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Brewing hope

Sasha Avdevich makes coffee during the opening of his coffee house 'Inclusive Barista', the first cafe in Poland with a workspace fully adapted for employees in wheelchairs, in Warsaw. PHOTO: AFP

WARSAW (AFP) – With its sleek interior and freshly ground coffee, the cafe run by Belarusian exile Sasha Avdevich may at first glance seem like yet another trendy spot in Warsaw.

But the lowered, wheelchair-accessible countertop and a sticker reading: “The barista on shift has a hearing impairment” in Polish, English and Belarusian reveal this is no ordinary business.

Avdevich, himself a wheelchair user, founded the first “Inclusive Barista” coffee shop while still in Belarus and quickly shot to fame as a disability campaigner in the country controlled with an iron fist by strongman president Alexander Lukashenko.

The 40-year-old activist took part in the unprecedented mass protests that swept Belarus after a 2020 election slammed by rights groups as fraudulent.

As Lukashenko brutally cracked down on dissent, Avdevich knew he had to flee.

“A lot of people called me back then and said, ‘Sasha, if you don’t want to end up in a coffin, leave the country’,” he told AFP.

He recounted the COVID pandemic-era journey that saw him flee to Georgia initially, then travel on to the Canary Islands before applying for international protection in France.

He eventually moved to Poland, now home to tens of thousands of fellow Belarusians, who, like Avdevich, fled the repression.

Sasha Avdevich makes coffee during the opening of his coffee house ‘Inclusive Barista’, the first cafe in Poland with a workspace fully adapted for employees in wheelchairs, in Warsaw. PHOTO: AFP
ABOVE & BELOW: Baristas work during the opening of the coffee house. PHOTO: AFP
PHOTO: AFP

“There are many migrants with disabilities,” Avdevich said.

As he settled in Warsaw, Avdevich launched barista training for people in wheelchairs, threw festivals where the trainees brewed coffee from specially adapted carts, and began to draw up plans for his first cafe in Poland.

When he found a commercial space suited to people with disabilities, close to his flat and in the city’s increasingly popular Praga district, Avdevich and his business partner decided to give it a shot.

“We had money for three months of rent, and we were like: ‘Come on, whatever happens, we’ll do it’,” he said.

Opened in April, the cafe hires people with various disabilities as well as migrants, not only from Belarus.

The founders said they want their cafe to be as “international” – and inclusive – as possible.

“We recently organised a rap battle, we will organise a speed dating event soon,” Avdevich said.

The cafe is also launching an inclusive DJing school.

Avdevich lost the use of his legs when he broke his back in a motorbike accident in 2011.

“There’s no surgery for this type of disability… it’s not possible to walk again, even if I was Bill Gates,” Avdevich laughed.

Shortly after the accident he said he told himself “Okay, I’m alive. What can I do? I have working arms.

“And now we’re here, in our coffee shop, making this world better.”

Downward spiral

Displaced kids sort through trash at a street in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip. PHOTO: AP

DEIR AL-BALAH (AP) – Born into the devastating Israel-Hamas war, 10-month-old Abdel-Rahman Abu El-Jedian started crawling early. Then one day, he froze – his left leg appeared to be paralysed.

The baby boy is the first confirmed case of polio inside Gaza in 25 years, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Abdel-Rahman was an energetic baby, said the child’s mother, Nevine Abu El-Jedian, fighting back tears. “Suddenly, that was reversed. Suddenly, he stopped crawling, stopped moving, stopped standing up, and stopped sitting.”

Healthcare workers in Gaza have been warning of the potential for a polio outbreak for months, as the humanitarian crisis unleashed by Israel’s offensive on the strip only grows.

Abdel-Rahman’s diagnosis confirms health workers’ worst fears.

Before the war, Gaza’s children were largely vaccinated against polio, the WHO said.

But Abdel-Rahman was not vaccinated because he was born just before October 7, when Hamas militants attacked Israel and Israel launched a retaliatory offensive on Gaza that forced his family into near-immediate flight.

Hospitals came under attack, and regular vaccinations for newborns all but stopped.

Displaced kids sort through trash at a street in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip. PHOTO: AP
Displaced infant Abdel-Rahman Abu El-Jedian, who suffers from polio, sleeps at a makeshift tent camp in Deir al-Balah. PHOTO: AP

The WHO said that for every case of paralysis due to polio, there are hundreds more who likely have been infected but aren’t showing symptoms.

