lifestyle
Dhaka New Market: A shopping complex bearing history and tradition
The importance of the market/ shopping mall has increased at the same rate as the importance of shopping has increased in modern urban civilization. Over the years many shopping malls have been built in Dhaka, and the appeal of the Dhaka New Market has not diminished. This shopping market remains full throughout the year in the presence of buyers. While clothing items are mostly sold in New Market, you will get other household items too. Let's know the tradition and history of the Dhaka New Market.
Location
Near Old Dhaka, the New Market is located in the northern part of Azimpur. Anyone knows by its name and the market is also located in some portion of Mirpur Road.
History of Dhaka New Market
Construction of the market was started by CBD in 1952 on 35 acres of land during East Pakistan Prime Minister Nurul Amin’s period. Its construction was completed in 1954 and the establishment of this market paved the way for the modernization of Dhaka. Old Dhaka was very densely populated and disturbed. Therefore, Nurul Amin's modernization project was very limited, so people protested against it. Some believe that Dhaka New Market and Shahbag Hotel were built for Nurul Amin's family only.
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Architecture
The New Market area is triangular shaped with high minaret-like arches on three sides. The market has a total of 440 shops and a triangular lane in the middle. The total area of this market is 35 acres. (1,40,000 sq. meter.).
In the eighties, the northern part of the market established a separate section New Super Market for crockeries and Banalota Market for kitchen utensils. A grocery market was also established in the D block. Later 60 new shops got allotment by the mosque.
The new supermarket for crockeries, the rough market for kitchen utensils, a unique section for miscellaneous items and a grocery market in D Block added a new dimension on the northern part of New Market. There was a beautiful garden on the border of this market, which was later converted into a mosque and allotted 72 new shops by the mosque.
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Traditions and Present Condition
In the 50s and 60s, New Market was one of the most beautiful places to shop and have a good time. There was a Novelty ice cream shop during that time and it was one of the most popular places among the youth. This is why the place got popular.
Although Dhaka is a conservative city, Newmarket was a safe place for young people to hang out with their family and friends. Further, college and university students used to spend their evenings traveling to New Market.
The novel was about an ice cream shop here. The shop was one of the most popular places among the youth. This is why this area is popular.
Despite the many evolutions and inclusions that have taken place over the past half-century, New Market is still the "NEW" to everyone. Over the years the market expanded its reach to meet the demand, but it did not modernize. From grocery to books, magazines, jewelry, glasses, local and western crockery, and home furnishings, Newmarket is always ready to meet all your potential needs.
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Products You Can Get
New Market is famous for the availability of good quality products at a cheap price. You can buy clothing, cosmetics, shoes, boys' T-shirts, shirts, pants, etc. From sofa covers to home curtains, bedsheets, vases, wall mats, shoes, travel bags, and other utensils can be easily found in this market. Whether it is a shop or a sidewalk, New Market is known in Dhaka for buying cheap items.
Further, if you want to get the latest western fashion, you can definitely come to Newmarket. Our domestic garment factories are supplying quality garments to many countries in the western world, including the United States. You may also get those products in New Market.
A large number of people in Bangladesh have become accustomed to Western-style clothing. Under the huge roof of New Market there is a huge collection of anything you want.
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Final Words
Dhaka New Market remains the go-to shopping destination for Dhaka dwellers. With a wide variety of clothing, jewelry, and other items, shoppers will find something to buy no matter what the occasion. Whether it is for yourself or as a gift, New Market is the place to go.
Creative Toys for Children to Foster Creativity Staying Away from Electronics
Naturally, the best toys for children are most often the simplest. Toys that allow children to direct the play themselves are called creative toys. They are more engaging for young children as well as important for kids’ mental development. Check out here some awesome creative toys for kids.
The Necessity of Creative Toys for Children
Creative toys encourage creativity as well as prepare young learners to draw, sculpt or star in the school play. These toys teach children to experiment and solve problems. Most importantly, they are so attractive and engaging to divert your lovely kids from electronic gadgets like mobiles, TV, computer.
Your kids are going to live in a world which will be changing continuously and have problems that you can’t anticipate. Perfect creative toys can help children to hold information in their minds and make them capable of thinking flexibly as things change.
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10 Best Creative Toys for Kids to Boost Their Creativity
Building Blocks
Definitely, children of all ages can engage with building blocks. You will find these magical entertainers in all sizes and shapes. These toys are amazing as they have interesting animals, people, trees, vehicles, and other miniature-shaped blocks that fit in with the regular pieces to create magical make-believe stories. Building blocks are nice creative toys for preschoolers or even 10-year-old children.
Why building blocks for children
- promote better spatial reasoning.
- may enhance cognitive flexibility.
