The veteran moviemaking tandem of Alex and Stephen Kendrick will release two films this fall, and both projects will spotlight a subject at the heart of Scripture: fatherhood.
The first movie, the documentary Show Me the Father, will release in theaters on September 10 and follow the inspirational stories of multiple earthly fathers interwoven with truths about the fatherhood of God. It is the Kendricks’ first documentary.
Puppets are an essential part of Czech culture, playing a role as guardians of the Czech language and national consciousness.
The Seoul Museum of History, in cooperation with the Chrudim Puppetry Museum, is holding a special exhibition titled “Secrets of Wooden Puppets – Czech Marionettes.”
“Czech puppetry’s origin comes from nomadic puppeteers in the 18th century. Most of them travelled around with their whole family, carrying fully decorated stages in their caravans, and performing at pubs, fairs, and town squares.”
With increasing popularity, more and more puppet theaters were formed over time, and even now professional theaters in the Czech Republic maintain the tradition.
“We are very proud of it, because it is really part of rich cultural and historical life. The puppetry changed now it is mostly done now in the theaters and also the characters changed with the time but they always try to reflect the life and society and when you visit the theaters you really experience daily lives on the stage shown in very artistic way.”
Bringing Czech culture to Seoul required careful planning due to the difficulties of international travel.
“We were finally able to do the exhibition thanks to Chrudim Puppetry Museum’s decision to send exhibits without curators. This is the first time for Seoul City to receive the items like this. Due to the limited number of flights, we made sure the items arrived much earlier than usual three weeks before and our curators installed the exhibits, coordinating with local Czech curators remotely.”
“I think that we are the first institution that received such export permission without the presence of a curator from the Ministry of Culture probably in last 50 years. The opportunity to hold an exhibition about Czech puppetry in such a distant country as South Korea actually means bringing a European or absolutely different phenomenon to another culture.”
Last year marked the 30th year of diplomatic relations between two countries, and though delayed, the exhibition gives visitors a unique taste of Czech culture.
A Liberty University graduate wowed the judges and earned the “Golden Buzzer” on NBC’s America’s Got Talent Tuesday after performing an original song that had Simon Cowell in tears.
“Your voice is stunning – absolutely stunning,” Cowell said after Liberty grad Jane Marczewski, 30, sang an original song, It’s OK, that sparked a standing ovation.
The song, she explained, is the “story of the last year of my life.” Marczewski is battling cancer. During her most recent medical checkup, she said the doctor found “some cancer in my lungs, in my spine and my liver.”
“You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy,” said Marczewski, whose stage name is Nightbirde.
Moments later, Cowell hit the Golden Buzzer, which automatically advances her to the competition’s semifinals. Marczewski fell to her knees in disbelief as confetti showered the stage.
A YouTube video of her performance has tallied more than 6 million views and was the No. 2 trending video on the platform Thursday.
Judge Howie Mandel also was impressed.
“That felt like the most authentic thing I’ve heard this season,” he said.
Before the song, she told him, “It’s so important that everyone knows that I’m so much more than the bad things that happen to me.”
Wearing a smile, she said she has a two percent chance of survival.
“But two percent is not zero percent. Two percent is something. And I wish people knew how amazing it is,” she said.
Terry Crews, the host of the show, told her, “You are the voice we all need to hear this year.”
“I expected I’d go out and do my best and try to keep the mindset I’m not there to impress people,” she told the Newark Advocate. “I’m there to give people a gift”.
Marczewski was profiled in 2019 in the Liberty Journal. She graduated from the Christian school in 2013.
Thirty-six year old Lee Jun-seok has been elected as the new chairman of South Korea’s main opposition, the People Power Party.
This is the first time a major party in South Korea has been led by someone in their thirties.
“You guys made me the chairman. I say that “you” with the emphasis as a subject rather than an object. You’ve stepped into history with me. And you hold shares in the history we’re going to make. I want to emphasize “co-existence” the most.”
Lee, an entrepreneur-turned politician, has been the face of the party’s younger generation since 2011, despite never being a lawmaker.
His victory signals supporters’ demand for a generational switch; away from old faces with younger generations wanting their voices heard and a change in the political arena.
This was reflected by a significant lead in the votes from private citizens via phone and the Internet which accounted for 70 percent of the final tally.
Lee is already responding by changing the way his party will appoint new positions, such as by making contenders for party spokesperson debate over the position.
However his biggest task will be leading the party into the Presidential Election next year including the primaries.
