Features

LOS ANGELES — “Oppenheimer”, Christopher Nolan’s drama about the inventor of the atomic bomb, topped the Golden Globes on Sunday — but its fellow summer smash hit “Barbie” missed out on best comedy film honors to “Poor Things.”

“Oppenheimer” took five prizes including best drama, best director for Nolan, best score, as well as acting wins for Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr.

Emma Thomas, the film’s producer and Nolan’s wife, said her husband’s three-hour epic about “one of the darkest developments in our history” is “unlike anything anyone else is doing”.

Murphy, who plays brilliant scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, hailed his “visionary director”, while Downey Jr, portraying the protagonist’s bitter rival, praised the movie as a “masterpiece”.

In winning best director, Nolan fended off Greta Gerwig, who helmed “Barbie” — the other half of the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon that grossed a combined $2.4 billion last year at the box office.

Turning nostalgia for the beloved doll into a sharp satire about misogyny and female empowerment, “Barbie”’ was the leading film heading into the night with nine nominations, but ended the gala with just two prizes.

It won the award for best song, for a tune written by Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas. And as the year’s highest grossing movie, it claimed a newly created trophy for box office achievement.

“We would like to dedicate this to every single person on the planet who dressed up and went to the greatest place on Earth, the movie theaters,” said Margot Robbie, the film’s star and producer.

“Thank you to all the Barbies and Kens in front of and behind the screen,” added Gerwig.

But “Barbie” surprisingly lost out on best comedy to “Poor Things” — which also earned Emma Stone best actress for her no-holds-barred turn as Bella Baxter.

“Bella falls in love with life itself, rather than a person. She accepts the good and the bad in equal measure, and that really made me look at life differently,” said Stone.

‘Party’ 

After an annus horribilis in which the industry was crippled by strikes, A-listers turned out in force to celebrate on Sunday.

Stars who were unable to promote their movies during the months-long Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) walkout used the occasion to make up for lost time on the Oscars campaign trail.

Along with movie stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, attendees included big names from the world of music such as Bruce Springsteen and Dua Lipa — both nominated for best song — and Taylor Swift representing her recent concert movie.

“The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL — on the Golden Globes, fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift,” joked host Jo Koy.

The ongoing hype surrounding “Barbenheimer”, even months after the films’ releases, is a welcome boon to the new owners of the high-profile but consistently scandal-dogged Golden Globes.

Private investors including US billionaire Todd Boehly purchased the awards after years of controversy and declining audiences, and have invested heavily in resetting a night once billed as “Hollywood’s biggest party”.

The Globes were boycotted by the industry after allegations of corruption and racism rose to the surface in 2021, and the show was taken off air entirely a year later.

Since then, the controversial group of Los Angeles-based foreign journalists that created the Globes 80 years ago has been disbanded, and a wider net of overseas critics was brought in to choose this year’s winners.

“Golden Globes journalists, thanks for changing your game,” said Downey Jr as he collected his prize.

‘Historic’ 

The Globes provide a timely boost for the Oscars. Nominations voting for the Academy Awards begins Thursday, with the Oscars taking place this year on March 10.

Indigenous actor Lily Gladstone won best actress in a drama for her role in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon”, delivering some of her emotional speech in the native language of the Blackfeet Nation.

“This is an historic win, it doesn’t belong to just me,” she said.

“This is for every little res kid.”

Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph bolstered their Oscars campaigns with wins for “The Holdovers” in which they starred as a curmudgeonly history teacher and cook of a 1970s prep school, respectively.

Best screenplay and best non-English language film went to French courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Fall”.

That film’s director and co-writer Justine Triet said she had assumed that “nobody is going to see this movie” about “a couple fighting, suicide, a dog vomiting... I mean, come on!”

“This movie is about the truth, the impossibility of catching it,” she added.

Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron” won best animated film.

The Globes also honor television.

“Succession” dominated, claiming best drama series, and acting wins for stars Kieran Culkin, Sarah Snook and Matthew Macfadyen.

“The Bear” swept the comedy categories, while road-rage saga “Beef” did the same in limited series.

Past Globes host Ricky Gervais, who did not attend, won best stand-up comedy performance, a new category.

