First Oscar nomination shines spotlight on Bhutan's fledgling cinema | outstanding | Spanish edition

Director Pawo Choyning is yet to get over his amazement at the astonishing success of his debut film “Lunana: A Yak in Classroom” that offers a glimpse into life at a far-flung Bhutanese village and has become the first movie from the Himalayan country to be nominated for the Academy Awards.

“We are a very, very small film that was made in the world’s most remote classroom. We had so many logistical challenges that we almost felt like we wouldn’t be able to complete this film,” the 38-year-old director, whose film is competing in the Best International Feature category, told EFE.

“Being nominated for the Oscars is the last thing we expected. But, you know, magical things happen.”

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Bollywood celebrities star in Indian call centers thanks to AI | outstanding | Spanish edition

Being put through to a call center conjures feelings of dread and a hopeless acceptance that you will spend a good chunk of your day on hold listening to elevator music but imagine, instead, you were greeted by your favorite Bollywood star or the avatar of a deity – it is not as far-fetched as it sounds.

Radisys, a global leader in telecoms solutions, is using artificial intelligence technology and pre-recorded video to revolutionize and humanize the call center experience with its tool Engage Video Assistant.

“We use human experts, celebrities or an avatar to provide customers what they are looking for,” the firm’s senior director of business development, Shankar Krishnamurthy, told Efe at the Mobile World Congress taking place in Barcelona.

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Schools reopen in Indian Kashmir after 31 months | outstanding | Spanish edition

Schools in Indian-administered Kashmir, closed in 2019 due to security reasons and in the subsequent year on account of the Covid-19 pandemic, re-opened on Wednesday after 31 months.

“The J&K (Jammu and Kashmir) government has decided to reopen all the schools for routine class work (offline) from March 2,” an official statement issued a couple of days earlier said.

The statement directed the heads of schools to strictly follow Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) in order to protect the students.

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Pepper the robot offers friendly face tackling crimes against children | outstanding | Spanish edition

The semi-humanoid robot Pepper is being used by police in the United Arab Emirates to uncover crimes against children such as abuse and exploitation, a sensitive area where a friendly android face could prove more approachable and less traumatic for those involved.

The project from the multinational IT company Inetum uses Pepper’s artificial intelligence-driven ability to read emotions and understand human behavior to interact with the children and assess their responses to questioning when faced with a potentially distressing or even life threatening situation.

“It is one of our most beautiful and resilient projects,” head of innovation at Inetum Spain, Jesus Otero, told Efe at the Mobile World Congress taking place in Barcelona.

“The presence of the robot helps the children to open up and be more expressive in therapy despite the fear they are experiencing,” Otero said.

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Fed chief supports interest rate hike in March despite Russia-Ukraine war | outstanding | Spanish edition

The chairman of the United States Federal Reserve said Wednesday he will support an interest rate hike of 25 basis points at this month’s meeting of the central bank’s monetary policy-making body.

Jerome Powell made those remarks to the US House of Representatives’ Committee on Financial Services, saying he continues to support tighter credit conditions despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Pattinson: My dark Batman would be a black metal, drone techno obsessive | outstanding | Spanish edition

Young, insecure and filled with self-doubt.

That’s how Robert Pattinson describes his embodiment of Gotham City’s most famous superhero in “The Batman,” a film with the air of a noir thriller that is set to debut in the United States on Friday.

“(My Batman) would be listening to Norwegian black metal or maybe drone techno. That definitely seems like (what) would reflect his mental state,” the actor joked in an interview with Efe when imagining what musical tastes his dark take on Bruce Wayne (Batman’s real identity) might have.

Warner Bros. Pictures is counting on Matt Reeves’ direction and the charisma of Pattinson to help ensure the success of this reboot of the DC Comics franchise, a picture that entertainment magazine Variety says has a whopping $200 million budget.

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Traditional dancers come out on the streets of southern in Mexico | outstanding | Spanish edition

Hundreds of Parachico dancers came out on the streets of Chiapa de Corzo in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, amid an atmosphere of hope after a difficult year because of the Covid-19 pandemic and a road accident in which 56 migrants died.

The parachicos are traditional dancers of the grand festival of Chiapa de Corzo, which takes place from Jan. 4 to 23. Its origins are pre-Hispanic but eventually merged with Catholicism.

Dancers wear a wooden mask and a colored poncho-style clothing called “sarape”. On the head they wear a “montera”, which is a kind of helmet decorated in a way that resembles the blond hair of the Spanish people during colonization.

Wearing this outfit they dance on the streets to the sound of the drum and a flute called “pito”. EFE

Cadiz cathedral's centuries-old battle against salt | outstanding | Spanish edition

From the time construction began on the emblematic Cádiz cathedral some 300 years ago, when the city relished in a period of splendor fueled by the spoils of America, to the current day, it has battled against one enemy — salt.

