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One year after a white nationalist rally turned deadly in Charlottesville, Virginia, the organizers of “Unite the Right” brought the group’s message to the nation’s capital, to a park in front of the White House. Counter-protesters met and grossly outnumbered them. Arash Arabasadi has more from Washington.
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One year after a white nationalist rally turned deadly in Charlottesville, Virginia, the organizers of “Unite the Right” brought the group’s message to the nation’s capital, to a park in front of the White House. Counter-protesters met and grossly outnumbered them. Arash Arabasadi has more from Washington.
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The U.S. ambassador to London has publicly warned British Prime Minister Theresa May to side with President Donald Trump in the burgeoning transatlantic dispute over the controversial nuclear deal with Iran, which the U.S. leader withdrew from in May.

Ambassador Woody Johnson cautioned there would be trade consequences for Britain, which he described as the closest U.S. ally, unless it breaks with the European Union and follows Trump in re-imposing sanctions on Tehran.  The envoy also delivered a clear ultimatum to British businesses, instructing them to stop trading with Iran or face “serious consequences” when it comes to trade with the United States.

The unprecedented warning, which was delivered in an article published by Britain’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper, is being seen in London as the opening shot in what could be the biggest test of the so-called “special relationship” between the United States and Britain since Trump took office.

Trump’s decision in May to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal, signed by his predecessor Barack Obama, in which Tehran agreed to nuclear curbs in return for sanctions relief, paved the way for the restoration of unilateral American economic penalties on Iran.

While ratcheting up pressure on Tehran, the sanctions are worsening rifts between the United States and European allies, and other world powers, which say they remain committed to the nuclear deal, and will not comply with the U.S. sanctions.

In the article, Johnson said the Trump administration is “determined to make sure they [the sanctions] are fully enforced.”  He added, “The President has been explicit: any businesses that put their commercial interests in Iran ahead of the global good will risk serious consequences for their trade with the U.S.”

He added, “America is turning up the pressure and we want the UK by our side.  We are asking global Britain to use its considerable diplomatic power and influence and join us.”

A British Foreign Office official said Sunday, “We remain committed to the nuclear deal.  But we have had discussions with Washington about how we can work together in other ways to curb activity by Iran in the Middle East which concern us.”

A week ago Britain signed on to a joint statement with other EU countries that pledged to press on with a strategy to lessen the impact of the U.S. sanctions on European businesses.  It includes prohibiting them from complying with the unilateral U.S. sanctions.

Asked if British companies could expect Britain to stand its ground over deal, a British minister, Alistair Burt, told reporters last week, “They can expect us to do that, yes.  Sometimes you need to take a stand against friends.”

The U.S. sanctions that began last week prohibit any transactions with Iran involving dollars, gold, precious metals, aluminum, steel, commercial passenger aircraft, shipping and Iranian seaports.

The U.S. administration blames Iran for fomenting instability in the Middle East and encouraging terrorism.  Trump has described the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as a “horrible, one sided” agreement.

In his article Sunday, Johnson said, “Only by presenting a united front can we exert the maximum possible pressure on the Iranian regime and get them to finally change course and put an end to their malign and reckless activities both at home and abroad.”

Johnson said Tehran had used money going into the country after the 2015 deal and the easing of sanctions not to improve the lives of ordinary Iranians but to increase spending on the military and proxy forces in the Middle East, including sponsoring Hezbollah in Lebanon, arming militants in Yemen, and launching cyber-attacks against Western democracies.

Britain’s May might face a party leadership challenge later in the year, possibly from Boris Johnson, the former foreign minister who says she should be more like Trump.   She is struggling to quell rebellions within the ranks of  her Conservative party over Brexit negotiations and she can’t afford to alienate Brussels further by siding with Washington on the Iran nuclear deal, say analysts.  

On several tempestuous issues dividing Trump and Europe in a deepening rift, May has been caught trying to please both sides.  In June during the acrimonious G-7 meeting, held in Charlevoix, Quebec, which broke up amid highly personal recriminations between Trump and fellow summiteers over trade tariffs, May appeared especially eager to keep a low profile.  Of all the G-7 leaders at the bruising summit, she largely side-stepped the public skirmishing.

She recorded her disappointment, but avoided leveling personal criticism.

May’s position is likely to become even more awkward in the coming days as she’s forced to choose between European leaders, whose support she needs for a favorable Brexit deal or a U.S. leader determined to secure EU compliance with reimposed sanctions on Iran, fear British officials.
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The U.S. ambassador to London has publicly warned British Prime Minister Theresa May to side with President Donald Trump in the burgeoning transatlantic dispute over the controversial nuclear deal with Iran, which the U.S. leader withdrew from in May.

Ambassador Woody Johnson cautioned there would be trade consequences for Britain, which he described as the closest U.S. ally, unless it breaks with the European Union and follows Trump in re-imposing sanctions on Tehran.  The envoy also delivered a clear ultimatum to British businesses, instructing them to stop trading with Iran or face “serious consequences” when it comes to trade with the United States.

The unprecedented warning, which was delivered in an article published by Britain’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper, is being seen in London as the opening shot in what could be the biggest test of the so-called “special relationship” between the United States and Britain since Trump took office.

Trump’s decision in May to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal, signed by his predecessor Barack Obama, in which Tehran agreed to nuclear curbs in return for sanctions relief, paved the way for the restoration of unilateral American economic penalties on Iran.

