RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Rio de Janeiro — already notorious for street muggings, corrupt politicians, ruthless militias and Kalashnikov-toting drug traffickers — has a new public enemy: plushies. Or, more specifically, the joystick-controlled claw machines that dispense them.
On Wednesday, Rio police carried out 16 search warrants targeting the machines that elicit exhilaration among children and adults alike. But police said the claw machines defraud users who believe scoring stuffed animals to be a test of skill. In fact, they are games of chance — just like slot machines — and therefore illegal, according to their press office.
Officers seized claw machines, laptops, tablets, cell phones, a firearm and — yes — furry friends. They are investigating whether organized crime groups may be the invisible hand behind the claw because they already run slot machines and a popular lottery known as “Animal Game” across the city. Police in Brazil’s southern Santa Catarina state carried out an additional three search warrants Wednesday as part of the same operation.
A claw machine sits inside a metro station in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. The Rio police press office said they were carrying out search warrants targeting claw machines because they are considered games of chance and therefore illegal. (AP Photo/Hannah-Kathryn Valles)
It marked the second such police crackdown, following another in May during which officers apprehended 80 machines. Not only were those machines stocked with counterfeit plushies, but subsequent analysis of their programming found winning pulls were permitted only after a set number of attempts, police said in their statement Wednesday. Facilitating such sporadic, successful snags is an electrical current to the otherwise enfeebled claw so it holds fast to its prize, the statement said.
That programming isn’t disclosed to naive users, including children liable to blow their pocket money on what’s effectively a crap shoot. Claw machines can be found in Rio’s shopping malls, subway stations, supermarkets, arcades and toy stores.
Among Rio’s claw aficionados is Alessandra Libonatti, 41, who has played for nearly three decades. She remembers the machines causing a stir when they first appeared in the city; she had only seen them before in movies. These days she tends to play once a week, whether alone or at the mall with friends who share her “peculiar” hobby.
She likes the low-investment adrenaline rush and, by her own account, she’s a talented clawmaster who has honed her techniques to maximize success, from scouting the stuffed animal landscape to precise positioning of the claw. She treasures a manatee with jaguar spots that she pulled in on a trip to the nation’s capital with friends.
“When I pass by a machine, I give it a look to see if there’s a stuffed animal that makes it worth it to play,” she told The Associated Press. “Because it’s not always worth it; sometimes it’s clearly a waste of money.”
A claw machine stands at a toy store in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Hannah-Kathryn Valles)
Claw machines may have been feats of skill in decades past, but most modern machines have built-in programming allowing operators to predetermine their profitability, said Jeremy Hambly, a claw game aficionado from the Milwaukee area. His ClawStruck YouTube channel shows how many different models work, he previously told the AP. He said odds should be posted prominently on machines for users to review.
Most U.S. states consider claw machines games of chance and specifically exempt them from gambling statutes, as long as they comply with certain rules specific to those states. According to industry officials, it’s in arcades’ best interests to have customers win so they’ll keep playing.
But lately it’s tough going for Rio’s claw connoisseurs, Libonatti said. And she chalks that up to changes made to the machines that didn’t escape her exacting eye.
“The current machines are crap. The claws are weaker,” she wrote in a text message to a friend in April, reviewed by the AP.
“Amiga, yessssss!” her friend replied. “I went back to the machines where I always got (stuffed animals) in recent weeks and they’re soooooo weak!”
Local online media outlet G1 dubbed the phenomenon the “weak claw scam.”
The nearly 13,000 stuffed animals police detained in May were initially destined for destruction, but a request from state lawmakers found favor with a judge who spared them. Instead, police donated the plushies to families who lost their homes in the massive floods of southern Rio Grande do Sul state, particularly children in shelters.
The fate of the stuffed animals seized Wednesday was still unclear.
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Associated Press writer Bruce Shipkowski contributed from Trenton, New Jersey.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Yemen’s Houthi rebels have agreed to allow tugboats and rescue ships to assist a Greek-flagged oil tanker that remains ablaze in the Red Sea “in consideration of humanitarian and environmental concerns,” Iran’s mission to the United Nations claimed late Wednesday. However, the Houthis did not offer specific details and are believed to have blocked an earlier attempt to salvage the vessel and continue to attack shipping across the Red Sea.
Last week’s attack on the Sounion marked the most serious assault in weeks by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who continue to target shipping through the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The attacks have disrupted the $1 trillion in trade that typically passes through the region, as well as halted some aid shipments to conflict-ravaged Sudan and Yemen.
Iran’s U.N. mission said Wednesday that following the fire on the Sounion “and the subsequent environmental hazards,” several countries it didn’t identify reached out to the Houthis “requesting a temporary truce for the entry of tugboats and rescue ships into the incident area.”
“Ansar Allah has consented to this,” the Iranian mission said, using another name for the Houthis. It offered no further details, nor did the Houthis, who have repeatedly attacked ships in the Red Sea, detained aid workers, deployed child soldiers and cracked down on dissent since holding Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2014.
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam, in comments carried by the Houthi-controlled SABA news agency, said late Wednesday that the attack showed how serious the rebels took their campaign against shipping.
“After several international parties contacted us, especially the European ones, they were allowed to tow the burning oil ship Sounion,” Abdul-Salam said, without giving further details.
The Pentagon said Tuesday that attempts by an unidentified “third party” to send two tugboats to the stricken Sounion were blocked by the Houthis. Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters that the Houthis’ actions demonstrate “their blatant disregard for not only human life, but also for the potential environmental catastrophe that this presents.”
Ryder said the Sounion appears to be leaking oil into the Red Sea, home to coral reefs and other natural habitats and wildlife. However, the European Union’s Operation Aspides, whose mission is to protect shipping in the area, said as recently as Wednesday the ship was not leaking oil.
The Houthis in their campaign have seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a U.S.-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets.
The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the U.K. to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.
In the case of the Sounion, the Houthis have claimed the Greek company operating the vessel had other ships serving Israel. The Joint Maritime Information Center, a multinational organization overseen by the U.S. Navy, assessed that the Sounion “has no direct association with Israel, U.S. or U.K. within the company business structure” though other ships had “visited Israel in the recent past.”
MARSEILLE, France (AP) — Little model boats hang from the ceiling and maritime paintings adorn the walls of the basilica of Notre Dame de la Garde, which from the city’s highest hill overlooks the bay of Marseille, where sailing regattas are being held for the 2024 Olympics.
They’re votive offerings — some more than 200 years old — that residents of this Mediterranean port city continue to bring in gratitude to the Virgin Mary for everything from avoiding shipwrecks to successful rescues of migrants trying to make it to Europe on unseaworthy boats.
“Since its origins, Notre Dame de la Garde has been venerated by all seafarers,” said Jean-Michel Sanchez, the head conservator of the basilica’s museum. “Marseille was born of the sea.”
He estimates the basilica’s collection of ex-votos, as the offerings are called, at several thousands, including many in storage. And that’s after those predating the French Revolution were destroyed in the anticlerical violence that followed it.
Offerings shaped in reference to prayers answered – from babies to limbs, from vehicles to sports jerseys – are common across Catholic and Orthodox churches in Southern Europe especially, and in parts of the United States.
The nautical motifs that dominate Marseille’s landmark church are inextricably linked to the city’s 2,600-year-old seafaring history.
