Tag: played

Categories
Entertainment

After a Twister Blew His Roof Away, He Performed Piano Beneath an Open Sky

After a Tornado Blew His Roof Away, He Played Piano Under an Open Sky

When Jordan Baize emerged from his basement in Bremen, Kentucky, where he had taken shelter during a tornado, he saw the roof of his house blown off, doors unhinged, and shards of glass and insulation strewn all over the place.

However, his Yamaha piano was still intact. Under an overcast sky the next morning, Mr. Baize sat alone in his living room and started playing a song that had stuck in his mind for days.

Whitney Brown, Mr. Baize’s sister, said she heard her brother play on Saturday when she was in his bedroom packing clothes in boxes. When she started recording Mr. Baize, she recognized the tune as a Christian worship song, “There’s Something About That Name,” and remembered the words:

“Kings and kingdoms will all pass away, but there is something about this name,” a reference to Jesus Christ.

She said these texts seemed appropriate to the situation. Her brother’s house, his “kingdom,” had been destroyed, but it was not his hope, she said.

“It was healing just to know that he was still holding on to the hope of Jesus,” said Ms. Brown, 32, a masseuse and doula and a sawmill owner.

At least 88 people were killed in tornadoes in Kentucky, Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee on Friday. Twelve people were killed in Bremen.

Mr Baize, 34, said he didn’t notice his sister taping him but was encouraged by the reaction after she posted the video on Facebook.

“In these times, whether or not people around the world suffered a tornado this past weekend, we all face storms of some kind,” said Mr. Baize, an accountant and consultant. “That little bit of peace and perspective, which I had to deal with in what I thought was a personal, private moment, appealed to people all over the world in my opinion.”

Mr Baize said he fell into the basement with his two children, his ex-wife and her husband, and they huddled under a mattress just before the Friday night tornado was expected. Three or four minutes later, he said. It took about 30 seconds.

After the storm passed, he and his children spent the night at his parents’ house nearby. When he returned to the house the next morning, he made an inventory of the rubble: rubble everywhere, three or four inches of rain in the remains of the house, and damaged trees that three generations of his family had grown up on. He turned to the piano, which was covered in water.

“I thought I could see what shape the piano is in,” he recalls. “If it’s in a terrible, terrible state, I can at least play one more time.” He started playing and felt a sense of peace.

Gloria Gaither wrote the lyrics for “There’s Something About That Name” and her husband Bill Gaither composed the music. She said she was overwhelmed after seeing the video clip for the song they wrote decades ago.

“A song obviously appears in a person’s life when he needs it,” she said, “under circumstances that we would never have dreamed of.”

Categories
Health

John Magufuli, Tanzania Chief Who Performed Down Covid, Dies at 61

John Magufuli, Tanzania Leader Who Played Down Covid, Dies at 61

NAIROBI, Kenya – President John Magufuli of Tanzania, a populist leader who downplayed the severity of the coronavirus pandemic and diverted his country from democratic ideals, died on Wednesday in the port city of Dar es Salaam. He was 61 years old.

Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan said in a short televised address that Mr Magufuli died of heart complications while being treated at Mzena Hospital. The announcement followed more than a week of intense speculation that Mr Magufuli was seriously ill with Covid-19 – reports that senior government officials had repeatedly denied.

Ms. Hassan did not disclose Mr. Magufuli’s underlying condition, but said he had suffered from chronic atrial fibrillation for more than a decade. She announced 14 days of national mourning and said flags would be flown nationwide on half employees.

Under the Tanzanian Constitution, Ms. Hassan will be sworn in as President to serve the remainder of the five-year term that Mr. Magufuli began when he won re-election last October. The move will make her the first female leader in Tanzania.

Mr. Magufuli, a trained chemist, was first elected on an anti-corruption platform in October 2015. He was initially praised for his efforts to strengthen the economy, curb wasteful spending, and improve Tanzania’s infrastructure.

But the Führer, popularly known as “the Bulldozer”, was soon accused of silencing dissent, suppressing freedom of expression and association, and enforcing laws that strengthened his Party of Revolution’s influence in power.

This was a sharp departure from the policies of its two immediate predecessors, who had promoted their East African nation as a peaceful, business-friendly democracy.

During his first term in office, Mr Magufuli’s government banned opposition rallies, revoked licenses from non-governmental organizations, and introduced laws that critics said suppressed independent reporting. He also said that pregnant girls are not allowed to go to school.

Right-wing groups accused his government of failing to conduct a credible investigation into the murders, kidnappings and persecution of journalists criticizing the government and opposition officials.

When Mr Magufuli was seeking a second term last fall, the authorities made it difficult for the opposition parties to campaign, froze the bank accounts of civil society groups, refused accreditation to election observers and journalists and refused to allow opposition representatives to polling stations.

Updated

March 19, 2021, 8:12 p.m. ET

At least 10 people were killed on election day when violence broke out in the semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar after citizens said they saw soldiers casting marked ballots.

Mr Magufuli won this election with 84 percent of the vote on charges of widespread fraud and irregularities. Tundu Lissu, the main opposition candidate who ran against him, was accused of trying to overthrow the government and had to leave the country. He remains in exile in Belgium.

