The children’s clothing section at Uniqlo in China has gained an unexpected new clientele: adult women.
In the latest viral challenge to sweep Chinese social media, women pose for dressing-room selfies in children’s T-shirts from the Japanese fashion giant. The trend has ignited a heated debate about whether it promotes body shaming, with experts raising concerns that it reinforces the country’s unhealthy standards of beauty.
“This is a dangerous trend, not just in terms of a drive for thinness and the pressure this puts on women and girls, but also in terms of the overt sexualization of women,” said Tina Rochelle, an associate professor in social and behavioral sciences at the City University of Hong Kong who researches the influence of gender and culture on health. She said that the small clothes are likely to be tighter and more form fitting on a woman’s body.
On Weibo, a microblogging platform, where the hashtag “Adult tries on Uniqlo children’s clothing” has been viewed 680 million times, criticism is split between those who object to the unrealistic beauty standards the challenge promotes and those who express the more practical concern that women are stretching out the clothes and rendering them unsaleable.
One user called it “another way of showing off the ‘white, young, thin’ aesthetic,” referring to a phrase commonly used to describe the country’s dominant beauty standard. The person added: “It emphasizes unhealthy body shaming and should be firmly resisted.”
Another commentator wrote: “Although I am envious of those women’s figures, they should buy the clothes after trying them! The clothes are all stretched out, how can children wear them!”
Uniqlo did not respond to emails on Thursday seeking comment.
The challenge has been labeled the latest iteration of “BM style,” a type of fashion recently popularized by the cult Italian brand Brandy Melville, which is youthful, casual and, above all, thin (its stores carry only one size: extra small).
Since the brand opened its first Chinese store in Shanghai in 2019, it has become an aspirational symbol for young women desperate to squeeze into its clothes. An unofficial sizing chart circulated on Weibo showed how much women at various heights would need to weigh to fit — a 5-foot-3 woman would need to weigh 95 pounds.
Brandy Melville did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Jia Tan, an assistant professor in cultural studies from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said that the apparel industry is a prominent driver of what is considered “standard” sizing. The same sizes are usually smaller in Asia than they are in the West, she said, and “standard” sizes exclude a significant part of the population.
“I think we need to first question the tremendous social pressure on women, and why the apparel industries can have so much power in standardizing how we look, before we point our fingers on those adult women who show off in children’s sizes,” Professor Tan said in an email.
Similar online challenges have gone viral on Chinese social media before. In 2016, women — and some men — posed with their waists behind a vertical sheet of A4 paper to show they were “paper thin.”
That challenge was so popular that celebrities took part and Chinese state media covered it, prompting one feminist campaigner, Zheng Churan, to write in a riposte, “I love my fat waist” on a piece of paper held horizontally over her waist.
In 2015, for the “belly button challenge,” people reached one arm behind their back and around their waist to touch their bellybutton — ostensibly to brag about how thin they were.
There seems to be some growing awareness of body positivity in China. A few months ago, a store faced a backlash for labeling larger women’s clothing sizes as “rotten,” prompting it to apologize.
But Dr. Rochelle, the City University of Hong Kong professor, noted that while there was an increasing willingness among women to call out body shaming and share their experiences of it online, there were little indicators that society at large was changing.
“It doesn’t seem to have hit home over here that fat-shaming and publicly discussing a woman’s weight can have a major impact on a person’s well-being,” she said.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Cafes across several Gulf Arab states started selling coffee and other cold drinks in baby bottles this month, kicking off a new trend that has elicited excitement, confusion — and backlash.
The fad began at Einstein Cafe, a slick dessert chain with branches across the region, from Dubai to Kuwait to Bahrain. Instead of ordinary paper cups, the cafe, inspired by pictures of trendy-looking bottles shared on social media, decided to serve its thick milky drinks in plastic baby bottles.
Although the franchise was no newcomer to baby-themed products — a milkshake with cerelac, the rice cereal for infants, is a long-standing bestseller — the unprecedented fervor over the feeding bottles came as a bit of a shock. All the stress and anxiety over the coronavirus pandemic appears to have spurred some to find an outlet in the strange new craze.
“Everyone wanted to buy it, people called all day, telling us they’re coming with their friends, they’re coming with their father and mother,” Younes Molla, CEO of the Einstein franchise in the United Arab Emirates, told The Associated Press this week. “After so many months with the pandemic, with all the difficulties, people took photos, they had fun, they remembered their childhood.”
Lines clogged Einstein stores across the Gulf. People of all ages streamed onto sidewalks, waiting for their chance to suck coffee and juice from a plastic bottle. Some patrons even brought their own baby bottles to other cafes, pleading with bewildered baristas to fill them up.
Pictures of baby bottles filled with colorful kaleidoscopes of drinks drew thousands of likes on Instagram and ricocheted across the popular social media app TikTok. A cure for the world’s uncertainty? A response to some primal instinct? Either way, a trend was born.