Most people who contract the disease do not experience symptoms, and those who do usually recover in a week or so. But there is no cure, and when polio causes paralysis, it is usually permanent. If the paralysis affects breathing muscles, the disease can be fatal.

The Abu El-Jedian family, like many, now live in a crowded tent camp, near heaps of garbage and dirty wastewater flowing into the streets that aid workers describe as breeding grounds for diseases like polio, spread through fecal matter. The United Nations (UN) has unveiled plans to begin a vaccination campaign to stop the spread and protect other families from the ordeal the Abu El-Jedian family now faces.

The family of 10 left their home in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, moving from shelter to shelter until finally settling in a tent in the central city of Deir al-Balah.

“My son was not vaccinated because of the continued displacement,” his mother said. “We are sheltering here in the tent in such health conditions where there is no medication, no capabilities, no supplements.” The mother of eight said she was “stunned” to find out that her boy had contracted polio.

The WHO said that there are at least two other children with paralysis reported in the strip, and samples of their stool have been sent to a lab in Jordan.

In order to vaccinate most of Gaza’s children under the age of 10, UNICEF spokesperson Ammar Ammar said a ceasefire is necessary.

The health agencies seek a pause in the fighting, which in recent days has sent thousands of Palestinian families fleeing under successive Israeli evacuation orders. Many children live in areas of Gaza that ongoing Israeli military operations make difficult to reach.

“Without the polio pause or cease-fire, it would be impossible,” Ammar said. “This is due to the continued evacuation orders and continued displacement of the children and their families. In addition, it can be extremely dangerous for teams as well, to be able to reach the children.”

The UN aims to vaccinate at least 95 per cent of more than 640,000 children. Already 1.2 million doses of vaccine have arrived in Gaza, with 400,000 more doses set to arrive in the coming weeks, according to UNICEF. Israel’s military body in charge of civilian affairs, COGAT, said it allowed UN trucks carrying over 25,000 vials of the vaccine through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

“If this is not implemented, it could have a disastrous effect, not only for the children in Gaza, but also neighbouring countries and across the borders in the region,” Ammar said.

Back in the family’s tent in Deir Al-Balah, Nevine Abu El-Jedian gazed at her youngest boy, lying still in a plastic car seat-turned bassinet as her seven other children gathered around.

“I hope he returns to be like his siblings, sitting down and moving,” she said. – Wafaa Shurafa & Samy Magdy

Why Polio is still a problem in some countries

A health worker administers a polio vaccine to a child in Karachi, Pakistan. PHOTO: AP

LONDON (AP) – Polio was eliminated from most parts of the world as part of a decadeslong effort by the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners to wipe out the disease. But polio is one of the world’s most infectious diseases and is still spreading in a small number of countries. The WHO and its partners want to eradicate polio in the next few years.

Until it is gone from the planet, the virus will continue to trigger outbreaks anywhere children are not fully vaccinated. The recent polio infection in an unvaccinated baby in Gaza is the first time the disease has been reported in the territory in more than 25 years.

WHAT IS POLIO?

Polio is an infection caused by a virus that mostly affects children under five. Most people infected with polio don’t have any symptoms, but it can cause fever, headaches, vomiting and stiffness of the spine. In severe cases, polio can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis within hours, according to the WHO. The United Nations (UN) agency estimates that one in 200 polio cases results in permanent paralysis, usually of the legs. Among children who are paralysed, up to 10 per cent die when their breathing muscles are paralysed.

The virus spreads from person to person, entering the body though the mouth. It is most often spread by contact with waste from an infected person or, less frequently, through contaminated water or food.

A health worker administers a polio vaccine to a child in Karachi, Pakistan. PHOTO: AP

JUST HOW BAD WAS POLIO IN THE PAST?

Very bad. Polio has existed for centuries; ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics show children walking with canes, with the wasted limbs characteristic of polio victims.

Before the first vaccine was developed in the 1950s, polio was among the most feared diseases.

An explosive 1916 outbreak in New York killed more than 2,000 people and the worst recorded United States (US) outbreak in 1952 killed more than 3,000. Many people who survived polio suffered lifelong consequences, including paralysis and deformed limbs.

