to the prevailing wind, but it’s not same to end 6 weeks of pain in the East River rather than the Pacific Ocean.

The one SLH hotel you’d like to visit, and why?

A hard question but I’ll say the new Kontiki Yacht experience around the Galapagos.

Where is your happy place?

In a large double bed with the family, watching an old Sophia Loren movie and Jennifer Lawrence whispering bed time stories in my ear.

Your most memorable travel experience?

Going on a moped tour of Lahore in Pakistan. Just the friendliest people and most exotic markets. Shame it’s ruined by internal strife.

Abi Tottenham-Smith – Head of Social Media

Three fun facts about yourself…

I am a big musical theatre fan and love nothing more than a cheesy musical. I have been dancing since I was a kid and still like to do classes and workshops every so often now to get my fix!

I have worked and lived in both Singapore and NYC for a few months each. Even though I have bought a flat in London and have a dog, I still have an urge to live somewhere else for a short period of time – anyone in NYC want to house swap?

I studied Fashion Marketing at university and always thought I wanted to get into the fashion industry – particularly mens fashion. After a short stint in the fashion industry and then the world of beauty, I moved into travel and couldn’t see myself anywhere else now!

Which destination is top of your bucketlist?

I had a trip to South Africa booked to visit friends before lockdown which sadly got cancelled so I am desperate to re-arrange that as soon as possible! I am also craving a wilderness escape in Canada and it would be a dream to one day visit Bhutan – it sounds like a truly magical country and it still seems like it is relatively untouched by tourism.

The one SLH hotel you’d like to visit, and why?

There are far too any and I had already mentioned in my previous interview that I was desperate to visit Sikelia, Trout Point Lodge and Petit St. Vincent but now on top of these I love the look of Hôtel Crillon le Brave in France, Villa La Madonna in Italy and Villa Geba in Montenegro.

Where is your happy place?

On Compton Beach in the Isle of Wight. I have been going there with my family since I was a child as my grandfather bought a small coastguard cottage on the island at an auction in the 1960s. My parents now rent it out during the summer but we try to go down as much as possible when its available. It’s the one place where you can truly relax, go on long beautiful walks, play board games by the fire and turn off from city life!

Your most memorable travel experience?

We arrived on a tiny island in the Philippines in the middle of the night and had to get to our accommodation on the opposite side of the island. We managed to find a lovely man who took us in his tuktuk – little did we know the roads meandered through thick woods and hovered over steep cliffs and our new pal was a maniac on the road… two hours later we arrived shaken but unscathed and hiked down to the little hut we had booked. We had no idea where we were or what the surroundings were like but woke up in the morning to the most incredible view over a river, in the middle of nowhere. We ended up staying there for three nights and enjoyed swimming in the river, hiking the cliffs and relaxing in the hammock (mostly psyching ourselves up to take the journey back again!)

Maddy Morgan – Director of PR Worldwide

Three fun facts about yourself…

I once went to circus school to learn how to be a trapeze artist.

In the 90s I was a clog dancing champion and went on tours of Europe and the US.

I have visited pretty much every corner of California – it’s my specialist subject.

Which destination is top of your bucketlist?

It’s not a destination so much as an experience – I would love to take an extended trip with my family and follow the sun and the surf around the world. No fixed agenda just pure freedom and the opportunity to take forest school to the next level for my kids!

The one SLH hotel you’d like to visit, and why?

Brazil has been on my wish list for a long time so Kenoa – Exclusive Beach Spa and Resort near Maceio is top of the list. It describes itself as an eco-chic design hotel where luxury is defined by earth given beauty – I feel relaxed just thinking about it!

Where is your happy place?

For me it’s Portugal – I spent a lot of time there growing up and then studied at university in Coimbra. I go at least once a year and love the fact that when I’m there I feel completely at home and not a tourist. The smell of pine trees will always be one of the most evocative scents for me and takes me straight back to hot summer days in Algarve.

Your most memorable travel experience?

I worked at an orphanage in rural Sarawak for a year when I was 18. The locals were incredibly generous taking us on trips to visit their families in nearby longhouses and including us in special occasions like weddings – it’s a cliché but there really is nothing like a totally immersive travel experience. One of them who I hadn’t seen for 20 years just sent me a video message out of the blue for my birthday in June which was the most amazing present. If I’m allowed a second one it would be filming on Alcatraz and being left alone in the cell block while the crew went outside to shoot the sunset. I’m not sure many people get to experience that and it was terrifying!

Dana O’Malley – PR Director Americas

Three fun facts about yourself…

I used to live three blocks from the White House.

I was on the field for an AC Milan v Chelsea match.

I’m half Trinidadian, half American (by way of Eastern Europe).

Which destination is top of your bucket list?

Japan has been on the top of my bucket list for a few years now and I’m determined to get there soon! I’ve always been infatuated by the culture and food, and can’t wait to explore the cities and further afield.

The one SLH hotel you’d like to visit, and why?

I would love to visit Dar Ahlam in Morocco. It’s a very special retreat situated near the Moroccan desert which caters to your every whim.

Where is your happy place?

Anywhere with my husband! We’re always ready for an adventure and experiencing new things, especially with our young daughter in tow.

Your most memorable travel experience?

Pimalai Resort & Spa in Koh Lanta, Thailand holds a special place in my heart. We spent our honeymoon at the resort basking in the sun, enjoying private dinners on the beach and taking a boat tour to visit nearby islands.

Juliana Tan – PR Director Asia Pacific

Three fun facts about yourself…

I take care of Public Relations in Asia Pacific, and live on the sunny shores of Singapore.

During my free time, I enjoy photography and jewellery making.

I have recently taken up gardening too, inspired by the farm-to-table concept that I see at many SLH hotels.

Which destination is top of your bucket list?

North America! I have travelled to almost every part of Asia Pacific, but have not ventured to the Americas yet. I was supposed to visit this November, so that is definitely top of my list for 2021.

The one SLH hotel you’d like to visit, and why?

I would like to go to Hacienda Zorita Wine Hotel & Organic Farm Hotel in Spain. I love to eat, and just reading up about the hotel makes me hungry – for their fine Spanish cuisine and culinary adventures at their organic farm and vineyard. I am especially looking forward to meeting their special residents who live in the 30-hectare evergreen oak tree forest – the indigenous Churra sheep, near extinct Verata goats and endangered woolly Mangalica pigs. The hotel is committed to preserving indigenous, rare and endangered species in the Duero Valley. If the place is good enough for Christopher Columbus (who reputedly once visited, restored and modernised the 14th-century Dominican monastery), Hacienda Zorita Wine Hotel & Organic Farm Hotel is definitely good enough for me to explore!

Where is your happy place?

Cliché as it sounds, the Kingdom of Bhutan warms the cockles of my heart. I was intrigued by a place which seems to have stood still in time, by their very colourful culture and historic architecture. Beyond The Tiger’s Nest and Dzongs, there’s so much more to explore in Bhutan, like staying in a farmhouse, making your own buckwheat noodles from scratch and ending the day with a hot stone bath (you can try a luxurious version at Gangtey Lodge and Bhutan Spirit Sanctuary). Most of all, the sincere and welcoming hearts of the people I met left the deepest impression, so much so I started to read up on the Kingdom after I returned home, and I am planning to go back again soon.

Your most memorable travel experience?

My first safari to Botswana was an eye-opener, literally. Being a city dweller, the concrete jungle with its gaudy lights, deafening noises and rushed footsteps were what I was used to. During the week I was on safari, I was greeted with glistening sunshine accented with the happy chirping of birds and the rustling of leaves as wildlife walked alongside. I learnt to stay still and just observe the animals, thoroughly enjoying the antics of the young. The entire experience enhanced my senses – by day three, I was able to clearly see the vast plains lit solely by the moonlight and interpret the calls and footsteps of wildlife; our safari guide (interestingly, his name was Fish) taught us well!

Jessica Sparkes – Head of Digital Performance

Three fun facts about yourself…

Recently, I reignited my love for musical theatre, completing a beginner course and singing ‘I dreamed a dream’ in the end show.

I have a little Maltipoo pup called Gus. We like to do tricks together, currently we are learning to dance.

I’ve tried every last minute holiday diet available.

Which destination is top of your bucket list?

Argentina Wine Trails, Cambodia and the Philippines.

The one SLH hotel you’d like to visit, and why?

There are far too many to choose from! Finca Serena for the ultimate, European, countryside escape. Huvafen Fushi Maldives – you just need to view the hotel gallery to understand why! And Le Barthélemy Hotel & Spa because I absolutely love the Caribbean and this is another beautiful location to tick off my list.

Where is your happy place?

The minute I buckle up my seat belt on a plane out of here! The happiest of places is when I have my toes in the sand, face in sunshine and reading a book.

Your most memorable travel experience?

I did a sunrise climb of Mount Batur in Bali a couple of years ago. I had absolutely no idea what to expect and probably for the best. A pick up time of 2am, three hour trek in the thick darkness of the night with head torches and then climbing towards the top on my hands and knees! Once you have made it to the top of the volcano, you see the most incredible views across Indonesia with the sun rising over the horizon. There was also a guitarist singing “Hotel California” – such an incredible experience.

Laura Bizayi – Senior Digital Campaign Manager

Three fun facts about yourself…

I was born 11 weeks premature and weighed just the same as a bag of sugar.

I have a 6 month old Pomapoo called Luna, so we have the same initials (LB).

I once took part in the world’s biggest egg and spoon race at school.

Which destination is top of your bucketlist?

Maldives. Philippines. Mykonos. I’m more of a sun searcher, I admit.

The one SLH hotel you’d like to visit, and why?

Kenoa – Exclusive Beach Spa & Resort. New to SLH and looks completely lush. I haven’t travelled to South America yet and this is the perfect excuse!

Where is your happy place?

Honestly, anywhere (mostly) abroad where I can appreciate the beauty, locality, food and culture of a destination. I genuinely love travelling, so my happy place changes. Besides this, anywhere with my Pomapoo puppy Luna, she’s my forever happy place.

Your most memorable travel experience?

I loved South Africa. I visited Cape Town and Johannesburg. The thing that topped South Africa as potentially my favourite holiday is the beauty – the driving routes are absolutely incredible (but scary, the cliff-edges terrified me every single day!), while Cape Town as a place is eye-opening, particularly post-apartheid, and more so since I was travelling with my husband who is African. I’m particularly happy we now have some new hotels in this destination, and would certainly go back and drive the Garden Route to see more of the country and visit The Cellars-Hohenort, The Plettenberg, and The Marine.

Sorry, I also have to mention Bali. We visited for our honeymoon so it’s got to be top of the list. Balinese hospitality is just so lovely and not like anything I’ve experienced before. We stayed at Viceroy Bali and it’s a true gem!

Jemima O’Lone – Digital Content & Design Manager

Three fun facts about yourself…

I used to be a chef and for the last six years I have made hand-painted cakes for weddings and events.

I adore skiing and winter tends to revolve around when and where I am going.

Like many others in my team, I love dogs and always have my eyes open for my own – I’ll know when the right one comes along.

Which destination is top of your bucketlist?

Bhutan for this once in a lifetime itinerary.

The one SLH hotel you’d like to visit, and why?