Soon, however, online haters took note — the baby bottle drinkers and providers faced a barrage of nasty comments.
“People were so angry, they said horrible things, that we were an ‘aeb,’ to Islam and the Muslim culture,” said Molla, using the Arabic term for shame or dishonor.
Last week, the anger reached the highest levels of government. Dubai authorities cracked down. Inspection teams burst into cafes where the trend had taken off and handed out fines.
“Such indiscriminate use of baby bottles is not only against local culture and traditions,” read the government statement, “but the mishandling of the bottle during the filling could also contribute to the spread of COVID-19,” an apparent reference to those bringing their used bottles to other cafes.
Authorities, the statement added, had been “alerted to the negative practice and its risks by social media users.”
Backlash also came from Kuwait, where the government temporarily shut down Einstein Cafe, and from Bahrain, where the Ministry of Commerce sent police armed with live cameras into cafes and warned all dining establishments that serving drinks in feeding bottles “violates Bahraini customs and traditions.”
Oman urged citizens to report baby bottle sightings to the Consumer Protection Authority hotline. Saudi Twitter users and media personalities condemned the trend in the harshest terms, with popular news website Mujaz al-Akhbar lamenting that the kingdom’s “daughters have suffered from a loss of modesty and religion.”
It’s not the first time that the guardians of local customs in Gulf Arab countries have focused their ire on social media phenomena. Vague laws across the region lend authorities broad power to stamp out public immorality and indecency. Emirati officers last spring, for instance, arrested a young expat for posting a video on TikTok in which he sneezed into a banknote, accusing him of “harming” the UAE’s reputation and its institutions.
The cover image cartoon came days after Meghan and her husband Harry made a series of damning accusations against the royal family in an interview with Oprah Winfrey — including that the skin tone of the couple’s child, Archie, was discussed as a potential issue before he was born.
The couple would not reveal who had made the remarks, but said it wasn’t Queen Elizabeth II or her husband, Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. In the interview, Meghan also described having regular suicidal thoughts during her pregnancy and brief time as a working royal, and the couple said the palace had offered Meghan and Archie inadequate security and protection.
The cartoon, published Saturday, is titled “WHY MEGHAN QUIT BUCKINGHAM,” with Meghan drawn to say: “Because I couldn’t breathe anymore!”
Halima Begum, CEO of race equality think tank the Runnymede Trust, said the cartoon was “wrong on every level.”
“The Queen as GeorgeFloyd’s murderer crushing Meghan’s neck? Meghan saying she’s unable to breathe? This doesn’t push boundaries, make anyone laugh or challenge racism. It demeans the issues & causes offence, across the board,” she said on Twitter.
Meghan and Harry’s interview prompted widespread discussions about racism both in the royal family, and in the country’s media.
Prince William this week denied the royal family is racist, telling a reporter: “We’re very much not a racist family.”
In a statement on behalf of the Queen, Buckingham Palace said Tuesday that allegations of racism made by the Sussexes were concerning and being “taken very seriously.”
Buckingham Palace and representatives for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex declined to comment on the Charlie Hebdo cartoon.
The Paris-based weekly publication, which was founded in 1970, is famous for its provocative cartoons and takedowns of politicians, public figures and religious symbols.
In 2015, brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi burst into the magazine’s newsroom and gunned down staffers, killing 12 and wounding 11 after the magazine published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
The attack on the magazine was part of a series of deadly attacks that killed 17 people in the French capital over three days in January 2015.
Buckingham Palace is facing mounting pressure to release a statement after Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey.
During the televised tell-all, which aired on Sunday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex detailed how they were allegedly mistreated by Britain’s royal household, as well as “The Firm,” referring to senior members of the family.
The palace often tries to stay above controversy by remaining silent and riding out the storm – “never complain, never explain.” However, royal biographer Angela Levin said the couple’s charges are so damaging to the royal family that it will have to respond publicly.
However, their official statement is likely being delayed by Queen Elizabeth II’s struggle to balance her sometimes-conflicting roles as monarch and beloved grandmother to Harry, 36. But, Levin said there’s little doubt that ultimately, the 94-year-old will make her decision on what’s best for the 1,000-year-old institution she has led since 1952.
BRITISH TABLOIDS HAMMER FIERY FALLOUT AS MEGHAN, HARRY SEND ROYAL FAMILY INTO CRISIS MODE
Queen Elizabeth II (left) has not released a statement since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex (right) gave their bombshell interview to Oprah Winfrey. (Getty)
“The queen has a motto: Never complain, never explain,” Levin told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “And she’s stuck with this for four decades. But I think in this climate and 2021, everything goes everywhere. There’s so much social media that in this instance, she really can’t not say anything.”
Levin, a veteran journalist on royal affairs, published a book in 2018 titled “Harry: A Biography of a Prince,” which was based on her exclusive conversations with Harry at Kensington Palace before his May 2018 marriage to the former American actress, 39.
