Gazan twins in Cannes warn ‘nothing left’ of homeland

Twin Gazan filmmakers Arab and Tarzan Nasser. (AFP)
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Updated 20 May 2025
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Gazan twins in Cannes warn ‘nothing left’ of homeland

CANNES: Twin Gazan filmmakers Arab and Tarzan Nasser said they never thought the title of their new film “Once Upon A Time In Gaza” would have such heartbreaking resonance.
“Right now there is nothing left of Gaza,” said Tarzan when it premiered on Monday at the Cannes film festival.
Since militants from Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, more than 18 months of Israeli bombardment has ravaged large swathes of the Palestinian territory and killed tens of thousands of people.
Israel has vowed to “take control of all” the besieged territory of more than two million inhabitants, where United Nations agencies have warned of famine following Israel’s two-month total blockade.
Israel allowed in several aid trucks on Monday but the UN said it was only “a drop in the ocean” of needs.
The Nasser brothers, who left Gaza in 2012, said their new film set in 2007, when Hamas Islamists seized control of the strip, explains the lead-up to today’s catastrophic war.
“Once Upon A Time In Gaza,” which screened in the festival’s Un Certain Regard section, follows friends Yahia and Osama as they try to make a little extra cash by selling drugs stuffed into falafel sandwiches.
Using a manual meat grinder that does not rely on rare electricity, student Yahia blends up fava beans and fresh herbs to make the patty-shaped fritters in the back of Osama’s small run-down eatery, while dreaming of being able to leave the Israeli-blockaded coastal strip.
Charismatic hustler Osama meanwhile visits pharmacy after pharmacy to amass as many pills as he can with stolen prescriptions, pursued by a corrupt cop.

Israel first imposed a blockade on Gaza in June 2006 after militants there took one of its soldiers, and reinforced it in September 2007 several months after Hamas took power.
“The blockade was gradually tightened, tightened until reaching the genocide we see today,” said Tarzan.
“Until today they are counting the calories that enter,” he added.
An Israeli NGO said in 2012 that documents showed Israeli authorities had calculated that 2,279 calories per person per day was deemed sufficient to prevent malnutrition in Gaza.
The defense ministry however claimed it had “never counted calories” when allowing aid in.
Despite all this, Gazans have always shown a love of life and been incredibly resilient, the directors said.
“My father is until now in northern Gaza,” Tarzan said, explaining the family’s two homes had been destroyed.
But before then, “every time a missile hit, damaging a wall or window, he’d fix it up the next day,” he said.
In films, “the last thing I want to do is talk about Israel and what it’s doing,” he added.
“Human beings are more important — who they are, how they’re living and adapting to this really tough reality.”
In their previous films, the Nasser twins followed an elderly fisherman enamoured with his neighbor in the market in “Gaza Mon Amour” and filmed women trapped at the hairdresser’s in their 2015’s “Degrade.”
Like “Once Upon A Time in Gaza,” they were all shot in Jordan.

As the siege takes its toll in “Once Upon A Time In Gaza,” a desolate Yahia is recruited to star in a Hamas propaganda film.
In Gaza, “we don’t have special effects but we do have live bullets,” the producer says in one scene.
Arab said, long before Gazan tap water became salty and US President Donald Trump sparked controversy by saying he wanted to turn their land into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” the coastal strip was a happy place.
“I remember when I was little, Gaza actually was a riviera. It was the most beautiful place. I can still taste the fresh water on my tongue,” he said.
“Now Trump comes up with this great invention that he wants to turn it into a riviera after Israel completely destroyed it?“
Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed 53,486 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to Gaza health authorities, whose figures the United Nations deems reliable.
Gaza health authorities said at least 44 people were killed there in the early hours of Tuesday.