Halcyon House for interiors and Dar Ahlam for the experience – apparently it is life changing.

Where is your happy place?

Meribel, France – where I lived for three winters. I try to visit every year and this year I was lucky enough to visit Le Coucou, a super stylish ski-in ski-out hotel. Look out for the beautiful mural of owls on the ceiling of the reception.

Your most memorable travel experience?

Touring the local cafés and eateries of Mumbai – my favourite city because it is so vibrant and full of life.  A must visit is Café Leopold, which is still littered with gunshot holes from the famous scene in the book Shantaram, unsuspecting Café Olympia where you will eat the most incredible food for £1 and Chowpatty beach for Pav Bhajis.

Chloe Frost-Smith – Digital Image & Content Executive

Three fun facts about yourself…

I was born in Hong Kong and spent my early childhood in Tokyo, Japan – my first holiday was to Bali when I was six weeks old (wish I could remember it!)

I studied Classics at university, which means I can read as many ancient languages as I can speak modern languages (in fact, I am probably more fluent in the ancient ones – useful, I know.)

I am an Advanced PADI scuba-diver and qualified shark specialist with dives logged all over the world, including the Maldives, Turks & Caicos islands, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Egypt, and Greece.

Which destination is top of your bucketlist?

It’s impossible to choose just one, so here are my top three:

Iceland – to ride ponies across black beaches with volcanic views.

Morocco – to shop the souks of Marrakech, and explore Chefchaouen (the Blue City) or Ouarzazate in the High Atlas Mountains, the gateway to the Sahara Desert.

Egypt – I still haven’t seen the pyramids (despite writing my dissertation on Cleopatra) and would love to take a trip down the Nile.

The one SLH hotel you’d like to visit, and why?

It would have to be Castello di Reschio – I dream of watching the weekly dressage performances in their Teatro Equestre, and would love to ride around the ancient Umbrian estate, followed by making my own pizza in an authentic alfresco class. I would also love to experience the Wild West at one of our American ranches, Rawah Ranch and Riverview Ranch both look incredibly rustic and rugged. In fact, any of our horse riding hotels would top my wish list.

Where is your happy place?

Underwater, on a horse, or on the slopes in a pair of skis (or one if you catch me after après hours…) When I’m on dry land, I am happiest on the beach in Southwold sharing fish and chips with my boyfriend and our new family puppy, Truffle.

Your most memorable travel experience?

Spotting a mother bear and her cub from a chairlift while skiing with my sister in Whistler, coming across dolphins on a cliff-walk off the coast of Ireland with my boyfriend, watching the sun rise over the temples at Angkor Wat in Cambodia, taking part in the early morning alms-giving ceremony with the local monks in Luang Prabang, swimming with sea turtles in the Tobago Cays, milking a buffalo in Laos in an all-white outfit (this did not end well), a beachfront yoga session on Petit St. Vincent, and living out my Gertrude Bell fantasies horse riding across the desert in Morocco with my father – sorry, there are too many to choose from!

Becky Underwood – Senior Marketing Manager

Three fun facts about yourself…

At the age of 14, I completed a World Challenge expedition to Tanzania, which involved climbing to the summit of Mount Meru, roaming the safari plains of the Ngorongoro Crater, dancing with the Maasai whilst learning about their customs, and completing local community projects such as rebuilding a primary school. This was a transformative experience as we were totally immersed in the culture, living alongside the villagers.

I’ve always been fascinated by architecture and property design and hope to be able to build my own house one day, perhaps I’ll even make it on to Grand Designs. For the time being, I’m still on the hunt for the perfect plot of land!

Back in 2009, I was awarded by Nottingham University for a piece of research carried out on the tourism industry and turtle conservation. A whole eight years later I planned my first trip to Costa Rica and was able to experience turtle conversation in person in Tortuguero National Park. It was magical observing newly hatched turtles dig their way to the surface of the nests and scuttle across the beach to the surf of the sea.

Which destination is top of your bucketlist?

I love the thought of completely switching off and escaping to the rugged and captivating scenery of Norway with just a backpack. In summer I’d explore by rail, kayak or boat, taking in the colourful towns and waterfalls dotted along the Fjords. Come winter I’d cosy up in a boutique hotel in front of a log burner or fire, master a snowmobile and experience my first taste of reindeer!

The one SLH hotel you’d like to visit, and why?

It’s close to home, but The Fish Hotel in the Cotswolds has been on my to visit list for a long time. Perhaps it’s the child in me, but I am desperate to escape back-to-nature and relax in one of their quirky hill-side huts and treehouses. For me the perfect stay just wouldn’t be possible without a soak in the outdoor bath or hot tub. Plus, it’s impossible not to be intrigued by a hideaway hut named ‘Boaty McBoatface’, which comes with its own private lake and island.

Where is your happy place?

There’s something that soothes my soul when I’m by the British coast. The waterways, small inlets and little villages surrounding Chichester are close to my family home, so I often escape to Bosham and Emsworth. The Deck is a great little restaurant overlooking a working yacht harbour, where you can settle in for hours over fish and chips or a coffee and cake. Then swing by the fishmongers to pick up a catch of the day for dinner.

Your most memorable travel experience?

The views from Santorini will never leave my memory. Whether it was an early morning breakfast on our balcony, or a lazy afternoon dip in the infinity pool, I was never able to divert my gaze away from the view of the Aegean Sea. So much so we took the caldera-edge pathway walk to Oia, over rough trails, to admire the captivating sea view. A particular highlight was the sunset boat ride we took in a traditional sailing boat, a great way to enjoy nature’s spectacle and to escape the crowds.

Clive Ritchie – Design Consultant

Three fun facts about yourself…

I brew my own kombucha, play keys and can walk with my feet pointing backwards.

Which destination is top of your bucketlist?

The remote atolls of the Pacific.

The one SLH hotel you’d like to visit, and why?

Pacific Resort Aitutaki, Cook Islands – I’m fascinated by remote islands and this ticks all the boxes.

Where is your happy place?

The lakes behind a town called Sedgefield on the Garden Route, near Cape Town where I spent my summer holidays as a kid.

Your most memorable travel experience?

A few days of bliss anchored at Tobago Cays in the Southern Caribbean on a catamaran – snorkelling around the reef and exploring nearby islands.

The post Meet the SLH Marketing Team appeared first on Small Luxury Hotels.

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[missizzy]

Fic: New York State Wizarding School, Part 5: Ernie’s Letter (Harry Potter)

(Read entire fic on AO3)

She finally read the letter back in her dorm, with Fran on the other bed. Her roommate had a book in her hands, but it didn’t look like she was reading very much of it. Hannah would read it to her, but she found she wanted to have a moment with it to herself first. She still hadn’t really talked to anyone, even Alfred, very much about her British friends.

The letter went:

Dear Hannah,

I am starting this letter Wednesday after you left, and I was pleased to hear you had made it back to New York safely, and while I regret your leaving us, I understand your uncertainty about your future at Hogwarts as well as your father’s concerns about your safety, and I think myself it is probably better for you to remain close to him. Of course there are no words that can make up for the terrible loss you have suffered, except to remind you that your mother remains just one victim of the great menace that threatens us all, and because of her death we must now be all the more dedicated to the fight against those responsible for her murder. So far things have not changed much here at Hogwarts, except more people are withdrawing, though so far no more of our dormmates. It is very foolish of them, of course, since they are voluntarily leaving perhaps the safest place in Britain right now, though in the defense of one or two of them, it seems more their parents’ decision than theirs. Their parents wish to have their children within their sights, as if they have the abilities to protect them better than the likes of Albus Dumbledore. One girl, a Ravenclaw, so I would not expect this but there you are, says she simply wants to spend as much time as possible with her family even if it makes her a little less safe, which is more understandable, and yet I do not think the situation so grim just yet. It is different for you, of course, since had you to stayed here you and your father would have been on different continents. I have discovered one of the better things of this year will be Professor Burbage. I know now I was right to keep to Muggle Studies though we all know what my parents think of it and even David seems mystified, and asks me what use it is. I admit, I probably will not have much use for knowing the finer points of how Muggle telephones carry people’s voices back and forth (though how to use is them is another matter) or the difference between various kinds of Protestant Christians. But I think I finally know what it is about Professor Burbage that we always agreed was different but could never identify. She has an ability to look at the world unlike any I have seen from anyone, even, though it pains me to comparing him unfavorably to anyone, Professor Dumbledore. She seems to see how large it is, and how many people there are in it, and how much variety there is amoung them. She talks about Muggles who live in places like Asia and South America, who will probably never have to worry about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Though a lot of them have terrible powerful Muggle people to worry about instead, which of course doesn’t affect us, but it still makes you look at it a little differently. Not that we must be any less on our guard, of course. Justin and Alice especially worry for their parents. They fear their wealth and high rank might make them a more desirable target, if the Death Eaters wish to make a statement about viewing all Muggles as being equally low. They were sure to urge their parents to be more careful in their day to day lives before traveling to Hogwarts, but they know how precious little that is to do. The Muggle-borns too have a reason to not wish to remain at Hogwarts, and in their case it is sometimes a more legitimate one, though when Alice did not even join the DA last year, I do not know how much protection they could offer their parents even if they lived with them, especially if the Ministry was foolish enough to harass them, which they just might be. We get much of our news from Susan. Even with her Great-Aunt recently murdered, she still has members of her family in high places, and she has received two letters today. One she said very angrily she did not want to talk about, and I fear her family, after having so many of their members murdered by Death Eaters already, has now lost still more. But from the second she has told them the Ministry believes they know where the Lestranges and Carrows are, though the letter does not specify where, for obvious reasons. I must cease for tonight; I have much homework. I will write more here tomorrow evening. Thursday: Conni has withdrawn. She and her parents decided on it, I’m afraid, because of your mother’s murder, though she could not bring herself to tell us until today, when the paperwork was finished and her parents came to pick her up. Also I fear Eloise will be gone very soon; she has hinted at it, but not come out and said so yet. Conni had lunch with us one last time before saying goodbye. She said she and her family are thinking of leaving the country all together, selling the cauldron business they’ve had for centuries and going probably to Australia. She has promised to keep in touch, but I fear she will be fickle and forget. Susan is very angry. Megan has cried twice. Unfortunately, Wayne has latched onto the idea of going to Australia, at least for his parents. He does have to worry about the safety of his mother, of course. He and the Halagards both seem to believe that even if You-Know-Who expands his reach all over Europe and possibly into Asia and/or Africa, and, as we now know well, has struck in North America, Australia will remain too far away. I suppose they might truly be safe for a few years at least, especially when I consider Professor Burbage’s talk about how big the world really is. But what happens if everyone runs away and no one stays to fight? Again, were Wayne and especially his parents to do so, it would be understandable. But the Halagards are as pure-blooded as my family, maybe even more. I’m afraid if they take this route I shall always feel disappointment in Conni, whom I thought much braver than this. Friday: I meant to send this letter yesterday, but I was distracted by a fight in the common room. The second one this year; I cannot understand it. We ought to be more scrupulous about getting along with each other in a time like this, and it seems the younger students are instead less. I am not even certain what started it. It may have been one third year girl trying to copy the homework of another, or it might have been a fifth year boy trying to jinx a first one, or it might have been a dispute ongoing for several days involving someone’s boyfriend; everyone tells me something different. By the time I got downstairs there were fifteen students involved, with all seven years represented amoung the fighters. One fourth year had to go to the Hospital Wing, and two more younger students were spared that only because Brian Rogerson was kind enough to take half an hour reversing the jinxes on them. Multiple bystanders were also hit, though thankfully nothing they could not take care of themselves. I have given them all detention, of course, and Professor Sprout I believe could use some help in the greenhouses. I also spoke to all of them very strong of how wrong their behavior was, and I hope at least the younger ones will listen, but the older ones are another matter. There was one seventh-year, old Jack Mallinus, whose behavior had gotten even worse than it has been, and whom I only tried to speak to because it would have looked very bad had I not, even though I knew I was wasting my breath. None of the accounts hold him as primarily responsible for the affair, but I would not be surprised if I learned he was anyway. But I actually am not sorry I was delayed in sending this letter, because since then I have received a letter from David containing news I beg you will take heed of and be prepared to respond to if need be. It seems some in the Ministry are talking about if it might become necessary to smuggle Muggle-borns and certain other wizards out of Great Britain; there has recently been two different attacks on two families in Heathrow Airport, and there is concern the Death Eaters are deliberately going after those trying to move out of their reach. I hope that will at least cause those like the Halagards to reconsider their foolish thoughts of flight, but of course we must acknowledge that escape from Britain may, under certain circumstances, become necessary for some. It may also be difficult, while the Death Eaters are so watching, to just go to the coast, mount a broomstick, and fly any which way over the sea, especially if it is an entire family trying to do so. Portkeys may work, but the more alternatives we have, the better. I have been made aware that certain people in the Ministry are working on mapping out traditional if recently unused flying routes which travel from Northern Scotland, though Iceland, Greenland, and parts of Canada before terminating around Lake Ontario. To one that knows them well enough, they provide a better chance at evading Death Eaters than just flying off the coast would. Two of the routes terminate very near New York State Wizarding School, and it is likely refugees using them will come to your valley to seek food and aid. While whether or not they get it may not prove to be entirely within your control, I am sure you, Hannah, will do everything you can for them, and I also hope you will urge your new friends to do the same. It will likely, however, be a few months before any refugees use them, especially, of course, with the evidence that the Death Eaters themselves used them recently; the Ministry is trying to determine which one they used, though this is an exceedingly difficult task. So you have that time to prepare, as does your school; if they have any prudence I am sure New York State’s staff is aware of this possibility. So as to alert you to this as soon as possible, I will right this minute take this letter down to the Owlery. Please write back to me after getting it, and be sure to tell me if anything unusual or concerning has happened at New York State. Remember we are all thinking about you as much as you think of us. Justin, Alice, and David send their love, as I do, from,