While ratcheting up pressure on Tehran, the sanctions are worsening rifts between the United States and European allies, and other world powers, which say they remain committed to the nuclear deal, and will not comply with the U.S. sanctions.

In the article, Johnson said the Trump administration is “determined to make sure they [the sanctions] are fully enforced.”  He added, “The President has been explicit: any businesses that put their commercial interests in Iran ahead of the global good will risk serious consequences for their trade with the U.S.”

He added, “America is turning up the pressure and we want the UK by our side.  We are asking global Britain to use its considerable diplomatic power and influence and join us.”

A British Foreign Office official said Sunday, “We remain committed to the nuclear deal.  But we have had discussions with Washington about how we can work together in other ways to curb activity by Iran in the Middle East which concern us.”

A week ago Britain signed on to a joint statement with other EU countries that pledged to press on with a strategy to lessen the impact of the U.S. sanctions on European businesses.  It includes prohibiting them from complying with the unilateral U.S. sanctions.

Asked if British companies could expect Britain to stand its ground over deal, a British minister, Alistair Burt, told reporters last week, “They can expect us to do that, yes.  Sometimes you need to take a stand against friends.”

The U.S. sanctions that began last week prohibit any transactions with Iran involving dollars, gold, precious metals, aluminum, steel, commercial passenger aircraft, shipping and Iranian seaports.

The U.S. administration blames Iran for fomenting instability in the Middle East and encouraging terrorism.  Trump has described the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as a “horrible, one sided” agreement.

In his article Sunday, Johnson said, “Only by presenting a united front can we exert the maximum possible pressure on the Iranian regime and get them to finally change course and put an end to their malign and reckless activities both at home and abroad.”

Johnson said Tehran had used money going into the country after the 2015 deal and the easing of sanctions not to improve the lives of ordinary Iranians but to increase spending on the military and proxy forces in the Middle East, including sponsoring Hezbollah in Lebanon, arming militants in Yemen, and launching cyber-attacks against Western democracies.

Britain’s May might face a party leadership challenge later in the year, possibly from Boris Johnson, the former foreign minister who says she should be more like Trump.   She is struggling to quell rebellions within the ranks of  her Conservative party over Brexit negotiations and she can’t afford to alienate Brussels further by siding with Washington on the Iran nuclear deal, say analysts.  

On several tempestuous issues dividing Trump and Europe in a deepening rift, May has been caught trying to please both sides.  In June during the acrimonious G-7 meeting, held in Charlevoix, Quebec, which broke up amid highly personal recriminations between Trump and fellow summiteers over trade tariffs, May appeared especially eager to keep a low profile.  Of all the G-7 leaders at the bruising summit, she largely side-stepped the public skirmishing.

She recorded her disappointment, but avoided leveling personal criticism.

May’s position is likely to become even more awkward in the coming days as she’s forced to choose between European leaders, whose support she needs for a favorable Brexit deal or a U.S. leader determined to secure EU compliance with reimposed sanctions on Iran, fear British officials.
…

More than 150 alumni of China’s Shandong University have written an open letter, urging the school to ensure the personal safety and freedom of professor Sun Wenguang, who was apparently taken away by police during a live VOA interview nearly two weeks ago.

Wang Shujun, a co-signer of the open letter, told VOA that he was shocked about the incident, which he thought was outrageous, uncivilized and unconstitutional. He noted that the local authorities in Jinan, the capital of Shandong province, severely hurt China’s international image by treating the 84-year-old outspoken critic so rudely and recklessly.

“Even President Xi Jinping wouldn’t be happy if he learned what happened to the professor,” said Wang in a telephone interview with VOA Sunday.

Chinese authorities, including leaders of Shandong University, have kept silent about the incident involving professor Sun despite continuing inquiries from VOA and other international media.

The Trump administration has said it is concerned about the whereabouts of the retired Chinese university professor.

“We condemn China’s ongoing abuse of human rights, in particular, the suppression of the fundamental freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly, and the unlawful detention of activists, lawyers, journalists and civil-society leaders seeking to defend those freedoms,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA.

The official also said the State Department was grateful for the work of VOA reporters and other journalists in China who “have dedicated their lives and taken great risk to pursue this important work.”

Sun was being interviewed August 1 from his home in Jinan on the VOA Mandarin language television show Issues & Opinions.

He was answering questions about an open letter he’d written to Chinese President Xi Jinping, criticizing Chinese aid to Africa when there are so many living in poverty in China.

Sun told the host in Washington that police had entered his apartment and demanded he end the interview. Sun blamed Xi for sending the officers to break down his door.

“I am entitled to express my opinion. This is my freedom of speech,” were Sun’s last words before the line went dead.

Sun is an outspoken, longtime critic of Chinese authorities. He was arrested during the infamous Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and was sentenced to seven years in prison in 1978 for criticizing Mao Zedong, two years after Mao had died.

VOA Mandarin Service contributed to this report.

 
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More than 150 alumni of China’s Shandong University have written an open letter, urging the school to ensure the personal safety and freedom of professor Sun Wenguang, who was apparently taken away by police during a live VOA interview nearly two weeks ago.