‘Shop local’: Bad Bunny brings tourism surge to Puerto Rico

Updated 17 July 2025
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‘Shop local’: Bad Bunny brings tourism surge to Puerto Rico

  • The day before Bad Bunny kicked off his blockbuster residency that’s expected to bring hundreds of millions of dollars to Puerto Rico while showcasing its rich culture

SAN JUAN: The day before Bad Bunny kicked off his blockbuster residency that’s expected to bring hundreds of millions of dollars to Puerto Rico while showcasing its rich culture, he posted a simple message: Shop Local.
The ethos is core to his 30-show concert series in San Juan which, after nine performaces exclusive to residents, will open up to fans from elsewhere — what many Boricuas, as Puerto Ricans are known, are hoping will serve as an exercise in responsible tourism.
“It’s an incredible moment for the island,” said Davelyn Tardi of the promotional agency Discover Puerto Rico.
The organization conservatively estimates the residency will bring in some $200 million to Puerto Rico over the approximately three-month run, which falls during the typically less-trafficked summer months.
Azael Ayala works at a bar in one of San Juan’s popular nightlife zones, telling AFP that business was already booming even though the residency was only in its first weekend.
It’s “completely changed,” the 29-year-old said, as crowds buzzed about La Placita where some bars were slinging Bad Bunny-themed cocktails.
“We’re thrilled,” Ayala said. “The tips are through the roof.”
The fact that people are coming from across the globe to see Bad Bunny “is a source of pride for Puerto Rico, too,” he added.
Arely Ortiz, a 23-year-old student from Los Angeles, couldn’t score a ticket to a show — but said Bad Bunny was still the draw that prompted her to book her first trip to Puerto Rico.
“I really love how outspoken he is about his community,” she said. “Just seeing him, that he can get so far, and he’s Latino, it encourages more Latinos to be able to go for what they want.”
“He has for sure empowered Latinos, like 100 percent.”
But while tourism has long been an economic engine for the Caribbean island that remains a territory of the United States, the relationship is complicated.
Concerns around gentrification, displacement and cultural dilution have magnified on the archipelago beloved for stunning beaches with turquoise waters — especially as it’s become a hotspot for luxury development, short-term rentals and so-called “digital nomads” who work their laptop jobs remotely while traveling the world.
Visiting foreigners sample the island’s beauty but are shielded from the struggle, say many locals who are coping with a chronic economic crisis exacerbated by natural disasters, as rents soar and massive blackouts are routine.
Bad Bunny — who was born and raised Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio — himself has pointed to such issues and more in his metaphor and reference-laden lyrics.
“In my life, you were a tourist,” reads one translation of his track “Turista.”
“You only saw the best of me and not how I was suffering.”
Historian Jorell Melendez Badillo told AFP that Puerto Rico by design has long catered to foreign investment: “A lot of people see tourism as sort of like this colonial undertone,” he said.
But when it comes to Bad Bunny and his residency at the affectionately nicknamed venue El Choli, “we cannot negate the fact that it’s going to bring millions of dollars” to the island, he added.
“We can celebrate what Benito is doing while also looking at it critically, and having a conversation around what type of tourism will be incentivized by this residency.”
Ana Rodado traveled to Puerto Rico from Spain after a friend native to the island gifted her a ticket.
She booked a five-day trip with another friend that included a visit to beachside Vega Baja, the municipality where Bad Bunny grew up and worked bagging groceries before gaining fame.
After posing for a photo in the town square, Rodado told AFP that she’d been trying to take the artist’s “shop local” plea to heart.
“Tourism is a global problem,” she said. “To the extent possible, we have to be responsible with our consumer choices, and above all with the impact our trip has on each place.”
“We try to be respectful, and so far people have been really nice to us.”
Ultimately, Bad Bunny’s residency is a love letter to his people — a show about and for Puerto Ricans whose narrative centers on heritage, pride and joy.
“We’re here, damn it!” he shouted to ecstatic screams during his sweeping first show, which at times felt like a giant block party. “I’d come back for the next 100 years — if God lets me, I’ll be here.”