Last year, Mr Magufuli was heavily criticized at home and abroad for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. He railed against masks and social distancing, promoted unproven remedies as cures, and said God helped the country eradicate the virus.

Tanzania has not disclosed any data on the coronavirus to the World Health Organization since April, reporting only 509 cases and 21 deaths, numbers that have been widely viewed with skepticism.

When the global introduction of vaccines began, Mr Magufuli stopped the Ministry of Health from securing doses for Tanzania.

“Vaccines don’t work,” he said in a speech to a maskless crowd in late January. “If the white man could develop vaccinations, vaccines against AIDS would have been brought. Vaccines against tuberculosis would have made it a thing of the past. Vaccines against malaria would have been found. Cancer vaccines would have been found. “

Such statements have been condemned by both the World Health Organization and the Roman Catholic Church in Tanzania. Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, urged the Tanzanian government to prepare the infrastructure for the distribution of the cans, and wrote on Twitter: “Science shows that #VaccinesWork.”

In February, the US Embassy in Tanzania warned of a “significant increase in the number of Covid-19 cases”, saying that “limited hospital capacity across Tanzania could lead to life-threatening delays in emergency medical care”.

Mr Magufuli’s death came just days after speculation that he was sick with the virus. Rumors began to swirl after the opposition person in exile, Mr Lissu, said the president had Covid-19 and was being treated at a hospital in neighboring Kenya.

Mr Lissu asked the authorities to reveal the whereabouts of the president, who had not been seen publicly for almost two weeks. Mr. Magufuli did not attend a virtual summit for leaders of the East African regional bloc on February 27.

Tanzanian officials rejected the speculation, saying that Mr. Magufuli was working as usual.

After the death of Mr Magufuli was announced on Wednesday, the leader of the opposition party, Act Wazalendo, urged Tanzanians to show “patience and understanding” as the country undergoes a critical transition period.

“This is an unprecedented moment,” said opposition party leader Zitto Kabwe in a statement, “one that will undoubtedly move us all in a very personal way.”

John Pombe Joseph Magufuli was born on October 29, 1959 in the Chato district in what is now northwestern Tanzania and was then known as Tanganyika. He earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Dar es Salaam and a PhD in chemistry from the same university in 2009, as stated on the website of the President’s Office.

Before he became president, he was a member of the Tanzanian parliament and held a number of cabinet positions. He developed a reputation for fighting corruption while serving in cabinet positions including Minister for Land, Fisheries and Public Works.

Mr. Magufuli is survived by his wife, Janet, an elementary school teacher; and two children.

Categories
World News

She Was a Star of New Palestinian Music. Then She Performed Beside the Mosque.

She Was a Star of New Palestinian Music. Then She Played Beside the Mosque.

“People on the conservative side saw this as an example of the weakness and absence of the Palestinian Authority and the impotence of the Palestinian state,” said Sari Nusseibeh, a Palestinian intellectual and former head of Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. Although Palestinian society accepted diversity again, it has become more conservative in recent years as the struggle for statehood faltered and some Palestinians turned to tradition and religion to preserve their identity, said Prof. Nusseibeh.

Ms. Abdulhadi was born on the eve of a more hopeful time in October 1990. Her family had been in exile in Jordan since 1969 after the Israeli authorities expelled her grandmother, Issam Abdulhadi, a leading activist for women’s rights.

But as peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians gained momentum in the early 1990s, Israel allowed certain exiled leaders to return with their families with a gesture of goodwill. Among them were Issam and her family including young Sama and her older brother and sister. Her father Saad is a publisher and event manager, and her mother Samira Hulaileh runs a forum for business women. She met for this interview at her home on the hill when Ms. Hulaileh was serving homemade lamb dumplings.

As a child, Ms. Abdulhadi was always a trailblazer. With her grandmother, she successfully campaigned for her headmaster to turn her into a girls’ soccer team (she later played for the national team). As a teenager, she organized hip-hop battles and breakdancing events, and acquaintances from that time remember her as a strong presence.

“It was the same feeling you still have today,” said Derrar Ghanem, a contemporary who later also helped build Ramallah’s electronic music scene. “She comes in and you think, ‘Who is that?'”

Ms. Abdulhadi began experimenting as a DJ in the middle of the second intifada, the Palestinian uprising that killed around 1,000 Israelis and 3,000 Palestinians in the early 2000s. She used her father’s sound equipment to play music at friends’ events.

Categories
Business

WandaVision brings again Pietro Maximoff performed by Evan Peters

WandaVision brings back Pietro Maximoff played by Evan Peters

Elizabeth Olsen plays Wanda Maximoff in “WandaVision” on Disney +.

Disney

Kevin Feige warned us that the Marvel series on Disney + would have an impact on the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. And he kept that promise.

The fifth episode of “WandaVision” hit the streaming service on Friday, bringing with it a big cameo that made viewers think a lot before episode six comes out next week. The reveal not only impacts the sitcom-based TV show, but the entire Marvel Universe … or should I say Multiverse.