- linked with language development.
- stimulate creative, divergent problem-solving.
- develops motor skills
- social competence
- engineering skills
- mathematical achievement.
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Fold and Go DollHouse
If you want to encourage free play in your child, you can choose this creative toy. This is a quintessential item that can bring out the quaintest or most imaginative story from your child’s imagination. It develops the cognitive and neurological functions of children. Besides, it is really great to improve motor skills in children. If you have a 2 years old kid, it is a perfect creative toy.
The Kitchen Play Set
The kitchen Playset is the perfect star that can engage children for a long time with pretend cooking. You will find here a huge number of recipes your little ones can try easily. It has well-modelled pans, ladles, ovens, spices, condiments, and cook-tops that inspire adults also to join in for a round or two of pretend cooking.
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Besides, the kids are excited to engage with it because of its bright colours and noises that mimic the sounds of mixers. Cooking toys are excellent to keep your kids engaged for long hours and most importantly, they inspire them to create their own imaginary world.
Why do you choose your little one?
- help them develop fine motor skills.
-give kids the opportunity to identify and categorise different food and cooking utensils.
Dress-Up Accessories
Dress-up play is an important part of growing up that presents your child with the required accessories to express themselves without inhibitions. It enables your kids to put on a suit to add some zing to their story-telling abilities. It is great to make your kids imaginative, inventive, and resourceful.
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You should select these creative toys for kids because they are:
- Brain building
- Vocabulary building
- Problem-solving
- Empathy builder
- Emotional development
- Motor skills
- Gender exploration
- Imitation
- Socialisation
Puppet and Puppet Theatre
Puppets are really lovable. People of all ages enjoy puppets. But children will definitely be interested and excited by puppets, especially if you have a mini theatre with curtains that can be drawn back and forth. Your little one of course will love the little hand puppets when you put in an act for them with funny voices and sound effects. They are absolutely wonderful and creative toys for kids.
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They are great for your child’s
- Language development
- Social development
- Emotional development
- Increasing Listening skills & Motor skills
- Building self-confidence & Creativity
- Improving storytelling and sequencing.
Puzzles
You can choose Puzzles even for your 8-year-old kid. The complexity of the puzzle increases with age and the child engages himself for the right amount of time. The puzzle has available colours and themes that are exciting.
Children are most often absorbed in solving a piece that they do not move from their place. Puzzles are helpful to grow a child’s concentration and spatial awareness. They give children topic-specific knowledge. Children also can increase their motor skills and problem-solving skills through puzzles. Above all, they are great for developing a child’s social skills.
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Magnetic tiles Set
Magnetic tile sets are really amazing to engage children for a long time. Your little one, of course, comes up with these interesting buildings and structures. Both boys and girls enjoy this toy and can use it in a variety of ways. These super-colorful tile sets come in a variety of shapes. The ends of the tiles have magnets that help them stick to each other. These are the best toys to encourage imagination and creativity.
Legos
Of course, your children love these sets to play with for a long time. They will enjoy quality time with these sets. Although many legos are sold in tools, you can also find the regular blocks and your little will be creative with either one.
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They are great as they:
- Improve Focus and Concentration.
- Increase Spatial Awareness.
- Develop Fine Motor Skills.
- Encourage Lateral Thinking and Creative Problem Solving.
- Inspire Experimentation and Adventure.
- Teach Organization Skills and Patience.
- Better Communication and Teamwork.
Crayon
Crayon can fire a child’s imagination and grow artistic potential with its huge arts and craft activities. Children can make birthday cards, key rings, color with crayons, or tracing stencils with this. Crayon toys are great to introduce your child to arts and crafts and develop their foundations for future physical, social and cognitive development.
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The most important 5 benefits of crayons are:
- Build fine motor skills
- First steps to writing
- Connect kids
- Encourage neural connections
- Self-esteem
Pattern blocks
You can choose pattern blocks for your lovely little one which allows your little one to either create his own designs or try to figure out how to imitate a pattern card.
Bottom Line
So far we have mentioned some of the most creative toys for children to keep them away from electronic gadgets. Nowadays, many parents allow their young children to use phones, tablets, and other electronics. These gadgets and screen times can harm children’s physical and mental growth. On the other hand, creative toys not only keep children busy but also nurture their creativity and facilitate healthy mental growth.
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Truce Beauty: A Bangladeshi Brand for Desi Skin Tones Breaking New Ground
All types of skin need care as it is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. Further, skincare can help to prevent skin problems and promote a healthy complexion. However, the way people care for their skin may vary depending on where they live. And most of the skincare products are based in the western region. While South Asian skin tone and weather are different, South Asian women don't have many options in choosing skincare products. Therefore, they need to rely on western products.