The first chapel was built in the 1200s on a barren rocky outcrop above the main port. In the 16th century, France’s king ordered the construction of a fort around the chapel to defend the growing harbor. Most of it still serves as the pedestal on which the massive basilica that replaced the chapel was built in the 1850s.
The name itself speaks to that connection between guarding the port and divine protection, Sanchez said. “Garde” means guard in French.
Inside the church, the models hanging from the ceiling include elegant sailboats, three-masted ships and utilitarian cargo vessels. About once a month someone brings a new one — sometimes with an explanation, sometimes anonymously, most handmade.
Among the most recent additions is a helicopter, donated a few years ago by civil defense forces. They were grateful for never having had an accident while conducting high-risk rescues of climbers in Marseille’s calanques, narrow inlets east of the Olympic marina, said Marie Aubert, who works with the basilica’s historical collections.
Hundreds of marble plaques, some just inscribed “merci a N D” — thank you to Our Lady — pack the walls. So many continue to be donated that church officials are now lining the terrace walls outside with them.
“The connection of the people of Marseille with the Bonne Mère is transmitted from generation to generation,” said the basilica’s rector, the Rev. Olivier Spinosa, using the popular name for the church, French for “good mother.”
One chapel is decorated with paintings of boats, including a 2011 work donated by a ship’s two captains. It gives thanks for their crews’ rescue of nearly two dozen North African migrants in the Mediterranean, Spinosa said.
The painting is inscribed with a prayer for all victims of trafficking and illegal immigration — one of Europe’s political flashpoints and a recurring source of tragedy, with estimates of nearly 30,000 migrants dying trying to cross the sea in the past decade.
In its apse, behind a statue of Mary that arrived, of course, by boat, is a 19th-century mosaic of a ship sailing between choppy and calm seas by a lighthouse. It’s an allegory of the church traversing the storms of history, with Mary providing the guiding light.
“The Bonne Mère is a mother who welcomes everyone,” Spinosa said. “Like the soul of Marseille.”
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
BERLIN (AP) — Part of a hotel in a winemaking town on the Mosel River in western Germany collapsed, authorities said, leaving two people dead and trapping seven others in the wreckage overnight. The last person was rescued some 24 hours later, on Wednesday night.
Fourteen people were in the hotel in Kroev when one story of the building collapsed at about 11 p.m. on Tuesday. Police said five were able to get out of the building unhurt because they were not in the part that collapsed, but others were trapped.
Rescuers were able to contact some of them by cellphone. But getting to them proved difficult because the collapse of one story left two ceilings lying on top of each other, according to Joerg Teusch, fire and disaster protection inspector for the Bernkastel-Wittlich district.
“We have to proceed with caution because the entire building structure is like a house of cards. If we pull on the wrong card, this building is sure to collapse,” he said as rescuers worked through the wreckage on Wednesday morning.
A woman who was among the seven trapped was the last to be rescued Wednesday night, police said.
Michael Ebling, the top security official in Rhineland-Palatinate state, where Kroev is located, said the fact that so many people could be rescued “stands out in view of this event, the damage and the dimensions one can see with the naked eye.”
Among the first to be saved was a 2-year-old child, who was pulled out unharmed, and the child’s mother, who was rescued with minor injuries. The child’s father was rescued later.
“We all had tears in our eyes and I still feel the same now. The whole story has a very emotional component, because when we arrived, when we looked at the building, it looked like we weren’t taking anyone out,” Teusch said at a news conference.
Teusch said the cause of the structural collapse is yet to be determined.
The original hotel building is believed to date back to the 17th century, but additional stories were added around 1980, he said. He added that work was being done on the building on Tuesday, but it wasn’t clear whether there was any link between that and the collapse.
Regional public broadcaster SWR said that witnesses reported hearing a bang and seeing a large cloud of dust at the time of the collapse.
The rescue operation involved 250 emergency workers, including drone specialists, as well as rescue dogs.
“There was no option (to use) stairs, house entrances, doors or windows, because they were simply no longer there,” Teusch said.
Authorities also evacuated 21 people from three buildings immediately around the damaged hotel. The hotel guests at the time of the collapse were largely German, apart from a Dutch family.
Two Germans, a man and a woman, died. Rescuers were able to recover one of the bodies but police said they would have to remove a section of the building on Thursday to recover the other.
Kroev is located along a picturesque section of the Mosel near the larger resort town of Traben-Trarbach. It has about 2,200 inhabitants.
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Associated Press writer Vanessa Gera in Warsaw, Poland, contributed to this report.
MADRID (AP) — In her new music video, Katy Perry pretends to be one of the thousands of tourists having the time of their lives on Spain’s Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. But some parts, filmed in a protected natural enclave, could bring trouble.
The regional government is investigating the video for her latest song, “Lifetimes,” for the clips in which the 39-year-old American singer and songwriter appears jumping and running across dunes of the Ses Salines Natural Park, a protected area on the islands of Ibiza and Formentera, apparently without permission.
The images taken on the dunes of the private islet of S’Espalmador, “one of the most ecologically valuable sites on the islands” and in an area cordoned off from the public with sticks and ropes, sparked the controversy, according to local media.
The regional authorities have opened “preliminary investigation proceedings,” according to a statement released Tuesday, after the production company failed to apply for the appropriate permits. The filming wouldn’t have been an environmental offense, because this type of production can be authorized with a permit, the department of natural environment added.
Her label, Universal Music, said the local video production company had assured it that all necessary permits for the video were secured. When it learned one permit was still being processed, “we were given verbal authority to go ahead” a day before the shoot, which took place July 27, a label spokesperson said in an email to The Associated Press.
“We adhered to all regulations associated with filming in this area and have the utmost respect for this location and the officials tasked with protecting it,” the statement said.
The video, directed by Colombian-American photographer and director Matías Vasquez, Stillz, shows Perry sailing, swimming or clubbing on the islands, one of the most popular and crowded tourist resorts in the Spanish Mediterranean, especially during the summer.
Perry’s new album “143” will be released on Sept. 20.
SINTRA, Portugal (AP) — The doorbell to Martinho de Almada Pimentel’s house is hard to find, and he likes it that way. It’s a long rope that, when pulled, rings a literal bell on the roof that lets him know someone is outside the mountainside mansion that his great-grandfather built in 1914 as a monument to privacy.
There’s precious little of that for Pimentel during this summer of “overtourism.”
Travelers idling in standstill traffic outside the sunwashed walls of Casa do Cipreste sometimes spot the bell and pull the string “because it’s funny,” he says. With the windows open, he can smell the car exhaust and hear the “tuk-tuk” of outsized scooters named for the sound they make. And he can sense the frustration of 5,000 visitors a day who are forced to queue around the house on the crawl up single-lane switchbacks to Pena Palace, the onetime retreat of King Ferdinand II.
“Now I’m more isolated than during COVID,” the soft-spoken Pimentel, who lives alone, said during an interview this month on the veranda. “Now I try to (not) go out. What I feel is: angry.”
This is a story of what it means to be visited in 2024, the first year in which global tourism is expected to set records since the coronavirus pandemic brought much of life on Earth to a halt. Wandering is surging, rather than leveling off, driven by lingering revenge travel, digital nomad campaigns and so-called golden visasblamed in part for skyrocketing housing prices.
Anyone paying attention during this summer of “overtourism” is familiar with the escalating consequences around the world: traffic jams in paradise. Reports of hospitality workers living in tents. And “anti-tourism” protests intended to shame visitors as they dine — or, as in Barcelona in July, douse them with water pistols.