On Tuesday, the U.K. Times reported that a palace statement had been delayed because Elizabeth wanted more time. The newspaper didn’t cite a source for the information.
The interview, which also aired on Monday in Britain, has rocked the royal family and divided people around the world.
PIERS MORGAN WALKS OFF ‘GOOD MORNING BRITAIN’ SET AFTER TENSE DISCUSSION ON ROYALS
Oprah Winfrey (right) has defended the Duchess of Sussex, saying the mom-to-be has been “portrayed unfairly.” (Getty / AP)
While many say the allegations demonstrate the need for change inside a palace that hasn’t kept pace with the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, others have criticized Harry and Markle for dropping their bombshell while the duke’s 99-year-old grandfather, Prince Philip, remains hospitalized in London after a heart procedure.
During the two-hour interview, Markle described feeling so isolated and miserable inside the royal family that she had had suicidal thoughts, yet when she asked for mental health help from the palace’s human resources staff she was told she was not an employee.
Markle also said a member of the family had expressed “concerns” to Harry about the color of her unborn child’s skin.
Winfrey, 67, later said Harry told her off-camera that the family member was Elizabeth or Philip, sparking a flurry of speculation about who it could be.
MEGHAN MARKLE, PRINCE HARRY INTERVIEW ‘UPSETTING’ TO KATE MIDDLETON, PRINCE WILLIAM ‘DEVASTATED’: ROYAL EXPERT
Prince Harry said his grandparents Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip (pictured here) weren’t the ones who questioned him about Archie’s skin tone. (Chris Jackson/Pool via AP)
Harry also revealed the stresses the couple endured had ruptured relations with his father, Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, and his brother, Prince William, illuminating the depth of the family divisions that led the couple to step away from royal duties and move to California last year.
William, 38, is second in line to the throne.
So far there has been silence from the palace about the interview.
“I think that one of the major worries is you don’t want to throw oil on the flames to make it even worse,” Levin warned.
An estimated 17.1 million watched the explosive interview.
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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry currently reside in California with their son Archie. (Getty)
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex married at Windsor Castle in May 2018. Their son, Archie, was born a year later. During the interview, the couple shared they are expecting a girl due this summer.
Markle said she and Harry were aligned during their courtship because of their “cause-driven” work. But she did not fully comprehend the pressure of being linked to the prestigious royal family.
“It’s easy to have an image of it that is so far from reality,” she admitted. “And that’s what was really tricky over those past few years, is when the perception and the reality are two very different things. And you’re being judged on the perception, but you’re living the reality of it. There’s a complete misalignment and there’s no way to explain that to people.”
The couple’s departure from royal duties began in March 2020 over what they described as the intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media toward the duchess.
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Footage of a brutal crackdown on protests against a coup in Myanmar unleashed outrage and calls for a stronger international response Thursday, a day after 38 people were killed. Videos showed security forces shooting a person at point-blank range and chasing down and savagely beating demonstrators.
Despite the shocking violence the day before, protesters returned to the streets Thursday to denounce the military’s Feb. 1 takeover — and were met again with tear gas.
The international response to the coup has so far been fitful, but a flood of videos shared online showing security forces brutally targeting protesters and other civilians led to calls for more action. The United States called the images appalling, the U.N. human rights chief said it was time to “end the military’s stranglehold over democracy in Myanmar,” and the world body’s independent expert on human rights in the country urged the Security Council to watch the videos before meeting Friday to discuss the crisis.
The coup reversed years of slow progress toward democracy in Myanmar, which for five decades had languished under strict military rule that led to international isolation and sanctions. As the generals loosened their grip in recent years, the international community lifted most sanctions and poured in investment.
U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, described Wednesday as “the bloodiest day” since the takeover, when the military ousted the elected government of leader Aung San Suu Kyi. More than 50 civilians, mostly peaceful protesters, are confirmed to have been killed by police and soldiers since then, including the 38 she said died Wednesday.
”I saw today very disturbing video clips,” said Schraner Burgener, speaking to reporters at the U.N. in New York via video link from Switzerland. “One was police beating a volunteer medical crew. They were not armed. Another video clip showed a protester was taken away by police and they shot him from very near, maybe only one meter. He didn’t resist to his arrest, and it seems that he died on the street.”
She appeared to be referring to a video shared on social media that begins with a group of security forces following a civilian, who they seem to have just pulled out of a building. A shot rings out, and the person falls. After the person briefly raises their head, two of the troops drag the person down the street by the arms.
In other footage, about two dozen security forces, some with their firearms drawn, chase two people wearing the construction helmets donned by many protesters down a street. When they catch up to the people, they repeatedly beat them with rods and kick them. One of the officers is filming the scene on his cell phone.
In yet another video, several police officers repeatedly kick and hit a person with rods, while the person cowers on the ground, hands over their head. Officers move in and out of the frame, getting a few kicks in and then casually walking away.