Swimming alongside predominantly German cars in the mid-size executive segment, the shark-like Maserati Ghibli competes with traditional saloons and self-styled four-door-coupes from Audi, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, as well as the Jaguar XF, which brings a similarly sporty sensibility and leftfield appeal.

First introduced in 2013 and face-lifted in 2017 and 2021, the long-serving Ghibli is , however, more than just a sporty number among more conservative executive class competitors.

The Ghibli Modena S Q4 in particular is instead an everyday exotic, with four-door practicality, punchy performance and four-wheel-drive confidence.

With gaping low-set and concave vertical-slat grille, intense, squinting browed headlights, sharply rising, salaciously scalloped bonnet and voluptuous hips, the Ghibli’s exoticism oozes from its every pore.

Subtly refreshed to incorporate a more aggressive bumper with more pronounced diamond-like lower side intakes and adopting the “Modena” name for V6 variants in its latest update, the Ghibli’s dramatically moody presence is predatory and curvy, and brimming with tension and urgency.

Side ports ‘meanwhile’ emphasise its long bonnet and rearwards cabin, and rear views include muscular haunches, quad tailpipes and a built-in spoiler.

Ferocious four-wheel-drive

With its Ferrari-developed twin-turbocharged 3-liter V6 engine located in a front-mid position, the Ghibli Modena S Q4 retains near perfect 51:49 weight distribution despite its four-wheel-drive system’s additional weight. Developing 424BHP at 5,750rpm and 428lb/ft over a muscularly wide 2,250-4,000rpm band, the Q4 is responsive from low-end and digs all four wheels into tarmac to slingshot through 0-100km/h in 4.7-seconds and onto a 286km/h top speed. Pulling vigorously hard right to its 6,500rpm redline, the Q4’s cooling system is , meanwhile, similarly impressive in resilience under demanding conditions.

With a distantly charismatic off-beat growl and guttural wastegate chirps on full-load up-shifts, the Q4’s viscerally prodigious engine is complemented by a smooth and concise 8-speed automatic gearbox, which features sport, comfort and steering-mounted paddle-shifter actuated manual modes. Adaptively allocating 100 per cent power rearwards and up to 50 per cent to front wheels through an electronically-controlled transfer for better traction and grip, the four-wheel-drive Q4 also features a limited-slip rear-differential to distribute power along the rear axle to the wheel best able to use it to enhance stability and agility.

Sporting instincts

Agile and fluent through switchbacks, the Q4 features balanced rear-drive instincts combined with rally-car like four-wheel-drive traction, grip, commitment and cornering adjustability. Eager and adept in handling qualities, the Q4 responds brilliantly to early turn-in, with one coming back on throttle early to avoid turbo lag. Riding a meaty mid-range power surge as its four-wheel-drive and limited-slip differential ensure vice-like road-holding, the Q4 pounces out of corners. The Q4 also benefits from textured and tactile steering and responsive throttle, for confident and nuanced mid-corner on-throttle steering corrections.

Driven with electronic stability control in low intervention mode best showcases the Q4’s sublimely nuanced, tenaciously grippy and exhilaratingly capable four-wheel-drive system. Reassuring yet thrilling through hill climbs and switchbacks, the Q4’s adaptive four-wheel-drive expertly exploits its balanced chassis for tidy cornering and high lateral grip limits. The Q4’s at-the-limit instinct is for slight predictable under-steer, but it is also happy to nudge the rear out slightly through corners when asked. Quick electric-assisted steering provides balanced weighting and nuanced road feel, while multi-piston ventilated disc brakes are effective and resilient.

Quick comfort

Riding on double wishbone front and multi-link rear suspension with adaptive magnetic dampers, the Ghibli Q4 glides fluently over imperfections, with supple comfort despite its grippy but firm optional low profile tires. Relaxed and comfortable on highways in default driving mode, the Ghibli becomes tidier and more focused in “sport” mode. Not completely sacrificing comfort in “sport” mode, the Ghibli delivers natural, nuanced, engaging and ultimately predictable handling qualities and tauter body control. Stable at speed, the Ghibli is meanwhile settled on rebound and buttoned down through corners.

