March 28, 2021 (KHARTOUM) – The leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) praised the courage of the head of the Sovereign Council after the signing of the Declaration of Principles (DoP) separating religion and state.
The DoP was signed by Adel Fattah al-Burhan and Abdel Aziz al-Hilu Juba, Sunday, in a ceremony attended by President Salva Kiir and WFP Executive Director David Beasley who become a de facto facilitator for negotiations to end the conflict in the Blue Nile and South Kordofan states.
The framework agreement provides that the state should be neutral and impartial in religious matters. Also, it provides that the SPLA combatants would be absorbed in the Sudanese army by the end of the transitional period after “resolution of the relationship between religion and state by the constitution”.
The deal satisfies the aspiration of the SPLM-N for a secular state and responds to al-Burhan’s demand to integrate the SPLA fighters during the transition not after as it had been proposed by the armed group.
In a speech at the signing ceremony, the SPLM-N leader said that the Declaration of Principles paves the way for broader negotiations to translate the agreed principles into provisions that ensure achieving change in the country and implementing democratic reforms in Sudan.
He expressed hope that the negotiators would avoid “competing and duelling in useless matters” and keep the national interests in mind.
Al-Hilu’s cautious optimism refers to the difficult relationship between the SPLM-N al-Hilu negotiating team and the head of the government negotiating delegation Chems al-Din Kabbashi who is also from the Nuba Mountains.
In return, al-Hilu praised al-Burhan’s “bold step” that led to the signing of this Declaration, which is described as an “important breakthrough” that “may lead to the achievement of lasting peace and just unity”.
For his part, al-Burhan stressed that the signing of the Declaration of Principles represents the beginning of the efforts of the transitional government to reach real change in Sudan to “create the state of citizenship, freedom and justice, and translates slogans raised by the revolutionaries”.
He thanked South Sudan for the great effort it has been making to achieve peace in his country.
The head of the Sovereign Council stressed that the transitional government is determined to “achieve the change that everyone will accept and the Sudanese people have made sacrifices for” including the armed groups.
He pledged to establish a Sudan of justice and equality for the Sudanese people and future generations, where there is no distinction between North or South, religion or ethnicity, as he said.
Last November, Kabbashi objected to Hamdok’s agreement with al-Hilu on the separation of religion and state on 3 September 2020.
Also, the Sudanese military rejected the recommendation of a workshop held in Juba on the relationship between state and religion in November 2020. He said that the workshop did not discuss other issues, in reference to the military arrangements.
Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok welcomed the signing of the declaration as a courageous gesture and evidence of the solid will of all Sudanese – civilians and military – to complete the second phase of peace in Sudan, following the Juba Agreement and the Addis Ababa Agreement.”
The SPLM-N led by Malik Agar also welcomed the signing of the declaration of principle adding it will consolidate peace in Sudan.
“Juba Declaration between General Burhan and Comrade Abdel-Aziz is a step forward towards peace. It strengthens the Juba Peace Agreement and it is fully welcome from our side,” said Yasir Arman in a tweet posted after the signing of the framework agreement.
American teenagers and their parents have a lot in common when it comes to religion, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center—“though not quite as much as the parents may think.”
The report analyzes the responses of more than 1,800 U.S. teens and one of their parents, each of whom took separate online questionnaires exploring such topics as their concepts of God, ways of praying, religious beliefs and doubts, and notions of morality.
“Pew Research Center gets so many questions nowadays from people wanting to know what Generation Z thinks,” says Elizabeth Sciupac, a senior researcher on the Center’s domestic religion team and co-author of the report, referring to the moniker for those born after 1996. “This survey doesn’t begin to answer all of that, but it does start to flesh out a picture of what they look like religiously.”
Among the findings:
Parents are more likely than teens to say that religion is very important in their lives—and to overestimate rather than underestimate how important religion is to their teen. For instance, far fewer teens (24%) than parents (43%) say that religion is very important in their lives.
Teenagers attend religious services about as often as their parents, but 38% say they attend mainly because mom or dad want them to. Thirty-five percent say they attend because they want to.
Most U.S. teens ages 13-17 share the religious affiliation of one or both parents.
Eight in 10 parents who identify as evangelical Protestants have a teen who identifies as such. But little more than half the teenage children of mainline Protestants identify the same way their parents do, and about one-quarter of mainline Protestant parents have a teen who is religiously unaffiliated.
