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Liège, a green city: parks and natural spaces to recharge your batteries in the great outdoors

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Liège, a green city: parks and natural spaces to recharge your batteries in the great outdoors

Located in the heart of Belgium, Liège is a city full of parks and natural spaces, offering many opportunities to recharge your batteries in the great outdoors. Whether you are a lover of green spaces or simply looking for a quiet place to relax, Liège offers a variety of choices to satisfy all tastes.

One of the most emblematic parks in the city is undoubtedly the Parc de la Boverie. Located on the banks of the Meuse, this park offers a magnificent view of the river and the surrounding landscape. With its vast green spaces, walking trails and play areas, Boverie Park is an ideal place for a family walk or a picnic with friends. In addition, the park also houses the Liège Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, offering the possibility of combining a cultural visit with a walk in the great outdoors.

If you’re looking for a wilder place, head to Citadelle Park. Perched on a hill, this ancient fortress not only offers breathtaking views of the city, but also vast wooded spaces ideal for relaxation and contemplation. The Citadel Park is also known for its terraced gardens, fountains and statues, providing a romantic and peaceful ambiance. Additionally, the park is also home to a zoo, where you can admire a wide variety of animals, from pandas to lions to giraffes.

If you are a sports and outdoor enthusiast, don’t miss the Sauvenière park. Located in the heart of the city, this park offers many sports activities such as tennis, football and basketball. Additionally, the park also has an artificial lake where you can go pedal boating or simply relax by the water. With its vast lawns and century-old trees, the Sauvenière park is also an ideal place for a leisurely walk or a family picnic.

Apart from parks, Liège also offers many natural spaces for hiking and nature lovers. Along the Meuse, you will find numerous hiking trails that will allow you to discover the beauty of the river landscapes. Additionally, the surrounding region of Liège is full of hills and valleys, offering plenty of opportunities for nature hikes. Whether you prefer a leisurely stroll along the rivers or a more intense hike in the mountains, you will surely find what you are looking for in Liège.

In conclusion, Liège is a green city which offers numerous parks and natural spaces to recharge your batteries in the great outdoors. Whether you are looking for a quiet place to relax or a sports field to exercise, Liège has everything you need. In addition, the proximity of the Meuse and the surrounding landscapes offers numerous opportunities for hiking and discoveries in the great outdoors. So, don’t hesitate any longer and come and enjoy nature in Liège!

Originally published at Almouwatin.com

“Women dress women”: Metropolitan Museum shows 80 outfits by 70 designers

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Gaston de Persigny
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A symbol of the exhibition is a muslin dress decorated with silk roses and taffeta by designer Anne Lou (1898-1981), who pioneered fashion created by African-American women.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art – the largest institution in the United States for the presentation and study of all types of art – is dedicating an exhibition to fashion created by women for women, reported AFP.

The exhibition is entitled “Women dress women”. A symbol of the exhibition is a muslin dress decorated with silk roses and taffeta by designer Anne Lowe (1898-1981), who pioneered fashion created by African-American women. Lowe is often ignored as a designer, although the pattern for Jackie Kennedy’s wedding dress (1953) was her work.

Three decades earlier, a now forgotten French fashion house – “Premet” – launched the “La garconne” dress. The success of this model preceded by three years the similar fashion idea of Gabrielle Chanel.

The museum has collected 80 outfits by 70 designers from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. Gabriela Hearst’s clothes are featured, using contemporary fashion to send environmental messages.

The history of women in fashion begins with sewing work in fashion ateliers. Most designers in France appeared at the beginning of the 20th century – Madeleine Bionne, Jean Lanvin, Gabrielle Chanel. Between the two world wars, women in fashion now outnumbered men.

To be able to present the designer creations of Elsa Schiaparelli, Nina Ricci or Vivienne Westwood, the Metropolitan Costume Institute searches among its collections containing 33,000 models from the entire history of seven centuries of clothing.

The exhibition was originally slated for 2020 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the suffragette movement in the United States. Its delay is a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Costume Institute’s next major exhibition will be in 2024 under the title Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.

Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of North Macedonia: VMRO-DPMNE inculcates Bulgarophobia, Europhobia and Albanophobia

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Newsroom
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According to him, there is no other way to the EU than changes in the Constitution

VMRO-DPMNE instills Bulgarian, Europhobic and Albanian phobia and thereby scares the citizens of North Macedonia, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of North Macedonia Bujar Osmani in an interview with Channel 5.

