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☆ Pope ends Bahrain trip with visit to Gulf's oldest church
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Yara NardiMANAMA, Bahrain, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Pope Francis departed from Bahrain on Sunday after a four-day trip that culminated with a visit to the Gulf's oldest Catholic church, where he told bishops, priests and nuns to remain united as they ministered to the faithful in the majority Muslim area. Many Catholics also visit from neighbouring Saudi Arabia, which bars public worship by non-Muslims. At the end of the church service, Pope Francis thanked King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa for Bahrain's "exquisite hospitality". Pope Francis' visit, where he closed an East-West dialogue hosted by Bahrain, continues his policy of improving ties with the Islamic world following a historic visit to the United Arab Emirates in 2019. Thousands of Catholics in Bahrain and from around the Gulf poured into a stadium to hear the Pope say Mass on Saturday.

☆ Guy Fawkes Night: What those fireworks and bonfires are all about
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Francesca Street | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

CNN —Every year on November 5, skies across England, Scotland and Wales are illuminated by fireworks as Brits head out into the night to enjoy Guy Fawkes Night celebrations. Also called Fireworks Night or Bonfire Night, this autumn tradition has been a staple of the British calendar for the past 400 years. A photograph from 1955, depicting children at a school in Surrey, England, preparing the Guy Fawkes Night bonfire. What’s Guy Fawkes Night like today? Lewes Bonfire Night celebrationsEffigies of former UK prime minister Boris Johnson and fellow UK Conservative politician Jacob Rees-Mogg are paraded through the streets of Lewes during traditional Bonfire Night celebrations in 2019.

Persons: Guy Fawkes, Guido Fawkes, Fawkes, Tudor King Henry VIII, Robert Catesby, Catesby, King James I, James Sharpe, Sharpe, ”, What’s Guy Fawkes, Ronald Hutton, ” Hutton, Hutton, That’s, you’re, Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees, Mogg, Peter Summers, it’s, that’s, “ They’re, Donald Trump, “, Mary, Phil Clarke Hill, Ottery, Mary’s, Patrick Kinsella, parkin, there’s, –, Alexandra, Chris J Ratcliffe, Hallows, Halloween’s, you’ll Organizations: CNN, Getty, Catholic, of, London, University of York, CNN Travel, Conservative, Lewes, Lewes Bonfire Society, Alexandra Palace, Celtic, Battersea Power Locations: England, Scotland, Wales, of England, Surrey, Britain, Lewes, Zulu, Lewes . The, spectate, Ottery St Mary, Devon, Ottery, North America, In Yorkshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, London, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, York, South, Battersea

☆ ‘Elesin Oba: The King’s Horseman’ Review: Tradition Interrupted
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

If a viewer wants to kick off his algorithms and settle into that elusive “something different” on Netflix, a welcome destination would be “ Elesin Oba : The King’s Horseman,” the last movie by the Nigerian novelist, playwright and filmmaker Biyi Bandele , who died in August. His “Half of a Yellow Sun” with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandiwe Newton was a successful adaptation of the Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie novel back in 2013, but “Horseman” is something else, a combination celebration of and elegy for cultural autonomy and something of a cheeky homage to African cinema. Based on the play “Death and the King’s Horseman” by Wole Soyinka (winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature), the story is based on actual events during World War II, when Nigeria was an occupied British colony. The eponymous horseman is a Yoruba chief who is about to commit ritual suicide; the people’s king has been dead a month and it is time for Elesin Oba (the lusty Odunlade Adekola ) to follow his ruler into the afterlife (lest the king be left to wander and bring ill on his people). The British, as directed by the colonial magistrate, Simon Pilkings ( Mark Elderkin ), think suicide is a profoundly bad idea and set out to save Elesin’s life, even if it means killing people in the process.

☆ Here's what the Day of the Dead means, and why it endures
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Albinson Linares | Noticias Telemundo | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +10 min

The "Day of the Dead Parade" in Mexico City on Oct. 29, 2022. Claudio Cruz / AFP - Getty Images"In Mexico, Nov. 1 and 2 are very special days because they celebrate All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, respectively," said Diana Martínez, an academic at the Institute of Anthropological Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, or UNAM. By the 13th century, the Roman Catholic Church established Nov. 1 as All Saints’ Day. People take part in the "Day of the Dead Parade" in Mexico City on Oct. 29, 2022. He's worked at the cemetery from a very young age and has witnessed many Día de los Muertos celebrations.