Some people whose breathing muscles were paralysed required “iron lung” chambers to help them breathe.

WHEN DID THE ERADICATION CAMPAIGN BEGIN?

WHO passed a resolution to eradicate polio in 1988, spurred on by the success of eliminating smallpox eight years earlier. Their original target was to wipe out polio by 2000.

The WHO – along with partners including the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF and Rotary International boosted the production of an oral vaccine and rolled out widespread immunisation campaigns. Polio cases dropped by more than 99 per cent.

Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only countries where the spread of polio has never been stopped. There are also outbreaks in more than a dozen other countries, mostly in Africa. WHO and partners now aim to wipe out polio by 2026.

WHY HAS IT TAKEN SO LONG?

It’s extraordinarily difficult. Stopping polio outbreaks means vaccinating at least 95 per cent of the population everywhere, including in conflict-ridden countries and poor regions with broken health systems and other priorities.

The oral vaccine is cheap, easy to use and is better at preventing entire populations from becoming infected. But it contains weakened, live polio virus and in very rare cases can spread and cause polio in unvaccinated people.

In even rarer instances, the live virus from the vaccine can mutate into a new form capable of starting new outbreaks.

Health authorities have become more successful in reducing the number of cases caused by the wild polio virus. Vaccine-related cases now cause the majority of infections worldwide.

“The problem with trying to eradicate polio is that the need for perfection is so great and there are so many weak links,” said Columbia University Professor Scott Barrett, who has studied polio eradication. “The technical feasibility is there, but we live in a vastly imperfect world.” – Maria Cheng

Ostrich brings traffic to a halt

People attempt to lure an ostrich away from traffic in South Dakota, United States. PHOTO: AP

SIOUX FALLS (AP) – An ostrich brought traffic to a halt in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on Tuesday as motorists tried to lure and nudge the towering bird off a multilane thoroughfare.

Drivers called Sioux Falls police just before noon to report the roughly seven-foot-tall bird in the middle of a busy four-lane road.

As police and animal officials responded, motorists hopped out of their cars and managed to carefully corral the flightless bird. Video shot by bystanders showed people coaxing the bird off the road by offering up food in a plastic container and a few gentle nudges.

A police spokesman said the bird was among several ostriches being hauled in a trailer owned by an out-of-state traveller before it escaped. The owner helped capture the bird and managed to get it back into the trailer.

“The ostrich suffered no injuries, appeared just fine by us and was back with its owner before we had to take over,” a Sioux Falls Animal Control officer Thomas Rhoades told the Argus Leader newspaper.

People attempt to lure an ostrich away from traffic in South Dakota, United States. PHOTO: AP

California zoo welcomes another elephant calf

A newborn African elephant at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo in California, United States. PHOTO: AP

FRESNO (AP) – The second elephant calf in two weeks has been born at a California zoo.

African elephant Amahle gave birth early Monday morning, according to the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. The event came 10 days after Amahle’s mother, Nolwazi, gave birth to another male calf.

The new additions are the first elephants born at the zoo, about 240 kilometres southeast of San Francisco, which has embarked on a programme to breed elephants in the hope that they can be seen by zoogoers in years to come.

“To have two healthy calves is a historic milestone,” the zoo’s chief executive Jon Forrest Dohlin said in a statement on Tuesday. “We cannot wait for the public to see the new additions to our herd and share in our excitement.”

The elephants and their calves will continue to be monitored behind the scenes for now, Dohlin said. While the zoo expanded its exhibit in anticipation of growing its herd, some animal activists have opposed the breeding program, saying elephants shouldn’t be in zoos because of their complex needs.

In 2022, the zoo brought in male elephant Mabu hoping he’d breed with the two females.

The future of elephants – which have relatively few offspring and a 22-month gestation period – in zoos hinges largely on breeding.

A newborn African elephant at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo in California, United States. PHOTO: AP

Newborn rattlesnakes at ‘mega den’ making live debut

An adult rattlesnake rests with juveniles at a den under remote observation in Colorado, United States. PHOTO: AP

CHEYENNE (AP) – A “mega den” of hundreds of rattlesnakes in Colorado is getting even bigger now that late summer is here and babies are being born.