Now would be a good time to look the other way if you haven’t seen the latest episode of “WandaVision”.

** Spoiler ahead **

The fifth episode, entitled “On a Very Special Episode …”, our ragged team of FBI agent Jimmy Woo, Dr. Darcy Lewis and Captain Monica Rambeau, take a step closer to understanding the Westview anomaly.

Meanwhile, Vision, which is still part of the simulation but is now set in the 80s, is getting more and more suspicious of the world around him. The neighbors have started acting strangely, his twin sons are aging at their own will, and his wife Wanda trying to resolve his concerns only makes them grow.

Just as the newly minted husband and the newly minted wife are prepared for an overpowering argument, the doorbell rings. Wanda, confused by this phrase, answers. Pietro Maximoff is at the front, just not this Pietro Maximoff.

Elizabeth Olsen plays Wanda Maximoff in “WandaVision” on Disney + with special guest Evan Peters as Pietro Maximoff.

Disney

It’s Peter Evans, not Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who appears on the other side of the door. The actor portrayed the mutant Mercury in several X-Men films that were owned by 20th Century Fox until 2019.

It is implied that Wanda did not plan on including her brother in her sitcom simulation. After all, just a few scenes earlier, Wanda refuses to bring her sons’ deceased puppy back from the dead.

“You can fix anything, mom, fix dead,” notes a son. After the demise, even the nosy neighbor asked Agnes, who is believed to be pulling at least some of the strings in Wanda’s simulation, if she could actually do that.

“I’m trying to tell you that there are rules in life,” Wanda explains to her two boys. “We can’t just accelerate aging because it’s convenient and we can’t undo death no matter how sad it makes us. Some things are forever.”

This statement raises two questions: is Vision dead or did Wanda (or someone else) bring him back? And did Wanda accidentally bring back another Pietro or did someone else?

Both of these will likely be answered in a few weeks before the credits roll in for the final episode.

Audiences got a glimpse of what had happened prior to the Westview anomaly at the beginning of the episode when Wanda appeared on surveillance cameras and stole Vision’s body from a secret laboratory. And there are likely still many Easter eggs to be discovered that provide further clues.

Welcome to the multiverse

What about this new Pietro?

Before Disney acquired Fox’s $ 71 billion in entertainment brands, the two studios signed an agreement. Disney could use Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, but not point out that they were mutants or children of Magneto. That’s why Wanda and Pietro in “Avengers: Age of Ultron” derived their powers from an infinite stone and not genetically.

Interested viewers might have noticed in the Friday episode that Tyler Hayward, the director of SWORD, asked if Wanda had a nickname like some of the other Avengers that she didn’t. Wanda wasn’t named Scarlet Witch in any of the MCU films.

As for Fox, the studio was allowed to use Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in their films as long as there was no evidence of the Avengers. In fact, Peters’ mercury goes from Peter and not Pietro.

Elizabeth Olsen plays Wanda Maximoff in “WandaVision” on Disney + alongside Paul Bettany as Vision.

Disney

Rumors have been circulating in the past few months as Marvel executives hired some familiar faces to return in future MCU films.

Disney has already confirmed that Jamie Foxx will return as Electro from “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” with Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man. And Alfred Molina, who portrayed Doctor Octopus as the famous web slinger during Tobey McGuire’s play, is also confirmed to appear in the film.

Dr. Strange by Benedict Cumberbatch will also appear.

There has been speculation that other characters from the MCU or even from previous iterations of Spider-Man will join the cast, but Disney has not confirmed those rumors.

The return of Pietro in the form of Peters signals that Marvel is already well on its way to explore the multiverse. This was teased during San Diego Comic-Con in 2019 when Marvel announced that the sequel to Doctor Strange would be titled “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”

For the stranger, the Marvel Multiverse is just a fancy way of saying a collection of alternate universes. They are similar to each other, but with slight differences. It’s a very popular concept in comics as it allows writers to reinvent characters and storylines for new generations.

With Wanda already confirmed as part of the Doctor Strange sequel and Doctor Strange as part of “Spider-Man 3”, it’s no surprise that Marvel is throwing breadcrumbs over it early on. After all, the seeds of the infinity stones appear in “Thor” and “Captain America: The First Avenger” long before they are called such.

Marvel used the gems of mind, power, reality, soul, space and time over the course of a decade to weave new characters and situations that ultimately led to “Avengers: Infinity War” and the highest-grossing movie of all time. ” Avengers: Endgame. ”

The introduction of the multiverse in “WandaVision” works on several levels for Disney. Not only are they paving a path for future MCU movies and shows, the company is also making its streaming content a must-see television program. Fans need to watch these shows if they don’t want to miss any storylines or character introductions that are incorporated into feature films.

WandaVision may have been the first Marvel project since Spider-Man: Far From Home in July 2019, but it won’t be the last in 2021. Disney + will soon be followed by “The Falcon and” The Winter Soldier “in March,” Loki “in May and the animated series” What if …? ” in summer.

Marvel will debut “Black Widow” on May 7th, “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” on July 9th, “Eternals” on November 5th and “Spider-Man 3” on November 5th. December.