Your most loyal friend, Ernest Micus MacMillan

“Do you think the staff knows?” wondered Francesca after Hannah had read the letter out loud to her.

“Of course they do,” said Hannah. “We saw tonight they are very aware things are going on outside the school. Maybe they even decided what they did because they think Death Eaters are using one of the routes, so they might end up near here.” The real question, she supposed, was if they were actually going to do anything to get ready. But she didn’t know what any students could do to get them to.

“Still,” said Fran, “I think we should have a talk with the others about what we could maybe do. I think Sappho could write to her commune. Yeah, a lot of people there don’t like Muggles, but I actually don’t think they mind Muggle-borns quite as much. Some of them might be willing to take some refugees in. They’d be completely safe there.”

“What if they bring their parents?” That was another question that was bothering Hannah, about whether any effort would be made for people like the Finch-Fletchleys, for starters, and then, should they be evacuated, what would be done for them then. “We shouldn’t just say they probably won’t; what if they do?”

“Well, maybe we’d have to find somewhere else, then,” said Fran. “Still, at least the commune would have those that don’t. It’s worth talking to Sappho about, in any case.”

“All right then, we will.” It seemed a little odd to Hannah how Fran had seemed to be waiting for her to say that, as if the final decision was now to be hers in everything Britain-related as well as everything Defense Against the Dark Arts training-related.

But now Fran was turning away, saying “It’s time for my evening prayers,” which caused Hannah to look at the clock and think it was pretty early to be praying. She still had homework to do, and working while Fran was praying always made her feel awkward. But it didn’t feel right to ask her to do them another time either.

So as her roommate took her rosary out and knelt, Hannah took the letter and lay down facing the wall. She reread it another time. This time she focused on the news of her various friends, worrying about if indeed Susan had lost yet another member of her family, and if Conni and Wayne would both really go to what felt like the other side of the world from America and Britain both, and especially what might happen to Justin and Alice and her other Muggle-born friends and their families. How could all of them escape, even if some of them did?

Also pettier things, like how much trouble Ernie was likely to have as a Prefect; she bet everyone at Hogwarts was feeling a lot more restless than usual. She felt guilty for abandoning him then, though surely someone could appoint another girl Prefect, maybe one who would be better at it than she had been. She thought Susan might be. Or maybe if a lot of students dropped out, the staff wouldn’t view it as necessary, although Hannah thought that would be stupid of them.

The Next Morning

Hannah awoke gasping and near tears. She might have even shouted, though she wasn’t sure she’d actually done that out loud.

Though it seemed Francesca had heard something, because she was still coming down and telling herself it had only been a dream when her roommate was hovering over her. This was hardly the first nightmare Hannah had had since her mother’s murder, and she wondered at how Francesca was always so quick to hurry over. “What was it this time?” she was asking.

“My father,” said Hannah, but as she tried to remember what she’d dreamed happened to him, she found the dream was already fading. All she could recall was his screaming her name and begging her for help.

“He should be all right,” Fran reminded her gently. “He’s a strong and capable wizard who’s on his guard, and we don’t even know that there are any Death Eaters on the continent at the moment.”

“I know,” Hannah sighed. Fran stepped back so she was able to get out of bed, and she went to the window and pushed aside the curtains. The now familiar sight of the valley’s morning fog soothed her.

“Do you expect your friend’s owl soon?” Fran asked, and Hannah shrugged. That Eldred had not come up to her dorm room the previous night made her think the poor bird had exhausted himself. He was probably going to be doing a lot more journeys to North America and back. She didn’t want to push him any more than necessary.

Still, she probably did need to get her letter off that day, and in fact when she turned away from the window, the first thing she went for was the letter she’d been working on since sending off her first letter to Ernie and Justin with the basic news that she’d gotten home and then enrolled in New York State. Idly she read the last section, which was now two days old:

Friday: I know you’re never happy to hear me say this, Ernie, but I wish I didn’t have so much work to do this weekend. Mr. Rivers, Mrs. Hemlock, and Miss Ferreira all want us to write two rolls of parchment, and remember American rolls are bigger than British rolls, plus Mr. Rivers gave us a second half-written, half-practical assignment, and I also have five different chapters from four different books to read. Some of it is still easy, but not all of it anymore. I wouldn’t mind, but the DA takes up so much time too. It’s not easy to be both a student and a teacher at the same time, and I’m starting to think Harry Potter’s ability to be is yet another amazing thing about him. No new people saying they want to attend the meeting tomorrow, so right now I have 14 people who all say they might, and six where I’m really certain they will. Sappho is vouching for her two teammates, though one of them has said apologetically he can’t make it, though he didn’t say why. I’m hoping to get some word of who’s attending for sure at breakfast tomorrow; three people did say they’d tell me then, though of course they still might not.

It had felt like a longer day had passed since then it should have. It was partly the DA meeting, and what had happened in the library before it, plus what Mr. Bobwhite had said at dinner that evening, but mostly because of Ernie’s letter. It was weird how the thought of what was going on over in Britain was constantly with her, but even when it was the cause of so much of what she was doing, it was still shoved to the back of her head most of the time. She was just so busy. She felt as if the events of weeks had happened to her from reading that letter.

That might have been why it took Hannah a little bit of time before she felt up to wetting her quill and writing Sunday: Sorry I didn’t write yesterday, but it was a day capped off by receiving your letter, which I spent the whole evening reading. She went on then, describing her encounter with the two boys in the library, how the class had gone, and the dinner announcement. After a moment’s hesitation, she also related her conversation with Berenice, and confided her fears that she herself was the cause of the school being in increased danger. I suppose if I was not to stay at Hogwarts then I have to go somewhere, she wrote, but I don’t like putting friends like Alfred in more danger than they already are. I guess I just have to work that much harder to teach them Defense Against the Dark Arts.

I will give this letter to Eldred after he’s rested a little, she finished up. Meanwhile, please know I am hoping every day for both of you as well as Alice and all our other friends to make it through safe and sound, and once this letter is gone I will be waiting anxiously for your next one.

Yours truly, Hannah

Eldred arrived for the letter just before she and Fran went down for breakfast. As they watched him fly off with it, Fran said, “You should get an owl of your own. Why don’t you have one?”

“Maybe I should get one,” Hannah agreed. “It’s hard to get any animal across the ocean, but I originally took my cat to Hogwarts. He’s old and sickly now, can’t travel anymore. I just never thought of it though. Maybe I’ll get one next summer.”

The letter was also the main subject on conversation at breakfast that morning, with Alfred especially wanting to know all the details about what was going on in Britain, and the fates of all the people she spent the summers talking to him about. When she told them about what Ernie had written at the end of the letter about possible refugees, Sappho said, “That would set off a fierce war in my community about whether we should take anyone in or not, one that would go on for months and months, and meanwhile, anyone here already would have to go somewhere else. I don’t know how much use I can be, really.”

“But there’s a chance of success?” Hannah pressed.

“A chance, definitely,” she said. “I don’t know how big a one, but a chance.”

“It wouldn’t be bad, I think,” said Max, “having a few more people here. Any kids that came over could join us, though I suppose some of the higher and mightier Hogwarts students wouldn’t be impressed by our weak, backward curriculum.” He didn’t say it as sarcastically as he probably would’ve liked to.

“Anyone else up for a short walk before we tackle the homework we’ve been putting off until today?” Sappho asked.

“If it’s a walk rather than a fly,” laughed Alfred. Hannah found herself agreeing to come, too. Her head was still so full she couldn’t help but crave some exercise to clear it.

It was already much colder outside than it had been that first Saturday morning when she’d gone out to fly with Sappho, especially within the fog, which was very thick that day. In fact, when the mist made contact with her hands and cheeks, Hannah felt a sensation almost like sharp ice on her skin. It was more than she thought was natural, and so she asked, “Do any of you know if this fog has much magic in it?”

“At least a little, I think,” said Alfred. “Might depend upon the day, though.”

“I think there are ghosts in the fog,” said Sappho. “I’ve even heard stories about people hearing them. Maybe if we’re quiet enough, we will.”

“I don’t know if I want to,” said Alfred hastily. Hannah didn’t say so, but she definitely didn’t want to. Ghosts were too close to death to her, when she’d still put relatively little time between herself and the death of her mother.

The others probably didn’t either, because everyone kept on talking as they walked to keep the ghosts away. She started to feel better. The fog’s icy touch was something she could get used to, once she reminded herself she’d never heard of anyone getting hurt by this fog, so it was probably harmless.