The effect of the salt on the building, Spain’s only modern baroque-style cathedral, became evident soon after it was inaugurated in 1838 following 116 long years of construction.EFE

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Experiencing zero gravity no longer just for astronauts, billionaires | outstanding | Spanish edition

A United States company is offering frustrated astronauts and aspiring space tourists who do not have the wealth of billionaires Jeff Bezos or Richard Branson at their disposal an opportunity to experience zero gravity on board a modified Boeing 727.

A total of 28 people aboard Zero-G’s fully booked inaugural flight will feel temporarily freed from the Earth’s gravitational pull for 30-second intervals after take off from Miami’s Opa Locka executive airport on January 29. EFE

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Southern Chile, a natural laboratory to combat climate change | outstanding | Spanish edition

Punta Arenas, Chile, Jan 24 (EFE).- Punta Arenas, a city on the Strait of Magellan in the far south of Chile, used to be a contributor to rising global temperatures due to its coal mining fields.

But today, thanks to the development of green hydrogen plants and sensors to detect global warming, it has become a natural laboratory to combat climate change as part of a project by the International Antarctic Center.

“Magellan is a place where the past, present and future of scientific research on issues such as climate change, biodiversity and sustainable economy meet,” Chile’s minister of science, technology and innovation, Andrés Couve, tells Efe.

As well as being a gateway to Antarctica, Magellan’s rich biodiversity makes it the ideal place for scientists.

Cetaceans, penguins, pumas and a myriad of microscopic life make up its landscape, attracting experts from all over the world.

“It is a pristine ecosystem, the only place in the world without stressors for fauna and flora such as pollution, over-exploitation of soil or the massive use of pesticides,” says Elie Poulin, a French researcher at the Millennium Institute for Biodiversity of Antarctic Ecosystems.

The area’s biodiversity is being used to anticipate global warming in a pioneering research on the only colony of King penguins on the American continent, in Tierra del Fuego, south of Punta Arenas.

“Magellan is an extraordinary geographical experiment where the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and the Antarctic Ocean meet, but at the same time it is a very fragile place that is susceptible to climate change,” Valeria Souza, a biologist from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and leader of the study, tells Efe.

Souza analyzes the microbes that live on the feathers of the King penguins.

“The microbes react to changes in the temperature and salinity before the animals themselves. In this way, they warn us of signs of climate change before the rest of us can feel them,” she says.

The strong winds of Chilean Patagonia are another ingredient that is guiding the region to become a forerunner in the fight against climate change.

With wind speeds of over 90 kilometers per hour, the currents are an ideal source of clean green hydrogen and wind power.

Latin America’s largest green hydrogen fuel plant is currently being built near Punta Arenas, aiming to produce 130,000 liters of green fuel per year.

“We have all the ingredients to make this country a leading producer of green hydrogen worldwide and an engine to curb climate change,” Chile’s minister of energy and mining, Juan Carlos Jobet, said. EFE

School under a Delhi metro bridge provides lifeline for city's poor | outstanding | Spanish edition

Activist-teacher Satyendra Pal runs a free school under an elevated metro bridge in the Indian capital for the children of families living on the breadline.

Pal, 26, battled the brutal effects of poverty during his childhood, which almost forced him to drop out of school.

He did not give up and does not want others to surrender to poverty.

Pal runs the free education initiative because “every child deserves a chance but not everyone is privileged to get a decent education” in a country where tens of millions of impoverished children do not attend school. EFE

Mexican journalists shout 'enough' to the violence against press | outstanding | Spanish edition

Thousands of journalists from all the states of Mexico demonstrated Tuesday to demand justice for the recent murders of informants and the end of violence against the press in one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a reporter.

The national protest was in response to the most recent murder, that of journalist Lourdes Maldonado, shot next to her home in the city of Tijuana. She was under the Protection Program for Journalists in Baja California after a legal problem she had with former Governor Jaime Bonilla, of the ruling National Regeneration Movement.

She had attended the usual morning press conference of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in March 2019 for fear she could be killed.

The mobilizations took place in up to 47 cities throughout the country, filled with desperate cries in face of the incessant violence against journalists the country is experiencing and that has increased since the president’s arrival in office.

The demonstration in Mexico City was one of the largest, with hundreds of journalists protesting in unison in an unprecedented call in Mexico, and they did so in front of the building of the Interior Ministry.

According to data from Article 19, since the year 2000, 143 journalists have been murdered in the country, 28 of them during Lopez Obrador’s presidency.

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85-68. Real Madrid abuses Unics Kazan with outstanding Tavares and Yabusele | sports

Real Madrid achieved a comprehensive victory against Unics Kazan, 85-68, which only lasted the first five minutes, with the leading role of Walter Tavares and Guerschon Yabusele.

The Browns, Lorenzo and John started the match very connected, 5-10 (min, 3.20), and Unics Kazan took control of the scoreboard. The Russian defense and the speed of their actions cost Real Madrid more than 5 minutes (12-12).