The demonstrations are an example of locals using the power of their numbers and social media to issue destination leaders an ultimatum: Manage this issue better or we’ll scare away the tourists — who could spend their $11.1 trillion a year elsewhere. Housing prices, traffic and water management are on all of the checklists.
Cue the violins, you might grouse, for people like Pimentel who are well-off enough to live in places worth visiting. But it’s more than a problem for rich people.
“Not to be able to get an ambulance or to not be able to get my groceries is a rich people problem?” said Matthew Bedell, another resident of Sintra, which has no pharmacy or grocery store in the center of the UNESCO-designated district. “Those don’t feel like rich people problems to me.”
What is ‘overtourism,’ anyway?
The phrase itself generally describes the tipping point at which visitors and their cash stop benefitting residents and instead cause harm by degrading historic sites, overwhelming infrastructure and making life markedly more difficult for those who live there.
It’s a hashtag that gives a name to the protests and hostility that you’ve seen all summer. But look a little deeper and you’ll find knottier issues for locals and their leaders, none more universal than housing prices driven up by short-term rentals like Airbnb, from Spain to South Africa. Some locales are encouraging “quality tourism,” generally defined as more consideration by visitors toward residents and less drunken behavior, disruptive selfie-taking and other questionable choices.
Tourists visit the old center of Sintra, Portugal, Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Ana Brigida)
“Overtourism is arguably a social phenomenon, too,” according to an analysis for the World Trade Organization written by Joseph Martin Cheer of Western Sydney University and Marina Novelli of the University of Nottingham. In China and India, for example, they wrote, crowded places are more socially accepted. “This suggests that cultural expectations of personal space and expectations of exclusivity differ.”
In January, the United Nations’ tourism agency predicted that worldwide tourism would exceed the records set in 2019 by 2%. By the end of March, the agency reported, more than 285 million tourists had travelled internationally, about 20% more than the first quarter of 2023. Europe remained the most-visited destination. The World Travel & Tourism Council projected in April that 142 of 185 countries it analyzed would set records for tourism, set to generate $11.1 trillion globally and account for 330 million jobs.
Tourists queue to visit the interior of the 19th century Pena Palace in Sintra, Portugal, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ana Brigida)
Aside from the money, there’s been trouble in paradise this year, with Spain playing a starring role in everything from water management problems to skyrocketing housing prices and drunken tourist drama.
Protests erupted across the country as early as March, when graffiti in Malaga reportedly urged tourists to “go f——— home.” Thousands of protesters demonstrated in Spain’s Canary Islands against visitors and construction that was overwhelming water services and jacking up housing prices. In Barcelona, protesters shamed and squirted water at people presumed to be visitors as they dined al fresco in touristy Las Ramblas.
In Japan, where tourist arrivals fueled by the weak yen were expected to set a new record in 2024, Kyoto banned tourists from certain alleys. The government set limits on people climbing Mount Fuji. And in Fujikawaguchiko, a town that offers some of the best views of the mountain’s perfect cone, leaders erected a large black screen in a parking lot to deter tourists from overcrowding the site. The tourists apparently struck back by cutting holes in the screen at eye level.
Air travel, meanwhile, only got more miserable, the U.S. government reported in July. UNESCO has warned of potential damage to protected areas. And Fodor’s “ No List 2024 ” urged people to reconsider visiting suffering hotspots, including sites in Greece and Vietnam, as well as areas with water management problems in California, India and Thailand.
Tourists queue to catch a shuttle bus from the gate up to the the 19th century Pena Palace, in Sintra, Portugal, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Ana Brigida)
Tourism is surging and shifting so quickly, in fact, that some experts say the very term “overtourism” is outdated.
Michael O’Regan, a lecturer on tourism and events at Glasgow Caledonian University, argues that “overtourism” has become a buzzword that doesn’t reflect the fact that the experience depends largely on the success or failure of crowd management. It’s true that many of the demonstrations aren’t aimed at the tourists themselves, but at the leaders who allow the locals who should benefit to become the ones who pay.
“There’s been backlash against the business models on which modern tourism has been built and the lack of response by politicians,” he said in an interview. Tourism “came back quicker than we expected,” he allows, but tourists aren’t the problem. “There’s a global fight for tourists. We can’t ignore that. … So what happens when we get too many tourists? Destinations need to do more research.”
Of visitors vs being visited
Virpi Makela can describe exactly what happens in her corner of Sintra.
Incoming guests at Casa do Valle, her hillside bed-and-breakfast near the village center, call Makela in anguish because they cannot figure out how to find her property amid Sintra’s “disorganized” traffic rules that seem to change without notice.
“There’s a pillar in the middle of the road that goes up and down and you can’t go forward because you ruin your car. So you have to somehow come down but you can’t turn around, so you have to back down the road,” says Makela, a resident of Portugal for 36 years. “And then people get so frustrated they come to our road, which also has a sign that says `authorized vehicles only.’ And they block everything.”
A poster hanging from a balcony reads “Sintra: A traffic jam in paradise”, in Sintra, Portugal, Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Ana Brigida)
Traffic crawls through a narrow street where a poster on the wall of a house reads in Portuguese “Chaotic traffic harms everyone, residents and visitors”, in Sintra, Portugal, Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Ana Brigida)
Nobody disputes the idea that the tourism boom in Portugal needs better management. The WTTC predicted in April that the country’s tourism sector will grow this year by 24% over 2019 levels, create 126,000 more jobs since then and account for about 20% of the national economy. Housing prices already were pushing an increasing number of people out of the property market, driven upward in part by a growing influx of foreign investors and tourists seeking short-term rentals.
To respond, Lisbon announced plans to halve the number of tuk-tuks allowed to ferry tourists though the city and built more parking spaces for them after residents complained that they are blocking traffic.
A 40-minute train ride to the west, Sintra’s municipality has invested in more parking lots outside town and youth housing at lower prices near the center, the mayor’s office said.
More than 3 million people every year visit the mountains and castles of Sintra, long one of Portugal’s wealthiest regions for its cool microclimate and scenery. Sintra City Hall also said via email that fewer tickets are now sold to the nearby historic sites. Pena Palace, for example, began this year to permit less than half the 12,000 tickets per day sold there in the past.
It’s not enough, say residents, who have organized into QSintra, an association that’s challenging City Hall to “put residents first” with better communication, to start. They also want to know the government’s plan for managing guests at a new hotel being constructed to increase the number of overnight stays, and more limits on the number of cars and visitors allowed.
“We’re not against tourists,” reads the group’s manifesto. “We’re against the pandemonium that (local leaders) cannot resolve.”
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Associated Press reporters Helena Alves in Lisbon and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report. Laurie Kellman writes about global affairs for AP’s Trends + Culture team. Follow her at http://x.com/APLaurieKellman
MARSEILLE, France (AP) — Her black headscarf flying up, a teen jumped into the sparkling Mediterranean from a concrete pier at a city marina, then scrambled back to shore and onto a giant paddle board for a quick tour with a dozen excited comrades.
They were bused in for a swimming camp from a social services center in the mostly Muslim, North African-origin neighborhoods that ring Marseille, which is hosting the 2024 Olympicsailing competition at the opposite end of its spectacular, monument-fringed bay.