It did make it hard to keep very good track of where they were going, though, and when they suddenly found themselves facing trees, Max exclaimed, “We’ve walked all the way to the woods!”

“You want to go in?” asked Sappho.

Hannah’s first instinct was to say no, though that might have just been because after five years at Hogwarts, her automatic reaction to woods was to think they were dangerous. But once she remembered that wasn’t true for these woods, she was suddenly beset by a wild curiousity, wanting to know what was in them, besides students doing forbidden or unruly things anyway, and she found herself asking, “Are there any paths in?”

“There are several,” said Max. “And if I’m right, we might not be far from one of them. This way.”

Max was right; ten minutes later they were at the foot of one. By then the fog was showing signs of lifting too, and they could see what no problem was immediately in front of them. There seemed no real reason not to go in.

There were now more leaves on the ground than on most of the trees, and they crunched under their feet. If anyone was in these woods, Hannah thought, they would be the ones in control as to whether they met with the group or not, unless they too were this loud. She didn’t mind that, though, especially since she thought they would decide not to. They didn’t bother keep their voices down either, Max happily telling the tale of the first time he had snuck off into the woods when he’d been thirteen, and absolutely nothing interesting had happened, but everyone he had told about it had been jealous anyway.

“You do not want to know how many times he bragged about it when we first became roommates,” said Alfred. “Never mind that by then it wasn’t really a very impressive story anymore; we were too old for that.”

“By the normal definition of impressive, I assume,” said Francesca.

“Oh please,” said Max. “Let me guess, first time in the woods for the good Catholic girl.”

“First time…in a few years,” she grinned at him. “I snuck in here once during my first year. Me and three other girls. Like with you, nothing happened. Except we had a big leaf fight, of course.”

Alfred was laughing at this exchange, and Hannah was listening to him laugh, and because of that she almost missed the whinny. But she thought she heard it behind them, and instantly crazy thoughts filled her head, a fear that somehow someone had come here and waited for them to go into the woods where their bodies would be hard to find, and without thinking she whipped out her wand and stopped walking.

The panic faded after a moment, and then there were just her classmates looking at her funny. “Hannah,” said Francesca, “are you all right?”

She listened behind them; no sound of footsteps. “It’s nothing,” she said. “But I could’ve sworn I heard a whinny behind us.”

“You know, I think I did, too,” said Fran. “Though it sounded…not like most flying horses.”

“You think maybe it’s a unicorn?” asked Sappho, sounding excited. “I’ve heard they’ve been seen in here sometimes. More often, in recent years. It’s thought a lot of the Northeastern North American population has converged here.”

“Who’d you hear that from?” asked Max. “You know if it was from that roommate of yours?”

“Not her,” said Sappho. “More than one person, and from my very first year here.”

“I’ve heard it too,” said Fran. “It’s a story all the girls like to tell. I still wouldn’t assume it’s true.”

“Worth looking,” said Alfred. “Where’d you first hear it from?”

“In an early Care of Magical Creatures class. One of the students asked the teacher if it was true there were unicorns in the woods, and she said there might be, and some people had even claimed to see them, but there was no absolute confirmation.”

“You shouldn’t photograph a unicorn,” said Sappho. “It causes them to get weak.”

“No, that’s not true,” said Hannah. She might not have been in Care of Magical Creatures at Hogwarts, but apparently both Professor Grubby-Plank and Hagrid had been asked about that, and both had said it wasn’t.

“Yes, it is!” snapped Sappho. “We’ve sometimes seen unicorns in the valley at home, but none of us ever even draw them.”

“Oh, that’s just silly.” Max nearly laughed.

“No, it’s not!” Sappho was really getting upset. “What would any of you know? Have any of you even seen a unicorn, outside that one time they brought that mare and her injured foal here two years ago, the pair they wouldn’t let us see except from a distance?”

“They don’t bring any unicorns into Care of Magical Creatures?” Hannah asked, surprised. “They did that at Hogwarts.”

Max shook his head. “I’m afraid here we only handle smaller animals. I don’t know if they’d even have anywhere to keep them. They had to set up a special pen for the mare and foal.”

“What do you tend to work with?” Hannah asked, and that got her a flurry of answers, as she started to hear about clabberts and jobbernolls, jarveys and fire crabs. “We got to see a snidget once,” said Fran. “Everyone got very excited about it.”

“And then most of us didn’t get more than a split second’s look, really,” said Max, “before it went and flew off really fast, and hid somewhere in the greenhouse. I heard it took Mrs. Hemlock two weeks to finally get it out.”

“Hey,” said Alfred, “do you think maybe we could go back? It’s just we’ve been out here for a while, and we all have a lot to do.” Hannah honestly couldn’t tell if he was also feeling a little scared or not.

But Max had an expression that made it clear he was going to demand to know if he was, and right then, she didn’t want to hear it. “I agree with that,” she said. “I’ve got more to do than the rest of you.”

Which, of course, caused Max to instead laugh and say, “Spoken like a true girlfriend right there.”

From him, she could let it pass. “Look,” she started, but then there was the whinny again, and this time she was sure she’d heard it. “There!” she whirled around. “It’s over there somewhere!”

For a moment she feared her companions’ reactions, but then Francesca said, “I think you’re right,” and a moment after that they were all hurrying the way she’d pointed.

It must have been going too fast, though, maybe startled by their large party crashing through the forest. There were no more whinnies, no glimpses of anything, and before they knew it they’d cleared the trees and were back in the fields surrounding the school. The fog had lifted a bit, and they could see the building from where they were standing. At least that made getting back pretty easy.

As they all exchanged looks, Sappho said, “We should go back in without the boys. If there was a unicorn there, she’s more likely to show up if she doesn’t have to deal with you two.”

That resulted in loud protests from both boys, which definitely would have scared off the unicorn even if it had lingered hidden in the area. When Hannah made that observation out loud, Alfred gave her a look like he’d betrayed her, and Fran just sighed, “Let’s go in.”

So they did, but as they walked back, Hannah secretly thought she might go back completely by herself. Not that she even thought there was anything wrong with the other two girls. Heck, she was dead certain Francesca was a virgin at least. But somehow she thought maybe it wanted to see her especially, and maybe it would be less scared if she was alone. It felt worth it, for a chance to meet with a unicorn in the woods like that.

[omgstupendousbouquetbasement]

One Year On, Africa Free Trade Deal Nears Reality

Almost a year after the formal launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the plan is inching toward the 22-country threshold needed for implementation.  The African Union envisioned the free trade zone spanning the entire continent — with a combined gross domestic product of at least $2.3 trillion — as a means of improving the movement of goods, services and people among the AU's 55 members. By integrating economies and reducing trade barriers such as tariffs, it aims to increase employment prospects, living standards and opportunities for the region's 1.3 billion people — and to make Africa more globally competitive. Right now, "intra-African trade only represents 15 percent of total African exports," said Landry Signe, a proponent of the deal and a scholar with the Washington-based Brookings Institution's Global Economy and Development Program. By comparison, 58 percent of Asian trade and 67 percent of European trade remains within those regions, the Cameroon native said. Officials from 44 countries signed the framework establishing the trade pact on March 21, 2018, in Rwanda's capital, Kigali. Several others have signed since. Each country's parliament still must approve the deal, a process that could take years. Nineteen countries have ratified the agreement, leaving it just three short of the minimum before the agreement can take effect. The latest to ratify, as of February, is Ethiopia, whose reform-minded Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has pushed for business liberalization and increased private investment since taking office last April. The Horn of Africa country, with a fast-growing economy, also has won praise from the International Monetary Fund for a decade of strong development. While South Africa has already ratified the deal, Nigeria — one of the continent's other leading economies — has not signed. "We will not agree to anything that will undermine local manufacturers and entrepreneurs, or that may lead to Nigeria becoming a dumping ground for finished goods," President Muhammadu Buhari said in a Twitter post after skipping the AU meeting last year. Nigeria has developed major trade relations with Asia, Eastern Europe and the Gulf region, and "fears potentially adverse trade and wants to know the costs and impacts to its economy," said Raymond Gilpin, an economist and dean of academic affairs at the Africa Center for Strategic Affairs.  But, with Buhari's re-election in February and with the prospect of African free trade bringing in more investment and jobs, Gilpin said, "I would be very surprised if Nigeria sits on the sidelines" of the trade pact.       Anticipated benefits Africa primarily exports raw materials, such as crude oil, precious metals and stones, cocoa and other agricultural products. It largely imports finished goods. With the trade pact, participating countries would commit to removing tariffs on 90 percent of goods and services. With more sharing of goods, services and information, it could address barriers such as lengthy delays at border crossings. "Currently, East African countries are trading amongst themselves at only half their potential, and the growing local demand is met by imports from outside the continent rather than by local production," Andrew Mold, agriculture director for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, said last March at the pact's launch. A commission study projects higher foreign investment, lower prices for consumer goods, expanded economic diversification and accelerated industrial development once the agreement takes effect. The African Union said the pact would create jobs — vital in sub-Saharan Africa, where 70 percent of the residents are younger than 35. Many are underemployed and living in poverty.  Signe predicted the deal also would give Africans a capacity "to collectively negotiate further when engaging with European partners, North American partners." The United States — which has been renegotiating trade deals with immediate neighbors Mexico and Canada, as well as with China — endorses the African trade bloc, said Bennett Harman, deputy assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa. "The United States is seeking to strengthen U.S.-Africa trade relations in ways that are complementary and support the African Continental Free Trade Agreement and other regional trade efforts," he said in an email to VOA. In 2017, the most recent year for which data are available, the U.S. and sub-Saharan African countries traded goods worth $39 billion, with South Africa and Nigeria topping the list for both exports and imports. Challenges ahead Rilwan Akeyewale, an entrepreneur in Nigeria, said the trade deal could open new markets for African-owned companies, increase efficiency and sales, and ease manufacturing costs. It could be a boon for small- to medium-sized businesses, he wrote in an opinion piece shared last fall by the World Economic Forum.  But, Akeyewale observed, the pact could increase competitive pressures on small businesses, including family farms in traditional economies, which "can't compete with large agribusinesses in high-income African countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Egypt and Nigeria." Akeyewale also warned of the potential for adverse working conditions, intellectual property theft, environmental depletion and the possibility of foreign suppliers undercutting local producers' prices. Mohammed Tahiro, an Ethiopian-American economics professor at the University of Dallas in Texas, said he supports the trade deal for its potential to integrate economies and to advance technology in less-developed nations. But he calls for market regulations to "avoid business-cultural clashes" and to prevent "a few countries [from] crushing the small countries." Signe said successful integration of the continent's trade depends on African leaders and civil societies developing "approaches and standards that prioritize free trade, economic diversification, industrial and technological developments, and the development of human capital, infrastructure, investment and education." This report originated with VOA's Horn of Africa Service. from Blogger https://ift.tt/2UpwkNQ via IFTTT

[bountyofbeads]

Coronavirus Live Updates: Iran’s Deputy Health Minister Tests Positive https://nyti.ms/3a16JlF

CORONAVIRUS LIVE UPDATES: IRAN’S DEPUTY HEALTH MINISTER TESTS POSITIVE

An Italian doctor staying at a resort in the Canary Islands was also feared to have the virus. New outbreaks in Europe, Asia and the Middle East are renewing fears of a coming global pandemic.