He expressed hope that the changes to the constitution, which are a condition for the European path of the country, can be voted in this parliamentary composition, but even if this does not happen, it must be worked on until the last moment to be convinced the citizens of North Macedonia that there is no alternative to the European path for the country.

“You have an opposition (VMRO-DPMNE) that does not lead, but follows. Chairman (Hristijan Mickoski), who follows the polls every day and formulates his positions based on that, riding the wave of public opinion. He doesn’t have his strategic position,” Osmani said, recalling the words of US Assistant Secretary of State James O’Brien, who criticized the opposition’s behavior in an interview during his visit to North Macedonia.

“If someone tells you: I have a better offer (for the constitutional changes), but I won’t tell you what it is now, this is a person you wouldn’t buy a car from,” O’ said in an interview with “360 degrees” Brian, who in Skopje met with the chairman of the opposition VMRO-DPMNE Hristiyan Mickoski.

In his interview with Channel 5, Osmani pointed out that in the next six months a way must be found for the constitutional changes to be voted on, and the guarantees from the EU that the opposition talks about exist in the negotiation framework, which “is the filter through which the Bulgarian demands pass “.

“We did not work to convince Bulgaria, but to build a wall between Sofia and Brussels so that their demands could not break through in Brussels. (When the negotiations start) Bulgaria may not follow the rules of the game, but under the existing rules (Bulgaria) cannot block (North Macedonia) for something that is not on the road maps. The protocol is not part of the negotiating chapters. We got the guarantees through the negotiation framework, in which the Macedonian language became a European language for the first time, without any additions (remarks and clarifications). A guarantee is the way in which the negotiating chapters are opened, in which there are no bilateral issues except the action plan for minorities, i.e. human rights and constitutional amendments. The guarantee is the resolution of the German Bundestag, the guarantee is the statement of the Bulgarian government that there will be no new demands. So you can come up with the need for millions of other guarantees, but this is the way,” said Osmani, when asked if he had talked to Bulgaria about the guarantee that VMRO-DPMNE wants to get that North Macedonia will not receive a veto from Bulgaria in the negotiation period.

According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia, the action plan for minorities, which is part of the road map for the rule of law, “which does not apply to Bulgarians, but to all ethnic minorities under 20 percent, as there are Albanians” is already being developed at the level of experts and will be presented within the specified time limits.

“There has never been a more polarized society on the subject of the EU, and in the upcoming elections the “European front” and anti-European parties will clearly crystallize, and it is possible for the presidential elections that all political parties who believe that the European path of the country should be accelerated, unite around one candidate,” Osmani said.

And when asked if, after the parliamentary elections, the largest Albanian party DSI, of which he is the vice-chairman, could become a coalition partner of VMRO-DPMNE, which polls show has the greatest probability of winning, he replied that DSI ” is the custodian of the agreements from Ohrid, Prespa and with Bulgaria” and whoever disputes even one of them cannot be a partner of the party” with leader Ali Ahmeti.

Archaeologists in Turkey have discovered the oldest pieces of cloth

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Newsroom
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Illustration: Map of Turkey noting the location of Çatalhöyük (underlying map © Google)

In the city of Çatal-Huyük, which was founded about 9 thousand years ago on the territory of modern Turkey, archaeologists have discovered fossilized pieces of cloth.

Before that, the experts believed that the inhabitants of the country used wool or flax for the production of cloth. The study shows that the material has a very different structure, writes Phys.org.

Excavations in the ancient city ended in 2017. Archaeologists then discovered a few more pieces of ancient material. As a result, the scientists found that their age is approximately 8500-8700 years.

The research on the fabrics was commissioned by Lisa Bender Jorgensen, who works at the University of Norway, and Antoinette Rac Eicher of the University of Bern. To create clothes for themselves almost 9 thousand years ago, representatives of the Neolithic used a special fiber. This is the result shown by the analysis of the material performed by experts.

These samples, found at the site of the excavations, were made from the fiber of the oak. It is believed to indicate that this fabric is the oldest in the world that has survived to this day.