Children attend a swimming camp organized by the Grand Bleu Association which facilitates access to the sea for marginalized children in Marseille, France, Friday, July 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)
FILE – People enjoy a coffee on a balcony in the Old Port of Marseille in southern France, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole, File)
The millennia-old port is a crossroads of cultures and faiths, where the sea is ever present but not equally accessible, and the beauty and cosmopolitan flair rub shoulders with enclaves of poverty and exclusion even more intimately than in the rest of France.
“There are kids who see the sea from home, but have never come,” said Mathias Sintes, a supervisor at the Corbière marina for the Grand Bleu Association, which has held camps for about 3,000 marginalized children — 50% of whom, he estimates, didn’t know how to swim. “The first goal is to teach them to save themselves.”
SINK OR SWIM
A child attends a swimming camp organized by the Grand Bleu Association which facilitates access to the sea for marginalized children in Marseille, France, Friday, July 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)
Brahim Timricht, who grew up in the northern neighborhoods known as the “quartiers nord,“ founded the association more than two decades ago to bring children to enjoy the sea that shimmers below their often-dilapidated high-rises on the rocky cliffs.
Then he realized that many weren’t learning basic swimming in school — a requirement for elementary students in France — and figured he could take advantage of the warm summer months to introduce them to that skill.
“Then the mothers told me they still wouldn’t go to the beach, because they didn’t know how to swim and were afraid, so we started programs with them,” Timricht said as dozens of children happily splashed under the hot July sun a few days before the opening of the Olympic sailing competition.
The lack of pools for school programs is a sign of “social and economic segregation,” said Jean Cugier, who teaches physical education in a high school in the quartiers nord and belongs to the national union of PE teachers.
Over the past academic year, he’s been taking 30 sixth-graders 45 minutes by bus to a pool where two lanes were reserved for them — an unsustainable model, he said, that he’s hoping to modify with pool-based summer camps.
Children attend a swimming camp organized by the Grand Bleu Association which facilitates access to the sea for marginalized children in Marseille, France, Friday, July 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)
Children attend a swimming camp organized by the Grand Bleu Association which facilitates access to the sea for marginalized children in Marseille, France, Friday, July 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)
While the city has discussed using the Olympic marina after the Games — as Paris plans to do with an Olympic pool — the sea is too chilly to swim in during most of the school year. So the only concrete answer to the pool shortage is building more infrastructure, Cugier believes.
Another issue complicating swimming education, according to the Ministry of Education, has been the medical certificates that parents bring to excuse children from class. Officials say these are often fake and driven by the desire of some conservative Muslim families not to have boys and girls together at a pool.
But sports are also a way out of the margins. One of France’s soccer greats, Zinedine Zidane, who carried the Olympic torch in the Paris opening ceremony, was born in the most notorious of Marseille’s quartiers nord. And soccer remains the unifying passion of Marseille’s residents, who routinely flock to cheer home team Olympique de Marseille at the Vélodrome stadium — one of the venues for Olympic soccer matches.
For the boys and girls at the Corbière marina, the overall seaside experience has been a chance to meet new people from outside their neighborhood.
“They don’t want to leave,” said one of the group leaders, Sephora Saïd, on the camp’s last day. She had worn a hijab during the outing, including while paddle-boarding.
SEA, SEA EVERYWHERE
FILE – Sunbathers enjoy the sunset at the entrance to Marseille’s Old Port in southern France, Tuesday, May 26, 2020 as France gradually lifts its COVID-19 lockdown. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole, File)
The sea as an entry and a meeting point is engrained in the very DNA of Marseille. Founded by Greek colonists 2,600 years ago as a trading post, it is France’s oldest city, and its second largest.
“Before it’s a city, Marseille is a port,” said Fabrice Denise, director of the Museum of Marseille History, built next to the Greek archeological site in what is still the city’s center. “If you want to understand all that’s extraordinary about it, including the realities of cosmopolitanism, you need to understand its multi-century history as a port.”
Today’s port, the Mediterranean’s third largest in cargo tonnage, includes everything from refineries to a busy cruise ship area and extends along nearly 40 kilometers (25 miles). But it all started in a small inlet that is today’s top tourist attraction, the Vieux Port.
Large boats built of wood and caulked with cotton and fiber carried transforming cargos like grapevines, Denise said. The trade expanded north along the Rhone River in what is now one of France’s most celebrated wine-producing regions.
At the end of the harbor, a small boatyard still restores a handful of boats built in the old way. They were used for fishing until a few decades ago but now are too expensive to maintain for utilitarian purposes.
FILE – Fireworks go off as the Belem, the three-masted sailing ship bringing the Olympic flame from Greece, enters the Old Port in Marseille, southern France, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani, File)
FILE – Women sit on a bench in Marseille, southern France, Friday, June 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole, File)
Not far away are the forts that King Louis XIV added in the 17th century to protect the port and the military arsenal he established. The small city became a metropolis.
Religious diversity arrived by sea too — Christians in reality and in myth, one of the most popular ones being that Mary Magdalen herself sailed to Marseille, which is commemorated with a large boat procession each year.
Centuries later, and increasingly since decolonization, Muslims from North Africa flocked to Marseille’s shores. Of the city’s 870,000 residents, some 300,000 trace their roots to Algeria alone.
In the narrow streets uphill from the Vieux Port, Arabic rings from market stalls, cafés and couscous restaurants — the second-most spoken language in the city. Marseille’s French itself is unique, incorporating not only a distinctive accent but words from the countryside’s Provençal language, said Médéric Gasquet-Cyrus, a linguist and professor at the University of Aix-Marseille. He is co-author of the French-language book “Marseille for Dummies.”
On its cover, as on the background of most photos including those of the Olympic regattas, stands the hilltop black-and-white-striped 19th century basilica of Notre Dame de la Garde, topped by a nearly 10-meter (33-foot) gold-covered statue of the Virgin Mary looking out to sea. It’s known as “la Bonne Mère” — the good mother.
“The Bonne Mère, it’s almost a pagan symbol,” quipped Gasquet-Cyrus, who says he is an atheist but still goes to visit. “She’s the protector of the city.”
The church welcomes around 2.5 million visitors a year, many for its daily Masses and more on its wide terrace. Its 360-degree views encompass the new and old ports, the villa-studded neighborhoods where the Olympic marina is nestled as well as the blocky towers of the quartiers nord.
“You can see Marseille, and the sea, and the horizon, all under her benevolent gaze,” said the basilica’s rector, the Rev. Olivier Spinosa. “It’s easier to see beauty from up high, and it invites us to work on beautiful things when we’re down below.”
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
TORONTO (AP) — Canada announced Monday it is launching a 100% tariff on imports of Chinese-made electric vehicles, matching U.S. tariffs imposed over what Western governments say are China’s subsidies that give its industry an unfair advantage.
The announcement came after encouragement by U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Cabinet ministers Sunday. Sullivan is making his first visit to Beijing on Tuesday.
Trudeau said Canada also will impose a 25% tariff on Chinese steel and aluminum. “Actors like China have chosen to give themselves an unfair advantage in the global marketplace,” he said.
One of the Chinese-made EVs imported into Canada is from Tesla, made at the company’s Shanghai factory, though the U.S. company could avoid the tariff by switching to supplying Canada from factories in the U.S. or Germany.
Chinese brands are not yet a player in Canada. However, Chinese EV giant BYD established a Canadian corporate entity last spring and has indicated it intends to try and enter the Canadian market as early as next year.
Chinese officials are likely to raise concerns about the American tariffs with Sullivan as Beijing continues to repair its economy after the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. President Joe Biden in May slapped major new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, advanced batteries, solar cells, steel, aluminum and medical equipment.