Classy, sporty and refined with high personalisation possibilities and quality materials including leather upholstery, suede-like roof lining and carbon-fiber trim, the Ghibli is , meanwhile, well equipped with comfort, convenience, safety, drive assistance and intuitive infotainment features. Well-fitted and -finished with ergonomic, driver-focused seating, the Ghibli features clear instrumentation and layouts, and good front visibility. Spacious in front and with generous 500-litre boot volume, the Ghibli’s rear passenger space is good for most, but a rakish roofline slightly compromises rear headspace for larger, taller occupants. 

Maserati Ghibli Modena S Q4

• Engine: 3-litre, twin-turbocharged in-line V6-cylinders
• Bore x stroke: 86.5 x 84.5mm
• Compression ratio: 9.7:1
• Valve-train: 24-valve, direct injection, variable valve timing
• Gearbox: 8-speed, automatic, four-wheel-drive, limited-slip rear-differential
• Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 424 (430) [316] @5,750rpm
• Specific power: 142.3BHP/litre
• Power-to-weight: 219BHP/ton
• Torque lb/ft (Nm): 428 (558) @2,250-4,000rpm
• Specific torque: 194.7Nm/litre
• Torque-to-weight: 300Nm/ton
• 0-100km/h: 4.7-seconds
• Top speed: 286km/h
• Fuel consumption, combined: 11.1-litres/100km
• Fuel capacity: 80-litres
• Length: 4,971mm
• Width: 1,945mm
• Height:  1,461mm
• Wheelbase: 2,998mm
• Kerb weight: 1,935kg (estimate)
• Weight distribution F/R: 51:49
• Headroom, F/R: 985/985mm
• Legroom, F/R: 957/843mm
• Shoulder room, F/R: 1,468/1,435mm
• Luggage volume: 500-litres
• Suspension, F/R: Double wishbone / multi-link, adaptive magnetic dampers
• Brakes, F/R: Ventilated, perforated discs
• Brake calipers, F/R: 6- / 4-piston
• Stopping distance, 100-0km/h: 35-meters
• Turning circle: 11.7-meters
• Tyres, F/R: 245/35ZR21 / 285/30ZR21 (optional)

By Rania Sa’adi,
Rapid Transformational Therapist& Clinaicl Hypnotherapist
A Spoonful of Wellness

As the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, we enthusiastically declare our resolutions for the year ahead. We promise ourselves to eat healthier, exercise more, quit bad habits and work towards our goals.

However, as the days turn into weeks and months, our commitment to these resolutions often fades. Studies have shown, that around 80 per cent of New Year’s resolutions get abandoned by the month of February, but it doesn’t have to be that way. How can we maintain our New Year’s resolutions?

5 Rules to fulfil your resolutions

One thing to note is that your mind is governed by a set of rules that dictate your thoughts, behaviours, and ultimately, your ability to maintain habits. And, if you understand these rules, you will be able to harness the power of the mind. Seems simple enough, right?

Here are the 5 top rules of the mind that will help you maintain your resolutions:

Rule 1: Your mind believes what you tell it 

The first rule of the mind is that it believes what you tell it. When setting New Year’s resolutions, it’s crucial to frame your thoughts positively. Instead of saying, “I will quit smoking,” say, “I am a healthy non-smoker.” By adopting this positive self-talk, you reprogramme your mind to accept your desired habit as a reality. The mind becomes aligned with your goals, making it easier to stay committed.

Rule 2: Your mind needs clear instructions

Another fundamental rule of the mind is that it requires clear and specific instructions. Vague resolutions like “I want to lose weight” or “I’ll exercise more” lack the specificity needed for success.

Instead, break your goals into small, actionable steps.

For example, “I will walk for 30 minutes every morning before work,” or “I will replace sugary snacks with fruits and vegetables for my afternoon snack.” Clear instructions provide a roadmap for your mind to follow, making it easier to stay on track.

Rule 3: Your mind learns by repetition

Consistency is key to maintaining habits. To make your New Year’s resolutions stick, commit to practising them daily. The more you repeat your desired behaviours, the more they become ingrained in your subconscious mind, as new neural pathways. Over time, these actions become second nature and your resolutions become lifelong habits.

