ARIHA, Syria: Years of violence in Syria’s last major opposition bastion has created a landscape of ruin, eerily lit in the early hours of Saturday by the Milky Way in the night sky.
Over the bombed-out town of Ariha in Idlib province, the stars looked like specks of dust shining over the town’s pulverised buildings.
Ten long-exposure pictures taken by an AFP photographer on an unusually clear night with no moon show the stark contrast between the grim devastation on the ground and the Milky Way.
A Russian-backed government offensive between December and March ravaged Ariha and other parts of northwest Syria, displacing nearly a million people.
A truce reached on March 6 had largely reduced the fighting but Russia resumed air strikes this month for the first time in an alarming uptick.
Some 780,000 of the nearly 1 million displaced are estimated to remain in displacement, according to the United Nations.
Perched on a mountainous region in Idlib, Ariha is held by the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham alliance (HTS), led by Syria’s former Al-Qaeda affiliate, and its rebel allies.
It was home to almost 70,000 people before the regime’s latest offensive but it is now nearly deserted.
Its streets are dotted with the skeletons of buildings damaged by previous rounds of bombardment.
Barely any lights emanate from the ground, except the dim glow of mobile phones carried by passersby.
Nearly half of Idlib’s population of three million has been displaced from other parts of Syria that have come under regime control.
The war in Syria has killed more than 380,000 people and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population since it started in 2011.
With the help of his Russian and Iran allies, President Bashar Assad has clawed back more than 70 percent of the country.
In Syria, Milky Way glimmers over sea of rubble
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In Syria, Milky Way glimmers over sea of rubble
- Over the bombed-out town of Ariha in Idlib province, the stars looked like specks of dust shining over the town’s pulverised buildings
Palestinians turn to local soda in boycott of Israel-linked goods
- Chat Cola has tapped into Palestinians’ desire to shun brands perceived as too supportive of Israel
- The Palestinian economy’s dependence on Israeli products has made a broader boycott difficult
SALFIT, Palestinian Territories: In a red box factory that stands out among the drab hills of the West Bank, Chat Cola’s employees race to quench Palestinians’ thirst for local products since the Gaza war erupted last year.
With packaging reminiscent of Coca-Cola’s iconic red and white aluminum cans, Chat Cola has tapped into Palestinians’ desire to shun brands perceived as too supportive of Israel.
“The demand for (Chat Cola) increased since the war began because of the boycott,” owner Fahed Arar, said at the factory in the occupied West Bank town of Salfit.
Julien, a restaurateur in the city of Ramallah further south, said he has stocked his classic red Coca-Cola branded fridge with the local alternative since the war began in October last year.
Supermarket manager Mahmud Sidr described how sales of Palestinian products surged over the past year.
“We noticed an increase in sales of Arab and Palestinian products that do not support (Israel),” he said.
Although it does not supply Israeli troops in Gaza with free goods — as some US fast food brands have been rumored to — Coca-Cola is perceived as simply too American.
The United States provides enormous military assistance to Israel, aid that has continued through the devastating military campaign in Gaza that Israel launched in response to Hamas’s unprecedented attack of October 7, 2023.
Coca-Cola did not respond to a request for comment, but it says the company does not support religion nor “any political causes, governments or nation states.”
A manager of the National Beverage Company, the Palestinian firm bottling Coca-Cola in the Palestinian territories, said the company had not noticed the return of many products from local stores.
There was however a decline of up to 80 percent in the drink’s sales to foreign-named chains, said the manager, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“The national boycott movement has had a big impact,” Arar said.
Ibrahim Al-Qadi, head of the Palestinian economy ministry’s consumer protection department, said that 300 tons of Israeli products were destroyed over the past three months after passing their sell-by date for want of buyers.
The Palestinian economy’s dependence on Israeli products has made a broader boycott difficult and Chat Cola’s popularity partly stems from being one of the few quality Palestinian alternatives.
