David Bowie’s unrealised dreams to finally see light of day as V&A acquires his archive
Anita Singh
Wed, 22 February 2023
The 'unprecedented' gift to the Victoria and Albert will give fans new insight into the life of David Bowie - Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns
The Victoria and Albert (V&A) has acquired the David Bowie archive in the largest donation of its kind in the museum’s history.
The “unprecedented” gift of 80,000 objects includes Bowie’s most famous stage outfits and the handwritten lyrics to songs such as Heroes and Ashes to Ashes.
But fans will also learn about unrealised projects that never saw the light of day, through the notebooks that Bowie filled with ideas.
They include a musical adaptation of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, which he had hoped to take to the West End but which failed to gain the approval of Orwell’s widow.
The archive features letters, sheet music, film, video, set designs, instruments, album artwork, awards and a huge collection of photographs.
The archive shows some of Bowie's most striking outfits - Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
There are “intimate” notebooks, 70,000 pictures and the synthesiser that Brian Eno used on Bowie albums, as well as the Stylophone that was a present from Marc Bolan and was used in the recording of Space Oddity.
Costumes include the Ziggy Stardust ensembles designed by Freddie Burretti, as well as Kansai Yamamoto’s flamboyant creations for the 1973 Aladdin Sane tour.
David Bowie wearing the bodysuit designed by Kansai Yamamoto for the 1973 Aladdin Sane tour - Sukita and The David Bowie Archive/PA
A photo collage of film stills from The Man Who Fell To Earth will go on display, as will examples of the “cut up” writing introduced to Bowie by William Burroughs.
Bowie used a 'cut up' style of writing to produce his work - The David Bowie Archive
Bowie meticulously catalogued his own work and housed the collection in a storage facility in New Jersey.
Some of it appeared in a record-breaking V&A exhibition, which opened in 2013 and was seen by two million people around the world.
“He kept absolutely everything,” said a friend of the star, who died in 2016. “Every outfit from Top of the Pops, detailed notes of every project. The exhibition only scratched the surface.”
A self-portrait of Bowie that will feature in the forthcoming display - The David Bowie Archive
The archive will be housed at the new V&A site at East London’s Olympic Park, in The David Bowie Centre for the Study of Performing Arts.
The £10 million centre is being funded by Warner Music Group and the foundation of Sir Leonard Blavatnik, the Ukrainian-born billionaire and arts philanthropist.
It is the largest gift ever made by a performer to the V&A. Tristram Hunt, the museum’s director, said it would provide “a new sourcebook for the Bowies of tomorrow”.
Kate Bailey, the V&A’s senior curator of theatre and performance, said of the archive: “The scale and breadth is unprecedented.
“It is absolutely remarkable. Not only was Bowie making amazing music and touring the world, he managed to meticulously preserve and curate the important parts of his creative journey. From the 1960s, he was keeping things.
“There are notebooks and scripts, ideas and notations. They are intimate in the creative sense. Bowie’s life was art, and you definitely get that sense.”
Bowie’s death followed an “18-month battle with cancer” which he fought privately, keeping the news from all but the closest family and friends.
His estate was divided between his widow, Iman, and his children, Duncan and Lexi Jones. The executor of his will is Bill Zysblat, Bowie’s long-time business manager.
The estate sold Bowie’s publishing catalogue to Warner Chappell Music last year for a reported $250 million (£206.5 million).
Thousands of photographs are also part of the collection - John Robert Rowlands
A spokesman for the estate said: “With David’s life’s work becoming a part of the UK’s national collections, he takes his rightful place amongst many other cultural icons and artistic geniuses.
“We’re so pleased to be working closely with the V&A to continue to commemorate David’s enduring cultural influence.”
The collection is so vast that it will take two years to catalogue, with the centre scheduled to open its doors in 2025.
Bowie’s plans for the George Orwell musical have intrigued fans for decades.
He told one biographer: “My office approached Mrs Orwell because I said: ‘Office, I want to do Nineteen Eighty-Four as a musical, go get me the rights.’
“And they duly trooped off to see Mrs Orwell, who in so many words said: ‘You’ve got to be out of your gourd. Do you think I’m turning this over to that as a musical?’ So they came back and said: ‘Sorry, David, you can’t write it.’”
Bowie had already started work on the songs, some of which ended up in a modified form on the 1974 Diamond Dogs album.