Rule 4: Your mind responds to images

Visualising your goals is a powerful technique because your mind responds to images. Create a mental image of what achieving your New Year’s resolutions will look and feel like.

Imagine yourself enjoying the benefits of your hard work, whether it’s a healthier body, a clutter-free home, or a successful career. This visualisation technique reinforces your commitment and motivation.

Rule 5: Your mind loves familiarity

Finally, your mind prefers what it knows and iscomfortable with. To make lasting changes, you must replace old habits with new ones. Instead of trying to eliminate a bad habit, focus on replacing it with a healthier one. For example, if you’re trying to quit smoking, replace the habit of lighting up with deepbreathing exercises or chewing sugar-free gum.

Maintaining New Year’s resolutions requires more than just setting goals; it involves understanding and harnessing the power of the mind. By applying these simple rules of the mind, you can increase your chances of turning your resolutions into lifelong habits.

As you embark on your journey to achieve your New Year’s goals, remember that the power to make lasting change resides within your mind. Use it wisely to transform your resolutions into reality.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

DAKAR — Wrestling is enormously popular in Senegal — and the decisions that award victory or crushing defeat to the grapplers are now overseen by the same technology that is dividing opinion in football across the world.

At a fight in December at the National Arena in Pikine, just outside the capital Dakar, 15,000 fans roared on the bare-chested wrestlers to the beat of drums and encouragements booming out of loudspeakers.

Sitor Ndour though was not watching the ring — his eyes were firmly fixed on a TV monitor placed in a small blue tent a few metres from the fight. Ndour is the VAR — or Video Assistant Referee — judge.

Wrestling fans in the west African country have long called for VAR to be introduced into their sport and in 2023 that wish became reality.

Three cameras record the action from different angles, which Ndour can view on two screens.

Although the technology is far from that found at football matches in Europe, if a decision is disputed, the VAR official can call over the main umpire and show him the recordings.

Maissa Ndiaye, the vice president of the Senegalese wrestling association, said the advent of VAR was a source of relief for the referees in a sport which in Senegal has prize money of several tens of millions of CFA francs, equivalent to tens of thousands of dollars.

Ndour, who is the president of the referees’ committee, explained: “Sometimes we had a disputed verdict, which caused confusion and [as a result] people broke chairs and destroyed public property because they weren’t happy with the result that had been given.

“In this kind of situation if we can review the footage and declare a winner, but also if the public can see the images, that makes our task easier and it allows the spectators to go home with more peace of mind.”

In the high-profile fight in December, VAR was called into action several times.

In one of the preliminary bouts, which was broadcast live on TV, two heavily muscled fighters, stripped to the waist, were both looking for ways past their opponents and the crucial edge that would give them victory.

One of the fighters pulled off a move that led both of them to land on the filled sacks that mark out the ring — and both claimed victory.

VAR was called in, with the chief judge making the same screen gesture with his hands that football referees use. The judge walked over to the VAR screen and, having seen the recording, returned to the ring and lifted the arm of one of the wrestlers to indicate he was the winner.

His beaten opponent loudly contested the decision and pushed his way towards the VAR tent before he was restrained by security, who eventually escorted him away.

Ndour said such scenes were common because while some wrestlers have accepted the introduction of VAR, others have yet to fully grasp how the system works and often demand to the see the video footage themselves.

First introduced in 1998 as a small fun coupe both celebrated and dismissed for its design-led approach, the third generation Audi TT now bows out as a densely packed near-supercar beast in top high performance TT RS guise. 

A well-rounded and dynamically accomplished daily drive brute with an accessibility, practicality, maneuverability, efficiency and peace of mind rarely associated with performance coupes, the TT RS is the latest unfortunate victim of a cull of enthusiast cars, in favour of an ever bloated glut of bulky and bland crossovers and EVs.

With its demise depriving Audi of its most charming car, the Bauhaus-influenced TT’s clean surfaces, arcing roofline and geometric curves long informed Audi’s aesthetic. 

Introduced in 2014, the final third generation TT evolved into a wider, sharper and more assertively mature design with slitty headlights and massive hexagonal grille, but it was the 2016 RS variant that dialed up the aggression with its sportier bodykit. Revised in 2019, the TT RS gained bigger air inlets and improved cooling, a new grille pattern and distinctive rear fixed wing with side winglets.