“The U.S. does believe that a united front, a coordinated approach on these issues benefits all of us,” Sullivan told reporters on Sunday.
Biden has said Chinese government subsidies for EVs and other consumer goods ensure that Chinese companies don’t have to turn a profit, giving them an unfair advantage in global trade.
Chinese firms can sell EVs for as little as $12,000. China’s solar cell plants and steel and aluminum mills have enough capacity to meet much of the world’s demand. Chinese officials argue their production keeps prices low and would aid a transition to the green economy.
“We’re doing it in alignment, in parallel, with other economies around the world that recognize that this is a challenge that we are all facing,” Trudeau said of the new tariffs. “Unless we all want to get to a race to the bottom, we have to stand up.”
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Canada also will launch a 30-day consultation about possible tariffs on Chinese batteries, battery parts, semiconductors, critical minerals, metals and solar panels.
“China has an intentional state-directed policy of overcapacity and oversupply designed to cripple our own industry,” Freeland said. “We simply will not allow that to happen to our EV sector, which has shown such promise.”
The Chinese Embassy said Ottawa disregarded Beijing’s repeated objections and said the move will damage trade and economic cooperation.
“This move is typical trade protectionism and politically-motivated decision, which violates the World Trade Organization(WTO) rules and goes against Canada’s traditional image as a global champion for free trade and climate change mitigation,” the embassy said in an emailed statement. “China will take all necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.”
Canada “had to go with the U.S. position, when you think about the economic integration that we have with the U.S. More than 75% of our exports go to the U.S.,” said a former Canadian ambassador to China, Guy Saint-Jacques.
Saint-Jacques said Canada can expect retaliation from China in other industries, adding that barley and pork are candidates because the Chinese can get it from other countries.
“China will want to send a message,” he said.
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This story has been corrected to say Tesla is one of the Chinese-made EVs imported into Canada, not the only one.
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A court in Romania’s capital Thursday placed the divisive internet influencer Andrew Tate under house arrest for 30 days, as prosecutors investigate a sprawling new case that involves allegations of human trafficking of minors and sex with a minor.
The Bucharest Tribunal’s decision comes a day after prosecutors detained six people including Tate, 37, and his brother Tristan Tate, 36, after masked police raided four homes in Bucharest and nearby Ilfov county. Prosecutors had asked the court to remand the brothers in custody for 30 days. Tristan has been placed under judicial control, which typically involves geographical restrictions and reporting periodically to the police.
The brothers’ spokesperson, Mateea Petrescu, responded to the decision by saying the judge denied prosecutors’ request due to the brothers’ “exemplary behavior” while previously under preventative arrest measures in a separate case, and that they firmly deny all of the allegations against them and “remain steadfast in proving their innocence.”
The Tate brothers, both former kickboxers and dual British-U.S. citizens, are already awaiting trial in Romania in a separate human trafficking case along with two Romanian women. Romanian prosecutors formally indicted all four last year.
In the new case, Romania’s anti-organized crime agency DIICOT said it is investigating allegations of human trafficking, including the trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor, forming an organized criminal group, money laundering, and influencing statements. The alleged crimes date between 2014 and 2024.
DIICOT said the defendants used the coercive “loverboy” method to exploit 34 vulnerable victims who were forced to produce pornographic materials for a fee online, and that more than $2.8 million (2.5 million euros) it generated was kept by the defendants.
An unnamed foreign man also sexually exploited a 17-year-old foreigner, DIICOT alleges, and said he kept all of the $1.5 million (1.3 million euros) made from the criminal activity. The same man “repeatedly had sexual relations and acts” with a 15-year-old, the agency alleges.
Outside the court after the judge issued his house arrest measure, Andrew Tate told reporters that many of the alleged victims in the new case have statements in the Tate brother’s defense. “This is a set-up, it’s absolutely disgusting, fair play to that judge who saw through the bullshit and let us free,” he said.
Andrew Tate, who has 9.9 million followers on the social media platform X, is known for expressing misogynistic views online and has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him. He was previously banned from various social media platforms for misogynistic views and hate speech.
“During the entire criminal process, the investigated persons benefit from the procedural rights and guarantees provided by the Code of Criminal Procedure, as well as the presumption of innocence,” DIICOT said.
During the police raids on Wednesday, which also involved scouring the Tate brothers’ large property near Bucharest, authorities seized 16 luxury vehicles, a motorbike, laptops, thousands of dollars in cash, luxury watches, and data storage drives.
The latest case against the Tates adds to a litany of legal woes against them.
After the Tate brothers’ arrest in December 2022, they were held for three months in police detention before being moved to house arrest. They were later restricted to Bucharest municipality and nearby Ilfov county, and then to Romania.
In April, the Bucharest Tribunal ruled in that case that prosecutors’ case file against them met the legal criteria and that a trial could start but did not set a date for it to begin.
Last month, a court overturned an earlier decision that allowed the Tate brothers to leave Romania as they await trial. The earlier court ruled on July 5 that they could leave the country as long as they remained within the 27-member European Union. The decision was final.
In March, the Tate brothers also appeared at the Bucharest Court of Appeal in a separate case, after British authorities issued arrest warrants over allegations of sexual aggression in a U.K. case dating back to 2012-2015. The appeals court granted the British request to extradite the the Tates to the U.K., but only after legal proceedings in Romania have concluded.
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romanian authorities towed away a fleet of luxury vehicles Saturday from the home of the divisive social media personality Andrew Tate, days after he was placed under house arrest following new human trafficking allegations.
Tate, 37, and his brother Tristan Tate, 36, both former kickboxers and dual British-U.S. citizens with millions of followers on social media and known for their misogynistic views, are already awaiting trial in Romania, along with two women. They were charged with human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to exploit women. Andrew Tate was also charged with rape in that case.
The luxury vehicles, impounded from their home near the capital, included a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, a Mercedes-Benz, McLaren and a more humble-looking classic red Lada. The seizure came two days after Romania’s anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, raided four homes in Bucharest and nearby Ilfov county and detained six people, including the Tate brothers. Officers also confiscated thousands of dollars in cash, laptops and data storage drives.
One of the Tates’ lawyers, Georgiana Popa, told reporters outside the brothers’ home Saturday that the seizures are “legal, but unfounded” and said it has been contested.
“The cars are not (the brothers’) property,” she said, without providing additional information.
A masked police officer watches as a Ferrari vehicle is removed by authorities from Andrew Tate’s residence on the outskirts of Bucharest, Romania, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
A masked police officer looks at a Ferrari 812 Competizione being removed from Andrew Tate’s residence on the outskirts of Bucharest, Romania, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
The Tate brothers appeared on Thursday at a Bucharest court as prosecutors sought to remand them in custody. But a judge denied that request and placed Andrew Tate under house and Tristan Tate under judicial control, which typically involves restricting contact with certain people and having to periodically report to the police. The brothers’ spokesperson, Mateea Petrescu, said that the Tates firmly deny all allegations against them and “remain steadfast in proving their innocence.”
In the new case, DIICOT, said that it’s investigating allegations of human trafficking, including the trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor, forming an organized criminal group, money laundering, and influencing statements.
The agency also said the defendants used the coercive “loverboy” method to exploit 34 vulnerable victims, who were forced to produce pornographic materials for a fee online, and that more than $2.8 million (2.5 million euros) it generated was kept by the defendants.