Disneyland is celebrating its 70th anniversary: Here’s a look at the park then and now

Updated 17 July 2025
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Disneyland is celebrating its 70th anniversary: Here’s a look at the park then and now

  • It revolutionized amusement parks with immersive attractions and an emphasis on storytelling
  • Disneyland is now the world’s second-most visited park despite a rocky first day 70 years ago

Disneyland is celebrating 70 years of being “The Happiest Place on Earth.”
The summerlong festivities in southern California include the opening of “Walt Disney – A Magical Life,” a show featuring a lifelike animatronic of the company’s founder that debuts Thursday and also marks Disneyland’s official anniversary.
Walt Disney’s vision of creating a getaway for families revolutionized the amusement park industry with immersive attractions featuring robotic figures and holographs, and shows and characters appealing to children.
The park’s emphasis on storytelling and attention to detail is still evident today in theme parks across the world.
Disneyland now ranks as the world’s second-most visited theme park, closely behind Magic Kingdom at Disney World in Florida, which opened in 1971. According to the Themed Entertainment Association, Disneyland drew more than 17 million people in 2023, bouncing back from an unprecedented 13-month closure during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The park was built on what was once orange groves in Anaheim, just outside Los Angeles. It opened on July 17, 1955 — a year that also saw Ray Kroc start his first McDonald’s restaurant and Jim Henson introduce his original version of Kermit the Frog.
Disneyland’s first day was famously a disaster, all broadcast on a live television special. The park opened just a year after its groundbreaking and simply wasn’t ready for its big day.
Attractions broke down, there weren’t enough restrooms, food and drinks were in short supply, traffic backed up for miles and the shoes of the first guests sank into freshly paved asphalt.
Among the original rides still around today are the Mad Tea Party, Peter Pan’s Flight and Jungle Cruise.
The cost to get in that first year was $1 for adults and 50 cents for children, although tickets for most rides were an additional 10 to 50 cents.
Today, a one-day ticket starts at more than $100 and on some days can double that.
Over the years, the park has hosted US presidents, kings and queens, and countless celebrities. A few even got their start at Disneyland — actor Kevin Costner was a skipper on the Jungle Cruise and comedian Steve Martin worked at a magic shop where he learned about being a performer.
The Walt Disney Co. now has six resorts with a dozen theme parks worldwide. The parks have become one of its most successful and important business segments.
The resort in Anaheim now includes Disney California Adventure and Downtown Disney, a shopping and entertainment district.
While Disneyland still features many of the touches Walt Disney oversaw himself, the original park is ever-evolving, sometimes to the dismay of its loyal fans.
Some of the moves have been made to keep up with a changing society, while others have been made to introduce more thrilling attractions with the latest technology to keep up with competitors.
Just last year, Disney received approval to expand its Southern California theme parks. A new parking structure and transit hub are the first steps in its plans to open more space for new attractions.


Healthy babies born in Britain after scientists used DNA from three people to avoid genetic disease

Updated 17 July 2025
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Healthy babies born in Britain after scientists used DNA from three people to avoid genetic disease