“You have to be more open when the younger generation speaks. Blind criticism just because you don’t support the candidate will not be tolerated.”
Lee spoke with President Moon Jae-in over the phone following his win.
Moon told Lee that this was not only a historical victory, but also a sign of change in Korean society.
The reservoir created by Hoover Dam, an engineering marvel that symbolized the American ascendance of the 20th Century, has sunk to its lowest level ever, underscoring the gravity of the extreme drought across the U.S. West.
Lake Mead, formed in the 1930s from the damming of the Colorado River at the Nevada-Arizona border about 30 miles (50 km) east of Las Vegas, is the largest reservoir in the United States.
It is crucial to the water supply of 25 million people including in the cities of Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Tucson and Las Vegas.
As of 11 p.m. PDT Wednesday (0600 GMT Thursday), the lake surface fell to 1,071.56 feet above sea level, dipping below the previous record low set on July 1, 2016.
It has fallen 140 feet (42.7 meters) since 2000 – nearly the height of the Statue of Liberty from torch to base – exposing a bathtub ring of bleached-white embankments.
The drought that has brought Lake Mead low has gripped California, the Pacific Northwest, the Great Basin spanning Nevada, Oregon and Utah, plus the southwestern states of Arizona and New Mexico and even part of the Northern.
Algeria’s president and the generals backing him hope Saturday’s parliamentary election will mark an end to two years of upheaval, but in the capital’s steep, winding streets few people seemed enthused.
While thousands of candidates rallied supporters at official campaign events for an election that moderate Islamist parties aim to win, the low turnout in recent national votes has underscored public scepticism for the process.
“I won’t vote because nothing will change. Nothing at all,” said Khadidja, a woman in a facemask and pink headscarf speaking near a wall plastered with election posters.
The vote comes weeks after the security forces stamped out the last demonstrations by a mass protest movement that erupted in 2019 and forced veteran president Abdelaziz Bouteflika from office and prompted official promises of change.
On Friday Amnesty International said the arrests of two prominent journalists, Khaled Drareni and Ihsane El Kadi, as well as opposition figure Karim Tabbou, were evidence of “a chilling escalation” in the clampdown on dissent.
Looming behind the political manoeuvring and public unrest is the largely closed, state-run economy. Foreign currency reserves have fallen by 80% since 2013, as energy revenues declined, pushing state finances towards disaster.
Any economic collapse in Algeria, a regional military power, Africa’s biggest country and with a long Mediterranean coastline, could endanger stability beyond its own shores.
Though Bouteflika’s replacement Abdelmadjid Tebboune was elected president in 2019 and an amended constitution was approved in a referendum last year, many Algerians believe the security and military establishment still retains real power.
The establishment believes replacing the old president, parliament and constitution, coupled with the jailing of numerous Bouteflika cronies, is the best way to end the biggest crisis in decades, said a former senior official.
Adrianne Curry, a former “America’s Next Top Model” contestant and actress, admitted this week in a Facebook post that she was indoctrinated by “Godless Individuals” in Hollywood to criticize actor and outspoken Christian Kirk Cameron “simply because he found God.”
The retired actress admitted that she used to be “intolerable” of folks with different worldviews and beliefs and that she felt like a jerk for harboring such unfair thoughts about Cameron.
In the post, she stated, in part, “I used to judge Kirk Cameron. Why? Simply because he found God. I sneered at the mention of his name … because my agnostic beliefs set me above all others in my infinite Godless greatness. When I really ask myself why I did so, my only truthful answer is that I was surrounded by Godless people who fancied themselves better than anyone and everyone who had faith in anything besides their own selfish selves.”
She continued, “Hollywood told me that ANYONE who was ANYTHING besides Muslim, atheist, agnostic, gay, etc. was very bad and stupid. Looking back, that seems … just … absurd.”
Hearing about the post from a friend, Cameron responded to Curry’s Facebook, sharing that he, too, held a similar mindset once.
He stated, in part, “I am genuinely grateful for your generosity in writing this. After losing my faith in atheism at 18, I asked the Maker of all the beautiful and purposeful things I saw in the world (stars, galaxies, sunrises, purple hydrangeas, children, laughter, deep grief, good food, love, loyalty, courage, honor …) to help me understand the truth about it all. And I started to say, ‘Thank you.'”
He continued, “I, too, as a young man on top of the Teen-Beat world in Hollywood, thought I was bigger and better than a made-up god-crutch. But I, too, was just following the herd of sheep, running with those [who] wanted to see themselves as too smart to believe or trust in God. I kept denying God’s existence … but then, thankfully, I ran out of excuses.”