While some countries have imposed or threatened to impose sanctions following the coup, others, including those neighboring Myanmar, have been more hesitant in their response. The sheer volume of violent images shared Wednesday, along with the high death toll, raised hopes that the dynamic could change.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Thursday urged all of those with “information and influence” to hold military leaders to account.
“This is the moment to turn the tables towards justice and end the military’s stranglehold over democracy in Myanmar,” she said.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said the U.S. was “appalled” at the “horrific violence,” and the U.N.’s independent expert on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said the “systematic brutality of the military junta is once again on horrific display.”
“I urge members of the UN Security Council to view the photos/videos of the shocking violence being unleashed on peaceful protesters before meeting,” he said on Twitter.
The Security Council has scheduled closed-door consultations for Friday on calls to reverse the coup — including from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres — and stop the escalating crackdown.
But Justine Chambers, the associate director of the Myanmar Research Center at the Australian National University, said that while the graphic images would no doubt lead to strong condemnations — action on Myanmar would be harder.
“Unfortunately I don’t think the brutality caught on camera is going to change much,” she said. “I think domestic audiences around the world don’t have much of an appetite for stronger action, i.e. intervention, given the current state of the pandemic and associated economic issues.”
Any kind of coordinated action at the U.N. will be difficult since two permanent members of the Security Council, China and Russia, would almost certainly veto it.
Even if the council did take action, U.N. envoy Schraner Burgener cautioned it might not make much of a difference. She said she warned Myanmar’s army that the world’s nations and the Security Council “might take huge strong measures.”
“And the answer was, ‘We are used to sanctions and we survived those sanctions in the past,’” she said. When she also warned that Myanmar would become isolated, Schraner Burgener said, “the answer was, ‘We have to learn to walk with only a few friends.’”
Wednesday’s highest death toll was in Yangon, the country’s biggest city, where an estimated 18 people died. Video at a hospital in the city showed grieving relatives collecting the blood-soaked bodies of family members. Some relatives sobbed uncontrollably, while others looked in shock at the scene around them.
Protesters gathered again Thursday in Yangon. Police again used tear gas to try to disperse the crowds, while demonstrators again set up barriers across major roads.
Protests also continued in Mandalay, where three people were reported killed Wednesday. A formation of five fighter planes flew over the city on Thursday morning in what appeared to be a show of force.
Protesters in the city flashed the three-fingered salute that is a symbol of defiance as they rode their motorbikes to follow a funeral procession for Kyal Sin, also known by her Chinese name Deng Jia Xi, a university student who was shot dead as she attended a demonstration the day before.
As part of the crackdown, security forces have also arrested well over a thousand people, including journalists, according to the independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. On Saturday, at least eight journalists, including Thein Zaw of The Associated Press, were detained. He and several other members of the media have been charged with violating a public safety law that could see them imprisoned for up to three years.
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Footage of a brutal crackdown on protests against a coup in Myanmar unleashed outrage and calls for a stronger international response Thursday, a day after 38 people were killed. Videos showed security forces shooting a person at point-blank range and chasing down and savagely beating demonstrators.
Despite the shocking violence the day before, protesters returned to the streets Thursday to denounce the military’s Feb. 1 takeover — and were met again with tear gas.
The international response to the coup has so far been fitful, but a flood of videos shared online showing security forces brutally targeting protesters and other civilians led to calls for more action. The United States called the images appalling, the U.N. human rights chief said it was time to “end the military’s stranglehold over democracy in Myanmar,” and the world body’s independent expert on human rights in the country urged the Security Council to watch the videos before meeting Friday to discuss the crisis.
The coup reversed years of slow progress toward democracy in Myanmar, which for five decades had languished under strict military rule that led to international isolation and sanctions. As the generals loosened their grip in recent years, the international community lifted most sanctions and poured in investment.
U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, described Wednesday as “the bloodiest day” since the takeover, when the military ousted the elected government of leader Aung San Suu Kyi. More than 50 civilians, mostly peaceful protesters, are confirmed to have been killed by police and soldiers since then, including the 38 she said died Wednesday.
”I saw today very disturbing video clips,” said Schraner Burgener, speaking to reporters at the U.N. in New York via video link from Switzerland. “One was police beating a volunteer medical crew. They were not armed. Another video clip showed a protester was taken away by police and they shot him from very near, maybe only one meter. He didn’t resist to his arrest, and it seems that he died on the street.”
She appeared to be referring to a video shared on social media that begins with a group of security forces following a civilian, who they seem to have just pulled out of a building. A shot rings out, and the person falls. After the person briefly raises their head, two of the troops drag the person down the street by the arms.
In other footage, about two dozen security forces, some with their firearms drawn, chase two people wearing the construction helmets donned by many protesters down a street. When they catch up to the people, they repeatedly beat them with rods and kick them. One of the officers is filming the scene on his cell phone.