The fiber is found in trees such as oak, willow and linden between the wood and the bark. The wood was used to build houses, and the fibers were used to make clothes, which were quite strong and reliable.

The researchers also add that the natives did not grow flax and did not bring linen materials from other cities. They used only those resources that were at hand.

Selon l’Oxford Dictionary : Quel est le mot de l’année pour 2023 ?

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Gaston de Persigny
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A term used by Generation Z is word of the year

Traditionally, the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary designates a word or expression that has had an impact on the past year, has the potential to acquire lasting cultural significance, or is a snapshot of the development of societies.

And this year the word is… rizz.

It is widely used online to describe style, charisma, attractiveness, and someone’s ability to attract or seduce another person.

“The word is short for ‘charisma’. It is an interesting example of how language is formed, modified and shared in communities before it becomes widely popular. And how younger generations create spaces – online or live – where they own and define the language they use,” said an announcement at Oxford University Press.

Scientists predict that more and more words from social media and the Internet will enter our everyday language.

The word became extremely popular in June after actor Tom Holland was asked in an interview about the secret of his rizz, to which he replied that he had no rizz.

Word of the year according to Oxford beat out Swiftie – a word used to describe fans of another celebrity – Taylor Swift. The other finalists were situationship, meaning an informal romantic or sexual relationship, and prompt, an instruction given to an artificial intelligence program.

The four words were chosen by public vote.

In 2022, the word of the year was goblin mode – an unusual pattern of behavior that rejects societal norms and expectations.

China is bringing home all the pandas – friendship ambassadors from the US

By
Petar Gramatikov
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panda bear on brown tree branch during daytime
Photo by shiyang xu on Unsplash

All the world’s pandas belong to China, but Beijing has been leasing animals to foreign countries since 1984.

Three giant pandas from the Washington Zoo will return to China as scheduled last December, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning told a briefing.

She was asked if the move was a reflection of the deteriorating relationship between the US and China under so-called panda diplomacy.

“Giant pandas are not only China’s national treasure, but they are also welcomed and loved by people all over the world, and can be said to be ambassadors and bridges of friendship.” <…> We are ready to continue working with partners, including the United States, to strengthen cooperation in the field of endangered species protection,” Mao Ning said.

Zoos in Atlanta, San Diego and Memphis have either already transferred their pandas back or will do so by the end of next year, according to Bloomberg. That way, all the pandas will leave the US.

In April, Beijing took Ya Ya the panda from the Memphis Zoo, which was sent to the United States as a friendship ambassador in 2003.

The zoo announced in December 2022 that it would return Ya Ya to China, ending 20 years of collaborative research.

In February, experts in China discovered that she had a skin disease that caused hair loss, but the panda’s general health was normal.

All the world’s pandas belong to China, but Beijing has been leasing animals to foreign countries since 1984.

This tool of public diplomacy used by China to improve relations with foreign countries is called panda diplomacy.

Among the non-political reasons for the pandas’ return is that the pandas are reaching the age at which they must return to China: the departure of some animals had to be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the agency noted.

In addition, in 2021, the Chinese authorities lowered the conservation status of pandas from “endangered” to “vulnerable”, as their population in the wild began to recover and reached 1.8 thousand individuals.

China is already creating its own network of national parks that may no longer require sending animals abroad for breeding and conservation, the article said.

A Bloomberg source familiar with US President Joe Biden’s administration’s findings on the matter said Washington plans to discuss the panda lease with Beijing before the animals from the Washington Zoo travel to China.

Liu Pengu, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said the two countries were “discussing future cooperation in the field of giant panda conservation and research.”

Asked about the prospects for further negotiations, a State Department spokesman told the agency that the panda agreement was not between governments, but between the National Zoo and the China Wildlife Conservation Association.

He emphasized that the cooperation so far is a “gesture of goodwill on both sides”.

Pandas Mei Xiang and Tian Tian came to the Washington Zoo in 2000 as part of an agreement between the zoo and the China Wildlife Association.

The pair was supposed to stay for ten years for a research and breeding program, but the agreement with China was extended several times.

On August 21, 2020, the couple gave birth to a male cub named Xiao Qi Ji, and the same year the zoo announced that it had signed another three-year extension to keep all three pandas until the end of 2023.