Burbling beast

Styled like a miniaturised version of the fully-fledged mid-engine Audi R8 supercar, the front-engine TT RS might not match its Lamborghini-related sister in desirability or ultimate handling and capabilities, but surprisingly doesn’t lag too far behind in outright performance and all-round ability.

Powered by muscularly boosted turbocharged version of Audi’s direct injection 2.5-litre 5-cylinder engine, the TT RS develops a brutal 394BHP at 5,850-7,000rpm and abundant 354lb/ft torque at 1,250-5,850rpm powered through a decisively quick shifting 7-speed automated dual clutch gearbox with escalating response and manual paddle-shift modes.

With committed four-wheel-drive traction and a responsively quick-spooling turbocharged engine, the 1,475kg TT RS rockets through 0-100k/h in a supercar-like 3.7-seconds and onto a de-restricted 280km/h top speed, yet returns modest 8.8l/100km combined fuel efficiency. Rasping and growling with a distinctly burbling 5-pot engine note, the TT RS pulls responsively and confidently from idling to its high rev limit. Muscularly effortless through a broad and abundant mid-range, it overtakes with effortless confidence, while power accumulates with a ferocious urgency as revs reach its maximum power plateau.

Nimble yet tenacious

Sharper and more focused than most other Volkswagen group cars built on the same front-drive based transverse engine four-wheel-drive platform, the TT RS is engineered with a slight rear-drive bias, which combined with a short wheelbase and wide stance, translates into agile yet sure-footed handling. 

Turning in with responsive immediacy, resolute road-holding and firmly flat body control, the TT RS is thoroughly resistant to understeer and oversteer. 

Turning on the proverbial dime through corners, its steering is meanwhile quick, weighty and exact, if somewhat clinical in feel.

Riding with the stability and refinement of a larger car at speed, the TT RS’ is however in its element as it virtually unfurls snaking switchbacks with its nimble agility and vice-like grip levels. 

Quattro four-wheel-drive delivers tenacious road-holding by reallocating power front-to-rear and — with limited slip differential — laterally at the rear to ensure traction and translate power to forward motion on slippery surfaces. Firmly damped and sprung, the TT RS’ buttoned down road-hugging ride is tautly settled on rebound and resilient to squat, dive and lean.

Compact comfort

Riding on optional 255/30R20 tyres, the TT RS is settled and reasonably comfortable, if firm, on smooth roads, but jagged sudden speed bumps soon become wearisome. That said, the standard 245/35R19 tyres would be a modicum more forgiving and compliant over heavily textured surfaces. 

Well-packaged, the TT RS is densely equipped with hardware for its small size, but nevertheless offers good front headroom and visibility for taller drivers. Its hatchback boot is unexpectedly accommodating, while small occasional use rear seats provide additional utility over rivals like the Porsche Cayman.

Finished with quality materials and plenty of soft textures, the TT RS’ cabin has a distinctly sporting ambiance, with its chunky flat-bottom steering wheel and supportive sports seats providing a highly adjustable driving position.

Its steering, pedals and instrument panel are meanwhile well-centered. Uncluttered inside, the sporty TT RS features a stubby gear lever, round vents, and a configurable “virtual cockpit” digital instrument panel. 

Well-equipped with standard and optional convenience, safety and driver-assistance features, the revised TT RS’ user-friendly infotainment system is meanwhile updated and improved.