NAIVE YOUNG WOMAN
Georgia grand jury foreperson set off a firestorm with her ‘media circus’. But will the comments tarnish the case?
SHE CLAIMED NEVER VOTED AND KNEW NONE OF THE ACTORS IN THE CASE. SHE WAS STAR STRUCK MEETING RUDI GUILLIANI
John Bowden
Wed, 22 February 2023 \
Emily Kohrs (NBC News)
Emily Kohrs raised more than a few eyebrows with a surprise media tour in the wake of her service on Fulton County’s grand jury investigating Donald Trump’s election interference in the state.
Ms Kohrs found herself the subject of surprising criticism this week after she gave a series of interviews to journalists at major media outlets around the country, all regarding her service as foreperson on the grand jury hearing evidence in the case of Mr Trump’s effort to overturn his 2020 defeat in Georgia.
Some of her comments in particular described the grand jury’s deliberations, including whether they found some witnesses who appeared before them to be credible. She also explained the grand jury’s decision not to seek testimony from Mr Trump himself, though she was careful to not address any direct prompts to name witnesses or targets of the probe who were recommended for criminal charges. She did, however, laugh when asked about Mr Trump’s comments that the grand jury “exonerated” him.
Much of the most vocal criticism came from two figures on CNN, Anderson Cooper and legal analyst Elie Honig, who trashed the 30-year-old for her remarks to one of their colleagues just hours after the interview took place.
“This is a horrible idea,” said Mr Honig of her multiple interviews. “And I guarantee you that prosecutors are wincing, watching her go on this.”
Mr Honig went on to accuse Ms Kohrs of not taking the process seriously. Cooper chimed in, adding: “There’s no reason for her to be out talking.”
“No. It’s a prosecutor’s nightmare. Mark my words, Donald Trump’s team is going to make a motion if there’s an indictment to dismiss that indictment based on grand jury impropriety,” Mr Honig concluded.
And the former president was quick to weigh in too, deriding Ms Kohrs’s speaking style as “energetic” and referring to the grand jury as a “Kangaroo Court” (despite it not being a trial).
“This Georgia case is ridiculous, a strictly political continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt of all time. Now you have an extremely energetic young woman, the (get this!) “foreperson” of the Racist D.A.’s Special Grand Jury, going around and doing a Media Tour revealing, incredibly, the Grand Jury’s inner workings & thoughts. This is not JUSTICE, this is an illegal Kangaroo Court,” he insisted.
But in conversations with The Independent on Wednesday, two experts with litigation experience, including criminal prosecution, said that these fears were overblown.
Steve Plafker, a retired deputy district attorney for the county of Los Angeles, said that Ms Kohrs’ remarks would be a “drop in the bucket” compared to the entirety of the public speculation that has taken place around this case, and noted that her remarks did not even occur as a trial was underway. Finding jurors who were unfamiliar with her remarks would merely be part of the jury selection process should that would take place, he asserted.
“In light of the publicity Mr Trump, or any politician for that matter, attracts generally, this woman's statements are a drop in the bucket, actually the ocean,” Mr Plafker explained. “I do not see any chance of prejudice arising from them.”
He added that there was little chance of Mr Honig’s fears of Mr Trump’s attorneys filing successfully for potential charges to be dismissed.
“Even if I am wrong, there is no chance of their leading to a mistrial. Any danger of prejudice resulting from pre-trial publicity is handled at the time of jury selection. Mistrials result from problems arising during trial,” Mr Plafker went on. “If this woman had been exercising good judgment, she would have gone home and kept her mouth shut, but I doubt that anything she said would make a prosecutor's job any more difficult than it already is.”
Norm Eisen, who served as a litigator for the high-powered DC law firm Zuckerman Spaeder LLP – as well as White House special counsel – concurred. The only real danger arising from Ms Kohrs’s comments, he asserted, could come in the form of an opportunity for Mr Trump’s team to file pointless motions as a delay tactic.
“There’s now a media circus around Ms Kohrs’ comments,” Mr Eisen explained. “I think it’d be better for her on the whole to be a little more restrained. Her media tour is a bit of a distraction from the underlying substantive questions of guilt or innocence. Moreover, it creates an opportunity for a prospective efendant known for filing frivolous legal motions to make more.“
But, he added: “Donald Trump may very well attempt to file some kind of a motion about the foreperson’s statements. But legally, they’re not significant.”