Nevertheless, the South Asian skin tone is a rear tone, which is prone to different skin problems, such as sunspots, hyperpigmentation, sun damage, and acne scarring. So, the olive-toned skin needs to be pampered in a special and unique way. Keeping that in mind, a Bangladeshi brand, 'Truce Beauty,' has been introducing skincare products, especially for South Asian skin.
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About Truce Beauty
Truce Beauty is a Bangladeshi skincare brand that aims to produce skincare products for Bangladeshi skin tones, perhaps the South Asian skin. The brand uses advanced Korean skincare technology to make its skincare products. Truce products are designed in a way that can improve your skin health naturally. Additionally, the products can be used for a diverse range of skin tones.
Background of Truce Beauty
We have seen for decades that South Asian culture promotes fair products and focuses on whitening. The local brands in Sound East Asia ignore the fact that women, for this reason, have sensitive skin tones and can have different skin-related problems.
The research found that local products not only neglect the skin-related issues but produce them in an unhealthy way focusing on whitening. While producing beauty care products should consider skin-related problems too. Keeping all these in mind, Truce Beauty comes up with a solution focusing on Desi skin.
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Truce Beauty is the brainchild of CEO Samira Quasem. In 2020 she got inspiration from local anti-fairness activism. Surprisingly, she came to know the unavailability of products for olive skin tone, especially for the Desi skin. After that, she decided it was the right time to develop products for our skin type. The next thing we knew, Samira worked with Korean beauty experts to create products for south Asian skins.
Truce Beauty's mission is to bring out your inner self-confidence and self-love by maintaining your beautiful olive skin tone.
The Truce Beauty products are made with high-quality, enriching ingredients which are suitable for sensitive skin. Most importantly, the products are cruelty-free. Moreover, the sulfate, paraben, synthetic dye-free formulation, and mineral oil help to build an effortless skin care regime.
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Some Products of Truce Beauty
Currently, Truce Beauty has three products in its line Truce Anti-pollution Face Wash, Truce Brightening TLC cream, and Truce Hydra Peel Toner. Let's get to know the details about the products.
Truce Anti-pollution Face Wash
If you are looking for a face wash that will help reduce the amount of pollution that your skin takes, then look no further than Truce Anti-Pollution Face Wash. This product is made with natural ingredients such as Glycerin, Niacinamide, Lemon Peel Oil, Salicylic Acid, and more. The face wash can clean your skin deeply and remove all the pollution you absorbed all day.
Moreover, the enriched Beta-hydroxy Acid (BHA) removes dead skin cells, blackheads, and clogged pores by revealing a fresh, smoother complexion. The niacinamide helps remove sun spots, acne scars, and hyperpigmentation, giving you a more even makeup look. Furthermore, the BHA functions as a makeup remover if you use it without water.
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Comes in 150ml Truce Anti-pollution Face Wash costs Tk. 1600.
Female artists dominate the Venice Biennale for 1st time
For the first time in the 127-year history of the Venice Biennale, the world’s oldest and most important contemporary art fair features a majority of female and gender non-conforming artists, under the curatorial direction of Cecilia Alemani.
The result is a Biennale that puts the spotlight on artists who have been long overlooked despite prolific careers, while also investigating themes including gender norms, colonialism and climate change.
Alemani’s main show, titled “The Milk of Dreams,” alongside 80 national pavilions opens Saturday after a one-year pandemic delay. The art fair runs through Nov. 27. It is only the fourth of the Biennale’s 59 editions under female curation.
Women took the top Golden Lion awards announced Saturday for best national pavilion, which went to the United Kingdom pavilion and artist Sonia Boyce. Best participant in the main exhibition was won by U.S. sculptor Simone Leigh.
The predominance of women among the more than 200 artists that Alemani chose for the main show “was not a choice, but a process,” Alemani, a New York-based Italian curator, said this week.
“I think some of the best artists today are women artists,” she told The Associated Press. “But also, let’s not forget, that in the long history of the Venice Biennale, the preponderance of male artists in previous editions has been astonishing.”
“Unfortunately, we still have not solved many issues that pertain to gender,” Alemani said.
Conceived during the coronavirus pandemic and opening as war rages in Europe, Alemani acknowledged that art in such times may seem “superficial.” But she also asserted the Biennale’s role over the decades as a “sort of seismographer of history ... to absorb and record also the traumas and the crises that go well beyond the contemporary art world.”
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In a potent reminder, the Russian pavilion remains locked this year, after the artists withdrew following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Nearby, sandbags have been erected in the center of the Giardini by the curators of the Ukrainian Pavilion, and surrounded by stylized posters of fresh artwork by Ukrainian artists representing the horrors of the two-month-old war.