Wang Shujun, a co-signer of the open letter, told VOA that he was shocked about the incident, which he thought was outrageous, uncivilized and unconstitutional. He noted that the local authorities in Jinan, the capital of Shandong province, severely hurt China’s international image by treating the 84-year-old outspoken critic so rudely and recklessly.

“Even President Xi Jinping wouldn’t be happy if he learned what happened to the professor,” said Wang in a telephone interview with VOA Sunday.

Chinese authorities, including leaders of Shandong University, have kept silent about the incident involving professor Sun despite continuing inquiries from VOA and other international media.

The Trump administration has said it is concerned about the whereabouts of the retired Chinese university professor.

“We condemn China’s ongoing abuse of human rights, in particular, the suppression of the fundamental freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly, and the unlawful detention of activists, lawyers, journalists and civil-society leaders seeking to defend those freedoms,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA.

The official also said the State Department was grateful for the work of VOA reporters and other journalists in China who “have dedicated their lives and taken great risk to pursue this important work.”

Sun was being interviewed August 1 from his home in Jinan on the VOA Mandarin language television show Issues & Opinions.

He was answering questions about an open letter he’d written to Chinese President Xi Jinping, criticizing Chinese aid to Africa when there are so many living in poverty in China.

Sun told the host in Washington that police had entered his apartment and demanded he end the interview. Sun blamed Xi for sending the officers to break down his door.

“I am entitled to express my opinion. This is my freedom of speech,” were Sun’s last words before the line went dead.

Sun is an outspoken, longtime critic of Chinese authorities. He was arrested during the infamous Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and was sentenced to seven years in prison in 1978 for criticizing Mao Zedong, two years after Mao had died.

VOA Mandarin Service contributed to this report.

 
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Former presidential adviser Omarosa Manigault Newman said Sunday she secretly recorded conversations she had in the White House, including her firing by chief of staff John Kelly in the high-security Situation Room. It was a highly unusual admission, which immediately drew fire from allies of the president.

Parts of her conversation with Kelly were played on the air during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” to promote her new book, “Unhinged,” which will be released next week.

In it, she paints a damning picture of President Donald Trump, including claiming without evidence that tapes exist of him using the N-word as he filmed his “The Apprentice” reality series, on which she co-starred.

Manigault Newman said in the book that she had not personally heard the recording. But she told Chuck Todd on Sunday that, after the book had closed, she was able to hear a recording of Trump during a trip to Los Angeles.

“I heard his voice as clear as you and I are sitting here,” she said on the show.

But the other recording she discussed Sunday could prove equally explosive.

“Who in their right mind thinks it’s appropriate to secretly record the White House chief of staff in the Situation Room?” tweeted Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee.

The Situation Room is a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF, and staff are not permitted to bring in cell phones or other recording devices.

In the recording played on air, and which Manigault Newman quotes in the book, Kelly can be heard saying she can look at her time at the White House as a year of “service to the nation” and referring to potential “difficulty in the future relative to your reputation.”

Manigault Newman said she viewed the comment as a “threat” and defended her decision to covertly record it and other White House conversations, describing it as a form of protection.

“If I didn’t have these recordings, no one in America would believe me,” she said.

The White House did not immediately respond to the tape, but has tried to discredit the book. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called it “riddled with lies and false accusations” and Trump on Saturday labeled Manigault Newman a “lowlife.”

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway also questioned Manigault Newman’s credibility in an interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

“The first time I ever heard Omarosa suggest those awful things about this president are in this book,” she said, noting Manigault Newman “is somebody who gave a glowing appraisal of Donald Trump the businessman, the star of the ‘The Apprentice,’ the candidate and, indeed, the president of the United States.”

Conway said that, in her more than two years working with Trump, she has never heard him use a racial slur about anyone.

Manigault Newman had indeed been a staunch defender of the president for years, including pushing back, as the highest-profile African-American in the White House, on accusations that he was racist.

But Manigault Newman now says she was “used” by Trump for years, calling him a “con” who “has been masquerading as someone who is actually open to engaging with diverse communities” and is “truly a racist.”

“I was complicit with this White House deceiving this nation,” she said. “I had a blind spot where it came to Donald Trump.”

On the anniversary of the deadly gathering of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, Manigault Newman told Todd that Trump uses race to “stir up his base” and doesn’t have the ability to bring the country together “because he puts himself over country every day.”

 
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Former presidential adviser Omarosa Manigault Newman said Sunday she secretly recorded conversations she had in the White House, including her firing by chief of staff John Kelly in the high-security Situation Room. It was a highly unusual admission, which immediately drew fire from allies of the president.

Parts of her conversation with Kelly were played on the air during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” to promote her new book, “Unhinged,” which will be released next week.

In it, she paints a damning picture of President Donald Trump, including claiming without evidence that tapes exist of him using the N-word as he filmed his “The Apprentice” reality series, on which she co-starred.

Manigault Newman said in the book that she had not personally heard the recording. But she told Chuck Todd on Sunday that, after the book had closed, she was able to hear a recording of Trump during a trip to Los Angeles.

“I heard his voice as clear as you and I are sitting here,” she said on the show.

But the other recording she discussed Sunday could prove equally explosive.

“Who in their right mind thinks it’s appropriate to secretly record the White House chief of staff in the Situation Room?” tweeted Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee.

The Situation Room is a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF, and staff are not permitted to bring in cell phones or other recording devices.