☆ Factbox: Some of the world's worst stampedes
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

April 1998: One hundred and nineteen Muslim pilgrims are crushed to death during the haj in Saudi Arabia. Feb 2004: A stampede kills 251 Muslim pilgrims in Saudi Arabia near Jamarat Bridge during the haj ritual stoning of the devil. Jan 2005: At least 265 Hindu pilgrims are killed in a crush near a remote temple in India's Maharashtra state. July 2010: A stampede kills 19 people and injures 342 when people push through a tunnel at the Love Parade techno music festival in Duisburg, Germany. Sept 2015: At least 717 Muslim pilgrims are killed and 863 injured in a crush at the haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

☆ Ukrainian mortar crew wrestles with ammo shortage, dud shells
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Jonathan Landay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"We look for the smoke or if something burns," said Yevhen when asked how the crew knew if they had hit their mark. NOT ENOUGH SHELLS[1/4] A Ukrainian serviceman fires with a mortar toward Russian positions, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in a frontline in Mykolaiv region, Ukraine October 28, 2022. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY 1 2 3 4Last month, many Ukrainian units, including the mortar crew, dug into vast trench networks in adjacent Mykolaiv province as other Ukrainian forces pressed the drive from northeastern portions of the front. Ukrainian gunners avoid hitting the silo, the highest structure for kilometres around, because of its importance to the region's farmers, he said. "My friends replied, ‘We know because we have a Russian radio intercept in which they said one of their drones detected two little boxes coming into the village,'" Zelinskyi added.

☆ Fact Check-Video of Rishi Sunak lighting candles on Downing Street for Diwali taken in 2020
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A 2020 video shared on social media of Rishi Sunak lighting candles outside a door on Downing Street has been mistakenly captioned as a Hindu ritual before he took office as prime minister in October 2022. Social media posts that suggest the clip was captured in October 2022 outside 10 Downing Street in relation to Sunak’s new job has attracted thousands of comments. One caption added by a Twitter user said: “The new UK PM performing his spiritual/traditional rituals before entering his new office,” (here). But the video dates from 2020 when Sunak was finance minister, and it shows him lighting candles outside 11 Downing Street, his residence at the time, ahead of Diwali celebrations (bit.ly/3sv8anJ). The video that shows Sunak lighting candles for Diwali is from 2020.

☆ Fact Check-Fabricated quote about child sacrifice falsely attributed to Mel Gibson
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A fabricated quote about worldwide paedophile rings, a child sacrifice conspiracy and adrenochrome in blood has been falsely attributed to Mel Gibson on social media. The fabricated quote continues: “The murderers then drink the children’s blood and they eat their flesh. A Google search of major news outlets using key words from the quote produces no evidence of him ever saying it (bit.ly/3gFWsEj). Reuters has addressed several claims about fabricated quotes attributed to Gibson (here and here ). This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team.

☆ Indians revel in Rishi Sunak’s rise to the U.K.’s top job
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Mithil Aggarwal | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Narendra Modi, the prime minister of majority Hindu India, quickly congratulated Sunak. “Special Diwali wishes to the ‘living bridge’ of UK Indians, as we transform our historic ties into a modern partnership,” he tweeted. “The reaction is of admiration, aspiration that they could get to a similar position and happiness that one of their own has got the position,” Dogra said of the worldwide reaction among Hindus. Pedestrians walk past paintings of Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Mumbai on Tuesday. Sunak visited different temples in London and was seen participating in a cow ritual during his losing campaign for prime minister against Liz Truss in August.

☆ Leslie Jordan death in car accident is tragic loss for my autistic son and other fans
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Karin Crompton | Karin Crompton Is A Writer In Southeastern Connecticut | Where She Lives With Her Son | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

For much of 2021, my 11-year-old son and I had a bedtime ritual: brush teeth, watch Leslie Jordan videos, read. Our nightly Leslie Jordan check-ins had become more than just punchlines and stories. A gay actor and comedian, Jordan would toe the line with sexual innuendo one day (have you seen his Back Door Donuts post? With all due respect to social skills therapists, a Jordan video proved much more fun than our usual lessons about tone of voice and body language. “But is he married or is he gay?” Daniel asked, and around and around we went one night.