Audi TT RS Coupe

• Engine: 2.5-litre, transverse, turbocharged 5-cylinders
• Bore x stroke: 82.5 x 92.8mm
• Compression ratio: 10:1
• Gearbox: 7-speed automated dual clutch, four-wheel-drive, electronic multi-plate clutch and differential lock
• Ratios: 1st 3.563; 2nd 2.526; 3rd 1.679; 4th 1.022; 5th 0.788; 6th 0.761; 7th 0.635; R 2.789
• Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 394.5 (400) [294] @5,850-7,000rpm
• Specific power: 159BHP/litre
• Power-to-weight: 267.5BHP/tonne (unladen)
• Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 354 (480) @2,250-5,850rpm
• Specific torque: 193.5Nm/litre
• Torque-to-weight: 325.4Nm/tonne (unladen)
• 0-100km/h: 3.7-seconds
• Top speed, governed (ungoverned): 250km/h (280km/h)
• Fuel consumption, combined: 8.8-litres/100km 
• Fuel capacity: 55-litres
• Length: 4,201mm
• Width: 1,832mm
• Height: 1,344mm
• Wheelbase: 2,505mm
• Track, F/R: 1,564/1,543mm
• Overhangs, F/R: 893/803mm
• Headroom, F/R: 993/858mm
• Shoulder room, front: 1,362mm
• Loading height: 803mm
• Luggage volume, min/max: 305/712-litres
• Unladen / kerb weight: 1,475/1,550kg
• Steering: Electromechanical variable assistance rack & pinion
• Turning Circle: 11-meters
• Steering ratio: 14.6:1
• Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts / multi-link, anti-roll bars
• Brakes, F/R: Perforated, ventilated discs, 8-/1-piston calipers
• Tyres: 255/30R20 (optional)

By Sonia Salfity
Desperate Dieter

• Unrest, anxiety, anger and fear can take a huge toll on our health and well-being. If we’re not cautious, this can easily wreak havoc on our emotional state. It becomes way too easy to reach for comfort foods to soothe our angst

The problem with emotional eating is that the comfort it offers is short-lived. It’s a temporary fix that doesn’t fix anything and its long-term damage is exponential. It causes a downward spiral and affects our mental health and our ability to think clearly.

Mental fog is not pleasant especially when we  need to function at an optimal level to take care of  our many responsibilities. Like it or not, we must  face the truth that, for every moment of emotional overeating, we pay the price tenfold. We also become a burden to those around us when we eventually are unable to take care of ourselves.

Self-care and wellbeing 

When we don’t take the necessary steps to properly care for our wellbeing, we become bitter, angry, short-tempered and depressed. 

We already have these problems in the world all around us so why would we want to add more to our anxiety?

We can’t control what other people do nor can we control the political unrest around us. However, we  can certainly control how we respond. We always have a choice. 

We can respond more sensibly and thoughtfully, using words to describe our emotions and sharing them with a trusted friend. 

This helps us process through our feelings in a healthy manner instead of internalising them only to watch them explode when we least suspect it. The more words we add to our vocabulary to describe how we are feeling, the better we can become at expressing ourselves.

Our wheel of words 

It turns out there is an entire wheel of words to express our varied emotions. And here, I thought we could just be sad, mad or glad: words like overwhelmed, astonished, vulnerable, frustrated and confused, just to name a few.

Here is the link to a printable wheel of emotions you can print and share with your family.

I think it’s especially important to share it with our children because this is not something we learned to do well when we were their age.

It’s essential to mirror good ways to process conflict and unrest so that our children grow up having this ability. This takes practice.

We may never get perfect at it, but we can certainly get better at this. I suggest having certain phrases that you can tell yourself to anchor you when you feel things are out of control: Statements like “I can’t change this, but I can choose how to respond to it.”

Sometimes the best thing is not to respond at all and to allow enough time to pass before we decide how to respond in a thoughtful and intelligent manner, that is powered by wisdom and insight and not fuelled by raging anger.

Self-respect and life choices

This gives us sacred time for an opportunity to make better life-giving choices with respect for ourselves and others regardless of the circumstances.

It will also do us well to remember that we must be cautious about reacting angrily on social media because anger and rage spread like fire without accomplishing anything of substance.

Nothing good ever comes out of verbal vomit whether it’s online or in person. You cannot take back things once they’re said and they only serve to create more distance. Instead of feeding our anger, let’s feed our souls with wholesome, well-thought matters of substance that quieten our anxieties instead of exacerbating them.

Here’s to health, inner peace and wellbeing despite the diabolical political and economic storms that surround us. 

May we end this year with a renewed determination to leave behind the thoughts that don’t serve us well, and to recapture a new vision that has at its core our best interest and the interests of everyone around us.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

QUITO — A hunchback with goiter, a child decapitated by a soldier, and a woman with a bloodied face are among the unusual figures in an Ecuador nativity scene that aims to provide a realistic depiction of historical life.