In the recording played on air, and which Manigault Newman quotes in the book, Kelly can be heard saying she can look at her time at the White House as a year of “service to the nation” and referring to potential “difficulty in the future relative to your reputation.”

Manigault Newman said she viewed the comment as a “threat” and defended her decision to covertly record it and other White House conversations, describing it as a form of protection.

“If I didn’t have these recordings, no one in America would believe me,” she said.

The White House did not immediately respond to the tape, but has tried to discredit the book. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called it “riddled with lies and false accusations” and Trump on Saturday labeled Manigault Newman a “lowlife.”

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway also questioned Manigault Newman’s credibility in an interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

“The first time I ever heard Omarosa suggest those awful things about this president are in this book,” she said, noting Manigault Newman “is somebody who gave a glowing appraisal of Donald Trump the businessman, the star of the ‘The Apprentice,’ the candidate and, indeed, the president of the United States.”

Conway said that, in her more than two years working with Trump, she has never heard him use a racial slur about anyone.

Manigault Newman had indeed been a staunch defender of the president for years, including pushing back, as the highest-profile African-American in the White House, on accusations that he was racist.

But Manigault Newman now says she was “used” by Trump for years, calling him a “con” who “has been masquerading as someone who is actually open to engaging with diverse communities” and is “truly a racist.”

“I was complicit with this White House deceiving this nation,” she said. “I had a blind spot where it came to Donald Trump.”

On the anniversary of the deadly gathering of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, Manigault Newman told Todd that Trump uses race to “stir up his base” and doesn’t have the ability to bring the country together “because he puts himself over country every day.”

 
…

Hugo Kohl has been interested in art and design since he was a child. In college, he studied finance, but also took several jewelry-making classes to satisfy his curiosity about this form of art and the history behind it.

Upon his graduation, he started a career in financing, but after six weeks he quit to pursue his passion. Over the last 25 years, Kohl has developed his own style of vintage jewelry using the same techniques as industrial revolution artisans at the end of the 18th century.

Hugo Kohl’s Museum of American Jewelry Design and Manufacturing in Harrisonburg, Virginia, is the culmination of his dream, preserving history while doing business.

Art made the Industrial Revolution way

Part museum, part workshop and part showroom, visitors can buy handmade antique-style jewelry and watch the artist create them, using vintage machines. These machines were made before electricity and are literally man-powered as artisans use their physical strength to press the design on the metal.

In reproducing these old designs, Kohl has revived a centuries-old technique for jewelry-making, called die strike or die roll.

“The things I’m talking about are being die struck and die rolled, which means a lot of pressure among two pieces of steel,” he explained. “When you die strike something or die roll something, typically it’s going to go last a couple of generations. A lot of times people will be in love with vintage jewelry for a number of reasons, one is the design. The process of die striking allows for tremendous detail. It’s very crisp, very clean.”

Stumbling across a treasure

Kohl creates these details using thousands of 3-D molds he collected over more than two decades. He acquired one collection in Providence, Rhode Island, which was the jewelry-making capital of the world at the start of the Industrial Revolution.

He says there is an interesting story behind this collection.

In 1993, while on tour of a vintage jewelry machinery warehouse, Kohl noticed workers cleaning up the debris of a nearby collapsed building.

“They were picking up the debris and throwing it in the back of a dump truck,” he said. “One of the things that they picked is that tiny little cabinet. It was going to the side of this dump truck, it breaks open and the contents literally fall at my feet. I picked them up and what they are is what this place is built around.”

Those items that were about to be sold as scrap metal were part of a collection of antique, hand-engraved jewelry molds that dated to the late 1800s and early 1900s.

James Madison University art professor Cole Welter says rescuing these pieces was Kohl’s first step toward reviving the art of vintage jewelry-making.

“You ask somebody who is your great-grandfather, your great-great-grandmother, you go back to just a short period of time. Here, somebody was your ancestor. These pieces are the ancestors of the American metalsmithing and silversmithing. And they bring to a very tangible way the processes, the technical skills that are involved and the meaning of what these pieces meant to people.”

Beyond aesthetic

Artist Kohl says his fascination with Industrial Revolution-age jewelry goes beyond its artistic beauty. This industry, he says, started a social shift in America.

Before the Industrial Age, only wealthy, elite people had the means to commission a goldsmith to handcraft a ring or brooch or other piece of jewelry. This was extremely expensive, not something that ordinary people could afford.

“Now that we stepped into the Industrial age, beside the technology, we have the middle class,” Kohl said. “So this is the first time that symbols can be mass-produced and people could have them. The wealthy people still had jewelry that was made in gold. This new class had things that were made in silver and clad metal, and poor people had the same art work in brass and copper.”

That’s also when the American cultural symbols were exported to the world.

“What these symbols are speaking to are very new ideas about American liberty and romantic love,” he said. “So we look at these things, we start seeing this uniquely American identity take shape. This was happening in Providence (Rhode Island). But Providence is not big enough as a marketplace to cover the cost of manufacturing, but Providence is a seaport and ships were going all over the world carrying these symbols.”

Secrets and stories

Professor Welter says he’s happy that Kohl is passing his passion and the secrets of his craft to people who visit his museum and workshop.

“I really enjoy the entire scope of what happens here,” he added. “It’s not just the preservation of the work, but it’s the recreation of the works and it’s the selling the works to the public. So they all become part of the culture again.”