The report marked some new territory for the Center’s religion research, says Sciupac, “in part because the religion team doesn’t do a lot with teens.” Asking respondents to speculate on how another respondent might answer certain questions was also a novel approach for the team, she says.
“Some of what I loved most about this survey were the answers we got to open-ended questions, where people had a chance to write in their own responses,” Sciupac says. “We see teens grappling with big questions, like `Why does God let people die?’ And they have these really well-thought-out answers.”
“It was wonderful how much came up in our conversation,” says Lilace Guignard of Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, after she and son Gabe, 16, took a short version of the original Pew questionnaire modified for this article. “He’s much more thoughtful about all this than I knew to expect.”
Like the original survey, the short version queried Lilace and Gabe on such topics as their frequency of prayer, belief in God, and denominational identity. It, too, asked what each thought the other’s answer to certain questions might be.
Gabe answered that religion is “very important” to him and supposed his mom would say the same. To his surprise, she ranked it “fairly important” because, she explained, religious identities “have a tendency to divide people.”
Both Lilace and Gabe identify as Presbyterian, and they attended church services together nearly every week before the pandemic. But neither knew until they took the questionnaire that the other prays once a day, or that they both favor conversational, informal prayer over formal recitation. “I said I pray at night,” says Lilace, a part-time teacher of creative writing, outdoor recreation leadership, and women’s studies at Mansfield University of Pennsylvania. “And he said, `Yeah, me, too.’”
As they talked further they discovered each feels a special devotion to God—whom Lilace conceives as God the Creator, and Gabe as God the Father. “The talk he and I had focused on how we experienced God firsthand through the natural world, and how this was the foundation for our absolute certainty about God,” says Lilace. “It was a wonderful thing to discover we shared this.”
The survey’s findings “give us an up-to-date view of how teens are not only experiencing religion for themselves but also with their families,” says Sciupac, as well as “how much they feel obligated, how much they feel engaged, what is shaping their religious lives. I think that can bring a lot to the table for a variety of groups who are interested in these things.”
The report’s data analysis mined a larger religious attitudes survey that the Center conducted in 2019. “This report tried to capture how teenagers and one parent interact when it comes to religion,” says Sciupac, and “how they align and don’t align.”
The analysis examined the results of a self-administered web survey conducted in March and April 2019 among 1,811 adolescents ages 13-17 and one parent per child, in both English and Spanish. Released in September 2020, the report’s full title is “U.S. Teens Take After Their Parents Religiously, Attend Services Together and Enjoy Family Rituals.”
About two-thirds of adolescents taking the survey say they identify with a religion, with about one-quarter identifying as Catholic and 21% as evangelical Christian. The evangelical teens say religion is “very important” in their lives nearly twice as often as those of other Christian groups and are also far likelier to believe in God “with absolute certainty,” attend religious services weekly, and pray daily.
If the major Christian traditions are counted separately, however, those who identify as “nones” (that is, agnostic, atheist, or “nothing in particular”) make up the single largest religious category among teens, at 32%.
The survey’s sample size was not large enough to allow for analysis of the views of some religious groups, including Black Protestant denominations, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Orthodox Christian churches, and non-Christian faiths.
Among the parents who took the survey, 57% were mothers. Although mothers are typically involved when one parent is more engaged in the religious upbringing of children, the survey found that teens identified about equally with their father’s religious beliefs (50%) and their mother’s (47%).
Among the report’s other findings:
About 70% of teens and parents accurately estimated how important religion was to the other. But when they estimated incorrectly, parents overestimated its importance 69% of the time, while teens underestimated its importance for mom or dad 55% of the time.
Less religious parents are likely to have teens who are also less religious. Eighty percent of parents who say that religion is “not too important” or “not at all important” in their lives have a teen who feels the same way.
Half of teens say they hold all the same religious beliefs as their parents, but among those who say their beliefs differ, a third say the parent is unaware.
The survey’s findings “give us an upto- date view of how teens are not only experiencing religion for themselves but also with their families.”
What do these findings say about the future of religion in America, whose young adult population has grown markedly less religious in recent decades? Sciupac and her colleagues urge a cautious reading.
“While it is possible that these adolescents will ultimately be equally or more religious than current young adults,” they write in the report, “this survey neither supports nor contradicts such a hypothesis.
In fact, previous research has suggested that much of the movement away from religion among adults occurs after they come of age, move out of their childhood homes, or otherwise gain a measure of independence from their parents.”