An unnamed foreign man also sexually exploited a 17-year-old foreigner, DIICOT alleges, and said that he kept all of the $1.5 million (1.3 million euros) made from the criminal activity. The same man “repeatedly had sexual relations and acts” with a 15-year-old, the agency alleges.
A masked police officer walks as a Lamborghini car is removed by authorities from Andrew Tate’s residence on the outskirts of Bucharest, Romania, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
A Russian made Lada 1500 car is removed by authorities from Andrew Tate’s residence on the outskirts of Bucharest, Romania, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Andrew Tate, who has 9.9 million X followers, has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him. He was previously banned from various social media platforms for misogynistic views and hate speech.
Authorities have previously confiscated some of the brothers’ assets.
After the Tates’ arrest in December 2022, authorities seized 15 luxury cars, 14 designer watches and cash in several currencies. The total value of the goods, authorities said at the time, was estimated at 3.6 million euros ($3.9 million). In April, the Bucharest Tribunal ruled the prosecutors’ case file against them met the legal criteria and that a trial could start, but didn’t set a date for it to begin.
Last month, a court overturned an earlier decision that allowed the Tate brothers to leave Romania as they await trial. The court’s decision is final and can’t be appealed.
PINGTING, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan drilled Monday with anti-amphibious landing missiles as part of strategy to remain mobile and deadly in an attempt to deter an attack from China, which claims the democratically ruled island as its own territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary.
Troops fired tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided missiles known as TOW 2A missiles mounted on M1167 Humvees at floating targets off a beach in Pingtung County during the two days of exercises. The area on Taiwan’s southern tip faces both toward the Taiwan Strait and China, and toward the Pacific Ocean.
The missiles are among the most effective and popular anti-tank weapons in the world and a key component in what some experts say is Taiwan’s best strategy to resist a potential Chinese invasion. China has ramped up its military threat in recent years based on its vast edge in numbers of warplanes, ships and missiles.
Taiwan bought 1,700 units of the newer TOW 2B system from the U.S., the last of which are due to be delivered by the end of the year. The two days of testing will also gauge the more sophisticated TOW 2B’s interoperability with the TOW 2A and its ability to acquire targets at night, the Defense Ministry said.
Advocates of such weaponry argue that these more mobile systems stand the best chance in an asymmetric battle against a much larger Chinese force. China has the world’s largest standing military, but most of Taiwan is composed of steep mountains, mud flats and heavily built-up urban areas poorly suited to such a conventional force. Others have argued Taiwan needs more warplanes and surface ships.
China sends warplanes and warships near Taiwan on a near-daily basis in an attempt to intimidate its citizens and degrade the island’s defenses. In response, Taiwan has extended the period of national military service to one year, building its own submarines and importing sophisticated new equipment from the U.S.
The vast majority of Taiwanese favor the current status of de-facto independence for their island, which separated from mainland China amid civil war in 1949.
LONDON (AP) — Three people were stabbed during the first day of the Notting Hill Carnival, Europe’s biggest street festival, with a 32-year-old woman suffering “life-threatening” injuries, London’s Metropolitan Police Service said.
More than 1 million people are expected to attend the carnival, a celebration of Afro-Caribbean culture that takes place every year on the streets of the Notting Hill neighborhood in west London. Some 7,000 police officers have been assigned to the event, which concludes Monday.
Police said they made 90 arrests on Sunday, including 10 people who were detained for assaulting emergency workers, 18 for possession of offensive weapons and four for sexual offenses.
“Hundreds of thousands of people came to Notting Hill Carnival today to enjoy a fantastic celebration,” the Met said in a statement. “Regrettably, a minority came to commit crime and engage in violence.”
PARIS (AP) — French performer Barbara Butch carried the Paralympic torch Sunday evening in an act of defiance after being targeted by hate speech over her appearance in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
“I chose not to be afraid to exist in the public space,” Barbara Butch, a popular DJ and LGBTQ+ icon said in an interview with broadcaster France Info before walking onstage with the torch at a musical event in Saint-Cloud, a western suburb of Paris. “I know I represent France in the same way as anyone else,” she added.
The performer filed a formal legal complaint alleging online abuse after suffering online harassment, death threats and insults following her performance in the July 26 Olympics opening show. Five other artists and performers, including the ceremony’s artistic director, Thomas Jolly, made similar complaints after suffering a torrent of abuse.
Butch said she has received “tens of thousands of hate messages.” A specialized team has managed to identify “hundreds of people who had sent … the most violet messages,” she said.
“Justice will do its job and then we will tackle the international level,” Butch said.
Butch was among nearly 1,000 torch bearers – who will carry the Paralympic flame, split between 12 torches, to 50 cities across France in the next few days to highlight communities that are committed to promoting inclusion in sport and building awareness of living with disabilities.
Other torch bearers include former Paralympians, young para athletes, volunteers from Paralympic federations, innovators of advanced technological support, people who dedicate their lives to others with impairments and people who work in the non-profit sector to support carers.
The 12 flames will become one again when the relay ends in central Paris on Wednesday after visiting historical sites along the city’s famed boulevards and plazas before lightening the cauldron during the three-hour opening ceremony.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Dutch data protection watchdog slapped a 290 million euro ($324 million) fine Monday on ride-hailing service Uber for allegedly transferring personal details of European drivers to the United States without adequate protection. Uber called the decision flawed and unjustified and said it would appeal.
The Dutch Data Protection Authority said the data transfers spanning more than two years amounted to a serious breach of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which requires technical and organizational measures aimed at protecting user data.
“In Europe, the GDPR protects the fundamental rights of people, by requiring businesses and governments to handle personal data with due care,” Dutch DPA chairman Aleid Wolfsen said in a statement.
“But sadly, this is not self-evident outside Europe. Think of governments that can tap data on a large scale. That is why businesses are usually obliged to take additional measures if they store personal data of Europeans outside the European Union. Uber did not meet the requirements of the GDPR to ensure the level of protection to the data with regard to transfers to the U.S. That is very serious.”
The case was initiated by complaints from 170 French Uber drivers, but the Dutch authority issued the fine because Uber’s European headquarters is in the Netherlands.
Uber insisted it did nothing wrong.
“This flawed decision and extraordinary fine are completely unjustified. Uber’s cross-border data transfer process was compliant with GDPR during a 3-year period of immense uncertainty between the EU and U.S. We will appeal and remain confident that common sense will prevail,” the company said in a statement.
The alleged breach came after the EU’s top court ruled in 2020 that an agreement known as Privacy Shield that allowed thousands of companies — from tech giants to small financial firms — to transfer data to the United States was invalid because the American government could snoop on people’s data.
The Dutch data protection agency said that following the EU court ruling, standard clauses in contracts could provide a basis for transferring data outside the EU, “but only if an equivalent level of protection can be guaranteed in practice.”
“Because Uber no longer used Standard Contractual Clauses from August 2021, the data of drivers from the EU were insufficiently protected,” the watchdog said. It added that Uber has been using the successor to Privacy Shield since the end of last year, ending the alleged breach.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association, an advocacy organization for tech companies, said the fine ignored the realities of online business in the aftermath of the 2020 EU court ruling.
“The busiest internet route in the world could not simply be put on hold for three entire years while governments worked to establish a new legal framework for these data flows,” the association’s European head of policy, Alexandre Roure, said in a statement.