And to customers like Sarah Brown, it’s nice to own part of the American heritage.

“When I come in, I love to be able to look and see the jewelry is made right here,” she said. “Hugo is often here. It feels very personal and the pieces, like I say, are unique and beautiful. They have a timelessness about them that just feels really good. It feels like they kind of tell a story.”

And Hugo Kohl enjoys bringing those stories to life.
…

Hugo Kohl has been interested in art and design since he was a child. In college, he studied finance, but also took several jewelry-making classes to satisfy his curiosity about this form of art and the history behind it.

Upon his graduation, he started a career in financing, but after six weeks he quit to pursue his passion. Over the last 25 years, Kohl has developed his own style of vintage jewelry using the same techniques as industrial revolution artisans at the end of the 18th century.

Hugo Kohl’s Museum of American Jewelry Design and Manufacturing in Harrisonburg, Virginia, is the culmination of his dream, preserving history while doing business.

Art made the Industrial Revolution way

Part museum, part workshop and part showroom, visitors can buy handmade antique-style jewelry and watch the artist create them, using vintage machines. These machines were made before electricity and are literally man-powered as artisans use their physical strength to press the design on the metal.

In reproducing these old designs, Kohl has revived a centuries-old technique for jewelry-making, called die strike or die roll.

“The things I’m talking about are being die struck and die rolled, which means a lot of pressure among two pieces of steel,” he explained. “When you die strike something or die roll something, typically it’s going to go last a couple of generations. A lot of times people will be in love with vintage jewelry for a number of reasons, one is the design. The process of die striking allows for tremendous detail. It’s very crisp, very clean.”

Stumbling across a treasure

Kohl creates these details using thousands of 3-D molds he collected over more than two decades. He acquired one collection in Providence, Rhode Island, which was the jewelry-making capital of the world at the start of the Industrial Revolution.

He says there is an interesting story behind this collection.

In 1993, while on tour of a vintage jewelry machinery warehouse, Kohl noticed workers cleaning up the debris of a nearby collapsed building.

“They were picking up the debris and throwing it in the back of a dump truck,” he said. “One of the things that they picked is that tiny little cabinet. It was going to the side of this dump truck, it breaks open and the contents literally fall at my feet. I picked them up and what they are is what this place is built around.”

Those items that were about to be sold as scrap metal were part of a collection of antique, hand-engraved jewelry molds that dated to the late 1800s and early 1900s.

James Madison University art professor Cole Welter says rescuing these pieces was Kohl’s first step toward reviving the art of vintage jewelry-making.

“You ask somebody who is your great-grandfather, your great-great-grandmother, you go back to just a short period of time. Here, somebody was your ancestor. These pieces are the ancestors of the American metalsmithing and silversmithing. And they bring to a very tangible way the processes, the technical skills that are involved and the meaning of what these pieces meant to people.”

Beyond aesthetic

Artist Kohl says his fascination with Industrial Revolution-age jewelry goes beyond its artistic beauty. This industry, he says, started a social shift in America.

Before the Industrial Age, only wealthy, elite people had the means to commission a goldsmith to handcraft a ring or brooch or other piece of jewelry. This was extremely expensive, not something that ordinary people could afford.

“Now that we stepped into the Industrial age, beside the technology, we have the middle class,” Kohl said. “So this is the first time that symbols can be mass-produced and people could have them. The wealthy people still had jewelry that was made in gold. This new class had things that were made in silver and clad metal, and poor people had the same art work in brass and copper.”

That’s also when the American cultural symbols were exported to the world.

“What these symbols are speaking to are very new ideas about American liberty and romantic love,” he said. “So we look at these things, we start seeing this uniquely American identity take shape. This was happening in Providence (Rhode Island). But Providence is not big enough as a marketplace to cover the cost of manufacturing, but Providence is a seaport and ships were going all over the world carrying these symbols.”

Secrets and stories

Professor Welter says he’s happy that Kohl is passing his passion and the secrets of his craft to people who visit his museum and workshop.

“I really enjoy the entire scope of what happens here,” he added. “It’s not just the preservation of the work, but it’s the recreation of the works and it’s the selling the works to the public. So they all become part of the culture again.”

And to customers like Sarah Brown, it’s nice to own part of the American heritage.

“When I come in, I love to be able to look and see the jewelry is made right here,” she said. “Hugo is often here. It feels very personal and the pieces, like I say, are unique and beautiful. They have a timelessness about them that just feels really good. It feels like they kind of tell a story.”

And Hugo Kohl enjoys bringing those stories to life.
…

A strange looking motorized raft, loaded with all kinds of cameras, sensors and high-tech widgets, looks like an invader from outer space. But it serves the down-to-earth purpose of making extraordinary maps of waterways of the Chesapeake Bay watershed in the Eastern United States.

The pontoon raft has a 4-meter-tall silver metal column in the center, with a white box on top that points toward the sky above the scenic Patuxent River in Maryland.

The unique craft was designed and built by Ryan Abrahamsen, founder of Terrain 360, a hiking trail and waterways virtual mapping company. Inspired by Google Street View, Abrahamsen has loaded the raft with photo cameras to create 360-degree virtual tours of some rivers in the United States from the perspective of sitting in a canoe.

Abrahamsen said creating a virtual map is challenging and requires many cameras working together. 