What’s more, the researchers note, “religion varies across the life course, often declining in late adolescence and early adulthood, and then increasing as people age, form new relationships, start their own families, and mature into later adulthood.”
David O’Reilly was the longtime religion reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer.
MORE than one in four small UK exporters have halted sales to the European Union, and the “vast majority” of firms doing business with EU customers and suppliers have been hit with shipment delays or loss of goods, a key survey has revealed.
The survey of more than 1,400 small firms, published today by the Federation of Small Businesses, shows 23% of small exporters have temporarily halted sales to EU customers and a further four per cent have already decided to stop selling into the bloc permanently after new trading rules took affect at the start of this year.
More than one in ten (11%) of exporters are considering halting exports to the EU permanently. The same proportion have established, or are considering establishing, a presence within an EU country to ease their exporting processes. And 9% are thinking about securing, or are already using, warehousing space in the EU or Northern Ireland for the same purpose.
The survey also shows “those selling into the bloc suffering more as a result of new paperwork than importers”.
While small UK importers have also been hit by the new trading arrangements and paperwork, fewer than one in five (17%) have temporarily suspended purchases from the EU (17%).
The majority (70%) of importers and/or exporters have suffered shipment delays relating to their trade with the EU in recent weeks. Nearly one in three (32%) have lost goods in transit, and 34% have had goods held indefinitely at EU border crossings. Of those that have experienced delays, 36% have suffered hold-ups that lasted more than two weeks.
The FSB report, published nearly three months after the end of the Brexit transition period, also reveals that more than half of small UK exporters have sought seek expert help to manage new administration.
The small business organisation noted that the first full quarter of post-transition trading comes to a close on Wednesday, adding: “The day also marks two years since the original Brexit date that firms were told to prepare for in 2019.”
The “Ad Kan” nonprofit organization, together with Israel’s Hebrew-language Channel 13 television news team has announced another expose, this one describing the silent war being waged by the European Union against the State of Israel using the Palestinian Authority to illegally occupy the land of Judea and Samaria in Area C.
“We want to tell you something that you do not know,” the Ad Kan narrator says in the report. “We are at war.
“In the past year we have infiltrated agents in the Palestinian Authority under false identities and established contacts with EU officials — and what we have discovered is nothing short of shocking.
“Behind the scenes and behind the back of the State of Israel, what we discovered was the European Union’s “Century Project.”
According to the report, the EU has allocated some three billion euros for the construction of a Palestinian state and the construction of its new capital city in Jerusalem. (ed: italics added)
In conversations with senior PA officials and original documents that were unveiled to the architects of the move on the Palestinian Authority and EU sides, the investigators found that the EU is pushing with all its might — all the while knowing this was being done against international law and the Oslo Accords — to build a Palestinian state, all of it behind the back of the State of Israel.
“We have uncovered a well-oiled mechanism in which the European Union secretly provides money, people and planning and legal knowledge to prepare a plan that will isolate Israeli communities in Area C in Judea and Samaria and in Jerusalem, and interrupt a settlement sequence to impose a de facto terrorist state in the heart of Israel,” the Ad Kan representative warns.
“During the activity we discovered that we are already in the middle of the process; about 100 such plans are gaining ground in the field, unhindered, while completely ignoring the law and the Oslo Accords.
“Never before has there been such blatant interference in the internal affairs of any country in the world by the European Union as there has been in ours, whether in funding anti-Israel organizations or in drawing the borders of the Jewish state.”
In the above video (Hebrew language only) the narrator goes on to explain — and to show the documents that prove the claim! — that sources who spoke with the investigative team said the Palestinian Authority government is expected to receive a sum of $952,460 for new Arab construction in the Old City of Jerusalem. The sources also said $778 million is to be invested in the development of areas around Hebron and Bethlehem, and another half a billion dollars ($500 million) earmarked for construction and development in the PA capital city of Ramallah, located in Binyamin section of Samaria.
The sums are to be invested in building that will be carried out in accordance with the EU’s Century Plan.
“This failure (by Israel to end EU interference – ed.) cannot continue, and we will do everything to stop it,” Gilad Ach, CEO of Ad Kan, vowed in the report.
In Mozambique, the Catholic apostolic administrator of Pemba issued an appeal on Palm Sunday for an end to violence in the northern province of Cabo Delgado where jihadi fighters linked to the group calling itself Islamic State are terrorizing the local population.
