I imagine the year to be 1957, when Havana was the world's 4th-most-expensive city at the time. Many vintage buildings remain in Havana today, and many of my friends still play and live in such buildings. Today, as the Castro era wanes, Cuba's youth have their doubts, dreams and stories... It is time to make new memories and new histories, while revisiting and reevaluating old ones...1957 is a collection of portraits and stories of my friends in Cuba...This one is called Havana Queen Story, a portrait for the drag Queen Salma. Drag Queens, together with many of the LGBT community are all issues that haven’t been tolerated well at all until recently. In recent years, they are playing to sell-out crowds again every night.

Philip Roth's classic novel, newly adapted by HBO, envisions a world in which Charles Lindbergh wins the 1940 presidential election

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is looking for 1,000 places tied to women's history, and to share the stories of the figures behind them

The question of bulletproofing vexed physicians and public figures for years, before pioneering inventors experimented with silk

The second installment in our weekly series spotlights titles that may have been lost in the news amid the COVID-19 pandemic

With the release of Trolls World Tour, and a new generation entranced by the ugly-but-cute toy, it appears the troll's lucky streak lives on

The third installment in our weekly series spotlights titles that may have been lost in the news amid the COVID-19 crisis

Tensions leading to the split, announced 50 years ago today, had been bubbling under the band’s cheery surface for years

A new book charts the history of counting the public, from the ancient censuses in Rome to the American version of decennial data collection

The Beatles guitarist visited his sister in southern Illinois just months before he'd become world famous

In the new miniseries, feminist history, dramatic storytelling and an all-star-cast bring the Equal Rights Amendment back into the spotlight

From kitsch to cool, ride the waves of undulating popularity of a tropical fashion statement

The remote cabin could be the difference between life and death for travellers stuck on the territory’s long winter road. It was built to remember Stella Barnaby, who would have been 55 this Saturday.

Just across town from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., stands Gallaudet University, an institute for higher learning for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed the law that allowed the school to begin issuing college degrees, a milestone for deaf people seeking higher education. Edward M. Gallaudet (right) was the […]

The following is a post by Kristi Finefield, Reference Specialist in the Prints & Photographs Division, and member of the Picture This blog team. Images have a way of opening our eyes to new aspects of a well-known story. When I think of singer Marian Anderson, an image of her performing at the Lincoln Memorial […]

FSI Briefs No 1, April 2020. Regulatory policy responses should seek to support economic activity while preserving the financial system's soundness and ensuring transparency. The recommendation for banks to make full use of capital and liquidity buffers should go hand in hand with restrictions on dividends and bonuses and clarity concerning the process for rebuilding them. Flexibility in loan classification criteria for prudential and accounting purposes should be complemented with sufficient disclosure on the criteria banks use to assess creditworthiness. The publication of detailed guidance on the application of expected loss provisioning rules, combined with sensible transitional arrangements, may constitute a balanced approach to mitigating the unintended effects of the new accounting standards.

FSI Briefs No 4, April 2020. Currently, insurers are more likely to experience losses from financial market volatility than from higher insurance claims arising from Covid-19. Few insurance supervisors have seen a need to strengthen or adjust prudential requirements to insulate insurers from current financial market uncertainties. So far, authorities have responded mainly by taking measures to provide operational relief to insurers from regulatory and supervisory requirements so that they can continue providing insurance services. These measures will also help insurers to enhance risk monitoring of their Covid-19 financial exposures. Some authorities have set out expectations for insurers to conserve capital through prudent exercise of dividend and variable remuneration policies. The aim is to enhance their resilience against huge uncertainties from potential Covid-19 fallout. Other capital-related measures should relieve supervisory pressures and reduce the tendency of insurers to manage their investments in a procyclical manner. These measures include: extending the supervisory intervention ladder, triggering the countercyclical lever and recalibrating capital requirements. The far-reaching impact of Covid-19 calls for sustained vigilance by both supervisors and insurers. In the post-pandemic phase, the extraordinary measures currently warranted will need to be unwound through a carefully crafted exit strategy that preserves sound risk management practices and protects policyholders' interests.

This paper reviews post-crisis financial regulatory reforms, examines how they fit together and identifies open issues. Specifically, it takes stock of the salient new features of bank and CCP international standards within a unified analytical framework.

Rural educator Frank Cyr had the vision and pull to force the nation to standardize the color of the ubiquitous vehicle

A new book explores the evolution of cartography throughout more than a century of commercial air travel

Press release "Saudi G20 Presidency and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub invite global innovators to solve RegTech and SupTech challenges", 27 April 2020

A randomized, controlled clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of a treatment regimen of the investigational antiviral remdesivir plus the anti-inflammatory drug baricitinib for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has begun.

The fifth installment in our weekly series spotlights titles that may have been lost in the news amid the COVID-19 crisis

Manitoba health officials says visits can be done via the internet, through window panes, or outside at a distance if everyone is healthy. People whose moms are in a hospital or a care home can still drop off gifts of food or clothing.

Introductory remarks by Mr Thomas Jordan, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, at the Media News Conference of the Swiss National Bank, Berne, 25 March 2020.

As we enter planting season for U.S. farmers, it’s a good time to look at the structure of the agricultural...

The post What The History of Soybeans Says About Pricing appeared first on OpenMarkets.

