- A compact but prominent constellation, marked by the fifth-brightest star in the sky, Vega. Mythologically, Lyra (Λύρα in Greek) was the lyre of the great musician Orpheus, whose venture into the Underworld is one of the most famous of Greek stories. It was the first lyre ever made, having been invented by Hermes, the son of Zeus and Maia (one of the Pleiades). Hermes fashioned the lyre from the shell of a tortoise that he found browsing outside his cave on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia. Hermes cleaned out the shell, pierced its rim and tied across it seven strings of cow gut, the same as the number of the Pleiades. He also invented the plectrum with which to play the instrument.
- World Report 2024: Bahrain (hrw.org)
More than 800 inmates in Jau prison, the country’s largest detention facility, participated in a hunger strike from August to September 2023 to protest abysmal conditions and Bahraini authorities’ denial of adequate health care. Many of those on hunger strike were being held unjustly following manifestly unfair trials.