“As the judge noted at the hearing, grand jurors do have some secrecy leeway under Georgia law and practice,” he said. “Ms Kohrs has been very openly trying to operate within the parameters that the judge apparently gave on what is and is not allowed, and so far I don’t think she’s exceeded them.”
A decision by Fulton County’s district attorney, Fani Willis, is expected imminently in the case against Mr Trump and his legal team. A partial release of the grand jury’s final report indicated that at least some of the recommended indictments stem from instances in which the grand jury’s members believed that one or more witnesses were untruthful in their testimony; Donald Trump did not testify.
Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope finds set of huge galaxies that ‘shouldn’t exist’
Andrew Griffin
Wed, 22 February 2023
Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope has found a set of massive galaxies that should not exist.
The equipment was used to observe a set of massive galaxies that formed around 500-700 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was only 3 per cent of its current age. Those galaxies have stellar masses as high as ten billion times that of our Sun, and one that could be as massive as 100 billion of our Sun.
In all, scientists found six galaxies, which together threaten to change what scientists know about the beginnings of galaxies in our universe. Researchers say they refer to the objects as “universe breakers” and that they are in tension with 99 per cent of existing models of the universe.
The six galaxy candidates that could change our understanding of the cosmos (NASA)
Such galaxies should not be expected to be so big so soon after the beginnings of the universe, the researchers say. The mass of the stars examined in the new research are as much as 100 times greater than researchers had previously thought.
“These objects are way more massive​ than anyone expected,” said Joel Leja, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State, who modeled light from the galaxies, in a statement.
“We expected only to find tiny, young, baby galaxies at this point in time, but we’ve discovered galaxies as mature as our own in what was previously understood to be the dawn of the universe.”
If they can be confirmed, they suggest that our history of the early cosmos may be wrong, and that galaxies grew far more quickly than we realised. That would require changing either our models of the universe or our understanding of how galaxies began.
“We looked into the very early universe for the first time and had no idea what we were going to find,” Leja said. “It turns out we found something so unexpected it actually creates problems for science. It calls the whole picture of early galaxy formation into question.”
But scientists caution that the distance and age of the galaxies mean that they cannot be absolutely sure what they are. Some might turn out to be supermassive black holes, researchers say – but with six candidates, a number of them are likely to really be galaxies, as suspected.
“If even one of these galaxies is real, it will push against the limits of our understanding of cosmology,” said Erica Nelson, co-author of the new research and assistant professor of astrophysics at the University of Colorado Boulder.
And even other objects would still be shocking, researchers say. “Another possibility is that these things are a different kind of weird object, such as faint quasars, which would be just as interesting,” said Professor Nelson.
The findings could be confirmed by taking spectrum images of the galaxies, which would better confirm how far away they are and what they are made up of. That in turn would let scientist understand what they might look like and how big they are.
The new study, ‘A population of red candidate massive galaxies ~600 Myr after the Big Bang’, is published in Nature today.
AUSTRALIA
How the NSW government can still benefit from developer money despite political donations ban
Anne DaviesGUARDIAN AUSTRALIA
Wed, 22 February 2023
The New South Wales government is indirectly benefiting from donations from property developers who are legally able to give huge sums to fund prestige projects in the state, despite there being a ban on financial contributions to political parties.
One of the state’s biggest developers, Lang Walker, and his charity the Walker Family Foundation are now a major patron of the Powerhouse Museum, Campbelltown hospital and even the bicentennial of the NSW parliament, which will be celebrated in 2024.
It comes as Walker’s development company, Walker Corp, seeks to get 1,284 hectares of land rezoned for 12,900 houses at Appin on Sydney’s south-west fringe.
The Walker Family Foundation is a separate charitable entity and there is no suggestion its support for the projects is linked in any way to the Appin development.
Property developers making large philanthropic donations to government projects is entirely legal and arguably desirable when the public benefit. But experts point out that it can raise questions about the potential for (or perception of) undue influence in the state government’s dealings with that developer.
Related: Sydney’s growing pains: land rezoning a potential billion-dollar deal for developers after local council sidelined
Until last year Appin had been designated as suitable for housing “in the long term”, and the Department of Planning had said it was not needed until 2036.
But in November the planning minister, Anthony Roberts, announced that the NSW government was fast-tracking rezoning approval of Appin and that the state would take over assessment of the proposal from Wollondilly council.