Centering on Julia Roberts and George Clooney, two great, aging stars of rom-coms past, “Ticket to Paradise” was always going to be a throwback. Clooney and Roberts play David and Georgia Cotton, a long-divorced couple. The divorced couple who reconcile is an old rom-com trope. Even young gorgeous individuals in a tropical paradise aren’t as effortlessly, gracefully charming as George Clooney and Julia Roberts batting putdowns back and forth. That’s ultimately also the biggest similarity between the two generations of rom-com love.

☆ Factbox: FACTBOX How China's Communist Party Congress works
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Yew Lun Tian | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

A day after the congress, the newly elected Central Committee will convene behind closed doors at its first plenum. The 200 Central Committee members with voting rights will then vote "yes" or "no" on each of the proposed candidates for the two committees. The Central Committee will then elect one person from the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) to be the general secretary. The general secretary will then introduce his new team and speak about the work ahead. The Central Committee also approves the make-up of a new secretariat and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

☆ As Big Law looks to tech to help draft legal briefs and log billing hours, top firms like Orrick and Shearman & Sterling are using AI to fast-track work on M&A deals
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Top Big Law firms like Shearman & Sterling, White & Case, and Orrick use artificial intelligence. AI tools by companies like Thomson Reuters, Litera, and Evisort are helping firms manage M&A work. Shearman & Sterling uses a wide variety of AI tools for different uses — one of the firm's go-tos for deals due diligence is Kira, a tool owned by Litera, a document-technology company that works with law firms. Even more said that over the next five years, they expected most M&A work at their firms to be supported by AI. The company uses tools such as Brainspace and Relativity, Janet Sullivan, the firm's global director of practice technology, said.

"People need space, but there's so much noise in the city," added the 36-year-old devotee of Buddhism and Zen. "These social events are important catalysts," said Ng Mee-kam, a professor of urban studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "He was quite amazed and asked me whether we young people can really survive on dreams," added Yu, whose workshop, tucked behind a bed in his studio flat, is about 100 sq. "My dream is just a wall away from me," added Yu, who works freelance in corporate communications and sometimes goes kayaking with Chan, a good friend. "After moving to Peng Chau, I realised I don't need to emigrate anymore," Chan said.

In one line of attack, Lula allies dug up a 2016 interview in which Bolsonaro said he was willing to eat human flesh in an unspecified indigenous ritual. In another, they circulated old images of Bolsonaro speaking at Masonic lodges, considered pagan temples by some of his evangelical Christian allies. The president won court injunctions that took that attack ad off the air and kept the subject out of a debate with Lula last Sunday. But every week that passes without Bolsonaro gaining ground is a battle won by Lula, who was Brazil's president from 2003 to 2010. "The focus now is to attack Lula and trigger fears of him returning to power," said a second Bolsonaro campaign source.

Before COVID, my wife made a comfortable salary but was unhappy, while I was happy freelancing. My wife got pregnant with our son and became a full-time parent, and it's been great for us. Our son is six months old and my wife stays home with him while I work in his bedroom. It is how queer people have always had to live — making things up as we go and trying to disrupt social expectations. We don't have a lot of money but we are happy with the life we have created for him.

☆ Factbox: How China's Communist Party Congress works
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Yew Lun Tian | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

BEIJING, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping is poised to win a third five-year term as General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party, the most powerful job in the country, at the 20th Party Congress that starts on Sunday. During the opening ceremony, which is broadcast with a delay, Xi will read out the 20th party congress report, reviewing the party's achievements of recent years and laying out its vision for the next five years. At the 19th party congress, the opening speech lasted 3 hours and 24 minutes. THE CLOSING CEREMONYAt the closing ceremony, typically a week after the start, delegates vote to endorse the congress report and party constitution amendment. The Standing Committee members enter in order of seniority, highest to lowest.

☆ Sheng Wang's clean humor can make anyone laugh, 'from grandmas to porn stars,' he says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-06 | by ( Diep Tran | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

That’s because Wang’s notoriety has just increased substantially, following his first-ever Netflix comedy special, “Sweet and Juicy.” Then again, Wang admits that it’s pretty easy to recognize him these days thanks to his look. But on “Sweet and Juicy,” Wang sports a goatee and a shoulder length mane of black hair. As Wang puts it, “It’s a look!” His hair grew out during the pandemic and he just didn’t cut it. And yet, he’s still surprised at how much his comedy special has resonated, not just with other Asian Americans, but with a diverse array of people. “It’s just all kinds of people at different ages, different careers, different parts of society, parents and their children, from grandmas to porn stars,” says Wang.