The vast creche belongs to the Discalced Carmelites, a religious order that has been present in Ecuador since 1653.

Some 300 pieces, featuring pieces dating back to the 18th century, are on display in a wing of the otherwise cloistered monastery that has been transformed into a museum in the historic center of Quito.

The figurines recount biblical stories surrounding the birth of Jesus, such as Mary and Joseph’s flight to Egypt to protect their baby or the massacre of the innocents, the tale of King Herod ordering the killing of all male children under two.

But the monastery’s collection, which also includes newer pieces from the 20th century, shows people in scenes of daily life under Spanish colonial rule as well.

“It is very interesting to find pieces that show different cultures, diversity in the city. We have Indigenous people, Afro-descendants, chapetones [Spanish descendants],” museum coordinator Gabriela Mena tells AFP.

Several characters from the Yumbo Indigenous people appear with painted faces and feather headdresses.

Afro-descendants are shown wearing “highly decorated, French-style clothing”, said Noralma Suarez, the manager of the museum’s reserve collection.

Elsewhere, mothers feed their babies, the hunchback is depicted with a swollen neck — often a symptom of iodine deficiency — and a scene of domestic violence shows a man threatening a woman carrying a baby on her back, as blood runs down her face.

The nativity scene is a way “to show, to feel certain things that happened at a certain historical moment”, such as health problems, said Suarez, referring to the character suffering from goiter.

Each year the nativity scene adopts a theme, such as migration or natural disasters.

This year, it aims to highlight the plight of women who often cannot enjoy Christmas with their families because they have to work to make ends meet.

The women and their children are represented by rag dolls, the first new pieces to be added to the nativity scene this century.

The older figurines highlight artistic techniques such as sgraffito, when layers of plaster or paint are applied to a surface and then scratched away to create patterns and texture.

Mena wants the nativity scene to be more than “a beautiful popular, cultural tradition” in which things like the roles of Indigenous and Black people, or violence, are seen as normal or folkloric.

She instead wants the display to reflect on issues such as racism, machismo or poverty.

“It’s like moving museum structures so that we question everything”.

SEOUL — When news broke about a bedbug outbreak in his native South Korea, 29-year-old blockchain engineer and self-professed insectophobe Kang Jae-gu got straight to work — on the data.

As authorities scrambled to install high-temperature steam heaters at the airport and approve industrial-strength insecticides for home use, Kang started mapping reported infestations.

South Korea has been largely bedbug-free for years, but it has seen a surge in infestations as travel has rebounded after the pandemic — with more than 100 cases of the bloodsucking pests reported since late November, official statistics show.

And while the public has bugged out — and media coverage has spiralled — thousands of people have turned to Kang’s website, bedbugboard.com, for a sober data-driven look at the outbreak. 

“I am extremely sensitive to insects, so I sleep under a mosquito net throughout all four seasons,” Kang told AFP.

His fear of bedbugs drove him to create an interactive map that shows the approximate locations of reported infestations across the country, as well as real-time news stories on the issue. 

The site now receives as many as 50,000 visitors a day, up from around 40 when Kang launched it. 

He used a soothing olive-green colour scheme to try and create “peace of mind” for readers, but he told AFP that having to look at photographs of the critters and their eggs to run the website still gives him “goosebumps”.

From Paris? 

The bedbug invasion of Seoul comes on the heels of a similar outbreak in Paris, which is set to host the Olympic Games next year.

A surge of reported sightings of the creatures sent a shudder through France during the summer and fall — prompting several school closures nationwide. 

Public concern has also spread to Britain and Algeria.

In South Korea, 44 per cent of reported cases have been in so-called gosiwon — cheap, tiny housing units typically measuring less than five square metres.

Other affected locations include student dormitories, public bathhouses and extremely small housing units known as jjokbang, which often lack basic amenities such as bathrooms or kitchens.

Authorities have swung into gear, with Seoul city government allocating 700 million won ($500,000) to defend residents in vulnerable housing from the invading pests. 

Incheon International Airport, the main airport serving the capital, plans to install high-temperature steam heaters this month to prevent the entry of the bugs into the country.

Seoul also recently approved Neonicotinoids, a class of insecticides used widely on farms, for home use against bedbugs. 