In yet another video, several police officers repeatedly kick and hit a person with rods, while the person cowers on the ground, hands over their head. Officers move in and out of the frame, getting a few kicks in and then casually walking away.
While some countries have imposed or threatened to impose sanctions following the coup, others, including those neighboring Myanmar, have been more hesitant in their response. The sheer volume of violent images shared Wednesday, along with the high death toll, raised hopes that the dynamic could change.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Thursday urged all of those with “information and influence” to hold military leaders to account.
“This is the moment to turn the tables towards justice and end the military’s stranglehold over democracy in Myanmar,” she said.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said the U.S. was “appalled” at the “horrific violence,” and the U.N.’s independent expert on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said the “systematic brutality of the military junta is once again on horrific display.”
“I urge members of the UN Security Council to view the photos/videos of the shocking violence being unleashed on peaceful protesters before meeting,” he said on Twitter.
The Security Council has scheduled closed-door consultations for Friday on calls to reverse the coup — including from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres — and stop the escalating crackdown.
But Justine Chambers, the associate director of the Myanmar Research Center at the Australian National University, said that while the graphic images would no doubt lead to strong condemnations — action on Myanmar would be harder.
“Unfortunately I don’t think the brutality caught on camera is going to change much,” she said. “I think domestic audiences around the world don’t have much of an appetite for stronger action, i.e. intervention, given the current state of the pandemic and associated economic issues.”
Any kind of coordinated action at the U.N. will be difficult since two permanent members of the Security Council, China and Russia, would almost certainly veto it.
Even if the council did take action, U.N. envoy Schraner Burgener cautioned it might not make much of a difference. She said she warned Myanmar’s army that the world’s nations and the Security Council “might take huge strong measures.”
“And the answer was, ‘We are used to sanctions and we survived those sanctions in the past,’” she said. When she also warned that Myanmar would become isolated, Schraner Burgener said, “the answer was, ‘We have to learn to walk with only a few friends.’”
Wednesday’s highest death toll was in Yangon, the country’s biggest city, where an estimated 18 people died. Video at a hospital in the city showed grieving relatives collecting the blood-soaked bodies of family members. Some relatives sobbed uncontrollably, while others looked in shock at the scene around them.
Protesters gathered again Thursday in Yangon. Police again used tear gas to try to disperse the crowds, while demonstrators again set up barriers across major roads.
Protests also continued in Mandalay, where three people were reported killed Wednesday. A formation of five fighter planes flew over the city on Thursday morning in what appeared to be a show of force.
Protesters in the city flashed the three-fingered salute that is a symbol of defiance as they rode their motorbikes to follow a funeral procession for Kyal Sin, also known by her Chinese name Deng Jia Xi, a university student who was shot dead as she attended a demonstration the day before.
As part of the crackdown, security forces have also arrested well over a thousand people, including journalists, according to the independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. On Saturday, at least eight journalists, including Thein Zaw of The Associated Press, were detained. He and several other members of the media have been charged with violating a public safety law that could see them imprisoned for up to three years.
Like something out of a Mad Max movie, a new study shows that dust storms on Mars might glow with tiny sparks.A new abstract published by a group of scientists that simulated the low-pressure atmosphere of Mars reveals that the electrical discharge, or static shock, we’re familiar with here on Earth might happen on Mars, as reported by Inside Science. Furthermore, it might happen within the massive dust storms that occur on the Red Planet, which means the dust clouds roaming the planet’s hills and craters could glow with tiny sparks of electricity.Static shock is scientifically known as a phenomenon called triboelectrification, which is essentially a buildup of electricity between two surfaces touching each other. It’s what happens when you drag your feet across a carpet and then touch a metal doorknob or your friend’s arm. Before this abstract, there wasn’t evidence that triboelectrication occurred on Mars.
Have you seen Mad Max: Fury Road?
The team of scientists behind the abstract recreated Mars’ atmosphere by stirring up small pieces of volcanic basalt, which are similar to the type of rocks detected on Mars, inside low-pressure containers, according to Inside Science. They then used jets of carbon dioxide gas to stir up the particles inside the containers in such a way that kept the dust inside away from the container’s walls. On Mars, those walls don’t exist so if the sparks appear as a result of the collision between that dust and the walls, it wouldn’t count as a direct simulation of what occurs on Mars.
To the surprise of the team, sparks began to fly and scientist Méndez Harper believes this implies that dust storms on Mars “[crackle] with electricity.” Harper states in the abstract that because of Mars’ lower pressure compared to Earth, sparks discharge easier on the Red Planet, which means the long streaks of lightning we’re used to likely don’t occur there. Instead, that electrical discharge translates into dust storms that flash with tiny sparks that cause the dust clouds to glow purple.
An artist rendition of Perseverance on Mars, Image Credit: NASA
Harper says this phenomenon is called a “corona glow” and that NASA might get a glimpse of that courtesy of its Perseverance rover that landed on Mars last week.