How it’s done

“On the heavy column, there are six cameras at the top, a light sensor and GPS unit. Near the bottom of the raft there is a waterproof PC, with an ultra-bright touch screen. The cameras are triggered by the computer, which at the same time records the GPS coordinates, barometric pressure, humidity and temperature.”

As the raft motors along the Patuxent, the extreme wide-angle lens cameras shoot photos simultaneously every 12 meters. It takes hundreds of thousands of the high-resolution images to create the virtual online panoramic tour. A separate computer program uploads the photos in order, according to the GPS coordinates.

Abrahamsen is adding 20,000 new photos taken from just one of the Patuxent River’s coves. He said all kinds of things are captured along the way, including trees, birds, homes and people fishing.

Following in Smith’s footsteps

The Patuxent is among the 11 rivers that Abrahamsen has recorded, following the journey of English explorer Capt. John Smith, who some 400 years ago traveled around the Chesapeake Bay, the country’s largest estuary. Smith mapped about 4,800 kilometers of the bay and nearby rivers.

Now, Abrahamsen is providing an entirely new way to experience the waterways through his spectacular online tour. Viewers can zoom in and adjust the viewing angle to get a close-up look at boats, rocks beneath the surface, and even fish jumping out of the water.

The Chesapeake Bay project is funded by an Annapolis, Maryland, environmental group, the Chesapeake Conservancy.

“We wanted to give people the information and inspiration to get on our rivers, and explore the Chesapeake Bay area, so that they can enjoy the beauty and think about protecting it,” said Joel Dunn, Chesapeake Conservancy president.

Although a recent report card indicated that the health of the Chesapeake Bay estuary is better than it has been in 33 years, the watershed was still given a “C” grade because rivers like the Patuxent are still in the recovery process.

Environmental issues

Abrahamsen said the virtual tours reveal some of the environmental issues.

“There’s shoreline erosion, pollution, and lot of tires in the waterways,” he said. “It shows the public that some things need to be cleaned up.”

The Patuxent and others rivers that flow into the Chesapeake Bay are near major cities, such as Washington and Baltimore, giving many people the opportunity to enjoy them, Dunn said.

“People can use the virtual tour to plan their trips from their desk at home or at work. But they can also use them out on the water on their smartphones from wherever they are,” he said.

The online tours can be viewed on the websites of the Chesapeake Conservancy and Terrain 360.
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A strange looking motorized raft, loaded with all kinds of cameras, sensors and high-tech widgets, looks like an invader from outer space. But it serves the down-to-earth purpose of making extraordinary maps of waterways of the Chesapeake Bay watershed in the Eastern United States.

The pontoon raft has a 4-meter-tall silver metal column in the center, with a white box on top that points toward the sky above the scenic Patuxent River in Maryland.

The unique craft was designed and built by Ryan Abrahamsen, founder of Terrain 360, a hiking trail and waterways virtual mapping company. Inspired by Google Street View, Abrahamsen has loaded the raft with photo cameras to create 360-degree virtual tours of some rivers in the United States from the perspective of sitting in a canoe.

Abrahamsen said creating a virtual map is challenging and requires many cameras working together. 

How it’s done

“On the heavy column, there are six cameras at the top, a light sensor and GPS unit. Near the bottom of the raft there is a waterproof PC, with an ultra-bright touch screen. The cameras are triggered by the computer, which at the same time records the GPS coordinates, barometric pressure, humidity and temperature.”

As the raft motors along the Patuxent, the extreme wide-angle lens cameras shoot photos simultaneously every 12 meters. It takes hundreds of thousands of the high-resolution images to create the virtual online panoramic tour. A separate computer program uploads the photos in order, according to the GPS coordinates.

Abrahamsen is adding 20,000 new photos taken from just one of the Patuxent River’s coves. He said all kinds of things are captured along the way, including trees, birds, homes and people fishing.

Following in Smith’s footsteps

The Patuxent is among the 11 rivers that Abrahamsen has recorded, following the journey of English explorer Capt. John Smith, who some 400 years ago traveled around the Chesapeake Bay, the country’s largest estuary. Smith mapped about 4,800 kilometers of the bay and nearby rivers.

Now, Abrahamsen is providing an entirely new way to experience the waterways through his spectacular online tour. Viewers can zoom in and adjust the viewing angle to get a close-up look at boats, rocks beneath the surface, and even fish jumping out of the water.

The Chesapeake Bay project is funded by an Annapolis, Maryland, environmental group, the Chesapeake Conservancy.

“We wanted to give people the information and inspiration to get on our rivers, and explore the Chesapeake Bay area, so that they can enjoy the beauty and think about protecting it,” said Joel Dunn, Chesapeake Conservancy president.

Although a recent report card indicated that the health of the Chesapeake Bay estuary is better than it has been in 33 years, the watershed was still given a “C” grade because rivers like the Patuxent are still in the recovery process.

Environmental issues

Abrahamsen said the virtual tours reveal some of the environmental issues.

“There’s shoreline erosion, pollution, and lot of tires in the waterways,” he said. “It shows the public that some things need to be cleaned up.”

The Patuxent and others rivers that flow into the Chesapeake Bay are near major cities, such as Washington and Baltimore, giving many people the opportunity to enjoy them, Dunn said.

“People can use the virtual tour to plan their trips from their desk at home or at work. But they can also use them out on the water on their smartphones from wherever they are,” he said.