Bishop António Juliasse, the Diocese of Pemba’s apostolic administrator in Cabo Delgado, called for an end to the war in the province, where extreme violence by the terror group has led to at least 2,000 deaths and over 700,000 displaced, Vatican News reports.
The Islamic State, also known as ISIS, appears to be expanding its influence in Mozambique by solidifying its hold in Cabo Delgado, one of the country’s most important provinces, the Global Observatory reported on March 26.
The reports focused on insurgent operations along the south coast of Africa in the country that borders countries like South Africa, Zimbabwe and Tanzania.
Its report reveals that the jihadists linked to ISIS, especially those operating under the name Al Sunnah wa Jama’ah (ASWJ), have consolidated their hold in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado region and captured the city of Mocímboa da Praia last year.
The fighters are now perpetrating attacks on the Afungi peninsula, only miles from energy giant Total’s operations, targeting lines of communication and overrunning government outposts across the region.
PALM SUNDAY SERMON
Meanwhile, in his sermon for Palm Sunday, Bishop António Juliasse invoked Christ’s mercy so that “all can be changed from within” and this war “that no one understands and that harms everybody can finish as soon as possible.”
He reminded Mozambican leaders of their duty to guarantee Justice so as “to preserve people from evils.”
The bishop said, “Justice in a nation is non-negotiable. A leader who does not practice Justice is no longer truly a leader.”
He stressed that the government should pay attention to the poorest and help them overcome poverty, and no one should be excluded “for religious, political, ethnic or even regional reasons.”
Bishop Juliasse also stressed that religious leaders should not incite violence because, he said, “there is no religion of violence.”.
On the other hand, he noted that government leaders cannot “wash their hands” of their responsibilities, like Pilate, because it condemns innocent people.
If a leader washes his hands, he condemns all the people he governs”, he emphasized.
The bishop called on God to show Mozambicans another way: “not the way of violence, not the way of cruelty, but the way of love, of fraternity.”
In Geneva, United Nations agencies expressed horror and alarm on March 30 at the violence inflicted on civilians in Palma, where they have no access and insurgents who are locally known as “al-Shabaab” have control.
“What has happened in Palma is an absolute horror being inflicted on civilians by a non-state armed group,” said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) at a UN press conference in Geneva.
Eric-Theodore Yepao is the Subject of Two New Interviews for Online Periodicals Thrive Global and IdeaMensch – Book Publishing Industry Today – EIN Presswire
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<h2 class="fe_heading2">CapVest enters into an agreement with Sofina Foods for the sale of Eight Fifty Food Group</h2>
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Mar, ON, Mar 29, 2021 (Canada NewsWire via COMTEX) —
Funds managed by CapVest Partners LLP (“CapVest”), an international private equity firm, have agreed on the sale of Eight Fifty Food Group (“Eight Fifty” or “the Group”) to Sofina Foods Inc. (“Sofina Foods”), a leading Canadian multi-protein producer, for an undisclosed consideration.
CapVest acquired Karro Food Group, a leading UK pork processor, in 2017. CapVest and Management subsequently acquired iconic seafood business Young’s Seafood in 2019 to create Eight Fifty Food Group. Eight Fifty later consolidated five other protein businesses from across Europe to create what is today a leading European multi-protein specialist.
Sofina Foods is one of Canada’s largest food producers and has a 25-year history of acquisitions, growth and success. Sofina Foods is one of the country’s leading manufacturers of primary and further processed protein products for both retail and foodservice customers. Its brands are staples in Canadian households and include Cuddy; Lilydale; Janes; Mastro; San Daniele; Fletcher’s, Vienna and Zamzam. Sofina Foods currently operates 21 different sites and employs approximately 5,000 people.
Eight Fifty is a leading supplier of both branded and own-label seafood and pork. The pork division is one of the largest processors and suppliers of products across the UK and Ireland. The seafood division is the largest provider of chilled and frozen products across the UK, including the Young’s brand, and is a major player in frozen seafood across Germany and France.
The Group employs around 8,300 people, across 23 manufacturing sites. The business will remain under the leadership of Di Walker and will complement Sofina Food’s existing leading North American platform. As Europe’s multi-protein specialist, Eight Fifty will continue to provide sustainable, high-quality food products while focussing on growth.