Roberts and the NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, said the fast-tracking, which the department said was part of a pilot scheme, was designed to help drive down real estate prices in Sydney by increasing supply of housing sites.
The relationship of state governments to developers has long been a source of sensitivity because of their role in planning and approving developments.
The former NSW Labor government was mired in multiple scandals about the potential (or perceived potential) influence that political donations by developers might have had on decisions.
Related: Ten donors gave 77% of total political donations in lead-up to last Australian election
NSW Labor was a huge beneficiary while in power. For example, companies in the Walker Corp group alone were able to legally donate more than $1.2m to the party over eight years before the ban. Other developers, including Payce Consolidated and Meriton, were also regular donors to both the state Labor and Liberal parties. Payce donated $106,000, while Meriton contributed nearly $600,000 to the state parties’ coffers.
The growing concerns about some Labor MPs’ relationships with developers and the potential for undue influence this might have over planning led to a total ban on developer donations to political parties in 2010.
But the NSW government accepts monetary support, albeit indirectly, from developers in other entirely legal ways.
After the NSW ban, Walker Corp continued its support of the federal Liberal party, donating more than $700,000 over the last decade to federal campaigns. There is no restriction on federal donations from developers, which can be made via state offices, provided they are deposited into the federal campaign account and used to fund federal activities.
More recently, some of the Walker Family Foundation’s philanthropy has been directed towards projects in NSW that would appear to have indirectly assisted the state government, while complying with the state’s ban on developer donations.
Powerhouse lifeline
By 2021 it was apparent that one of the NSW government’s marquee projects, the Powerhouse Parramatta Museum, was running over budget and would cost more than $500m to build. The Powerhouse announced it would seek $75m in private support.
In October that year Walker, through his family foundation, threw a $20m lifeline to the project.
In 2019 Walker gave $20m to fund a building named after him at Campbelltown hospital, which will be home to the Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research.
The Ingham family, of chicken fame, are also a major developer in western Sydney and set up the institute a decade ago. It has attracted support from other developers including the Perich and Vitocco families.
Related: Can you predict which parts of Sydney will be next to gentrify?
Walker has said his family has a history of investing in medical research, including at the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse and St Vincent’s hospital in inner Sydney.
He told the Australian Financial Review: “We’ve got a lot of land in the Macarthur region. We want to give back to the universities, the medical side of things and sport.”
The Walker Family Foundation’s support for the Powerhouse will establish the Lang Walker Family Academy, including four state-of-the-art education facilities, plus dorm rooms for students and teachers to stay at the museum.
It would inspire and educate students in western Sydney and beyond, Walker said at the time.
Rezoning decision
When Roberts became the minister for planning for the second time in December 2021, one of the first meetings he had was with Walker Corp, according to his official diary disclosures. The meeting is listed as “introductory” and it is not known which executives attended or what was discussed.
On 2 November last year Roberts announced that the NSW government would fast-track Walker’s Appin site and Ingham’s nearby North Appin site for residential rezoning, despite earlier assessments by the Department of Planning that these areas were not required for housing until 2036.
In response to questions from Guardian Australia, the NSW planning department said no lobbying by any developer had affected decision making.Interactive
Asked what had changed to bring forward the need for development at Appin, the department pointed to future housing projections and specifically a future housing supply analysis for western Sydney in 2021. The study said there wasn’t enough rezoned land in the pipeline to meet housing demand, with a projected shortfall of 67,000 homes by 2036 and 118,000 homes by 2041.
The department said the analysis had been undertaken by the consultants Atlas Urban Economics for Walker Corp at the request of a panel set up to work through some of the technical and strategic difficulties associated with the sites.
The department also pointed to its technical assurance panel which over the last year has worked with agencies to overcome obstacles to development of Appin.
University endowment
Walker has also supported Western Sydney University. He provided an endowment for a chair of urban transformation in the school of engineering and design at Western Sydney University and is the major developer of WSU’s Bankstown campus.
Last year he was named as one of eight ambassadors for the bicentennial of the NSW parliament. He is just one of two private sector supporters, the other being Westpac, whose chairman (of the Bank of NSW, as it was then) was a member of the first Legislative Council.
Related: Soaring property prices in Australia’s most sought-after regional areas come tumbling down
The president of the Legislative Council, Matthew Mason Cox, said the ambassadors had offered support for programs such as mentoring young leaders. He said Walker had offered his support because he was interested in the history of the parliament. He could not say what the support would be worth but said the bicentennial was largely funded by a $25m allocation in the state budget.