The online tours can be viewed on the websites of the Chesapeake Conservancy and Terrain 360.
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V.S. Naipaul, the Trinidad-born Nobel laureate whose celebrated writing and brittle, provocative personality drew admiration and revulsion in equal measures, died Saturday at his London home, his family said. He was 85.

His wife, Nadira Naipaul, said he was “a giant in all that he achieved and he died surrounded by those he loved having lived a life which was full of wonderful creativity and endeavor.”

Naipaul was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001 “for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories.”

‘Barefoot colonial’ to knighthood

In an extraordinary career spanning half a century, the writer traveled as a self-described “barefoot colonial” from rural Trinidad to upper class England, picked up the most coveted literary awards and a knighthood, and was hailed as one of the greatest English writers of the 20th century.

Naipaul’s books explored colonialism and decolonization, exile and the struggles of the everyman in the developing world — themes that mirror his personal background and trajectory.

‘Great art, dreadful politics’

Although his writing was widely praised for its compassion toward the destitute and the displaced, Naipaul himself offended many with his arrogant behavior and jokes about former subjects of empire.

Among his widely quoted comments: He called India a “slave society,” quipped that Africa has no future, and explained that Indian women wear a colored dot on their foreheads to say “my head is empty.” He laughed off the 1989 fatwa against Salman Rushdie as “an extreme form of literary criticism.”

The critic Terry Eagleton once said of Naipaul: “Great art, dreadful politics,” while Caribbean Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott complained that the author’s prose was tainted by his “repulsion towards Negroes.”

C. L. R. James, a fellow Trinidadian writer, put it differently: Naipaul’s views, he wrote, simply reflected “what the whites want to say but dare not.”

Born in Trinidad

Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, Vidia to those who knew him, was born Aug. 17, 1932 in Trinidad, a descendant of impoverished Indians shipped to the West Indies as bonded laborers.

His father was an aspiring, self-taught novelist whose ambitions were killed by lack of opportunity; the son was determined to leave his homeland as soon as he could. In later years, he would repeatedly reject his birthplace as little more than a plantation.

“I was born there, yes,” he said of Trinidad to an interviewer in 1983. “I thought it was a great mistake.”

In 1950, Naipaul was awarded one of a few available government scholarships to study in England, and he left his family to begin his studies in English literature at University College, Oxford.

There he met his first wife, Patricia Hale, whom he married in 1955 without telling his family.

After graduation, Naipaul suffered a period of poverty and unemployment: he was asthmatic, starving and depending on his wife for income. Despite his Oxford education, he found himself surrounded by a hostile, xenophobic London.

“These people want to break my spirit. … They want me to know my place,” he wrote bitterly to his wife. 

Breakthrough novel

Naipaul eventually landed a radio job working for BBC World Service, where he discussed West Indian literature and found his footing as a writer. His breakthrough came in 1957 with his first published novel “The Mystic Masseur,” a humorous book about the lives of powerless people in a Trinidad ghetto. 

Naipaul caught the eye of book reviewers, and in 1959 he won the Somerset Maugham Award with the story collection “Miguel Street.” 

In 1961, Naipaul published “A House for Mr. Biswas,” which was widely acclaimed as a masterpiece. That novel, about how one man’s life was restricted by the limits of colonial society, was a tribute to Naipaul’s father. 

Traveling and writing

In the years that followed, Naipaul was to travel for extensive periods to pen journalistic essays and travel books. He flew three times to India, his ancestral home, to write about its culture and politics. He spent time in Buenos Aires, Argentina to write about its former First Lady Eva Peron, and went to Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia for books about Islam. 

Years before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Naipaul devoted attention to Islamic radicalism. Naipaul’s nonfiction often provoked much anger, and many were offended by his views about Islam and India — Rushdie, for example, thought Naipaul was promoting Hindu nationalism. 

He also continued to publish award-winning novels. “The Mimic Men” won the W.H. Smith Award in 1967, and in 1971 “In a Free State,” a meditation on colonialism in Africa, was awarded the Booker Prize. Naipaul received a knighthood in 1990, and in 2001 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. 

Stinging memoir

As his literary stature grew, so did his reputation as a difficult, irascible personality. Naipaul was a private man and did not have many friends, but his personal life entered the public domain when the American writer Paul Theroux, a one-time friend whose relationship with Naipaul turned sour, published a stinging memoir about Naipaul in 1998. 

“Sir Vidia’s Shadow” described Naipaul as a racist, sexist miser who threw terrifying tantrums and beat up women.

Naipaul ignored Theroux’s book, but he did authorize a candid biography that confirmed some of Theroux’s claims. The biography, published in 2008, devoted chapters to how Naipaul met and callously treated his mistress, an Anglo-Argentine woman who was married and about a decade younger than he was. It recalled Naipaul’s confession to The New Yorker that he bought sex and was a “great prostitute man,” and recorded Naipaul’s frank and disturbing comments on how that destroyed his wife, Hale, who died of breast cancer in 1996. 

“It could be said that I had killed her,” he told biographer Patrick French. “I feel a little bit that way.”

Two months after Hale died, Naipaul married his second wife, Pakistani newspaper columnist Nadira Khannum Alvi. Naipaul’s later books lost their playful humor, and some say much of their appeal. 