Jason Rodrigues, Partner at CapVest, said: “We’ve created a leading European multi-protein business through a combination of strategic investment in our core asset base and complementary acquisitions of fantastic national champions. Eight Fifty delivers best-in-class products to our customers and consumers and we are all very proud of what Di Walker and her team have achieved over the last four years. We’re confident that Eight Fifty will continue to flourish under Sofina Food’s ownership.”
Di Walker, CEO of Eight Fifty, said: “We began this journey as a UK-only pork supplier doing less than £500 million in sales and after several years of transformational organic and acquisitive progress are now the European multi-protein specialist with over £2 billion in sales. This transaction and the interest in Eight Fifty is a great reflection on the quality of the business and testament to the work that CapVest and our entire management team have completed. We’re very excited to join Sofina Foods to deliver on their ambitious future growth plans.”
Michael Latifi, Founder and Executive Chairman of Sofina Foods, said: “As a leading Canadian multi-protein specialist, this acquisition allows Sofina Foods to continue on our path of ambitious expansion. Sofina Foods is one of Canada’s largest food producers and we have created a solid global foundation for continued growth. With a history of excellence in food production and processing spanning over 25 years, the strong brands of Eight Fifty Food Group align perfectly with our prominent brands and our shared future vision.”
The new company will have over 13,000 employees globally across 44 sites and near $6B in annual revenue.
Bob Wilt, President and CEO of Sofina Foods, said “Our team in Canada and our new partners at Eight Fifty Food Group have set the stage for considerable growth. I look forward to working with Di and to welcoming Eight Fifty to the Sofina family, and to drawing upon the significant expertise that exists across both businesses.”
CapVest and Management received financial advice from Jefferies, JP Morgan and Rothschild & Co, legal advice from Willkie Farr & Gallagher and Walker Morris, and financial and tax due diligence services from KPMG.
Sofina Foods received financial advice from Rabobank as the lead financial advisor and Scotiabank as the co-financial advisor. Additional advice was provided by PWC, Stikeman Elliott and Taylor Wessing.
The transaction is subject to approval from regulatory authorities.
About CapVest:
CapVest is a leading international private equity investor that partners with ambitious companies that supply essential goods and services. As an active and patient investor, CapVest has established a strong track record of success in delivering attractive returns by working closely with management teams in supporting transformation in the size and scale of its portfolio companies through a combination of investing behind organic and acquisition-led growth. For more information, visit www.capvest.co.uk
About Eight Fifty Food Group:
Eight Fifty Food Group is a leading supplier of both branded and own-label seafood and pork. The pork division is a leading processor and supplier of pork products across the UK and Ireland. The seafood division is a provider of chilled and frozen products across the UK, Germany and France. Central to its proposition is the iconic 200-year-old Young’s brand, benefitting from elevated brand awareness and unparalleled trust as the UK’s fish and seafood specialist.
Eight Fifty employs around 8,300 people, across 23 manufacturing sites. Eight Fifty is focussed on providing sustainable, high-quality food products while continuing to grow alongside its valued customer base.
About Sofina Foods Inc.
Sofina Foods Inc. is a privately owned Canadian company headquartered in Markham, Ontario, Canada dedicated to providing great tasting, high quality food products for consumers. As one of the nation’s leading manufacturers of primary and further processed protein products for both retail and foodservice customers, Sofina Foods has a broad portfolio of branded and private label pork, beef, fish, turkey, and chicken products. Sofina’s family of branded products consists of: Cuddy, Lilydale, Janes, Mastro, San Daniele, Fletcher’s, Vienna and Zamzam. Sofina Foods currently operates 16 HACCP-approved manufacturing facilities, 2 distribution centres, 3 hatcheries and employs close to 5,000 people. To learn more about Sofina Foods, visit www.sofinafoods.com.
SOURCE Sofina Foods Inc.
View original content to download multimedia: https://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2021/29/c0606.html
SOURCE: Sofina Foods Inc.
Media contacts: CapVest Partners LLP, Ben Valdimarsson (ReputationInc), +447889805930
/ [email protected]; Sofina Foods, Lisa Joyce, (905) 747-3322 ext 2118
/ [email protected]; Eight Fifty Food Group, Alex Beagley / Tom Hufton / Fiona
Walker, (FTI Consulting), +442037271000 / [email protected]
Copyright (C) 2021 CNW Group. All rights reserved.
UNAIDS adopted the new Global AIDS Strategy 2021–2026 during a special session, chaired by the Minister of Health of Namibia, held on 24 and 25 March 2021.