Walker was the first, along with Western Sydney University, to support the Powerhouse but other developers have followed his example of generosity.
The Vitocco family, which has land in the other major development area, the Aerotropolis near the new airport, has given a $5m donation.
Last April Holdmark Properties, which has residential developments in Parramatta, St Leonards and Lane Cove, made a $10m donation to establish an architectural and engineering exhibition and the Holdmark Gallery at the Powerhouse.
Its founder and chief executive, Sarkis Nassif, said his donation was motivated by a desire to give back to the city that, as he described, has “given so much to me”. Powerhouse Parramatta is Nassif’s first philanthropic gesture in the arts sector.
‘Why are they doing this?’
Analysis by the Centre for Public Integrity has found that property developers donated $5.7m in 2019 to federal politics and their donations are increasing, with the federal Liberal party being the biggest beneficiary.
“Property developers are the second-largest donating industry behind resources,” said Geoffrey Watson SC, a barrister and director of the Centre for Public Integrity.
“Obviously there is a conflict created by the intersection of politics and development. The high court pointed this out in the McCloy case, and the potential for conflict of interest is not just apparent; it has shown to be real.”
Related: Powerhouse Parramatta: entertainment centre ‘masquerading’ as a museum has high flood risk, inquiry finds
The former lord mayor of Newcastle Jeff McCloy challenged the constitutional validity of the NSW developer donations laws in the high court after he was caught giving bags of cash to state Liberal MPs in the back of his Bentley, in breach of the ban. The high court upheld the laws.
Watson said charitable donations also had the potential to create ambiguous perceptions. “Although there is now no more direct influence through political donations [in NSW], there can still be influence which can be wielded covertly through other means.
“It can also come through charitable donations that are made to causes close to the hearts of politicians. Can you control this? It’s not easy and you don’t want to dissuade wealthy people from funding worthwhile projects. It requires more careful consideration.
“The question that needs to be answered is: why are they doing this?”
Icac advice sought
When the Coalition came to power in NSW in 2013 it pledged to clean up Labor’s planning regime, which had allowed the state planning minister to “call in” particular developments and become the decision maker.
In its 2010 report on the dangers of political donations the Independent Commission Against Corruption said: “The existence of a wide discretion to approve projects that are contrary to local plans and do not necessarily conform to state strategic plans has the potential to deliver sizeable windfall gains to particular applicants. This creates a corruption risk and a community perception of a lack of appropriate boundaries.”
Under the planning ministers Brad Hazzard and Rob Stokes, the NSW government moved to distance itself from planning decisions and instead established independent planning commissions and panels to make assessments and publish the reasons for those assessments.
The latest fast-tracking mechanisms, introduced under Roberts, bring assessment of major projects and decision making back to the planning department and the minister.
A spokesperson for Roberts told Guardian Australia: “Decisions with respect to planning are made on the basis of expert advice provided by the Department of Planning and Environment. No individual or corporation has the ability to impact the decision making outside formal processes employed by the department.
The spokesperson also said the nominating process for Appin and the other projects had been designed “in lockstep” with independent probity advisers and was being carried out in accordance with strict probity provisions.
“The Department proactively sought advice from the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption to ensure the process safeguards against corruption risks.”
Biden attacks, McDonald’s and gaffes galore: Inside Trump’s tour of Ohio’s tragic train derailment
Andrew Feinberg
Wed, 22 February 2023
Former president Donald Trump took his 2024 presidential campaign to the site of a toxic chemical spill on Wednesday, surrounding himself with supporters and repeating discredited allegations about the Biden administration’s response to the East Palestine, Ohio disaster.
Mr Trump arrived at a nearby airport aboard his private Boeing 757 with camera crews present to watch him disembark as if he were still president, though without the massive security bubble or coterie of aides that accompanies an actual chief executive.
Speaking alongside members of the community who were arrayed behind him as a campaign-style backdrop, Mr Trump praised first responders and railroad workers for “serving bravely” over the two weeks following the Norfolk Southern freight train derailment and subsequent controlled burn of toxic chemicals approved by state and local authorities.
The twice-impeached ex-president also bragged of having brought cases of the Trump-branded bottled water used at his Mar-a-Lago club for use by East Palestine residents, with video of his arrival showing pallets of drinking water being unloaded by volunteers.