“Any retroactive fines by data protection authorities are especially worrisome given that these very privacy watchdogs failed to provide helpful guidance during this period of significant legal uncertainty, in absence of any clear legal framework,” he added.
Monday’s announcement is not the first time the Dutch data protection watchdog has fined Uber. In January, the agency fined it 10 million euros over what it said was the company’s failure to disclose how long it retained data from drivers in Europe or to name non-EU countries it shared the data with.
LONDON (AP) — A fire engulfed an apartment building in east London early Monday, forcing its evacuation and sending two people to the hospital.
The London Fire Brigade said the fire was reported at 2:44 a.m. and the entire building was affected, including scaffolding surrounding the property and the roof.
The London Ambulance Service said four people were treated at the scene and two were taken to a hospital.
As many as 40 fire engines and about 225 firefighters responded to the fire at the building, which has both residential and commercial units. The cause of the blaze isn’t yet known.
Shortly after midday, the London Fire Brigade announced that all residents of the building had been accounted for.
As I tried to login and download Minecraft after years of not playing I’m hit with the news the my Mojang account that I purchased over a decade ago back when the beta was up is no longer valid. not only that but a new copy is almost triple what I paid originally. This is outrageous, this is unfair.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Claudia Santos’ spiritual journey has left a mark on her skin.
Soon after the 50-year-old embraced her pre-Hispanic heritage and pledged to speak for her ancestors’ worldview in Mexico City, she tattooed the symbol “Ollin” — which translates from the Nahuatl language as “movement” — on her wrist.
“It’s an imprint from my Nahuatl name,” said Santos, wearing white with feathers hanging from her neck. She was dressed to perform an ancestral Mexica ceremony on Tuesday in the neighborhood of Tepito.
“It’s an insignia that represents me, my identity.”
Mexica dancers perform during a ceremony. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
Members of an Amaxac Indigenous organization hold corn during a ceremony. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
Residents and members of an Amaxac Indigenous organization hold an statue of a feathered serpent, Quetzalcoatl. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
Since 2021, when she co-founded an organization that raises awareness of her community’s Mexica heritage, Santos and members of close Indigenous communities gather by mid-August to honor Cuauhtémoc, who was the last emperor or “tlatoani” of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, as the capital was known before it fell to the Spaniards in 1521.
“It’s important to be here, 503 years after what happened, not only to dignify Tepito as an Indigenous neighborhood where there has been resistance, strength and perseverance,” Santos said. “But also because this is an energetic portal, a sacred ‘teocalli’ (‘God’s house’, in Nahuatl).”
The site that she chose for performing the ceremony has a profound sacred meaning in Mexico’s history. Though it’s currently a Catholic church, it’s also the site where Cuauhtémoc — a political and spiritual leader — initiated the final defense of the territory that was lost to the European conquerors.
“Our grandfather, Cuauhtémoc, is still among us,” said Santos, who explained that the site where the church now stands is aligned with the sun. “The cosmic memories of our ancestors are joining us today.”
Though he was not present during the pre-Hispanic rituals, the priest in charge of the Tepito church allowed Santos and fellow Indigenous leaders to move freely through the esplanade of the temple. Their preparations started early each morning, carefully placing roses, fruit, seeds and sculptures of pre-Hispanic figures among other elements.
“I’m very thankful to be given the chance of occupying our sacred compounds once again,” Santos said. “Making this connection between a religious and a spiritual belief is a joy.”
Before Tuesday’s ceremony, as this year’s activities began August 9, a Mayan spiritual guide was also invited to perform a ritual at the church’s main entrance.
A group in Mexico City commemorates their pre-Hispanic heritage at the site where Mexica warriors prepared the defense of the ancient Mexico-Tenochtitlan empire against the Spanish Conquistadores, which is now a Catholic church. (AP Video: Amaranta Marentes, María Teresa Hernández)
“This is an act of kneeling with humbleness, not in humiliation, to make an offering to our Creator,” said Gerardo Luna, the Mayan leader who offered honey, incense, sugar, liquor and other elements as a nourishment for the fire.
“The fire is the element that links us to the spirit of the Creator, who permeates everything that exists,” said Luna, also praising the opportunity to practice his beliefs in a Catholic space.
“There are different ways of understanding spirituality, but there is only one language, the one of the heart,” Luna said. “Our Catholic brothers breathe the same air as us. We all have red blood in our veins, and your bones and mine are the same.”
Some locals approached the church and joined both Mayan and Mexica ceremonies. They were drawn in by the sound of a conch shell that was blown to announce the rituals and the smoke released by the lighting of a resin known as “copal.”
Lucía Moreno, 75, said that participating made her feel at peace. Tomás García, 42, added that he is Catholic, but these ceremonies “purify” him and allow him to let go of any wrongdoing.
Others, like Cleotilde Rodríguez, call upon the ancestors — and God — with a deeper need of comfort.
After Tuesday’s Mexica ritual, the 78-year-old said that she prayed for her health and well-being. No doctor or medicine has cured her aching knees, and none of her 10 children visit her or call to ask how she is. Another son of hers, she said, died by suicide some years ago, and she has not felt at ease since.
“This is what has happened to me, so I hope that God allows me to keep working, that my path is not shortened,” Rodríguez said. “Otherwise, what is going to become of me?”
The “tlalmanalli,” as the Mexica ceremony is known, is as an offering to Mother Earth. All members of the community are encouraged to participate and benefit from its spiritual force.
Residents and members of an Amaxac Indigenous organization hug during a ceremony. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
“What people take with them is medicinal,” Santos said. “It is all blessed, so people leave with medicine for life, which they can use in moments of sadness.”
She was not always aware of the depth of the Mexica and other pre-Hispanic worldviews, but a couple of decades ago, feeling that Catholicism no longer fulfilled her spiritually, she started looking for more.
She researched Buddhism and Hinduism. She practiced yoga and studied the awakening of the mind. But still, she wondered: “What’s in my country? Why, if other nations have gurus, aren’t there any widely known spiritual references in Mexico?”
And then she found them. The Mexica provided her with answers. They were wise, spiritual people, who resisted what others brought upon them, always connected to their ancestors and the profoundness of their land.
As part of her transformation, she received a new name, this time in Nahuatl and tied to the pre-Hispanic calendar. And so, just as her parents baptized her in the very same Tepito church where she now performs Mexica rituals, she embraced her current spirituality in a “sowing” ceremony, where she became “Ollin Chalchiuhtlicue,” which means “precious movement of the water.”
People watch as Mexica dancers perform during a ceremony. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
Residents and members of an Amaxac Indigenous organization use incense during a ceremony. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
Mexica dancers burn incense during a ceremony commemorating the 503rd anniversary of the fall of the Aztec empire’s capital, Tenochtitlan. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
The name, she said, also comes with a purpose. As directed, she defined her life mission after the ceremony. Santos chose to comply with Cuauhtémoc’s final wishes for his people: Maybe the sun has gone down upon us, but it will come out again. In the meantime, we must tell our children — and their children’s children — how big our Motherland’s glory is.
“Through the spirituality of our Mexica tradition we are taking back our dignity and the essence of our Indigenous community,” Santos said. “Being here today is a joy, but also a work of resistance.”
“Tepito exists because it has resisted, and we will continue resisting.”
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (AP) — With its reindeer sleigh rides, camel racing and stunning landscapes with room to roam, Mongolia is hoping to woo visitors who are truly looking to get away from it all.