“There’s a willingness to boycott if the Palestinian producers can produce equivalently good quality and price,” the head of the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute, Raja Khalidi, said.
Khalidi said the desire for Palestinian substitutes has grown sharply since the war in Gaza began, but is stifled by “an issue of production capacity which we lack.”
A boycott campaign has been more successful in neighboring Arab states less dependent on Israeli goods.
In neighboring Jordan, the franchisee of French retail giant Carrefour, Dubai-based conglomerate Majid Al-Futtaim Group announced it was shutting down all its operations after activists called for a boycott.
Chat Cola’s Arar is proud of developing a quality Palestinian product.
Staff at the company’s Salfit factory wear sweaters emblazoned with the words “Palestinian taste” in Arabic and the Palestinian flag.
After opening the factory in 2019, Arar plans to open a new one in Jordan to meet international demand and avoid the complications of operating in the occupied West Bank.
Although the plant still turns out thousands of cans of Chat, one production line has been shut down for more than a month.
Israeli authorities have held up a large shipment of raw materials at the Jordanian border, hitting output, Arar said, adding he can meet only 10 to 15 percent of demand for his product.
As Arar spoke, Israeli air defenses intercepted a rocket likely launched from Lebanon, creating a small cloud in view of the plant.
But with war have come opportunities.
“There has never been the political support for buying local that there is now, so it’s a good moment for other entrepreneurs to start up,” economist Khalidi said.
Yoko Ono owns Lennon watch, Swiss court rules
- The highly rare Patek Philippe 2499 timepiece was given to the former Beatle on October 9, 1980 for his 40th birthday
- “Yoko Ono is the owner of John Lennon’s watch,” the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland ruled
GENEVA: Yoko Ono is the rightful owner of a watch she gifted to her husband John Lennon shortly before he was murdered, Switzerland’s supreme court ruled Thursday after it resurfaced at an auctioneers.
The highly rare Patek Philippe 2499 timepiece was given to the former Beatle on October 9, 1980 for his 40th birthday, two months before he was shot dead.
The 18-carat yellow gold Swiss watch was stolen and passed through various hands before a collector took it to a Geneva auction house for a valuation in 2014. The auctioneers contacted Ono, who did not know the watch was missing.
“Yoko Ono is the owner of John Lennon’s watch,” the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland ruled, as it dismissed the collector’s appeal against a judgment by the Geneva Cantonal Court of Justice.
Ono bought the watch in New York City in 1980 and had the back engraved with the inscription: “(JUST LIKE) STARTING OVER LOVE YOKO 10-9-1980 N.Y.C.”
Released in late October 1980, a few months after it was recorded, “(Just Like) Starting Over” was Lennon’s last single issued during his lifetime.
Lennon was shot dead outside the couple’s apartment building in New York on December 8, 1980. The watch was the last gift Ono gave Lennon before his murder.
The Patek Philippe was listed in the inventory of Lennon’s estate and was kept in a room in their apartment.
A Turkish man who had been Ono’s driver from 1995 to 2006, handed over the watch to an intermediate owner in 2010, along with 86 other items that had belonged to Lennon, court documents showed.
It was later handed to a German auction house, which sold it in 2014, for 600,000 euros, to an Italian collector living in Hong Kong.
The collector gave it to a Geneva auction house for a valuation later that year. They raised the alarm with Ono.
In 2018, the collector filed a court action seeking to establish his status as the watch’s owner, with Ono opposing the move.
In 2022 a Geneva lower court found Ono was the sole owner — a decision upheld on appeal in 2023 by the higher Geneva Cantonal Court of Justice.
The Italian collector then appealed to the Federal Supreme Court, which upheld the cantonal court decision.
The Supreme Court said it was not disputed that Ono had inherited the watch after Lennon’s death.
The Cantonal Court of Justice found that the watch “had been stolen by the former driver,” the Supreme Court said, adding that there was no evidence to show that Ono intended to donate “something as special as the watch,” with its particular inscription.