RIGHT NOW

Iraj Harirchi, the Iranian health official who has been leading his country’s response to the outbreak, has the virus, according to the government.

Read Updates in Chinese: 新冠病毒疫情最新消息汇总

HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The health official leading Iran’s coronavirus task force has tested positive.

Iran’s deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi, who has spearheaded the country’s efforts to contain the coronavirus, has contracted the illness, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday, renewing concerns about the spread of the virus in the country.

In an interview with the state-run news outlet IRNA, a spokesman for the ministry said that Mr. Harirchi had been experiencing weakness and flulike symptoms on Monday before holding a news briefing, and tested positive for the virus later in the day. It is unclear how he contracted the virus, but health officials said he had been dealing with some patients suspected of having the coronavirus.

During the briefing, Mr. Harirchi could be seen repeatedly wiping sweat from his brow and shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot. On Tuesday, he posted a video from home detailing his diagnosis and self-quarantine.

The number of coronavirus cases and deaths continued to rise in Iran on Tuesday, according to health officials, days after the country emerged as another focal point of the outbreak. A prominent member of Parliament, Mahmoud Sadeghi, an outspoken critic of the country’s hard-liners, posted on Twitter that he also had the virus.

Health officials quoted in Iranian state news media confirmed three more deaths in the country, bringing the total to 15. At least 95 people nationwide have tested positive for the coronavirus, most of them in the northern city of Qom, health officials said.

With an economy choked by economic sanctions, a restive population that distrusts its government and a secretive leadership, Iran is something of a wild card in the region.

While the numbers of the infected do not look too daunting so far, experts fear that the government may be concealing the true scale of the problem, and may not have the capacity to respond effectively if things begin to spiral out of control.

Qom, an important religious center,  draws more than 22 million visitors every year, according to tourism figures from the country, most of them religious pilgrims. Of those, around 2.5 million come from abroad.

[OUTBREAK IN IRAN:  Iran is a “recipe for a massive viral outbreak.” SEE BELOW] WE SHOULD BE OFFERING ASSISTANCE TO IRAN AT THIS TIME

A LARGE HOTEL IN TENERIFE, SPAIN, IS ON LOCKDOWN.

A hotel on the Spanish resort island of Tenerife was placed under a police cordon on Tuesday after an Italian guest tested positive for the new coronavirus, the authorities said.

According to local news reports, around 1,000 guests are booked at the hotel, the H10 Costa Adeje Palace, at a resort that is popular with British tourists. It remained unclear whether an official quarantine was in place.

Officials at the Canary Emergency Services Department are working to determine the severity of the outbreak in the building. In recent cases, including the quarantine of the Diamond Princess cruise ship, the authorities demanded quarantine periods of at least 14 days.

Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands, a Spanish territory off the coast of West Africa.

The Italian patient is being kept in isolation at a hospital on the island, pending the results of a second test to be conducted in Madrid by Spain’s National Center of Microbiology.

The hotel guests have been told to remain in their rooms, according to Antena 3, a Spanish television channel, while health inspectors are checking people inside who could have come into contact with the Italian.

Guests were given a note by the hotel management asking them to stay in their rooms and telling them that for health reasons, the hotel had been temporarily closed.

Police enlarged the security cordon around the hotel to block access to nearby streets and a parking lot on Tuesday morning.

According to the local news media, the man who tested positive is a doctor who was visiting from Lombardy, a region of Italy that has been hit particularly hard by the virus. He reportedly took himself to a hospital with a fever about a week after arriving in Tenerife.

Spain previously confirmed two cases of the virus, both foreigners who were hospitalized on Spanish islands: a German citizen on La Gomera and a Briton on Majorca.

STOCK MARKETS MIXED AFTER AN OUTBREAK-INSPIRED PLUNGE.

Global stocks calmed down on Tuesday, a day after fears of the spread of the new coronavirus outside China scared investors into a worldwide sell-off.

Futures markets suggested that Wall Street would open higher, recovering slightly from the market’s worst day in two years.

In Europe, shares opened mostly higher, suggesting investors’ nerves had steadied, but then slumped into negative territory. Germany’s DAX was 0.5 percent lower, and Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 0.7 percent.

Shares fell in most markets in Asia, led by Japan, which had closed for a holiday on Monday and missed that day’s drop. The Nikkei 225 index tumbled more than 3.3 percent. Most other Asian markets fell at a much slower pace.

The signs that markets were stabilizing followed a difficult Monday, when investors began to more fully comprehend the extent of the outbreak. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 index fell 3.4 percent on Monday, its worst single-day performance since February 2018. European markets recorded their worst session since 2016.

Market analysts in recent days have issued new warnings that the outbreak could drag down economies around the globe.

IN ITALY, ANXIETY RISES AS NEW CASES MOUNT.

The authorities in Italy, the center of the worst outbreak of the coronavirus outside Asia, reported new infections on Tuesday, with a total of 283 cases, up from 229 a day earlier, and reports of new cases in Tuscany and Sicily.

The Italian outbreak has prompted fears that the virus could spread rapidly across the Continent, where the Schengen zone allows largely free movement between countries. That concern increased after Angelo Borrelli, the head of Civil Protection, confirmed that two cases had been identified outside the “red area” in the northern region of Lombardy that has become the epicenter of the outbreak.

The government deployed the Italian Army to the red area on Tuesday, Michele Capone, a carabinieri official in the area, told the Italian news agency ANSA, adding that checkpoints had been installed inside the locked-down areas of those towns.

Southern mainland regions such as Puglia and Calabria have asked travelers coming from northern regions affected by the coronavirus to inform the local authorities.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte of Italy has sought to cut off attempts to wall off the north. Autonomous decisions by local authorities in southern areas were “not justified,” he told reporters late Monday evening.

[ ITALY’S OUTBREAK: The coronavirus stalls Milan, Italy’s economic engine. SEE WEBSITE]

TRUMP SAYS CORONAVIRUS SITUATION “WILL START WORKING OUT.”

President Trump said that the United States was well able to protect itself against the spread of the coronavirus and offered an optimistic outlook on Tuesday, even as fears of a global pandemic grew.

“I think the whole situation will start working out,” Mr. Trump said during a news conference in India.

Even as the president offered his sunny view of the crisis, his administration requested $2.5 billion to help stop the spread of the virus.

The request is a significant escalation of the White House’s response and a sign of how long the fight to stop the virus might be.

Representative Nita M. Lowey, Democrat of New York and chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, called the request “woefully insufficient.”

Mr. Trump was also asked about his criticism of the Obama administration for bringing a doctor who had contracted the Ebola virus back to the United States for treatment, even as his administration decided to bring back people who tested positive for the coronavirus on a cruise ship docked in Japan. Mr. Trump said the situations were completely different.

IRAQI LAWMAKERS DEMAND BORDER WITH IRAN BE SEALED.

Calling the coronavirus “a plague,” an Iraqi lawmaker demanded on Tuesday that the government seal its borders with Iran “until the disease is completely controlled,” the same day that Iraq’s Health Ministry announced four more cases of the virus.

The demand, by Qutayba al-Jubori, chairman of the Iraqi Parliament’s Health and Environment Committee, came as governments across the region sought to limit the entry of Iranian travelers following an outbreak in that country that has killed at least 15 people.

The Iraqi government said it would suspend all flights from Iran beginning Monday afternoon, but by Tuesday morning, flights were still scheduled to and from Najaf, a central Iraqi city that is home to Shiite shrines popular with Iranian pilgrims.

Iraq reported its first case of the virus on Monday, a 22-year old religion student in Najaf, who has been quarantined at a location outside the city. On Tuesday, the Health Ministry confirmed that a family of four from Kirkuk who had just returned from Iran had contracted the coronavirus and were being quarantined.

The government told citizens to avoid crowded places including shrines, universities and schools, shopping malls and stores, sports activities and entertainment parks. They also recommended avoiding kissing or shaking hands with others and urged people to use disposable napkins.

The firebrand cleric Moktada al-Sadr said he would suspend vast protests against his political opponents.

“I had called for million man protests and sit-ins against sectarian power-sharing and today I forbid you from them for your health and life, for they are more important to me than anything else,” he said in a statement.

Other nations in the region issued travel restrictions on Tuesday. The United Arab Emirates, home to Dubai International Airport, one of the world’s busiest, has suspended all flights to Iran.

Bahrain, which confirmed two cases in travelers who had flown from Iran via Dubai, said that it had suspended all its flights from Dubai International Airport and from Sharjah International Airport, also in the United Arab Emirates, for two days.

As infections slow in China, they increase elsewhere around the world.

China appears to be getting the new coronavirus under control, but infections are spreading rapidly in South Korea, Iran and Italy. And the world is not prepared for a major outbreak, World Health Organization officials said on Monday.

A W.H.O. mission to China has said that the daily tally of new cases there peaked and then plateaued between Jan. 23 and Feb. 2, and has steadily declined since.

Chinese officials reported 508 new cases and 71 deaths as of Monday, a slower pace than in previous days.

By Tuesday, South Korea had reported a total of 893 cases, the second most in the world. Of the 60 new cases reported by South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 49 came from Daegu, the center of the outbreak in that country.

In Iran, a spike in coronavirus infections has prompted fears of a contagion throughout the Middle East. In Italy, one of Europe’s largest economies, officials are struggling to prevent the epidemic from paralyzing the commercial center of Milan. And in New York, London, and Tokyo, financial markets plummeted on fears that the virus will cripple the global economy.

The emergence of Italy, Iran, and South Korea as new hubs of the outbreak underscored the lack of a coordinated global strategy to combat the coronavirus, which has infected nearly 80,000 people in 37 countries, causing at least 2,600 deaths.

C.D.C. WARNS AMERICANS AGAINST TRAVELING TO SOUTH KOREA.

American citizens were advised on Monday to avoid nonessential travel to South Korea because of the rapid spread of the coronavirus there. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has raised the travel warning to Level Three, its highest warning.

“There is a widespread, ongoing outbreak of respiratory illness caused by a novel (new) coronavirus that can be spread from person to person,” the C.D.C. said in an advisory. “Older adults and people with chronic medical conditions may be at risk of severe disease.”

The C.D.C. also warned that “there is limited access to adequate medical care in affected areas.”

The warning came as South Korea reported Tuesday that the number of cases in the country had risen by 60 to 893 overall. The majority of the cases have been centered in the area in and around Daegu, South Korea’s fourth-largest city, 180 miles southeast of Seoul. And roughly half the patients in the country are members of the Shincheonji religious group, a church that has a large following in the city.

President Moon Jae-in on Sunday put the country on the highest possible alert in its fight against the coronavirus.

WHITE HOUSE ASKS CONGRESS FOR $2.5 BILLION TO FIGHT THE OUTBREAK. (TAKE THE MONEY FROM TRUMP'S STUPID BORDER WALL)

The Trump administration, after weeks of pleading from lawmakers, asked Congress on Monday to allocate at least $2.5 billion in emergency funds to bolster its coronavirus response, according to three White House officials and a request letter obtained by The New York Times.

