Tracee Ellis Ross has announced a new documentary series exploring black women’s hair experiences.
The Black-ish actor will executive produce the series, titled The Hair Tales, alongside Oprah Winfrey and Michaela Angela Davis. The entire team behind the show will be made up of women of colour.
“Like many women, I can trace my own journey to self-acceptance through my hair,” Ellis Ross said. “This series is personal and universal, American and global. It is a love letter to black women.”
She added “there is a story in every curl, coil and kink of our hair. This show will be a dynamic adventure through these stories of ancestry and innovation, politics and pop culture, ritual, resilience and revolution, but [will] mostly reveal humanity. It will affirm black women, inform others and inspire everyone.
“Hair is a portal into the souls of black women, it drives straight to the centre of who we are. Our goal is to share this vibrant community, where we hold a sacred space for each other.”
The series comes as 12 US states passed the Crown Act (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural hair) into law, which bans workplace discrimination based on hairstyles.
Ellis Ross has been a long-standing advocate for celebrating natural hair. In 2019, she launched Pattern Beauty, a haircare line designed for black hair.
“The [natural] hair movement might be new for a lot of people, in that it is infiltrating and penetrating all aspects of the beauty industry and beauty culture, and changing people’s understanding of our beauty and our glory, but we have been beautiful and glorious forever,” she told Entertainment Weekly in 2019. “We [must] continue to speak up … to change the understanding that influences policy [such as the Crown Act]. Culture influences policy.”
While a release date for the show is yet to be revealed, it will premiere on Hulu in the US, and on Disney+ streaming service internationally.
Notable Yas events in 2017/18
October 13-14 KartZone (complimentary trials)
December 14-16 The Gulf 12 Hours Endurance race
March 5 Yas Marina Circuit Karting Enduro event
March 8-9 UAE Rotax Max Challenge
57%20Seconds
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Western Region Asia Cup Qualifier
Results
UAE beat Saudi Arabia by 12 runs
Kuwait beat Iran by eight wickets
Oman beat Maldives by 10 wickets
Bahrain beat Qatar by six wickets
Semi-finals
UAE v Qatar
Bahrain v Kuwait
Switching%20sides
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Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash
Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.
Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.
Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.
Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.
Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.
How to donate
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Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
AI traffic lights to ease congestion at seven points to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Street
The seven points are:
Shakhbout bin Sultan Street
Dhafeer Street
Hadbat Al Ghubainah Street (outbound)
Salama bint Butti Street
Al Dhafra Street
Rabdan Street
Umm Yifina Street exit (inbound)
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