LONDON: Eight healthy babies were born in Britain with the help of an experimental technique that uses DNA from three people to help mothers avoid passing devastating rare diseases to their children, researchers reported Wednesday.
Most DNA is found in the nucleus of our cells, and it’s that genetic material — some inherited from mom, some from dad — that makes us who we are. But there’s also some DNA outside of the cell’s nucleus, in structures called mitochondria. Dangerous mutations there can cause a range of diseases in children that can lead to muscle weakness, seizures, developmental delays, major organ failure and death.
Testing during the in vitro fertilization process can usually identify whether these mutations are present. But in rare cases, it’s not clear.
Researchers have been developing a technique that tries to avoid the problem by using the healthy mitochondria from a donor egg. They reported in 2023 that the first babies had been born using this method, where scientists take genetic material from the mother’s egg or embryo, which is then transferred into a donor egg or embryo that has healthy mitochondria but the rest of its key DNA removed.
The latest research “marks an important milestone,” said Dr. Zev Williams, who directs the Columbia University Fertility Center and was not involved in the work. “Expanding the range of reproductive options … will empower more couples to pursue safe and healthy pregnancies.”
Using this method means the embryo has DNA from three people — from the mother’s egg, the father’s sperm and the donor’s mitochondria — and it required a 2016 UK law change to approve it. It is also allowed in Australia but not in many other countries, including the US
Experts at Britain’s Newcastle University and Monash University in Australia reported in the New England Journal of Medicine Wednesday that they performed the new technique in fertilized embryos from 22 patients, which resulted in eight babies that appear to be free of mitochondrial diseases. One woman is still pregnant.
One of the eight babies born had slightly higher than expected levels of abnormal mitochondria, said Robin Lovell-Badge, a stem cell and developmental genetics scientist at the Francis Crick Institute who was not involved in the research. He said it was still not considered a high enough level to cause disease, but should be monitored as the baby develops.
Dr. Andy Greenfield, a reproductive health expert at the University of Oxford, called the work “a triumph of scientific innovation,” and said the method of exchanging mitochondria would only be used for a small number of women for whom other ways of avoiding passing on genetic diseases, like testing embryos at an early stage, was not effective.
Lovell-Badge said the amount of DNA from the donor is insignificant, noting that any resulting child would have no traits from the woman who donated the healthy mitochondria. The genetic material from the donated egg makes up less than 1 percent of the baby born after this technique.
“If you had a bone marrow transplant from a donor … you will have much more DNA from another person,” he said.
In the UK, every couple seeking a baby born through donated mitochondria must be approved by the country’s fertility regulator. As of this month, 35 patients have been authorized to undergo the technique.
Critics have previously raised concerns, warning that it’s impossible to know the impact these sorts of novel techniques might have on future generations.
“Currently, pronuclear transfer is not permitted for clinical use in the US, largely due to regulatory restrictions on techniques that result in heritable changes to the embryo,” Williams, of Columbia, said in an email. ”Whether that will change remains uncertain and will depend on evolving scientific, ethical, and policy discussions.”
For about a decade, Congress has included provisions in annual funding bills banning the Food and Drug Administration from accepting applications for clinical research involving techniques, “in which a human embryo is intentionally created or modified to include a heritable genetic modification.”
But in countries where the technique is allowed, advocates say it could provide a promising alternative for some families.
Liz Curtis, whose daughter Lily died of a mitochondrial disease in 2006, now works with other families affected by them. She said it was devastating to be told there was no treatment for her eight-month-old baby and that death was inevitable.
She said the diagnosis “turned our world upside down, and yet nobody could tell us very much about it, what it was or how it was going to affect Lily.” Curtis later founded the Lily Foundation in her daughter’s name to raise awareness and support research into the disease, including the latest work done at Newcastle University.
“It’s super exciting for families that don’t have much hope in their lives,” Curtis said.


Astronomers capture the birth of planets around a baby sun outside our solar system

Updated 16 July 2025
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Astronomers capture the birth of planets around a baby sun outside our solar system

  • It’s an unprecedented snapshot of “time zero,” scientists reported Wednesday
  • In a stunning picture taken by the ESO’s Alma telescope network, the emerging planetary system resembles a lightning bug glowing against the black void

FLORIDA: Astronomers have discovered the earliest seeds of rocky planets forming in the gas around a baby sun-like star, providing a precious peek into the dawn of our own solar system.

It’s an unprecedented snapshot of “time zero,” scientists reported Wednesday, when new worlds begin to gel.

“We’ve captured a direct glimpse of the hot region where rocky planets like Earth are born around young protostars,” said Leiden Observatory’s Melissa McClure from the Netherlands, who led the international research team. “For the first time, we can conclusively say that the first steps of planet formation are happening right now.”

The observations offer a unique glimpse into the inner workings of an emerging planetary system, said the University of Chicago’s Fred Ciesla, who was not involved in the study appearing in the journal Nature.

“This is one of the things we’ve been waiting for. Astronomers have been thinking about how planetary systems form for a long period of time,” Ciesla said. “There’s a rich opportunity here.”

NASA’s Webb Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory in Chile teamed up to unveil these early nuggets of planetary formation around the young star known as HOPS-315. It’s a yellow dwarf in the making like the sun, yet much younger at 100,000 to 200,000 years old and some 1,370 light-years away. A single light-year is 6 trillion miles.

In a cosmic first, McClure and her team stared deep into the gas disk around the baby star and detected solid specks condensing — signs of early planet formation. A gap in the outer part of the disk gave allowed them to gaze inside, thanks to the way the star tilts toward Earth.