American artist Leigh is among the women getting long-overdue recognition in mid-career at this Biennale. She is both headlining the U.S. pavilion and setting the tone at the main exhibit with a towering bust of a Black woman that Alemani originally commissioned for the High Line urban park in New York City.
Fusun Onur, a pioneer of conceptual art in Turkey, at age 85 has filled the Turkish pavilion with wiry cats and mice set up in storyboard tableaus that confront modern-day threats like the pandemic and climate change. While proud of her role representing Turkey and the work she produced during the pandemic in her home overlooking the Bosphorus, she acknowledged that the honor was late in coming.
“Why it is so I don’t know,” Fusan said by phone from Istanbul. “Women artists are working hard, but they are not always recognized. It is always men first.”
New Zealand is represented by third gender artist Yuki Kihara, whose installation “Paradise Camp,” tells the story of Samoa’s Fa’afafine community of people who don’t accept the gender they were assigned at birth.
The exhibition features photos of the Fa’afafine mimicking paintings of Pacific islanders by post-impressionist French artist Paul Gaugin, reclaiming the images in a process the artist refers to as “upcycling.”
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“Paradise Camp is really about imagining a Fa’afafine utopia, where it shutters colonial hetero-normality to make way for an Indigenous world view that is inclusive and sensitive to the changes in the environment,” Kihara said.
The image of a hyper-realistic sculpture of a futuristic female satyr giving birth opposite her satyr partner, who has hung himself, sets a grim post-apocalyptic tone at the Danish Pavilion, created by Uffe Isolotto.
The Nordic nations of Norway, Sweden and Finland this year turned over their shared pavilion to the Sami, one of Europe’s oldest Indigenous groups, touching on a different idea of nation as the Sami ancestral arctic homeland now spans four nations.
The Sami Pavilion offered a more hopeful path out of the apocalypse, with artwork and performances depicting the struggle against colonialism by the Sami people, while also celebrating their traditions.
“We have in a way discovered how to live within the apocalyptic world and do it while, you know, maintaining our spirits and our beliefs and systems of value,″ said co-curator Liisa-Ravna Finbog.
This year’s Golden Lion for lifetime achievement awards go to German artist Katherina Fritsch, whose life-like Elephant sculpture stands in the rotunda of the main exhibit building in the Giardini, and Chilean poet, artist and filmmaker Cecilia Vicuna, whose portrait of her mother’s eyes graces the Biennale catalog cover.
Vicuna painted the portrait while the family was in exile after the violent military coup in Chile against President Salvador Allende. Now 97, her mother accompanied her to the Biennale.
“You see that her spirit is still present, so in a way that painting is like a triumph of love against dictatorship, against repression, against hatred,” Vicuna said.
New Zealand reports the 1st Omicron XE variant
New Zealand reported its first case of Omicron XE variant at the border, said the Ministry of Health in a statement on Saturday.
A person who has traveled from overseas to New Zealand has been confirmed as having the XE variant of Omicron, said the ministry.
This is the first known detection of the Omicron XE variant in New Zealand, it said.
According to the ministry, the person, who is currently isolating at home, arrived in New Zealand on April 19 and was tested on April 20. The whole-genome sequencing subsequently confirmed the XE variant.
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"XE has been spreading overseas, and its arrival in New Zealand is not unexpected," said the ministry.
Meanwhile, the country reported 19 deaths from COVID-19, with 7,930 community cases and 494 hospitalizations on Saturday.
In addition, 55 new cases of COVID-19 were detected at the New Zealand border, said the ministry.
New Zealand has reported 875,794 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.
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As the country is going through Anzac long weekend, the ministry has warned people to take health measures to protect themselves from the virus.
"Firstly, be up to date with vaccinations. Secondly, wear a mask. And thirdly, stay home and avoid others if you're unwell," said the ministry.
New Zealand is currently under the orange settings of the COVID-19 Protection Framework, where there is no limit for gatherings.
From Ukraine to Russia: Boy safer, but not closer to US dad
Quintana has been trying to bring his son back to the U.S. since his estranged wife took the child to Ukraine without Quintana’s permission in 2020. He was working to get the boy returned through a Ukrainian court when the war broke out, and he lost communication with them.
Last month, he finally learned that, unlike the millions of Ukrainians who fled to Poland or Moldova, the family and others from Mariupol escaped across the closest international border to Russia.
Russia, however, is not a partner of the United States under an international treaty that governs the return of children abducted overseas by one of their parents, though Ukraine is. That has Quintana hoping the Ukrainian court will take his case back up and he can get Russian authorities to enforce any ruling in his favor. He said he’s also trying to persuade his estranged Ukrainian-American wife, Antonina Aslanova, to return to California on her own.