The request from the White House, $1.25 billion in new funds and $1.25 billion in money diverted from other federal programs, is a significant escalation in the administration’s response to the outbreak of the virus and a sign of how long the fight to stop it may be.

The letter, which was signed by Russell T. Vought, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the funds would be spent on emergency medical supplies, lab testing, the development of vaccines and other forms of monitoring, among other features.

Representative Nita M. Lowey of New York, the chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, called the request “woefully insufficient to protect Americans from the deadly coronavirus outbreak.”

“It is profoundly disturbing that their answer now is to raid money Congress has designated for other critical public health priorities,” she said in a statement. “Worse still, their overall request still falls short of what is needed for an effective, comprehensive governmentwide response.”

DEATHS AT A WUHAN NURSING HOME ARE GOING UNREPORTED, SAYS CHINESE NEWSMAGAZINE.

At least one and as many as 19 people have died from causes that could be linked to the coronavirus at a nursing home located steps from the likely source of the outbreak in Wuhan, China, the Chinese news outlet Caixin reported.

The nursing home, known as the Wuhan Social Welfare Institute, is near the seafood market that was identified the center of the outbreak. A spokesman told The New York Times it could not comment without approval from the civil affairs bureau.

In an indication that the authorities have acknowledged the risks posed to nursing homes, the civil affairs bureau has said every facility in the city will now be put under strict management, and that nucleic acid tests would be conducted for employees by Feb. 28.

The aged are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus, with many of the reported deaths occurring among people over 60 years old who had underlying health conditions. Five people at the nursing home are said to have died in December and January, and another 14 in February, according to Caixin. Lung infections and heart attacks were listed among the causes of the deaths.

A nurse cited by Caixin said the infirmary attached to the home lacked testing capabilities for the virus. The municipal Civil Affairs Bureau in Wuhan said in a notice dated Thursday that 11 residents and an employee at the home have been infected and that one had died.

Many more deaths are going unreported, according to Caixin.

CHINA MAKES IT EASIER FOR BUSINESSES TO REOPEN, BUT CRACKS DOWN ON PRICE GOUGING.

Beijing officials announced on Tuesday that they had ordered local governments to streamline the many new requirements they have imposed before companies can reopen after weeks of stalled production as a result of the outbreak.

Worried that further infections might be blamed on them, local officials all over China have been demanding that companies pass extensive reviews and even on-site inspections before they can restart production. Rules include making sure that companies provide employees with face masks, keep track of employees’ temperatures and set up hand-washing stations.

Manufacturers of medical protection equipment can bypass the new rules almost entirely, so as to produce more face masks and other gear as quickly as possible.

But while Beijing is trying to restart the private sector, it does not want companies to mark up prices steeply for scarce products. Tang Jun, the deputy director of the State Administration of Market Regulation, said at a news briefing on Tuesday morning in Beijing that the Chinese government had investigated 4,500 companies for price gouging and was filing more than 11,000 legal cases.

The cases involved, “medical protective supplies and important commodities related to the people’s livelihood,” he said. More than 36,000 online vendors have already been identified as trying to overcharge specifically for face masks, he added, and electronic commerce companies have removed their overpriced listings.

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Reporting and research was contributed by Raphael Minder, Matt Phillips, Russell Goldman, Megan Specia, Emma Bubola, Keith Bradsher, Gerry Mullany, Aimee Ortiz, Alissa Rubin, Elaine Yu, Mark Landler, Steven Lee Myers, Sui-Lee Wee, Farah Stockman, Louis Keene, Noah Weiland, Emily Cochrane and Maggie Haberman.

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‘Recipe for a Massive Viral Outbreak’: Iran Emerges as a Worldwide Threat

Long a regional crossroads, Iran is spreading the new coronavirus to a host of neighboring countries. Many are ill equipped to cope.

By David D. Kirkpatrick, Farnaz Fassihi  and Mujib Marshal | Published Feb. 24, 2020 Updated Feb. 25, 2020, 6:09 a.m. ET | New York Times | Posted February 25, 2020

Religious pilgrims, migrant workers, businessmen, soldiers and clerics all flow constantly across Iran’s frontiers, often crossing into countries with few border controls, weak and ineffective governments and fragile health systems.

Now, as it struggles to contain the spread of the coronavirus, Iran is also emerging as the second focal point after China for the spread of the disease. Cases in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates — even one in Canada — have all been traced to Iran, sending tremors of fear rippling out from Kabul to Beirut.

The Middle East is in many ways the perfect place to spawn a pandemic, experts say, with the constant circulation of both Muslim pilgrims and itinerant workers who might carry the virus. Iran’s economy has been strangled by sanctions, its people have lost trust in their government and its leaders are isolated from much of the world, providing little clarity about the extent of the epidemic.

Civil wars or years of unrest have shattered the health systems of several neighboring countries, like Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen. And most of the region is governed largely by authoritarians with poor track records at providing public transparency, accountability and health services.

“It is a recipe for a massive viral outbreak,” said Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the former founding executive director of the Joint United Nations Program on H.I.V./AIDS.

Millions of Muslim pilgrims travel each year from around the region to visit Shiite holy sites in Iran and Iraq. In January alone, 30,000 people returned to Afghanistan from Iran, and hundreds of others continue to make the pilgrimage to Qom, the site of the outbreak, every week, Afghan officials say.

Iraq closed its border with Iran on Saturday, but millions cross it every year. So scores of infected people could potentially have brought the virus to Iraq, depending on how long it has been present in Iran. And as of midday on Monday in Najaf, flights to and from Iran were still taking off and landing.

Governors of Iraqi provinces bordering Iran were taking the potential for contagion seriously and at least two were personally inspecting the border crossings to ensure that they were being policed and that Iranians were barred from crossing into Iraq.

Qutaybah al-Jubouri, the head of the Iraqi Parliament’s Health Affairs Committee, called the coronavirus “a plague” and said his committee was demanding a far more complete closure of all “land, sea and air” borders with Iran “until the disease is completely controlled.”

Iran’s health ministry sent a letter to the governor of Qom on Thursday and asked Shiite religious leaders to limit the number of pilgrims at the Shrine to Fatima Masumeh and other religious sites in the city, but as of early Tuesday, throngs of people still gathered around the shrine, touching it and taking part in communal prayers.

Iran is in many ways a case study in the risks of the disease spreading. The country reported its first case of the coronavirus less than a week ago, in Qom. On Tuesday, health officials reported that a total to 15 people had died after contracting the virus. At least 95 others had been infected in Iran, the officials said, with new cases being reported in Isfahan, Hamedan and other cities, as well as in Qom.

Now the slow drip of news about the spread of the virus is compounding Tehran’s already acute credibility problems, less than two months after officials were forced to admit lying about their knowledge of the accidental downing of a Ukrainian passenger jet by air defense systems. Many Iranians on Monday were openly skeptical about the official accounts of the spread of the virus.

A member of Parliament representing Qom claimed on Monday that at least 50 people had already died there, including 34 in quarantine, and that the first case had been reported more than two weeks before officials acknowledged any infections.

“Every day 10 people are dying in Qom,” the lawmaker, Ahmad Amiri Farahani, asserted in a speech to Parliament, demanding a quarantine on his city.

Health ministry officials vehemently disputed his claims. “I will resign if the numbers are even half or a quarter of this,” said Ahmad Harirchi, adviser to the health minister.

Adding to the public anxiety, the Iranian news media reported that Dr. Mohamad Reza Ghadir, the head of a medical university in Qom and the top official in charge of managing the outbreak there, was among those placed in quarantine.

On Monday, Dr. Ghadir said on Iran’s state television network that the health ministry had ordered city officials “not to publish any statistics” related to the outbreak in Qom. The situation there was “very dire and disease has spread across the city, ” he said.

Iranians, distrusting the authorities, were ignoring official urgings to stay away from hospitals for fear of spreading the disease, instead crowding into emergency rooms to get themselves tested. Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran put up a triage tent outside to handle the overflow.

In an interview with BBC Persian from Tehran, Dr. Babak Gharaye Moghadam urged citizens to “please, please listen” to the advice of health officials and not to turn to social media feeds on their cellphones for guidance.

The price of hospital masks was spiking across the region, including in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan, where some were selling for as much as 30 times the usual cost.

Experts worry that few Middle Eastern countries are ready to respond effectively to the threat posed by the virus.

“How ready are these countries?” asked Dr. Montaser Bilbisi, an American-trained infectious disease specialist practicing in Amman, Jordan. “In all honesty, I have not seen the level of readiness that I have seen in China or elsewhere, and even some of the personal protective equipment is lacking.”

In Jordan, for example, he said that he had not yet seen a fully protective hazardous materials suit. “So health care workers would be at very high risk for infection.”

In Afghanistan, officials said the first confirmed case of the virus was a 35-year-old man from the western province of Herat who had recently traveled to Qom. Health officials declared a state of emergency in Herat. The government on Sunday had already suspended all air and ground travel to and from Iran.

But the border is difficult to seal. Thousands cross every week for religious pilgrimages, trade, jobs and study — about 30,000 in January alone, the International Organization of Migration, an intergovernmental agency, reported.

“In the past two weeks, more than a 1,000 people have visited or traveled to Qom from Herat, which means they come into closer contact with the virus,” the Afghan heath minister, Ferozuddin Feroz, said on Monday at a news conference in Kabul.

As officials offered reassurances that they were ordering more hospital masks, residents were panicking about what other precautions to take.

The son of a professor at a university in Herat, who returned three days ago from Iran, called a reporter for The New York Times on Monday asking what the procedure for quarantine was.

“My father doesn’t show any signs of corona, but he and our family are worried,” the son, Mohamad Iman, said. “He’s locked himself up in a room where he just reads books. He has asked us to leave him some food and water at the door, but to stay away.”

Saudi Arabia was the epicenter of a similar outbreak seven years ago, known as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, that was transmitted from camels to humans.

But even after seven years, Saudi Arabia, one of the richest countries in the world, has struggled to adapt state-of-the-art hygiene procedures to limit the spread of the virus within hospitals. A MERS outbreak last spring infected at least 61 people, killing eight of them.

“Many hospitals in Saudi Arabia have improved but some could still do better at prevention,” said Dr. David L. Heymann, former chairman of Britain’s Health Protection Agency.

In Iraq, the country with the most extensive border with Iran, only one case has been detected so far: that of a 22-year-old Iranian religious student in Najaf, Suhail Mohammad Ali.

In the first comprehensive steps to combat the spread of the virus, the education department in Najaf on Monday postponed spring exams and the sacred Imam Ali Shrine was closed.

The central government’s health department recommended avoiding crowded places, kissing or shaking hands.

In Beirut, Lebanon, a 41-year-old woman who had traveled to Qom on a religious pilgrimage landed in Beirut on Thursday night and was found on Friday to have the virus. It was not until Monday, though, that the government issued an emergency plan, suggesting that travel to the affected areas be restricted and that arriving passengers be isolated at the airport if they showed symptoms.

But no definite restrictions were ordered; not all passengers landing in Beirut in recent days have been screened; and another two planes from Qom were allowed to land in Beirut on Monday. Passengers on the plane carrying the infected Lebanese woman from Qom were told to quarantine themselves at home.