☆ Ritual piercings mark annual Taoist festival in Thailand
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A medium man with his mouth pierced is portrayed while in trance during the Kathu Shrine procession amidst celebrations of the annual vegetarian festival, observed by Taoist devotees from the Thai-Chinese community in the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar, in Phuket Town, Thailand October 3, 2022. REUTERS/Jorge SilvaPHUKET, Thailand Oct 4 (Reuters) - Worshippers on Thailand's Phuket island have celebrated a nine-day Taoist festival, with many piercing their faces with metal spikes and walking on hot coals to show devotion to deities. The Nine Emperor Gods Festival, which was suspended during the coronavirus pandemic, drew thousands of people from the ethnic Chinese community, who marched from a temple in traditional costume. Devotees, who abstain from sex, alcohol, and meat during the festival, say the piercings symbolise repentance for sins and is meant to ward off evil spirits. The piercing is believed to have been influenced by the Indian Thaipusam festival.

☆ Amir Malik is on a drive to make golf more inclusive for Muslims
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-04 | by ( Jack Bantock | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —Amir Malik is a man in love with golf. Amir Malik (L) is passionate about golf. Malik believes Muslim women in the UK are being held back from participating in more sports because of a lack of all-female facilities and sessions. Muslim Golf Association‘The golf course doesn’t discriminate’To date, MGA events have attracted over 1,300 participants. Muslim Golf AssociationWhile Malik hopes to soon see Muslim players competing on professional tours, he says he did not form the MGA to produce a Muslim Tiger Woods.

The most far-reaching of Mr. Trump’s ploys to overturn his defeat, the objections to the Electoral College results by so many House Republicans did more than any lawsuit, speech or rally to engrave in party orthodoxy the myth of a stolen election. Their actions that day legitimized Mr. Trump’s refusal to concede, gave new life to his claims of conspiracy and fraud and lent institutional weight to doubts about the central ritual of American democracy. While most House Republicans had amplified Mr. Trump’s claims about the election in the aftermath of his loss, only the right flank of the caucus continued to loudly echo Mr. Trump’s fraud allegations in the days before Jan. 6, The Times found. More Republican lawmakers appeared to seek a way to placate Mr. Trump and his supporters without formally endorsing his extraordinary allegations. His Republican critics called it a Trojan horse that allowed lawmakers to vote with the president while hiding behind a more defensible case.

Persons: Trump’s ploys, Trump’s, Mr, Trump, Mike Johnson Organizations: Trump Republican, Mr, Electoral, Republicans, Times, Republican Locations: Louisiana

☆ North Korea fires missile after Harris leaves South Korea
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

North Korea test-fired two ballistic missiles on Wednesday, a day before Harris visited South Korea, and one before she left Washington on Sunday. Getty Images AsiaPacSouth Korea’s military says North Korea has fired at least one ballistic missile toward its eastern waters. Thursday’s launch was the third round of missile tests by North Korea this week. North Korea test-fired two ballistic missiles on Wednesday, a day before Harris visited South Korea, and one before she left Washington on Sunday. In this handout image provided by the South Korean Defense Ministry, The U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan (C) and South Korean warships seen during a US-South Korea combined naval exercise on September 29, 2022 in East Sea, South Korea.

☆ Piercings and prayers
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Dave Lucas | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

A man walks at the Sapam shrine with piercings on his tongue as a purification ritual during the annual vegetarian festival observed by Taoist devotees from the Thai-Chinese community in the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar, in Phuket,...more

☆ Apple Watch Ultra Review: Better Battery Life, but Not Quite Extreme
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Nicole Nguyen | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Gadgets are all about trade-offs, and the Apple Watch is a perfect example. To stay svelte, it has typically had a small battery that requires frequent charging. Many people don’t mind the daily charging ritual as a concession for a useful, fitness-sensor-laden wrist computer that can call, text and run apps. The Apple Watch is the bestselling smartwatch in the world, according to Counterpoint Research.

An animal voyage is special because it requires us to make many journeys all at once. To return home from an animal voyage is to become, yourself, a new animal living in your old habitat. “If the snow leopard should manifest itself, then I am ready to see the snow leopard,” Matthiessen writes. The best trips, like Peter Matthiessen’s search for the snow leopard, find a way to make themselves permanent. To return home from an animal voyage is to become, yourself, a new animal living in your old habitat.

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