“I’m not giving up, and my son’s not going to grow up in Russia,” Quintana said.
A WhatsApp message sent to Aslanova seeking comment was not returned.
International parental child abduction cases are complex, and advocates say relatively few children taken from their countries of residence are promptly returned. More than 2,000 applications were filed in 2015 under the international treaty that puts in place a process for resolving these cases, and about 45% resulted in the children being returned, according to a report by the Hague Conference on Private International Law.
Many countries have signed the treaty, but it isn’t in effect between the United States and Russia, which makes getting a child returned very difficult, said Melissa Kucinski, a Washington-based attorney who specializes in these cases.
“With the child now sitting in Russia, my expectation is the father’s California custody order will probably mean very little,” Kucinski said.
Quintana, 35, has been trying for more than a year to get his son back through the treaty process with Ukraine, since a California judge ordered that the boy should be returned to him. Quintana traveled to Ukraine, hired a lawyer and said he got Aslanova to agree to let him bring the boy to California. But he said her mother opposed and filed a complaint with police, which stopped him from doing so.
Then, a critical court hearing in February was delayed to March and put off again because of the war.
Since then, Ukraine has said it won’t be able to uphold its treaty commitments during the war, according to the U.S. State Department’s website. The U.S. embassy in Kyiv is closed, though the State Department said it can assist Americans with consular services once they reach another country.
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In Russia, the U.S. government’s ability to provide routine or emergency services to U.S. citizens is “severely limited,” a department official said.
The war drove Quintana to desperation. He sent money to Aslanova when the invasion began, but communication was cut off as the city of Mariupol fell under siege. When he couldn’t reach his son, Quintana asked Ukrainian officials for permission to travel to the war-torn country to find him. He was planning to buy a plane ticket to Europe when he said the State Department confirmed the boy, Aslanova and her family had escaped to Russia.
Quintana said he spoke with Aslanova after she got out of Mariupol. He said she was considering coming back to California but was reluctant because she faces criminal charges for child abduction and also for driving under the influence in a case that prompted Quintana to seek the custody order in 2020.
“She is worried about jail,” he said. “Why does my son have to suffer because of her?”
Noelle Hunter, co-founder of the iStand Parent Network, said a voluntary agreement is typically the best option in these cases. She said Quintana has asked the district attorney’s office to drop the abduction charge if Aslanova returns, but prosecutors have not committed to doing so. State Department officials have offered to expedite documents should Aslanova leave Russia and take the child to another country, she said.
“We can’t just kind of sit on our hands,” said Hunter, whose organization supports parents whose children were taken overseas. “We have to be ready.”
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The Orange County district attorney’s office declined to discuss the case.
Quintana and Aslanova were in the process of divorcing when she was arrested for investigation of driving under the influence, according to a letter from Orange County prosecutors to Ukrainian officials.
Quintana was granted a custody order and allowed Aslanova to visit the boy at his home in December 2020. While he was sleeping, she took him to the airport and boarded a flight to Turkey then another to Ukraine, he said.
UK patient had COVID-19 for 505 days straight, study shows
A UK patient with a severely weakened immune system had COVID-19 for almost a year and a half, scientists reported, underscoring the importance of protecting vulnerable people from the coronavirus.
There’s no way to know for sure whether it was the longest-lasting COVID-19 infection because not everyone gets tested, especially on a regular basis like this case.
But at 505 days, “it certainly seems to be the longest reported infection,” said Dr. Luke Blagdon Snell, an infectious disease expert at the Guy’s & St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
Snell’s team plans to present several “persistent” COVID-19 cases at an infectious diseases meeting in Portugal this weekend.
Their study investigated which mutations arise — and whether variants evolve — in people with super long infections. It involved nine patients who tested positive for the virus for at least eight weeks. All had weakened immune systems from organ transplants, HIV, cancer or treatment for other illnesses. None were identified for privacy reasons.
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Repeated tests showed their infections lingered for an average of 73 days. Two had the virus for more than a year. Previously, researchers said, the longest-known case that was confirmed with a PCR test lasted 335 days.
“In long COVID, it’s generally assumed the virus has been cleared from your body but the symptoms persist,” Snell said. “With persistent infection, it represents ongoing, active replication of the virus.”
Each time researchers tested patients, they analyzed the genetic code of the virus to make sure it was the same strain and that people didn’t get COVID-19 more than once. Still, genetic sequencing showed that the virus changed over time, mutating as it adapted.
The mutations were similar to the ones that later showed up in widespread variants, Snell said, although none of the patients spawned new mutants that became variants of concern. There’s also no evidence they spread the virus to others.