The country’s health minister, Dr. Hamad Hasan, on Monday urged the Lebanese to stay calm. But Rabih Shaer, founder of a Lebanese nonprofit that campaigns against corruption, called the government’s sluggish response “irresponsible and criminal.”

“Already the Lebanese population lost trust that this political class can face all the problems,” he said. “And now, until today, they still haven’t taken the right measures. There’s no transparency, there’s no accountability.”

Dr. Nada Melhem, a virologist at the American University of Beirut who has been consulting with the Health Ministry, acknowledged that, “the level of panic in Lebanon is really high.”

“But with systematic follow-up, we will be able to contain it,” she added. “Are we going to have some gaps? We will definitely have some, but I hope we can limit them as much as we can.”

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Reporting was contributed by Alissa Rubin from Baghdad, Vivian Yee from Beirut, Lebanon, Asadullah Timory from Herat, Afghanistan, and Fatima Faizi from Kabul, Afghanistan.

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Spreading Across Continents, a Lethal Virus Tests a Fraying Global Order

New outbreaks in Europe and the Middle East are accelerating amid concerns that the global response is fractured and uncoordinated.

By Mark Lander | Published Feb. 24, 2020 Updated Feb. 25, 2020, 8:32 a.m. ET | New York Times | Posted February 25, 2020 |

LONDON — In Iran, a spike in coronavirus infections has prompted fears of a contagion throughout the Middle East. In Italy, one of Europe’s largest economies, officials are struggling frantically to prevent the epidemic from paralyzing the commercial center of Milan. And in New York, London, and Tokyo, financial markets plummeted on fears that the virus will cripple the global economy.

From Asia to Europe to North America, the lethal spread of the coronavirus accelerated on Monday, putting a heavy strain on a world already fractured by trade wars, populist politics and sectarian conflict.

An equal-opportunity epidemic, the virus is afflicting open and closed societies, autocracies and democracies, developed countries and war zones alike. That makes the task of containing it even more daunting.

The emergence of Italy, Iran, and South Korea as new hubs of the outbreak underscored the lack of a coordinated global strategy to combat the coronavirus, which has infected nearly 80,000 people in 37 countries, causing at least 2,600 deaths. The number of infected people in the United States reached 53 on Monday, up from 34 on Friday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A delegation of the World Health Organization, sent to China to assess the epidemic, warned Monday the world was not ready for a major outbreak. Infectious disease experts said a unified response is critical to mitigating the damage and slowing an outbreak that they say can no longer be stopped.

“Six new countries have reported cases this morning,” said Michael T. Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “This is an inflection point in this experience. The world needs to say, ‘What can we do together to combat this?’”

For weeks, most of the world’s focus has been on China, which has placed tens of millions of people under strict lockdowns to try to staunch the spread of new cases. But on Monday, the newer outbreaks in South Korea, Italy and Iran were testing very different political systems, with very different health systems.

In Iran, authorities shut down schools, universities and cultural centers across 14 provinces to try to curb the outbreak. Iranian officials said 61 people had been infected, with 12 others dying. But their credibility was ridiculed by critics, who claimed the death toll was much higher, with memories still fresh across Iran of an attempt to cover up the downing of a commercial airliner last month by the country’s military forces.

The dearth of reliable information alarmed Iran’s neighbors, several of which share long, poorly patrolled borders with the country. Pakistan and Turkey temporarily closed their borders with Iran on Sunday. Afghanistan, which reported its first coronavirus case on Monday, banned all travel to the country, except for “essential humanitarian needs.”

Yet already coronavirus cases, some linked to Iran, were emerging elsewhere in the region: in Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Kuwait and Oman. Several of those countries are autocracies, which could lead to the same suppression of information that critics say is hampering the response in Iran.

“Countries will start underreporting cases, so they don’t seem to be suggesting a terrible tragedy has hit them or they don’t want to be accused of unsettling the rest of the world,” Dr. Osterholm said.

At some point, he said, the virus would spread so far and become such a common worldwide problem that its point of origin would no longer be relevant.

For now, though, Chinese people traveling abroad were still encountering suspicion and even hostility. In South Korea, popular with Chinese tourists, some shops have begun posting signs saying, “No Chinese.”

On Monday, South Korea, the hardest hit country outside China, reported 231 more cases, bringing its total to 833 cases and seven deaths. By Tuesday, another 60 infections had been recorded, bringing the total to just under 900. The South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, put the country on the highest possible alert, opening the way for the government to lock down cities and take other sweeping measures.

In Italy, the authorities quarantined more than 50,000 people in 11 towns clustered in the northern Lombardy region, partly in an effort to prevent the virus from spreading to Milan, where an outbreak could cripple the Italian economy. Italy has reported at least six deaths.

In Brussels, officials with the European Union said they were in constant contact with the Italian government, while powerful neighbors such as Germany and France have mostly committed to keeping their borders open. European officials said they were not advising members to introduce border controls in the Schengen zone, which allows travelers to pass across borders without passport checks.

“Any decisions made need to be based on risk assessment and scientific advice, and need to be proportionate,” said Stella Kyriakides, the European Union’s commissioner for health and food safety. “We stress that, for the moment, W.H.O. has not advised changing or imposing restrictions on either travel or trade.”

Still, there is a heightened vigilance. On Sunday, Austria held up a train at the Italian border amid suspicion that two of the 300 passengers from Venice had the virus. The train was allowed to cross into Austria after the passengers tested negative.

On Monday, authorities in Lyon, France, stopped a bus from Milan and confined the passengers inside after suspicion of a case onboard, the newspaper Le Parisien reported. Passengers on an Alitalia flight from Rome to Mauritius decided to return home after being told they would have to go into quarantine.

At this stage in the crisis, experts said, closing borders was a largely futile exercise. In many cases, the virus has been carried into a country before the border was sealed. And detection is harder because the virus is now being transmitted from people with minimal or even no flulike symptoms.

“People always find a way to move,” said Professor Devi Sridhar, director of the global health governance program at Edinburgh University. “Even before the lockdowns in China, three million people moved.”

Dr. Sridhar said the emphasis should now be on vaccination campaigns and equipping medical centers with adequate respiratory facilities. She also said hospitals needed to take measures to stop being spreading grounds for the virus.

Europe, she said, was in a better position to combat the coronavirus than other parts of the world because it has reliable reporting systems and a fairly high level of trust between the public and health authorities.

In Britain, which has 13 confirmed cases, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued a statement on Monday saying the country was well prepared for any additional infections.

“We are using tried and tested procedures to prevent further spread and the N.H.S. is extremely well prepared and used to managing infections,” the statement said, referring to the National Health Service.

Yet even in Europe, there are troubling signs of a lack of coordination. When the Italians went into crisis mode over the weekend, officials in Brussels struggled to convince other European Union member states to share information swiftly and coordinate on how to respond to the outbreak.

Such weaknesses sound eerily similar to China, which drew harsh criticism for its secretive approach and slow initial response after the outbreak first emerged in Hubei Province.

China’s president, Xi Jinping, acknowledged that it was the country’s most serious public health crisis, and “the most difficult to prevent and control,” since the founding of the People’s Republic. Underscoring the point, the country’s leaders on Monday were forced to postpone their biggest political conclave of the year, the National People’s Congress.

Yet health experts said that once China woke up to the threat, it acted decisively.

The W.H.O. team in China concluded that the draconian measures imposed by the government there may have saved hundreds of thousands of people from infection.

“There’s no question that China’s bold approach to the rapid spread of this new respiratory pathogen has changed the course of what was a rapidly escalating and continues to be a deadly epidemic,” said Bruce Aylward, a Canadian doctor and epidemiologist who led the W.H.O. delegation.

But with the virus spreading rapidly, Dr. Aylward warned that other countries would need to respond swiftly and aggressively, too. “We have all got to look at our systems because none of them work fast enough,” he said.

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Steven Lee Myers and Sui-Lee Wee contributed reporting from Beijing, and Matina Stevis-Gridneff from Brussels.

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​IN CORONAVIRUS CRISIS, KOREAN CITY TRIES OPENNESS, A CONTRAST TO CHINA..... Even in the center of the outbreak in Daegu, officials are not restricting the movement of people, which could be a template as the virus moves around the globe.

By Choe Sang-Hun | Published Feb. 25, 2020 Updated 5:58 a.m. ET | New York Times | Posted February 25, 2020 |

DAEGU, South Korea — The usually crowded shopping and partying district in this city of 2.4 million is quieter these days after officials urged citizens to stay home to contain an explosive outbreak of the coronavirus. But many restaurants and bars remain open, waiting for customers who seldom come.

A noodle restaurant put out the sign: “Please come in! We thoroughly disinfect this place twice a day.” In a Starbucks outlet, four workers in surgical masks chanted a cheerful “welcome” when a visitor stepped in. Usually jam-packed with young people, there wasn’t a single customer inside.

Daegu, the center of South Korea’s ballooning coronavirus outbreak, is trying a less rigid approach to keep the health threat at bay: aggressively warning residents to take precautions while staying open for business. It is a stark contrast to the strict lockdown in Wuhan, China, where government restrictions on movement have barricaded most of the city’s 11 million residents in their homes.

“People have been scared and don’t want to venture out,” said Park Seon-gyu, 58, a taxi driver, pointing at roads where the traffic has considerably thinned since the city’s first case of the coronavirus was reported a week ago. “But life has to go on. I have to hit the road to make my hand-to-mouth living.”

If it works to contain the crisis, the strategy — aggressively monitoring for infections while keeping the city running — could be a template for more democratically inclined societies as the virus spreads worldwide, testing civil liberties.

The approach reflects the different politics and challenges in South Korea, a place where raucous weekend demonstrations are common in the capital and the last leader was thrown out of office after being consumed by scandal. When ruling-party lawmakers recently hinted at a lockdown of Daegu and nearby areas, they faced serious blowback from local conservative politicians.

President Moon Jae-in visited Daegu on Tuesday after the government moved quickly and early to confront the crisis. In China, the top leader, Xi Jinping, stayed largely out of public view in the early days of the outbreak and doctors were silenced for warning about the threat.

By Tuesday afternoon, South Korea had reported 977 coronavirus cases, making its outbreak the largest outside China. Of that total, 543 are Daegu residents. Roughly half the cases involve members of the Shincheonji church, whose branch in the city is believed to be the source of the rapid-fire spread through South Korea.

Daegu is now an eerily quiet city, a metropolis stalked by an invisible enemy.

At its main train station, officials monitored the body temperature of every departing or incoming passenger with heat-detecting cameras. Cleaners sprayed every corner of the station with liquid antiseptic.

Rather than locking down entire cities, as China has done, South Korea has neither forcibly controlled the movement of people ​in affected towns like Daegu ​nor banned visitors from China.

Daegu’s mail deliverers still weave through its alleyways, rushing up the stairs with packages. Seomun Market, the city’s largest, reopened on Monday after a day of disinfection. Most of its hundreds of little shops ​were still closed, with their stalls covered with olive-green plastic covers​, but some displayed their inexpensive shoes and clothes. ​

Daegu’s mayor, Kwon Young-jin, said his goal was to test all citizens with potential symptoms within the next month, opening temporary monitoring stations across the city, ​borrowing medical staff from the outside and securing hospital beds in nearby towns.