His arrival in East Palestine was meant as a rebuke to President Joe Biden, who has been overseas meeting with world leaders to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Mr Trump, whose 2016 election victory was aided by what the Justice Department found to be a “sweeping and systematic” campaign of interference on his behalf by the Russian government, has often denounced Mr Biden for his support of Ukraine’s defence.
Former President Donald Trump stands next to a pallet of water before delivering remarks at the East Palestine Fire Department station on February 22, 2023 in East Palestine, Ohio (Getty Images)
Asked if he had a message for the man who defeated him in 2020, Mr Trump replied: “Get over here”.
He acknowledged the town’s mayor, Trent Conaway, at one point implying that his size makes him easily identifiable.
“I also want to recognise a man who has been working tirelessly for this community since the beginning of the nightmare,” Mr Trump said. “Trent? Where is Trent. He’s very easy to find.”
Mr Trump also purportedly bought McDonald’s for first responders during his visit.
He also repeated what has become an oft-voiced but false claim about Mr Biden’s lack of interest in helping the Ohio town, which voted overwhelmingly for the ex-president in 2020.
He claimed Mr Biden and the Federal Emergency Management Agency “said they would not send federal aid to East Palestine under any circumstance,” and suggested that his announcement of plans to visit the town caused the federal government to act.
Both of those statements, however, were false.
While Biden administration officials have limited their public comments about the matter because of ongoing investigations, the White House has dispatched federal resources to East Palestine in the weeks following the derailment. But the deployment of many federal resources requires a federal disaster declaration that must be requested by the state’s governor, Mike DeWine.
It was also on Mr Trump’s watch that the Department of Transportation repealed regulations that could’ve prevented the derailment by requiring better brakes on freight trains.
Ray LaHood, the ex-Illinois Republican congressman who served as Secretary of Transportation during the Obama administration, said the ex-president’s culpability is fair game for attack. He told Politico that it was “clear” that Mr Trump’s journey to Ohio was a “political stunt”.
"If he wants to visit, he's a citizen. But clearly his regulations and the elimination of them, and no emphasis on safety, is going to be pointed out,” he said.
Republicans have attacked Mr Biden for not personally attending to the disaster site and have claimed that his overseas visit to address foreign policy and national security matters is evidence of his alleged disdain for so-called “flyover country”.
But Mr Biden has frequently avoided visiting disaster areas during ongoing operations because the security and other personnel that accompany presidential movements can bring important relief work to a halt and divert first responders from more important tasks.
Parka-making course means new coats for kids in need — and lifelong skills for new sewers
Wed, February 22, 2023
Rita Akearok holds up a parka she made as part of a three-week parka making course at Nunavut Arctic College in Iqaluit. (Submitted by Mariana Barney - image credit)
Sewers in Iqaluit put their best work on display Friday afternoon at Nunavut Arctic College in Iqaluit.
They were showcasing their handmade parkas at a fashion show, the final event after a special three-week parka-making course at the college.
The college said more than 100 people applied for the course, which was offered free of charge thanks to funding from the Qikiqtani Inuit Association. The college held a draw and selected 10 people randomly to participate.
Each person made two parkas — one for themselves, and a child's parka that will be donated to someone who needs it, said Sheila Oolayou, who taught the course alongside elder Annie Demcheson.
Jennifer Wilman, the continuing education co-ordinator at the college, said the funding from the Qikiqtani Inuit Association helped the college to redesign its parka program to allow for the children's parkas to be made.
She said many students have families and young children, and winter clothing can be expensive.
"We realized that we had an opportunity here to make things a bit easier for students," she wrote in a statement. "It was a win/win for everyone."
Submitted by Mariana Barney
Kendal Kuodluak, one of the participants, made the child's parka first — a little pink coat for a girl. It took her a little over half of the program to make that one, which was the first parka she had ever made.
"My second I made, it was much easier and I finished that one real quick," she said.
The parka she made for herself is a pullover one that she'll use for hunting.
"I've wanted to learn how to make parkas for a long time, and I finally seen an opportunity," she said.
Kuodluak now has patterns and can start making them for her family, too — and said she got to make some new friends along the way.
"I felt excited and felt in awe, because for a long time I always wondered how to make them," she said.
Submitted by Mariana Barney
Wilman said the overwhelming amount of people who applied for the program showed how much of a need there is for accessible, cultural programming.