“Since it is a stolen item, the collector, now the appellant, could not acquire ownership of the watch” when he purchased it in 2014, and according to German law, this applies “regardless of whether or not the purchaser was in good faith as to the origin of the item.”
Lennon’s watch is being held by the Italian dealer’s lawyer, under an agreement that it can only be released to the owner designated by a state court.
It should therefore return to Ono, now 91.
Istanbul’s historic baths keep hammam tradition alive
- For centuries, hammams were central to Ottoman society, and while they fell out of use in Turkiye with the advent of running water
ISTANBUL: For centuries, hammams were central to Ottoman society, and while they fell out of use in Turkiye with the advent of running water, many are being restored to revive an ancient ritual bathing tradition.
Often featured in older Turkish films, hammam scenes are highly entertaining, with women not only bathing but enjoying these historical bathhouses as a place to socialize, eat, drink and even dance.
Last year, the 500-year-old Zeyrek Cinili Hammam — built during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent by the celebrated Ottoman architect Sinan — reopened to the public after a painstaking 13-year restoration.
Alongside a functioning hammam, it also houses a museum explaining its history and the Ottoman ritual of bathing.
“The restoration somehow turned into an archaeological dig” that gave insight into how the hammam once looked, museum manager Beril Gur Tanyeli told AFP.
“Around 3,000 pieces of missing tiles were found which helped solve the puzzle of why this hammam was called Cinili” — Turkish for “covered with tiles.”
The beautiful Iznik tiles that once lined its walls were exclusively produced for the hammam, with no other bathhouse having such a rich interior, museum officials say.
Although most were damaged by fires or earthquakes, or sold off to European antique dealers in the 19th century, some are still visible.
The restoration also exposed several Byzantine cisterns beneath the hammam.
“Sinan the Architect is believed to have built the hammam on top of these cisterns to use them as a foundation and as a source of water,” Tanyeli said.
In ancient Rome, bathing culture was very important and it was “traditional for traders to wash before entering the city, especially in baths at the (city) entrance,” archaeologist Gurol Tali told AFP.
During the Ottoman empire, bathing culture had its golden age, with the ritual symbolising both bodily cleanliness and purity of soul.
In Islam, a Muslim must wash before praying, in an act known as ablution.
Hammams were also a place for celebrating births and weddings.
“Baths were used not only for cleansing the body but for socialising, relaxing, healing and even celebrating important life events,” with special rites for brides, soldiers and those who had undergone circumcision, Tali said.
Since households at the time did not have running water, hammams were an essential part of life until the 19th century, with census figures from 1638 showing there were 14,536 public and private baths in Istanbul, the museum says.
And that tradition has survived until today.
“You come here to get clean and leave handsome,” said Zafer Akgul, who was visiting one of the city’s hammams in the city with his son, telling AFP he visited often, particularly during religious feasts or for a wedding.
“We don’t want this tradition to die.”
That is where Istanbul’s ancient hammams can serve a bigger purpose, Tali said.
“Restoring historical baths in Istanbul and putting them to use may be the most effective way to transfer cultural heritage to future generations,” he said.
Another nearby bath house from the same era, the Beyazid II Hammam, underwent years of restoration and reopened as a museum in 2015.
One of the largest hammams in the city at the time, some historians believe it was where a notorious male bathing attendant, or “tellak,” called Halil plotted an uprising that in 1730 overthrew Sultan Ahmed III.
For Manolya Gokgoz, who does publicity for Cemberlitas Hammam, another 16th-century bathhouse built by the royal architect Sinan, the connection is more personal: her grandmother worked there as a “natir” — a woman’s bathing attendant.
“When I was two or three years old, I would go to the baths in the morning, wash and play by myself until the evening without getting bored,” she told AFP.
For Gokgoz, the tradition lives on — although mostly among tourists, which for her is a shame.
“In the past, we used to go to the hammam with our mothers and grandmothers. Now 70 percent of our customers are foreign tourists and 30 percent locals,” she said.