The person with the longest known infection tested positive in early 2020, was treated with the antiviral drug remdesiver and died sometime in 2021. Researchers declined to name the cause of death and said the person had several other illnesses.
Five patients survived. Two cleared the infection without treatment, two cleared it after treatment and one still has COVID-19. At the last follow-up earlier this year, that patient’s infection had lasted 412 days.
Researchers hope more treatments will be developed to help people with persistent infections beat the virus.
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“We do need to be mindful that there are some people who are more susceptible to these problems like persistent infection and severe disease,” Snell said.
Although persistent infections are rare, experts said there are many people with compromised immune systems who remain at risk of severe COVID-19 and who are trying to stay safe after governments lifted restrictions and masks started coming off. And it’s not always easy to know who they are, said Dr. Wesley Long, a pathologist at Houston Methodist in Texas, who was not part of the research.
“Masking in crowds is a considerate thing to do and a way we can protect others,” he said.
Russia’s Chernobyl seizure seen as nuclear risk ‘nightmare’
Here in the dirt of one of the world’s most radioactive places, Russian soldiers dug trenches. Ukrainian officials worry they were, in effect, digging their own graves.
Thousands of tanks and troops rumbled into the forested Chernobyl exclusion zone in the earliest hours of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, churning up highly contaminated soil from the site of the 1986 accident that was the world’s worst nuclear disaster.
For more than a month, some Russian soldiers bunked in the earth within sight of the massive structure built to contain radiation from the damaged Chernobyl nuclear reactor. A close inspection of their trenches was impossible because even walking on the dirt is discouraged.
As the 36th anniversary of the April 26, 1986, disaster approaches and Russia’s invasion continues, it’s clear that Chernobyl — a relic of the Cold War — was never prepared for this.
With scientists and others watching in disbelief from afar, Russian forces flew over the long-closed plant, ignoring the restricted airspace around it. They held personnel still working at the plant at gunpoint during a marathon shift of more than a month, with employees sleeping on tabletops and eating just twice a day.
Even now, weeks after the Russians left, “I need to calm down,” the plant’s main security engineer, Valerii Semenov, told The Associated Press. He worked 35 days straight, sleeping only three hours a night, rationing cigarettes and staying on even after the Russians allowed a shift change.
“I was afraid they would install something and damage the system,” he said in an interview.
Workers kept the Russians from the most dangerous areas, but in what Semenov called the worst situation he has seen in his 30 years at Chernobyl, the plant was without electricity, relying on diesel generators to support the critical work of circulating water for cooling the spent fuel rods.
“It was very dangerous to act in this way,” said Maksym Shevchuck, the deputy head of the state agency managing the exclusion zone. He was scared by it all.
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Russia’s invasion marks the first time that occupying a nuclear plant was part of a nation’s war strategy, said Rebecca Harms, former president of the Greens group in the European Parliament, who has visited Chernobyl several times. She called it a “nightmare” scenario in which “every nuclear plant can be used like a pre-installed nuclear bomb.”
A visit to the exclusion zone, more desolate than usual, found that the invasion risked a catastrophe worse than the original explosion and fire at Chernobyl that sent radioactive material into the atmosphere and became a symbol of the Soviet Union’s stumbling final years. Billions of dollars were spent by the international community, including Russia, to stabilize and secure the area.
Now authorities are working with Ukraine’s defense ministry on ways to protect Chernobyl’s most critical places. At the top of the list are anti-drone systems and anti-tank barriers, along with a system to protect against warplanes and helicopters.
None of it will matter much if Russian President Vladimir Putin resorts to nuclear weapons, which Shevchuck says he can’t rule out anymore.
“I understand they can use any kind of weapon and they can do any awful thing,” he said.
Chernobyl needs special international protection with a robust U.N. mandate, Harms said. As with the original disaster, the risks are not only to Ukraine but to nearby Belarus and beyond.
“It depends from where the wind blows,” she said.
After watching thousands of Soviet soldiers work to contain the effects of the 1986 accident, sometimes with no protection, Harms and others were shocked at the Russian soldiers’ disregard for safety, or their ignorance, in the recent invasion.
Some soldiers even stole highly radioactive materials as souvenirs or possibly to sell.
“I think from movies they have the imagination that all dangerous small things are very valuable,” Shevchuck said.
He believes hundreds or thousands of soldiers damaged their health, likely with little idea of the consequences, despite plant workers’ warnings to their commanders.
“Most of the soldiers were around 20 years old,” he said. “All these actions proves that their management, and in Russia in general, human life equals like zero.”
The full extent of Russia’s activities in the Chernobyl exclusion zone is still unknown, especially because the troops scattered mines that the Ukrainian military is still searching for. Some have detonated, further disturbing the radioactive ground. The Russians also set several forest fires, which have been put out.