"I'm hoping that with the success of this program, that we can offer more in the future," she stated.
The program was open to beneficiaries of the Nunavut Land Claim Agreement.
Surplus potatoes from federal research farm being donated to Charlottetown food bank
Wed, February 22, 2023
Potatoes harvested at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Harrington Research Farm are now destined for the shelves of The Upper Room food bank. (Shane Hennessey/CBC - image credit)
In the past, most of the potatoes grown at the Harrington Research Farm in central P.E.I. would be composted. Some would be turned into animal feed, and the rest would become potato starch.
But now, they have a new purpose — feeding hungry Islanders.
"Since we're in Prince Edward Island, obviously potatoes are what we grow a lot of and they're in our rotation crops all the time," said Chris Kirby, acting associate director of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's Charlottetown Research and Development Centre, which operates the farm.
"We never want to compete with a farmer, but we also want to feed the Canadian public."
Kirk Pennell/CBC
The farm grows produce for a variety of reasons, including improving best practices, testing pest resistance, and as rotational crops to keep soil healthy.
"We have to keep things going under the standard conditions that are used in Prince Edward Island," said Kirby.
Crops that are experimented on will still be directed away from human consumption, but the spuds grown in typical farm conditions will now end up at Charlottetown's Upper Room Hospitality Ministry.
Wasting 'perfectly good food'
In 2022 alone, more than 7,000 pounds of potatoes went to the food bank. And so far this year, 3,500 pounds were moved from the Research Farm's cold storage facilities to the food bank, one pallet at a time.
"We see hundreds of families every month coming in here with not enough food," said Mike MacDonald, executive director of The Upper Room. "So when there is food that's being wasted — perfectly good food — it does bother us, for sure."
Kirk Pennell/CBC
Across Canada, it's estimated that $50 billion worth of food is lost or wasted every year, even though many Canadians are struggling due to low incomes and high prices.
"This all came about after dealing with the pandemic, and everybody's worried about food security," said Kirby.
"So if we can give a constant supply of potatoes to the food bank from somewhere in December, January until April, that's a significant amount of time that they're able to get a product that they can then share with those in need. So we're very happy to be able to be a part of the solution for the public."
The initiative also exists in other provinces, with the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada research farm in Newfoundland donating carrots and cabbage, apples being donated in Nova Scotia, and cherries and apples in British Columbia.
The Harrington Research Farm also grows other crops like barley and wheat, but potatoes made the most sense to donate. Kirby says the farm will keep up the donations as long as the food bank will take them.
"As long as they need it and we still have it, we will be giving them more potatoes," he said, adding, "I can't imagine we will stop growing potatoes anytime soon in Prince Edward Island."
Stellantis earnings rise as EV push drives higher sales
Wed, February 22, 2023
AMSTERDAM (AP) — Automaker Stellantis on Wednesday reported its earnings grew in 2022 from a year earlier and said its push into electric vehicles led to a jump in sales even as it faces growing competition from an industrywide shift to more climate-friendly offerings.
Stellantis, formed in 2021 from the merger of Fiat Chrysler and France’s PSA Peugeot, said net revenue of 179.6 billion euros ($191 billion) was up 18% from 2021, citing strong pricing and its mix of vehicles. It reported net profit of 16.8 billion euros, up 26% from 2021.
Stellantis plans to convert all of its European sales and half of its U.S. sales to battery-electric vehicles by 2030. It said the strategy led to a 41% increase in battery EV sales in 2022, to 288,000 vehicles, compared with the year earlier.
The company has “demonstrated the effectiveness of our electrification strategy in Europe,” CEO Carlos Tavares said in a statement. “We now have the technology, the products, the raw materials and the full battery ecosystem to lead that same transformative journey in North America, starting with our first fully electric Ram vehicles from 2023 and Jeep from 2024.”
The automaker is competing in an increasingly crowded field for a share of the electric vehicle market. Companies are scrambling to roll out environmentally friendly models as they look to hit goals of cutting climate-changing emissions, driven by government pressure.
The transformation has gotten a boost from a U.S. law that is rolling out big subsidies for clean technology like EVs but has European governments calling out the harm that they say the funding poses to homegrown industry across the Atlantic.
Stellantis' Jeep brand will start selling two fully electric SUVs in North America and another one in Europe over the next two years. It says its Ram brand will roll out an electric pickup truck this year, joining a rush of EV competitors looking to claim a piece of the full-size truck market.