He spent much of his time living quietly in an isolated cottage in Wiltshire, in the English countryside.
…

V.S. Naipaul, the Trinidad-born Nobel laureate whose celebrated writing and brittle, provocative personality drew admiration and revulsion in equal measures, died Saturday at his London home, his family said. He was 85.

His wife, Nadira Naipaul, said he was “a giant in all that he achieved and he died surrounded by those he loved having lived a life which was full of wonderful creativity and endeavor.”

Naipaul was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001 “for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories.”

‘Barefoot colonial’ to knighthood

In an extraordinary career spanning half a century, the writer traveled as a self-described “barefoot colonial” from rural Trinidad to upper class England, picked up the most coveted literary awards and a knighthood, and was hailed as one of the greatest English writers of the 20th century.

Naipaul’s books explored colonialism and decolonization, exile and the struggles of the everyman in the developing world — themes that mirror his personal background and trajectory.

‘Great art, dreadful politics’

Although his writing was widely praised for its compassion toward the destitute and the displaced, Naipaul himself offended many with his arrogant behavior and jokes about former subjects of empire.

Among his widely quoted comments: He called India a “slave society,” quipped that Africa has no future, and explained that Indian women wear a colored dot on their foreheads to say “my head is empty.” He laughed off the 1989 fatwa against Salman Rushdie as “an extreme form of literary criticism.”

The critic Terry Eagleton once said of Naipaul: “Great art, dreadful politics,” while Caribbean Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott complained that the author’s prose was tainted by his “repulsion towards Negroes.”

C. L. R. James, a fellow Trinidadian writer, put it differently: Naipaul’s views, he wrote, simply reflected “what the whites want to say but dare not.”

Born in Trinidad

Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, Vidia to those who knew him, was born Aug. 17, 1932 in Trinidad, a descendant of impoverished Indians shipped to the West Indies as bonded laborers.

His father was an aspiring, self-taught novelist whose ambitions were killed by lack of opportunity; the son was determined to leave his homeland as soon as he could. In later years, he would repeatedly reject his birthplace as little more than a plantation.

“I was born there, yes,” he said of Trinidad to an interviewer in 1983. “I thought it was a great mistake.”

In 1950, Naipaul was awarded one of a few available government scholarships to study in England, and he left his family to begin his studies in English literature at University College, Oxford.

There he met his first wife, Patricia Hale, whom he married in 1955 without telling his family.

After graduation, Naipaul suffered a period of poverty and unemployment: he was asthmatic, starving and depending on his wife for income. Despite his Oxford education, he found himself surrounded by a hostile, xenophobic London.

“These people want to break my spirit. … They want me to know my place,” he wrote bitterly to his wife. 

Breakthrough novel

Naipaul eventually landed a radio job working for BBC World Service, where he discussed West Indian literature and found his footing as a writer. His breakthrough came in 1957 with his first published novel “The Mystic Masseur,” a humorous book about the lives of powerless people in a Trinidad ghetto. 

Naipaul caught the eye of book reviewers, and in 1959 he won the Somerset Maugham Award with the story collection “Miguel Street.” 

In 1961, Naipaul published “A House for Mr. Biswas,” which was widely acclaimed as a masterpiece. That novel, about how one man’s life was restricted by the limits of colonial society, was a tribute to Naipaul’s father. 

Traveling and writing

In the years that followed, Naipaul was to travel for extensive periods to pen journalistic essays and travel books. He flew three times to India, his ancestral home, to write about its culture and politics. He spent time in Buenos Aires, Argentina to write about its former First Lady Eva Peron, and went to Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia for books about Islam. 

Years before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Naipaul devoted attention to Islamic radicalism. Naipaul’s nonfiction often provoked much anger, and many were offended by his views about Islam and India — Rushdie, for example, thought Naipaul was promoting Hindu nationalism. 

He also continued to publish award-winning novels. “The Mimic Men” won the W.H. Smith Award in 1967, and in 1971 “In a Free State,” a meditation on colonialism in Africa, was awarded the Booker Prize. Naipaul received a knighthood in 1990, and in 2001 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. 

Stinging memoir

As his literary stature grew, so did his reputation as a difficult, irascible personality. Naipaul was a private man and did not have many friends, but his personal life entered the public domain when the American writer Paul Theroux, a one-time friend whose relationship with Naipaul turned sour, published a stinging memoir about Naipaul in 1998. 

“Sir Vidia’s Shadow” described Naipaul as a racist, sexist miser who threw terrifying tantrums and beat up women.

Naipaul ignored Theroux’s book, but he did authorize a candid biography that confirmed some of Theroux’s claims. The biography, published in 2008, devoted chapters to how Naipaul met and callously treated his mistress, an Anglo-Argentine woman who was married and about a decade younger than he was. It recalled Naipaul’s confession to The New Yorker that he bought sex and was a “great prostitute man,” and recorded Naipaul’s frank and disturbing comments on how that destroyed his wife, Hale, who died of breast cancer in 1996. 

“It could be said that I had killed her,” he told biographer Patrick French. “I feel a little bit that way.”

Two months after Hale died, Naipaul married his second wife, Pakistani newspaper columnist Nadira Khannum Alvi. Naipaul’s later books lost their playful humor, and some say much of their appeal. 

He spent much of his time living quietly in an isolated cottage in Wiltshire, in the English countryside.
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