Illustrative Photo by Diana Silaraja: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-panda-and-cub-playing-1661535/

Iran sent a capsule with animals into space

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Newsroom
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Iran says it has sent a capsule of animals into orbit as it prepares for manned missions in the coming years, the Associated Press reported, cited by BTA.

Telecommunications Minister Isa Zarepour announced that the capsule was launched at an altitude of 130 km. He did not specify what animals were in the capsule, but added that it weighed 500 kilograms.

It is also not clear whether there are life support systems on board and whether the device is planned to be landed back on Earth. This is not Iran’s first such “space news”.

In September, Tehran announced it had launched a data-gathering satellite into space. In 2013, Iran reported that it had sent a monkey into orbit and successfully brought it back.

There is no word on whether Tehran is actually developing a spacecraft for astronauts. According to Western experts, the tests, disguised as civilians, were tests of new ballistic missiles.

Photo: BTA/ AP / Ministry of Defense of Iran

Desperation intensifies for Gazans amid uncertainty of ‘safe zones’

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United Nations News
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Desperation intensifies for Gazans amid uncertainty of ‘safe zones’
© WHO - An injured Palestinian child is rushed to Al Shifa hospital in Gaza. (file)

The situation for Gazans is “getting worse by the hour”, the UN health agency WHO said on Tuesday, after some of the heaviest Israeli shelling in the enclave since Hamas militants massacred some 1,200 people in southern Israel and took around 240 hostages on 7 October.

Speaking from the southern city of Rafah, Dr. Rick Peeperkorn, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, described further bloodshed after the resumption of Israeli bombing last Friday.

“The situation is getting worse by the hour,” Dr. Peeperkorn told journalists in Geneva via video link. “I mean…there’s intensified bombing going on all around and including here in the southern areas, Khan Younis and even in Rafah.”

The WHO medic noted that in the last couple of days there had also been “a vastly increasing number” of internally displaced people travelling from the Middle area “and even now the southern areas”, fearing for their lives.

Echoing those concerns, UN Children’s Fund spokesperson James Elder cited international humanitarian law that obliges militaries to “take all feasible measures” to protect civilians. It was not acceptable to unilaterally declare that they should go to “so-called safe zones”, he insisted, when these were in fact “sidewalks” or “half-built buildings” without water, shelter or sanitation.

“It’s not a safe zone if it’s only free from bombardment, as some zones have not been,” Mr. Elder said.

Deadly toll

The humanitarian update came as the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, reported that between the afternoon of 3 December and the afternoon of 4 December at least 349 Palestinians were killed and 750 injured, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza.

Three Israeli soldiers were also killed, according to Israeli sources, OCHA said in its latest emergency update.

Women bake bread surrounded by destroyed buildings in Khan Yunis, Gaza during the recent humanitarian pause.
© UNRWA/Ashraf Amra – Women bake bread surrounded by destroyed buildings in Khan Yunis, Gaza during the recent humanitarian pause.

8 in 10 Gazans now homeless

According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNWRA, nearly 1.9 million people – more than 85 per cent of the population in Gaza – have been displaced across the Strip since 7 October. 

Almost 1.2 million internally displaced persons have found shelter in 156 UNRWA installations across all five governorates of the Gaza Strip, including the North and Gaza City, the UN agency said.

It also confirmed that at least 19 additional colleagues had been killed during airstrikes, bringing the total to 130 since 7 October. “We are also in danger as we walk,” UNWRA said, quoting one of its counsellors, named only as Jehan. “Our lives are at a standstill…There is the smell of death here. But we’re determined to live.”

Aid lifeline

Health authorities in Gaza estimate that at least 15,523 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in the latest escalation, with 70 per cent believed to be women and children. “Many more are missing, presumably under the rubble, waiting for rescue or recovery,” UNRWA said.

Amid desperate shortages of all humanitarian supplies, OCHA reported that on Sunday, some 100 aid trucks reached the enclave, along with 69,000 litres of fuel. The same quantities reached Gaza on Saturday, the UN aid office said, noting that this was still “well below” the daily average of 170 trucks and 110,000 litres of fuel delivered during the pause in fighting from 24 and 30 November.

“It’s too little, it’s way too little,” said WHO’s Dr. Peeperkorn, who said that amid the “increasing disaster” of Gaza, more medicine, food, water and fuel were needed.