“The city of Seoul defines the inconvenience and concern of citizens caused by bedbugs as a significant public health issue,” said Park Yu-mi, an official at the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

The city “seeks to take the lead in implementing countermeasures”, she added.

Hard to remove

Bedbugs have appeared in greater numbers in recent decades, mostly due to high population densities, people taking more holidays and mass transit.

In France, one in 10 households are believed to have had a bedbug problem over the past few years, usually requiring a pest control operation costing hundreds of euros that often needs to be repeated.

The critters bite people to feed on their blood, creating wounds that can be itchy but do not usually cause other health problems. 

But exposure to bedbug droppings can trigger asthmatic attacks while bites can cause rashes or more severe reactions such as anaphylaxis, and even depression.

South Korean experts said the insects are particularly hard to eradicate.

“Bedbugs can live for over 100 days even if they do not eat properly. They are thin and also hide well,” Kim Ju-hyeon, a professor at Seoul National University’s school of tropical medicine, said in a YouTube video.

Kang plans to keep his website running until the South Korean outbreaks subside.

He said he has never personally experienced an infestation, but “I can imagine how stressful it would be if that happened to me”.

HWANGE, Zimbabwe — Storm clouds are finally gathering over Zimbabwe’s biggest animal reserve, but it has come too late for more than 110 elephants that have died in a searing, extended drought.

There is little that Simba Marozva and other rangers at the Hwange National Park can do except cut the tusks off the rotting corpses before poachers find them.

With the black clouds in recent days promising life-saving rains, the rangers may not find all of the victims of the drought on their daily hunts.

The 14,600-square-kilometre park — bigger than many countries — is home to more than 45,000 savanna elephants, so many that they are considered a threat to the environment.

The scene is still heart-breaking.

Blackened corpses scar a landscape where the rains have been more than six weeks late and scorching temperatures have regularly hit 40o.

Tinashe Farawo, spokesperson for the Zimbabwe national parks authority, Zimparks, said “the old, the young and the sick” have been worst hit.

Some have fallen in dried-up waterholes, some spent their final hours in the shade of a tree.

Many are infant elephants — but all that is left is the shrivelled skin over the rotting carcass.

Grim tusk collection 

The intact tusk is a sign that it was a natural death. But there is a heavy stench around the elephants, that have attracted growing attention in recent years.

On average, an elephant drinks more than 200 litres of water and eats some 140 kilgrammes of food a day.

More than 200 elephants died in a 2019 drought but the rangers say it could be worse this time once the end of the summer arrives.

Hwange is part of the Kavango- Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area covering parks in Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. All have borders on the Okavango and Zambezi river basins.

An aerial survey started in 2022 estimated the region’s elephant population at 227,900 animals.

While tens of thousands of elephants have been slaughtered across Africa by poachers and hunters since the 1970s, the Kavango-Zambezi conservation area is considered a success story with numbers mainly growing.

That has increased pressure on Hwange’s resources while climate change has emerged as a new risk.

The estimated 100,000 elephants in Zimbabwe is twice the capacity of its parks, conservationists say.

Farawo from Zimparks said 112 elephant deaths had been confirmed since September.

Over-population threat 

He said the numbers were not surprising given the huge size of the elephant population in Hwange.

“We have high temperatures and we have no water. They are bound to be stressed and die.”

Climate change has increased the number of droughts, he added.

“It’s not only elephants which are affected, there are also other animals. Elephants can be easily noticed because of their size.”

Farawo said the parks authority was also concerned that the elephants had become “overpopulated” and “are destroying the habitat”.

Hwange, covered in dry grass, leafless trees and some desert-like open areas, has 104 solar-powered boreholes across the park to reach further into the water table that falls lower each year.

But it has not been enough, and the drought which has hit several southern African countries, has been worsened this year by the El Nino phenomenon.

The hunt for water has taken elephants dangerously close to human habitations on the fringes of Hwange.

They have drunk in desperation from swimming pools in private homes and risked drinking at water holes contaminated by dead animals.

Dried-up water holes are forcing elephants and other wildlife to walk long distances for food and water.

Some have crossed into Botswana and other neighbouring countries where many deaths have also been reported.