Thanks to livestream video, scientists studying the den on a craggy hillside in Colorado are learning more about these enigmatic – and often misunderstood – reptiles. They’re observing as the youngsters, called pups, slither over and between adult females on lichen-encrusted rocks.

The public can watch too on the Project RattleCam website and help with important work including how to tell the snakes apart. Since researchers put their remote camera online in May, several snakes have become known in a chatroom and to scientists by names including Woodstock, Thea and Agent 008.

The project is a collaboration between California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, snake removal company Central Coast Snake Services and Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

By involving the public, the scientists hope to dispel the idea that rattlesnakes are usually fierce and dangerous. In fact, experts say they rarely bite unless threatened or provoked and often are just the opposite.

Rattlesnakes are not only among the few reptiles that care for their young. They even care for the young of others. The adults protect and lend body heat to pups from birth until they enter hibernation in mid-autumn, said CalPoly graduate student researcher Max Roberts.

“We regularly see what we like to call ‘babysitting’, pregnant females that we can visibly see have not given birth, yet are kind of guarding the newborn snakes,” Roberts said on Wednesday.

As many as 2,000 rattlesnakes spend the winter at the location on private land, which the researchers are keeping secret to discourage trespassers. Once the weather warms, only pregnant females remain while the others disperse to nearby territory.

This year, the scientists keeping watch over the Colorado site have observed the rattlesnakes coil up and catch water to drink from the cups formed by their bodies. They’ve also seen how the snakes react to birds swooping in to try to grab a scaly meal.

The highlight of summer is in late August and early September when the rattlesnakes give birth over a roughly two-week period.

“As soon as they’re born, they know how to move into the sun or into the shade to regulate their body temperature,” Roberts said.

An adult rattlesnake rests with juveniles at a den under remote observation in Colorado, United States. PHOTO: AP

Sinkhole swallows SUV in South Korea, injures two

South Korean firefighters prepare to lift a vehicle that fell into a sinkhole on a street in Seoul, South Korea. PHOTO: AP

SEOUL (AP) – A sinkhole suddenly opened and swallowed an SUV in South Korea’s capital yesterday, injuring the two occupants, emergency workers said.

Photos from the scene showed a white sport utility vehicle engulfed in the 2.5-metre-deep hole that appeared on a street in the central part of Seoul.

Emergency workers rescued the vehicle’s 82-year-old male driver and a 76-year-old female passenger. No one else was hurt in the incident, which occurred at around 11.20am, according to Seoul’s Seodaemun district fire station.

The conditions of the injured victims weren’t immediately known. Traffic in the Seondaemun area continued to be restricted as of yesterday evening as workers and officials repaired the damaged road and investigated the cause of the sinkhole.

South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport told lawmakers last year that at least 879 sinkholes were reported in the country from 2019 to June 2023.

Nearly half of those sinkholes were caused by damaged sewer pipes, the ministry said at the time.

South Korean firefighters prepare to lift a vehicle that fell into a sinkhole on a street in Seoul, South Korea. PHOTO: AP

Brazil’s Amazon faces smoke, heat from wildfires

Smoke from wildfires fills the air along the Jornalista Phelippe Daou bridge over the Negro River in Manaus, Amazonas state, Brazil. PHOTO: AP
MANAUS (AP) – Smoke from wildfires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest on Wednesday was causing people in the region to cough, burning their throats and reddening their eyes.
 
Large swaths of the country have been draped in smoke in recent days, resulting from fires raging across the Amazon, Cerrado savannah, Pantanal wetland and the state of Sao Paulo.
 
Fires are traditionally used for deforestation and for managing pastures, and those man-made blazes are largely responsible for igniting the wildfires.
 
In the Amazon, there have been 53,620 fire spots between January 1 and August 27, an 83-per-cent increase from the same period last year, according to the National Institute for Space Research, a federal agency.
 
Across the Amazon, many areas were classified as having “very bad” or “terrible” air pollution on Wednesday, according to the State University of Amazonas’ environmental monitoring system.
 
Smoke from wildfires fills the air along the Jornalista Phelippe Daou bridge over the Negro River in Manaus, Amazonas state, Brazil. PHOTO: AP
In cases of wildfires and due to the resulting smoke, Amazonas state’s civil defence authority has recommended staying hydrated and remaining indoors.
 