“You could imagine that as [the small helicopter that flew Perseverance to Mars called Ingenuity] takes off, it might churn up a bunch of dust,” Harper said. “I look forward to watching that.”
For more news on Mars, read about how researchers are trying to turn the Red Planet green and check out this story about how researchers may have new ideas about the formation of Mars.
Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.
As she made her way off the court on Thursday at Rod Laver Arena, Serena Williams stopped for a moment as the recently returned crowd stood and showered her with applause. She raised her left arm to wave before moving her hand over her heart, as if to let them know the feeling was mutual. She paused for a moment, soaked in the ovation like the Melbourne late-summer sunshine and waved again before disappearing into the tunnel.
Her run at the 2021 Australian Open was over, ended in straight sets in the semifinals by her heir apparent, Naomi Osaka. And then, the questions started … on television, social media and maybe even from your own couch: Was the match all that was over?
Less than an hour later, while sitting in front of dozens of members of the media in person and others around the world on computers, Williams was asked if the on-court moment was a goodbye, of sorts.
“I don’t know,” she said in her news conference. “If I ever say farewell, I wouldn’t tell anyone.”
She smiled, but it faded quickly. As the next reporter started to ask an innocuous question around the uncharacteristic amount of unforced errors Williams had in the match, she tried to fight back tears by drinking water, looking down or shielding her eyes with her visor. Her voice cracked when she started to answer.
“I don’t know,” she said, before abruptly standing up and stating, “I’m done.”
Williams was gone again, leaving behind more questions than answers.
While Williams herself has given no concrete indication of an impending retirement, the 39-year-old’s time in the sport is inevitably nearing some kind of end. And whether this truly was the last time we see Williams at the Australian Open or if she plays for several more years, the sport is better because of her, as evidenced in part by Osaka herself.
It seemed liked everything was coming together for Williams this fortnight. She had been playing arguably her best tennis since returning from maternity leave in 2018 and was heading into the tournament injury-free, having recovered from a lingering Achilles tendon injury, which had forced her to withdraw at the pandemic-delayed French Open in September.
Williams held off the powerful Aryna Sabalenka in three sets in the fourth round in Melbourne. She had dismantled World No. 2 Simona Halep, who had defeated Williams in the 2019 Wimbledon final, in the quarterfinals.
Having won seven titles in Melbourne — including her most recent in 2017 while pregnant with her daughter, Olympia — the city and tournament hold a special place in Williams’ heart, and it seemed like the perfect place to make history. The winner of 23 major titles, she has been one away from tying Margaret Court’s long-standing record since that 2018 return and has come oh-so-close — reaching four Grand Slam finals and two semifinals during that span.
For this latest opportunity, Williams had to again get past Osaka. The 23-year-old had won their previous major meeting in their famous 2018 US Open final, and it was serendipitous for Williams to have another chance against Osaka with so much on the line. In a battle of the Greatest of All Time against the Greatest of Right Now, Williams wanted to prove she was still both.
But Osaka out Serena-ed Serena, simply better in all the ways Williams has for so long dominated tennis. Osaka had six aces (to Williams’ three) and an 85% first-serve win rate, won all four of her break points and recorded 20 blistering winners. After a nerve-filled opening two games, where she struggled with her ball toss, Osaka never again opened the door for Williams.
Osaka advanced to her fourth major final, where she will take on American Jennifer Brady and look to improve to a perfect 4-0 when playing on the biggest stage. Since her first win at the 2018 US Open, Osaka — representing Japan but raised and based in the United States — has risen up the ranks and become one of the most visible athletes in the world. Like so many, she has her American counterpart Williams to thank for that.
Osaka’s father now somewhat famously started her and her sister in tennis due to the success of Williams and her sister Venus. He followed the blueprint set by Richard Williams and put rackets into the hands of his two young daughters.
“My young aspirations owe so much to Serena and Venus,” Osaka wrote in a column for The Telegraph last month. “Without those trailblazers, there would be no Naomi, no Coco [Gauff], no Sloane [Stephens], no Madison [Keys]. Everything we did was inspired by them, and my sister and I would dream about one day playing them in a Grand Slam final.”
The Williams sisters’ success motivated many to play a sport they might not have otherwise considered. At the 2020 US Open, there were a record 12 Black women, nearly 10% of the field, in the singles draw. Teenager Robin Montgomery was among the group, and she didn’t hesitate in discussing the influence the sisters’ had on her life when talking to ESPN before the tournament.
“Of course, Serena and Venus have been my role models since I was young,” she said. “My goal is to have the chance to inspire the younger generations the way Serena and Venus were able to inspire my generation and so many other generations.”
Throughout her storied career, Serena Williams has been so much more than “just” a tennis player. She is a single-named pop culture icon, celebrated businesswoman, frequent magazine cover story star and powerful advocate for racial and gender equality. Osaka has followed the path Williams paved, while finding her own voice and identity.