Ukrainian authorities can’t monitor radiation levels across the zone because Russian soldiers stole the main server for the system, severing the connection on March 2. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday it still wasn’t receiving remote data from its monitoring systems. The Russians even took Chernobyl staffers’ personal radiation monitors.
In the communications center, one of the buildings in the zone not overgrown by nature, the Russians looted and left a carpet of shattered glass. The building felt deeply of the 1980s, with a map on a wall still showing the Soviet Union. Someone at some point had taken a pink marker and traced Ukraine’s border.
Also Read: Russians leave Chernobyl site as fighting rages elsewher
In normal times, about 6,000 people work in the zone, about half of them at the nuclear plant. When the Russians invaded, most workers were told to evacuate immediately. Now about 100 are left at the nuclear plant and 100 are elsewhere.
Semenov, the security engineer, recalled the Russians checking the remaining workers for what they called radicals.
“We said, ‘Look at our documents, 90% of us are originally from Russia,’” he said. “But we’re patriots of our country,” meaning Ukraine.
When the Russians hurriedly departed March 31 as part of a withdrawal from the region that left behind scorched tanks and traumatized communities, they took more than 150 Ukrainian national guard members into Belarus. Shevchuck fears they’re now in Russia.
In their rush, the Russians gave nuclear plant managers a choice: Sign a document saying the soldiers had protected the site and there were no complaints, or be taken into Belarus. The managers signed.
One protective measure the Russians did appear to take was leaving open a line routing communications from the nuclear plant through the workers’ town of Slavutych and on to authorities in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. It was used several times, Shevchuck said.
“I think they understood it should be for their safety,” he said. The IAEA said Tuesday the plant is now able to contact Ukraine’s nuclear regulator directly.
Another Ukrainian nuclear plant, at Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine, remains under Russian control. It is the largest in Europe.
Shevchuck, like other Ukrainians, has had it with Putin.
“We’re inviting him inside the new safe confinement shelter,” he said. “Then we will close it.”
Lessons of Ramadan: What does the holy month teach us?
Fasting is an important basic act of worship in Islam. Like every act of worship in Islam, there is a lot of wisdom in fasting. Moreover, the importance and significance of fasting in our lives are immense. The true teachings of love for creation and desire for welfare should be reflected in our hearts and lives through Ramadan. In addition to worship in Ramadan, it is also necessary to acquire education in some humanities. Let’s see what we can learn from Ramadan.
The Teachings of Holy Ramadan
Taqwa or Fear of Allah
Taqwa means fear of Allah (God). Ramadan teaches us the most, taqwa. In the last verse of the verse in which Allah has declared fasting obligatory, He said, "So that you may attain taqwa." A fasting person can eat something secretly in the corner of the house if he wants. But, no one does that as the person has fear of Allah. But, we should not only fear Allah during Ramadan, we should hold fear all time. We can learn this lesson of Ramadan and apply it to our daily life by doing good deeds by knowing that Allah is watching us.
Read: Ramadan Fasting with Diabetes: Best foods for Sehri and Iftar
Self-control
Self-control means to suppress oneself, to control oneself. In other months, we do bad things or use bad words, these happen very rarely among us during Ramadan. For the sake of the purity of Ramadan, many times we refrain from these misdeeds by thinking about the sanctity of Ramadan. This habit of self-control is formed in us only during the month of Ramadan and we need to continue this throughout the year.
Patience
Iftar items are ready on the table, but we are not taking anything until the Azan or the exact time to break the fast. This is patience. Someone hurts you, but you did not reply back as you are fasting. This teaches us passion.
Further, Ramadan teaches us great patience even in worship. We are fasting every day and after completing the Esha prayer we are performing 20 Rakat Taraweeh prayers. This also teaches us patience, which we can use in our real life.
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In other months, sometimes our laziness comes during performing obligatory prayers, but during Ramadan, our laziness does not come at all. That’s how Ramadan teaches our patience
Moderate Diet
It is forbidden in the hadith to eat too much and the negative effects of eating up to the throat are also mentioned in the hadith. Medical science also warns us about this. We are consciously or subconsciously careful about this in the month of Ramadan. Hence, we tend to eat less food in iftar as we have to attend Taraweeh.
Moreover, we eat as little food as possible in Iftar, otherwise, it will be difficult to perform Taraweeh. We can imply this throughout the year to keep ourselves healthy. So, we can make it a habit for the rest of the year and keep this lesson in our minds.