They detected silicon monoxide gas as well as crystalline silicate minerals, the ingredients for what’s believed to be the first solid materials to form in our solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago. The action is unfolding in a location comparable to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter containing the leftover building blocks of our solar system’s planets.

The condensing of hot minerals was never detected before around other young stars, “so we didn’t know if it was a universal feature of planet formation or a weird feature of our solar system,” McClure said in an email. “Our study shows that it could be a common process during the earliest stage of planet formation.”

While other research has looked at younger gas disks and, more commonly, mature disks with potential planet wannabes, there’s been no specific evidence for the start of planet formation until now, McClure said.

In a stunning picture taken by the ESO’s Alma telescope network, the emerging planetary system resembles a lightning bug glowing against the black void.

It’s impossible to know how many planets might form around HOPS-315. With a gas disk as massive as the sun’s might have been, it could also wind up with eight planets a million or more years from now, according to McClure.

Purdue University’s Merel van ‘t Hoff, a co-author, is eager to find more budding planetary systems. By casting a wider net, astronomers can look for similarities and determine which processes might be crucial to forming Earth-like worlds.

“Are there Earth-like planets out there or are we like so special that we might not expect it to occur very often?“


Roman-era mosaic panel with erotic theme that was stolen during World War II returns to Pompeii

Updated 16 July 2025
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Roman-era mosaic panel with erotic theme that was stolen during World War II returns to Pompeii

  • The artwork was repatriated from Germany through diplomatic channels and was arranged by the Italian Consulate in Stuttgart
  • The owner had received the mosaic as a gift from a Wehrmacht captain who was assigned to the military supply chain in Italy during the war

POMPEII: A mosaic panel on travertine slabs, depicting an erotic theme from the Roman era, was returned to the archaeological park of Pompeii on Tuesday, after being stolen by a Nazi German captain during World War II.
The artwork was repatriated from Germany through diplomatic channels, arranged by the Italian Consulate in Stuttgart, Germany, after having been returned from the heirs of the last owner, a deceased German citizen.
The owner had received the mosaic as a gift from a Wehrmacht captain, assigned to the military supply chain in Italy during the war.
The mosaic — dating between mid- to last century B.C. and the first century — is considered a work of “extraordinary cultural interest,” experts said.
“It is the moment when the theme of domestic love becomes an artistic subject,” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii and co-author of an essay dedicated to the returned work. “While the Hellenistic period, from the fourth to the first century B.C., exulted the passion of mythological and heroic figures, now we see a new theme.”
The heirs of the mosaic’s last owner in Germany contacted the Carabinieri unit in Rome that’s dedicated to protecting cultural heritage, which was in charge of the investigation, asking for information on how to return the mosaic to the Italian state. Authorities carried out the necessary checks to establish its authenticity and provenance, and then worked to repatriate the mosaic in September 2023.
The collaboration with the Archaeological Park of Pompeii was also key, as it made it possible to trace it to near the Mount Vesuvius volcano, despite the scarcity of data on the original context of its discovery, the Carabinieri said.
The panel was then assigned to the Archaeological Park of Pompeii where, suitably catalogued, it will be protected and available for educational and research purposes.
“Today’s return is like healing an open wound,” Zuchtriegel said, adding that the mosaic allows to reconstruct the story of that period, the first century A.D., before Pompeii was destroyed by the Vesuvius eruption in A.D. 79.
The park’s director also highlighted how the return by the heirs of its owner signals an important change in “mentality,” as “the sense of possession (of stolen art) becomes a heavy burden.”
“We see that often in the many letters we receive from people who may have stolen just a stone, to bring home a piece of Pompeii,” Zuchtriegel said.
He recalled the so-called “Pompeii curse,” which according to a popular superstition hits whoever steals artifacts in Pompeii.
The world-known legend suggests that those who steal finds from the ancient city of Pompeii will experience bad luck or misfortune. That has been fueled over the years by several tourists who return stolen items, claiming they brought them bad luck and caused tragic events.