The Carolina Panthers have agreed to a four-year, $64 million contract extension with All-Pro Christian McCaffrey, a person familiar with the contract negotiation told The Associated Press, making McCaffrey the highest-paid running back in the NFL.

An OM team has a rare opportunity to share the Gospel with the Doma people at the funeral of a senior member of the community.

Dimas, the headman of a small village along the shores of Lake Tanganyika, shares about the challenges of being a headman and Christian.

Mayor John Tory, Dr. Eileen de Villa, the city's medical officer of health, and Toronto Fire Chief Matthew Pegg, head of the city's emergency response team, spoke at a city hall news conference Thursday afternoon.

Russia marked 75 years since the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War on Saturday, but the coronavirus outbreak forced it to scale back celebrations seen as boosting support for President Vladimir Putin.

A normal draft year would see NHL scouts and executives spend the spring crisscrossing Europe and North America collecting information. The circumstances surrounding a 2020 draft and the COVID-19 pandemic, however, aren't anything resembling normal.

Introductory statement by Ms Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, and Mr Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the European Central Bank, Frankfurt am Main, 30 April 2020.

Bank for International Settlements BIS Working Papers by Claudio Borio, Marc Farag and Nikola Tarashev

The association is happy with a ruling that found it violated the law.

Antemoro “coastal people” of Amosiala come to faith after learning about Christ through an OM team and volunteers from a neighbouring village.

OM Hungary’s Christmas puppet ministry is currently underway, with performances in the city of Érd and the surrounding area.

At the end of April, the second ZOOM national mission conference, with 300 participants from over 80 cities and towns, was held in Warsaw, Poland.

Progreso, Mexico :: A stalwart captain who's served on all four vessels reflects on 38 years of incredible experiences for his family at sea.

Vatican City, May 7, 2020 / 08:00 am (CNA).- It is important for Catholics to remember the whole of salvation history, and our belonging to the people of God’s covenant with Abraham, Pope Francis said at Mass Thursday.

During daily Mass in the chapel of his Vatican residence, the Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis reflected on an aspect of the day’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, when St. Paul is invited to speak in the synagogue in Antioch.

Instead of speaking directly about Jesus, the apostle begins by telling the history of salvation, the pope noted May 7.

“What is behind Jesus? There is a story. A story of grace, a story of election, a story of promise. The Lord chose Abraham and went with his people,” he said.

“There is a story of God with his people. And for this reason, when Paul is asked to explain the reason for faith in Jesus Christ, he does not start from Jesus Christ: he begins from history.”

The pope pointed to the first part of the entrance antiphon recited at the start of that Mass: “O God, when you went forth before your people, marching with them and living among them...”

He urged Catholics to remember to “pass down the history of our salvation,” and to ask the Lord to help them have the awareness of being children of Abraham, as the Virgin Mary says in the Magnificat and Zechariah in his Benedictus, canticles which are recited or sung in the Liturgy of the Hours.

Christianity, the pope said, is belonging to the people with whom the Lord made his covenant.

Pope Francis also spoke in his homily about what he thinks Christianity is not.

“Christianity is a doctrine, yes, but not only,” he stated. “Christianity is not just an ethic. Yes, indeed, it has moral principles,” but it is not just having an ethical viewpoint.

Francis went on to say that Christianity is also more than an exclusionary vision of an “‘elite’ of people chosen for the truth.” He criticized when this attitude comes into the Church as a belief in the damnation of others.

It is good to be a moral people, he said, but “Christianity is belonging to a people, to a people freely chosen by God.”

“If we do not have this awareness of belonging to a people we would be ideological Christians,” he said.

The pope explained that this is why, in order to speak about Jesus, St. Paul starts by explaining “from the beginning, from belonging to a people.”

He warned that when Christians lose the sense of belonging to the people of God’s covenant, they often fall into “partialities,” whether dogmatic, moral, or elitist.

Francis called this “the most dangerous deviation” Christians can fall into today.

Before Mass, Pope Francis noted that he had received a letter from a group of artists, thanking him for remembering them in prayer in April.

He added that he “would like to ask the Lord to bless them because artists make us understand what beauty is and without beauty the Gospel cannot be understood.”

“Let’s pray for artists again,” he urged.

After Mass, the pope concluded the livestream with Eucharistic adoration, benediction, and the Marian antiphon “Regina coeli.”

In 2008, OM Ireland purchased Lacken House to be their headquarters. Ten years and hundreds of people later, the team continues to minister from the heart of Ireland.

Sport creates a platform for evangelism and discipleship in Ukraine.

A 17 year old high school student shares about how she fled from the war zone and came to stay at OM Odessa's centre.

Find out about the festival of football that has proceeded the UEFA Champions League final every year since 2006.

ONE of the biggest sporting scandals of all time was just about to erupt in the USA 100 years ago this month. It was in the spring of 1920 that a persistent rumour engulfed the Chicago White Sox baseball team.

"Today’s stark reality is that more than 2.8 billion people have not heard this message of hope and transformation—and 57,000 people are added to this number daily. When I heard this, I was deeply impacted, and resolved that I want to be part of changing that trajectory."

Believers travel by snowmobile or helicopter to share a message of great worth with indigenous reindeer herders and fishermen.

IT is one of he most important seabird observatories in the world, but its very future was called into question when fire ravaged through it and left it no more than a pile of rubble.

LIKE Nicola Sturgeon, I blame the Tories. Not, like her, for everything everywhere, but for an off-key outing at FMQs.