These days, the hammam experience — which lets bathers relax in hot, warm or cool pools alongside extras like massages or peeling — is quite expensive, with the basic service costing around $100.
Celebrities, both Turkish and international, often visit Cemberlitas, with the last being Spanish actor Pedro Alonso — the character Berlin in the Netflix hit “Money Heist” — who visited in September.
“Hammam is not a luxury, but a need,” Gokgoz said.
“Yes, it’s not like in the past because we have hot water at our fingertips, but we need to keep this tradition alive.”
John Krasinski named People magazine’s ‘sexiest man alive’
- The actor was especially excited to tell Blunt the news, saying “there was a lot of joy involved in me telling her“
Actor and director John Krasinski was named People magazine’s “sexiest man alive” for 2024 on Wednesday, taking over the mantle from “Grey’s Anatomy” actor Patrick Dempsey.
“Just immediate blackout, actually. Zero thoughts,” Krasinski told People in reaction to the news. The actor is perhaps best known for his sardonic nice guy role in the television comedy “The Office.”
“Other than maybe I’m being punked. That’s not how I wake up, thinking, ‘Is this the day that I’ll be asked to be Sexiest Man Alive?’ And yet it was the day you guys did it. You guys have really raised the bar for me,” he added.
Krasinski, 45, said that out of all of the opportunities he’s had as an actor, being a real-life family man is most rewarding.
He prefers being a husband and father who happily lives in Brooklyn with his wife of 14 years, actress Emily Blunt, 41, and their daughters Hazel, 10, and Violet, 8.
The actor was especially excited to tell Blunt the news, saying “there was a lot of joy involved in me telling her.”
Blunt joked that she plans to wallpaper their house with the cover of Krasinski if he received the title.
“It’s that beautiful thing where when you’re married to someone, you’re constantly learning and changing and evolving,” he said.
“And I’m so lucky to go through all that with her,” he added.
Recently, Krasinski has directed the comedy “IF” and the dramas “A Quiet Place” and “A Quiet Place Part II,” both featuring Blunt in a leading role.
However, he noted that the new title will change things very little around the house.
“I think it’s going to make me do more household chores,” he joked.
The announcement is included in this link: http://people.com/sexiestmanalive
The 2025 Grammy Award nominations are about to arrive. Here’s what to know
- The 2025 Grammy Awards will air Feb. 2 live on CBS and Paramount+ from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles
NEW YORK: The 2025 Grammy Award nominations are just around the corner — who will compete for the top prizes?
Nominees will be announced during a video stream live on the Grammy website and the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel on Friday at 8 a.m. Pacific and 11 a.m. Eastern, kicking off with a pre-show 15 minutes earlier.
A host of talent is on deck to announce the nominees, including Gayle King, Jim Gaffigan and a long list of past Grammy winners: Brandy Clark, Kirk Franklin, David Frost, Robert Gordon, Kylie Minogue, Gaby Moreno, Deanie Parker, Ben Platt, Mark Ronson, Hayley Williams and last year’s best new artist recipient, Victoria Monét.
Only recordings commercially released in the US between Sept. 16, 2023 through Aug. 30, 2024 are eligible for nominations, so don’t expect to see album nods for Future’s “Mixtape Pluto” (though Future and Metro Boomin’s “We Don’t Trust You” is very likely to score a nomination), George Strait’s “Cowboys and Dreamers,” Tyler, the Creator’s “Chromakopia,” or “Warriors,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first full post-“Hamilton” musical with Pulitzer finalist Eisa Davis.
There’s plenty of unknowns going into the announcements: Will Beyoncé and Post Malone receive nominations in the country music categories following the success of their massive albums “Cowboy Carter” and “F-1 Trillion,” respectively, even though they are megastars previously not directly associated with the genre?
Will Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” the biggest song of the year that combines his country twang with the familiar sample of J Kwon’s 2004 rap hit “Tipsy” dominate?
The 2025 Grammy Awards will air Feb. 2 live on CBS and Paramount+ from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