But street vendors, garbage collectors, crossing guards and other workers have to be out and about. That means they can’t avoid the smoke. Even worse, because they have to work harder to breathe in those conditions they inhale more of the dangerous particles into their lungs, according to Jesem Orellana, a resident of Manaus, the biggest city in the Amazon, and an epidemiologist and researcher at the state-run Fiocruz Institute.
 
Residents of Manaus have come to expect “the smoke of death” in mid-September and October when fires and deforestation approximately peak, but this year the smoke became a problem much earlier, he added.
 
“That means that we are exposed to this toxic smoke for an even longer period of time, which has direct implications for the health of the population,” Orellana told AP. And the smoke’s impact goes beyond physical health, he said, causing anxiety which can impact sleep quality.
 
Maria Soledade Barros Silva, who lives in the Ponta Negra neighbourhood of Manaus, said the nearby riverside beach where people normally bike, skate, rollerblade and jetski is clouded with thick smog. 
 
Navigation of waterways that residents depend on has become more complicated, too.
 
“It’s not normal. I’ve lived here for 40 years. We didn’t have this before,” Barros said.

Las Vegas politician jailed for life over journalist murder

Robert Telles. PHOTO: AP
LOS ANGELES (AFP) – A Las Vegas politician was jailed for life yesterday for killing an investigative journalist who wrote critical articles detailing wrongdoing in the department he headed. 
 
Robert Telles lay in wait outside the home of longtime reporter Jeff German, and then stabbed him to death, a jury in Clark County, Nevada concluded. 
 
“Justice has been served,” Clark County prosecutor Steve Wolfson told reporters. 
 
“Today’s verdict should send a message, and that message is a clear message that any attempts to silence the media or to silence or intimidate a journalist will not be tolerated.”  
 
The two-week trial had heard how German, a 69-year-old reporter at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, had written an article months before his death describing a toxic environment in the county office that Telles led. 
 
Robert Telles. PHOTO: AP
The piece, published a month before an election in which Telles was standing to retain his role, detailed complaints of favouritism and allegations that Telles had been involved in an inappropriate relationship with a member of staff. 
 
Telles denied the allegations but lost his reelection bid. 
 
The jury of seven women and five men heard how an irate Telles had driven to German’s home in September of 2022 and hidden in some bushes, from where he launched a frenzied and fatal knife attack. 
 
Telles had denied carrying out the killing, arguing that the police had ignored evidence that other people could have been responsible. 
 
In a lengthy monologue from the witness stand, Telles – a lawyer by training – claimed he was the victim of a conspiracy. 
 
After returning their guilty verdict, the jury retired again to consider the sentence, imposing a life term with a minimum of 20 years before Telles is eligible for parole. 
 
Executive editor Glenn Cook of The Las Vegas Review-Journal said on Wednesday the jury had rendered “a measure of justice for Jeff German”. 

FAA grounds SpaceX after rocket falls over in flames at landing

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket's first-stage booster in flames after landing on an ocean platform offshore. PHOTO: AP

AP – SpaceX launches are on hold after a booster rocket toppled over in flames while landing on Wednesday.

United States’ Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded the company’s Falcon 9 rockets and ordered an investigation following the predawn accident off the Florida coast.

No injuries or public damage were reported.

It’s too early to know how much impact this will have on SpaceX’s upcoming crew flights, one private and the other for NASA. A billionaire’s chartered flight was delayed just a few hours earlier because of a poor weather forecast.

The rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and got all 21 Starlink internet satellites to orbit. But the first-stage booster fell over in a fireball moments after landing on an ocean platform, the first such accident in years.

It was the 23rd time this particular booster had launched, a recycling record for SpaceX.

The authorities said it must approve SpaceX’s accident findings and corrective action before the company can resume Falcon 9 launches.

A launch from California with more Starlinks was immediately called off following the accident.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket’s first-stage booster in flames after landing on an ocean platform offshore. PHOTO: AP
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Borneo Bulletin is the leading English daily in the country. It was first published by Brunei Press. Today, Borneo Bulletin has become the foremost source of information on local and foreign affairs, and the region’s business news.

© 2013 Borneo Bulletin Online - The Independent Newspaper in Brunei Darussalam, Sabah and Sarawak