Read: Healthy Iftar Meal Recipes for Breaking Ramadan Fasting
Good sense of discipline
The well-disciplined feeling that Ramadan teaches us every day, from Sehri to Tarabeeh, is important to our lives, even if we don't see it. During Ramadan, every fasting person has a specific routine, according to which the person manages the whole day. We have to carry this Ramadan-given routine for the sake of welfare even after Ramadan.
Helping the Poor
Ramadan actually gives us a special opportunity to help the poor through Zakat and donation. During Ramadan, almost every eligible person pays Zakat to the rightful owners according to their ability. Through this Zakat, we create special sympathy for the poor, orphans, and helpless people of society. We can keep this as a habit even after Ramadan throughout the year.
Read: Ramadan Fasting Benefits: Impacts on health when you fast for 16 hours
Provide Food to Other
The beloved Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) has clearly told us that there is a great reward if we feed someone. In Ramadan, many people come forward to arrange Iftar-sehri for the helpless, aiming to get huge rewards. It awakens a kind of human feeling in us. The gentle mentality of giving food to the hungry develops in us. This is a great lesson we can make a habit even after Ramadan.
Lighten the Labor of the Workers
Ramadan has been instructed to lighten the burden of hardship on employees and to be kind to the workers. Workers' rights are important in Islam. His labor hours, labor value, social status, and rights are preserved in the most beautiful way in Islam.
In addition, during the month of Ramadan, it has been instructed to alleviate the sufferings of the workers, and Allah forgives the person who reduces the workload of his slaves and employees during this month. However, the opposite situation is observed in our country. We can learn this empathy from Ramadan and imply to our life after Ramadan too.
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Suppression of Malice
Fasting is the best tool to suppress evil instincts. As a result, people tend to refrain from sin and get encouragement for good deeds That is why fasting has been called the shield of salvation from sin Narrated by Hazrat Abu Huraira (RA), Rasulullah (SAW) said, "Allah Ta'ala said, 'Fasting is a shield.'
Equality and Harmony
All Muslims at the same time, in the month of Ramadan, abide by the same rules, refraining from eating and drinking from dawn to dusk. And collectively, that is, rich-poor, fair-black, men and women all obey the command of Allah together. Hence, the image of great unity emerged. Fasting teaches people to refrain from quarrels and fights In this way, it encourages the establishment of harmony and love between each other.
Final Words
These teachings and leassons of Ramadan will be effective only when we apply these in the remaining 11 months of the year. We have to spend the every day of our lives focusing on these lessons and applying them to our daily life.
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Sub in pearl couscous for rice for a quick, creamy ‘risotto’
Classic risotto is made with starchy medium-grain Italian rice, such as Arborio or carnaroli. It is toasted then cooked, sometimes slowly, over low heat as broth is ladled into the pan in stages. While the liquid absorbs, the cook stirs, stirs and keeps stirring.
This “risotto,” from our book “COOKish,” which limits recipes to just six ingredients without sacrificing flavor, uses pearl couscous (which actually is a pasta) and higher heat to produce “grains” with a rich, creamy consistency.
Much as with rice, stirring releases starch from the couscous that thickens into a creamy sauce, and the “risotto” finishes in the time it takes to cook pasta.
The wheaty flavor of pearl couscous (sometimes called Israeli couscous or ptitim) is a perfect match for grassy, subtly sweet asparagus and the salty, nutty flavor of Parmesan cheese.
We reserve the asparagus stalk and tip pieces separately; they’re added at different times because they cook at slightly different rates. Don’t use especially thick or particularly slender asparagus for this recipe; pencil-sized spears will be perfectly tender when the couscous is done.
PEARL COUSCOUS ‘RISOTTO’ WITH ASPARAGUS
Start to finish: 30 minutes
Servings: 4
4 tablespoons (½ stick) salted butter, cut into 1-tablespoon pieces
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
Kosher salt and ground black pepper
3 medium garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 cup pearl couscous
⅓ cup dry white wine
1 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut on the diagonal into ½-inch pieces; reserve the stalks and tips separately
1 ounce Parmesan cheese, finely grated (½ cup), plus more to serve
½ cup lightly packed fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped, plus more to serve
In a 12-inch skillet over medium-high, melt 3 tablespoons of the butter. Add the onion and ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper, then cook, stirring, until it begins to soften, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant. Add the couscous and cook, stirring often, until it begins to brown.
Pour in the wine and cook, stirring, until the pan is almost dry, about 1 minute. Add 3 cups water and ½ teaspoon salt, then cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Stir in the asparagus stalks and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes, then stir in the asparagus tips. Continue to cook, stirring, until almost all the liquid has been absorbed and the asparagus is tender, about another 2 minutes.
Off heat, add the Parmesan, parsley and remaining 1 tablespoon butter, then stir until the butter melts. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Serve sprinkled with additional Parmesan and parsley.