NZARA COUNTY: Catherine Bashiama runs her fingers along the branches of the coffee tree she’s raised from a seedling, searching anxiously for its first fruit buds since she planted it three years ago. When she grasps the small cherries, Bashiama beams.
The farmer had never grown coffee in her village in western South Sudan, but now hopes a rare, climate-resistant species will help pull her family from poverty. “I want to send my children to school so they can be the future generation,” said Bashiama, a mother of 12.
Discovered more than a century ago in South Sudan, excelsa coffee is exciting cash-strapped locals and drawing interest from the international community amid a global coffee crisis caused mainly by climate change. As leading coffee-producing countries struggle to grow crops in drier, less reliable weather, prices have soared to the highest in decades and the industry is scrambling for solutions.
Experts say estimates from drought-stricken Brazil, the world’s top coffee grower, are that this year’s harvest could be down by some 12 percent.
“What history shows us is that sometimes the world doesn’t give you a choice, and right now there are many coffee farmers suffering from climate change that are facing this predicament,” said Aaron Davis, head of coffee research at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London.
Excelsa could play a key role in adapting.
Native to South Sudan and a handful of other African countries, including Congo, Central African Republic and Uganda, excelsa is also farmed in India, Indonesia and Vietnam. The tree’s deep roots, thick leathery leaves and big trunk allow it to thrive in extreme conditions such as drought and heat where other coffees cannot. It’s also resistant to many common coffee pests and diseases.
Yet it comprises less than 1 percent of the global market, well behind the arabica and robusta species that are the most consumed coffees in the world. Experts say excelsa will have to be shown to be practical at a much larger scale to bridge the gap in the market caused by climate change.
Coffee’s history in South Sudan
Unlike neighboring Ethiopia or Uganda, oil-rich South Sudan has never been known as a coffee-producing nation.
Its British colonizers grew robusta and arabica, but much of that stopped during decades of conflict that forced people from their homes and made it hard to farm. Coffee trees require regular care such as pruning and weeding and take at least three years to yield fruit.
During a visit earlier this month to Nzara County in Western Equatoria state — regarded as the country’s breadbasket — residents reminisced to Associated Press reporters about their parents and grandparents growing coffee, yet much of the younger generation hadn’t done it themselves.
Many were familiar with excelsa, but didn’t realize how unique it was, or what it was called, referring to it as the big tree, typically taller than the arabica and robusta species that are usually pruned to be bush- or hedge-like. The excelsa trees can reach 15 meters (about 49 feet) in height, but may also be pruned much shorter for ease of harvesting.
Coffee made from excelsa tastes sweet — unlike robusta — with notes of chocolate, dark fruits and hazelnut. It’s more similar to arabica, but generally less bitter and may have less body.
“There’s so little known about this coffee, that we feel at the forefront to trying to unravel it and we’re learning every day,” said Ian Paterson, managing director of Equatoria Teak, a sustainable agro-forestry company that’s been operating in the country for more than a decade.
The company’s been doing trials on excelsa for years. Initial results are promising, with the trees able to withstand heat much better than other species, the company said. It’s also working with communities to revive the coffee industry and scale up production. Three years ago it gave seedlings and training to about 1,500 farmers, including Bashiama, to help them grow the coffee. The farmers can sell back to the company for processing and export.
Many of the trees started producing for the first time this year, and Paterson said he hopes to export the first batch of some 7 tons to specialty shops in Europe. By 2027, the coffee could inject some $2 million into the economy, with big buyers such as Nespresso expressing interest. But production needs to triple for it to be worthwhile for large buyers to invest, he said.
Challenges of growing an industry amid South Sudan’s instability
That could be challenging in South Sudan, where lack of infrastructure and insecurity make it hard to get the coffee out.
One truck of 30 tons of coffee has to travel some 1,800 miles (3,000 kilometers) to reach the port in Kenya to be shipped. The cost for the first leg of that trip, through Uganda, is more than $7,500, which is up to five times the cost in neighboring countries.
It’s also hard to attract investors.
Despite a peace deal in 2018 that ended a five-year civil war, pockets of fighting persist. Tensions in Western Equatoria are especially high after the president removed the governor in February, sparking anger among his supporters. When AP reporters visited Nzara, the main road to town was cut off one day because of gunshots and people were fleeing their villages, fearful of further violence.
The government says companies can operate safely, but warned them to focus on business.
“If I’m a businessman, dealing with my business, let me not mix with politics. Once you start mixing your business with politics, definitely you will end up in chaos,” said Alison Barnaba, the state’s minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Environment.
Barnaba said there are plans to rehabilitate old coffee plantations and build an agriculture school, but details are murky, including where the money will come from. South Sudan hasn’t paid its civil servants in more than a year, and a rupture of a crucial oil pipeline through neighboring Sudan has tanked oil revenue.
Growing the coffee isn’t always easy, either. Farmers have to contend with fires that spread quickly in the dry season and decimate their crops. Hunters use fires to scare and kill animals and residents use it to clear land for cultivation. But the fires can get out of control and there are few measures in place to hold people accountable, say residents.
Coffee as a way out of poverty
Still, for locals, the coffee represents a chance at a better future.
Bashiama said she started planting coffee after her husband was injured and unable to help cultivate enough of the maize and ground nuts that the family had lived on. Since his accident she hasn’t been able to send her children to school or buy enough food, she said.
Another farmer, 37-year-old Taban John, wants to use his coffee earnings to buy a bicycle so he can more easily sell his other crops, ground nuts and cassava, and other goods in town. He also wants to be able to afford school uniforms for his children.
Excelsa is an opportunity for the community to become more financially independent, say community leaders. People rely on the government or foreign aid, but when that doesn’t come through they’re not able to take care of their families, they say.
But for coffee to thrive in South Sudan, locals say there needs to be a long-term mentality, and that requires stability.
Elia Box lost half of his coffee crop to fire in early February. He plans to replace it, but was dispirited at the work it will require and the lack of law and order to hold people accountable.
“People aren’t thinking long-term like coffee crops, during war,” he said. “Coffee needs peace.”
As warming climate hammers coffee crops, this rare bean may someday be your brew
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As warming climate hammers coffee crops, this rare bean may someday be your brew
- The tree’s deep roots, thick leaves and big trunk help it thrive in extreme conditions where other coffees cannot
- Earth’s warming climate is causing problems for big coffee producers everywhere and some are looking to a rarely cultivated species that may stand up better to drought and heat
‘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
- 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
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
- 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
- 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.