Describing Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure as “crippled” with “hardly any functional health facility in the north” apart from Al-Ahli hospital which was inundated with multiple trauma cases and a lack of supplies, the WHO official expressed deep concern that the same desperate scenes could be repeated in the south.

ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw== Desperation intensifies for Gazans amid uncertainty of ‘safe zones’
Desperation intensifies for Gazans amid uncertainty of ‘safe zones’ 2

Patients’ plight

From a capacity of 3,500 beds before the 7 October escalation, the enclave now has only 1,500, he explained.

“If you look around, there’s hardly any hospital there left (in the north). So, we’ve seen what happened in northern Gaza and of course we are deeply concerned that this cannot be – this should not be – a blueprint for the south.”

The WHO official also confirmed that medical supplies had been moved from two warehouses from Khan Younis to Rafah on Sunday. This followed advice that the storage facilities were “in an area where the population was told to evacuate and would most likely become an area of active combat in the coming days”, he explained.

Kim Jong Un sheds crocodile tears as he pleads with women: Give birth to more!

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Newsroom
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The birth rate in the country has fallen colossally

Kim Jong Un was filmed crying as he urged women in North Korea to have more children and raise them to love the authoritarian state.

The North Korean leader was seen wiping his eyes with a white handkerchief as he addressed thousands of women gathered at a national meeting of mothers in Pyongyang.

Many in the audience wept with him during the carefully choreographed event, the first of its kind to be held in 11 years amid growing concerns about falling birthrates in the shuttered country.

“Stopping the decline in the birth rate and providing good care and education for the children are all our family affairs that we must solve together with our mothers,” said Kim, who is rumored to have three children.

While North Korea has released few details about its population trends, the South Korean government estimates that the birth rate has fallen steadily over the past decade, which would alarm a regime heavily dependent on manual labor and military service.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry said Kim’s address marked the first time he had publicly acknowledged a decline in his country’s birthrate.

According to the UN Population Fund and the World Bank, the North’s fertility rate hovers around 1.79-1.8 children per woman as of 2020.

It fell from 4.05 in the late 1960s to below 2.1 by the late 1990s, following birth control programs in the 1970s and 1980s to slow postwar population growth and the great famine of the mid-1990s, which is believed to have killed hundreds of thousands of people.

However, the birth rate still remains more than twice that of rapidly aging South Korea, which hit a record low of 0.78 last year.

According to reports in North Korea’s state media, this year the country introduced a range of benefits for families with three or more children, including preferential free housing, government subsidies, free food, medicine and household goods, and educational privileges for children.

Kim reminded the mothers that their “primary revolutionary task” was to instill “socialist virtues” in their offspring and instill loyalty to the ruling party during his address.

“Unless a mother becomes a communist, it is impossible for her to raise her sons and daughters as communists and turn her family members into revolutionaries,” he was quoted as saying by the state-run KCNA news channel.

The North Korean leader also warned parents to remove foreign influence on young minds, instructing them to send their children to perform hard labor for the state to correct bad behavior that was not “our style”.

Kim’s emotional address wasn’t the first time he’s openly shed tears in public.

In 2020, he wept as he offered a rare apology for failing to lead the shuttered country through turbulent economic times at the start of the pandemic.

Earlier this year, his eyes filled with tears at a military parade in July to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War that divided the peninsula.

Photo: YouTube

The Red Cross and Red Crescent kicked out Belarus

By
Gaston de Persigny
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0

Membership of the Belarusian Red Cross in the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has been suspended since December 1, the organization’s press service reported.

This decision is due to the fact that the Belarusian organization did not comply with the request to remove General Secretary Dmitry Shevtsov from his post. The federation requested this after his statements on nuclear weapons, in connection with the relocation of Ukrainian children to Belarus, as well as his trips to Donetsk and Luhansk. We remind you that an arrest warrant was issued by the International Criminal Court for the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the children’s ombudsman of the Russian Federation Maria Lvova-Belova precisely because of the illegal deportation of children and the illegal transfer of people from the territory of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

An urgent request to remove General Secretary Shevtsov from his post was sent to Belarus in early October.

“The suspension means that the Belarusian Red Cross loses its rights as a member of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies,” the press service said.

Photo by Jan van der Wolf: https://www.pexels.com/photo/no-stopping-signage-14312001/

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