The company plans to bring 25 battery-electric models to the U.S. by 2030. As part of that push, it has said it would build two EV battery factories in North America.
Stellantis said that 40,500 unionized U.S. factory workers will get profit-sharing checks of about $14,760 on March 10. United Auto Workers members will get the checks based on North American pretax earnings last year.
A $2.5 billion joint venture with Samsung will bring one of those facilities to Indiana, which is expected to employ up to 1,400 workers. The other factory will be in Windsor, Ontario, a collaboration with South Korea’s LG Energy Solution that aims to create about 2,500 jobs.
The EV push comes amid a slowdown in U.S. car sales tied to a global computer chip shortage and other problems finding parts. Sales at Stellantis dropped 13% last year.
The company also announced a share buyback valued at up to 1.5 billion euros to be carried out this year as well as a 4.2 billion-euro dividend, amounting to 1.34 euros per share.
The Associated Press
EU pandemic fund inspectors say no sign of fraud in Spain
Wed, February 22, 2023
MADRID (AP) — The European Parliament´s budget control committee said Wednesday it has found no evidence of deceit or fraud in Spain’s handling of the 31 billion euros ($33 billion) it has received so far in special European Union post-pandemic recovery funds.
But a visiting delegation urged the Madrid government to be more transparent and flexible in its use of the funds and in providing public information about them.
Speaking Wednesday at the end of a three-day inspection visit, committee chair Monika Hohlmeier said she was impressed with Spanish authorities’ commitment to make the most of the funds but added that she recognized that administrative hurdles were a major complaint from several regional officials.
“We have learned that the current implementation of the funds should be more flexible,” said Hohlmeier. “Administrative burden is a common complaint by the stakeholders. ”
She added that several of Spain’s regions complain about their proposals not being considered and called “on both the central and regional governments to deepen their dialogs and cooperation.”
Hohlmeier’s conciliatory tone in the end-of-visit press conference came as a surprise as it was expected that the delegation might be highly critical of Spain.
She said the visit was not chiefly intended to look for violations but rather to ensure transparency and that the funds be well spent.
Hohlmeier said there was a particular need to remove impediments to give fairer and faster access to the self-employed and small- and medium-sized companies that she said are so important to the Spanish economy.
She said the committee will draw up a series of recommendations in its upcoming report once they have reviewed all they have heard in the meetings with financial and political authorities during the visit.
Spain was one of the first EU countries to apply for and receive funds from the EU pandemic recovery fund and stands to be among its main beneficiaries. It is set to receive a total of 140 billion euros, half in direct transfers, half in loans.
Prior to the visit, the European Commission last Friday said it would deliver a further 6 billion euros to Spain, indicating its satisfaction with how Spain was handling the money so far.
Hohlmeier admitted that future funds would be contingent on Spain completing a reform of its pension system but said Madrid appeared committed to doing this and that there was no prospect of the money being blocked.
Ciarán Giles, The Associated Press
Horn of Africa drought trends said worse than in 2011 famine
Wed, February 22, 2023
ICONICLY IRONIC
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Trends in a historic Horn of Africa drought are now worse than they were during the 2011 drought in which at least a quarter-million people died, a climate center said Wednesday.
The IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Center said below-normal rainfall is expected in the rainy season over the next three months.
“This could be the sixth failed consecutive rainfall season” in the region that includes Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, the center said.
The drought, the longest on record in Somalia, has lasted almost three years, and tens of thousands of people are said to have died. More than 1 million people have been displaced in Somalia alone, according to the United Nations.
Last month, the U.N. resident coordinator in Somalia warned that excess deaths in Somalia will “almost certainly” surpass those of the famine declared in the country in 2011.
Close to 23 million people are thought to be highly food insecure in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, according to a food security working group chaired by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development.
Already, 11 million livestock that are essential to many families’ health and wealth have died, Wednesday’s statement said. Many people affected across the region are pastoralists or farmers who have watched crops wither and water sources run dry.
The war in Ukraine has affected the humanitarian response as traditional donors in Europe divert funding to the crisis closer to home. The head of IGAD, Workneh Gebeyehu, urged governments and partners to act “before it’s too late.”
The IGAD climate center is a designated regional climate center by the World Meteorological Organization.
Cara Anna, The Associated Press