The strategy updates the 2016 targets for 2020, which were not met, and was developed utilising extensive analysis of HIV data and input from more than 10,000 stakeholders from 160 countries.
It found the total resource needs for lower income, and lower-middle income countries, is around $13.7 billion. Donor resources are mainly needed for these countries.
For upper-middle income countries, which account for 53% of the investments needed, domestic resources are the predominant source of funding.
The strategy’s three priorities are to:
Maximise equitable and equal access to comprehensive people-centred HIV services.
Break down legal and societal barriers to achieving HIV outcomes.
Fully resource and sustain HIV responses and integrate them into systems for health, social protection and humanitarian settings.
A key focus of the strategy is the call on countries to utilise the full potential of HIV prevention tools, especially for adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa, sex workers, people who inject drugs, gay men and other men who have sex with men, transgender people and people in prison settings.
If the targets of the strategy are achieved:
The number of people who newly acquire HIV will decrease from 1.7 million in 2019 to less than 370,000 by 2025.
The number of people dying from AIDS-related illnesses will decrease from 690,000 in 2019 to less than 250,000 by 2025.
The number of new HIV infections among children will drop from 150,000 in 2019, to less than 22,000 in 2025.. .
The strategy comes after the 2016 United Nations Political Declaration on Ending AIDS agreed to invest $26 billion in the HIV response by 2020.
Resources in low and middle income countries peaked in 2017 but they started decreasing in 2018.
The failure to achieve the targets has come at a tragic human cost: an additional 3.5 million people were infected with HIV and an additional 820 000 people died of AIDS-related illnesses between 2015 and 2020.
“We must not repeat the mistakes of the past”, said Jose Izazola, UNAIDS Special Advisor on Strategic Information and Evaluation. “The time to invest is now.”
The Captain Underpants book series is losing one of its titles due to controversy over “passive racism.” Scholastic has announced that the publisher will no longer be distributing the book The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future, a spinoff of the Captain Underpants series. It will also be completely scrubbed from the official website to remove all mentions of the book, all with “the full support” of author Dav Pilkey.
“Together, we recognize that this book perpetuates passive racism,” a statement from Scholastic reads. “We are deeply sorry for this serious mistake. Scholastic has removed the book from our websites, stopped fulfillment of any orders (domestically or abroad), contacted our retail partners to explain why this book is no longer available, and sought a return of all inventory. We will take steps to inform schools and libraries who may still have this title in circulation of our decision to withdraw it from publication.” RELATED: Captain Underpants Epic Choice-O-Rama Trailer Shows Off Netflix’s Interactive Special
In a letter posted to his YouTube account, Dav Pilkey offered an apology of his own. The author writes: “About ten years ago I created a book about a group of friends who save the world using kung fu and the principles found in Chinese philosophy. The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future was intended to showcase diversity, equality, and non-violent conflict resolution.”
“But this week it was brought to my attention that this book also contains harmful racial stereotypes and passively racist imagery,” adds Pilkey. “I wanted to take this opportunity to publicly apologize for this. It was and is wrong and harmful to my Asian readers, friends, and family, and to all Asian people. I hope that you, my readers, will forgive me, and learn from my mistake that even unintentional and passive stereotypes and racism is harmful to everyone. I apologize, and I pledge to do better.”
The children’s book author has also announced that he and his wife pledged to donate all of his advance and royalties from the sale of The Adventures of Ook and Gluk: Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future to “charities that provide free books, art supplies, and theater for children in underserved communities; organizations that promote diversity in children’s books and publishing; and organizations designed to stop violence and hatred against Asians.”
A long-running series with 12 books and 11 spinoffs, Captain Underpants has been around since Pilkey released the first graphic novel in 1997. The story follows two fourth-graders, George and Harold, who accidentally turn their principal into the titular superhero. With over 80 million books sold, the last title in the Captain Underpants series was released in 2015, though spinoffs like Dog Man are still ongoing. Released in 2010, The Adventures of Ook and Gluk is presented as an in-universe comic written and illustrated by George and Harold.
DreamWorks Animation and 20th Century Fox released the first movie adaptation, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, in 2017. Featuring the voices of Kevin Hart, Ed Helms, and Nick Kroll, the movie was a success and would later spawn the Netflix TV series The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants. There doesn’t seem to be any plans for a new Captain Underpants movie anytime soon, but the Netflix series has been on for four seasons. This news comes to us from Scholastic.