Like most countries, its tourism industry was devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and it has launched a “Welcome to MonGOlia” campaign to win people back. The government has added flights and streamlined the visa process, offering visa-free visits for many countries.
At least 437,000 foreign tourists visited in the first seven months of this year, up 25% over the same period last year, including increasing numbers from Europe, the U.S. and Japan. Visitors from South Korea nearly doubled, thanks in part to the under-four-hour flight.
Despite the gains, Mongolia’s government is still short of its goal of 1 million visitors per year from 2023-2025 to the land of Genghis Khan, which encompassed much of Eurasia in its 13th-century heyday and is now a landlocked nation located between Russia and China.
With a population of 3.3 million people, about half of them living in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, there’s plenty of open space for the adventure tourist to explore, said Egjimaa Battsooj, who works for a tour company. Its customized itineraries include horseback trips and camping excursions with the possibility of staying in gers, the felt-covered dwellings still used by Mongolia’s herders.
There’s little chance of running across private property, so few places are off-limits, she said.
“You don’t need to open a gate, you don’t need to have permission from anyone,” she said, sitting in front of a map of Mongolia with routes marked out with pins and strands of yarn.
“We are kind of like the last truly nomad culture on the whole planet,” she added.
Lonely Planet named Mongolia its top destination in its Best in Travel 2024 report. The pope’s visit to Mongolia last year also helped focus attention on the country. Its breakdancers became stars at last year’s Asian Games. And some local bands have developed a global following, like The Hu, a folk-metal band that incorporates traditional Mongolian instruments and throat singing with modern rock.
Still, many people know little about Mongolia. American tourist Michael John said he knew some of the history about Genghis Khan and had seen a documentary on eagles used by hunters before deciding to stop in Ulaanbaatar as part of a longer vacation.
“It was a great opportunity to learn more,” the 40-year-old said.
Tourism accounted for 7.2% of Mongolia’s gross domestic product and 7.6% of its employment in 2019 before collapsing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the World Bank. But the organization noted “substantial growth potential” for Mongolia to exploit, with “diverse nature and stunning sceneries” and sports and adventure tourism possibilities.
Mongolia tourism ads focus on those themes, with beautiful views of frozen lakes in winter for skating and fishing, the Northern Lights and events like reindeer sledding and riding, camel racing and hiking.
Munkhjargal Dayan offers rides on two-humped Bactrian camels, traditional archery and the opportunity to have eagles trained for hunting perch on a visitor’s arm.
“We want to show tourists coming from other countries that we have such a way of life in Mongolia,” he said, waiting for customers by a giant statue of Genghis Kahn on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar.
Outside the lively capital, getting around can be difficult in summer as the steppes become waterlogged, and there is limited infrastructure, a shortage of accommodation and a deficit of skilled labor in tourism destinations.
It is also easy for foreigners to get lost, with few signs in English, said Dutch tourist Jasper Koning. Nevertheless, he said he was thoroughly enjoying his trip.
“The weather is super, the scenery is more than super, it’s clean, the people are friendly,” he said.
PENAJAM PASER UTARA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia marked 79 years of independence on Saturday with a ceremony in the unfinished future capital of Nusantara, which was planned to relieve pressure on Jakarta but whose construction has lagged behind schedule.
Hundreds of officials and invited guests wearing the traditional clothes of Indonesian tribes gathered on a stretch of grass amid the ongoing construction of government buildings and and view of construction cranes in the center of the Nusantara city.
President Joko Widodo and his Cabinet ministers attended the Independence Day ceremony at the new Presidential Palace, built in the shape of the mythical eagle-winged protector figure called Garuda.
The celebration was initially planned to inaugurate Nusantara as the country’s new capital, but with construction behind schedule it’s not clear when the transfer will take place.
Widodo said earlier in the week that 8,000 guests would be invited, but the number was later reduced to 1,300 because adequate infrastructure was not yet in place.
The celebration at the new State Palace on the island of Borneo was held simultaneously with a celebration at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta that was attended by Vice President Ma’ruf Amin.
More than 5,000 officers from Indonesia’s police and military were deployed for the ceremony and 76 honorary flag-bearers marched behind the national red-and-white banner.
A bearer is escorted by members of a honor guard as she carries the national Red-White flag to be hoisted during the ceremony marking Indonesia’s 79th anniversary of independence at the new presidential palace in its future capital of Nusantara, a city still under construction on the island of Borneo, Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
Indonesian President Joko Widodo, left, hands national Red-White flag to a bearer to be hoisted during the ceremony marking Indonesia’s 79th anniversary of independence at the new presidential palace in its future capital of Nusantara, a city still under construction on the island of Borneo, Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
Indonesian President Joko Widodo, second right, and his wife Iriana, right, confer with Defense Minister and president-elect Prabowo Subianto, second left, as House Speaker Puyan Maharani, left, looks on during the ceremony marking Indonesia’s 79th anniversary of independence at the new presidential palace in its future capital of Nusantara, a city still under construction on the island of Borneo, Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
CORRECTS DATE – Soldiers march before the start of a ceremony marking Indonesia’s 79th anniversary of the independence at the new presidential palace in its future capital city of Nusantara, still under construction on the island of Borneo, Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
Jakarta, with about 10 million people in the city limits and three times that number in the greater metropolitan area, floods regularly and its streets are so clogged that congestion costs the economy an estimated $4.5 billion a year.
The air and groundwater in the old capital, on the northwestern coast of the Java island, are heavily polluted, and it has been described as the world’s most rapidly sinking city. It is estimated that one-third of the city could be submerged by 2050, because of uncontrolled groundwater extraction, as well as the rise of the Java Sea due to climate change.
The construction of the new capital began in mid-2022, spread over an area of about 2,600 square kilometers (1,000 square miles) carved out of Borneo’s jungle. Officials say it will be a futuristic green city with abundant forests and parks, powered by renewable energy sources and using smart waste management.
But the project has been dogged by criticism from environmentalists and Indigenous communities, who say it degrades the environment, further shrinks the habitat of endangered animals such as orangutans, and displaces Indigenous people who rely on the land for their livelihoods.
Since the start of construction, seven groundbreaking ceremonies have taken place for the construction of government and public buildings, as well as hotels, banks and schools.
With a population of about 275 million, Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Most of the new capital’s investors are Indonesian companies. The government is contributing 20% of the $33 billion budget and relying significantly on private sector investment for the rest.
To attract investors, Widodo recently offered incentives for the new capital, including land rights lasting up to 190 years and generous tax incentives. Widodo, who has led the country for 10 years, will leave office in October.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Social media platform X said Saturday it will close its operations in Brazil, claiming Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes threatened to arrest its legal representative in Brazil if they did not comply with orders.
X is removing all remaining Brazil staff in the country “effective immediately,” though the company said service will still be available to the people of Brazil. The company did not clarify how it could claim to suspend operations while continuing to provide services to Brazilians.
Earlier this year, the company clashed with de Moraes over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation on X. The company said his most recent orders amounted to censorship, and shared a copy of the document on X.
The Supreme Court’s press office didn’t immediately respond to Associated Press email requests seeking comment, or to confirm the veracity of the document, on Saturday.
In the United States, free speech is a constitutional right that’s much more permissive than in many countries, including Brazil, where de Moraes in April ordered an investigation into CEO Elon Musk over the dissemination of defamatory fake news and another probe over possible obstruction, incitement and criminal organization.
Brazil’s political right has long characterized de Moraes as overstepping his bounds to clamp down on free speech and engage in political persecution.