Williams’ legacy is about far more than trophies and records and aces, although those have been impressive. It should hardly be surprising when we watch Osaka discuss gender equality during a postmatch news conference, as she did Thursday; she isn’t afraid to take a stand, because she has seen it been done countless times before.
Osaka will look to add to her trophy case on Saturday as she vies for her fourth career Grand Slam title. Williams will have to wait for her next chance to win another, if she plans on continuing to play. Williams took to Instagram later on Thursday, posting a picture of herself wearing one of her signature Nike T-shirts and standing with her arms outstretched alongside a note to the Australian fans.
“I am so honored to be able to play in front of you all,” part of her post said. “Your support — your cheers, I only wish I could have done better for you today. I am forever in debt and grateful to each and every single one of you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I adore you.”
Many will undoubtedly speculate about the post and Thursday’s events, but it will be up to Williams alone to decide when the time has come to walk away. She more than deserves that. But when asked about the eventual end of Williams’ legendary career, Osaka seemed to speak for all of Williams’ fans.
“It’s kind of sad when you say it like that because, for me, I want her to play forever,” she said. “That’s the little kid in me.”
As a shortage of Covid-19 shots slows vaccination efforts in the West, groups that haven’t been given high priority are increasingly jostling for the right to get immunized first.
In most countries that are currently deploying vaccines, those most at risk of dying or getting seriously ill from the virus—nursing home residents and those caring for them, medical workers and the elderly—have been at the front of the queue.
For months, few questioned the wisdom of a strategy focused on reducing the number of deaths rather than slowing the spread of the virus. But as the weeks roll on, infections remain high and fears grow about the new variants of the virus, groups ranging from essential workers to teachers and people with chronic diseases are growing louder in demanding to be next.
In the U.S., where the vaccination effort started early and has moved relatively fast, many states are moving to immunize those 65 and older as well as people with certain health conditions. Following pressure from interest groups, a few have now started inoculating teachers or farmworkers.
In Europe, where vaccination is progressing painfully slowly because of a mixture of bureaucracy and vaccine-manufacturing hiccups, calls for less vulnerable groups to be given fast-track access are gathering force.
The emerging fight for what is likely to remain a scarce resource for months is the latest challenge for governments that are increasingly under pressure to bring back a degree of normalcy after a year of recurring lockdowns and assorted restrictions.
It is also politically explosive because it raises hard moral questions, including whether elderly people, some bedridden and others well over 100 years old, should have priority over younger cancer patients; or whether groups who no longer play a big role in the economy should take precedence over teachers, police officers, retail workers, bus drivers and others who are statistically less likely to die but will on occasion contract severe cases of Covid-19.
Giving priority to the most vulnerable helps protect the public-health system, but it also means some people who are highly exposed because of their jobs will have to wait, all at a cost to education or the economy, said Alberto Giubilini, a senior researcher on ethical vaccines distribution at the University of Oxford.
“The concept of prioritization means that we have to sacrifice certain values,” he said. “It’s very hard to strike a balance.”
In France, where schools have remained open throughout most of the pandemic and where daily cases have risen steadily since early December, teachers are lobbying the government to be considered a priority for vaccination.
“More and more teachers are scared to go to work,” said Guislaine David, co-secretary general of the SNUipp-FSU teachers union, pointing to data from the education ministry that shows an increase in school shutdowns due to Covid-19 outbreaks since early January. “If we want to keep schools open, getting teachers vaccinated is essential.”
France’s education minister recently said the country would start vaccinating teachers in March. But France’s vaccine rollout has been among the slowest in Europe, raising doubts as to whether any teacher could gain access to shots in the spring, Ms. David said. Unions especially want preschool teachers to get vaccinated urgently as children under the age of 6 don’t wear masks in school in France.
Protesters gathered in Marseille, France, on Jan. 26 to demand more government support for teachers during the pandemic.
Photo:
Daniel Cole/Associated Press
In Italy, teachers unions have also pleaded with the government to vaccinate teachers before other categories, possibly immediately after the elderly and medical personnel, to help reopen schools that have stayed shut longer than in most other European countries.
In the U.K., where vaccinations are progressing much faster than in the European Union, government officials have been looking at whether front-line workers, including teachers and police officers, should be bumped up the priority list. One petition from a teacher in the north of England obtained nearly half a million signatures and triggered a parliamentary debate.
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The government currently says it wants to vaccinate everyone over the age of 50 before considering front-line workers such as teachers. Given the pace of the rollout, this may not happen until the spring.
British Prime Minister
Boris Johnson
said last week that taking away vaccinations from vulnerable groups could result in additional deaths. Mr. Johnson is due to lay out a road map for future vaccination plans and the gradual removal of lockdown measures in the week of Feb. 22.