Cameron concluded, “I didn’t find God in Babylon; He wasn’t lost. I was lost, and He found me. Blessings to you on your journey…”
Ivorian Prime Minister Patrick Achi and Defence Minister Téné Birahima Ouattara alongside French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian came together on Thursday to inaugurate the International Academy for Combating Terrorism.
The aim of this establishment is to train cadres and Special Forces from the African continent in a move to reinforce resistance efforts against jihadist extremists in the region.
These terrorist groups have steadily intensified their violent attacks in the Sahel and gradually expanding to nearby areas.
The timely launch of the academy comes on the heels of French President Emmanuel Macron announcing a profound transformation of France’s anti-jihadist military operations on the Sahel.
Fighting in the vast semi-arid region began in 2012, when Islamist militants joined a local insurgency in northern Mali, capturing swathes of territory.
France intervened in January 2013 to beat them back, in an operation called Serval.
Serval was succeeded on August 1, 2014, by the broader Barkhane mission, which currently has some 5,100 soldiers deployed across the Sahel.
The ECOWAS Parliament on Thursday moved a step closer toward achieving a single currency for the sub-region as it adopted the draft resolution on the Macroeconomic Convergence and Stability Pact.
The resolution was adopted during the ECOWAS Parliament’s First Ordinary Session in Abuja.
This followed deliberation at Plenary on the submissions by its Joint Committee on Macro-Economic Policy and Economic Research and Committee on Administration, Finance and Budget.
It is aimed at achieving the criteria for ECOWAS member states’ adoption of the single currency.
The resolution, which would be transmitted to the ECOWAS Commission, sought to ensure macroeconomic policy coordination with the aims of ensuring a viable economic and monetary union as well as reinforce macroeconomic stability.
It will further seek to strengthen the convergence of member states’ economies, including monetary and financial cooperation and will define the procedures for the adoption, of as well as the modalities for the implementation of national convergence programmes.
In the presentation, the Joint Committee, chaired by Kebba Barrow, highlighted that the pact shall be implemented in two phases.
He said the resolution also sought to strengthen the convergence of Member States’ economies, including monetary and financial cooperation.
Barrow added that it will also define the procedures for the adoption of as well as the modalities for implementation of national convergence programmes.
According to him, the first phase which shall focus on convergence is to run from January 2022 to December 2026 while the second phase will centre on stability and shall run from January 1, 2027.
Other resolutions adopted by the ECOWAS Parliament were the consideration on the political situation in Mali, discussions on the post-election situation in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote D’ Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea and Niger, Trade, Customs and Free Movement, as well as rules for the management and award of ECOWAS mark of conformity to ECOWAS standards, amongst others.
According to Rwanda’s National Examinations and Schools Inspection Authority (NESA), a total of 452,053 candidates from across the country are due to sit their national examinations over a period spanning six weeks, from June 14 through July 30.
This will be the first time national exams are held in two years after schools were closed and national examinations called off last year due to the Covid-19 fiasco.
Up to 254,678 candidates will write primary leaving examinations, representing a drop of 11 per cent from 286,087 candidates in 2019.
For O-Level, 122,320 students will sit exams, representing an increase of 2 per cent from the 2019 numbers when 119,932 candidates wrote their exams.
There was also an increase in the number of A-Level candidates, equivalent to 1.7 per cent, up to 52,145 from 52,291 in 2019. There was, however, a decline in science candidates from 15,251 in 2019 to 14,785, representing a difference of 3.1%.
Under the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system, 21,053 students will sit their national exams. In TVET, there was an increase in the number of candidates, with 19,862 students writing their final papers last time around.
In addition, a total of 1,857 private candidates will sit S.6 exams, up from 1584 candidates in 2019.
TVET practical examinations will be the first to be conducted, from June 14-July 3.
For primary candidates, NESA has allocated 1018 examination centers nationwide, 0-Level exams will be held at 547 centers, A-Level 418 centers, and TVET 97 centers.
Asked about the staggering, director-general OF NESA, Bernard Bahati, spoke on the drop in primary school candidates, with 31,409 fewer pupils set to do national exams this year compared to 2019 which he attributed to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Primary candidates are due to sit their exams from July 12-14, O-Level, A-Level (theory) and TVET (theory) from July 20-27, and A-Level (science practicals) July 28-30.
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