Outside Daegu’s Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital, which has been designated for treating coronavirus patients, ambulances stood in line while workers fully covered in ​white ​protective gear sprayed the vehicles with disinfectants.

Other hospitals in Daegu were ordered to quarantine themselves to protect their patients after a devastating outbreak in the nearby town of Cheongdo, where 100 hospital patients were infected with the virus, including seven who died.

Some workers seized on the public’s wariness about going outside to make money. F​ood deliverymen ​raced through Daegu’s neighborhoods on motorbikes, ​delivering meals to families who now eat only at home. Restaurants and coffee shops quickly migrated to smartphone home-delivery apps to stay in business.

Even in the residential area ​behind the Shincheonji church, the center of the ​outbreak, workers from a local internet service provider visited homes door to door, plastering their gates with advertisements for high-speed connections.

“We don’t intend to lock the region down as China did with Wuhan,” said Kim Gang-lip, South Korea’s vice health minister. ​

Around ​Daegu, things have clearly slowed down, but not to a complete stop.

“I have hesitated to come out, eating at home as much as possible, ordering home-delivery food,” said Park Hae-il, 24, a university student, who strolled in the largely empty alleys of the shopping district of Dongseong-ro with a friend, both wearing face masks.

“My gym has been closed and I have canceled all parties with friends since Feb. 18,” he added. “​Friends who fled Daegu for their hometowns outside call me to see if it’s OK to come and return, and I tell them that it’s better to stay out.”

But Mr. Park said he saw people hoarding instant noodles in supermarkets. He stood in line for an hour to get a pack of 30 facial masks, the most the shop could sell to an individual.

All Daegu’s public libraries, museums, ​churches, ​day-care centers and courts have been closed. The city ordered all schools — from kindergartens to colleges — to postpone their March reopenings. It discouraged serving food at weddings and funerals.

Subway cars carry half their usual passengers, with riders all wearing masks and sitting apart as an intercom urges them to call a coronavirus hotline if they feel ill.

When night fell on Monday, the city turned much quieter and darker, with shops closing earlier than usual.

“The virus crept on us without making a sound and delivered us a shocker,” said Ryu Ho-sang, 63, a retiree, who sat in a park dotted by apricot blossoms. He faulted President Moon Jae-in for not locking down Daegu a week ago to contain the virus’s spread.

But even without such a draconian step, Daegu itself has already become something of a national pariah​.

Large hospitals in Seoul are refusing to accept outpatients from Daegu. Domestic airlines and bus companies have cut trips to the city, citing a drop in demand.

“My cousin in Seoul said I don’t need to come to her son’s wedding,” Mr. Park, the taxi driver​, said with a chuckle​. “She said it politely but I knew what she meant: she didn’t want to invite any virus from Daegu.”

But Daegu’s citizens have also started to haltingly return to their normal lives.

Kim Hee-sook, 78, had not left her home for five days, fearful of the virus she “can’t see, smell or touch.” On Monday, she finally ventured out for some sun.

“I got sick of staying indoors all day, watching TV,” she said. “Because of the lack of exercise, I lost my appetite and developed indigestion and insomnia. If I stayed home any ​longer, I thought I would die of insomnia” instead of the virus.

Many of Daegu’s citizens have turned their anger toward the Shincheonji church, which mainstream churches have long branded as a cult for their unorthodox interpretations of the Bible. In the past few days, health officials have been struggling to locate hundreds of church members who remained incommunicado.

“I don’t care whether they are a cult or not,” said Park Ji-hyok, 25, a college student. “What makes me angry is that many church members have gone into hiding, rather than cooperating with the government” in curtailing the spread of the virus.

The local branch of the Shincheonji church, nestled in a 10-story building​ near a subway station​ that used to house a fitness center, remained closed. On its front wall, a large banner called ​Shincheonji “a beautiful church that will continue to spread the love and truth.”

Around the church, coffee shops, restaurants and even a bank, 7-Eleven and Burger King were closed, citing the virus. But a post office and a pet shop stayed open​.

Even before the outbreak, the church was called a nuisance for its neighbors. Some put out signs warning church members against using their private parking spaces when they congregated in large numbers.

“They were so loud when they prayed and sang together,” said Cho Sook-ja, 62, who lived in an apartment behind the church and blamed it for the current disruption in his life. “Since the outbreak​, I have lost much of my private life, unable to go ​out ​to markets, public bath house and hair salon. The boss in my building company asked me not to come to work until March 8.”

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[mastcomm]

Your Friday Briefing – The New York Times

Coronavirus deaths soar past 600 in China

At least 636 people in China have died from the coronavirus, the Chinese government said, as more than 3,000 new cases were confirmed overnight.

The outbreak has now sickened more than 31,000 people in Asia, as well as at least 31 others in Europe and 61 on a quarantined cruise ship in Japan. Follow the latest updates here.

Among the dead is Dr. Li Wenliang from Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, who was silenced by the authorities after he warned about the virus in late December. Dr. Li, 34, later became a potent icon for Chinese people who are angry over the government’s handling of the crisis.

Our reporters across the globe are also tracking these developments:

The authorities in Wuhan have escalated an existing lockdown by ordering house-to-house searches, rounding up the sick and placing them in enormous quarantine centers. They have also begun enrolling coronavirus patients in an experimental trial of an antiviral medicine that has shown promise in laboratory studies.

Africa — where health systems are fragile and doctors are straining to contain outbreaks of malaria, measles and Ebola — may be particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus. There are no confirmed cases on the continent yet, but it has large numbers of Chinese workers who are returning to their jobs after going home for the Lunar New Year holiday.

Many experts remain concerned that coronavirus may be spreading through asymptomatic individuals. Some, but not all, see clues in a cluster of infections in Germany.

Democratic race in turmoil after Iowa stumbles

Thanks to a troubled Iowa caucus system that has been mired in confusion for three days, the Democratic Party’s effort to nominate a candidate to face President Trump in the November presidential election is now in disarray. Here’s a roundup of our Iowa coverage.

Bickering among Democrats about their own voting system is “an early setback for a party that was already ideologically fractured between left and center and staring at a nomination fight that may last into the summer,” two of our political correspondents write.

Related: A Times analysis found that the results released by the Iowa Democratic Party were riddled with inconsistencies and other flaws.

What’s happening: Iowa officials reported late Thursday that Senator Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg were locked in a virtual tie in the delegate count, with 99 percent of the results tabulated. But they did not declare a winner.

What’s next: Most of the top Democratic candidates are now campaigning in New Hampshire before its Feb. 11 primary. A new poll there showed Mr. Sanders leading, with Mr. Buttigieg close behind.

Health care and housing weigh on Irish election

Voters in Ireland are poised to evict Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in an election on Saturday that may turn on domestic problems.

As Britain prepared to leave the European Union, Mr. Varadkar successfully extracted a deal that avoided a hard border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland — by aligning the north with the Continent more closely than the rest of the United Kingdom.

But as Mr. Varadkar, 41, campaigns on his diplomatic skills, Irish voters fault him for failing to confront the cost of health care and a housing shortage that was prompted by the 2008 economic crisis.

Background: Many people outside Ireland saw the election of Mr. Varadkar — a physician who is the son of an Indian doctor and a Catholic Irish nurse — as a symbol of the country’s embracing a tolerant, multiracial modernity. But much of the Irish public sees him as aloof and distant.

What to look for: The Irish nationalist party, Sinn Fein, and the opposition Fianna Fail lead Mr. Varadkar’s Fine Gael in a poll released on Monday by The Irish Times.

If you have half an hour, this is worth it

Trump’s financial lifeline

The Times Magazine has the inside story of President Trump’s long, complicated relationship with Deutsche Bank, his lender of last resort.

Above, Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago, for which Deutsche Bank agreed to lend Mr. Trump $640 million in 2005.

By lending him more than $2 billion over two decades, the $1.5 trillion German lender played a large role in positioning a strapped businessman to become president of the United States.

But those same loans cemented Deutsche Bank’s reputation for recklessness — and made it a magnet for prosecutors, regulators and lawmakers hoping to penetrate Mr. Trump’s opaque financial affairs.

Here’s what else is happening

Germany: A state governor in the eastern state of Thuringia, who was elected leader with support from both the far-right Alternative for Germany party and a branch of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democrats, said on Thursday that he planned to step down after just one day in office. Ms. Merkel had called the election’s outcome “inexcusable.”

Boeing: The company and U.S. safety officials refused to cooperate on Thursday with an inquiry by Dutch lawmakers into a crash near Amsterdam in 2009 that killed nine people and had striking parallels with two recent accidents involving the manufacturer’s 737 Max. The inquiry was prompted by a Times investigation.

Finland: All new parents will be allowed 164 days of paid parental leave as early as next year, regardless of gender or whether they are a child’s biological parents. The changes will increase a couple’s total allowance to more than 14 months from 11½ months, making Finland’s paternity leave policies among the most generous in Europe.

Cook: Finish the week with a hearty one-pan meal of roast chicken and mustard-glazed cabbage.

Go: “Angels in America,” Tony Kushner’s epic play about the AIDS crisis in the United States, is now playing in Paris.

Smarter Living: Our advice column Culture Therapist suggests ways to solve your problems using art. Today’s question is about opening oneself to new romantic relationships.

And now for the Back Story on …

Covering the Oscars

The Oscars are just two days away, and that means it’s crunchtime for Kyle Buchanan, The Times’s Carpetbagger columnist. He spoke to Sara Aridi of the Culture desk about what it’s like to cover the awards show.

What stands out about this year’s season?

After last year, when Netflix was so ascendant, people are very excited about movies in the theater. “1917” is one of those movies that you need to see in a theater, and “Parasite” became such a huge word-of-mouth hit in the theater. Those movies provide that encapsulation of what we go to the movies for.

We go to see something on a gigantic screen that moves us in a gigantic way. We go to be transported into an experience that startles and shocks us. Streaming has its virtues and its pleasure, but I think those are two unique testimonials to what the theatrical experience can be.

Do the Oscars still carry weight in pop culture?

Absolutely. If the Oscars reflect Hollywood in 2020, it says that we’re still going through growing pains about the streaming era and that we still have a lot of ground to make up when it comes to representation and whose stories we take seriously.

How have you been preparing for the big night?

I’m trying to get a full night’s sleep. In the campaigning phase, from November to the Oscar nominations, you can go to a brunch for a certain star, and then to a lunchtime screening with a Q. and A., and then to an afternoon performance of a song contender, and then a premiere and then an after-party.

What else have you seen that readers might not know?

Joaquin Phoenix, who’s up for best actor for “Joker,” has been a fascinating figure on this circuit. He’s trying to both play the game and stay out of it at the same time. All these awards shows have bent over backward to attract him.

I never would have thought I would miss the boiled chicken breast I usually got at these shows, but they have converted to a plant-based menu in the hopes that Joaquin will attend.

That’s it for this briefing. Have a great weekend.

— Mike

Thank you To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S. • We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our latest episode is about Senator Mitt Romney’s vote to convict President Trump. • Here’s today’s Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: Toppled over (four letters). You can find all our puzzles here. • The New York Times Company said in its fourth-quarter earnings report that it now has more than five million subscriptions, including 3.5 million digital-only ones for its core news product.

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