New research could help explain why thousands of Covid-19 survivors are facing debilitating neurological symptoms months after initially getting sick. WSJ breaks down the science behind how the coronavirus affects the brain, and what this could mean for long-haul patients. Illustration: Nick Collingwood/WSJ
While people with vulnerabilities in principle take high priority for vaccinations in most countries, some complain they have been overlooked.
In Germany, people with disabilities, some with chronic rare illnesses and cancer patients are lobbying—even suing—authorities to obtain priority treatment.
Christian Homburg is campaigning for people with serious conditions to be moved up the priority list for vaccination.
Photo:
Christian Homburg
“Reducing deaths is the main goal of our current vaccination strategy yet somehow people like me were forgotten,” said Christian Homburg, 24, who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a severe form of muscle loss that means he currently only has some 20% of his lung capacity.
Mr. Homburg said doctors warned him that catching Covid-19 would likely kill him. But because he is young and doesn’t live in a care facility, where vaccinations are already happening, and because his condition isn’t explicitly mentioned in Germany’s vaccine regulation, Mr. Homburg isn’t entitled for priority treatment.
He has now launched a petition to change that. Advocacy groups defending people with disabilities or diseases made similar appeals, while some patients succeeded in obtaining prioritization by going to court.
Faced with pressure, the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases’ standing vaccination committee, which advises the government, last month updated its advice, recommending a case-by-case assessment of people whose disease might put them at a high risk of dying from Covid-19 even in the absence of statistics proving it.
Rainer Schell managed to obtain an exception for his son, who also has Duchenne, can’t breathe without a ventilator and needs 16 caregivers to look after him. But it took him nearly four weeks, the help of a lawyer and hours of pleading with different authorities to get the vaccination appointment.
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The problem, said André Karch, an epidemiologist at the University of Münster, is that because there is little evidence on the level of risk for many rare diseases, such case-by-case decisions will be difficult to make.
Prioritization strategies will change over time as new studies appear on risks for certain populations and new vaccines get approved, health officials say. In Germany, some people in lower-priority groups could get vaccinated faster now after the government decided not to clear
AstraZeneca
PLC’s Covid-19 vaccine for use in people over 65, potentially freeing up supplies for younger adults.
But virologists and epidemiologists say that until there is more hard evidence that vaccines prevent recipients from transmitting the virus—not just from falling ill when infected—or statistics emerge that show an increased risk of illness or death for certain essential workers, governments will have trouble justifying vaccinating younger before older.
“That’s a real dilemma we have here,” said Uwe Liebert, a virologist at Leipzig University. “Of course there are many groups where we can relate why they should be prioritized, but from a pure epidemiological and virological perspective, the current strategy is right.”
—Max Colchester in London and Giovanni Legorano in Rome contributed to this article.
Charo admitted she finds Hilaria Baldwin’s Spanish heritage scandal “funny.”
The 70-year-old Spanish-American actress-singer told Page Six that she spent her entire life trying to perfect her English so she doesn’t understand why Baldwin, 37, was “obsessed” with her Spanish accent.
“I spend all my life trying to speak English like you,” Charo told the outlet. “I hoped to [be] a sophisticated American and I was born in Murcia, Spain, where they have a very strong Castilian accent.”
“That’s Hilaria’s obsession, probably,” Charo thought. “I want to speak the best English because after so many years in America nobody knows what the hell I’m talking about.”
ALEC BALDWIN DOUBLES DOWN ON DEFENDING WIFE HILARIA AMID CULTURAL APPROPRIATION SCANDAL
Baldwin was put on blast in December when it was discovered she wasn’t actually born in Spain — as she had implied — and instead was born and raised in Boston, Mass.
“In the case of Hilaria, she must be [so] obsessed with everything Spanish — the tradition, flamenco — that she really went into that education and she managed to do it very well indeed,” Charo mused.
Baldwin was also criticized for allegedly faking a Spanish accent. The bilingual mother of five’s accent noticeably fluctuated over the years when she made appearances on TV.
After the news broke, the wife of Alec Baldwin also revealed her real name is Hillary.
“Yes, I am a White girl, my family is White… Europe has a lot of White people in them. Ethnically I am a mix of many, many things,” she said on social media.
Hilaria Baldwin was criticized for implying she was born in Spain when she was actually born and raised in Boston. (Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Charo said she got a laugh out of the situation. “There’s nothing wrong if that makes her happy. I think it’s funny. In my opinion, it’s just funny,” she said.
In an interview with The New York Times, Baldwin tried to correct some of what she says are misconceptions about how she has presented herself.
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“The things I have shared about myself are very clear,” Baldwin said. “I was born in Boston. I spent time in Boston and in Spain. My family now lives in Spain. I moved to New York when I was 19 years old and I have lived here ever since. For me, I feel like I have spent 10 years sharing that story over and over again. And now it seems like it’s not enough.”
Fox News’ Tyler McCarthy contributed to this report.
